His Challenging Lover (11 page)

Hell, maybe he should just let her move her office to another floor! She’d tried to do that several times in the past but he’d simply vetoed her arrangement, configuring the office assignments so she was still on his floor. He smiled as he stared up at the ceiling of his darkened bedroom, thinking of the time when he’d arranged it so that her office was right next to his. He chuckled in the darkness. She’d only let that set up last for a few months before she finally created a reason to move her office back down the hallway from him.

Across the city, Autumn was laying in her own bed in the exact same position. She’d finished crying about the way Xander had almost run out of her townhouse earlier tonight. The final insult had been when his tires had squealed on his way out of her driveway.

The man had been desperate to get away from her! How pathetic was she that he needed to speed away like that?

She wiped her cheek angrily, irritated that she was still crying. No more, she told herself firmly. She was finished trying to figure this out. She had to figure out how to get Xander out of her heart. They’d had one fabulous, incredible and amazing night together. Even his kiss this afternoon had made her toes curl with desire. But enough was enough. She wanted kids and a husband while Xander had a daily, front row seat watching people tear each other apart.

At this point in his life, he probably didn’t believe in marriage. And she didn’t blame him. He’d seen the worst and had avoided the state for so long despite numerous women trying to get him to the altar. She had no chance to succeed where so many others had tried and failed.

Xander was probably right to avoid both commitment and matrimony.

That didn’t help her heartache a whole lot though.

Sniffing into the darkness, she knew what she had to do. But even the thought of leaving The Thorpe Group made her whole body ache with sadness. She’d worked so hard to get things to their current state of efficiency. She didn’t know if she had the energy to start over somewhere else.

But what was the alternative? She couldn’t stay so that only left the option of leaving. It was better to just get out of the situation rather than die a slow death by watching him every day.

Thursday night, Xander was working late in his office. He was tired, irritated by a lack of progress on certain cases, his brothers were looking at him strangely and he hadn’t seen Autumn all day today. He realized at this moment how much just the sight of her helped him get through the day. When she passed by his office or he saw her in the kitchen or a conference room, it made him feel good. He might not be able to hold her in his arms, but her smile warmed his heart.

Xander tossed the paper to the side of his desk, rubbing his forehead wearily. He was irritated with a client he’d met with earlier in the day who was demanding everything from her husband. The husband had supported his client for the past twenty years, giving her just about anything she wanted. The woman had a huge house on Lake Shore Drive, spent her days shopping and eating in the best restaurants with her friends, throwing elaborate parties, not many of which were for her husband’s business connections. Hell, she walked around with a five thousand dollar purse on her wrist and two thousand dollar shoes.

Her husband had cheated, which Xander didn’t condone, but now the woman wanted everything in the settlement. But it wasn’t in Xander’s nature to be unfair. In this case, he suspected that the woman was either having an affair, or didn’t even care that her husband had cheated on her. In his opinion, she was only using this as an excuse to divorce him and take him for everything.

He was leaning back in his chair, trying to figure out how to convince his client to leave her husband with at least one set of clothes and a few bucks in his bank account when he heard a noise. It was late enough that the office should be cleared out. There were always the superstar lawyers that were trying to impress by staying later than the boss, but this was going too far, he thought. Everyone needed balance in their lives and staying in the office working until ten o’clock at night was ridiculous.

Getting up, he followed the sounds, finally locating the late nighter in the copy room. And in this particular case, he didn’t mind the person working late. Not one little bit.

Leaning against the metal door frame of the copy room, he watched with fascination as Autumn walked barefoot from the copier to the work counter, collating charts and graphs. He had no idea what case she was working on or what system she was going to try and convince the four of them to buy into next. All he cared about was watching her, fascinated by her cute toes that curled up against her calf as she tried to relax the muscles in her legs.

She was shorter than he’d thought. It shouldn’t have been such a surprise, since she always wore three inch heels to give everyone a false sense of her actual height. But without heels, he suspected she wouldn’t even come up to his shoulder.

She was singing something to herself and it occurred to him that he didn’t even know what kind of music she preferred. It sounded a bit like a country song he’d heard recently, but he wouldn’t bet on it. Autumn might know how to run an office like a well-oiled machine, but she couldn’t carry a tune to save her soul.

“What are you doing here so late at night?” he asked and enjoyed her startled expression. He wished he was closer to her so he could have grabbed her to steady her. He’d use just about any excuse to touch her. Hell, he’d use almost any excuse just to see her. The woman had been avoiding him lately.

