Caramel Kisses (12 page)

“For sexual harassment,” Alex crooned with a pout. Too bad her contrition was lost by the hint of
bitch
behind her eyes.

He chuckled and waved her off, then scooted down comfortably in the chair as if he were at home watching the game. He hoped she bought his easygoing attitude because something whispered to him that the whole situation, as innocent as it appeared, was three kinds of wrong. “We’re both adults here, Alexandra, so no worries.”

“Alex, please.”

“Sure, Alex.
If complimenting someone or asking them to join you for a meal constitutes sexual harassment, then our society really needs help.”

Of course that isn’t what the wench had meant at all, but there was no way in hell Drew was going there. “But if you don’t mind, I could really use some help. From what I hear you’re the best person for this kind of stuff.”

“Sure. What can I do for you?” Her expression brightened.
Genuinely brightened.
Interesting.

“I’m working the legalese for Ms. Cannes’ division. And I’m trying to familiarize myself with how things are done. I know that after the contracts are signed for the division, they’re sent to your department for expedition. I figured I’d start with the small electronics account with Sony. It seems straight forward enough to jump in with both feet, especially since it’s already a done deal and I can’t possibly screw it up by messing with the contract language.”

The smile slid off her face and was replaced by a grim showing of teeth.
Brrr
.
The chill was back along with…did the woman blanch? Drew could swear her skin color leached out of her face just now. Her expression was obviously glued on, but a flicker of concern reflected in those chipped emerald eyes of hers, he was sure of it.

“Sure. What questions can I answer for you?”

“Well, since you’re the project manager for this account, can you help me understand the part of the contract that determines the payment schedule?”

She rose with a crisp, “Of course,” then walked around the desk and sat down, pulling a cool curtain over her demeanor.
So
not
good.

Chapter Nine

Fuming in her office a few hours later,
Sydni
tried to bury her head in some new contracts, a few mundane phone calls to clients and lots of dull paperwork. It wasn’t working. Not even close.

With a hand at the small of her back, she slowly pressed into the tense muscles and rose from her desk. Standing at the floor to ceiling windows, she watched the sunset off in the distance, loving the purples and pinks reflected on the walls of her office. The automatic blinds began to close, slowly blocking out the first twinkling of stars in the clear twilight sky.
Must be six o’clock.

In the middle of packing her briefcase and laptop her office door opened and closed with a sharp snap.
Sydni
didn’t look up. No need. She’d recognize the heady scent of this particular visitor anywhere. Drew. She’d known it was him the second he walked in.
Had actually expected him sooner.
What had he and Alex been doing all this time? No, wait. Him
doing
Alex is what she wanted, wasn’t it?

“Want to tell me what the hell that shit was about at lunch?”

A scowl, laid from one end of his brow to the other, accompanied the near snarl wrapped around his words. She pulled a deep breath into suddenly depleted lungs and sighed.

Did she want to try to explain?
“No, not really.”

“Too
fuckin
’ bad, baby.
I want to know what’s going on in that beautiful, though no doubt misguided, brain of yours. Why did you bail on me and leave me with that…that woman?” He motioned furiously toward the door. His motions so sharp, even the sleeve of his exquisitely cut suit jacket snapped unhappily as he moved with irritated motions.

And the man was changing colors. If he got anymore pissed off he’d turn cherry-colored and blow a major gasket. In as soothing a voice as she could muster,
Sydni
spoke quietly and with conviction.
Sort of.

“She’s perfect for you, Drew. Alex is settled in her career, smart, beautiful,
perky
.” There was that “P” word again.
“And closer to your age.”

“Damn it,
Sydni
, if I wanted someone my age I’d have them. And yes, I said
them
. Why the hell do we have to keep having this conversation?”

“Look, Drew, I really don’t want to do this with you right now,” she sighed with annoyance, her expression hard and determined to steer him clear of her. After she got rid of him, she’d dive into some work. That always took her mind off of things. Pitifully, it was all she really knew how to do, and do well.
Relationships?
Not so much.

“Well that’s too damn bad because we’re going home and we’re going to deal with this. Then I plan to fuck you until you realize that I don’t want anyone in my bed but you. Hell, I can’t handle more than you.”

“I have plans this evening. I’m not going home right now,” she lied. Hell, all she’d done before meeting Drew was work, go home and work some more. Now after having
him
in her life, even for just a few weeks, the last thing she wanted was to totter around that big house alone…working.

“Then I guess I’ll just have to follow you all over town until you end up at home. If I have to stay on your ass until you walk it through your door,
Sydni
, I have no problem with that.”

Storm clouds remained in his wake after he yanked open her office door and carefully closed it behind him. Well, she could say this for the man—he had class enough to keep their argument private rather than slamming the heavy wood door and letting the whole division know.

Damn it, there must be something else to do other than drive around pretending to be out on the town. Maybe she’d straighten up her office? After a brief look around that idea lost appeal considering
Tsubaki
-san kept the place spic and span. Perhaps she’d have dinner out at that little jazz scene she enjoyed all too seldom? Sigh. No denying the fact that she simply didn’t want to be in her own little one-some. She flipped her cell phone open, started to call
Charli
,
then
changed her mind. Sister or not,
Charli
would never understand what she’d been trying to do during that moment of—oh yes, she could admit it now—insanity when she’d pretty much abandoned Drew to the possibility of landing in Alex’s arms.

Abandoned.
God, that
sounded so dramatic. Besides, pushing him toward
Mizz
Voltier
had seemed like a perfectly great idea at the time. But after seeing the disappointment and indignant anger in Drew’s beautiful grays, her grand idea now seemed plain old stupid.

Second guessing herself had never been a habit. But now it seemed as if every action, every idea, every thought was all wrapped up around a man she shouldn’t want. The problem was the reasons she shouldn’t want him were beginning to make less and less sense the more time they spent together.

