Chapter Fourteen
Tabitha
Spencer wants to surprise me. I love that. He went through a bizarre ordeal to ensure I would be caught off guard, nearly getting himself twisted into a pretzel under his desk in the process. Now I”m curious about his next move. ”Your goal was to surprise me? Well, mission accomplished, Spence. But I don”t get the point of this exercise.”
”I”ve hidden something for you in this room. See if you can find it.”
I aim a look of mock skepticism at him. ”I hope the gift isn”t Duane huddled behind the toilet.”
”No, he went home.”
”Then tell me what this gift is.”
”Who said it was a gift? I mentioned a surprise.” He drops onto his chair. ”Let me guide you with clues.”
”Hmm.” I set my hands on my hips, tapping my fingers. ”I”m ready. Give me a clue.”
”The first hint is nearby. But you can start with this: It”s the wrong month.”
I feel my brows wrinkle. Then my lips pucker. I shuffle up to his desk and squint down at the calendar. ”You said it”s the wrong month. Of course. You folded over this month”s page to show the next one instead.” I return the calendar to the correct month, then glance at him sideways. ”You”ve put a sticky note on today”s date. It says ”kiss the executive.” Not very subtle, are you, Spence?”
He shrugs. ”Do you want your surprise or not?”
”You know I do. The suspense is killing me.”
”Then sit down, Tabitha.” He pats my lap. ”Right here, please.”
I can”t resist an offer like that. So, I settle my bottom on his thigh and crook my finger. ”Gimme, gimme.”
Spencer reaches into his pants pocket, seeming to fist his hand around an object hidden there, then pulls his hand free. ”Close your eyes, please.”
I obey his command without hesitating.
And he slips a cool, slender strand around my neck. ”You can look now.”
I open my eyes, tipping my head down to study the item that”s draped around my throat. And I laugh. ”This is the most adorable thing I”ve ever seen. A cat necklace? I love it.”
”I wasn”t sure if you would appreciate the gift since you don”t like your nickname. After all, the necklace shows a tabby cat and a black cat embracing.”
”When did you buy this?”
”Over the weekend. It isn”t made of gold or precious gems. It”s cheap and tacky and it reminded me of you.”
I smack a quick, hard kiss on his mouth. ”I love it. And I know you weren”t insulting me when you called this necklace cheap and tacky.”
”You like unusual things. I hoped this bit of inexpensive jewelry would make you smile.”
”Oh, Spence, you always make me smile.” I finger the pendant. ”If I”m the tabby, that means you”re the black cat. But your hair is brown.”
He slings his arms around my waist to tug me closer. ”I prefer to think of that cat as dark brown.”
”I don”t care what color it is. I love my surprise.”
”We should probably get to work. It”s after eight o”clock.”
”One thing first.” I straddle his lap, which makes my dress ride up, and wrap myself around him. He slings his arms around me too, and a second later, our lips collide. Our tongues tangle. If we don”t stop soon, we”ll wind up screwing on his desk again, so I peel my lips away from his. ”Mm, I love kissing you, Spence. But it”s time to get to work, like you said.”
I slide off his lap and tug my dress down.
Spencer watches while I sashay out of his office.
As I shut the door, I blow him a kiss.
Maybe we are acting like teenagers, but I don”t care. We both spend all day doing serious work, so we deserve a little silly downtime now and then. And I honestly do love my necklace. It”s cheap, tacky, and adorable. But best of all, Spencer gave it to me.
Half an hour later, Spencer emerges from his office and stops at my desk. ”It”s time to make a trip to the human resources office.”
”Are you firing me already?”
”No, love. We need to declare our personal relationship in a formal document.”
”Oh. I forgot all about that.”
We head down to the fifth floor and sign our declarations. It feels almost like we”ve gotten married, or at least engaged. But it”s nothing as romantic as that. Afterward, we go back to work as usual.
The rest of the week flashes by like a tornado. I don”t have much time to think about what Spencer”s charming and sweet gift might mean for our relationship. We”re swamped with attending meetings and making preparations for meetings. I swear most of any company”s business involves talking about the business.
On Friday afternoon at five o”clock sharp, Spencer emerges from his office. ”Tabitha, it”s time to go home.”
”I know. I was just about to shut down my computer.”
He comes around behind my desk, resting his hip on the corner. ”Tonight, I need to make love to you.”
”Oh.” Every hair on my body just snapped to attention, and my skin feels sensitized, as if the barest touch might set me off. And it”s all because a sexy British man told me he wants to make love to me. ”Will there be dinner first? Or is this wham, bam, see you on Monday?”
He leans toward me and cups my face in one hand. ”I said I need to make love to you. That means it will be slow, sensual, and the prelude to a weekend of eating and shagging.”
