Turn Me On (9 page)

She folded her arms across her chest, but said nothing. She felt
ridiculously hurt and not a little furious. How dare he make something as
serious as marriage sound like a vaudeville joke? And how dare he make her part
of his preposterous suggestion?

“I was young, stupid, and drunk,” he said as he picked up his glass and
walked across to the drinks cabinet where he topped up his brandy. “I made this
pact, I suppose you’d call it, with a woman who was equally young, stupid, and
drunk. Turns out she was far from stupid.”

She dreaded to ask, but when he fell silent she felt like she didn’t
have any option herself but to ask. “What was the pact?”

He scoffed. “The old favorite. If neither of us was married by the time
we were thirty, we’d hook up. She blew out thirty candles on her cake two weeks
ago.”

“And now she’s turning the screws?”

“You could say that.”

Lissa didn’t want to delve too deeply into the feelings flowing through
her. She didn’t care much for the thought that Reed simply saw her as a means
to an end, nor did she like the little buzz inside her head that prompted her
to hear him out.

“Surely she can’t hold you to a drunken promise?” Lissa tugged at the
hem of Reed’s shirt as it skimmed across her thighs. “Anyway, it’s her word
against yours.”

“Like I said, she wasn’t stupid. Apparently, she got me to sign on the
dotted line, or at least some scrap of paper that my legal man says is likely
to hold up if she wants to push it.”

“You must have been really drunk.”

He shrugged. “Can’t remember a damn thing, except that we got it on in
some back alley and then headed to her place. After that, it’s all a blank.”

Considering her track record, she could hardly think badly of him for
his reckless behavior. And
she
hadn’t
had the excuse of youth to fall back on.

“Can’t you pay her off or something?”

“Tried that. She wants a ring on her finger rather than a check in the
bank.” He rocked back on his heels. “I won’t hold you to anything other than a
temporary arrangement. If you agree, we can do the legal thing, stay together
long enough to make it look genuine, have some irreconcilable differences, then
sever the knot.”

Her stomach sank to her knees at his offhanded tone. “How romantic.”

“You’ll have your debts cleared. I’ll set you up in your own business,
plus throw in a healthy bonus.”

“For services rendered?”

He narrowed his eyes at the snap in her tone, obviously taking her
inference. “I can’t deny the sex isn’t an attractive added extra, but I don’t
intend chaining you to the bed. At least not without your consent.” When she
remained silent, he shrugged again. “You’ll get what you want out of this. We
both will.”

“There’s a name for women who sell their bodies for money.”

“We’ve already had sex, and no money changed hands.”

“What you’re proposing would change things.” Lissa drew the edges of his
shirt together, painfully aware of her nakedness beneath. She wanted to run, to
grab her clothes and hightail out of his claustrophobic presence and the insane
scheme he’d cooked up. Still, something kept her rooted to the spot. “Am I
supposed to move in with you?”

“Yes.” When she didn’t move, Reed stepped forward. “Look at this as a
business arrangement with personal benefits.”

Annoyed with herself, both that she hadn’t yet run and worse that she
was actually weighing his proposition in her mind, Lissa scoffed. “Marriage
with benefits. There’s a novel idea.”

“We already know the sex is good.”

Well, yes. She couldn’t argue with that. “
Don’t
you think this woman will get that you’re playing her?
If she wants that ring on her finger,
something tells me it’ll take a lot more than a fake marriage to stop her.”

“She’ll have no option but to back off. The paper I signed said the deal
was only if neither of us was married. I will be. To you.”

Lissa shook her head in the hope that the movement would clear the fuzz
that had taken up residence in her brain. It didn’t help, but one thought ran
clear of the jumble of others. And if it were true, she wouldn’t touch Reed’s
proposition with a ten foot pole. “Is she in love with you?”

He gave a humorless laugh and put down his glass. “She’s in love with
what being married to me can do for her.”

“And what’s that?”

“Keep her in the manner to which she’d like to be accustomed. Hell. She
insinuated that when I tried to reason with her. She’s interested in being
married to a wealthy man who can take her to the places she wants to go, buy
her stuff she wants to own, and all around make her life easy.”

Lissa tried to take it all in. She tried to understand how a woman could
want all that without having her own life, her own dreams, her own goals. Where
was the satisfaction in allowing someone else to provide it all for you? Where
was the motivation? The sense of achievement?

She didn’t want to admit there was a part of her that currently yearned
for all those things he’d listed. A small part that wanted to agree to his
proposition. To say,
yes, take all my
troubles away from me, why don’t you? Make everything all right
.

If she gave in to Reed’s suggestion, she would be no better than the
woman he was trying to evade. He would be taking her where she wanted to go by
helping her set up her own business. Buying her off by giving her the means
with which she could keep the house. He’d all around be making her life easy.

When she looked up, she found Reed watching her closely. “Well?”

With a sigh, Lissa shook her head. “I can’t possibly agree to what
you’re asking.”

“Want to tell me your reasons?”

“Because I’d be marrying you for all the things she wants. Money. An
easy life.”

“The difference being this is a business arrangement.”

“An unequal one. It seems I’d be getting more from it than you.”

“We both get what we want.
We give each other
the opportunity to keep what’s most important to us so we can get on with our
lives
. It’s that
simple.”

Was it that simple?

As she hesitated, trying to come up with more reasons to reject his
offer, he stepped up close to her. “What have you got to lose?”

Only what’s left of my self esteem
.

Lissa thought of how stupid she had been to put her trust in Debbie the
way she had, and how she had failed to keep a tight check on the financial side
of their business. What sort of fool does that? When she’d found out about
Debbie’s treachery, it had knocked her self esteem to the floor.

