Declan strode into the restaurant and his eyes immediately found her. Brandi. Instantly his cock was hard and his body hummed with the promise of what might happen after dinner. He wasn’t a Neanderthal; they would have dinner first and discuss the terms of their fake relationship then, if she was amenable, they would seal the deal with a long night of fucking. He couldn’t wait to get her in his arms again, to slide into her wet heat again, to taste her again. He’d had a raging hard-on all afternoon after their meeting and he was desperate for some relief, but not just anyone would do. He needed Brandi.

He walked up behind her and bent low to place a soft kiss on her exposed shoulder. She shivered under his touch and he smiled against her golden skin.

“You came,” he murmured.

“Not yet,” she said, and he laughed as he stood and moved around to the chair opposite her.

He sat and looked at her across the candlelit table with its sparkling crystal glasses and shiny silver flatware. She looked gorgeous, but he had yet to see her look anything but. Even rumpled and messy lying in his bed, she looked like a million bucks.

A waiter appeared at his elbow and poured the wine he had ordered earlier. He tasted it without taking his eyes off her and nodded to the sommelier who then filled both glasses and moved away quietly. Brandi took a sip.

“Impressive,” she said. “Do they know what you like or did you call ahead?”

He smiled at her as he toyed with the stem of his wine glass. “Both,” he said. “I did call ahead, but they know me.”

“You’re their boss.”

He inclined his head in acknowledgement.

“You know you don’t have to try to impress me,” she said, taking another sip of her wine.

“On the contrary,” he said, “I feel like it’s all I want to do.”

She smiled and her cheeks went just a little bit pink. He liked that. A lot.

“So tell me more about this co-worker. He works at your company?”

She shook her head. “He’s a doctor at the children’s hospital where I volunteer.”

His surprise must have shown on his face and she coloured further. “I have a little side business,” she explained. “I’m a children’s entertainer.”

“Like kids’ parties?”

She nodded. “And I spend some time at the children’s hospital with the sick kids trying to brighten their days a little.”

“Smart, beautiful and kind,” he murmured. The woman surprised him every time he saw her. It had been a while since any woman had done that.

“It’s the least I can do,” she said. “I’ve had a privileged upbringing, not just financially but with my health as well. I had one stint in hospital with appendicitis and I learned that not everyone has it as good as I do.” She bit her lip like she was trying to stop herself from saying something.

“What?” he asked gently. “What is it?”

“There’s this little girl, Caitlyn. She’s twelve and she’s dying. There’s nothing more the doctors can do. I…” she stopped and dropped her head. He thought he saw tears glistening in her eyes. “I just want to make whatever time she has left as fun and special as possible.”

He reached across the table and laid his hand on hers. He had never met anyone with a heart as big as hers. She was a marvel and rather than bringing the mood down between them, her words had actually made him want her more. Sure, she was sexy as hell, but there was so much more to her and he wanted to get to know all of it. He wanted to peel back the layers and get to know the real Brandi, not the one that everyone saw on the outside.

“Sorry,” she said with a sniffle, raising her head to look at him with wet eyes. “I only found out the other day and I’m still processing.”

“Hey,” he said reaching over to wipe a tear from under her lashes. “There is nothing to be sorry about.”

She smiled a wobbly smile at him and he felt his heart skip just a little bit.

A waiter approached and broke the moment. He turned his head to listen to the waiter’s spiel and gave her a moment to regain her composure. They ordered their meals and then he turned back to her. She smiled shyly at him.

“So this doctor,” he said and she rolled her eyes. When she had told him that some guy had been hassling her at work he’d felt an irrational desire to punch something, preferably the guy that was harassing her. He’d never felt anything like it before. He didn’t get possessive or protective or any of those things about the women he dated. But with Brandi, the thought of someone putting their hands on her had him going crazy.

“He hasn’t done anything inappropriate,” she said, “But he just won’t take no for an answer. Every time I’m at the hospital he seeks me out. I even changed my shifts so I could avoid him, but he found out and then changed his too.”

“You should report him,” Declan said, his voice serious. “That is borderline stalking behaviour.”

She shook her head. “I couldn’t do that. He’s a good doctor and the kids love him. Once he believes that I’m engaged he’ll back off.”

Declan didn’t believe it for a minute. The guy sounded like he was obsessed with her.

“It’s fine,” she said reaching across the table to pat his hand. “I’ve dealt with guys like him before. He just needs to know that there’s no chance that I’ll go out with him and he’ll back off.”

“This kind of thing happens a lot?” he asked.

She shrugged. “This is going to sound really arrogant, but I know what I look like. For some reason men think because I look the way I do, it gives them a right to expect things from me. I try to disabuse them of the notion whenever I can, but some just don’t take no for an answer.”

