CHAPTER TWO
REBECCA’S WHISPERED PLEA was all Brett needed.
In one corner of his mind, he knew that they were still in public, but he was only faintly tuned in to the sounds of the party over his pounding heart and her shuddered breaths. Even though they were alone on the terrace, he knew that at any moment anyone could come join them outside and catch whatever moment he and Rebecca were caught in.
But it didn’t matter to him, and he leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers. It was a soft touch at first, his lips just grazed against hers, but it wasn’t enough. He went back for more. Her lips parted under his, and he brought his hands to her face, cupping her, holding her to him. It had been years since he’d last kissed her, but everything about it was familiar.
Her taste and the way she felt underneath his hands and lips felt right, and despite that, his brain pleaded with his body to remember that she was still the same woman who’d fought him tooth and nail these past months, used underhanded tricks to win five years before in grad school. But that didn’t concern him now. Because she felt too goddamn good.
Rebecca whimpered into his mouth and tilted her head to the side, angling herself so that he could deepen the kiss. And he did. His tongue delved into her mouth and found hers, stroking, driving against one another. She raised her arms and wrapped them around his neck, drawing him closer. His cock thickened, and he felt it grinding painfully against the zipper of his pants. He had to use every ounce of his control to not yank them down and take her against the wall.
But he didn’t pull away.
Instead he lowered his hand, releasing the grip he’d held on her gorgeous ass, and skimmed his palm down her outer thigh. He clutched her leg and raised it until she wrapped it around him. The skirt of her dress wasn’t tight, and the looser material allowed him access to the smooth skin of her inner thigh as he let his hands drift upward toward the hem of her skirt. Soon, his fingers were underneath, fingering the lace of her panties.
“Brett, we can’t do this here,” she breathed. Those might have been her words, but she leaned into him, grasping his forearm, pulling him closer, thrusting desperately against his hand.
“Why not?” he growled.
“We’re in public,” she said. “As if that would stop you,” she whispered with a sly grin.
“As if it would stop either of us,” he agreed. “You never shied away from the risk of being caught before,” he reminded her with a cocked eyebrow. Rebecca had had quite the exhibitionist streak, and he wondered if she still did.
Her gasp was his answer and reward when he pushed her panties aside and touched the bare lips of her pussy. Her legs parted farther, obediently, and his fingers delved between her wet folds, circling her clit several times.
Rebecca inhaled sharply as her head rolled back and her eyes drifted shut. Brett kissed her lips to silence her, blocking her body with his own, to keep her from the eyes of anyone who might come onto the terrace. Grasping her thigh, he pulled it higher, holding her so that she was open to him. Her eyes widened and found his when he thrust a finger inside her, and he relished the lustful sounds that emanated from her throat. With two fingers moving in and out of her, the heel of his hand made contact with her clit with every thrust. From the way her body quivered before him, he knew that she was just hanging on to the edge. He kept a steady pace, and when she tightened and clenched her muscles around him, she cried out into his mouth.
When she quieted, he pulled his mouth away but drew her closer to him. “You always look so beautiful when you come,” he whispered against her ear. “Your breath is shallow, your cheeks are flushed and your pupils are so dilated, I can barely see how beautifully blue they are.” Where the hell had that come from?
She sighed, and he released his hold on her leg, letting her foot drop back to the floor. “Oh, my God, Brett.” She sighed.
“Let’s get out of here.” Fingering her on a terrace during a party hosted by the mayor was one thing, but there was still so much more he wanted to do with Rebecca Daniels, to her. “We can go back to my place,” he suggested hopefully, his lips just a whisper away from hers. He pressed them together for a second. Kissing her felt too damn good.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she told him.
“It definitely isn’t.” He grinned. “But let’s do it anyway.”
Rebecca’s laugh was more heavy exhalation than humor, and he watched the storm as it progressed over her blue eyes. They had darkened significantly with desire, and the flush that colored her cheeks and her chest showed him that she was just as affected as he was. They heard laughter from the doorway leading into the house. Brett looked over his shoulder and saw that two men and a woman had just joined them outside. The trio barely gave them a second glance.
“I should go,” she said, finding her own footing without his support. He pulled the front of his jacket over the bulge of his cock, disappointed, but he noted with satisfaction her wobbly stance. She turned away from him.
“Wait,” he called.
“Yeah?”
He withdrew his wallet from the inside pocket of his jacket and took out a card. “Here,” he said. “Take this.”
“What is it?”
“If we’re done talking business, come by some night.”
“Di Terrestres?”
“Yeah, it’s my club. The address is on there, and my cell number is on the back. I’ll show you around. Soon.”
Her lips twitched as she looked down at the card. She said nothing before she slid it into the pocket of her dress, and she walked away from him.
“It was nice seeing you, Becca,” he called to her.
She stopped and turned. “Rebecca,” she corrected him. “And you, too, Brett,” she said, turning and walking away from him. “But don’t forget. Don’t come after DI anymore. I don’t have time for games.”
Brett took a deep breath and watched her walk away. He hadn’t meant for any of that to happen. But he hadn’t been able to control himself. He’d completely lost his mind. Apparently, all he had to do to forget business and their previous hostility was touch her and he became that same twenty-two-year-old who’d been hopelessly infatuated with her. His only hope was that she was just as shaken as he was...