Then there was Ethan and Marco. Enjoying that threesome had colored her
view of herself still further. The experience had been amazing, and she
couldn’t fault the courteous way the two men had treated her, but instead of
boosting her confidence she had been shocked by her wanton behavior. It was
fabulous, and she didn’t regret it, but…

A shudder worked through her. If she agreed to Reed’s request, wouldn’t
Ethan find out? The chances were pretty strong that word would get back to his
family. What if Ethan mentioned to Reed that he’d once enjoyed a ménage with
his cousin’s new wife? She could only imagine how that would go down.

While she didn’t know Reed that well, she knew enough about him to
realize he was possessive, arrogant, and controlling. How would he react if he
found out about her sexual proclivities with Ethan and Marco? Didn’t she
already have enough complications in her life without adding to them?

She stepped away and thrust the glass she still held toward him. “I
can’t.”

When he took the glass, she started to walk past him, intending to make
for the bedroom, dress, and get the hell out of there before she started
bemoaning the loss of perhaps the biggest opportunity she would have to put her
life back in order. One that had been presented to her on a silver platter.

She heard the clink of glass on wood, and seconds later Reed caught her
arm. “Stay.”

Not wanting to look at him, she kept her gaze on the door. “There’s no
point. I won’t change my mind.”

Slowly, he drew her around to face him. “Stay anyway.”

At the first touch of his mouth to hers, Lissa knew she wasn’t going
anywhere soon. He tasted of the brandy they’d shared, his mouth hot and
welcoming. She slipped her hands up the warm, muscular wall of his chest,
letting her fingers glide over the thin covering of silky black hair. His hands
traveled around her and he cupped her naked ass. With a firm grip, he raised
her hips, and she felt his erection press against her.

When he hoisted her up, she wound her arms around his neck and her legs
around his waist. She felt the cold slide of steel as his unfastened zipper
pressed against her naked pussy, then as he shifted her, the toned muscles of
his abdomen.

As the kiss grew fevered she thought he’d head for the bedroom, but he
took a few steps in the opposite direction and lowered them down onto the
couch. At the cool touch of leather she drew in a breath, but her gasp was
immediately swallowed as his mouth took hers in an almost brutal assault.

He made short work of the shirt buttons and tugged it off her with adept
speed. Shifting her so that she lay along the couch, he came down over her.

It felt amazingly decadent to be spread out for him while he still
remained partially dressed in his jeans, but as his hands began a slow,
determined kneading of her breasts, she gave in to pure sensation and let her
thoughts dissolve under the onslaught of pleasure.

When he took one engorged nipple into his mouth, Lissa gave out a low
moan and closed her eyes. His tongue flicked her sensitive bud before his teeth
bit lightly. She moaned again, stretching like a well pleasured cat.

Threading her fingers through his hair, she gently held his head in
place to make certain he didn’t get any idea to stop anytime soon. She
continued to let herself get lost in sensation as he subjected her other breast
to the same delicious torture.

When she released her grip on him, he shifted and settled between her
legs. Slowly, he pushed up her left leg until it was draped over the back of
the sofa, then he pressed against the thigh of her right leg until her foot
dropped to the floor.

She was deliciously, self-indulgently open to him, and as he raised
himself up onto his knees, he looked down at her with eyes that gleamed from
beneath heavy eyelids. “Looks to me like there’s one hot little pussy just
waiting to be licked and tortured.”

Sensation burned between her legs, but Lissa pouted as she stretched.
“And you think you’re just the man to do it?”

“I’ll let you be the judge of that.” With a grin, he lowered his head
and, using his thumbs, parted her pussy lips. At the first touch of his tongue
she jerked and bucked.

He stroked slowly, oh so damn slowly, along the entire length of her
slit.

Lissa arched. “Yes, oh yes. Don’t stop.”

Not that he showed any sign of stopping as he continued those long slow
strokes, and soon she felt the heady pull of orgasm. Her muscles clenched, her
pussy wept, but just as she felt on the brink of flying, Reed drew back.

He kneeled up, his eyes narrowed slits, his lips moist from her juices.
Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he leaned down to kiss her. When
she reached down and tugged at his jeans, he hoisted himself on his elbows to
give her room, then levered up so he could use one hand to help her.

When he was naked, she pulled him down to her again. His cock pressed
against her and she levered her hand between them to find his hard length. Reed
gasped in air as she stroked him, then she shifted, easing herself out from
under him until their positions were reversed.

Straddling him, she bucked her hips slowly so that she was stroking his
cock with her pussy. She raised her arms up as she moved, lifting her hair and
offering him her breasts.

Reed watched her, his eyes erotic slits of crazy blue. “You’ll want to
come down here, so I can suck those delicious tits of yours.”

She kept up the slow slide of her hips. “Maybe you should come up here.”

“If I do, you’ll stop riding me. And right now, it feels too fucking
good.”

She drew her arms down and cupped her breasts. She kneaded them as she
moved, watching him all the time.

His gaze dropped to where her hands moved over her breasts and he licked
his lips.

Lissa smiled as she let her arms fall, then she shifted down his body
until she could wrap her fingers around his cock. He sucked in a breath and she
began to move her hand, sliding her fingers slowly up and down his hard length.
She lowered her head, touching the tip of her tongue to the top of his
erection. She licked around the head, all the while moving her fingers slowly
up and down. When he inhaled sharply she took him in further, sucking him
harder while she kept her hands anchored at the base of his cock.