Perhaps she could have taken offense, but she knew they hadn't meant any harm with their curiosity. Besides, each person had bought something so that it wouldn't look like they were there only to gawk. And she'd been glad when a few customers passed on information about the local organizations they worked for that could use some financial assistance--one for rescue dogs, one for a literacy group, and one for a new playground in town.
She had only just stepped inside her house and kicked off her shoes when Alec appeared at the door. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt and carrying a suit bag.
Her impulse to kiss him this morning had been a good one, so she let herself give in to tonight's urge to throw her arms around him and hold him tight. "Hi." He was stiff against her when she hugged him, as though he thought he needed to keep some distance between them. But she didn't let go. "I'm glad you're here." Her stomach rumbled and she laughed. "My stomach is too."
He smiled, but she could see the concern behind it. "Everything go okay after I left?"
"Just like I told you in response to every one of your bazillion text messages this afternoon--yes, everything went fine."
"Good. Now that I'm here, I sent Roman's guards home." He ran his hand across her cheek and then her hair, as though he needed to verify for himself that she was safe and in one piece. "Any requests for dinner?"
"I've got chicken and steak in the fridge, but vegetarian would be great too." She took his suit bag. "I know you're itching to start foraging in the garden beds, so I'll put your things away."
After hanging up his suit in her closet, she stood in the open doorway and indulged herself in watching him. Her first impression of Alec had been all about power, though his looks had been hard to ignore. Now, she saw him differently. He was still powerful. Still gorgeous as sin. But with a gentleness--and a hole inside of him from his childhood--that made her chest clench tight.
Moving into the garden before he caught her staring, she helped him pull onions and carrots, radishes and potatoes. As they brought the vegetables inside, she asked, "Did you have any problems at your office? Mona didn't come back to stir things up again, did she?"
"She's not creative enough to come up with another attack," he reassured her. "There were a few nosy customers who wanted the scoop on Gordon and you and the current status of the business--just like there were some curious customers here today. But it was nothing I couldn't deal with. And everything is in place for the press conference tomorrow. I just need you to confirm that nine a.m. at my office will work for you. We'll be setting up in the conference room, which holds fifty."
"That's fine," she said, even as nerves skittered up her spine at telling that many people her story. He pulled out his phone, and when he was done texting his assistant to approve sending the time and location to the press, Cordelia asked, "Tomorrow, when we're at the press conference, are you sure you want to keep up the lie about our being together?"
"Yes." She appreciated that he didn't pause, didn't hesitate at all. "It makes sense."
If everything Alec and his siblings had said this morning was true, it really did make sense. And so, she now believed just as strongly, did this.
Cordelia reached for the hem of her T-shirt and pulled it over her head.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
All last week, Alec's dreams had run hot, with Cordelia playing the starring role. Kissing her on his couch, making her come on the plane--neither had gone anywhere close to quenching his desire for her. Every tiny taste he'd had just made him want more.
And yet, he knew better than to turn those dreams into reality. Somewhere in the back of his brain--a brain that was barely functioning at the moment--he understood that he needed to stop her from taking off the rest of her clothes. Needed to pick up her shirt from where she'd tossed it and have her put it back on.
But for the first time in his life, Alec wasn't able to think straight. He wasn't able to move away, or to remember all the reasons why they shouldn't do this. Not when Cordelia's strong yet elegant hands were already on the button of her jeans. And then the zipper. All he could do was hold his breath as she let the denim fall in a puddle at her feet.
His mouth was dry, his breath coming faster than it should have, just from looking at her in a bra and panties. The black cotton wasn't skimpy. Shouldn't even have been sexy.
But the way she wore it made every inch of him go hard. Hungry. Desperate to touch. To taste.
To possess.
She kicked her jeans away, and he wanted to drink in her gorgeous curves, wanted to memorize every inch of her beautiful body.
He made himself drag his fiery gaze back to her face instead. "Cordelia." Her name came out raw. Hoarse.
She put a finger on his lips before he could say anything more. "You helped me on the plane. Helped me release so much stress. I know none of this has been easy for you either." She ran the pad of her thumb over his lower lip, as if she couldn't resist touching him. Showing him what he could have if only he let go of his self-control. "Let me help you tonight."
"You don't have to do this." But God, how he wanted her to. "You don't owe me anything."
"I don't have to do it," she agreed. "I want to do it."
He was already so far past the point of reason that he could barely get the words out. "I'll hurt you. I can't hurt you."
