“Is he in?” Quinn asked, in a tone she hoped sounded more like a request than a growl. But she was in battle mode and not sure if she was coming across as politely as she should.
The assistant, the same one that had been behind this desk the last time she’d been here, looked up from her computer. A secret smile came over her features as she took in Quinn’s almost trembling demeanor.
“He is for you,” she said and started to lift the phone.
Quinn didn’t like the implications of that response and she laid her hand over the woman’s, not allowing her to pick up the phone to announce her. “Has he been waiting for me?” she demanded.
The woman chuckled as she nodded. “Absolutely!” She sighed and pulled her hand out from underneath Quinn’s. “And I’m so relieved that you’re finally here! Maybe he’ll stop being such a grouchy grizzly bear now.”
A moment later, she’d pressed the buttons and was announcing Quinn’s presence.
When the door to the man’s office opened up, Quinn was no longer angry. She was confused and surprised, not remembering Bryce Steele being quite so…huge! But there he was, towering over her and looking like…well, not an angry bear. But a hungry one!
Shrinking back, she started to doubt the sanity of her current plan. Maybe she should have continued with her previous efforts to simply ignore him.
But this man was just too…everything! He was hard to ignore!
She’d tried to, but…just thinking about how annoying he’d become, her temper fired up. Shoulders squaring off, her expression changed from one of chagrin and nervousness, to determination. Okay, so she was trying to hide her nervousness. No reason this man needed to see that, right?
Right! It would just make him think that…that…
“Why are you moving so close?” she asked, leaning back against his assistant’s desk. When she tilted her head, silently about to beg the older woman for assistance, she realized that the woman was gone! Gone? Why had the other woman deserted her? What had happened to the sisterhood? Traitor!
“Back away,” she warned him.
Bryce leaned forward, resting his hands on Olivia’s desk. He was relieved that his assistant completely understood what was happening, grateful that she’d vanished moments ago.
“You’re ignoring me,” he observed, his green eyes moving over her features carefully. “And you’re tired. Why are you tired?”
Quinn shook her head, placing her hands on his shoulders in an effort to push him away, but somehow, those hands seemed to be floating along his shoulders. Exploring. Not pushing.
“You’re trying to manipulate me.”
He laughed and the sound sent a thrill right down her body, tingling in her stomach. Pooling sensations of intense awareness settled in her belly.
“I’ve never manipulated a woman in my life.”
“What would you call all of the presents, chocolates, and flowers?” she asked, trying to sound determined and angry. Why was her voice coming across as breathy?
Goodness, why were her breasts feeling so heavy? She could actually feel her nipples through the thin material of her blouse.
“I would call all of the deliveries my attempt to get you to have dinner with me.”
She hesitated, looking into those green eyes and trying to figure a way out of this. But…did she really want a way out?
Realizing what she was thinking, Quinn shook her head, trying to get rid of the ideas.
“You don’t want just dinner.”
He laughed again. “No. I don’t. I want you on your back, your eyes looking up at me as you beg me to make love to you.” He paused, his eyes moving down to her mouth and he noticed that her breathing was more ragged suddenly. Her lips were softer, her eyes smoldering with the same need he felt. “I want you to admit that you want me. I want you begging, your body arching into my hand as I slide my fingers down your skin, feeling and discovering every inch of you, finding out what turns you on,” he whispered as his finger slid down the skin of her neck, trailing heat down the skin of her chest. He didn’t stop at the fabric of her blouse, merely pushing it out of the way as his finger continued. Lower. And lower!
She finally reached up to grab his hand, trying to stop its downward decent. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much strength in her grip. “You have to stop,” she gasped, but she wasn’t sure if she was referring to the presents or his finger. His finger, she told herself. Definitely his finger.
“Why should I stop?” he asked. That daring, rough finger moved, pressing against the lace of her bra and Quinn gasped, not sure how to handle this sensation.
Quinn searched her brain, trying to find an appropriate answer. But at the moment, with his finger so close, so enticingly close to her nipple…the same nipple that was hard and aching, desperate to feel that finger…she couldn’t come up with a single response.
Quinn wasn’t even sure if her lips could form words.
So when he pulled back, that finger moving away from her skin, away from being so close to where her body desperately needed it to be, she actually whimpered.
“Soon,” he said and pulled her into his arms. He kissed her, but it was just a quick kiss. Nothing like what she needed. Wanted.
