One Night with the CEO (11 page)

She let go of one shoulder, slid her hand down his torso, and placed two fingers on her clit.

Mark groaned and dropped his head into the crook of her neck. “That’s so fucking hot.”

She hadn’t thought it possible, but his cock expanded within her, creating a delicious friction that matched the burn on her swollen clit.

She rubbed and rubbed while he filled her, but somewhere along the way she noticed his arms shook with the exertion of holding her up. As he gritted his teeth and rivulets of sweat trickled down his face, she worried that the orgasm would never materialize. Eventually he’d tire of it all, wouldn’t he? And then they’d fall to the ground, a heap of dissatisfaction and exhausted limbs.

He lifted his head from her shoulder and stared into her eyes. “Tell me what you’re thinking. And tell me the truth.”

“I’m thinking you must be exhausted.”

“And you can’t relax because you’re worried about it?”

“Right.”

“I can take care of that.”

With one hand, he stripped off the condom and tossed it in the waste bin. Then he hoisted her by her butt to get a better hold of her. Her ass firmly secured in his hands, he strode through the suite. She dropped her forehead onto his shoulder, her mind immediately zoning in on the way his cock pressed against her stomach. She squirmed in his arms, an unfamiliar ache settling in her belly.

When he reached the master bedroom, he set her down in front of him. Unable to anticipate his next move, Karen simply stood there—like an idiot. He cupped her face and leaned over to kiss her. A simple kiss that had a dizzying effect on her.

Still in a daze, she sensed him circle her as though she were his prey. Then he reached for another condom on the nightstand, fell back on the bed, and reclined on his elbows, his gaze trained on her the entire time. What a picture he made. The smattering of hair on his broad chest tapered below his navel, as though it were an arrow pointing to fun times ahead. A few minutes ago, he’d filled her to the hilt. She wanted that sense of fullness again.

Still aroused, he stroked himself as he waited for her to join him. “I’m lying down. I’m comfortable.
Hard
but comfortable. There’s no need to worry about me, okay? This is all about you. Now come here and ride me.”

Karen climbed over him and moaned when the skin of his thighs touched hers.

“Take my cock in your hands, Karen.”

So she did. That alone made him hiss and throw his head back. When she stroked him, the muscles in his neck stretched with tension. “Yes, that’s it. Do you feel me getting bigger? Harder.”

“Mmmm. Yes. I can’t wait to get it inside me, Mark.”

Karen realized then that she was writhing on his thighs, the movement stimulating her clitoris with each shift of her lower body.

Mark reached out and cupped her breasts. “You’re so fucking beautiful, and your tits are perfect.” He pinched each nipple, causing her to cry out and buck against him.

Unable to wait any longer, she grabbed the condom packet and ripped it open with her teeth. After rolling it on him quickly, she centered herself over his cock.

He helped her guide it to her entrance. His eyes never left hers as he teased her, rubbing the tip of his cock against her folds. Karen hovered over him, wanting to engulf him in her wet heat. “Please, Mark. I need you inside me.”

He stopped torturing her, finally pushing into her inch by glorious inch. Karen held on to his shoulders and adjusted her legs to take him in as deeply as she could, chanting
yes
over and over. She collapsed over him and threaded her hands through his. And just as he’d asked, she rode him, rising and falling over him in a slow rhythm. When the pressure became too much, she raised her torso and lowered herself on to his cock in shallow bursts.

Somewhere along the way, Mark grabbed her waist, using it as leverage to thrust into her. Together they created the delicious friction that would take them both over the edge.

Karen’s eyes widened as the orgasm drew near. “Yes, Mark. Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”

“I’m on fire, Karen. There’s no way I’m stopping.”

Her mouth went slack as he increased the tempo of his upward thrusts. Then he switched gears, grinding his torso so that the base of his cock tapped on her clit each time. Several more thrusts later, the orgasm slammed into Karen, making her entire body shake as she rode it out. Then she tightened her vaginal muscles around him, and his strangled moan sent a shiver up her spine.

“That’s it, Karen,” he said. “That’s it.” His grip on her waist tightened. “F-u-u-u-c-k,” he chanted as his orgasm chased hers.

That could not have been pretty.
But it was spectacular. Better than spectacular. And unfortunate, because she wouldn’t be experiencing it again, and now she knew what she’d be missing.

Karen woke to a shrill ring that wouldn’t go away. With her head still under the comforter, she extended her arm and patted the nightstand until her hand connected with the telephone. She brought the phone to her ear. “Yes.”

“Good morning, Ms. Ramirez.”

She sat up, groggy and irritable. “Who is this?”

“This is a courtesy wake-up call, Ms. Ramirez. Mr. Lansing wanted to be sure you didn’t miss your flight.”

