Risky Negotiations (11 page)

Laci wanted to protest, wishing she could tell him that she’d prefer her own chair. But her mouth couldn’t form the words since her mind was too occupied by the heat coming from his body along her side.

When he didn’t make a move other than to lean back and get more comfortable, Laci relaxed in his arms and enjoyed the movie. Laci was impressed with his choice and thoroughly enjoyed watching Cary Grant try to avoid a crop duster in “North by Northwest”. She laughed at the suspenseful jokes and jumped at all the appropriate moments. What bothered her more than anything else, was the way she felt wrapped in his arms throughout the movie. He watched intently, but she knew that he was aware of her presence. She wished she felt differently, but she felt cherished in his arms.

The movie closed and, without the plot to distract them, the tension was immediately back between the two of them. There was silence for a long moment and Laci could feel her heartbeat accelerate as she wondered what he was thinking. She felt too comfortable as she was but knew she needed to move.

Laci didn’t know how or when it had happened, but she was curled up against Sal, her feet tucked under her legs with Sal’s arm around her shoulder. Her head was laying against his shoulder and she could feel his fingers in her hair massaging her scalp gently. It was a very erotic feeling and she wanted to relax into his fingers and let them continue the magic. But her gut told her that would be dangerous.

“
Hungry?” he asked softly.

Laci shook her head, embarrassed about her position. But her stomach took that moment to convey the opposite.

Sal laughed. “Liar.” He stood up and took her hand, pulling her body up along side his. Thankfully for Laci’s peace of mind, he dropped her hand immediately as he led her out of the theatre room and back down the long hallway which she now knew led to the kitchen.

“
What can I make you for dinner?” he asked casually as they walked.

“
You can cook?” she asked from slightly behind him, bewildered as she noted all the beautiful rooms they passed as he led her toward what she assumed was the kitchen. Most of the rooms looked unused but had a lived in feel to them. There were so many she lost count of both the number and purpose as they walked. There was even a ballroom, she noted, shocked that any house still maintained a formal ballroom. She’d thought they’d all died after the turn of the century.

He stopped in the middle of the hallway and shook his head, feigning offense. “You didn’t think I could make coffee and now you’re insulting my culinary skills. I think I’ll have to beat you woman.”’

Laci laughed but wouldn’t relent. “There’s a vast difference between cooking and making a pot of coffee.”

“
Ah, but I didn’t just make a pot of coffee,” he said, one finger pointing in the air to emphasize his point. “I make you a cup of coffee, perfectly flavored with just the right amount of cream and sugar.” He stopped her and turned her towards him. “Admit it, I made a mean cup of coffee, didn’t I?”

She smiled and admitted the truth of his statement. “Okay, so you’re a coffee master. I’ll concede that point. But can you cook?”

“
Of course I can cook. I live alone, who do you think cooks for me?”

Laci stopped and shook her head and laughed at his astonished expression. But she wasn’t fooled. “Um…a housekeeper or restaurants, I’m guessing. Don’t even try to convince me that you cook your own meals because I won’t believe it.”

Sal smiled at her perceptiveness. “You’re right,” he said and started walking again, throwing his arm around her shoulders as he continued. “But Sunday is the housekeeper’s day off so I usually cook or have plans.”

“
This should be interesting,” Laci said, smothering her smile as he threw back his head and laughed at her derision.

“
Oh, ye of little faith,” he came back. They’d reached the kitchen by that point and he led her over to a stool tucked under the main kitchen counter. “Just sit back and relax and I’ll prove to you what a wonderful and creative cook I am.”

“
Uh, huh. I’m putting my money on hamburgers grilled on your patio or salads,” she said, propping her chin on one hand as she watched him open the refrigerator to examine the contents.

Sal shook his head. He looked at each of her features, his expression softening before he said softly, “I’d never give someone like you hamburgers,” he replied and pulled out a package of steaks. “Ground beef is only for my brothers,” he explained.

They ate delicious steaks with large baked potatoes and a tossed salad at the kitchen table in front of a crackling fire and debated politics. Laci was against the current Virginia tax increase saying that it wouldn’t penalize the rich as much as it should. Sal of course had the opposite view and thought that it taxed the wealthy without giving enough investment incentives.

By the end of the meal, Laci was laughing at some of the awful ideas some of his vice presidents or other officers had put forward for investments. He even offered some of his own youthful ideas. They had moved from the kitchen to the family room where Sal started a fire with a small switch. It seemed like a real fire, but she knew it had to be a gas fireplace and not real logs.

“
So have you ever had a business decision backfire on you?”

“
No,” he said simply, sipping his red wine and leaning back in the plush cushions of the sofa, watching her expression. Sal took in the heightened color and the fire in her eyes and was enchanted. He knew she still didn’t trust him. He also knew that he should probably not touch her. But when she was sitting next to him, smiling and looking so alluring, her body only inches away, he knew he had to kiss her. It had been on his mind all day but he’d kept his distance.

“
No?” she asked, amazed. “You’ve never made a bad business decision in your whole life?”

He shrugged. “I’m sure there were times I could have gone one way and the outcome would have been different. But if you’re defining bad as unprofitable, no. So far, all my decisions have been profitable.”

Laci didn’t argue the point. He hadn’t made it on the cover of several business magazines as well as business journals because of poor profit. And he wasn’t bragging either. He was simply stating a fact.

Suddenly, he took the glass of wine from her hand and set it onto the coffee table in front of her. “What are you doing?” she asked, her voice breaking in the middle.

