Chapter Five
I t took only that one kiss for Angie to confirm that her first embrace with Lucius hadn’t been a fluke. That if anything, the explosive desire was more intense, searing them in endless heat. She couldn’t get enough, didn’t think she’d ever get enough. Not of Lucius. Not of his touch, his unique taste.
His mouth moved on hers, a blatant taking, and she moaned in pleasure. He offered endless possibilities on every front. The chance to be a mother. To be a wife. To form a relationship with the man she loved. And maybe, just maybe, she’d be able to explore the sexual side of her nature without fear of rejection.
Her blouse fell open beneath his busy hands and he cupped her breast, stroking the pad of his thumb across the sensitive tip. She shuddered, helpless beneath the onslaught of sensations. How could she have thought, even for one tiny minute, that she could give herself like this to Gabe Moretti. The mere idea now seemed obscene. It was Lucius she wanted. Lucius she loved.
Lucius who might reject her the way Ryan had.
She stiffened in his arms, fighting her way free of the embrace. Lucius released her without protest, but something in his expression warned that next time he wouldn’t show such consideration, let alone restraint. “We need to finish our discussion,” she informed him. “Nothing is settled and until it is…” She trailed off, heat washing into her face.
“No sex?”
She turned on him. “You’re still my boss, Lucius. If we can’t come to terms, that isn’t going to change. I can’t… We can’t…” She spun away, struggling to refasten her bra, fumbling with buttons and buttonholes. Why was it that every time she was with him, she came undone? Literally. “If we make love and you end up with someone else as your fiancée/wife it would be more than awkward and you know it. It would mean I’d have to find another job.” Of course, she’d have to do that, anyway, one of the primary nails in the coffin she was busily building.
“Why?”
Was he kidding? She turned, glared. “Don’t be an ass, Lucius. You know damn well why. Do you really expect to take me to bed one night and then marry another woman the next?” Apparently Ryan had thought so. “And I’m supposed to be okay with that? Well, news flash, ace. It’s not okay with me. And it shouldn’t be okay with you.”
Something in his reaction acknowledged that her words had impacted harder than she’d anticipated. Temper flared, though she didn’t think it was aimed at her. “Angie—”
But she wasn’t finished. “You know, I was considering having an affair with Gabe Moretti.” She had no idea where the words came from, just that anger drove her toward recklessness. “Maybe I should have a quick fling with him before starting this new job you’re offering. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind. After all, that wouldn’t be the least awkward, would it? You wouldn’t want to end all association with him. With me. Would you, Lucius?”
Dead silence followed and she shivered, belatedly closing her mouth. Oh, damn. Slowly, Lucius rose, more intimidating than she’d ever seen him. His eyes burned with hellfire, his expression carved into taut, furious lines. Tension and blatant male aggression poured off him. Unable to help herself, she stumbled backward a step. Her gaze shot toward the door, desperate for escape. But it was far too late for that. Far too late to do anything other than watch him come for her, striding across the room like vengeance incarnate.
“I swear to God, if you go anywhere near Gabe Moretti—”
Cornered, she fought back. “You’ll what? Fire me? Why, Lucius? Oh, wait. It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with what’s happening between us. With how you’d feel if I took another man into my bed when we were in the middle of ‘negotiating’—” she encased the word in air quotes “—a sexual relationship. If our negotiation falls apart, what is it to you if I sleep with someone else?”
He swept her comments aside as though they were of little to no consequence. “Why were you considering an affair with him?” he demanded.
“Oh, that is so typical of a man,” she stormed at him in response. “Ignore my points because the only thing that matters is marking your territory. Well, I’m not a fire hydrant, Lucius. So, back off.”
To her amazement, he did. Just a single step. But at least it gave her a tiny amount of breathing space. “When did you come to this decision?” he asked. “And why?”
“My reasons are private. As to when…” She gave it to him straight, even though the truth would only escalate the situation. “I decided the night you kissed me.”
His back teeth snapped together and the muscle along his jaw twitched. “Why?”
“You’re my boss. I can’t have an affair with my boss.”