She blinked several times and scanned the master bedroom. Her dress was draped over a chair, and her sandals were neatly tucked under it. “He’s gone?”

After a brief pause, the man on the other end of the line confirmed that Mark had in fact departed the island. “Mr. Lansing left for the airport two hours ago. You are free to use the suite until you’re ready to go.” He cleared his throat. “Will you be needing transport anywhere?”

Yes, she needed to be transported to the land of the thoroughly fucked and discarded. “Um, yes. I’ll need a ride to Hotel El Convento. In twenty minutes.”

“Very good,” the man said. “We’ll have a car waiting for you. Have a wonderful day.”

“Thank you.”

After she’d replaced the receiver, Karen fell back against the mattress. Well, this was a first. She’d often watched a guy scramble out the door after mediocre sex, but no one had ever snuck out on her. Granted, Mark had told her about his early morning flight, but she hadn’t expected him to escape before the sun rose.

Sure, the alternative, waking up in each other’s arms when they’d agreed to a single night together, would have been awkward. Still, not seeing him at all left her in limbo. Maybe she needed closure. And yes, she needed to know if he’d enjoyed it as much as she had. Given his disappearing act, she suspected the answer was no.

Damn, damn, damn.
How could last night have been so one-sided? Yes, the start of their lovemaking had been rocky, but she’d thought they’d glided to the finish line like figure-skating world champions. He’d been attuned to her from the start, giving her the attention and encouragement she’d needed to get out of her head and simply enjoy hot, sweaty sex.
Really hot, sweaty sex.

All signs suggested that he’d been enjoying himself, too. But maybe he’d been pretending to be as into it as she’d been. Hadn’t she pretended to enjoy herself countless times?

Now came the embarrassment. He’d humored her, obviously. And maybe he’d decided not to wake her before he left, so she could suffer through the mortification in private.

She flipped off the covers and sprang out of bed. As she rummaged through the bathroom for a new toothbrush, she silently thanked Mark for a much-needed reminder that her time was best spent on areas of her life where she was likely to succeed, her career being the most important.

This really wasn’t a big deal. Karen always prized information, and her experience with Mark revealed two valuable facts: First, she wasn’t good in bed. And two, she could live with that knowledge, because discovering otherwise at this point in her life would have been disastrous. She’d spent most of her college years having subpar sex. If she’d met someone who helped her enjoy the moment, and who didn’t embarrass her afterward, Karen would have embarked on a sexual awakening that would have impressed even the most jaded porn star. No, this was good news. It reinforced her desire to begin medical school distraction-free.

With a renewed sense of purpose, she readied herself for the drive back to her hotel. On her way out, she reached for her clutch on the kitchen counter and paused when she noticed a single sheet of paper lying next to it. It read:

She stared at the note and images of their amazing night ran through her brain like a shuffled deck of cards.

It hadn’t just been her. He’d enjoyed himself, too. The sex had, in fact, been amazing. She wasn’t bad in bed. Damn, damn, damn.

F
our days after returning from Puerto Rico, Mark stared at the mountain of work that still sat unscaled on his desk. At the moment, he was attempting to review the company’s annual reports, but the numbers blurred before his eyes. The buzzing of his office phone cut through the fog.

He hit the speaker button. “Yes, Donna?”

“You have a call from Lisa Heddinger. Would you like to take it?”

He tapped his lips and considered the repercussions if he said no. She’d find a way to get to him eventually—through his father if she had to. It was better for him to bear the brunt of her whims than his dad. “I’ll take it.” He steeled himself as he waited for the call to be transferred. “Mother. What can I do for you?”

“
Tsk, tsk
, my dear. No need to call me such a horrible name.” Her shrill laughter emphasized that she’d been joking. His silence emphasized that he didn’t find her funny.

After clearing her throat, she said, “I’m calling for two reasons. First, how are you?”

She never called simply to ask how he was doing. Sure, she asked the question, but the question generally preceded a request of some kind. Today would be no different. “I’m fine. Busy but fine.”

“Good. Good. Are you going to ask me how I’ve been?”

Mark rubbed his temples in a circular motion. “How are you, Lisa?”

“I’m fine, dear. Richard and I divorced six months ago. Irreconcilable differences and all that.”

Mark couldn’t have been more shocked by the news. Richard had been his father’s replacement, the man who’d convinced his mother to settle down and have another child. She’d built a family with Richard and her second son. As a young teenager, Mark had counted the days when that relationship, too, would implode. But that never happened, and eventually Mark accepted the fact that his mother hadn’t been averse to commitment; she’d been averse to committing to
them
—his father and him, that is.

