Chapter Seven #2
‘He was my cousin and, in many ways, my protector and my best friend growing up.’ Millie sighed.
‘Our parents, both sets, love attention. If there’s a camera, they want to be in the shot.
I was dragged to art galleries and show openings and premières and made to pose.
I never could, not in the flattering way they wanted me to, and the photos with me in them always bombed.
They eventually decided it was easier to leave me and Ben at home with our nanny.
My mum and his mother are twins and share everything. ’
‘That sounds ominous.’
He had no idea. ‘Ben and I had four parents, all equally demanding, equally narcissistic, equally uninterested in anything but themselves. Ben and I became a team to keep them at bay.’
‘Sounds like a nightmare,’ he commented. ‘But why keep your connection to Ben under wraps?’
A good question. How to explain? She stared at the floor.
‘Ben asked me, probably every week, to come see him race, but I was in my late teens and early twenties when his career took off, and I wasn’t particularly interested in cars.
’ She saw him wince and smiled. ‘I found every excuse to dodge a visit.’
‘Why? It’s such a dynamic, exciting place.’
It was one thing to feel insecure and another to admit it.
She looked away, looking for the answer in the view.
He, surprisingly, didn’t push her for an answer.
‘Ben was, genuinely, one of the best people I knew. I was gutted by what happened to him,’ Taz said, sounding sincere.
‘Was he the reason you joined De Rossi Racing as a press officer?’
Taz could be, occasionally, incredibly perceptive. And there was something about the way he looked right now. Less like a racing team owner or arrogant driver and just like a man who made her feel that she could open up to him.
‘Next month will be the tenth anniversary of Ben’s death.
I don’t expect you to understand, but I joined this world, his world, as a tribute to him.
’ And as a means to find, within herself, the confidant, secure woman Ben believed her to be.
‘But it’s turned out to be more complicated than I expected,’ she added, linking her hands around her knee.
‘Because of me?’ He was quiet for a few seconds. ‘Are you wanting to bail on being my fake girlfriend?’
‘Yes. But I can’t.’
‘Because of the money,’ he stated, his voice flat and his expression unreadable.
She nodded. ‘Yes, because of the money. I can’t afford to pass up the opportunity to raise a million quid for his charity. It would normally take us years to raise so much money.’
‘You’re donating the money I’m paying you to a charity?’
It was wonderful to see him caught off guard for a change. ‘I would never fake- or real-date you, or anyone, for personal gain,’ Millie told him.
‘I think you’d better explain,’ Taz told her, his voice brusque.
Millie quickly told him about her inheritance from Ben and about the charity she’d established in his name. Taz kept his eyes on her face, his expression stoic, but she knew he was taking in every word. At the end of her two-minute-long ramble, he nodded but didn’t comment.
Millie hated herself for wanting his praise. She shook off her disappointment and pushed back her shoulders. ‘Coming back to my original question… How are we going to act when we are out and about?’
He looked at her, his expression still serious. ‘How do you want me to act, Millie? It’s your call.’
‘I don’t know. That’s why I asked.’
He took her hand and linked his fingers in hers, his thumb stroking the top of her hand. ‘We’ll have to hold hands.’
When his hand swallowed hers, she felt grounded and safe. But the action itself was innocuous, so she nodded. Taz moved closer, his thigh against hers, and dropped his head to lay his lips on her temple. ‘A couple of light kisses?’
Another nod, and her eyes went to his lips, soft in contrast to his heavy stubble. His face came closer, as his hand ran down her shoulder to her hand and back up again. He swiped his lips across hers, in a kiss that was as hot as it was brief.
‘That’s as far as I will go,’ he told her. ‘In public. And in public is where our bargain ends.’
She frowned, suddenly confused. ‘You’ve lost me,’ she admitted.
‘I’m paying you to act as my girlfriend, but everything that happens privately has nothing to do with our bargain,’ he told her, his voice harsh.
‘What’s going to happen privately?’ she asked, her heart stuttering when he smiled.
‘God, you’re sweet. And a little naive.’
He wasn’t mocking her. He seemed in awe of her. He brushed the pad of his thumb over her lower lip and leaned in close so that his words brushed her lips. ‘In private, I’m going to seduce the hell out of you, Millie.’