“He’s my competitor.”
“On occasion. On rare occasions. Shortly, he’ll be a business associate.” She struggled to remain calm and poised. “And news flash… He’s not my competitor. He’s not my business associate. And most important of all, he’s not my boss.”
“It’s a conflict of interest.”
“You’re grasping at straws. I know how to keep my mouth shut when it comes to business matters. You know it, too, or you’d never have hired me or kept me as your PA these past eighteen months. I would never give Gabe Moretti inside information and you damn well know it.”
He spun around and paced the full length of his office before turning to face her again. He’d regained a modicum of his legendary control, though she could still see the fury smoldering just beneath the surface. “Why, Angie? Of all the men in the whole of Seattle, why him?”
A choice loomed before her. She could tell him the truth, humiliate herself in front of a man who was her employer—potentially her fiancé. Or she could refuse to answer and risk losing her current job, as well as the one he was offering—a position she wanted more than she could express. Tears filled her eyes and she blinked them back, refusing to allow them to fall.
But he caught her distress. His anger faded, replaced by bewildered concern. “Hell, Angie, don’t cry. I couldn’t handle it. Not from you.” When she simply shook her head, he approached. “What is it? I’m missing something here, something important. What?”
“It’s personal. Private.”
That gave him pause. She could see his brilliant mind sifting through possibilities. “Something you thought Moretti could help you with?”
She didn’t bother denying it. “Yes.”
“By having an affair?”
Her mouth compressed. “Yes.”
“Why him?” he asked again. Pure masculine frustration ripped through his words and she could hear the real question behind the one he asked. Why him and not me?
She chose her words with care. “Because we would both know the score going in. We would both understand that it’s a temporary, mutually satisfactory arrangement. Because there wouldn’t be any hard feelings or emotional fallout afterward.”
Lucius froze and his expression closed over, preventing her from reading his thoughts. He’d always been good at that. No doubt it was part of his success, part of what helped him build a billion-dollar business. “And that’s enough for you? Is that part of your reluctance to accept the position I’m offering? You don’t want anything more than a sexual relationship?”
She couldn’t answer him for fear she’d cry. No! It wasn’t what she wanted. Not at all. That’s what she wanted with Gabe, not with Lucius. But how did she explain that? How could she explain to him that she’d fallen in love with him, wanted more than anything to have a long-term personal relationship? She couldn’t. Not without revealing how she truly felt. No way would she give him that sort of power. She didn’t dare.
“I don’t see any purpose in discussing what I want or don’t want from a relationship—specifically, our relationship—until we’ve worked out an agreement,” she informed him as calmly as she could manage. “And in case you hadn’t noticed, we seem to have gotten off point on some of the terms currently under debate.”
He cocked an eyebrow, his mouth taking on a sardonic slant. “I’m impressed, Colter. You’ve managed to reduce sex to a business addendum.” He noted her blush, clearly took grim satisfaction in it. “It’s called a kiss. Something I found very much on point considering the nature of the position I’m offering.”
Is that all it had been to him? A kiss? How was it possible that one kiss from Lucius Devlin managed to leave her totally undone, while his control remained absolute? It wasn’t fair. Even worse, Lucius was a brilliant man. Eventually, he’d cop to how she felt, which made her more determined than ever to hold him at arm’s length until they’d hammered out the details.
She lifted her chin and shot him a cool look. “Kissing me isn’t on point until we reach an agreement.” When he would have argued, she held up her hand. “How many times have you told me that a deal isn’t consummated until the contracts are signed, sealed and delivered?”
“And the money transfers hands.”
She tried to conceal how much his comment hurt. “You know what I mean.”
“No consummating until it’s a done deal?” he asked drily.
Relief flooded through her at the reluctant acceptance his question signaled. “Exactly.”
He crossed the room and retrieved the drink he’d set aside when they’d started the conversation. It seemed hours ago, yet couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes. His gaze remained fixed on her in a manner she’d seen all too often. He was considering the problem from all its various angles. Right now she was an opponent in a business negotiation, which put her at a severe disadvantage. He proved it by approaching like a predator stalking its prey.