Sydni
took the elevator down to the second floor,
then
walked across the glass and steel skyway that connected
Expedex
to its private parking lot across the street. Row upon row of empty spaces left no doubt there was nobody else in the lot this late. The sound of her heels click-clicking against the pavement seemed to come from a million echo-filled miles away. Regardless of what Drew had said in her office, he’d obviously changed his mind about tailing her home. Could she blame him if he’d decided to say to hell with her and her emotional roller coasting? Wanting him one day,
then
tossing him at some other woman the next? Distracted, and practically running into one of the lampposts,
Sydni
made her way to her car. There was a hole in her stomach forty feet deep, and not from hunger, though she’d thrown away most of her lunch. What was she supposed to do now that she’d hurt Drew so deeply?

What a mess.

Briefcase tossed into the passenger seat of her car,
Sydni
climbed in, locked the door, fastened her seat belt and sat studying how the fluorescent lights shone over her car. On yet another forlorn sigh, her eyes slid closed and the marble-sculptured face of the man who had her tied up in knots appeared, then morphed from mad, to happy, to horny and back again. Suddenly her mind veered to the last time he’d slept over at her house. Wait, it had just been last night. Yet already her body missed him so much it felt like forever since he’d touched her, caressed and licked every inch of her skin. Just the thought of his talented hands working magic across her sensitive ass sent a warming pool of need to gather at the entrance to her suddenly glowing pussy.

The phone rang. Her heart jetted up into her throat.

“This is
Sydni
,” she stammered, quickly masking her shock with
a calm
“you’re bothering me” timbre—the one she used to use on
Charli
when she was younger. Didn’t work worth a damn now, but it still sounded good and solid.

“Move it,
Sydni
. I only have so much patience and you are pushing it, baby.”

She looked up and there he was. He’d pulled his car right up to hers and she hadn’t even noticed.
No, you were too busy imagining his pole of a cock.

“Tantrums don’t suit you, Drew,” she blew out on a loud breath,
then
snapped the phone shut, amazed at how gorgeous the man was even when he was pissed off. Peeling out of her parking space,
Sydni
was glad he couldn’t see her biting her lip trying not to chuckle.

And true to his word, the man stayed on her ass all the way to her house.

In fact, instead of parking on the street like he usually did, when the garage door went up Drew pulled inside, right into the empty space next to her. She cut the engine, let the door down and slowly got out of the car. Drew was there to take her hand and help her out.

He reached for the briefcase in her hand. It was a sweet gesture for him to carry her things inside. Allowing him to take the case from her suddenly nerveless fingers, she lowered her head. His words had her snapping it back up.

“You won’t need this,
Syd
. No working tonight, except with me.” Then he tossed the thing into the back seat, slammed the car door, and pulled her in his wake.

“Look, Drew, I’m not one for being manhandled, damn it. Let go of my hand, or slow the hell down.”

He paused in the hallway leading from the garage door into the house, looked down at her feet and growled. The heat in his gaze flared,
then
ratcheted up a notch to flat out blazing.

“Damn, I’d forgotten you were wearing those fuck-me pumps. When I saw you put them on this morning I wanted to drag you back to bed and fuck you silly with nothing on but those sexy-as-hell shoes.”

“What the hell does that have to do with what I just said?” She scowled for all she was worth, but his one-sided “I’m
gonna
wear you out” grin had her knees practically knocking together to keep her cunt from twitching. Damn man.

“As for manhandling, I don’t believe it in.” He leaned down and gently removed her shoes. “But tonight you’re going to submit to me,
Sydni
.”

On a step back, she said, “I don’t do domination, thank you.”

“You mean you
didn’t
do domination. Tonight, you will.”

He took her hand and they were once again flying through the house, straight to the bedroom.

“Drew, what the hell?”

“No talking.”

“No talk…? What?”

This time he didn’t answer, but stripped her where she stood until there was nothing between them but her goose bumped skin. When he was done, the man simply pointed to the bed. And expected her to do it?

Puh
.
Right.

Sydni
fixed her mouth to tell him to go to hell, but one glance at the thunderclouds roiling in his stormy gray eyes and she snapped her mouth shut instead. Her feet obviously had no qualms with obeying Drew considering they took off for the bed without a second thought, leaving her mind to stand there in front of him with a defiant glare. Not bothering to pull the covers back,
Sydni
climbed onto the bed and lay there shivering with anticipation. Knowing he would never harm her, her body hummed with excitement and wonder at what he would do next.

“Scoot to the middle,
Syd
, and close your eyes.”

With an indignant and completely
non
-heartfelt huff, she complied by rolling over twice and resting on her back, eyes closed, muttering under her breath. Eyebrows pulled down into a frown as she concentrated on the sounds around her. The slight squeak—she should really get that fixed—of the closet door opening answered some of her questions.
But not all.
What could Drew possibly be looking for amongst her clothes? A few moments later the bed shifted under his weight. Heat from his body told her he was very close. The breath against her cheek said he was closer than she’d first thought.

“No, don’t open your eyes.”

“Fine,” she growled.
Gorgeous bastard.

“Hands above your head.”

Soft, wispy fabric sluiced over the flesh of her wrist and wrapped securely around it. Bare skin brushed against her forearm as he reached for the other hand. Something scalding hot and hard as metal thumped her shoulder. Oh-ho-ho! He’d obviously stripped while rummaging through her things ‘
cause
Drew was now naked. His cock was a living flame and, from the swipe of moisture smeared on her shoulder, gloriously aroused.

Hmmm, what would that
cock feel
like nuzzled between her breasts while Drew pushed the mounds together and tugged on her nipples? Immediately the traitorous little nubbins stood at attention, drawn into tight little points.
All from a thought?