That Night with You (18 page)

“
You taste even better than
the first time,” he murmured into her shoulder.

Tossing her head back, she searched
his eyes. “How can you possibly remember how—?”

“
I remember everything
about you.”

She didn’t want to believe him, but
somehow his words rang true…because she had never forgotten him,
either. Running her fingertips along the curve of his square jaw,
she smiled.

“
And here I thought I was
the only one having a hard time forgetting that night.”

She kissed his neck, and then nipped
at his Adam’s apple, causing Hayden to suck in a desperate breath.
Her hands eased inside his suit jacket, and she was about to push
the material over his shoulders when the jingle of keys working the
lock to the front door made them both look away.

As the front door pushed
open, Hayden moved back from the counter, allowing Madison to jump
down. When Charlie strolled into the apartment, Madison rolled her
eyes.
Great. Perfect timing!

“
Who is that?” Hayden
asked, his arm still about her.

“
My roommate.”

“
Hey there,” Charlie called
when she saw Madison in the kitchen. But then her smile faltered
when she spotted Hayden next to her. “Oh, wow, did I interrupt
something?”

Madison moved away from him. “Charlie,
what are you doing here?”

“
I still technically live
here, Mads.” She motioned to Hayden. “Who’s this?”

“
Hayden Parr,” he replied,
adjusting his jacket.

“
You’re Madison’s boss?”
Charlie’s eyebrows rose up her forehead.

Madison wanted to groan out loud as
she watched Charlie’s zealous blue eyes running up and down
Hayden’s lean, tight body.

Hayden went up to Charlie and extended
his hand. “I hear congratulations are in order for your upcoming
nuptials.”

Shaking his hand, Charlie grinned at
Madison. “Yeah, less than two weeks away. Madison is going to be
one of my bridesmaids.”

Hayden glanced back at her over his
shoulder. “Yes, she was just telling me all about it.”

Charlie snickered. “I’ll bet.” Her
eyes twinkled with mischief. “You know, Madison still doesn’t have
a date for my wedding. You interested, Mr. Parr?”

“
Charlie!” Madison
shouted.

Hayden chuckled as he shook his head.
“I should be going.”

“
Don’t leave, Mr. Parr,”
Charlie pleaded. “Stay and have a drink with us.”

“
No, thank you, Charlie.”
His eyes lingered on Madison, causing a warm rush of heat to shoot
up from between her legs. “It’s been a long day.”

He made a move toward the front door,
and Madison rushed to his side. “I’ll walk you
downstairs.”

Pulling the door open, he turned to
her. “No, stay here. I can send my car tomorrow to bring you to the
office.”

“
No, I’ll find a ride to
work, but thank you.”

“
Are you always so
determined?” He held up his hand. “Forget I said that.” For a split
second he stood in front of her, as if wanting to kiss her, but
then his eyes swerved to Charlie standing in the living room,
watching their every move. “Good night,” he added, then slowly
closed the door.

“
You and the hottie boss?”
Charlie shouted almost as soon as the door had closed.

Madison wheeled around. “Jesus,
Charlie. Of all the nights for you to come home.”

Charlie grinned while sauntering up to
her. “Are you going to tell me what happened? This morning he was
untouchable, and then I come in the door and he’s all over
you.”

“
I’m not sure what
happened,” Madison admitted, brushing her hands over her hot
cheeks. “All I know is we spent the morning working on my design
for the Martins’ house, and it damn near drove me insane. I had to
run to the bathroom to splash cold water on my face.”

Charlie’s belly laugh echoed about the
bare living room. “I guess he felt the same way.”

“
I went out with Adam, that
dipshit from my office, after work for drinks.” Madison retreated
to the kitchen. “I thought Hayden didn’t want me, so….”

“
You went for a guy you had
no interest in,” Charlie answered, filling in her words. “I get it.
That’s your MO with men. Go after the ones you don’t want because
you don’t think you’re good enough for the ones you do want.”
Charlie followed her to the kitchen and took a stool by the
breakfast bar. “So what happened with Adam the sleaze?”

Madison returned the bag of coffee to
the kitchen cabinet. “Hayden came into the bar and challenged Adam
to a drinking contest. Adam got buzzed after three shots of
tequila, then Hayden shoved him in a cab and insisted on taking me
home.” She folded her arms and leaned back against the countertop.
“Believe it or not, he says he never forgot about me after that
first night together.”

Charlie clapped and yelled, “Hot
damn!” She came around the bar and hugged Madison. “See? He wants
you. This is so great.” She let Madison go. “You have got to bring
him to the wedding.”

“
He’s my boss. I need a job
more than I need a boyfriend.”

“
Who cares if he’s your
boss? Nelson was my boss, but I’m going to be Mrs. Nelson Peevy in
two weeks. You can have the same with your Mr. Parr.”

Madison shook her head. “I don’t think
he wants another wife. The last one he had burned him on
women.”

“
So unburn him. Teach him
what a good woman can do for him.”

“
How do I do
that?”

“
There is no science to
this, Mads. Every man wants someone who will listen to him, and be
there for him. Just do that for your Mr. Parr and I know he will
come around in time. Loving someone is easy; trusting them is
hard.”

“
What if it doesn’t work
out and he wants to get rid of me? I need this job,
Charlie.”

Charlie patted her arm. “But you want
this man more, Mads. You’ve always wanted him, and if you don’t go
for it, give him all of you, you will never be able to give
yourself completely to anyone again. People are like chapters of a
book. You have to close one in order to open another, and your
chapter on Mr. Hayden Parr has remained open ever since that
night.” She softened her voice and proposed, “Just trust what
you’re feeling, Mads. Never listen to your head where men are
concerned. The heart is the true gauge of our emotions, because it
is the only place inside of us that always remains connected to our
souls.”