“You brought the chocolates,” he said, looking down at the floor where the box of chocolates, the beautiful, soft, cashmere pashmina and the smaller box containing the watch – oh and her purse – were laying on the floor. Obviously, she’d dropped them, completely forgetting that they’d been in her arms when he’d walked out of his office.
He bent down and picked up everything, laying the boxes on Olivia’s desk. “What’s wrong with the gifts?” he asked, as he opened the box containing the outrageously expensive watch.
She shook her head and stepped back, needing more space in order to think. The man’s presence was pretty potent!
“They’re too expensive and I won’t accept them.”
“Because they’re too expensive?”
“No. I can’t accept them because you’re trying to bribe me.”
He chuckled and took the watch out of the box. Reaching for her hand, his fingers slid against her skin, one resting against her pulse. “They aren’t bribes. Not even close. What would I be trying to bribe you for? I have no reason to.”
She had no idea what he was doing with her wrist. All she knew was that her pulse was pounding, he was touching her, and his green eyes were more intense than anything she’d ever seen.
Shaking her head, she tried to remember what was going on. The case. The buildings. Her clients! Right! She had to remember her clients. “I’m trying to protect the rights of my clients against your infringing firm’s desire to tear down their homes.”
He smiled slightly as he wrapped the pashmina around her shoulders, tucking the ends against her shoulder. Did his hand actually brush against her nipple? Intentionally?
She gasped and pulled back, her eyes flashing up to his in question.
Of course he’d done that intentionally! The look in his eyes told her that plain as day!
“My clients haven’t accepted all of your terms,” she said, almost desperate to hang onto a reason to avoid this man.
“They will. Didn’t they come to see you this morning?”
She blinked, shocked that he would know that. “Yes, but…”
“Good. My people told them to talk to you before signing anything.” He took her hand and led her out of the office. “I’ll even agree to void the terms of any agreement if you haven’t spoken with the client first. Does that sound fair?”
She couldn’t believe he was actually agreeing to that. “Why would you give away that kind of concession?” she asked, watching as his hand reached out, his finger touching the elevator call button. He had long, strong fingers and she remembered that finger so close to her breast. So painfully close!
Her eyes shot up to his and he knew! Darn it, he knew exactly what she’d been thinking.
She started to step back, her lips pressing together but he wasn’t allowing that. With a firm hand to the small of her back, he guided her into the elevator. The doors closed. The tension increased. He leaned forward, she took a step backwards. Not because she wanted to. But because she wanted to throw herself into his arms.
She was tired of fighting him. She was tired of fighting this tension that was between them. She wanted to know how his finger would feel against her breast. She wanted to know what it would feel like when his hot mouth covered her nipple, to have him fill her up, to possess her body.
She knew it would be wonderful. She’d never really liked sex before although she’d only been with two men, once in college and then again after she’d finished law school. Neither experience had been very exciting and the relationships had died after those sexual experiments.
She doubted that anything relating to Bryce Steele could be labeled an experience. She suspected that it would be more along the lines of an explosion.
Looking up at him, she unconsciously licked her lips, her mind considering the options.
A sexual encounter with Bryce Steele would be…
The doors opened as she blinked, startled to realize that they’d gone all the way down to the lobby level. Had the elevators even moved?
Such a silly question she thought as she looked back up at him. Of course they’d moved. They hadn’t instantaneously arrived at the bottom floor.
Shaking her head, she took a deep breath and moved out of the elevator, not wanting him to touch her back again.
“I need to go,” she told him, looking down and around, trying to figure out where they were. She knew they were in the lobby to his building but…
“We’re going to dinner. We’ll discuss the offers to your clients. You’ll tell me if there is anything objectionable in any of their offers and we’ll get this business out of the way.”
She took a deep breath and knew that he was right. Any good lawyer would be doing the same thing. She’d already read through the agreements with three of her clients. She knew that Mark was getting copies of the others.
Before she knew what was happening, a common theme when she was around this man lately, she was in the limousine. “Where are we going?”
“Dinner,” he said and leaned back against the soft leather. “And we’ll talk about the contracts.”
“I didn’t agree to dinner,” she argued, trying to sound firm. Quinn suspected that she was failing miserably.
“You didn’t say no either.”
Quinn had to laugh because his arrogance was actually…okay, he was charming in an annoying sort of way. “And an absence of no means yes?” she teased.
