Seducing Chase (15 page)

“I’m not above begging. Please, Val, please pay attention to my cock before my big head explodes along with the little head.”

Val almost fell off the bed laughing. “I can’t believe you just said that.”

“Whatever it takes, babe.”

She gently ran her fingernails over the bulge in his boxers. “Poor, neglected Mr. Happy, huh?”

He glowered at her. “I don’t call him Mr. Happy.”

“No?”

“No. I call him ‘desperate for Val’.”

“Wow. What foreshadowing on your part.”

He grabbed her hands. “Are you deliberately torturing me?”

“You thought me incapable of it?”

“No.” He heaved a dramatic sigh. “But I never took you for a cruel woman.”

Val reached down and pulled his boxers down to mid-thigh, and her mouth was on him a scant few seconds later. He arched up and she released him. “Better?”

“Not if you stop.”

He divested himself of the boxers and then pulled her on top of him. Soon her panties were gone and they were touching skin-to-skin from chest to knee. A sound suspiciously close to a purr escaped her.

Nate pushed his hands into her hair and brought her lips to his. “I love kissing you,” he whispered just before he took her in a deep, drugging kiss. Before he could take control again, though, she pushed her body down his torso and he shivered as she attacked his nipples with her mouth in much the same way he’d done to her not long ago. Her heart was already racing and Val worried she may actually pass out if she came. She’d always figured that was an exaggeration, but right now she wasn’t so sure.

Licking her way down the “happy trail” from his navel to the trimmed thatch of hair at his groin, she then licked up his rigid length. Nate’s hands clenched in the sheets and she barely suppressed a smug smile. Val ran her nails lightly over his chest, paying special attention to those still-hard nipples, and he arched again.

“Please, Val, please. I’m dying.”

“Hmm. I doubt that.”

“I need to be inside you.”

Leaning her chin on his chest, she asked, “Inside where?”

“Shit, I don’t care, just don’t leave me like this.”

“Like what?”

“Aching,” he bit out through clenched teeth, and Val decided she’d better not press her luck. Straddling him, she reached over to her bedside table. Sliding the drawer open, she found a foil-wrapped packet and then settled back over him, moving down until her legs bracketed his. “Put it on me.” His voice was little more than a rasp and Val performed the task quickly.

He rolled them again, and she expected him to put her on her back, but instead he moved her until she was lying on her side and he was spooning her. Lifting her top leg, he pushed it forward and then fit the head of his cock to her opening.

“Do it,” she whispered.

Nate entered her in one long, agonizing sweep and Val’s inner muscles immediately clenched around him. “So deep…” He began to rock back and forth, holding her still with a tight grip on one hip. “So good…”

Val had to agree. The position hit an entirely different set of nerves. She tried to push back, but he prevented her. “Nate, oh God.”

“You were in charge before, now it’s my turn.”

Her sex clenched again at the rough timbre of his voice, trying in vain to hold him inside her. His hand moved from her hip to play with her breasts, lightly pinching. She wanted to watch the show, but found herself burying her face in the pillow to stifle the sounds of her neediness.

Nate pushed closer to her back, the angle of his body pushing him deeper as he continued his maddening strokes inside her. “Don’t hide from me. Let me see you. Let me hear you.”

“Can’t take it,” she panted.

“Yes, you can. You can take it, baby. I want to hear those little noises you make.” His fingers moved down her torso and soon were rubbing her clit. “Come for me.”

“I want to, oh God, I want to.”

“Then do it, sweets,” he hissed right into her ear, and that was all it took. She flew apart, convulsing uncontrollably around him, and only vaguely heard him give in to his own release with a grunt. After long moments, she finally calmed down. Nate left the room briefly to take care of the condom. When he came back, he said, “Please tell me I can stay here. I don’t think I can drive after that. Hell, I can’t string a coherent sentence together.”

“You just did,” she mumbled, already half-asleep. Reaching for him, she said, “Stay,” just before the blackness claimed her.

On Sunday after a leisurely, languid morning in bed and then brunch on the deck of a little café in the city, Nate returned to his hotel room and Val spent the rest of the day catching up on housework and email. He’d made Val promise she would work on her other projects unless the need to deal with more fallout arose. As she tackled mundane chores to keep her household running, her mind was busy with thoughts of both the crisis at work and the impending separation from Nate.

Neither of them had made any declarations, but whereas once she’d finally given in she’d been content to enjoy him while he was here, she now found herself wishing they might be able to continue a relationship after he went back to New York. It was pure foolishness on her part. Nate hated flying and it would take hours to drive up here, which left most of the onus for travel on her shoulders. Given both of their busy schedules, she doubted they would be able to see each other more than a few times a year. Despite that, for the first time in her life Val really considered the possibility she was falling in love.

When she arrived at work early Monday morning, feeling downright weepy, she closed herself in her office to stay away from Nate. If he showed tenderness for her now, Val was afraid she would burst into tears. That would surely scare the hell out of him. Nate seemed to take her assertion she needed to catch up on her work in stride, and left her to it after giving her a quick kiss.

