Propositioned by the Billionaire (10 page)

T
HE MINUTE
P
HOEBE
got home, the strain of holding herself together snapped. The door slammed behind her and her bag landed on the hall floor with a thud. Her raincoat fell into a crumpled heap a foot further on and she stumbled into the sitting room. Her legs gave way and she collapsed on the sofa shaking uncontrollably.

The taunts and accusations Alex had hurled at her spun round and round inside her head so relentlessly that she wished she could reach in and yank them out.

Because he didn’t know her. He couldn’t know the effect her upbringing had had on her. Nor the power of the rigid principles that her parents had instilled in her. He couldn’t possibly understand the stress of living with the fear that of all the siblings she was the one most likely to let everyone down. Unless she kept a firm grip on her emotions that could happen all too easily.

So Alex was wrong. She wasn’t hiding. It was all about self-preservation, mainly saving herself from herself. He had no right to have a go at her like that.

And yet…

The little voice that had been hammering away at
her conscience throughout the Tube journey refused to be silenced.

What if Alex was right?

Phoebe sat up, crossed her legs and pulled a cushion onto her lap. What if she
was
using her insecurities as an excuse and hiding behind a wall of guilt?

She’d survived the past couple of days, hadn’t she? She hadn’t let anyone down, least of all her family.

And actually guilt didn’t stop the same mistakes happening over again, did it? Not when other emotions came into play and corrupted your ability to think rationally.

Guilt certainly didn’t prevent problems and tricky situations sprouting up all over the place. And what was she going to do when they did? Torment herself with ‘what if’s and ‘if only’s and ‘should have’s? Or just get on and deal with them?

Frankly she was always going to fret about any course of action she took and wonder whether things might have turned out better had she done something differently. It was the way she was built and had been for the last twenty-nine years. She might as well get used to it.

Phoebe chewed on her lip. She tentatively ran her mind back over the conversation with Alex in the conference room and tried to look at it from his point of view. All he’d done was suggest an affair and she’d completely overreacted. Her cheeks burned and she buried her face in the cushion.

What was so scary about an affair anyway? People had them all the time without going to pieces. After all, it wasn’t even as if Alex had been proposing a proper relationship. Just sex to unwind after a long day at work. Stringless, emotionless but scorching nonetheless.

Fun, he’d said. An affair with Alex wouldn’t just be
fun. It would be amazing. Exhilarating. And probably about time. She’d worked hard, but it had been at the expense of playing, and didn’t she deserve some fun?

Surely she’d be able to keep her focus clear. She was a very different person from the infatuated fool she’d been when Dillon had betrayed her three years ago. And what was she going to do? Steer clear of men and messy emotion for ever?

As her brain adjusted to the possibility of an affair with Alex Phoebe felt excitement flicker in her breast. She had no plans for the afternoon and she was far too wound up to settle down to work. She ought to dash over to his office right now and tell him of her change of mind.

Hmm. In all likelihood he’d never want to see her again. She’d resisted him. Rejected him. She’d nearly slapped him, for heaven’s sake. Shame hit her square in the chest. That had been particularly appalling. She owed him an apology for that at the very least.

Because she
had
wanted him. He’d definitely been right about that. She’d wanted him with an urgency that confounded her but had her heart thundering just thinking about it now. When he’d described what he’d like to do to her on the table in the conference room she’d nearly passed out at the thrill.

Phoebe jumped up as the glimmer of an idea crept into her head. Maybe there was a way she could let him know she’d changed her mind without actually having to suffer the embarrassment of admitting that maybe, just maybe, he was right and she’d been wrong.

After all, didn’t actions speak louder than words?

Alex sat back in his chair and tried to concentrate on the meeting going on around him. Negotiations with his
latest investment opportunity were at a delicate stage. He ought to be dedicating his full attention to it.

But all he could think of was Phoebe’s flat refusal to have an affair with him. The disdain in her voice, the look of horror on her face… It grated more than it should have. He never usually had any trouble persuading women into his bed.

Although there hadn’t been too many of those lately.

Maybe that was why her rejection stung.

‘Alex?’

