Chapter Ten
THE DOOR TO Simon’s office opened with such force that it slammed against the wall. He glanced up from his desk in surprise and was even more surprised when he saw Bette standing in the doorway. Her face was flushed, and her eyes were bright with anger.
He’d never seen her like this. But as he did with everything about her, he found it incredibly sexy. He was also concerned. “What’s wrong?”
Just as she’d slammed the door open, she slammed it closed and strode over to his desk. “I wondered why you hadn’t been interviewing replacements for me.”
Because he didn’t think anyone could replace her. He’d never known anyone like Bette Monroe before. Not that he knew her even now. She was an enigma to him. A puzzle he had yet to find all the pieces to, like the proof of whether or not she was the mole.
But even if she was, he wasn’t in any hurry to replace her. He would take his time screening applicants from now on and make sure he knew everything about them before he hired them. Because he’d had no idea when he’d hired Bette how passionate she was or what she wore beneath her conservative clothes.
If he’d known, he certainly wouldn’t have waited two years to seduce her.
“But I didn’t realize that you hadn’t even posted my job yet,” she continued.
He leaned back in his chair, the chair on which they’d just had sex. “For some reason I don’t think you’re really going to leave.”
“Yes, I am!” she exclaimed. “I will only be here four more days.”
A pang struck his heart. Was it possible? Would she really be gone that soon? That pang, that felt almost like panic, was only because he hadn’t discovered the evidence against her. That had to be what it was. It couldn’t be that he was upset that his time with her was coming to an end.
Two weeks was about the longest any of his relationships ever lasted anyway. Usually, he grew bored before then, or the woman started making demands that he wouldn’t ever be prepared to meet. Like a commitment...
And he always got too bored to commit to anyone. He’d always be looking for the next challenge, just like he had his entire life.
Maybe that was why he hadn’t grown bored with Bette yet. She challenged him like no one else ever had.
“You should already be interviewing candidates for your new assistant,” she told him.
“I thought you’d be devastated if I tried to replace you,” he said, “what with you falling in love with me and all.”
She’d never actually said that she loved him, but she’d claimed that she was falling for him. But every time she’d told him that, she’d issued the statement like it was a threat.
And she’d had that little glimmer of mischief in her eyes that had told him she was up to something. Except for that last time, just moments ago when she laid her head on his chest...
Then she had seemed almost sincere. But maybe she’d just gotten better at the lie. Like his father used to say, a lie well told and stuck to was just as good as the truth.
Her face flushed now with embarrassment. And he knew that, just as he’d suspected, she’d been lying to him.
“What?” He arched a brow. “You’re not in love with me?”
She didn’t say anything. She just sighed. “I guess I might as well come clean with you now.”
“What?” he repeated, and this time he was astounded. “You’re going to tell me the truth?”
Would it be this easy? While she hadn’t fallen in love with him, maybe she’d enjoyed their time together enough that she was feeling guilty over her betrayal.
“Please, Bette,” he implored her. “Be honest with me.”
Her face flushed a darker shade of red and she wouldn’t meet his gaze. “You’re going to get mad at me.”
And his heart plummeted in his chest. She was the mole. While he should be relieved to know his suspicions were right, he was disappointed. Hell, he was more than disappointed.
He was devastated. For the first time in his life, he had actually wanted to be wrong.
Not that he’d gotten attached to her or anything. But at least he wouldn’t have been conned when he’d hired her, when he’d trusted her.
Apparently, that was not the case.
Apparently, he never should have trusted her.
* * *
Bette studied his face, waiting for him to assure her that he wouldn’t get mad at her. But he didn’t. Instead, he just looked very tense, his jaw tightly clenched.
But she shouldn’t care if he got mad. In fact, maybe that would be the best way to get him to release her four days early from serving out the rest of her two weeks. Or maybe it would at least get him to post her job.
She drew in a deep breath and admitted, “I’ve been playing you.”
He released a sharp breath as if she’d punched him. But he nodded and said, “That’s what I thought.” He cursed and admitted, “I’d just hoped I was wrong.”
“That night I undressed in the office.” Heat rushed from her face throughout the rest of her body as she thought of that night, of how she’d taken off her glasses and taken down her hair...
She should have stopped there. But then she never would have known what sex with Simon Kramer was like and why all those other women had been so desperate for it to never stop. She didn’t want to become that desperate, though.
So she had to make sure there was an end in sight for them. For the sex and the job.
“I was playing you,” she said.
His brow furrowed. “You didn’t really want to have sex?”
“I—I had always wondered what it would be like to be with you,” she admitted. “I just didn’t have this undying attraction to you that I’d said I had.”
He stood up now and walked around his desk. He didn’t reach for her, though. In fact, he leaned back against the front of his desk and crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re not attracted to me?”
She snorted with self-derision. “I’m not a liar. Of course I’m attracted, but I’m not in love with you.” At least she didn’t think she was.
