Turn Me On (7 page)

Her chin came up and her eyes grew serious. “One of those things. Lesson
learned. I won’t make the same mistake again.”

“You took your eye off the ball?”

She put her notebook on her lap and reached for her coffee. “Something
like that.”

After taking a sip, she carefully put down her mug and caught her lower
lip between her teeth. For a moment he took
his
eye off the ball.

“I was an idiot,” she said at length. “Trusted someone it turns out I
shouldn’t have trusted.”

“Happens to us all.” He felt the need to reach out to her, to rub his
hands over those stiff shoulders. “What’s your timescale? Plan?”

She turned to him. “Now I know how you want us to work, I can run it
past Tom and—

“I’m not talking about the development.”

Those hazel eyes turned wary.

“What’s your timescale?” he repeated. “For setting up in business again.
Can’t imagine you intend working for someone else indefinitely.”

Again her chin tilted upward. Why the hell did he find that a turn on? “I
don’t currently have a timescale or a plan.”

He shook his head, but softened it with a smile. “First rule of
business.
 
Have a plan and a timescale
within which to accomplish it.”

She frowned a little and he knew it wasn’t the first time she’d thought
that through. Her teeth worried her bottom lip again.

Shit.

“How much do you need as a start up?”

Her frowned deepened. “I’m not sure that’s your business.”

He ignored that. For some reason he wanted it to be his business. “Tell
me what you have now, how much you can afford to borrow, and I’ll work you out
a game plan.”

“I—”

“Unless you’re not that serious. In which case the way you’re going
about things now is perfectly fine.”

“I am serious.” She shifted toward him and he knew he’d played it just
right. But then she hesitated, sighed. “It’s not exactly the right time for me
to think about starting again. I’ve reconciled to the reality of having to put
off my plans for a while.”

“It’s never a good idea to put plans on hold. They have a tendency to
fade into oblivion.”

She shrugged those tight shoulders. “It’s just the way it is.”

He stretched his arm along the sofa behind her. The urge to touch her
was almost overwhelming, but seeing as he was intrigued by the air of
resignation about her, he resisted. “Why don’t you spill? Maybe I can steer you
in a direction you haven’t yet thought about.”

Again she shrugged, then dropped back against the sofa inches from his
arm. Her hair tickled his hand. All that soft silk. He imagined how it would
look fanned out across his pillow.

“I had a partner,” she said at length, looking down at her joined hands
resting on the ubiquitous notebook. “We met almost eight years ago when we both
worked part-time at a restaurant. She was doing business studies and I was at
art school studying photography. When we both qualified, we worked for other
people but both really wanted to set up on our own. We had the idea to go into
business together. We’d accumulated enough money to see us through the start up
and we did okay for a couple of years.”

She leaned forward and took a sip of coffee. “Then Debbie met this guy,
really fell for him. Apparently, he had debts, money trouble. To cut a long
story short, she embezzled funds from our company to save him from bankruptcy.
It basically ruined us.”

Reed hated the tremble in her voice, and the way her stiff shoulders
slumped. “You couldn’t continue on your own? Get a loan to keep you afloat?”

She shook her head. “We already had a bank loan.”

Because she dropped her chin down to her chest and wouldn’t meet his
eyes, his antenna picked up. “Secured by what?”

She hesitated, only slightly, but he caught it. “Various things.” She
looked at him then, or rather glared. “Whatever you’re thinking it won’t be
anything I haven’t already thought myself.”

“What sort of debt are we talking about?”

He saw the barrier slip right back into place. “It’s my problem. I’ll
deal with it.”

“Are you? Dealing with it?”

“Slow and steady. Now can we talk about the development?”

“I’d rather we talked some more about this.” He let his fingers drift
into her hair. “Let me help you.”

“It’s not your problem.”

“My advice is free. People have been willing to pay a great deal of
money for it in the past.”

She looked at him steadily, then she laughed. It pleased him more than
he could imagine, seeing that troubled look disappear from her eyes. “You
really do have an ego the size of Pluto.”

He shrugged, smiling himself. “Pluto isn’t the largest of the planets.”

She laughed again and her shoulders relaxed.

Unable to resist any longer, he leaned forward and touched his mouth
lightly to hers. She gave in to the kiss, her hand finding his thigh and
setting his blood racing. Deliberately, he kept things slow and easy, allowing
her to set the pace. His patience was rewarded when she shifted closer, her
fingers digging delicately into his thigh.

Teasing his tongue between her lips, he found the warm recesses of her
mouth. She tasted like nothing else he’d known. Tart and sweet.

He had to have her. And while he knew she’d retreat, push him away, he
let his own hand find her knee. He left it there, testing her reaction as he
deepened the kiss.

When she parted her legs a fraction, he took it as an invitation for him
to continue. Never one to let an opportunity pass him by, Reed dipped his
fingers along the inside of her knee and ran his hand slowly up her inner
thigh. Just a few inches. Again, testing her reaction.

Her response was to raise her hand to his face and intensify the kiss.
He groaned and the little mewling sound she gave snapped the last of his
defenses.

Drawn to the
heated honey of her pussy, he slipped his hand
further along her inner thigh. She opened her
legs a paltry inch. Lack of room, and his unwillingness to push her too hard,
meant he was only able to brush his fingertip along the silky panel covering
her slit.

His cock pulsed, seeking freedom and satisfaction, but still he wouldn’t
push. Not yet. Not until he knew she was with him all the way and would be too
far along to back out.

As if in response to his thoughts, she moved her hips and opened her
legs wider, pushing herself into his hand.

With deliberate intent, he held back.
 