As she waded through yet more of the hundreds of unread emails in her inbox, her attention wandered despite her best efforts to concentrate. She knew Nate had plenty of things to do for his own work, but she wanted to spend time with him in the little they had left. It put her in a quandary. Val felt badly he’d been neglecting his company for nearly two weeks though, and forced her thoughts back to her own tasks. She needed to keep momentum on her projects and he needed to make sure he still had a company to return to.

But as soon as the clock turned to half-past eleven that morning, she was out of her chair and striding to Nate’s makeshift office.

“Want to get some lunch?”

He looked up, surprised. “Sure.” Rising, he bent to nip at her earlobe. “How was your morning?”

“Eh. You know, wading through the masses of email, updating spreadsheets. Nothing special. How about you?”

“Called my office. Some young D-list actress has accused an A-list actor of fathering her child. She was an extra in a film he starred in last year, so it’s possible. Anyway, of course the dude denies it. The funny thing is, they both called me, which happens occasionally. The A-list guy got to me first, though, so my assistant told the woman no and told him she’d get back to him. I’m not sure what I can do from up here…”

His speech trailed off and a pang of guilt shot through Val. She cleared her throat. “Why don’t you go back to the room if you need to and try to take care of it. And really, as far as I’m concerned, anything in our department is at your disposal.”

Nate shot her a funny look, but said, “Thanks. I’ll call him back after we eat lunch.”

“You should do that now. I doubt patience is one of his strong suits if he’s used to getting his way.” She began to back out of his office. “I’ll just keep working, and you can come get me when you’re ready. Or if you’re busy I can go pick up something for you.”

“Are you sure you don’t mind? I mean, we’ve still got a lot going on.”

“Nate, this is your business. This,” she indicated the office with a sweep on her arm, “is not.”

His features darkened. “Right.”

“I feel awful you’ve been so selflessly helping us while your own business suffers.”

“It’s not suffering,” he grumbled.

“Well, anyway, I’ll leave you to it.” She’d almost made it to the door when he moved past her, closing it abruptly and spinning to face her.

“What’s going on? Are you trying to get rid of me?”

“N-no. Of course not.”

He stepped closer and instantly her body went on full alert. “Then why the brush-off?”

“I’m not brushing you off. I’m trying to give you a chance to actually do something for yourself.”

“Uh-huh.” His eyebrows drew down, and then he grabbed the back of her head in one hand as he leaned down to her. “Kiss me.”

That wasn’t exactly a hardship, and she opened to him instantly. With a faint growl he backed her up, until she was against the wall behind the door, and pushed his body flush with hers. She whimpered when his lips moved from hers, skimming over her jaw before he attacked the rioting pulse point on her neck.

“Nate.”

“Yes?”

“Can’t.”

“I know, but I want inside you.” Val squeaked and he covered the sound with another kiss before breaking away and unleashing a litany of curses. “What you do to me, Val.” He ran a hand through his hair, his breathing heavy as he obviously fought to regain control of his body. “I’m going to make you come unless you leave right now.” When he turned his heavily-lidded gaze on her, she knew he wasn’t kidding.

Her intake of breath was involuntary, and she was unable to move, as if a thousand tiny tendrils were holding her to that wall. “God, Nate…”

He moved in again, thrusting one leg between hers. “Ride me.” Nate kissed her again, both hands stealing underneath her sweater set to cup her breasts. They swelled in anticipation and he pulled away long enough to say, “If I had a condom I’d take you right here.”

All she could do was whimper in response.

“You’ll come for me.” It wasn’t a question.

Nate moved his leg back a little, pushing a hand underneath her skirt. His marauding fingers pushed aside her panties and found their way to her core unerringly. When he pushed two inside her, she bit her lip to hold in the moan trying its damnedest to escape.

He turned her head to the side and whispered directly into her ear. “So wet. I want you so fucking badly.” Without mercy his fingers continued their sensual assault and then his thumb brushed her clit. “That’s it, that’s my girl. Come all over my hand, baby.”

Val heard people move by out in the corridor and her lust-addled brain vaguely registered how wrong it was for Nate to have his fingers inside her right now, but when he turned and curled them to find her G-spot, she didn’t care. This man made her crazy.

“Help me,” she cried.

“You’ll let me inside, won’t you, Val?” His voice turned seductive. “Tell me you’ll let me make you feel good later. I need you. I need to know so I don’t lose my mind.”

“You can do whatever you want.”

Nate growled. “Whatever I want? So many possibilities. Right now I want to make you come, to give you a little preview of what’s going to happen later when I shove my way into this tight little tunnel.” His crass words were her undoing, and she began to convulse. He quickly put his mouth over hers to stifle her helpless moans and keening cries. “That’s one. There’s more coming.” Withdrawing his fingers, he stuck them in his mouth, sucking and then licking each as his eyes, nearly black with heat, kept her pinned in place.

“I need to go,” she croaked out.

“Yeah, you better. But don’t forget what I said.”

“I won’t.” Swallowing thickly, her gaze roved down his body to the very obvious bulge in his dress pants.