“Point One,” he began. “Even if you refuse the job offer, I still don’t want you seeing Moretti.”
“That isn’t your decision and you know it.” She held up her hand before he could argue. “Stop it, Lucius. You cannot dictate my personal relationships and that’s final.”
“Yet,” he corrected, “that changes the minute I put my ring on your finger.”
“Just remember that goes both ways,” she shot right back.
The minute he absorbed the comment, he stiffened. “I wouldn’t cheat on you.”
She didn’t respond, simply fixed him with an unflinching gaze.
“Son of a bitch,” he said softly. “Are you talking about my affair with Lisa?”
No way was she touching that one. “Not at all. I’m talking about a crucial deal breaker to the job currently under discussion.”
He simply shook his head. “Somehow I think we’re talking about Lisa. Just in case, let’s address it so there aren’t any lingering questions.” His expression remained empty, still giving nothing away, making it impossible to get a read on him. “Lisa and I had an affair. After it ran its course she turned to my best friend, Geoff. When that relationship didn’t work out, when it ended badly, as well, she dropped by my apartment. She claimed her affair with Geoff had been a terrible mistake. I compounded that mistake by giving her a shoulder to cry on. As I’m sure you can guess, one thing led to another. It wasn’t planned. It was one night and only one night. In retrospect, it wasn’t one of my smarter decisions. In fact, it was damn stupid.”
“I wasn’t asking.” Didn’t even want to hear. She got that Lisa was irresistible to men. That she had something that Angie couldn’t possess if she lived to be a hundred. That she was the type of woman Lucius wanted, a type Angie would never be. Could never be. And it brought home the brutal fact that he would never love her. She fought to keep her voice level, when all she wanted was to weep. “To be honest, I’d rather not know.”
“If we’re putting our cards on the table, you deserve to know. Now you do.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Any cards you’d care to throw on the pile?”
Oh, God. She struggled to conceal her alarm behind a calm facade. “Not right now, thanks.”
“That suggests there are cards.”
“We all have cards. Right now, mine remain facedown.”
“Fair enough.” He gestured to the sitting area. “Are you interested in continuing our negotiation, or should we walk away from the table and resume our former business relationship?”
That wasn’t possible, not after their latest kiss. He had to suspect as much. But if she continued with their negotiation it would be with eyes wide open, aware he’d never feel for her what she felt for him. If she couldn’t accept that, better she walk away. Now. There existed an outside possibility they could return their working relationship to status quo. Well, almost status quo. This second kiss would make it far more difficult to find their way back to familiar ground. That didn’t change her options. Retreat…or gamble everything. Not that there was any real question.
She summoned a cool smile. “I’d like to hear the rest of your offer and see if we can’t come to terms. I think we’ve resolved your first point. Shall we simply agree to a fidelity clause?”
He approached again, invading her personal space, watching her helpless reaction to his proximity. “That would be acceptable.”
“What’s your next point?” she asked, fighting for equanimity.
He took a long swallow of his drink before setting it aside. Hunger glimmered in the depths of his inky gaze, a clear warning of what his next point would be before he even opened his mouth. “Point Two. Sex.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” she asked wryly.
“I don’t know, since it’s surprising the hell out of me.” He tugged at one of the loose curls dangling along her neck. “I assume we’re also in agreement there? If it makes you feel any better, I’ll even agree not to expect anything more from you than a purely physical relationship. Will that satisfy you?”
No! “Yes. That would satisfy me.” She wanted to weep at how neatly she’d been boxed in, or rather, out of a personal relationship with Lucius, though she didn’t have a single doubt he was delighted by the arrangement. Sex without strings. The perfect fantasy. She stepped away from him, forcing him to release the lock of hair he’d twined around his finger. She resumed her seat in the sitting area, anything to give herself some space from the strength of his personality. She needed to think straight if she were to win any concessions in this devil’s bargain. “Assuming the trial period goes well, we’ll marry?” she asked.
“Absolutely. Point Three. I don’t want too long a trial period.” He followed her, also sat. “The Ridgeways are on the verge of suing for custody of Mikey.”