"You won't hurt me, Alec." She moved even closer and took his hands in hers. "I know what this will mean. And I also know what it won't. You're not going to be my boyfriend. I'm not going to be your girlfriend. We're not going to end up with some magical happily-ever-after. Tonight we'll just be one friend helping another." He could feel the heat radiating off her skin. "And the truth is, it will help me too. Help me get all the way past what happened this morning--and also help me feel stronger to deal with what's coming tomorrow."
There were so many reasons he shouldn't do this, but the final reason she'd just given to do it trumped them all: She needed his help. And that was the one thing he could never deny her.
No matter what, he wouldn't let the aftermath be messy, wouldn't let either of them be awkward or weird about it. Fortunately, given how well they'd both dealt with her orgasm on the plane, their track record so far was good.
Alec lifted her into his arms, never so happy in all his life to get to touch someone. To get to be with someone. "I'll stop when you need me to stop." If it was just another orgasm she needed, that's all he would give her. No matter how desperate he was going to be for more.
"Stopping is the last thing I need tonight. What we did on the plane, it was good. So good. But it wasn't enough."
And then she threaded her fingers into his hair and dragged his mouth down to hers for a kiss so hot he had to stop walking toward her bedroom. Because he couldn't do a damn thing but devour her. Her lips. Her cheekbones. Her eyelids when they fluttered closed. And then back to her sumptuous mouth.
On a groan, he dragged his mouth from hers and stumbled toward what he hoped was her bedroom. He'd never been clumsy, never been out of control. But with Cordelia, nothing had ever been close to normal. Just as he could never have predicted her existence, he couldn't have predicted his reaction to her either. The way she didn't just stretch his control, but snapped it completely. The way one smile from her had his own lips curving up in response.
The way one kiss had him wanting to possess her, body and soul.
Her bedroom wasn't big and neither was her bed. Barely large enough for two, her mattress was covered with a bedspread printed with flowers that looked so real he was almost afraid of crushing them when he laid her on top of it. Her bed frame was antique, a four-poster that immediately sent his brain--and body--reeling with images of using those posts to bind her just tightly enough so that he could torment her with his fingers, his tongue, and bring her to the edge again and again, not letting her pleasure spill over until she was hoarse from begging. But the last thing he wanted was to scare her with the force of his desire, with how all-encompassing his need for her h
ad already grown.
As she grabbed at his T-shirt to yank it up over his head, then scrambled for the zipper of his jeans, he wanted to be skin to skin with her just as badly as she obviously did with him. But first, he needed her naked. Needed to see every inch of her, needed to be able to touch without boundaries of any kind getting in the way.
He put his hands over hers to still them on his zipper, where he was pulsing beneath her palm. "You first." Her eyes went from their hands to his face. "Everything." His mouth was actually watering. "Off."
She smiled, brightly enough to outshine the sun, but there was a flicker of unease there too. Uncertainty he couldn't ignore.
"Tell me," he said. "Friend to friend."
She bit her lip, looking suddenly shy. "I've been with other men, so I'm not a virgin or anything. But I'm still not..."
He tipped his hand beneath her chin so that she couldn't look away. "Not what?"
"Not a beauty queen." She rolled her eyes. "Like you didn't know that already."
"You are beautiful. So damned beautiful, Cordelia."
"And you're sweet. But I'm sure you're used to women who are sleek and polished." Her skin flushed. "Everywhere."
He almost laughed when he realized what she was worried about--that she was too natural for him. "Silicone belongs in construction adhesives, not women's chests." He curved his hands over her breasts, loving the way her breath went at being touched even through cotton. "And if you ask me," he said as he slid one hand down over her stomach, then past the waistband of her panties, "women shouldn't want to look like hairless dolls either." He found her soft curls damp, her sex slick with arousal. "You're perfect, Cordelia. Just the way you were made." He couldn't keep himself from sliding inside. "Just the way you are."
She arched up into his hand, and from the way her pulse was pounding at her throat, how flushed her skin was, how fast her breath was already coming--he knew he could take her over, just that quickly. But the next time she came for him, he wanted her naked.
"Strip for me," he urged her again as he made himself move his hands from her. "Finish what you started in the kitchen."
She trembled slightly, but from the way her lips were curved up slightly at the corners, he knew it was from arousal now, rather than nerves. She reached behind her for the clasp of her bra, and he held his breath. That night on his couch he hadn't let himself truly appreciate her, because he'd known better than to touch her like that while she was grieving and tipsy.