Taz looked into her lovely face, his thumb still on her lips. He should get off this couch and go back to his room, but there was more chance of an asteroid striking this penthouse suite. He wanted Millie. It was as simple and as complicated as that. And he always got what he wanted.
And now that he knew where his million pounds would land, a massive barrier to seducing her had crashed and shattered.
He wasn’t paying her but a charity. And yes, she was still his employee, but he now felt the pendulum of power had swung back to the middle, levelling the playing field.
If they kept work and play separate, if they played by the rules—his rules—they could explore their intense attraction.
But the rules had to be explained. There was no room for misunderstandings.
‘Millie, I want you, I’m not going to deny that.
I would love to take you to my bed, strip you down and make you mine.
’ Her eyes widened, as he’d expected them to.
She clearly wasn’t used to men being direct, telling her what they wanted and how they wanted it.
But being direct was the only way he knew how to be.
‘I can’t wait to have you under me. I want to be inside you, giving you the best orgasm of your life. ’
It wasn’t a boast; he knew he was an exceptional lover. He made it a point of being good at everything, and a long time ago he’d decided that if a woman was gracious enough to let him love her, then he was obligated to make her see not only stars but also a meteor shower or two.
‘But what we do when we are naked has no bearing on you being my fake girlfriend, the money I am paying you or your work as my press or PR person. When the world goes away, you and I are equals, and there’s no power imbalance in bed.
’ There was zero fun in coercion. ‘Nothing you do or say will have any bearing on what happens in the outside world.’
He saw her swallow. ‘I want to take you to bed. But you should know that all we’ll ever be is lovers. I don’t fall in love. I won’t fall in love. I’m not interested in a relationship or commitment. The only thing that’s important to me is my team and winning a fourth championship.’
Millie touched her top lip with the tip of her tongue, and he wished she wouldn’t. He was already steel-hard, and when she made those unconsciously sexy actions, it took all he had not to lay her back against the cushions and ravage her mouth, slowly making his way down her body.
‘Uh…’
Great, he’d rendered her mute. He lifted his eyebrows and waited for her to gather her thoughts. But instead of speaking or retreating, she surprised him by sliding her cool hand around the back of his neck and lifting her mouth, a silent invitation to kiss her.
Taz obliged. Her lips on his were soft and feminine, and when his tongue slipped between her teeth, he tasted chocolate and whisky. And Millie. His tongue swirled lazily around hers.
‘This isn’t like me,’ she murmured, as she pulled away and moved onto her knees, trying to get closer to him, and lust, hot and electric, shot down his spine and straight to his groin.
He lifted his mouth from hers to respond. ‘It is when you’re with me. I need you to touch me, Millie. Everywhere.’
His words, as he intended them to, granted her permission to explore, to stop thinking and start doing.
Who’d made her question herself, made her so skittish?
Her small hands raced over his shoulders and down his back, and she slid her finger under the elasticised waistband of his shorts while she moved the other hand to cup his butt.
As he suspected, beneath her layers of doubt was a sexy, sensuous woman.
He responded by dialling up their kiss, turning it hotter, raunchier.
Fuelled by her impatience, his hand moved from her hip and moved up and under her pyjama top, massaging her breasts, his fingers exploring her already-tight nipples.
She straddled his thighs, the inside of her knees pushing into his hips and she scooted forward, rocking herself into him.
Through their clothes, her hot core connected with his erection, and need raced across her face.
Impatience roared through him, chased by desire, so he lifted Millie off him, laid her on her back and quickly stripped her sexy pyjamas off her lovely body. Taz groaned when he slid his hand between her legs, bathing his fingers with her arousal.
He lifted his eyes and looked into hers, and his heart—dammit—missed a beat. Her gaze was surprisingly fierce. ‘I know I’m naked, but I’m not ready to have sex with you.’ Her words landed, and he struggled to make sense of them.
Shit… He blinked, trying to slow down and think. ‘Okay.’
He immediately removed his hand, and she whimpered, obviously disappointed.
‘I know, I’m sorry. I just can’t…not yet.
’ She bit down on her bottom lip and looked away.
Her lovely chest rose and fell as she hauled in some air.
‘But I don’t want to stop either… So can you touch me, Taz?
And I-I’—God, even her stutter was adorable—‘and I can touch you. If you want that.’