The voice of one of his finance department snapped him out of his thoughts. ‘What?’

‘They’re pushing for twenty-five percent. I know we originally wanted a fifty-percent stake, but I think we should drop it.’

‘Settle at forty,’ Alex said and suddenly got to his feet.

This was driving him insane. And dammit, there was no reason he should feel like this. His scowl deepened with every stride towards his office. Where was his address book? He threw himself into his chair and pulled out the drawers of his desk. Aha.

Alex brushed off the dust and flicked through yellowing pages filled with the phone numbers of women he’d dated over the years. One of the numbers was bound to still be valid. He didn’t particularly care which one. Any of them would do to prove to himself he didn’t need Phoebe.

His phone rang and he snatched it up. ‘What?’ he barked and then told himself to calm down. Whatever his frustrations, they had nothing to do with his secretary.

‘I have a Ms Jackson to see you.’

Alex nearly dropped the phone. Then his eyes narrowed and he felt himself grow cold. What was she here for? Wasn’t rejecting him bad enough? Was she
now planning to slap a sexual harassment charge on him as well?

He had every intention of telling his secretary to tell Phoebe to get lost, so he was utterly stunned to hear the words, ‘Show her in,’ coming out of his mouth.

Alex clenched his fists and moved round to stand in front of his desk where he reckoned he’d look more intimidating and more in control. And if ever he needed to be in control, now, with his brain behaving like a loose cannon, was it.

The firm rap at his door made his pulse spike.

‘Come in,’ he said curtly.

The door swung open slowly and Phoebe sidled in. Something about the way she moved had every one of his senses springing to attention.

Unable to help himself, he let his gaze travel over her. Her hair was tied back but she’d done something to her eyes. They seemed bigger than he recalled, more slumberous somehow. Her mouth seemed…poutier.

Alex swallowed and dragged his gaze over the rest of her. She was wearing the knee-length raincoat she’d had on earlier—with the collar turned up and the belt tightly tied around her waist—but she’d changed her shoes. If she’d been wearing those black patent heels at the press conference he’d have remembered. As he’d have remembered the inches of leg enclosed in sheer black nylon.

‘You’ll have to be quick,’ he said, hauling his gaze back up to her face. ‘I’m in the middle of a meeting.’

‘So your secretary said. I don’t mind waiting.’

Was it his imagination or had her voice dropped a couple of notes? ‘Fine. What can I do for you?’

A slow smile curved her lips. ‘It’s really more a question of what I can do for you.’

Alex’s mouth went dry and his body temperature shot up as an image of exactly what she could do for him slammed into his head. So much for thinking he was in control. He needed to sit down before the effect she was having on him became too obvious. Deliberately taking his time, he levered himself off the edge of his desk and moved to sit behind it. At least her legs were now out of sight, not that that offered much comfort to his aching body.

‘And what is that?’ He picked up a pencil and began to twirl it around his fingers as if he couldn’t be less bothered by her presence in his office.

‘I’ve come to apologise.’

Alex’s brain had clearly disintegrated because he hadn’t the faintest idea of what she was talking about. ‘What for?’

‘Slapping you.’

‘You didn’t.’

‘I wanted to.’

‘Why?’

‘You suggested an affair.’

‘You turned me down.’

She reached up and pulled the band from her hair. Glossy curls tumbled over her shoulders. ‘I’ve changed my mind.’

Alex’s pulse leapt. ‘How predictable,’ he drawled.

Phoebe’s smile faltered for a split second but she didn’t take her eyes off him. ‘I thought you might say that.’

She took her hands out of her pockets and unknotted her belt. Then she started to undo the buttons. Achingly slowly. The lapels fell open revealing a V of skin and a tantalising glimpse of black lace.

The scorching heat of her gaze trapped him where he sat. Alex couldn’t move. He could barely breathe.

‘I also wanted to say that I’ve had time to reflect on the points you mentioned and have come to the conclusion you might be right.’

‘About what?’ He cleared his throat.

‘A number of things, but mainly the futility of guilt.’

‘I see,’ he said hoarsely, thinking that that was utter rubbish. All he could see was Phoebe.

‘Did you really feel that guilty about what happened to Jo?’

