Their Million-Dollar Night (7 page)

Her skin was flushed, and the remembered feel of her warmth on his fingers kept him in a state of arousal. But he wasn't ready to end the anticipation and take her back to his suite. He wanted to keep the tension building between them.

“You're a good dancer,” she said.

She held on to him as they moved. Roxy's dance training was obvious to him as they swayed together. Her posture, which was always very good, was even more so here. And every beat of the music came alive in the way she danced.

“Thank you.”

“Is there anything you don't do well?”

Yes, but he wasn't about to tell her. He was horrible at cooking no matter how many lessons he'd had. “My mom made sure I knew the basic ballroom steps. My dad has to be coerced onto the dance floor.”

She rested her head on his shoulder, shifting closer to him as they danced. And he had a flash image of her underneath him. They'd be a perfect fit in bed. He slid his hands down her back to her hips.

Her mouth was at his neck, kissing him as her hands slid up and down his back. She bit him softly and he reacted immediately, hardening further against her lower belly.

One of her hands was at his nape, her fingernails scraping over the skin there. His breathing deepened, his blood flowing heavier in his veins, pooling in his groin. He knew he'd have a problem when it came time to leave the dance floor, but for now, it felt good to have her tease him.

This was the first time she'd taken the lead, and he savored it, knowing he was starting to unlock the real Roxy, the woman who'd been frozen by the cruel attack.

He lowered his head and breathed in the summer scent of her hair. His hands lowered from her hips. Her butt was full and curvy, and he flexed his fingers against her. She shifted her hips, rubbing her mound against his erection.

He heard her breath come in quick and sharp. Her full breasts rubbed against his chest and he wished he'd left his jacket at the table so he could feel her against him. In fact, he wished they were both naked.

She was toned and in shape. Everywhere he touched renewed the lust he felt for her body. But every touch of hers on his body renewed the affection in his heart. He liked this woman. Liked her in a way that he didn't understand or want to analyze.

The tempo of the music changed, but Roxy didn't seem to notice and he didn't want to either. He maneuvered them away from the center of the dance floor to a corner near the stage where the low lighting didn't reach, and they continued to sway together to a beat that could only be heard by the two of them.

“Let's get out of here,” she said.

“Give me a minute.”

She skimmed her hand between their bodies, running her fingers over his erection. “I think it might take more than a minute.”

He grabbed her wrists and pulled her hands behind her back, then lowered his head till his mouth nearly touched hers. “If you keep that up, it will.”

She shifted in his arms, undulating against him. “When we're alone, you're going to pay for that.”

“Promise?”

“Oh, yes.”

He reached between them, adjusted himself as
best he could and led her back to their table. She grabbed her purse while he tossed some bills on the table to cover their tab. He put his hand at the small of her back as they walked from the club.

Outside, he wrapped one arm around her waist, putting the other under her chin, tipping her head back and kissing her until she softened against him. After a long moment, he lifted his head.

“Come back to my suite.”

“Yes,” she said. And he took her hand, leading her toward the bank of elevators.

M
ax's cell phone rang while they were waiting for the elevator. He took one look at the caller ID and cursed savagely under his breath. “I have to take this call.”

She nodded and started to move away, but he held her close, unwilling to let her go. She held his hand and stood patiently at his side. Though it was only ten o'clock in Vegas, it was after midnight in Atlanta where Duke, his right-hand man, was calling from. So he knew that this had to be some sort of emergency.

“Williams.”

“It's Duke. Sorry to bother you so late, but I just got a call from MacNeil. He has another objection to the merger that only you can satisfy.”

Max was sick of Harron MacNeil. The man was making what should have been a beneficial corporate merger a living hell. Max was ready to change his bid on the company and just take it over regardless of what MacNeil wanted. “What the hell is it now?”

“He wants another face-to-face meeting—tomorrow afternoon.”

No way.
MacNeil was assuming a lot of bargaining power from the fact that Max wanted the man's company. Too much. “I can meet with him on Friday.”

Duke chuckled. “I had a feeling you'd say that. So I scheduled a Friday lunch meeting and he's coming to you.”

“Thanks, Duke.”

“Hey, that's why you pay me the big bucks.”

“Then why did you have to call me tonight?” Max asked. The elevator car came, but he held Roxy by his side. The elevators had really poor cell reception.

“MacNeil is bringing his wife. Just a heads-up. Any chance you found a lady in Vegas who will convince Harron you're a family man?”

He glanced at Roxy, but said nothing to Duke. “MacNeil is going to have to take me as I am.”

“No? I have the feeling he's going to be on the phone to you here tomorrow morning as soon as the office opens. Which means either I get up early or—”

“You take care of it before you go home to Cami,” Max said. Cami also worked for Max. She and Duke
had met when Max had assigned them to work together. Cami never hesitated to take him to task for working Duke too hard.