That sounds incredible. Of course I want to spend the weekend with him. But my mouth seems to have gotten glued shut. I can”t manage to speak the words ”please take me home with you right this minute.”
He brushes his lips over mine. ”Just nod your head if you want to come with me to my apartment.”
I nod.
Spencer snatches up my raincoat, stands up, and holds the coat open while I rise and slide my arms into the sleeves. There had been a chance of rain all day, but we only got sprinkles now and then. Tonight, thunderstorms are expected. That kind of weather always turns me on. Maybe it”s the vibrations from the thunder. I”m hardly an expert on weather.
I finally notice that Spencer had propped an umbrella up on the other side of my desk before he walked around to my side. He thinks of everything.
All the way down to the parking level, I can”t stop thinking about what slow, sensual sex with Spencer might be like. He”s playful, I know that. He can be commanding too. He”s always respectful and opens doors for every woman he meets. But with me, he”s become protective. The umbrella he brought and the way he helped me get my raincoat on attest to that instinct.
Spencer opens the car door for me and offers me his hand as I climb into the backseat. Then he sits down beside me, draping one arm across the seat behind me.
”Where are we going tonight, Spencer?” Duane asks.
”Call me Spence. Tabitha and I are going to my apartment.” He looks at me. ”Or would you rather we go to your place?”
”I”m sure your apartment is much bigger and nicer. Let”s go there.”
”You heard the lady, Duane.”
”Sure thing, Spence.”
I snuggle up to Spencer while Duane drives out of the parking garage and heads toward the other side of town. That”s where Spencer”s apartment is. A few minutes into our journey, I have to speak up. ”You”re awfully quiet tonight, Spence. Nervous about, um, our plans for the evening?”
”Not at all.” He leans in until his lips graze my ear. Then he whispers, ”I don”t care to share our plans with Duane. I also can”t think coherently when your luscious body is plastered to mine, and I”m plotting all the things I”d like to do to you tonight.”
”If you can”t manage a coherent thought, how can you plot anything?”
He smiles and nuzzles my ear. ”Exactly.”
Despite the fact his response made no sense, I let it go. Don”t give a damn about sense right now. I want hot sex with my boss. For this one evening, though, he”s not my boss. We signed those HR papers, anyway, so nobody can complain about me dating the chief risk analyst.
Since I”ll be spending the night at Spencer”s place, Duane drops us off at the curb rather than pulling into the parking garage. We walk through the main doors just as Duane drives away. Spencer keeps his arm around my shoulders. The doorman barely notices us, and the security guard in the lobby pays little attention to us either. We ride the elevator all the way to the sixth floor with no one else around to complain about the fact we”re kissing the whole time.
When we walk into his apartment, I start to remove my raincoat. But I don”t get the chance.
Spencer backs me up to the door and seals his mouth over mine.
I relax into the kiss, slackening my jaw, all but begging him to kiss me senseless. The second he snakes his tongue around mine, I sag against the door and moan. He takes it slow, as if he wants to explore every millimeter of my lips and mouth, gliding his tongue deftly and sensually, arousing me even more with every passing second. I”m getting slick between my thighs. A sensuous heat ripples through me, awakening my sex, ensuring I can”t move even if I wanted to, though I have no desire to move away from this man.
Spencer shifts one hand down to my ass.
I latch my leg around his thigh.
He fists his other hand in my hair.
And I push a hand between our bodies to palm his growing erection. When I start rubbing my hand up and down, he gasps into my mouth and grabs that hand to stop me.
”Not yet, love. I don”t want to go off prematurely.”
”Good point. Sorry.”
We fuse our lips again. But this time, we blindly struggle to remove our coats while still devouring each other”s mouths. Two thwop sounds assure me our coats are now lying on the floor. I kick off my shoes and frantically work to unbutton his shirt, while he fights with my dress. The zipper is in back, and it can”t be easy to undo that while blind and desperately turned on.
I”ve never been this hot for a man. Not ever.
My dress falls to the floor with a thwump.
Spencer peels his body away from me, just a few inches, but still can”t give up my mouth. He kicks his legs, and I hear two more noises, thwacks that suggest his shoes have flown across the room. I kick mine away. Wearing only a bra and panties, I grasp the button on his slacks and try to undo it, but I wind up yanking the button off, making it clatter across the floor.
Another thwump tells me that Spencer just shed his pants.
Finally, he breaks the kiss. Breathing hard, he rakes his gaze over me from head to toe. His erection is full-blown now, the big bulge unmistakable. ”I want to remove your bra and knickers.”
”Go ahead, it”s fine by me.”
He grasps the middle of my bra and yanks.