She frowned in concern. “It’s gotten that contentious?”
His mouth tightened. “I suspect they hired a private investigator who uncovered the fact that I had an affair with Lisa. They informed me they’re concerned that between Lisa’s bloodline, as they refer to it, and my own questionable judgment, Mikey’s welfare is at risk.”
“Yes, they said something similar to me,” she murmured. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
Their gazes met in perfect accord. “Nor do I.”
“What happens to our arrangement if guardianship is awarded to the Ridgeways?”
“I believe that’s Point Four. If I can’t get it reversed, our marriage will be dissolved. In addition to your salary, you’ll also be suitably compensated for your time and for the interruption to your career.” He mentioned an amount that stunned her.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Lucius,” she protested. “That’s…that’s obscene.”
He chuckled, the sound low and warm and strangely intimate. “It’s not obscene. A trifle extravagant, but I suspect you’re worth it.”
“I’m not sure I like the sound of that.”
His brows snapped together. “I’m not paying you for sex, if that’s what you’re thinking. I’m paying you for precisely what I said. Your time and the hit this job will mean to a career that’s a vital part of who you are as a person. The money will allow you to pursue a course of study after the dissolution of our marriage so you can once again enter the workforce with marketable skills. Or you can sit at home and twiddle your thumbs, for all I care. If you invest the funds intelligently, you’ll be in a position to choose what you want to do with your life from that point onward, while living quite comfortably for the rest of your life.”
She edged away from the topic. “And if you’re awarded permanent custody of Mikey? What happens to our marriage?”
“Fair warning, I fully expect to be awarded custody, which brings us to Point Five. I’ll require a guarantee that you’ll remain with me for at least six years. Mikey will be of school age by then, which puts him at a less vulnerable age. After that, we can renegotiate terms.”
“Very businesslike,” she observed. Painfully businesslike. “Very cut and dried.”
“Would you prefer me to lie?” A hint of irritation swept through the question. “To wrap everything up in a pretty tissue of fantasy tied together with fancy ribbons of pretense? Will that make our agreement more palatable?”
“No. Of course I don’t want that.”
She wanted a pretty truth tied together with ribbons of love. But he wasn’t offering that and she was an utter fool if she thought that by agreeing to this devil’s bargain he might one day come to love her. Determination filled her. But she could try. She would definitely try.
“So, what’s left to discuss?” he asked.
She did a swift, mental run-through of their points so far. “Point Six? Is that where we left off?”
“Sounds about right.”
“Let’s label this one ‘My Responsibilities.’ I want to clarify what you expect of me,” she said and proceeded to tick the points off on her fingers. “I will have the full-time responsibility of Mikey except when family obligations require a part-time nanny.” She used the word family with deliberation, relieved when he nodded his acceptance. Might as well start the way she intended to proceed. “You’d like me to handle all aspects of entertaining friends or clients, but you agree to my hiring a housekeeper to handle the cooking and cleaning. And you want me to decorate your Lake Washington house. You do realize that I’ll also require the assistance of a design firm in order to make the necessary improvements to your home?”
“ Our home. I have no problem with that.”
She warmed at his correction. “And anything we’ve forgotten to cover we can negotiate during our trial period?”
“Absolutely.” He tilted his head to one side. “Do we have an agreement, Ms. Colter?”
She took a quick, steadying breath and took a reckless leap off the proverbial cliff. “We do, Mr. Devlin.”
“In that case, there’s nothing stopping us from doing this…” She realized his intentions a split second before he repeated the same maneuver he’d used earlier, and yanked her out of her chair and into his arms. “You have no idea how badly I want to see you naked again.”
Finally.
Lucius would finally have Angie back in his arms. And in very short order he’d have her naked and in his bed. He could see the shock and protest building in her stunning—and stunned—aquamarine eyes. But he could also see the desire. The delicious memory of their almost tumble shyly peeking around the sensible restraint she normally possessed. About damn time.