He chuckled darkly. “Don’t worry about that now. I’ll let you make it up to me later.” Val’s eyes shot back up to his. “You’ll take care of me, won’t you?”

She nodded mutely and he finally moved away, leaving her to stand on her own two, albeit very shaky, legs. Without another word he opened the door.

“Come get me when you’re ready.” As soon as the sentence was out of her mouth she closed her eyes, feeling the blush move from her neck up through her face.

“I told you, baby. I’m going to. Later, I’m going to ‘get you’ until neither of us remains conscious.” He smiled, showing teeth. She was reminded of a shark who’d just figured out there’s blood in the water. With a shiver she stole out the door and walked back to her office, trying like hell to look casual and not like a woman who had just let a guy finger her to an orgasm. Luckily the hallway was deserted and she was able to duck into her own office and plop on the chair before her legs truly gave out.

*****

Nate massaged the back of his neck after Val walked away. Closing the door behind her, he skirted around his desk. Before he sat, he pushed on the base of his erection. It wasn’t getting relief anytime soon and if it didn’t go down his day was about to get a whole lot more uncomfortable. He didn’t regret what he’d just done, though. Val was like a drug to him, and Nate wasn’t at all sure what he’d do when it came time for him to return to his “normal” life.

With a sigh, he eased himself into his desk chair and called his assistant. After she gave him the particulars of the case he told her to call the actor back and refuse. Understandably, Lesli was surprised.

“Is it really that hard to work from up there?”

Nate blew out a breath. “I’m not sure. Val told me I could use any of the department’s resources, but I don’t feel right using a cancer hospital’s press release distribution system to send out a crock of shit about how this guy didn’t father the baby. You know what I mean?”

“Not really, no.” He heard the confusion in Lesli’s voice. “Are you all right, Nate?”

“I’m fine,” he bit out through clenched teeth. He knew he shouldn’t be taking his frustrations out on Lesli, so he said, “Truly, I’m fine. I didn’t mean to jump down your throat. It’s just that…I don’t know how to explain this…the hospital does amazing work, and they have these resources so they can tell people about it and get the attention they so richly deserve. It feels like it would sully that somehow to use their stuff for what we do.”

“Nate, I can send out a press release from here.” She still sounded confused and now a little annoyed too.

“That’s not the point.”

“What’s the point?”

“They do crucial work here and I spend my time doing shit like this actor wants. My work never made me feel dirty or cheap, but it does now. I get paid a ridiculous amount to spin tales of the rich and famous, while the people here work their asses off to try to cure a disease that kills millions of people and don’t get even five percent of what I make. It’s just wrong.”

“It’s the way the world works.”

“I know, I know. Anyway, call him back. I’m not taking on anything until I get back.”

“You’re the boss.”

After hanging up, he tossed his phone on the desk and leaned back in his chair, his gaze on the ceiling tiles above his head. He was starting to question not only his work, but everything else about himself, and the feeling was less than comfortable. The more he examined, the less he wanted to keep on as he was before that fateful night Doug had called him for help. Maybe the universe was trying to tell him something. Then he shook his head with a rueful smile. All this soul-searching was making him sentimental. Deciding to chuck everything for the moment, he rose to find Val.

They went to the employee cafeteria and it was nearly impossible, as well as incredibly frustrating, to not touch Val. But despite his recent indiscretion, there was a big difference between what they’d done behind his closed office door and making it obvious to the general public of the hospital that they were involved. He knew Val didn’t want anybody questioning her ethics; though really, why would they? Both of them were adults, and when it came down to it, they weren’t more than temporary co-workers. But the gossip engine at a place like this was no doubt brutal, and he didn’t want to do anything to set tongues wagging.

After eating a quick lunch, they began the walk back to her building. On the journey they talked of mundane things, and when they got back to the PR department she asked him if he had enough to do before disappearing into her office once again. A couple of hours had gone by, during which he practically vibrated with need for her, when he heard an ecstatic screech. Bolting out of his chair, he was out of his office in seconds. That had been Val’s voice, he was sure of it.

She was on the phone with a huge grin on her face, but motioned for him to come in and that she’d be a minute. All he heard was a series of yes’s and no’s from her side of the conversation and he nearly crawled out of his skin with curiosity. A couple of her co-workers were standing out in the hall, seemingly not wanting to invade her office while she talked.

Val hung up the phone. With a smile at her co-workers, she focused on him. “They found Dr. Godlowski.”

“Where was he?”

She rolled her eyes. “Vegas. Apparently when they find out a missing person has a gambling problem they alert the casinos and one of them contacted the FBI. He’d checked in under an assumed name and paid cash for the room, but some of the casino workers remembered seeing him. And after putting surveillance on him to make sure they’d ID’d him correctly, they swooped in and got him.” Her smile widened, if that was possible.

One of her co-workers piped up. “Was any of the money recovered?”

“They’re still counting it, but it looks like they’ve got in the neighborhood of four point three million.”

There was a murmur of general shock mixed with satisfaction. Nate looked at Val with a wink and said, “Congratulations.”

“Thank you. You have no idea the weight that’s just been lifted off my chest.”