He didn’t like the way she said it as if it was just a part of life that she had to accept without complaint. She was gorgeous with a body that could make a man weep, but that was no excuse for arseholes to treat her like a piece of meat. She was more than her gloriously long legs and her tight arse and her delectable rack. She was more than the tumble of blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes and lush lips that begged for kissing. He had gotten just a glimpse of what was underneath the packaging, a small glance at the incredible brain and the compassion and the sweet girl that was hidden inside and he was more drawn to that then he had been the first time he looked at her. Oh, he still wanted her. He still wanted to taste every inch of her and feel the slide of sweaty skin against sweaty skin, but he also wanted to spend hours talking to her, getting to know her, finding out what made her tick.

His world tilted just a bit at the realisation. He’d never felt like that about any woman he dated. It was intriguing and scary as hell.

Brandi lifted the gooey chocolate cake to her mouth and closed her eyes as the taste of it exploded on her tongue. She heard a soft moan and her eyes popped open to see Declan looking at her like he wanted to eat her. Her skin prickled with anticipation. There was no denying the attraction between them, no denying that she wanted him. There was something to be said for really great sex… he’d satisfied her in ways that no one ever had and that feeling of satisfaction had lasted days. Now sitting across from him, it had waned and she needed another hit.

She swallowed the cake and took a drink of wine. “About the hospital benefit,” she said and Declan nodded slowly. “We’ll need to arrive together.”

“I’ll pick you up,” he said, his eyes not straying from her mouth.

She licked her lip and watched as his pupils dilated further.

“I usually sit with the other—”

“My friends and I have a table. You’ll sit with us.”

“Okay,” she said. “And you will introduce me to your mother.”

He sighed and turned his head away, his jaw clenching. “You need to be prepared,” he said. “She is going to be a mean bitch to you. My mother has certain ideas about who I am supposed to marry. I’m pretty sure she has been scouting the available women since they were babies.”

“She won’t like me?”

Declan looked at her and his eyes softened. “She won’t like the idea of you. She won’t like that I chose you. She may even have a woman with her with the intention of stealing me away from you.”

Brandi’s eyes widened and she felt a weird mix of indignation that his mother wouldn’t even try to like her and sadness for Declan and what it must have been like for him to grow up in a family like that.

“And Dr. Shane is not going to like me,” he said, reaching over to take her hand in his. He turned it over and traced the lines of her palm, softly caressing the inside of her wrist with his thumb.

“No,” she breathed, his touch sending tingles through her body. “He will try to discredit you and prove that our relationship isn’t real.”

Declan lifted her hand to his lips and placed a soft kiss in the middle of her palm. “Then we will have to make sure he believes that you and I are a done deal.”

He turned her hand over and placed a soft kiss on each knuckle. She was mesmerised by him, by the way he touched her. Her body yearned for him. She felt herself being pulled towards him like it was imperative that they be close.

“Is there a particular way you’d like me to act in front of your mother?” she asked, fighting the lust-filled fugue that his touch was drawing her into. It was hard to string words together, and it was even harder to think clearly when he ran his lips across the skin on the back of her hand.

“You don’t need to pretend to be anything other than who you are,” he murmured against her wrist, and she couldn’t suppress the tremor that racked her body. It wasn’t just his touch this time, but his words. It wasn’t often that she was with someone who just wanted her to be herself. Most men wanted her to be their fantasy. She was quickly learning that Declan was not like other men.

A sudden thought managed to surface in her brain. “You do know who my family is, don’t you?” she asked. Her words may have been slightly slurred, but she wasn’t drunk, not on the wine anyway.

“Not a clue,” he said, going back to caressing her hand and wrist with his lips and just the very tip of his tongue. She clenched her thighs and felt the rush of warmth. He was killing her.

She took a breath and closed her eyes, trying to pick up the thread of the conversation. “My father is Colin Calloway.” She stopped and waited but he gave no reaction to the name. “My grandfather is Henry Calloway.”

Declan paused and lifted his eyes to her, not breaking the contact with her hand. “Calloway Tech?” he asked, his lips moving against her skin. She nodded slowly. A smile broke across his face and his eyes sparkled with mischief.

“Is that going to be a problem?” she asked.

“Not at all,” he said, resuming his soft kisses across her hand. “In fact, it’s kind of perfect.”

He turned her hand over again and sunk his teeth slowly into the fleshy part of her palm below her thumb. She gripped the table and closed her eyes, biting down on her lip to stop the moan that threatened to fall from her mouth.

“Let’s get out of here,” Declan said, standing without waiting for her reply.

She let him help her to her feet and then he tucked her under his arm and steered her out of the restaurant. She didn’t know how long they had been sitting there, but it seemed they were the last ones in the dining room. She didn’t protest when Declan steered her towards the lifts. She had come to this dinner knowing - hoping - that they would end up in his bed. She couldn’t deny how much she wanted him and it seemed he felt the same.