“The Ridgeways asked to have Mikey again this weekend because it would have been Geoff’s birthday. I felt the most diplomatic option was to agree. Since I’m through with my appointments for the day, we can slip upstairs to my apartment and consummate the deal with no one being the wiser.”
“Lucius, I’m not sure—”
He couldn’t contain himself another minute. He captured her bottom lip between his teeth and tugged. She rewarded him with a soft, hungry groan, one that instantly had him turning hard as a rock. His tongue flirted with hers, then sank into unbearable sweetness while his fingers plunged into the weighty thickness of her hair. He combed it loose, the silken curls tumbling free around her shoulders. The color never ceased to amaze him, an endless spectrum of browns from tawny to bronze.
Lucius managed to gather Angie up and urge her toward the private elevator that accessed the penthouse suite. The doors opened and they practically fell into the car. He fumbled for his access card, all the while deepening the kiss. He had no idea how he managed. Sheer desperation, no doubt. The instant the doors parted, accessing the penthouse foyer, Lucius swept Angie into his arms and carried her directly toward his bedroom. And then he did what he’d been wanting to do ever since he’d last kissed her.
Piece by piece, he stripped her. First, her suit jacket. Then her skirt. Her blouse was next, allowing him to see her as he’d dreamed endlessly of seeing her. She stood before him in nothing but garter and stockings—color him surprised—and panties and bra, the set a lovely shade of bronze that somehow mated with the streaks running through her hair and made her appear like some sort of bewitching autumnal goddess. Slender as a willow, he could only look…and want. Only, this time he would also possess.
He shrugged off his own jacket, ripped at the tie constricting his neck. She tackled the buttons of his shirt while he unbuckled, unzipped and ripped away clothing with impressive speed. And then time stilled. Late-afternoon sun slipped through the window of his bedroom and splashed across the room to where Angie stood, painting her in muted gold.
Once again he saw it, a painful and utterly feminine vulnerability that went to the very core of her. It brought out his protective instincts, the strength of them catching him by surprise. When had that happened? Why had it happened? What was it about her, a woman far stronger in some regards than Lisa, and yet far more fragile in other ways, that caused the most primal of masculine instincts to well up inside of him? She didn’t want that from him. She’d made that perfectly clear. She wanted a sexual relationship and no more.
Well, he could give that to her. He was only too happy to give it to her.
But that didn’t change how she affected him, the quiet urge to treat her tenderly, with a passion that transcended a mere sexual encounter. How was that possible? Unable to resist, he reached for a lock of her hair and wound it around his fist, drawing her to him. He inhaled her, drew in her essence and allowed it to brand him inside and out, to mark him in some way that would make her forevermore a part of him.
“How could I have worked with you for a full year and a half and never seen?” he murmured.
How could he not have seen who she was at her very essence? How beautiful she was, when stripped of her camouflage? The sheer force of woman that made her eclipse every other woman he’d ever been with. Made them seem…less. Made them seem shallow and incomplete, a meal that no longer satisfied. How could he not have seen the veils upon veils of her that tempted and taunted and urged him to strip them away, one by one, until he knew her as intimately as she knew herself?
“You’re seeing me now,” she whispered. “I just don’t know if you’re seeing the real me.”
He nudged her chin upward and kissed her, slowly this time. Gently. She was like the first sip of a rare and delicate wine, an explosion of subtle flavor that blended into an intoxicating whole. “You taste real.” He released the clasp of her bra and watched it slide away. “You look real.”
She swallowed and he saw a hint of nerves. “Touch me and see if I feel real.”
Hardly daring to breathe, he cupped her breast, kissed each tip, watched as the nipples tightened and pearled for him. “Oh, you feel real. Very real.”
He crouched in front of her, taking his time to release her stockings and slide them down endlessly long, lean legs. They were gorgeous legs, fine-boned and supple, with strong, sweeping lines. He traced the silken length with his fingertips, from narrow ankle to inner thigh. She shuddered beneath the stroke and he heard the breathless moan explode from her. It only took a moment to unfasten the garter and discard it, leaving one final barrier between them.