He was going to have to learn to control himself if he was going to be anywhere near Rebecca Daniels again. How could he hook up with her on Saturday and go into work Monday clearheaded enough to deal with the fact he had to replace an executive VP thanks to her?
No. This would never do. He had to act now.
When Rebecca was completely out of sight, he nodded in recognition to the people who’d joined them on the terrace and headed back inside to the party. He saw his friends, who’d again found each other and taken their place in a small exclusive huddle near the bar. Alex, Rafael, Gabe and Alana watched him approach. They said nothing, but their raised eyebrows spoke volumes even as they each, almost simultaneously, raised their glasses to their lips to hide their smirks. He ordered another soda water from the bar and turned back to them.
“What?” he asked them.
They all played clueless for a moment, not answering until Alex finally broke. “Okay, what the hell was that?”
Brett shrugged. “What was what?”
Alex rolled his eyes. “Don’t play stupid with us. What were you doing with Rebecca Daniels?”
“Nothing. We were talking. Just catching up.”
“Just catching up with her tongue down your throat?” Alana countered.
“What did you see?” Brett narrowed his eyes.
Alana’s widened. “What did you do?”
Brett took in the amused but concerned faces of his friends. “It was nothing. But something came to me. I’ve got an idea.” He turned to Alex. “You know how we were talking about taking Collins/Fischer to the next level?”
Alex eyed him, his stance wary. “Yeah, what do you have in mind?”
“We’re going to be number one. And we’re going to do that by dismantling the competition.”
“Okay... How?”
“A takeover. I want us to buy out Daniels International.” He let it sink in, aware of the curious and cautious way his friends eyed him.
“What?” Alex asked him.
“What aren’t you getting here? They’re a real estate development firm,” Brett said. “So is Collins/Fischer. We’ll initiate a takeover. Buy them out. When we’re successful in taking them out, we’ll move on to the next one, then the next one, until we’re the only game in town.”
None of his friends looked convinced. They were silent until Alana spoke up first. “Why?” she asked.
He thought about his answer. He’d been looking for a project, the next business move. He’d always been in this for the long game—to be the only real estate firm in town. He’d been at battle with Daniels International for months, and the company’s profits had been declining for years, partly because of stiff competition from Collins/Fischer. Why not start there? It was a logical procession. But he would be lying if he didn’t admit that there was more to it. His lips pulled downward in a frown, and he let the flames of animosity fuel him. “Now’s the time,” he started. “We’re on the verge of being on top of this city. And isn’t that what we want? Our goal has always been to run this bitch,” he reminded them. “A buyout. We’ll get as many shares as we can.” He looked at Gabe, an equal business partner in The Brotherhood’s operations but also the group’s lawyer. “Think we can get the paperwork by Monday morning?”
Brett hadn’t even finished his sentence before Gabe had his phone in his hands, most likely writing a message to his assistant to start the work. “By 9:00 a.m.,” he promised before looking up.
Alex also had his phone out, clearly engaged in getting a takeover bid in order for Monday. He and Alex had worked together, known each other long enough to trust each other fully. All Alex needed was to know Brett thought it was a good idea, a good move for the business, and he was on board. Only Alana eyed him skeptically.
“What?” he asked her.
“What’s going on with you?”
“Nothing. We’re just planning what’s next for the businesses.”
“But it’s Rebecca,” Alana reminded him. “She was my friend in college, and I spent as much time with her as I did you. You guys have this weird history. I know how you are together.”
“How we were together,” Brett corrected. “And Rebecca was nothing more than a hookup.” When she eyed him skeptically, he amended his statement. “A hookup nemesis?”
“Who is this person?” Gabe asked, putting his phone back in his pocket. He hadn’t gone to the same college as they had, having attended Harvard Law, and he hadn’t heard the story. “Old girlfriend?”
“No,” Brett said, definitive.
“She was in our undergrad and MBA programs,” Alana explained. “She’s so smart and just as stubborn as Brett, so you know they zeroed in on each other. They rivaled each other to be top of the class in every course. They competed for the best grades and for awards, but despite all the fighting and scornful looks, they hooked up all the time. I don’t quite know how it happened, though.”
Brett sighed. He knew that Alana and Rebecca had been friends, but he didn’t realize that she’d been privy to all of the dirty details. Well, not all of them, apparently—she didn’t know how it’d all started. One late night in the library before finals, they’d fought over the last private study room in the business library. But the fight hadn’t lasted long before they’d agreed to share it. It had been only a matter of time before he had her lying on the small table of a study room, with his palm over her mouth to keep her from screaming out into the silence of the library, visible to anyone who walked by through the small window in the door.
From then on, they’d still challenged each other, in class and outside, but they couldn’t stop themselves from giving in to their desires and enjoying private moments in public and semipublic spaces around campus. And that had gone on throughout their MBA program until she’d gone off to New York. “It doesn’t matter how it happened.”
“Okay, then how is she going to react when she sees the takeover bid on her desk on Monday morning?” Alana asked.
Brett didn’t want to admit to his friends how much seeing her again had affected him, and how much his own reaction had surprised him. He had to fight the discombobulation that had come from being near her tonight, and even though he could still smell her on his fingers, taste her kiss on his lips, he’d immediately shifted back into business mode. Survival mode. When it came to work, he could overcome any feelings to focus on the business. He’d done it before, and he was goddamn sure he could do it again.
But he smiled, trying to appear more confident in his resolve than he felt. “It doesn’t matter how she reacts,” he told her. “It’s business.”