Chapter Five
CHAPTER FIVE
ALLISONSTAREDATthe closed bathroom door. And for a moment she wished it had a lock on the outside, so she could keep him in there. Not forever...
Just long enough for her to recover. What the hell had just happened?
She wouldn’t have been surprised if security showed up at her door. She’d been screaming like a banshee. She couldn’t remember ever enjoying sex as much as she had with Trevor Sinclair.
The door opened. Unfortunately, it hadn’t taken him very long to clean up. He strode, in all his naked glory, back to the bedroom. And as he stared down at her naked body, lying limply on the tangled sheets, he groaned.
“Damn, woman.”
“Damn you,” she said. “Obviously, everything I’ve heard about your prowess was true.”
He snorted. “Prowess?”
“You have to have heard all the talk about the legendary lovers you and your partners are.”
“That’s legendary lawyers,” he said with a grin of pride.
“That, too,” she agreed. “But that’s not all you’re known for...”
He lay down next to her on the bed. Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, he rolled her up against his side.
She tensed. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she asked. “Snuggling?”
He chuckled. “You sound so appalled.”
“I am. I told you—no emotions.” There was no way in hell she was ever going to fall for a lawyer, especially one who wanted to cross over into politics.
“You’re the one who sounds emotional,” he said. “I’m just tired.”
“Then go home.”
“Why?” he asked. “When there’s a perfectly good bed right here.” He closed his eyes as if he intended to go to sleep.
And panic shot through her.
“It’s my bed,” she said.
“So this really is your room?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He lifted a lid and peered around the room. “Looks like it could belong to a vampire. Why so dark?”
“So I can sleep.”
“You have trouble with that?”
“Usually.” She suspected she would have no trouble tonight, not after all those orgasms. But she couldn’t drift off to sleep—not with him in her bed.
“Guilt?” he asked.
“What?” She was tired, too, so tired that she had no idea what the hell he was talking about.
“Do you feel guilty over some of the stuff you’ve done?” he asked.
“What stuff?”
“Some of those PR releases?” he asked. “You can be pretty brutal.”
“I’m doing my job,” she reminded him. “Usually for you or one of your partners.” Fortunately, they were not the only clients she had, though, since they’d started giving her so much less work.
He had offered her another assignment, though. One she had no desire to accept. Her only desire was for him. And despite all those orgasms, she wanted him again.
He was so damn handsome lying in the faint glow of the chandelier. His features looked sculpted from some rare wood; his hair was so thick and soft...on his head and on his chest...
His muscular chest. Every part of him was muscular, his thighs, his...
He was so big, even without an erection. But as she stared at it, it began to swell again. She jerked her gaze away and focused on his handsome face. He was staring at her, studying her with an intensity that had a strange sensation rushing through her.
This one wasn’t desire. It was fear.
“Why do you work for us?” he asked.
“Because Simon Kramer hired my firm,” she replied.
“But you admitted you don’t like lawyers,” he reminded her. “Why would you work for a law firm?”
“Because I have bills to pay,” she replied.
His brow was furrowed as if he didn’t believe what she was saying. “What bills?” he asked. “You don’t own this penthouse.”
“I own it,” she said. “It’s just not my name on the deed.”
“Do you go by another name?” he asked, and his stare intensified even more as if he knew.
Damn Edward.
What had he told Trevor besides her address?
“Do you have a long list of aliases?” he persisted.
He could actually do a deed search using the address and find out the truth, so she had no reason not to tell him. “It’s in my grandfather’s name,” she said. “In his trust...which I inherited.”
“If you sold this place, you wouldn’t have to worry about being able to pay any bills.”
She shook her head. This place had been her sanctuary for too many years. She would never give it up. “I want my business to make it on its own.”
That was important to her. So important that she would take work even from lawyers. Maybe she would have to take that other assignment he’d offered her, as well.
“I can understand that,” he said. “That’s the way my partners and I feel about the practice. We’d do anything to protect Street Legal.”