As the years passed, though, he’d come to see her in a different light—reluctantly. She’d been young when she married his father. And she’d been unwilling to change her carefree lifestyle to accommodate her family’s needs. But he assumed she’d matured over the years, and he couldn’t begrudge her efforts to build a different life for herself.

“I’m sorry about Richard.” When she didn’t respond, he moved the conversation along. “What’s the second reason for your call?”

“I’m calling to ask a favor.”

Of course she was. “Go on.”

“And please hear me out, okay?”

“I will.”

“Okay. It’s about Spencer.”

His half brother, whom he’d never met. “What’s the favor?”

“Spencer’s accepted a spot at George Washington Law School in the fall. In the meantime, he needs to get his living situation squared away, and I think he needs to get to know the city.”

She didn’t expect him to babysit his half brother, did she? “What does this have to do with me?”

“He also needs a job.”

Hell no.
“I can’t do that, Lisa. I may be the CEO, but I have a board to answer to. What would he do here anyway?”

“Well, according to your Human Resources Department, the company’s looking to hire a legal intern.”

It was?
In his former role as the company’s top financial advisor, he would have known this to be the case, because a legal internship would have involved the use of the company’s coffers. But now that he was the CEO, that kind of decision never reached his desk anymore. “You
contacted
the Human Resources Department?”

“Of course not. The department posted an announcement online. I happened to see it.”

Not true. As far as he knew, Lisa never
happened
to do anything. Everything occurred by design. Calculation. A little manipulation, even. “Look, Lisa. I appreciate that you contacted me about this, but I have to be honest. Having Spencer here would be awkward.”

“He’s your
brother
, Mark.” Interesting how she wanted him to acknowledge Spencer as his brother when just a few moment ago she’d bristled at being called his mother.

“Let’s not push this. Here’s what I can do. Send me his résumé. If it looks okay, and I’m assuming it will, I’ll send it around to a few of my counterparts in the industry. Someone will offer him a job with my recommendation.”

“Wonderful. I suppose that’s the best I could hope for.”

She paused, and he waited for what always came next.

“How’s your father?”

“He’s doing great. Can’t sit still, so he’s teaching a few courses at Chesapeake Community College.”

“Good. Good. I’m glad to hear it.” She paused again, as was her way. “Is he seeing anyone new?”

The note of uncertainty in her voice shouldn’t have touched him—but it did. “He dates but not a lot. That’s all I know. We don’t talk about dating much. He does his thing. I do mine.”

“Are
you
seeing someone new?”

Karen’s image appeared in his head. He couldn’t call what they’d done dating, but even if they had been dating, his mother lost the right to know the answers to these questions a long time ago. “As I said, I’ll check in with Human Resources about the legal intern position. I’ll be in touch.”

“Always so quick to change the subject. Like father, like son, it seems.”

“Didn’t have much opportunity to be anything else, did I?”

He refused to be taken in by her soft gasp. Instead of softening his words, he waited.

“Good-bye, dear,” she said in a shaky voice. “I’ll wait to hear from you.”

“Good-bye, Lisa.”

Mark tapped the speaker button and swiveled his chair toward the floor-to-ceiling window.

Well, now he felt like a prick. But what did she expect, exactly? That he would pretend she’d always been a part of his life? What a way to start his day. It could only improve from here, right?

Nope. Not right.

That afternoon he participated in a conference call, every second of which tested his patience. At first, he’d wanted to throttle someone. Anyone. But less than ten minutes in, he’d reached the point in the call when he had no more
fucks
to give. The other participants—Ethan among them—argued about the reasons for a delay in the launch of a communications software update.

When he heard the word
shithead
exchanged, he stepped in. “Enough.” The ensuing silence told him he had their attention. “This is getting us nowhere, ladies and gentleman. Of course I want to know why the launch will be delayed, but I don’t need to know that
now
. If we’re working on borrowed time, let’s use it wisely. Can someone tell me how we’re adjusting the marketing plan to address the delay?”

No one responded.

“Has someone prepared a press release announcing the new launch date?”

Silence. Again.

“Okay. Can someone tell me why the company’s launch team appears to be dropping the ball at every turn?”

No one responded to that, either.

“Okay. We’ll resume this call when you have answers to my questions. Let me know when you’re ready to do that. And If I need to tell HR to start searching for your replacements, let me know that, too.”

He disconnected the call and let out a deep sigh. Days like today he yearned for his old job, the one in which he crunched numbers and stared at spreadsheets for twelve hours straight. Really. But as frustrating as that call had been, he knew his agitation stemmed from a more troubling source: The memories of his night with Karen refused to fade.

Fuck.

