The Efficiency Expert (2 page)

"Oh my God, you clever, delicious bitch!" he howls, bearing down harder and riding me as if I'm a bucking bronco and he's a rodeo star. But then he kisses me too, his lips roaming my face as we strain against each other, raining down affection, even tenderness, and making me feel like a chosen handmaiden worshipping her unexpected new God.

Anxious to please, I plague the little vent of his bottom even harder whilst I still have the mental wherewithal to think.

He shouts and comes instantly, pumping inside me, his staccato thrusts beating against my aching clit and compelling me to soar with him.

Afterwards, at his urging, I bring myself off again as he watches me, but this time he seems sated and just lies there, his eyes unfathomable as they follow my fingers. He doesn't even bother to touch his sex.

The orgasm satisfies me, but somehow not completely. I've had this tough man on my case for nearly a month now, but after tonight, I'll probably never see him again. A thought that definitely induces the old post coital
tristesse
or whatever. I shouldn't take it so hard. I enjoy the occasional one night stand, ships that pass and all that, golden moments of seizing the day -- or the night.

But somehow, Noah Stevens has got under my skin. I want to know more about him. I want to know who hurt him, and if there's a way I can make things better.

When we're both dressed, he hands me a glass of gin. He seems to have finished drinking himself now, and he's steady as a rock, and apparently as sober as a judge.

"According to your personnel file you've got two weeks leave owing to you."

What?

"Yes, that's right. I have. What of it?"

"Fancy spending some of it in Sardinia, all expenses paid? My 'girl trouble' has decided she'd rather go to the Seychelles with someone else, but I never got around to cancelling her ticket."

Noah looks at me, his gaze steady. He seems superficially nonchalant, but somehow, at the back of his eyes, he's not quite pleading, but he's very definitely asking with feeling.

"Okay, why not? Sounds fantastic!" Am I insane? I don't really know him at all. "I haven't had a decent holiday in ages."

He smiles. A wide, creamy, happy, cocky sort of smile, but it's right from the heart.

"Okay then, it's a deal!" He takes my glass from me, and sets it aside, looking at me very, very seriously. "There're no strings, Susie... but... if something should happen, well, let's say I'm open to every possibility, if that suits you too?"

I consider the possibility of possibilities, and I like it. I like it a lot. My heart thuds in a way that's got nothing to do with sex. Well, it's a bit to do with sex, but also to do with those possibilities.

There's no law that says a rebound relationship with someone you once thought you hated can't grow into something real and wonderful.

"It suits me. It probably shouldn't, seeing as you nearly lost me my job, but it does."

Ever the efficiency expert, he doesn't waste a moment.

"Okay then, get your clothes off again and let's celebrate our trip, shall we?"

Before I can even start, he kisses me hungrily again, like a pirate king savoring his plundered booty, then he feels up my bottom and my pussy whilst murmuring sweet nothings in my ear.

Smiling against his shoulder, I start tugging at my blouse.

Portia Da Costa is a best-selling British author of romance, erotic romance and erotica, who's been published since the dinosaurs roamed. Well, since the early 1990s. She loves writing about sexy, likeable people in steamy, scandalous situations, and has penned novels, novellas and novelettes for Spice Briefs, Black Lace, Samhain Publishing and a bunch of houses, plus a zillion stories for magazines and anthologies. Best known for writing contemporary settings, she's also now launched herself back in time to write Victorian erotic romance for Harlequin Spice.

When Portia isn't writing she's usually being creatively lazy, rather like her cats, but unlike her long suffering, hardworking husband

To learn more about Portia and what she's up to, please visit
www.portiadacosta.com
or
twitter.com/PortiaDaCosta
or her
blog
.