She went still and her forehead creased as she looked up at him. “You
stopped.”

“I need to know you’re on board with this. That it’s what you want.” His
voice was so low, he barely recognized it. “You backed out before, and I get
your reasons for doing that. I need to know you’re prepared to see it through
and that you won’t regret it afterward.”

She ran her finger along his lower lip. “I can’t promise I won’t regret
it, but it’s what I want. I can’t seem to help myself.”

Music to his ears. He pulled her close to him again and took her mouth
in a kiss filled with heady relief and hot expectation. He moved his hand
between her thighs and palmed her through the damp panel of her panties. She
groaned into his mouth as he kneaded her hot wet pussy, her head falling back
against his arm as she shifted her hips again and widened her legs.

He worked her, all that heat seeping through her panties and into his hand.
She closed her eyes, her mouth opening as she caught her bottom lip between her
teeth.

His cock strained. So badly he marveled it didn’t burst from his zipper.

Releasing her, he slipped his arm under her knees and hoisted her up
against him. “Bedroom,” he snapped when she looked at him in surprise. “I’m
going to fuck you so hard you’ll need to be lying down.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck as he carried her through the
sitting area, watching him with slumberous eyes full of wanton desire. “Maybe
you’ll be the one who needs to be lying down.”

He returned her sexy grin. “We’re about to find out.”

In his bedroom, he lowered her to the floor near the mirrored wardrobe.
There was enough light cast from the moon that he didn’t need, or want, to
switch on the lamps.

Lowering his mouth to hers, he wrapped his arms around her. The kiss was
no longer slow and easy, but deep and erotic. Reed found it hard to snatch in
enough breath, because she seemed to suck the air from him, devouring him with
every breath she took. Fucking her would be the biggest ride of his life. He
just knew it.

Drawing away from her, he turned her around so her back was to his
chest. As they faced the full length mirrored door, Reed clasped his hands at
her waist. When she tried to cover his hands with hers, he drew them away and
placed them at her sides.

With his eyes on hers in the mirror, he began unbuttoning her blouse
with agonizing slowness. His breath caught at the sight of her bra and the
dusky nipples peeking through the white lace. He wanted to feast on those hard
nubs, take each bud into his mouth and suck until she begged for more.

But first he was the one who needed more. He needed to see her. Every
inch. Then he’d feast on her, all of her, the whole damn night.

Reaching between them, he slid down the zipper of her skirt until the
material slipped to the floor. His gaze roamed over her, while she watched him
almost warily in the mirror.

She tensed a little as he released the catch of her bra. “Okay?” he
asked, touching his lips to the side of her neck.

She nodded.

One by one, he slid the straps of her bra from her shoulders and took
his time easing the material away. At the sight of her full round breasts his
pulse hammered, keeping time with his eagerly throbbing cock.

Cupping her breasts, he slid his thumb slowly across each nipple, until
her head dropped back on his shoulder. In the mirror, she didn’t take her eyes
from his for a second.

He smiled to himself. Still wary, he thought. Still not sure of herself.
Of him. He wanted to change that. He
would
change that.

He continued to massage her generous breasts, feeling her nipples harden
even more beneath the pressure of his thumbs. She swayed her hips a little, but
he was certain she didn’t realize how the movement ground against his erection
and caused him exquisite pain.

Or maybe she did.

The thought pleased him and he slid his hands down her ribcage, enjoying
her sharp intake of breath as his fingers moved over her stomach. He let his
fingertips dip just inside the lacy edge of her panties, sliding them along her
trembling flesh until she gave that little mewling sound again.

He reached for the sides of her panties and, meeting her eyes in the
mirror, slowly drew them down until they fell to join the skirt pooled around
her ankles. Apart from her low heeled sandals, she was naked, and he let his
eyes devour her.

She tried to turn and face him, but he held her in place. “Stay right
there. I’ll want to see your ass, but right now I want your breasts, your sweet
pussy.” He kissed her neck, still meeting her gaze in the mirror, and bit in
gently. She gasped and closed her eyes.

“Open them,” he snapped. “Watch me touch you.”

When she did, he moved his hands over her stomach and felt her muscles
jerk. With one arm around her waist he anchored her, then let his free hand
glide toward the top of her mound. “A natural blonde,” he said as he flicked
his fingers over her light covering of pubic hair. “Soft.” Another flick.
“Silky.” And another. “How will you taste? Like your mouth? Tart? Sweet?”

He touched the tip of his forefinger to her slit, and made her moan
again. She pushed her hips back against him as she turned to look over her
shoulder at him. “Please, Reed. More.”

He pushed his finger deeper inside her, tugging her back against him
when she tried to buck her hips. “You’ll have more when I see fit, princess,”
he said as his lips brushed her ear. “Until then, you’ll take what I give you.”

Her continued mewling pushed him over the edge. He pulled out his finger
and spun her around to face him. Her face was flushed, her eyelids heavy, and
she was the sexiest woman he’d ever seen.

Her juices spread across his finger and he drew it to his mouth and
tasted. “Oh yeah, tart and sweet. Perfect.”

Her throat contracted as she swallowed, then her breath hitched as he
lifted her into his arms again and carried her to the bed. Brusquely, he dumped
her on the duvet. The time for pleasantries was long past. He felt almost out
of control. Primitive. Primal.

He shoved her legs apart and knelt between her knees. Reaching his hands
underneath her ass, he hoisted up her hips. His heart hammered in his tight
chest; his lungs squeezed with the effort of drawing breath. But damn it to
hell, he had to have her.

Lowering his head, he took her, pushing his tongue inside her tight
pussy even as he released her ass so he could use his hands to open her slit.