Chapter 10

Entering the offices of Parr and
Associates, Madison felt like a call girl heading to the home of a
customer. Paranoid about the way the low-cut, red silk dress clung
to her slim figure, she had tossed a casual black jacket over her
shoulders before leaving the apartment, much to the ire of her
roommate.

“
You’re ruining the
effect,” Charlie had griped.

“
I can’t go to work like
this,” Madison had balked, waving her hand down the tight
dress.

“
Honey, how many times did
I look like a hotel-bound hooker when I left to go to work with
Nelson? Part of the art of snagging a man is letting him know that
if he doesn’t grab you, someone else will.”

“
I’m not you,
Charlie.”

“
Mads, do you want this
guy?”

Madison had hated to admit Charlie was
right, but she also hated stooping to such tactics to keep Hayden
interested. “If I bend over, you can see right down my
dress.”

“
That’s the idea,” Charlie
had gleefully agreed.

Safely inside her office, she shut the
door and went to her desk. While putting her black purse away in
the bottom drawer, the jarring ringing of her office phone made her
grab at her chest.

“
Ah, this is Madison
Barnett,” she answered, not sure who would be calling
her.

“
Good, you’re in.” His
voice was low and intense. “I’m coming up to see you, so don’t
wander off.”

“
Yes, Mr. Parr.”

Tossing aside the jacket, she was
instantly glad she had taken her roommate’s advice and donned the
sexy dress. Hurrying back to her desk, she pulled up her design
plans. Better to make it look like she was into her work when he
walked in her office.

Minutes ticked by as she stared at the
computer screen, anticipating his arrival. Flustered by the
whirlwind of her emotions, Madison covered her face with her hands,
but raised her head when she remembered the makeup she had taken
extra time that morning to apply.

“
Shit!” She reached for her
purse, wanting to check her makeup.

The strap of her purse caught on the
handle of the drawer. Just as she was tugging to set her purse
free, the office door opened, scaring her and sending her purse
flying across the room to land at Hayden’s feet.

Mortified that the contents of her
purse, including her tampons, had spilled over the floor, Madison
rushed toward the door. Hayden was already leaning over and picking
up the contents as she knelt beside him.

“
I’m so sorry, Mr.
Parr.”

He handed her a pink and white wrapped
tampon package along with her lipstick. “There’s no need to
apologize, Madison…not to me.”

Beet red, Madison hastily stuffed her
lipstick, tampons, and her wallet back into her small black
purse.

Taking her elbow, Hayden helped her
from the floor. “I came by to give you some more suggestions for
your plans,” he explained while glancing back at the open office
door.

“
Ah, sure.” Madison went
across the room to her desk.

When she heard her office
door close, she turned back to him. The leering grin on his
handsome face was cataclysmic. Her breath caught in her
throat.
Oh God help me!

“
Why did you wear that
dress?” His voice was dripping with irritation.

Dropping her purse on her desk,
Madison waited as he came across the room to her side, his eyes
burning into her. “I, ah,” she stumbled as she patted her hand down
the front of her dress, “my roommate suggested it.”

“
Don’t wear such
provocative clothing. I don’t want men ogling you in the office.
You need to dress more….” His eyes lingered over the red dress.
“Conservatively.”

“
Yes, Mr. Parr,” slipped
out of her mouth before she could stop it.

He chuckled, filling her body with
desire. It took everything Madison had not to rip the fitted dark
blue suit from his body. Christ, she had never wanted a man like
this before.

His lips were inches away, taunting
her. “I have to go to a luncheon this morning and then I have
meetings all afternoon, but I’ll be back here after five.” He
waited a moment before adding, “Wait for me, after everyone else
goes home, and then we can go to my place.”

“
Your place?”

“
Yes, so we won’t have any
interruptions while we work on those plans of yours.” Hayden
smiled, killing her. “I’ll cook us dinner.”

She cocked one dark eyebrow at him.
“You can cook?”

His eyes slowly went over every inch
of her body. “Among other things.” As he turned away, he added, “At
least you will have peace to work alone in your office today. Adam
called in sick this morning.”

“
Is he all
right?”

“
Just a dented ego, I
suspect. I’m sure he’ll be back tomorrow to drive us all mad.” When
Hayden reached the door, he looked back over his shoulder at her.
“And don’t go out anywhere today. Stay in your office. I don’t want
anyone seeing you in that dress.”

Alone in her office, Madison leaned
against her desk, taking in a deep, calming breaths. “Damn, I need
to listen to Charlie more often.”

***

Madison spent the rest of the day at
her desk, attempting to work on her plans. As she reconfigured roof
angles and wall depths, her mind was constantly thinking about the
night ahead. She knew what would happen when she went to his home,
and she wanted to be with him just as much as he seemed to want it.
The only question she had was, then what? After they had slept
together, what would happen to their professional relationship? It
was hard enough to call him Mr. Parr now, knowing of their past,
but how would she feel being both his lover and his
employee?

Staring at the house drawing on her
computer screen, she tried to fathom when her life had taken a turn
toward the difficult. Men had never been a big complication for
Madison—having put as little energy into her love life as she had
put into her exercise program—but what was budding with Hayden was
different…and a lot more intense than anything she had ever
known.

“
Hey, Madison,” Emma said,
knocking on her open door. “Mr. Parr wanted me to drop off these
engineering scales to you.” She came in the door and approached
Madison’s desk, carrying a manila folder in her hand.

Madison waited as the attractive
blonde placed the folder on the edge of her desk. “Thanks,
Emma.”