Of course she wasn’t...
“I just wanted you to think that I was falling for you,” she said.
“But why?”
“So you wouldn’t make me work out the two-week notice,” she said.
He shook his head as if he was having trouble following her—which was strange since she’d figured he was onto her this entire time. “How would that make me release you from the terms of your employment contract?”
She snorted again but this time in derision of him. “I’ve worked for you for two years,” she reminded him. “I see how you treat women.”
His face flushed now, his skin getting a little ruddy. “What do you mean?”
“As soon as they profess any feelings for you, you dump them,” she said.
“You think that makes me heartless?” he asked.
She’d thought once that it had but now she understood. “It’s probably the nicest thing you can do,” she said. “If you’re not able to return their feelings, it’s better to break it off before they fall any harder.”
“You sound as if you’re speaking from experience,” he mused.
She shrugged and admitted, “I’ve never been in love.” She’d been too focused on fashion—on her designs.
“But you’ve had men fall for you?”
She shrugged again. There had been boys in school who’d professed love. She figured they’d just been trying to get her to have sex with them. She hadn’t really believed they’d loved her—not when they hadn’t really known her. But then they hadn’t cared about her goals and aspirations. They’d cared only about their own. And if she’d fallen for them, she would have gotten sucked into their lives instead of living her own. Just like her mom and sister had and countless other women she’d known.
“I don’t know,” she said, willing to give those old boyfriends the benefit of the doubt. “Who knows if another person’s feelings are real?”
He chuckled. “Apparently, I don’t.”
“You didn’t really think I was falling for you,” she said. “Or you would have cut me loose last week.”
He grinned. “Why would I have done that again?”
“You can’t stand clingy women,” she said. “So I was trying to act clingy.”
“Hmm, I guess I didn’t see the clinginess.”
“We’ve been spending so much time together,” she reminded him. “More time than you’ve spent with any other woman.”
“That’s because we work together,” he said.
“We haven’t been working the whole time,” she reminded him. And she gestured around his office at the couch and the chair and the desk and the conference table.
They’d had sex on every surface in his office. And on every surface in hers.
“You’ve been working me,” he said. “Why didn’t you want to work out the two weeks? Did you tell your new employer you’d start sooner?”
She shook her head. She was already working for them. She’d been working for them for years as a freelance design assistant. Between Street Legal and fashion, all she’d done was work. Maybe that was why sex with Simon was so amazing.
Because she’d denied herself too long.
“Maybe I felt like you with all those women you refused to see again after you broke up with them,” she told him. “Once I gave my notice, I didn’t want to have to keep coming back here for two more weeks.”
“Why not?” he asked.
“I didn’t want to keep seeing you.” And she knew that was probably as much her reason as wanting to start working only on her new line. Despite everything, she knew that she would miss working with Simon. He had the same passion for his job that she had for fashion.
But it wasn’t just her designs that she had a passion for anymore. It was Simon, too.
He pressed a hand over his heart and said, “Ouch. Guess that’s karma for me.”
“You’ve broken a lot of hearts,” she reminded him. And she’d mopped up some of those tears for him. She hoped she wouldn’t wind up mopping up her own before the week was out. “That’s why I know better than to fall for you, because I know you too well.”
He arched a brow. “That sounds like a challenge.”
She shook her head. “No, not at all.”
But he was already reaching for her. “I’ll make you clingy,” he warned her as he lowered his head to hers. Despite the grin curving his lips, he kissed her deeply. And as he kissed her, sliding his tongue in and out of her mouth, he touched her.
He ran his hands over her breasts, but he didn’t undress her. He didn’t need to. She could feel the heat of his touch through her clothes, and her nipples tightened. She moaned. Then he moved his hands lower, over her hips and ass.
She arched her hips against him, feeling his erection through her clothes and his. But it wasn’t enough. She wanted him inside her.
Then he lifted her, and just as he’d promised, she was clinging to him. He shoved up her skirt and pulled her panties aside, and somehow his zipper was down and he’d rolled on a condom. Then he was inside her, thrusting deep. And she clung to him, her arms and legs wrapped tightly around him. She clung as he drove her up and out of her mind with pleasure.
He felt so good. His cock so long and hard. As he continued to thrust, the tension wound tightly inside her. She ached for release, and finally, an orgasm slammed through her, making her body shudder with the explosive power of the release. He caught her cry of pleasure in his mouth as he continued to kiss her. And he didn’t stop thrusting his hips, didn’t stop driving as deeply as only he could, until she came again and again.
Her muscles quivered and she could barely hold on, her body was so limp with pleasure. Then finally, a deep groan ripped from his throat and he came, too. His legs shook slightly beneath their combined weights, and he leaned his forehead, damp with perspiration, against hers.
Staring deeply into her eyes, he said, “For some reason I don’t mind when you’re clingy, Bette Monroe.”
She minded. And she was scared to death that she really might fall for him.