Love Me Or Lose Me (10 page)

“You’re right.” Her soft tone made him wonder if he’d hurt her feelings.

They managed to make it out of the closet and to the elevator in silence. He did his best to ignore the way she clutched her coat around her breasts. Knowing they were practically bare was driving him insane. She pressed the button for the parking garage.

The doors barely slid closed before he spoke. “Sarah?”

“Yeah.” Her eyes stayed on the floor, which for some reason pissed him off.

He moved up behind her, gently laying his hands on her shoulders. Eddie did his best to ignore the way she stiffened under his touch. He turned her to face him. Her eyes rose only to his chest. He put his index finger under her chin tipping it up until they stared at each other. The uncertainty in those deep brown eyes of hers really got to him. Even more than her quick, witty sense of humor. He noticed her sassy smarts came through loud clear on the phone, while she was more reserved in person. Eddie wondered what it was going to take to bring that side of her out where everyone else could see it too.

He gave her a quick smile before saying, “I just wanted to talk about before. I didn’t mean to be so…abrupt. I just didn’t think you’d like your father catching us like that.”

“He would’ve gone off the deep end.” She returned his smile.

He hoped her returning his smile was a good sign. “You know it might not be such a bad thing to shake him up every once in a while.” Eddie waited a few seconds before adding, “It did wonders for my parents when I told them I was going to become a house builder instead of going to college.”

Her sudden burst of laughter made him feel like might actually be getting somewhere. “After dealing with him for the past six and a half years, you haven’t seen him in many social situations have you?”

He shook his head.

She laughed harder putting her hands on his chest. Her coat eased open giving him a teasing view of her ample cleavage. She caught him looking and reached for the lapels. Eddie grabbed her hands bringing them back to his chest.
Time to keep her from thinking.
He started to lower his head, but stopped short when he caught her nervous glance at the camera hanging in the corner. Eddie backed off with the knowledge he did the right thing.

They stood there staring at each other, neither of them saying a word. The chime of the bell made Sarah jump, her cheeks turning a nice shade of pink. She spun around the second the doors slid open. Eddie followed her into the garage. It was well lit, and he knew it was monitored by closed circuit cameras like the elevators. Still the garage had enough dark corners to make him worry about her being there alone. She pressed a button on her key ring, which caused a set of taillights to blink a few feet up ahead.

“Do you always park so far away?” It occurred to him she might think it was none of his business. He didn’t care he wanted to know.

Sarah gave a light shake of her head.

She needed to learn from the start that he wasn’t going to play guessing games. He raised a brow at her, inviting her to answer the question.

 “I was running late this morning. Normally I park much closer. This isn’t too bad though.”

“Why?” The question was past his lips before he could stop himself.

Between the tilt of her head and the way the corner of her mouth kicked up, it was obvious she thought it was a stupid question, yet she answered him anyway. “Because it’s safer.”

Duh.
That explained her expression. “I meant why were you running late?”

Through her laughter, she managed to say, “Of course you did.”

“Well?” Her stalling made him even more eager to have an answer.

“I overslept.” Something about the way she said it made him think there was more to it than that.

Dozens of scenarios floated through his mind. None of them were pleasant, because most of them involved her being in bed with someone else.

“Did you have good reason to stay in bed?” If not, then when he got her there, he’d make damn sure he give her one so she never wanted to get out.

“I wish.” He caught her faint whisper before she added in a louder voice, “My alarm clock didn’t go off.”

He followed her to the car, keeping the rest of his thoughts bottled up tight. They rounded the huge concrete column she’d parked beside. He wasn’t about to let her drive away without making sure she knew he wanted her. He grabbed her hand tugging her into the shadows. Her gasp was smothered beneath the pressure of his lips.

It only took a few seconds for her to stop thinking and to start kissing him back. He gave her complete control of the kiss. Her tongue touched his bottom lip timidly, and then darted away. He let her explore at her own pace. Sarah pulled back slowly ending the kiss. She stared up at him with an expression that was filled with confusion mingling with desire.

“What’s wrong?” He slid his hand up and down her back, keeping her in the moment with him.

She gave him a smile that didn’t even come close to reaching her eyes. “Nothing.”

He pulled her closer, his mouth against her ear. “Sarah, I’m only going to tell you this once.
Don’t ever lie to me.
From here on out, we’re going to be completely honest with one another.”

She nodded, all the stiffness in her body easing away, “Okay.”

He eased back, doing his best to keep his building excitement out of his voice. “Now tell me what’s wrong.”

She nibbled on her lip for a few seconds and just when he figured she wasn’t going to say anything, she said, “It wasn’t what I thought it would be.”

Yes.
Finally this could be the sign he’d been looking for. “So you’ve thought about kissing me.”

“Yes. No!” Her cheeks turned bright red, but she kept her gaze on his. “I’ve thought about you kissing me.”

“Is that what you really want?” He knew he was headed down a slippery slope, but she’d be worth every second of the ride.

He backed her against the cold concrete, bracing his hands on either side of her head. Her teeth sank into that plump pink lip again, and his dick throbbed. The things he wanted her to do with that mouth were indecent. This wasn’t going any further without her say so. He refused to be pushy, so all we could do was wait for her to make up her mind.