And he knew exactly how he’d gotten here. Just as he’d predicted, their time together on the island had presented him with one temptation after another, until he could no longer fight the attraction he felt for her. He’d wanted her badly, and he’d lied to himself to justify being with her for one night.

Just one night. To get each other out of their respective systems.

Right.

There’d be no long-term repercussions so long as they both knew the score at the outset.

Right.

With the fires of his attraction stoked, he could turn to the important task of finding a suitable partner.

Yeah. He was beginning to see a theme here.

The moment he closed his eyes, Karen’s face appeared; the memory of it, bathed in the moonlight shining through the window of his suite’s bedroom, aroused him in seconds each time. He recalled her dazed expression, her flushed skin, and the way her lower lip trembled as she sank down on him. But nothing compared to the memory of the look on her face when the orgasm overtook her: She’d widened her eyes, opened her mouth in astonishment, and let out a soft cry, a mixture of shock and satisfaction that mingled in the air with his own labored breathing. She’d literally taken his breath away, leaving him gasping for air as his own orgasm ripped through him.

Ethan’s signature knock startled him out of his daydream. Mark straightened in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair. “Come in.”

Now that he was no longer the company’s CEO, Ethan had dispensed with wearing suits to work, choosing slacks and dress shirts with rolled-up sleeves as his typical office uniform. His attire wasn’t the only thing that had loosened up; Ethan was less stressed these days, too. “Hey. Got a minute?”

Mark waved him in. “Sure. Sit down.”

Ethan dropped into the chair. “So I know you were pissed during that call, and you had every right to be.”

“I feel a
but
coming on…”

“Well, I’m just checking in, because losing your cool like that isn’t like you. It’s more like me. The old me, I should say. Is something going on?”

Yes. No. Maybe so. Who the hell knew? He certainly didn’t. Ethan’s laser-eyed focus on his face made him loosen his tie. “I’m just stressed, Eth. It’ll pass.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“In that case, man, you know what to do. If you’re tense, get laid.”

He stared at Ethan.
He’d already taken care of the getting laid part, and now he was tenser than ever.
But he couldn’t tell Ethan this. Deflect, deflect, deflect. “I’d be less tense if I weren’t so worried about my team’s ability to handle the launch.”

Ethan grimaced and stood. “Mistakes were made. Not by me. You’ll see that soon enough. But in the meantime I’m on it. I’ve got your back, buddy.”

“That’s what I need to hear.”

Ethan angled his head and considered him. “You know…”

“Say it, Ethan.”

“I was just thinking about the Masters Tech Gala. You’re going, right?”

Sponsored by Visnet Technologies, the Masters of Technology Gala celebrated the region’s technology professionals and forward-thinking companies. His secretary had placed it on his calendar, and he’d promptly forgotten about it. Until now. “Of course I’m going. It’s part of the job description. You?”

Ethan shook his head and smiled. “No way. Not part of the job description anymore.”

“Lucky you.”

“Anyway, I was just thinking you could take a date to the gala. I don’t know, maybe call Sharon Castellano and invite her to join you.”

Mark kept his face blank. As soon as she and Ethan had returned from their abbreviated honeymoon, Gracie had contacted him, singing the praises of a former graduate school classmate. Sharon, according to Gracie, was whip smart, confident, and successful. But none of that changed the fact that he didn’t want to call her. Not after he and Karen had spent a night together.
Too soon
, he’d argued to himself. Eventually, he’d call Sharon, but not yet.

“It’ll give you a chance to see how she handles the networking and social demands of being with someone like you. Some people aren’t cut out for that shit.”

“I’m not going to
test
the woman, Ethan.”

“I didn’t say you had to
test
her, Mark. This is all about compatibility, is all I’m saying.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Don’t think about it too long. The gala’s only a week away.”

“Got it, Mommy.”

Ethan gave him the finger. “You asked for my help. Don’t be an asshole when I give it to you.”

“Sorry, man. You’re right. You might not believe this right now, but I really do appreciate your help. ”

Ethan gave him a carefree smile. “Hey, it’s the least I could do. You dropped everything to attend our wedding. It meant a lot to us.”

“I’m glad I went. I had a great time.”

“All that was missing was a hot woman to keep you company.” Ethan lifted a brow and gave him a cheesy smile. “That would have made the trip even better, right?”

A hot woman had kept him company. And yes, her company made the trip even better. But his plan to have a one-night fling had backfired. He wanted to see her again. Which made the situation worse.
Much worse.

Before he left, Ethan snuck in one last reminder. “Don’t forget my suggestion about inviting Sharon to the gala. You have to start somewhere.”

And that was the problem, of course. He couldn’t muster enough interest to pick up the phone and call the woman. Not when he couldn’t get Karen out of his head.

One night.

Right.