There was the strange note in his voice again, like he was aware of something she wasn’t. She narrowed her eyes and studied his face. “I didn’t know it was in danger.”
He’d just won a huge case. Of course, his partners had run into some trouble lately but not enough to do them any real harm—if they would have let her address it.
But they’d curiously kept her out of it.
Why?
He shook his head. “It’s not. There’s no threat we can’t handle.”
“But there is a threat?”
He continued to stare at her for a long moment before he blinked and chuckled. “Of course not.”
“What’s going on?” she asked. And it wasn’t the first time she’d wondered.
He had one hand on her hip, from the arm wrapped around her shoulders. Now he moved the other hand over her breasts, stroking one nipple until it peaked. “I want you again.”
She wanted to deny him, wanted to send him away because she didn’t feel safe anymore. She didn’t think he would hurt her physically. But there was something he knew—something he wasn’t sharing with her—and she worried that that could hurt her. Secrets had always done more damage in her life than the truth ever had.
That was why she felt no guilt over the press releases she’d given the media. Every time she’d thought she’d been telling the truth. It was only lately that she’d learned at least one of those times she’d been spreading other people’s lies.
“It’s late,” she said. But with the drapes drawn, she really had no idea what time it was. “You should go.”
“Why?” he asked. “You have trouble sleeping anyway.”
She would have thought that she wouldn’t anymore, at least not tonight. But he’d unnerved her.
As he continued to rub her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, he unnerved her even more. His touch affected her as she’d never been affected before.
Desire coursed through her body, heating her flesh, making her pulse quicken. He rolled onto his side, so that he stared down at her. Then he lowered his head and kissed her.
There was such intimacy in his kiss. He kissed her like he knew her. And no one really knew Allison.
She’d made certain of that.
But he kissed and touched her as if he was inside her head, as if he knew exactly what she wanted. Him.
She wanted him with an intensity she’d never felt before. That scared her, too.
That fear also excited her, making her pulse pound faster.
When he lifted his head from hers, she panted for breath, her lungs burning. He lowered his head to her chest. And he kissed his way across a breast before closing his lips around the nipple.
She arched up from the mattress as pleasure jolted her. Her body was so sensitive now to his. And he took advantage of that, stoking the desire inside her, so that there was no way she could have sent him away, not until he released the tension he’d built within her.
He did know her well—too well. How she hated feeling so vulnerable. But he made her feel other things she’d never felt before: desire and pleasure beyond her wildest dreams. He moved down her body, his hair tickling her stomach and then her mound. And he skimmed his lips across her clit.
She cried out at another jolt of pleasure.
“You are so sensitive...” he murmured as if surprised.
Maybe he’d bought her ice queen image. Unlike his legendary lover reputation, though, hers was not deserved. At least not with him.
If she’d been ice, she would have melted away from the heat of his touch, of his body sliding over hers. He moved his tongue over now, licking, teasing...
She came. She couldn’t help it. She was so sensitized to his lovemaking. But she didn’t want to be the only vulnerable one. She pushed hard to get him onto his back. Then she moved her mouth over his body, tasting and licking every inch of flesh and muscle.
He panted for breath now and squirmed against the mattress. And when she closed her mouth over his cock, he arched up as if helpless to resist her. But he was bigger than she was. So he easily lifted her away from him.
Then the sound of plastic tearing joined their pants and the pounding of their hearts. His hand shaking, he sheathed himself. Then he lifted her, guiding her to slide down on top of him.
She took him inside, deeper even than she had before. He was so big. He filled her in a way she’d never been filled before. Then his hands clutched her hips, and he began to move her.
Allison caught the rhythm and moved with him, driving them both out of their minds. He was so big, so deep, that she came easily, again and again. Her body convulsed around him.
And finally, he came, too, shouting her name.
She collapsed onto his chest and thought about letting him stay that way—in her bed, inside her...
But he moved, lifting her off so that he could return to the bathroom. That brief distance brought her to her senses. She couldn’t let him stay. She couldn’t risk doing that again. Not now.