“I'm already home and she's not too happy. I've been on the phone all night.”

“Would a bonus make her happier?” Max asked. He knew that the key to a successful company was happy employees.

“Nah, you know Cami. I think a vacation will satisfy her.”

“You can have two weeks at my place in Fiji as soon as MacNeil signs on the dotted line.”

“I'm out the door before the ink dries,” Duke said.

“Anything else?”

“His latest offer should arrive by courier tonight.”

“Thanks, Duke.” Max pocketed his cell phone.

“Everything okay?” Roxy asked.

“Just business.”

She wrapped her arms around her waist and stood awkwardly by his side just staring at him. She seemed…unsure.

He realized too much time had passed and she was thinking about her scars again. He knew it only because in the jazz club he had glimpsed her totally relaxed and wallowing in her feminine sexuality. Now she wasn't. “Changed your mind about going up to my suite?”

She shrugged her shoulder, but she'd dropped his
hand and had her arms wrapped around her waist. “I'm not sure.”

The elevator cars opened again and Max knew that if he pushed now he would lose whatever advantage he had with her. But he was physically on the edge and waiting was not going to be easy.

Touching her had a pronounced effect on his body. Going dancing was out of the question. They each needed a distraction, Roxy from whatever fears had crept into her mind and him from the ones that hadn't left his.

“What would it take to make you sure?”

“Could we leave the lights off?”

“No.”

She bit her lower lip and once again the elevator car left without them. “You didn't even hesitate.”

“I know that I want to see you—all of you.”

“I don't think I'll ever be ready for that.”

He realized then that his usual take-charge style wasn't going to get the job done. Roxy needed understanding. He'd be understanding if it damn well killed him, and he knew he wouldn't die from not having sex.

“Let's get out of this place.”

She blinked at him. “Where will we go?”

“I don't know, but we need to do something active, something that requires me to use my brain.”

“Thinking is a turn-off for you?” she asked, with just a little bit of the sassiness he'd come to expect from her.

“With you around, I don't think anything will work.”

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, her hand reaching for his. She led him back to the elevator alcove. And shocked him. “Let's go up to your room.”

They stepped on the elevator and he felt the trembling in her body and noticed her hand shaking as she clutched her handbag. They were the only ones in the car.

He put his hands on her waist and held her loosely between his body and the wall of the car. She glanced up at him, her blue eyes wide, but not with fear. Instead he saw desire.

“What?”

He bent his head to hers and took her mouth in the gentlest kiss he had in him right now. Then he lifted his head and stared down at her. “Just wanted to make sure you were still with me.”

He lifted her into his arms as the elevator arrived on his floor and carried her down the hall to his room.

 

In Max's arms there was no room for self-consciousness. Roxy forgot everything except the taste of him on her tongue, the feel of his strong shoulders under her hands and the emotions he drew effortlessly from her.

No man had ever tempted her more than he did. In the jazz club, she'd simply forgotten they were in
a public place and found that the world had narrowed to just the two of them. She'd asked him to distract her because her own thoughts had been starting to scare her. And Max had given her a refuge that was so totally captivating and exciting that her fears had melted away.

She closed her eyes and tucked her head against his neck. No man had ever treated her the way Max did, with his demanding sexuality that was at times at odds with the concern he showered on her. He really paid attention not just to how she reacted physically around him, but also her emotional reactions. She suspected it was due to his time in the boardroom. He just knew how to read people. Especially her, and that made her more than a little nervous.

He made her feel needy and she was used to standing on her own. For tonight, though, she would put those fears to rest and enjoy her time with him.

He set her on her feet at his door and opened it with the key card. “Still sure?”

She nodded, not voicing any more of her body concerns. He made her want to stop hiding in the shadows of her former self—her former life—and step back into the land of the living.

She took his hand and tugged him behind her into the room. She stumbled over the carpet and reached out blindly to catch her balance. Max slipped his arm around her firmly holding her in place.

“Okay?”

No, no. But she wanted to be and Max was the one man to offer her that chance. As soon as the door shut behind them they were surrounded by the darkness. She knew that if she let Max take the lead, she'd be standing in a fully lit room with all her imperfections on display.

The only way she was going to come through this in one piece would be to take control now. She'd rarely done that in her relationships. She wasn't aggressive outside of dancing. But dancing was gone, and with Max she…she felt different than she ever had before. She wanted her actions to be distinctive to this man and this relationship.

So she pushed him back against the wall and leaned up to catch his mouth with hers, kissing him deeply and with all the passion she'd been waiting to shower on him since he'd brought her to a climax in the middle of the jazz club.

She sucked his tongue into her mouth and when he tunneled his fingers in her hair and tilted her head to a better angle for him, she nipped his tongue.

“Convinced?” she asked.

“I'm not sure. I might need a little more persuasion,” he said, turning on the light.

