The Spanish Tycoon's Temptress (7 page)

Tom cleared his throat.  Stepping forward, he
nervously glanced up at Gaston, then at Elana again, actually wringing his hands together worriedly.  “Elana, surely it wouldn’t be too much trouble to take a little time off to have lunch with Signor Montebello.  You were here pretty early this morning and have been staying late most nights.  A bit of relaxation really does help the process.”

Elana stared at the man, wondering why he was acting like this.  “
I don’t have time for lunch or relaxing.  I have work do to.”

Again, Tom glanced back at Gaston, then back to her
with a tense smile pasted on his face.  “The work will still be here when you get back.  It wouldn’t hurt, would it?”

She looked up at Gaston,
amusement on his handsome face.  “Why do you want to have lunch with me?” she asked with an almost belligerent tone of voice. 

Gaston looked at Tom who immediately received the message to disappear.  With Tom’s
absence, the other eyes all looked back at their work as well, but Elana was sure that the others were still trying to listen in.  Of course, why wouldn’t they?  It wasn’t very often that the CEO came down to their hallowed ground. 

Gaston moved closer, looking down into her wary eyes.  “Are you afraid to be alone with me?”  He smiled slightly.  “Again?”

She inhaled sharply, wanting to step back but the counter was behind her and his large, muscular frame was in front of her.  “I’m not afraid of you.  Why would I be?”

He considered her question, thought about the many different ways he could answer her. He went with the truth.  “Because I want you,” he said simply. 

She gasped and shook her head.  “No you don’t,” she countered.  “Why would you?  You didn’t want me seven years ago.  Nothing has changed.”

He shrugged slightly, not contradicting her as she’d hoped he would.  “Seven years ago, you were too young to realize what
I wanted.  Now you’re not.”

There was that trembling again.  More intense this time and her heart felt as if it were going to burst out of her chest.  “That’s not going to happen, Gaston.”

His smile increased and a light shone from his eyes that hadn’t been there a few moments ago.  “Are you challenging me?”

“No!” she gushed out.  “I’m not challenging you at all!”  She remembered his win or die attitude when it came to
competitions.  She thought back to the time he’d taken her to the beach for the day.  They’d been swimming in the water, just frolicking around and having a good time.  She didn’t remember how it started, but someone challenged Gaston to a swimming race.  She’d thought it was just good fun initially, but Gaston wouldn’t let anyone beat him.  Even this man, who turned out to be an Olympic swimmer, wasn’t immune to Gaston’s competitive nature.  Gaston had won, but the effort he’d employed to win was shocking.  He’d almost drown himself to win.  It had been a heady lesson about his personality and she’d never forgotten. 

He laughed at her frightened expression.  “Good call,” he said softly.  “Gather your purse or whatever you want to bring.  We’re going
out for lunch.”

She glared at him for a long moment, but in the end, she knew that he was the boss and she’d never live it down if she didn’t follow him out of the lab.  She made sure that he knew that her agreement was in protest, not that he would care though.  He actually chuckled as he followed her out of the building. 

She started to head for her car, but he steered her towards a limousine waiting by the curb.  “Why are we taking that?” she asked, her step faltering because she didn’t want to get into that vehicle.  She’d be completely alone with him and that was to be avoided. 

“Because the traffic right now is horrendous and parking will be nearly impossible.  So my driver will let us off in front of the restaurant so that you won’t have to walk several blocks in those very lovely shoes,” he said, looking down at her black, leather boots with the high heel she’d donned this morning under her black, tailored slacks.  “And it will also save us time so that we can talk and not have to worry about parking.”  He held the door open for her, his eyes daring her.  “Get in, Elana.”

She hesitated for only another moment, but in that brief period, she realized that they were gaining the attention of the onlookers.  In the end, her fear of being seen with Gaston and people talking, making assumptions or trying to guess at the extent of their relationship, outweighed her fear of being alone with him. 

“Fine,” she said with ill grace and ducked into the dark, back seat.

Gaston watched with interest as the material of her slacks was pulled tightly over her bottom, admiring that piece of her anatomy for the few seconds he was privileged to view it.  He might not like her personally, but his body certainly agreed with the way her parts all fit together. 

The driver already knew their destination because as soon as the door closed behind him,
he pulled away from the curb and entered traffic.  Unfortunately, the privacy window between the occupants of the back seat and the driver’s area was already closed.  She noticed this at the same time that she realized that he was sitting much too close to her. 

“Why the sudden desire to have lunch with me?” she asked,
switching over to the opposite seat so she wasn’t so close.  She might be facing backwards this way, but it was much better on her pulse to have the extra space between them.  The farther she was from his long, muscular body, the better. 

“Are you really surprised?”

She hated the eyebrow that went up with his response.  “Obviously I am or I wouldn’t have asked.  I haven’t heard from you for two weeks and all of a sudden you show up and want to have lunch with me?  It doesn’t make sense.  How about an explanation instead of a sarcastic reply?”

He laughed, impressed with her daring.  Not many had the courage to stand up to him.  “So you’ve got a bit of spunk in you
after all.  I was starting to wonder.”

Her eyes flashed with that comment.  “What do you mean by that?”

He leaned to the left slightly, closer to her.  “When I saw you two weeks ago, you were a bit…tired,” was all he said, choosing the more diplomatic word versus the ‘sad’ adjective that immediately popped into his mind.  “I was thinking that you’d lost that edge that had been so interesting the first time we were together.”

She leaned back and crossed her arms.  “We weren’t ever really
together, were we?”

Again, his eyebrow went up.  “What would you call our previous relationship
?”

“A lie.”