Not when she was feeling so unsettled and vulnerable. She grabbed up his clothes. And when he stepped out of the bathroom, she thrust them into his hands. “Get dressed and get out.”
“Brrr...” He mock-shivered. “And here I was beginning to believe your reputation was not deserved.”
She’d wondered what he’d thought about that. Now she did not care. “I want you to leave.”
And she trusted that he was too much of a gentleman to argue with her. He was.
He dressed, albeit slowly, almost as if he was doing a strip tease in reverse. She bit her lip to hold in a laugh and a sigh of desire.
She wanted him again. And that shouldn’t have been possible after all the orgasms he’d given her.
She stepped into her closet and found a robe.
He uttered a sigh of regret when she sashed it around her waist. “This proposition wasn’t just for tonight,” he told her. “I want more.”
She did, too. But she wasn’t about to admit that or he might stay.
“Will I need to convince you again?” And he leaned toward her as if he was going to kiss her again.
She pressed her palm against his chest, holding him back. His heart beat hard and fast beneath her hand. “Not tonight.”
If she was smart, she wouldn’t risk it again with Trevor Sinclair. Or she might be the one developing emotions for him.
That, she definitely could not risk.
Tuesday was the day the partners usually met to discuss practice business. But since Trev had called the meeting the day before, he’d figured he could skip this one. No business was more important than finding the mole.
And now that he’d determined who it was, he needed to find the evidence to prove it. How the hell had he lost his focus so much the night before?
He closed his eyes and an image flashed through his mind of Allison McCann with her hair curling around her shoulders, clad only in that thin silk gown. Then he stripped off that gown to see all that silky pale skin beneath...
He groaned.
“Hungover?” a deep voice asked.
He opened his eyes to Miguel’s concerned face and shook his head. “No.”
“I have my hangover cure, if you need it,” the receptionist offered.
Trev smiled. He’d only had the one sip of wine, but he did feel hungover, probably because he’d gotten drunk on Allison. She’d certainly been more intoxicating than alcohol had ever been to him.
“No, I’m fine,” he assured the former gang member. “Why are you here?” he asked. His pulse quickening with excitement, he asked, “Is someone here to see me?”
Allison.
Maybe she’d missed him as much as he’d missed her the past few hours. She should have let him stay in bed with her, should have let him make love to her until they were both completely satiated.
Because he wasn’t.
He wanted her again.
Still.
Always...
No. That thought sobered him. He’d never wanted anyone always. And he never would. He wasn’t the besotted fool that his partners had become.
He wasn’t ever going to fall in love because he knew that no one—not even someone you loved—could be counted on to stick around when you needed them. So he needed to make sure he never needed anyone.
“Simon sent me to get you for the meeting,” Miguel said. “He tried calling but you must have put your phone on do not disturb.”
He glanced down at his cell. He had put it on do not disturb because he’d wanted to focus on Allison. Not just on what they’d done the night before but on what he’d learned. He knew the deed to the penthouse was in her grandfather’s trust. So he’d been able to find out who her grandfather was. Patrick McCann.
But Allison’s last name wasn’t really McCann, so he couldn’t be her paternal grandfather. Like Hillary Bellows, she must have taken her mother’s maiden name.
Why?
He needed to find out more about her. So he didn’t have time for the business meeting and he told Miguel that.
The younger man arched a brow in an exact imitation of the way that Simon always did. “But this is the usual meeting.”
Meaning that the meeting Trev had called yesterday was unusual. And it had been.
Miguel stood there, obviously waiting for an explanation. Usually Trev wouldn’t have hesitated to bring in the receptionist on what was going on, but this whole mole problem had made him even less trusting than he normally was. Not that he suspected Miguel of any wrongdoing. He’d known the kid since he had been a wrongdoer. Then Trev and the others had helped him turn his life around; he wouldn’t have turned on them.
Still, Trev hesitated.
