Under His Spell (The Miami Tycoon) (10 page)

BOOK: Under His Spell (The Miami Tycoon)
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Maxwell stayed quiet to see if she wanted to continue; she did, emphatically so. “It’s just so absurd! I have the worst fucking luck with men. The worst part is, I’m apparently not learning anything! Loser after loser after loser. I know how to pick ‘em. Anthony is, well, he’s a child! I’m tired of babysitting my boyfriends. I want someone to treat me like an equal, someone who cares enough to be honest and kind.”

After she finished, she was immediately contrite, feeling as though she’d said too much, much more than she’d planned. After a few moments of silence that seemed much longer to Erica than they really were, they pulled up to the curb next to Maxwell & Brown. Nick put the car in park and took a deep breath.

“Erica, what I wanted to talk to you about earlier... I was going to tell you. I think I care about you. I...” He made an awkward gesture with his large hands. “I think I could care for you enough, to do all of those things that you just said. And, clearly, I have poor timing, since we’ve both been through a lot tonight, but—“ He wasn’t able to finish, because Erica was already kissing him.

All the reservations she’d had about his being married (even the still-relevant ones about his being her boss) vanished in an instant. She explored his mouth with her tongue, tentatively, then harder when he responded. They kissed for a long minute before Maxwell pulled away, trying to catch his breath. “Erica,” he said. “Can we continue on inside? Not that I don’t really, really want to kiss you in a car on the street, but...”

Again, before he could finish, Erica had reacted. There were things she wanted to do that could not be done on the street, either. You know what they say, she thought as they hurried into the office. A lady in the street and a freak on the...desk?

“No,” she whispered. “Not in there.” She was referring to Maxwell’s office, which he was leading her towards. She pulled him towards the communal office, and then towards her own desk. She left the light off.

Erica’s desk was next to the floor-to-ceiling window, facing south. She had chosen this location for a very particular reason. The entire city was visible from there, in all its twinkling, neon glory. They were up high enough that no one below could see or suspect what they were doing, but there were a few facing office buildings with a few lit windows such that there was an added element of exhibition to the proceedings. It was highly unlikely anyone could see them...Still, Erica felt a deep thrill as she peeled off her top and resumed kissing Maxwell.

He set her up on the desk, and slid her bra straps off slowly, savoring the feeling of her smooth shoulders beneath. She eased the jacket from his shoulders, and began loosening his tie, even as she tightened her thighs around him. Tracing a line in the hollow of his neck once she’d freed it from collar and tie, she continued down, unbuttoning his shirt. With her legs wrapped around him, she felt him hardening at her touch, until she thought it might rip through his pants.

There was no cleaning lady to interrupt them now; only the distant hum of the city and the sounds of their breathing. He’d unsnapped her bra and was massaging her breasts, marveling at the ivory plumpness, when there came a pause.

At the same time, both of them stood to remove the last of their remaining clothing. They looked deep in each other’s eyes as they undressed; suddenly, Erica felt much more naked than she ever had before. To her eyes, Nick looked like the Greek god she’d compared him to at their first meeting—an arresting presence, manly in a way that was almost foreign to her. The layer of heavy muscle over his body, the way he removed his clothes so unselfconsciously, as if what he looked like hardly mattered to him. In fact, he looked as if nothing mattered to him other than Erica. No one had ever looked at her quite that way: as if the rest of the world, as if even he himself, did not exist except in relation to her. Looking at Nick’s eyes, Erica knew that this was what it felt like to be cared for as she craved. It nourished something deep in her soul. And then the pause was over, and he was back in her arms, kissing her neck. She spread her thighs wide and looked up at him questioningly.

He answered by closing his own eyes and plunging into her, and neither of them was quite prepared for the sensation. He pulled out slowly, then thrust in again, pressing her whole body to his. Erica felt him deep within her body, now, and immediately started to meet him, just a little, at the end of each stroke, grinding him onto her clit.

She began making little breathless noises, so quiet as to almost be inaudible, but she was making them right into Nick’s ear. The noises nearly sent him over the edge too soon; so he stopped them with his own mouth. The intimacy of the kiss, now that they were joined below as well, was shocking, almost obscene. Her little mouth was fully open, her lips moist and inviting. It wasn’t a kiss so much as a grazing—they touched, pulled back, kissed, were breathless, then touched lips lightly again, all the while he thrust into her. Erica felt a shudder rising to the motion of their hips. She clenched her thighs tighter around him and whispered “Close,” in his ear.

In response, Nick pushed harder and deeper into her. They fell off the cliff together, he groaning softly and she drawing in breath sharply between her teeth. Her entire body was racked in continuous spasms as she felt him fill her, pulsating and hot. He kissed her again before he slipped out of her.

When they both had managed to catch their breath, Nick took her face in his hands. “Come home with me tonight,” he said, his voice low and gravelly.

“What kind of girl do you think I am?” she teased, kissing him again. “Let’s go,” she said finally, breaking the kiss.

In a gesture so tender it nearly stunned Erica, he brushed hair from her face and put his lips to her forehead. “Okay,” he said.

For the second time in two weeks, the ringing of Erica’s phone woke her. She was disoriented, at first, then realized where she was: in her boss’s bed. And, she noticed with a tinge of sadness, her boss was not in it. As she answered, she saw the note on the pillow next to her. Gone for coffee. XOXO. She smiled dreamily, holding the note, as she picked up the phone.

“ERICA! PICK UP THE FUCKING PHONE!”

Erica only caught the tail end of the screamed instructions, but knew immediately who the yeller was.

“Jesus, Em, what is it? Is everything okay?”

“No! No it is not! Guess who just fucking called me? You will never guess! It was Jill!”

Erica was too dazed to process the information. “What’s all this now? How come?”

“Because she wanted to know if I’d seen Ryan last night! She said she saw him kissing Ashley! Oh god, Erica, she said she even took photos. What a fucking mess.”

Erica was waking up now, forced to alertness by the odd situation. “Why on earth would she take photos and not do something about it? And why in god’s name would she call you?”

“I don’t know, I guess she thought of me as a neutral third party since I don’t work there? It was weird, okay? Argh.”

“Emily, you are freaking me out. Listen. I have something to tell—“

“Oh yeah, one more thing! Jill said that she heard, and she didn’t say where she heard, that somebody got busy last night in your fucking office! There’s going to be some kind of investigation. How weird is that. Do you think it was Ryan and Ashley?”

Now Erica was on full, five-alarm red alert. “Uh, no, couldn’t have been, I sent those two home. Anyway, listen, I have to go, okay? Call you later.” Erica hung up and put her phone on silent, since she knew Emily would just try to call her back. She wasn’t sure she’d ever woken to such bad news before.

Suddenly the dreaminess of the night before wore off. Erica felt extremely vulnerable. What if Nick just wanted a one night stand? Who was it that knew about what they’d done in the office, and what was he or she going to do about it? Hell, what was Erica going to do about any of it? She couldn’t afford to lose her job, not now that she’d just signed a lease. And she certainly didn’t think she could afford all the newfound emotions she had in regards to her boss.

She sighed and lay back on the bed, clutching the note from Nick to her chest. She did not have the sense that everything was going to work out; in fact, she had a deep-seated sense of unease. She hoped Nick would return soon.

TO BE CONTINUED…
BOOK: Under His Spell (The Miami Tycoon)
13.39Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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