Sarah’s hands fisted in his shirt, jerking him towards her. “Yes, please.”

He swooped in, taking her lips with his. Her lips parted instantly, which let him slide his tongue into her mouth. The kiss was rough and full of all the built up passion he’d held back before. He was beyond being gentle. Their tongues dueled, tasting and teasing in a primitive dance. He pressed his hips against hers, wanting her to feel what she did to him.

His hands slid into her wavy brown hair. The silky tresses wrapped around his fingers so easily. She moaned, rocking her pelvis against his hard cock, which ached to be inside her.

Things had gone far enough. Eddie knew he needed to end this before he tossed up her skirt and took her right there. Sarah deserved better. More importantly, he was determined to give her better. He eased away, taking her whimpering as a sign he’d given her what she wanted.

“Better?” Eddie asked, taking her hands on the way to her car. He opened the door for her.

“Yeah.” She let him help her into the car.

“Good, give me a call when you’re ready to take the next step.” He closed the door and walked away, refusing to think about the major pitfalls in his plan.

If you enjoyed this title, you might also enjoy 8 Ways Onto The Naughty List by Rita Sawyer.

Chapter One

The office had been quiet for the past few hours, a little too quiet for Patsy in her current state of mind. She would rather have had the phone ringing even if it was just to distract her. At least her boss wasn’t there to drive her crazy, but she figured he’d be back from his meetings before she left for the day

“I can’t believe it’s been over two years since I started working here.” Patsy whined to herself as she moved the tiny little dancing Christmas tree closer to the corner of her desk.

She removed her boss’ scribbled notes from one of the files and replaced them with her neatly typed ones. When she was first hired on with the firm she was assigned to a woman, who the second she’d found out she was pregnant, promptly quit. Instead of letting Patsy go, the firm, which now consisted of two Certified Public Accountants, had reassigned her to Dexter Chapman. He was the new CPA joining the firm and the brother in-law of one of the partners. She was thrilled at first, but in hindsight, she should have known better than to agree to work for someone she had never met.

He wasn’t the type of guy she’d been led to believe she would be working for. His brother-in-law had said he was a quiet man. Quiet, and brooding, and sexy as hell was what he’d turned out to be, which was just way too intriguing. Almost six feet tall and built like a brick wall, they’d forgotten to mention he had been a wrestler in college. She’d been expecting a suit and tie, not jeans and t-shirt. Okay, so most days he wore a suit jacket and a button down dress shirt over the t-shirt. His light brown hair always seemed to be windblown, and his deep brown eyes reminded her of hot cocoa. Still, his rough and ready style had her thinking all kinds of nasty thoughts. Not that she’d ever act on them. He was her boss, after all, but her desire hadn’t waned the way she’d hoped it would. Instead, it had gotten so bad that now she was ready to admit she needed to find another job.

She needed to do it soon too, before she slipped and he found out her secret. If being Dexter’s assistant didn’t pay so well, she would have left a long time ago. So far she’d been able to keep her attraction to him hidden behind a wall of formality that at times seemed to border on disdain. It wasn’t really that hard since he always set her on edge. Not to mention the bevy of sexy, buxom blondes that had constantly paraded in and out of his office during the past few months.

Though she tried not to, Patsy couldn’t help but compare herself to them. It was her opinion that as his assistant, she should look and act professional at all times. She wore her long wavy brown hair plied into a thick braid and dark business suits, which she tried to soften by wearing pastel blouses. No one knew she defied her professional image by wearing colorful lingerie under her staid suits.

Still, even if she stripped down to nothing, she was no competition to those women. The only thing she could do was start searching for another job. She got to her feet, gathered the files in her arm and walked into Dexter’s office. Patsy dropped the stack onto his desk, smiling as they landed in a messy pile. It was such a contrast to the rest of the immaculate workspace. Normally she took pride in the way she kept things organized for him, but those days had come to an end. Resisting the urge to straighten the files, she walked out of the office. She hadn’t meant to slam the door, but the loud resounding echo made her feel better, even though no one else was around to hear it.

Over the past few weeks she always seemed to be alone, which should have made working for him easier, but it didn’t. All the bright holiday decorations she’d hung around the office did nothing to brighten her mood. The clients who had come in seemed to like the cheeriness, but if Dexter noticed, he hadn’t let on. Maybe he just figured it was part of her job title to handle these things. He could at least say thank you. As she walked back to her desk, she mentally listed all of his egotistical qualities. Grudgingly, she had to admit that the fact he was smart and had a body hot enough to melt butter overrode most of them.

She let out a groan as she dropped into her chair. Feeling a little rebellious, she slid off her functional, plain, black low-heeled pumps. It gave her the opportunity to flex her feet and admire her bright pink toenails. Not caring if any clients came in, she leaned back in her chair and propped her feet up on her desk. Then it struck her that if someone did see her like this, they might complain. Maybe he’d fire her, saving her from having to quit. She’d rather wait until after the New Year started to start sending out her resume. Job hunting around the holidays sucked, and Christmas time was the worst.