The anger that had always been simmering just beneath the surface due to her faithlessness roiled to the top and he couldn’t stop his response.  “I would have to agree with that assessment.”

“So I ask again, why are we here, now?  What’s the point in rehashing old news?”

“Perhaps because there’s something still there, something that might be worth rehashing.”

She shook her head.  “Absolutely not.  There’s nothing to rehash.”

He laughed softly.  “Are you going to try and tell me that you didn’t feel anything when I kissed you two weeks ago?”

She squirmed in the soft leather seat, unable to hold his gaze.  “Oh, there was something there.  I can’t deny that.  But I’m not sure revulsion is what you want to rehash or are you a masochist?”

She wasn’t expecting his reaction.  Suddenly, she was no longer sitting across from him but was now in his lap, his hands like steel bands around her upper arms as he held her in place.  It didn’t matter though.  She was too stunned to react.  “Revulsion?  I believe you’ve just told me that you want another demonstration of what we feel whenever we’re mere feet away from each other.”  With that, he covered her mouth with his in a brutal kiss.  She resisted at first, but when she started to struggle, he changed tactics.  His lips softened and his hands stopped holding her and slipped under her sweater, finding her skin. 

Elana wasn’t ready for that.  She couldn’t believe how goo
d his hands felt on her skin, or the way he wouldn’t relent with his mouth, devouring her, making her stomach clench in anticipation of his next touch.  She had no idea where they were or what was happening outside the vehicle, but inside, an explosion had just occurred and she was in flames as his hands moved all over her body, cupping her breasts, making her whimper and cry out when his thumb rubbed against her nipple, drawing out the peak before he pressed his thumb and forefinger together to tease that sensitive flesh. 

She didn’t want
to feel this.  She didn’t want to enjoy it.  But the pleasure that sparked through her when he lifted her sweater and lifted her up so that he could plant his mouth in the center of her stomach just defied possibility.  The heat was so intense she cried out, trying to pull back but when he stopped, she pushed forward again for more of his touch. 

When her world shifted, she found herself on her back with Gaston looming over her.  He was looking down at her as if she were the most delectable thing in the whole world and she shivered with the need to satisfy him, to feel him against her. 

And that need terrified her. 

When he reached for her sweater once again, she shook her head, grabbing his wrists to stop him.  “Gaston, please don’t,” she finally was able to
choke out through the red haze of desire. 

He stilled, his eyes moving to hers and for a moment, she wasn’t sure if he would comply with her request.  As they watched each other, they both knew that he could convince her to keep going.  And it would be incredibly good for both of them.  For a moment at least. 

She breathed a sigh of relief when he took a deep breath and leaned back, lifting her with him.  She was right back in his lap again, and he wasn’t going to let her move, but at least he wasn’t on top of her any longer.  “Thank you,” she said and straightened her clothing, putting her hair back in order. 

When she tried to slip off of his lap, he stopped her by placing a large hand on her thigh, freezing her in place.  “There’s going to come a time, in the very near future Elana, when you won’t want me to stop.”

She shook her head.  “No.  you’re very wrong, Gaston.  This isn’t right.  We don’t like or trust each other.”

His hand slid up her thigh and she couldn’t suppress the shiver at his touch. 
“Apparently, our bodies don’t need to like or trust one another for the need to rise up and almost strangle us.  It’s going to happen.  You need to get used to the idea.  And it’s damn well not going to happen in the back of my car,” he growled.

“It’s not going to happen at all,” she said and pushed off of his lap to sit primly on the seat diagonally away from him.  She couldn’t get any farther than that, but she wished she could just fall into a canyon somewhere and hide for a few days to recover.  She might have told him to stop, but she wasn’t able to tell her body to stop as easily.  She was still shaking in reaction, both because of the fact that she’d let him touch her, and because she wanted him to continue, just as he said. 

That didn’t mean she was going to follow through on that though.

The driver smoothly pulled up to a restaurant and Gaston stepped out, extending his hand to help her out as well.  Elana debated whether to use that hand or ignore it, afraid of touching him when her body still felt like this.  In the end, she didn’t have a choice.  He reached down and took her hand anyway, almost lifting her out of the car. 

She stood on the sidewalk, looking up at him with her hands on his wrists and his hands on her waist.  There was a moment of tension, a split second when she feared that he might reach down and kiss her once again.  But then he stepped away and she breathed in, feeling some of the tension leave her body as he escorted her into the restaurant. 

When the waiter handed her the menu, she looked at the choices, trying to find the item that would take the least amount of preparation and the easiest to cook.  The less time she spent in his company, the better. 

Gaston watched her carefully, amused by her belligerence which he knew was a front to cover the sexual tension she was feeling.  He’d felt it from the moment she’d realized he was behind her and he savored it, wanting to increase that feeling.  It was only to suit his purposes though.  He didn’t have any personal need to have her himself. 

“What are you in the mood to eat?” he asked when the waiter arrived at their table. 

She slapped the menu down onto the table and glared at him.  “The yogurt I brought from home today,” she said without any fear of his potential anger.

Gaston chuckled and closed his own menu.  “She’ll have the blackened chicken and I’ll have the crab,” he
said to the waiter who stood by their table looking confused.

Elana couldn’t believe he was once again ordering for her.  “Why do you do that?” she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest. 

“Do what?” he asked, letting his eyes linger on her breasts that pushed against her sweater.  He chuckled at the lovely pink color that stole up her cheeks. 

She ignored his laughter and continued to glare at him. 
“Think you know what I want better than I do.  It’s patronizing.”

Gaston looked down at her pale, thin cheeks and a tide of anger welled up at her lack of awareness and concern for her own health.  “You look like you haven’t eaten in about three weeks, Elana.  Why are you doing this to yourself?”