“Of course,” he told her and she could see that, in his mind, he wasn’t kidding.
The limousine pulled up outside of a tall building and Quinn stared. “This isn’t a restaurant,” she whispered, her heart racing.
“I live here,” he smiled and stepped out of the back. Once he was on the sidewalk, he extended his hand to her and helped her out.
Quinn trembled as she walked up the sidewalk. What was she doing? Why was she here?
She should simply turn around and walk away. She should tell Bryce that she couldn’t go into his apartment. She had to leave, to get away.
“We’re just going in for dinner and conversation, Quinn,” he said as he reached out to press the elevator button.
Looking up at him, she shivered. “Stop doing that.”
“Stop doing what?”
“Reading my mind,” she grumbled, shifting on her feet nervously.
He laughed softly and nudged her into the elevator. “It isn’t hard. Your feet start slowing down and you get a sullen look on your face. It tells me that you’re thinking too hard.”
She crossed her arms over her stomach, her mind absently noting the softness of the pashmina. “I don’t ‘think too hard’,” she countered.
“What do you do?” he asked, once more looming over her.
She bit her lip as she stared up at him. “I think just enough to consider the issue and come to a reasonable conclusion.”
“And what conclusion is your agile mind coming to about dinner tonight?”
“My mind is telling me that I shouldn’t do this,” she told him as firmly as she could, her lilac eyes daring him to challenge her. She knew exactly where this was going and it was dangerous territory.
His only response was an enigmatic smile. “You shouldn’t eat? Sounds a bit draconian, wouldn’t you say?” he replied as the elevator doors opened up. There wasn’t a doorway. Just an entry into one of the most beautiful homes she’d ever seen in her life.
Okay, granted, she usually viewed homes that were dilapidated or ready to be condemned. But this penthouse…! It was stunning! Large windows looked out over Puget Sound, an enormous fireplace stood in the center of the room that somehow divided the room into smaller areas, but still managed to convey a large, open space. The hardwood floors weren’t a natural wood, but made of the dark, almost black wood that was so in fashion at the moment.
“Goodness, how many people live here?” she asked, a bit breathless at confronting his wealth in such a stark contrast to her tiny, studio apartment.
“I live here alone,” he said and took her hand, leading her into the kitchen area. “How about salmon for dinner tonight?” he offered, tossing his jacket and tie onto one of the chairs by the breakfast bar. “Or I could make some pasta? What sounds better to you?”
Quinn stood there, right inside the kitchen area, still stunned, and not sure how to handle this penthouse. “You’re wealthier than I could have imagined,” she said, reverently looking around at the amount of space. “How many bedrooms are…” she stopped the question, realizing where his mind was going. “I only was asking because…well, because…I…”
He laughed and came back over to her. Unwrapping her pashmina, he tossed it over his jacket and led her to one of the stools. “I know what you were asking, honey. Don’t worry about it.” He bent down and kissed her lightly before walking over to the other side of the counter, leaving her stunned and her lips still burning with the heat from that kiss.
He lifted a knife and started cutting up some sort of herb that he’d pulled from the massive fridge behind him. “In answer to your question though, there are four bedrooms, including my own.” He looked up at her with a wink, “Which you will find out very soon.”
He stopped cutting and turned back around, grabbing a bottle of wine from the fridge. With deft hands, he uncorked the bottle and poured some into two glasses, handing one to her and putting his own off to the side.
“Drink. Relax. Tell me about any concerns you have with the current contracts.”
He continued chopping things up and dumping all of it into a pan, and adding butter, real butter! Goodness, whatever he was making was going to be decadent if he was using real butter.
She licked her lips, and focused on his question. “Um…concerns. I don’t know if I have any concerns. From what I read earlier today, the terms appear very generous.” She took a sip of her wine, impressed that it tasted so good. “Why were you so generous? You could have been a real jerk about things.”
He winked at her again. “Because being a jerk means that my reputation is tarnished. And the additional money added to each of the remaining contracts isn’t that huge compared to the overall profit I expect to make on the project. So it is a win-win situation for everyone. The remaining residents get a better deal, I get them moved out faster, we start the demolition more quickly, and I can start selling the condos and retail space sooner. There isn’t any big issue to the calculations. It is a simple profit and loss equation.”
She sipped more wine, trying to figure him out. “I thought profit and the bottom line were the ultimate goal?”
He laughed. “Some would say that the bottom line is profit.”