Alex blinked. ‘It consumed me day and night.’

‘Past tense?’

‘Absolutely.’

‘Good, because she doesn’t blame you, you know.’

‘I know.’

‘So blaming yourself is pointless.’

‘I know.’

‘Based on that reasoning I now see I may have been a bit hasty in rejecting your proposal.’

The pencil snapped.

Her smile deepened and she walked round the desk. ‘If you’re still open to the idea, I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t have an affair.’

His chair swivelled as he followed her every move. Hunger and desire roared along his veins and his erection strained and ached. ‘I’m still open to the idea.’

Then she was standing in front of him, her coat hanging open, baring soft skin and black lace and those shoes, and Alex’s vision blurred. ‘Earlier this afternoon you mentioned something about peeling my clothes off, spreading me out over a table and trailing your mouth over every inch of my body.’

Had he? That sounded like the best idea he’d had in a long time.

Phoebe sat on his lap and leaned forward to whisper in his ear. ‘I’ve done the first bit. How about you helping me with the rest?’

Her scent spun through his head and the last vestige of control snapped. He clamped one arm around her waist to keep her where she was and reached for the phone with the other. He pressed the button that connected to his secretary’s desk. ‘Cancel my appointments for the rest of the day and take the afternoon off,’ he said when she answered. ‘Something’s come up.’

Alex hung up and Phoebe let out a soft laugh. ‘Thank goodness for that. I thought you were going to call Security.’

He raised an eyebrow and smiled. ‘Why would I want to do a thing like that when you’re apologising so nicely?’

Phoebe gripped the back of his chair, lowered her mouth to his and kissed him so slowly and thoroughly that Alex’s head swam. As her tongue slid along his, his hands delved beneath the lapels of her coat and gently pushed it down her arms. She shrugged it off and then wound her arms around his neck and pressed her pelvis against his. She moaned into his mouth and Alex lost it.

With one quick move he wiped the papers and pens and things off his desk and lifted her onto it. Her coat fell to the floor. Phoebe untangled her hands from his hair and eased herself back onto the leather.

Alex stared down at her and thought he’d never seen anything so beautiful. The bra she was wearing was a strapless concoction of lace and silk that pushed her breasts up and out. Further down, she wore a matching
suspender belt and the tiniest excuse for knickers he’d ever come across.

The blood roared in his ears and then he found he could barely think. Only act. He unclipped her bra and slipped it off her and her breasts spilled free. He ran his hands over the rounded flesh and rubbed his thumbs over her nipples. Phoebe gasped sharply and arched her back as if begging him to take them in his mouth. Alex leaned down and trailed a string of feather light kisses over the sensitive skin of her chest before flicking his tongue over the straining nub.

‘Oh, God, don’t stop,’ she whispered raggedly. ‘Don’t ever stop.’

Alex didn’t plan on stopping. He lifted his head for a second to gaze down into her face. Her cheeks were flushed and she was biting into her lip as if trying to stop herself from crying out.

He kissed his way down the soft skin of her stomach and pressed his mouth to the hot wet heat of her. Phoebe jerked as if he’d branded her.

Alex’s fingers shook as he hooked them under the thin lace at her hips and pulled her panties down her legs. His hands circled her ankles, slid up her shins, swept up her inner thighs and her legs fell apart.

His hands moved round to cup her bottom, then lifted her to his mouth. Her hips automatically tried to twist but he held them down. He pressed his thumb against her clitoris and she groaned.

Then his mouth was on her, licking and sucking and tasting with just enough pressure to drive her wild. He felt her tremble, heard her breathing shallow and, as he licked deeper inside her, felt her tense and then shatter. His mouth pressed against her, absorb
ing every tremor shuddering through her, milking every drop of her desire. Eventually, when the aftershocks subsided, he kissed his way up her body, feeling every tiny nerve ending of her skin jumping as he did so.

Alex planted his hands either side of her and leaned over her. Her face was flushed, and her eyes a dark shimmering green. A satisfied grin spread across her face and Alex felt something shift deep inside him. ‘This was supposed to be about what I could do for you,’ Phoebe murmured.