“What?” Autumn asked, her eyes searching frantically for someone else to magically appear behind him. Please don’t let them be alone, she thought to herself.

He stepped into the room, watching her back up slightly as he approached. “I asked what you were doing here,” he repeated. He glanced down at the graphs and smiled. “Are those the results from the survey?” he asked. She’d done an employee survey that he’d initially thought was ridiculous but as soon as she’d explained her reasoning, he’d agreed that it was an important project. That hadn’t stopped him from arguing with her. He’d done so only so he could walk into her office and start the confrontation over again after the meetings.

Autumn squared her shoulders and tried to hide the results from Xander. “Yes, as a matter of fact, it is the results. I know you are opposed to silly things like employee morale and trying to ensure that good employees stay with the firm, but I know there are many things we can do to improve the way we do things here, to help people want to stay besides simply giving them more money.”

Xander chuckled, loving the way she defended her ideas so passionately. “I agree with you,” he said and moved even closer.

Autumn held her breath, leaning back against the work table and barely able to grasp the meaning of his words. “You do?” she asked, feeling like the air had been knocked out of her lungs.

“I do. And I’m very grateful to you for bringing the idea to us, as well as ensuring that the project was put out to all the employees in such a professional and thoughtful manner.”

Autumn blinked, completely confused now. “I thought you didn’t believe in wasting time and resources on employee morale surveys,” she said softly.

“That was then,” he lied. “This is now.” And he moved closer. He watched her carefully, waiting for some sort of sign. He’d seen it that day in the conference room and he’d acted on it. He hadn’t gotten any signals from her that afternoon in her backyard, but maybe he hadn’t been paying attention well enough.

He was paying attention now!

When her mouth softened, he moved closer. When he saw her eyes drop to his mouth, he shifted so that his arms were braced behind her on the wall. He wasn’t touching her in any way, but when her head tilted back, he couldn’t resist leaning his head down and touching those soft, full lips. And when he felt her sweet breath on his mouth, he couldn’t stop himself from deepening the kiss.

Autumn couldn’t believe how badly she wanted Xander to kiss her. No matter how many times she told herself to avoid this man, when he came close to her, she couldn’t banish this need. Damn him! Why wasn’t he kissing her? What did a woman have to do to get him to kiss her?

Unable to stop the reckless need down deep inside of her, she lifted her hands, her palms flattening against his chest then sliding upwards. That seemed to be the only signal he needed because his arms wrapped around her, almost crushing her as he lifted her against his body.

“Damn you feel good,” he said through gritted teeth as he lifted her up and slid her back onto the table behind her. “And you look adorable without your shoes on,” he told her, his hands sliding down her hips, then back up and underneath her tight skirt, bringing the material higher.

“Xander, we can’t…” she started to say, but then his hand touched the bare skin at the top of her thigh high stocking and she gasped, unable to speak. Her mouth dropped open, her eyes closed and her head rolled backwards while her hands balanced her weight behind her so she could lift her leg up higher, giving him better access.

“Tell me you want me,” he commanded her, his fingers fluttering along her skin, his eyes fascinated by the expression of bliss on her face and his body was already hard and ready to plunge into her heat. He’d wanted her so badly ever since that one night. He’d pushed it out of his mind, thinking it had been a fluke. But then the kiss in the conference room…ah, he’d never forget her response.

Now she wasn’t going to get out of it. He wouldn’t allow her to deny what they felt for each other. Just the look on her face told him what he wanted to know, but he wanted her to tell him in words. He wanted to hear her say it.

“What do you want?” he coaxed, his fingers discovering the edge of her lace underwear. “Tell me,” he commanded.

His other hand slowly worked the buttons on her silk blouse, leisurely revealing the nude colored lace holding her perfect breasts in place. Just for him, he thought. The peaks were already hard, already calling to him. He bent over her and kissed her neck, nibbling on her collar bone while his fingers down lower teased her hips and her breasts.

Autumn thought she might just go up in flames. With his lips and hands teasing her, she was so primed to climax she just…. “To the right,” she whimpered.

His dratted hand moved to the left and she bit her lip as her hips shifted that way as well. Arching her back so that his fingers would claim more of her breast, she shook her head as the feelings drove her almost insane with need. “Please Xander!” she inhaled, her hips lifting, needing his fingers just slightly over to the right.

“Tell me you want me,” he commanded again, nibbling on her earlobe.

“We can’t,” she sighed and shook her head back and forth.

“We can and we are. As soon as you say the words,” he whispered in her ear.