She popped one of the olives into her mouth that he placed in front of her. “I thought that was gross contribution?”
He winked at her and ate an olive himself. “Good for you. You’re right.”
Over the course of the next three hours, he cooked, she asked him questions about the contracts, he answered all of her questions, and they ate the most delicious salmon with a side dish made from some sort of nutty grain with amazing spices. He pulled out ice cream after dinner, not letting her clean up anything, and added some sort of raspberry sauce, making the creamy dessert extra decadent.
“Come on,” he said finally and took her hand, grabbing a set of keys off a hook.
She’d been nervous for the past half hour, trying to make her ice cream last even though she was satisfied with half of it. “Where are we going now?”
He kissed her as he pulled her to a standing position, holding her against his hard body for just a moment. “I’m taking you home.”
She blinked up at him as he walked her over to the elevator and pressed the button. Once inside, he pressed another button for the garage level. “Home?” she parroted.
“Yes. Home.”
She couldn’t believe the surge of relief that she felt with his words. “But I thought…” she started to ask, but left that comment hanging in the air between them.
“I know what you thought,” he told her and moved closer. “And yes, we are going to make love. Very soon. But I want the business side of things out of the way. I don’t want you to hesitate at all when I touch you. No worries about a conflict of interests or problems being with me. No ethical issues. You’re going to be in my bed and I want you completely focused on me when you are, Quinn.”
She realized that he was utterly serious. The smile brightening her features was both relief as well as challenge. “You’re awfully confident,” she quipped, feeling as if she were on stronger ground now that he wasn’t going to try and get her into his bedroom. An action that she wasn’t entirely sure she would have the strength to resist.
A moment later, she was pinned up against the wall of the elevator, her breath gasping in the back of her throat. “Don’t even let the thought of not being in my bed occur to you, Quinn. This will happen. The tension between us is too strong to ignore.”
She wasn’t able to argue with him. Not just because he was kissing her either. There was also the realization that she knew what he was saying was true.
Thankfully, he pulled away first, because there wasn’t any way that she would have had the presence of mind to do it herself. He was that good. Or perhaps, the sexual tension between them was that powerful.
He drove her home that night and walked her to her apartment doorway. The entire walk from his car to her door, she trembled, anticipating and dreading his kiss.
Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, at her door, he simply bent down and gave her a sweet, gentle kiss. It was still devastating and she fumbled as she unlocked her apartment doorway. But at least she wasn’t fighting her need to invite the man inside for more.
Okay, that was a lie. Even as she leaned against the now-closed door of her apartment, she was fighting the urge to yank it open and call him back, beg him to come inside and…yeah, she wanted to make love with him. She wanted to experience his touch, his kiss.
Over the next three days, Quinn worked hard to review all of the contracts for the remaining residents, even the ones that hadn’t initially asked for her representation. All of them were similar and very generous. Just out of curiosity, Quinn compared the original offer numbers against the cost for the next set of offers. The difference was less than one hundred thousand dollars. That was an enormous amount of money to her mind and most likely to all of the residents who lived in the area. But to someone like Bryce Steele or a massive corporation such as Steele Industries, it was probably chump change. And she had no idea how to calculate the decrease in interest or increase in eventual profit that would be saved with moving up the timeline on the project. Development could start about six months earlier now that the residents were finally moving out. Everyone seemed to be more than eager, excited even, to have this issue closed.
But Quinn was terrified.
The presents were still coming, but they were more intimate somehow. They were smaller, more personal. Like a bottle of the wine they’d shared at his penthouse that first night, a silver key chain with her initials etched onto the smooth surface, lingerie – which caused her to blush as soon as she’d opened the box and was eternally grateful that he’d sent this one to her apartment instead of her office. But as soon as the blush had disappeared, she’d reopened the box, peering into the interior as if she were viewing classified materials. She was completely alone that night in her tiny apartment. The blinds were drawn closed and only one light was on. She’d pushed the box off to the side when she’d been too embarrassed to look inside after her second glimpse. But she’d gotten ready for bed, brushed her teeth and washed her face. She’d even pulled on the oversized tee shirt she normally slept in, but as she looked in the box, she couldn’t stop her fingers from caressing the amazing silk.
Just the thought of letting this silk nightgown in cream and lace drift down over her skin sent shivers of delight throughout her whole body.
She quickly shut the box, walking away from it. She pulled out her bed, which was really just the pullout from her sofa, and snuggled down into the sheets.