He tugged her into the elevator and swiped his fob before pressing the top floor button. The doors swooshed closed and he backed her up against the wall of the small cube and kissed her. It was more than just a peck, more than even a hungry devouring. He kissed her with his whole body. She moaned at the feel of him pressed against her and opened eagerly to his questing tongue. She could taste the wine and a hint of chocolate from where she had let him taste her dessert. But under all that was the taste of him, the taste that had been haunting her since the first time they’d kissed. She was desperate for more. Her rational brain told her to resist, but she was too far gone. His body called to hers, that was a given, but there was something else too. Spending the evening with him had been delightfully enjoyable. He was smart and witty with an easy charm and an air about him that made her relax. He didn’t take things too seriously and he seemed genuinely interested in her. It was surprising and intoxicating. Being around him lit her up. She knew that whatever was between them wouldn’t last, Declan was a man who didn’t do commitment, but while it lasted she wanted to experience everything with him. So she threw caution to the wind and just hoped that when all was said and done, he wouldn’t have ruined her for other men.

He loved the way she tasted. He loved the way her body fit against his. He loved the softness of her against the hardness of him.

They made it into his suite and through to his bedroom. He needed her. He needed to feel her soft skin against his. There was no slow seduction or gentle peeling away of the clothes. His need for her, their need for each other, was more demanding. Clothes were removed, although he wasn’t quite sure how. He may have even lost some of his shirt buttons along the way. He didn’t care. What he cared about was how it felt to have all that golden, soft skin under his hands, under his body.

He managed to get a condom on and then he was poised at her entrance, suspended above her, held up by his arms. He looked down at her and felt a wave of… he couldn’t describe it. It was a longing that he had never known, or maybe he had. Maybe it was that yearning for home and hearth that he had often felt as a kid when he’d been shipped off to boarding school. Being with Brandi felt like coming home.

He pushed the disturbing thought away as he pushed into her. She was already wet for him and she mewled appreciatively as he seated himself fully inside her. He paused and she opened her eyes to look at him.

“You’re not going to skip out on me tonight,” he said, his voice husky. “There will be no sneaking out in the middle of the night while I’m asleep.”

“I have to work in the morning—”

“So do I,” he replied, cutting her off, “but I want the chance to kiss you good morning. I want to shower with you, eat breakfast with you and then kiss you goodbye.”

He didn’t know where the words were coming from. This was not what he normally wanted from the women who shared his bed. He liked no-strings, no-promises.

She searched his eyes and he was far too enamoured with her to hide anything from her. They were joined intimately and he could feel every emotion as it flitted across her face.

“Okay,” she said and he dipped his head to kiss her.

She circled her hips reminding him of where they were and what they were doing. It was too easy for him to get lost in her. Right at this minute, he didn’t care. He didn’t care that she was slipping neatly under his skin like she somehow belonged there. He didn’t care that his carefully guarded heart was opening like a flower to her. He didn’t even care that he was thinking in fucking purple prose and being all romantic and shit. All he cared about was making her feel good.

He slid slowly out of her until just the tip of his cock was still inside her wet channel.

She moaned. “Stop teasing me.”

He smiled as he slid back in and his let his eyes close as her internal muscles gripped him, pulling him deeper. Her hands reached for him, threading through his hair as she pulled him down to kiss her. He lost himself in the kiss as he continued the slow, easy glide of their bodies against one another.

“You feel so good,” she whispered against his lips. “I want you so deep inside me.”

He pushed into her, pulling her leg up over his hip so he could go deep. He felt the soft press of her bottom against his sac as he tried to go deeper. She canted her hips toward him, drawing him in further and they both moaned. He withdrew just a little and then pushed back in and she cried out. He loved the sounds she made and he wanted more. He pulled out and turned her on her side. He straddled one of her thighs as he pulled the other one over his hip and slid back into her. She reflexively curled her leg around his waist as he pumped into her. The angle was different and he managed to go deep. She lifted her arms to hold on to the headboard and he groaned at the picture she made. He lowered himself to suck one of her tight nipples into his mouth and she cried out again.

“Louder,” he murmured against her skin. “I want you to scream for me Brandi.”

He felt the rush of wetness as his words further excited her. He bit down on the soft underside of her breast and she called out his name as her fingers found his hair and tugged. She wasn’t forcing him away, but pulling him closer. His hand found the curve of her arse and he tapped it firmly, but not hard enough to hurt. It was just a slight sting to heighten the pleasure and she responded beautifully. He felt her clench around his cock as she screamed her approval. God he loved how responsive she was. His other hand found where they were joined and he thumbed her clit. She keened loudly and her body stiffened. He kept the pressure on while he pumped in and out of her and then she cried out his name as her world exploded. He watched in fascination as she came on his cock and the sight was more than he could handle. Two more pumps of his hips and he was following her over. His climax roared through him and he may even have blacked out for a second with the intensity of it.

He slumped onto the bed next to her and gathered her in his arms. He found her lips and kissed them, needing the intimacy that only a kiss could give. She wound her arms around him and clung to him and it fed something inside him. The hollowness that had been his constant companion seemed not so hollow tonight. He didn’t question it, he just accepted it and drank in the closeness of Brandi, relishing the feel of her against him. There would be time later to over-analyse why he felt the way he did when he was around her. For tonight, he would just enjoy it.