She froze, then pushed her fears down. This was about Max and what he made her feel. She'd ignore the light for now—distract him—until she could turn it off.

She loosened the knot in his tie but left it dangling. Then she tugged his shirttails from his pants and slowly unbuttoned his shirt, taking her time with each button, leaning down and kissing each new piece of skin that was revealed.

His nipples were hard by the time she had the shirt unbuttoned and his erection strained against his zipper. She smiled to herself at how he reacted to her. It made her feel very much like a woman. Very much in control of this man who made sure he was always the one in charge.

She lifted his collar and slid his tie over it to rest against his skin. The differences between them slipped away and there were only Max and Roxy in this moment. It didn't matter that he had more money than Midas and she'd been a showgirl.

She removed the cufflinks at his wrists and put them in his breast pocket before pushing his shirt off his shoulders and onto the floor.

Undoing the knot and holding on to each ends of his tie, she drew the soft, silk material over his nipples. His breath hissed out through his teeth.

She continued to brush one nipple with the tie while she bent and licked delicately at the other one. Then, when his hands clutched at her shoulders, she bit very carefully at his nipple.

He groaned and his hips jerked toward her. She smiled and switched her mouth to his other nipple
while continuing to move the silk over his body. She kissed her way down his chest, following the line of hair that disappeared into the waistband of his pants. She let go of his tie and reached for his belt buckle.

He had six-pack abs that had to have come from working out. She traced her finger over the delineated muscles and watched them ripple under her touch. “Do you work out?”

“Yes. Another thing we have in common,” he said in that husky voice of his.

Maybe the only thing they had in common. Doubts surfaced, but she pushed them aside. She wanted Max, and to be honest there was little she'd wanted in life lately.

“May I?” she asked, stroking her fingers over his belt buckle. The metal was cool in comparison with his hot stomach.

“Yes, you may,” he said, in a voice that was little more a rasp.

She unbuckled his belt and pulled it through the loops. Once it was free, she doubled it up in her hand and snapped it. “Have you ever had your hands tied during sex?”

“Why? You think you can dominate me?” he asked.

She waited a heartbeat and then two before looking at him from under her eyelashes. “I know I can, and I don't need this leather belt to do it.”

He arched one eyebrow at her and leaned back
against the wall. He looked like a decadent pasha from an exotic land who could have his pick of glamorous women, and for a moment she faltered. Max could have any woman…why her?

But as she looked at this man, she knew that tonight he wanted only her. She dropped the belt and unfastened his pants. Slipped her hand into his loosened waistband and was surprised to encounter nothing but warm male flesh.

“Commando?”

He shrugged. “I don't like to be confined.”

She stroked his length, exploring him with her fingers before reaching lower to cup him. He shifted his stance, spreading his legs farther apart. She scored him with her fingernails, scraping carefully against his sensitive flesh.

He cupped her head and brought her lips to his. His tongue thrust deeply into her mouth before he pulled back and stared into her eyes. He pushed lightly on her shoulders and she knew what he wanted. She lowered herself slowly, not kissing her way down his body but keeping her gaze fixed to his as she sank to her knees.

She leaned forward, letting her breath brush over his erection before twirling her tongue over the tip. Before she could go further, he held her head in both his hands and gently guided her back up until their eyes met. She felt a shift deep inside her and knew that she was falling for this man.

 

Max lifted Roxy into his arms and carried her into his bedroom. He placed her fully dressed in the center of his bed. He toed off his shoes and socks and then pushed his pants off before he turned on one of the bedside lamps. The room was cast in soft light and shadows. His tie still dangled around his neck but otherwise he was naked.

She rolled to her side to watch him, the skirt of her dress moving up to her thighs, and she shifted on the duvet. When she noticed how much skin she'd exposed, she stiffened and drew the skirt down her legs until they were covered again. Part of his heart was sad at the way she'd covered herself. Roxy was a woman who liked sensual things and that world had been taken from her when Technety attacked her.

He was determined to give her back that world. To reintroduce her to the pleasure of sensual delight and to her own body. He wanted—no, needed—to make her come apart in his arms.

He approached the bed. “I think you convinced me that you want me.”

“Did I?” she asked, a candescent light in her eyes as she watched him.

“Yes. Now, it's my turn to convince you,” he said, knowing he had to take it slowly for her but unsure of his ability to do so. He wanted to claim her, to
thrust inside her body and make her admit that he was her man.

“How are you going to do that?”

“You'll see,” he said. Since she was on her side, he sank down next to her and lowered the zipper at the back of her dress. She rolled onto her back, her honey-colored hair spread out on the comforter and he felt that clenching in his gut as he realized that this woman was his. That she was here in his bed.

He lowered himself next to her on the bed and kissed her, caressing her through her clothing. Rubbing his hands down her back, slipping his hand inside her dress to feel the smooth silk of her skin.