When her phone buzzed, she couldn’t stop the jerk of surprise. She normally was good about turning off the sound, being a light sleeper.
When she picked up her phone, intending to just turn it off because she automatically assumed it was a friend or work related, she was stunned to see a text from Bryce.
“Are you wearing it?” he asked.
Her fingers trembled as her eyes drifted to the box which was sitting on a stool in the corner. She hadn’t taken it out of the box, thinking it was too decadent. The silk was too sensuous. She couldn’t handle that tonight.
“Who are you?” she texted back, even though she already had his name and phone number programmed into her phone.
“You know exactly who this is. So you are wearing it, aren’t you?”
“Wearing what?”
“How does it feel?”
She shivered, her eyes glancing anxiously at the silk once more. “I’m not wearing it.”
There was a long pause before he texted her back. “Put it on.”
She couldn’t believe him, but then again…yeah, she should have expected that.
“No,” she texted right back, even though it took her fingers a few tries to type in the two letters. She kept missing.
“Do it now, Quinn. Then let me know when it is on.”
She smiled, her fingers hesitating. “Why?”
“Because I want you to.”
She laughed, shaking her head at his arrogant demand. He certainly was an obnoxious beast.
“Not my problem,” she typed back.
“Okay, do it because you want to.”
Oh, he was good! She stared at the box, wishing she had the courage to slide the silk on over her body.
“Do it, Quinn,” he typed to her. And a moment later, he texted, “Don’t be afraid. No one will see you in it.”
She bit her lip. He was right. Why not just try it on? She didn’t even have to admit to him that she was wearing it. He’d never know.
Pushing the sheets and blanket away, she stood up and padded barefoot over to the box. With a flick of her finger, the top fell away and the shimmering cream silk glowed up at her. It was so gorgeous, she thought, as she ran her fingers over the delicate material.
What would it hurt? Why not? It wasn’t like she could return it. There were no tags on it, just like there hadn’t been tags on any of the other gifts he’d sent to her. He’d done that on purpose, she was sure, just so she couldn’t return the items to the stores. Evil man!
Her cell phone buzzed again, indicating that she had another message. She ignored it, knowing that it was Bryce. Probably another taunt, but she stood there, allowing her fingers to drift, to feel and to luxuriate in the beautiful garment.
In the end, the temptation was too strong. He was right. No one would know. No one could see her.
Quickly, she pulled the old tee shirt off, dumping it on the floor. She shivered as the material skimmed down over her body, teasing her nipples, her stomach and her back when she released the silk to flow down over her figure. With a sigh of pleasure, she realized how amazing it felt to be in this nightgown, how the sensuous material caressed her skin. Nothing had ever felt this incredible!
Walking back to her bed, she lifted her phone up, intending to tell him good night and ignore everything else he might text. But the message waiting for her stilled her fingers.
“Feels good, doesn’t it?”
Her lips curled up slightly. Arrogant man, she thought. He’d just assumed she’d put it on. He was right, but he shouldn’t assume anything.
“I’m not wearing it.”
“Liar,” he came right back and she could imagine his chuckle at her denial. It would have been soft and low, sexy and so male. Even thinking about the sound, she shivered with anticipation.
“Good night,” she texted back, exasperation and amusement causing her eyes to roll even though he wasn’t here to see them.
“Think of my hands when the silk touches your body. But when I touch you, it will be even better.”
For a long moment, she couldn’t breathe, just thinking about his hands touching her in all the places the silk was currently doing. The possibilities were…amazing!
“Your hands are rougher,” she replied and hit send before she realized what she’d just admitted.
“So you are wearing it. Good!”
With a laugh, she shook her head as she typed in, “Good night!”
“Sleep well, my beauty.”
Quinn groaned as she turned the sound off on her phone. With a flick of her hand, she turned off the light and snuggled down into her bed. But for some reason, the sheets were too rough, the nightgown too soft, the bed too lumpy. And her body was on fire, just thinking about that man’s rough hands touching her. Everywhere! Darn him! He’d done this to her!
She tossed and turned, trying to get the picture out of her mind! Why had he sent those last few texts!
Just to rile her, she thought, and pounded her pillow once more, trying to get comfortable.
In the end, she sat up and pulled the silk nightgown off, dumping it onto the floor. She couldn’t handle it. The sensuousness of the material was just…it was too much!