Instead of a blue triangle like before, this one was bronze, just a tissue-thin silk and lace bastion of modesty, begging to be breached. He pressed his mouth to the center, inhaling her, warmed by her, drinking in the perfume of her desire. Gentle, gentle, gentle, he eased the elastic from her hips and bared her. Wanted her. Needed her. Would do anything to have her.
And then he ravished her, sending her over before she could draw breath to cry out. Her back bowed in reaction at the same instant her knees buckled and he tipped her backward as she flew apart, so the silk duvet cushioned her fall. He stood for a moment, looking his fill at the woman he intended to make his.
Her lashes fluttered against her cheeks and then she lifted her gaze so it clashed with his. He didn’t think he’d ever seen anything more glorious than those eyes, drenched in wary shadow and a painful want. They overwhelmed a face edged with elegance and a classic, ageless beauty. Understated, like her delicate bone structure and graceful feminine curves, a shimmer of pale light against the darkness of the duvet. She was a flawless diamond of incalculable value, eclipsed by gemstones who appeared larger and flashier, but were infinitely less precious.
And she was his.
He took her mouth in a nibbling bite. Sank inward. He couldn’t get enough of her, didn’t think he’d ever get enough. Angie shifted beneath him, her arms stroking upward along his arms, then cupping his face.
“Lucius…”
Just his name, that one word a whisper that slipped from deep inside her to deep inside him. Her fingers slid into his hair, anchoring him, and she lifted her leg, gliding it along the length of his own leg. He shuddered beneath the slow, relentless stroke. She bewitched him. Stole sense and sensibility. All he wanted was to lose himself in her, to make her his in every sense of the word. But a small alarm sounded in the back of his head, growing progressively louder with each moment that passed, until the reason finally penetrated.
“Protection.” The word escaped between kisses. “Give me a minute…”
“Hurry.” The word was both demand and plea. “Please, hurry.”
Lucius reached to one side, fumbled in the drawer of the bedside nightstand. Groped for the packet. Swore when it took three tries. Swore again when it defied his attempts to open. She dared to laugh, scooping the wrapper from his hands and somehow getting it open. And then her cool, skillful hands were on him, rolling along the length of him as she sheathed him, threatening both sanity and control.
“Better?” Angie asked.
“Hell, no.” He palmed her lovely bottom and settled between her parted legs. In one swift stroke he mated them, a joining of such utter perfection it took him a moment to speak. “There, that’s better. Infinitely better. Unimaginably better.”
With a sigh of pure pleasure, she gathered him up, wrapping those endless legs around him and twining her arms tight, tight, tight. And then she moved with him, revealing a charm and style he’d never experienced with another, blending male and female in a dance of perfect synchronicity. Mated. Branded. Joined. The words became new to him, the definition honed to a meaning that would forevermore include her at its heart. And through that mating, that branding, that joining, he absorbed her. She became part of him, melded into the very fiber of his being.
Lucius didn’t know if she understood what had happened, this claiming. Couldn’t do more than state it in a single word of utter possession. “Mine.”
“Always.”
It was enough. For now it would do. His hands swept over her, a burning desire to explore every part of her, to know it quickly and thoroughly. But he couldn’t. It wasn’t possible. He couldn’t hold back long enough and even as he took her, satisfied his initial hunger, he knew it would return. That it couldn’t be sated, not tonight. Not anytime soon. One helping would never satisfy him…or her. She called to him, her voice an irresistible siren’s song that made him deaf to any and all women—those who came before and those shadows of tomorrow who would never be. On some level he sensed himself incapable of hearing them the way he heard her. Could never respond to them the way he responded to her.
And with that knowledge, he let go. Let go of a lifetime of restraints and caution. Sliced through the Gordian knot of his control. For the first time, he gave himself fully to a woman, holding nothing back. Gave himself up to the fury and passion. He could tell the instant she let go, as well. Heard her cry of surrender, felt the shift as they climbed. Felt that breathless moment of ecstasy as they hovered at the peak. Felt the explosive climax. And then they tumbled into the wild and uncharted.
But he wasn’t alone there. He had Angie.