Chapter Seventeen

Konrad glanced outside the window. Dark sky and downtown lights streamed through his office. It was nearly nine in the evening. Long day indeed. Scottie typed away, the clicks grating on his nerves. How had he managed to keep his hands off her when she’d been not even a foot from him for hours on end?

He gazed at her, her lips bare and her hair tucked behind her ears. He imagined for hours what her bra looked like under her red dress. Lace. Mesh. Satin. He liked it all, but he’d like it more if she didn’t have on a bra. Or panties either.

Aroused again, he needed to stop thinking about her in such terms. She was not an object for him to lust over. Dear God, he wanted to objectify her, though. But in a good way, if that was possible.

“I think this calls for a drink, yeah?” Konrad stood, walking to his desk. He’d bought a bottle of scotch from Hugo’s after he’d had lunch with Dallas. The one he’d told Scottie about.

“Sure.” The keyboard clicks followed that single word.

Excitement rushed through him. Taking two glasses from his bar on the way back to the table, he said, “I have a surprise for you.”

Head tilted, eyes narrowed, she asked, “You do?”

“I do.” Once he’d returned, he placed the glasses on the table, the satin bag still in the other hand. “Remember when I told you Hugo’s has the best scotch?”

“Yes.” Her eyes focused on the satin bag he’d opened.

“I present to you…” Konrad slipped out the smooth, thick square glass bottle. “…Mortlach twenty-five year. It is my absolute favorite.”

Her eyes widened. “That’s the twenty-five year?”

“It better be the twenty-five year!” He laughed, setting the bottle next to the glasses.

“That must have been expensive.”

He shrugged. “Some things are worth the price tag.” He’d paid a much heftier price for the bottle since it wasn’t from the auction where he normally bought all his scotch and wine.

She took the glass Konrad handed her, her face slack in contemplation. “You like buying things for people, don’t you?”

True, he did spend a good amount of money on friends and non-friends alike. It was how he expressed himself, good or bad. It was how his father expressed himself as well. Money and things always pleased people. Positive reinforcement was what his father had called it.

“It’s always a crowd-pleaser.”

He poured the amber liquid in Scottie’s glass until it was an inch high.

“Is that what you want? To please the crowd?” She lifted the glass to her nose and sniffed.

He poured more than an inch in his glass. “Don’t you like being pleased?”

Their eyes met. Nothing could be heard except their breathing.

“Is that a real question?” Scottie’s voice was a near whisper.

Konrad had affected her. He could see it in her darkened eyes, her quivering lips. How he wanted to take that lip between his teeth and tug until she moaned.

“Tell me. Does this scotch please you?” Dangerous ground. He should not have asked that question. It wouldn’t lead him anywhere safe, but he didn’t want to play it safe. He wanted to go on impulse, not reason. Hadn’t he learned his lesson? Clearly, not.

Her eyelids fluttered down to the glass. She hesitated before sipping the liquid, her cheeks flushed pink. It was getting a bit hot in the office. Everyone had left by then, and the air-conditioning had been turned up to seventy-five degrees by default.

He waited, watching her lips press together. A tiny curve formed on her lips, and he knew she was pleased. No words necessary.

“Yes.” She placed the glass on the table. “This is the best I’ve ever had.”

The best I’ve ever had. She might have been talking about his cock and not the scotch by the way she looked at him. His lust was off the charts, and he wanted to be the best she’d ever had in bed. He wanted to be the best kisser she’d ever had. He wanted to have the biggest cock she’d ever had. He wanted to go down on her and give her the best orgasm she’d ever had.

He looked away, placing the glass on the table as well. Get it together, Korr. What had they just talked about that morning? But his desire for her was too strong at that point. It was a growing force that could take over at any second.

“Konrad?” She appeared concerned and drew closer to him. Her high heels tapped lightly against the tiles. “Are you okay?”

“No.” He was surprised by his answer.

Her warm fingers wrapped around his bicep. “Why?”

He met her wide eyes, taking in her beautiful face centimeter by centimeter. The makeup had worn off and she was more beautiful than ever. “You have no idea what you do to me, Scottine. No idea how much I’ve had to control myself being so close. I have no idea how my goddamn penis hasn’t torn through my trousers the whole time we’ve been in here.”

She gasped, removing her fingers from him. “But you said—”

He scrubbed his hair with one hand. “I know what I said. And I still say it.”

“And I still agree,” she quickly added.

But he didn’t still say it. And he knew she didn’t still agree.

“It’s late,” he said. “We should call all this to a halt and start up early on Monday morning.”

“O-okay.” Her footsteps sounded again as she gathered her things from the round table.

Konrad walked over to his desk, a gargantuan sigh escaping him. His emotions roiled inside him. He’d need to drink the whole bottle of Mortlach once she left.

“I’m leaving now.” Scottie approached him minutes later, her hands full and her face empty.

“Good night, then. Have a nice weekend.” The ache inside him grew.

She nodded and a slow-motion pivot followed as she went for the door.

Konrad never disregarded his decisions concerning women, but the urge to have her moved him to defy himself. He reached for her wrist before she turned away from him. Her arms flailed, dropping folders to the floor.

Without a word, he pulled her into him, their eyes fusing. Before he knew it, their lips slammed into a violent kiss that forced them both to their knees