He turned back to face her. “I want to kiss you and I think you are too nervous to hold that glass. You might spill the wine,” he explained casually.

Laci didn’t know how to respond. She couldn’t speak. She could only watch as his handsome face came closer, slowly descending towards her own, giving her plenty of time to say no or draw back. But she was transfixed by the hungry look in his eyes. And then his lips were gently touching hers. All thoughts flew from her mind. Her eyes closed and her mouth parted slightly. At the first indication that she wasn’t going to pull away, Sal deepened the kiss, demanding more access and she felt herself falling backwards onto the sofa and more deeply into the magic of Sal’s kiss.

His lips moved softly over hers, gently caressing her mouth. She felt his tongue gently touch her lips, requesting entry. For a moment, Laci denied the feelings his mouth stirred within her. But when he moved away from her mouth to kiss her neck, her ear lobe, and then back to her mouth, Laci was lost to the sensations he was able to evoke within her. She opened her mouth to his and the gentleness was gone. He ravaged her mouth, moving over hers with a passion she was more than equal to.

Laci arched into him, needing more. Her arms moved to circle his neck and she felt his hand move down her side to her legs, then back up. When he reached her sweater, his warm hands moved underneath, feeling the soft skin of her stomach, then resting just beneath her breast.

In the back of her mind, she vaguely heard someone moan but wasn’t sure if it was her or him. She didn’t think it was fair that he could touch her so easily and she couldn’t feel his skin. Laci decided to rectify that situation. She moved her arms around to the front and slowly unbuttoned his shirt. Once she had a few buttons free, she put her hand on his chest, amazed at the feeling of the muscles reactively flexing under her fingertips.

Sal realized her hands were working his shirt buttons but was not prepared for the electric shock his body felt at the first touch of her fingers on his skin. He sucked in his breath at her first tentative contact, then went back to ravaging her mouth, more desperate to have all of her, to feel her surrounding him.

While one of Sal’s hands was on her rib cage, the other tangled in her hair, pulling gently against her head so his mouth could move along her neckline, then made it’s way back up to her ear. Laci shivered when his teeth gently bit her earlobe and she pulled him closer, needing to feel him against her.

Suddenly, her sweater was pulled over her head and there was a slight moment when sanity returned. But then his mouth found her nipple through the lace of her bra and Laci’s head fell back over his arm and she arched up towards the warmth of his mouth, the sensation driving her crazy and making her need more and more.

Laci was desperate to feel more of him. She pulled at the fabric of his shirt, frustrated that the buttons wouldn’t allow her access to the velvet covered steel of his muscular chest. In the distance, she heard a button bounce against something and she stopped her frantic efforts, wondering if she had really just torn his shirt. She opened her eyes but the moment she saw him, the fabric was gone from her mind. She looked at his chest, wanting to have him completely against her skin but unable to find the small buttons to accomplish the task. He helped her by lifting up slightly and pulling the shirt out from his jeans, only to come right back down again once she had all the buttons free.

Laci had a short glimpse of a tan chest with very little hair and muscles rippling underneath smooth skin. She had never seen such an Adonis and wanted to see more, but he was moving the lace away from her nipple, finding the hard button and sucking. She was unable to think any longer as her hips pushed against his, needing the torment to stop but unable to break the contact for fear that the pleasure would stop as well.

The satin strap of her bra was off her shoulder, trapping her arm to her side. Laci was frantic in her need to touch him as he was touching her but he wouldn’t let her. She was captive to the waves of pleasure that he forced upon her with his warm mouth and teasing tongue.

After several minutes, he moved to the other breast, giving equal pleasure to the left. Laci’s finger slid onto his jeans but they couldn’t move far enough to satisfy her desperate need for him. With each new sensation, she moved, wriggling closer but still trying to get away in an effort to find an end to the whirlwind, while at the same time, hoping it would never stop.

She didn’t hear the phone ringing but noticed the sudden absence of his weight, returning a moment later as he came back to her, with the phone against his ear. The passion was still evident in his eyes and she wondered if she looked the same.

Slowly, she was able to focus on the conversation. The person at the other end of the phone was frantic and asking Sal for help. He was instantly alert. Laci knew something was wrong because she felt him stiffen.

“
I’ll be there in a few minutes,” he was saying and he reached over her head to put the receiver back into the cradle.

“
Antonia called. She needs me to stay with Emma.”

Laci could only nod. Reality was returning and she didn’t know how to react. Coming down from those kinds of sensations was difficult.

“
Will you come with me?” he asked.

Laci wanted desperately to stay with him. She had genuinely enjoyed being with him, more than she cared to admit.

“
I’d better get home. I need to be at work early tomorr….” Laci stopped mid-sentence, shocked at the idea that she had been about to have sex with the owner of the opposition’s company. “Oh my good….” She began.

“
Laci, I know where you are going and you need to stop,” he said roughly, still leaning against her naked chest.

Laci pushed against his shoulders but they didn’t move. “No, I have to go home,” she said, hiding her face as best she could against the cushions of the sofa. But in her current position, she was only able to hide half her face, the other showing her humiliation at her position and her lack of respect for her career that mandated that she support the union workers.

“
No,” was all he said.

“
Please,” Laci begged turning to face him as she fought back the tears forming in her eyes.

When he saw the evidence of her frustration in her eyes, he relented slightly. “Not until you promise that you will see me tomorrow,” he said.