Miguel wouldn’t betray them, but he was a man, so Trev suspected a pretty face might be able to manipulate information out of him. And Trev hadn’t seen another face as pretty as Allison’s...
And her body...
It was perfect. She was perfect.
That made her dangerous as hell—not just to Trev but to any other breathing male.
“I don’t have anything to say,” Trev said. And he meant about yesterday’s meeting.
Miguel understood because hurt flashed in his dark eyes. Then he nodded. “I’ll tell Simon that...”
“Tell him I have no new information,” he directed the receptionist.
Miguel nodded. If he suspected Trev was lying, he didn’t call him on his bullshit like Allison McCann had the night before. He just turned and walked out of the office.
Trev had some new information. But it wasn’t enough. It didn’t provide him with any clues as to why Allison had changed her name or her reason for hating lawyers so much that she would have betrayed their practice like she had.
Why was she the mole? What had she hoped to gain by ruining their reputation?
More work?
Job security?
What the hell was she after?
He wished it was him, but she’d had no problem throwing him out last night. She’d warned him that there would be no emotions involved. She hadn’t lied about that.
Why had she lied about who she was?
Allison studied her assistant as he flitted nervously around her office. Edward darted forward to place a cup of coffee on the corner of her desk. Usually she needed it after a sleepless night. But last night she had slept—eventually—only to awaken abruptly when she’d dreamed of Trevor Sinclair, of being in his arms.
She’d awakened to find him gone. Herself alone. She’d wanted to believe that what had happened between them had just been a dream. But she’d been able to smell him on her sheets, on her pillow.
She’d wanted to stay in that bed, with her face buried in that pillow. Somehow, she’d forced herself to get up and shower. She’d had to come into work because she had to do something that was long overdue.
“What the hell were you thinking?” she asked Edward.
He jumped and sloshed coffee over the rim of the cup he still held. It pooled on the corner of her desk. He hastily wiped it up. “Didn’t you want coffee?”
“I’m not talking about coffee,” she said. “I’m talking about your telling Trevor Sinclair where I live.”
“I never told him,” Edward said.
Trevor had claimed the same thing, but Allison had been certain he was lying.
“Then how the hell did he find my address?” she asked. Just as Trevor hadn’t easily fooled her, neither would Edward. “If you hadn’t talked to him?”
“He was here,” her assistant acknowledged. “He was snooping around, asking all kinds of questions about you. Of course I refused to answer anything, but before I could throw him out...”
She would have loved to see him try. She doubted Trevor would have hurt him, but there was no way Edward would have even budged the much larger man.
Edward continued, “A reporter came in trying to get a statement about another client. Sinclair said he had to use the bathroom. But when the reporter left, I found him in here, going through your things. He must have found your address on something in here.”
She glanced around and noticed a stack of household bills on the corner of her desk. They were all addressed to the service address: her penthouse. Heat rushed to her face with embarrassment over the conclusion to which she’d jumped.
“I’m sorry, Edward. I shouldn’t have assumed you told him.” She felt a flash of disappointment that he hadn’t. It would have given her the perfect excuse to fire him, which was what she’d dragged herself out of bed to do.
Edward waved off her apology. “I don’t blame you,” he said. “That man is sneaky. I’m sure he made it sound like I’d told him.”
But that was the thing: he hadn’t.
Now she wondered again who was telling the truth. Then she remembered what else Edward had claimed. “You said he was asking other things about me.”
Edward nodded. His blond hair was thinning. While he was younger than she was, he was no doubt going to be bald soon. “Yes, personal things.”
“Like what?” Who she was seeing?
“If you’ve ever been married,” Edward said. “If you’ve changed your name, if you date lawyers...” He sniffed as if the thought smelled. “As if you’d ever date him.”
Date him. No. She knew better than that.
But fuck him...
That had been incredible—so incredible that she really wanted to do it again. Soon.
Her body already ached for his. “Call him,” she told Edward. “Summon him here.”
She wished it was for sex. But this meeting wasn’t about pleasure. It was going to be all business.