In frustration, she grabbed his wrist, intending to move his hand where she so desperately needed it but he chuckled and pulled his hand away. Since he was much stronger than she was, there was nothing she could do. “I want you!” she gasped out, needing him so badly. “I need you inside me right now!” she finally said, her eyes open with anger, or passion, shining through her irises.

Xander swallowed hard, his body throbbing with need now. She was right where he wanted her and she’d actually said the words. And those words freed him, gave him all the permission he needed.

“Take off your underwear,” he told her almost harshly. When she didn’t move fast enough, he ripped them off for her. He opened several buttons on his shirt then took her hands and splayed her fingers over his chest. “Touch me,” he told her while he grabbed something out of his back pocket and quickly adjusted his clothing.

With rough hands, he pushed her skirt up around her hips and her silk blouse down off of her shoulders. When that wasn’t enough, he almost ripped her bra down so her breasts were freed to his hungry eyes. He bent her back over his arm, holding her in place so his mouth could devour her breasts. He wasn’t gentle, his mouth covering her nipple and sucking hard, causing her to scream out and her hips to shift, needing his fingers back where they had been. Xander didn’t disappoint. With one hand holding her in place for his mouth, his other hand moved lower, his fingers sliding into that heat that had been tempting him for the past several minutes.

“You’re so wet for me,” he growled. His fingers came out of her and he heard her whimper once again but her hips weren’t still. They were seeking, her whole body arched in preparation for his invasion.

“Open your eyes, Autumn,” he told her. When she wasn’t fast enough, he yelled at her again. “Now!”

When she followed his command, he held her eyes while he pushed into her. Gently at first, but as she wiggled against him, adjusting her body to absorb his whole length, when he was fully embedded inside of her, he held her eyes while he pushed into her. He wasn’t gentle now. He needed her too painfully and the way she was pressing against him was driving him more crazy.

He put her hands on his shoulders then dropped his hands down to her hips, holding her in place while he pounded himself into her, shifting to give her as much pleasure as possible and watching her eyes the whole time, just to make sure he wasn’t hurting her.

“Now, Autumn,” he coaxed, pressing himself tighter and he held on to that last, tiny thread of control so that she could experience every pulsating second of pleasure possible. He loved the way her body throbbed around her as her orgasm swamped over her, her eyes closed and her body arched, her legs gripping him hard and she cried out with her ecstasy. When he couldn’t hold back any longer, his own climax washed over him and he thought he’d rather die than ever leave this moment with Autumn wrapped around him more tightly than he’d ever thought possible.

She had no concept of time or how long they’d been here. She felt like she was floating on a cloud of happiness. Autumn sighed cheerfully, her fingers drifting down over Xander’s muscular shoulder to his chest…then lower. She laughed when he growled and grabbed her hand.

“You want another round?” he asked and bit her neck.

Autumn couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her and she tried to move away, but since they were still intimately connected and he was much, much stronger than she was, he held her in place.

But then reality started to come back and her mind began to question why something was hard against her back. Looking around, she gasped as she noticed the copier and all the equipment around her.

“Oh no!” she groaned and started pushing against his broad, muscular shoulders, trying not to let her fingertips touch him. If that happened, she wasn’t sure she would have the ability to resist the temptation to touch him further.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, moving away slightly and helping her sit up.

“We had sex in the copy room!” she whispered frantically, trying to push her skirt down and button her blouse at the same time. She had absolutely no idea where her underwear was! How embarrassing.

Dressing would have been difficult to begin with but her bra was all out of place as well and that added a third layer of complexity.

Xander looked down at her as she tried to dress, adjusting his own clothing while he chuckled at her frantic movements. “Why are you whispering?” he teased, taking over the task of fixing her bra. But she only smacked his hands away when he started taking it off of her more than he was trying to put it back on.

“I’m whispering because I don’t want anyone to hear us if they are still in the office! Do you know how horrible it would be if we were caught having sex in the copy room?” she hissed.

Xander’s eyes widened with understanding at her reasoning. “Honey, if anyone were still here, they would have heard you a few minutes ago. You definitely weren’t quiet then.”

She blushed at the memory and glanced at him, surprised that he was already hard and ready for another go. “Please don’t tell me that turns you on,” she sighed as she finally got her clothes back in order. Or somewhat in order.

He laughed as he slid his tie off of his neck. She’d tossed it behind his shoulder during their lovemaking but he didn’t think he needed it any longer. “Are you kidding me?” he asked, astonished that she would even question how turned on he was. It was pretty evident. “Nearly everything about you turns me on.”