Tonight, he was going to take his time and appreciate every inch of her.
Her bra dropped away, and he was this close to leaping on her like a wild animal, nearly lost to everything but the instinctive urge to capture and possess. "You're gorgeous, Cordelia."
She was lying back on the bed now, her fingers tucked into the sides of her panties. Stilling at his words, she smiled, pure sunshine as she said, "Thank you."
Any other woman would have been preening at his compliment, posing to highlight her best assets and then fishing for more. But Cordelia simply took his words at face value, which was a very rare trait in his dating experience.
Not, of course, that they were dating. This was just sex between friends. A way to blow off steam in a mutually agreeable fashion and take the edge off a damned hard week. Whatever his next thought would have been fell out of his head as she began to shimmy the final scrap of cotton from her hips and down her thighs.
One second he was standing at the base of her bed, the next he was with her on it. He heard her breath whoosh from her chest as he landed, careful not to crush her, but needing to feel her.
All of her.
He crushed her mouth beneath his as he tangled his hands in her hair and kissed her like his life depended on it. And tonight, it felt as though it actually did. As though there was no going forward without Cordelia, her arms holding him tight, her legs wrapped around his waist.
From the first moment he'd met her, she'd held nothing back. She always told him exactly what she thought, always did what she thought was right. And she was just as honest in bed--from her passionate kisses, to the unabashed way she arched her hips up into his, to the wonderfully happy sounds she made as he moved his hands from her hair to her breasts.
He lifted his mouth from hers, needing to see her eyes, needing to know for sure that he was making her feel as good as she made him feel. "I want to watch you. Watch how you respond when I touch you." He cupped one breast, relishing soft flesh, smooth skin. "I want to see every beautiful reaction."
He rolled the taut tip with his thumb and middle finger and she gasped. And when he caressed her other breast and her eyes fluttered closed as pleasure washed over her, he had to kiss her again, had to fill himself with her taste before lifting his head to watch as he moved his hands lower.
The muscles of her abdomen jumped beneath his fingertips as he made a deliberately slow trip south over her body. The more he wanted to rush, the slower he made himself go. And when she begged--"Alec, please, just touch me"--he knew it was the right move.
On the plane, he'd taken her up and over on a quick burst of heat into flame. Tonight, he'd keep her at a slow simmer for as long as he could. Cruise down the runway, then take her up and up and up, so high that she wouldn't ever want to come down.
"Do you have any idea how many times I've replayed your orgasm in my head?" He stopped his hand between her hip bones, just below her belly button.
"It can't be as many as I have." She wriggled beneath him, obviously trying to get his hand where she really wanted it. "Make me come again, Alec. Just like you did last time."
"Don't worry, I'll definitely make you come again." He smiled at her. "But we're going to do things differently tonight."
He saw her eyes go wide right before he lifted his hand from her stomach and replaced it with his mouth. She inhaled sharply as he pressed a kiss to her skin. She smelled like flowers everywhere. Even here, so close to the slick, sweet center of her.
Her hands were restless, tugging at his shoulders, then the sheets, then his hair, so he grabbed them and threaded his fingers through hers. "Seems like you're as excited about this as I am."
"Yes!" She clenched his hands in hers. "I'm really, really excited about this."
He laughed, kissing her belly even as the surprising sound came from his lips. Sex hadn't always been a serious thing for him, but it had never been like this. Easy. Carefree. Just plain right.
"Hopefully, you'll be even more excited in a few minutes." He followed up his teasing words with kisses that teased even more as he made his way down between her thighs.
"I've never wanted anyone the way I want you," he whispered, and then there were no more words that mattered as he devoured her with long, slow slicks of his tongue, then a deep plunge that had her crying out and her hips bucking against his mouth in a desperate rhythm. Her nails dug into his hands while her body quaked and shook through her climax. He couldn't get enough of her taste, her unbridled response, her boundless passion.
"Alec."
She didn't need to say anything more than his name in that breathless voice for him to know that she was lost to everything but pleasure. And so was he.
It didn't matter what happened tomorrow in the press conference. All that mattered was that he was holding Cordelia in his arms tonight, and that he'd just made her entire body smile, head to toe.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Cordelia's world would never be the same.
Not after what Alec had just shown her--such intense pleasure that the word barely scratched the surface.
She'd thought she'd known what was coming tonight. After all, they'd already kissed, and he'd given her that beautiful release on the plane.
But she'd had no idea at all.
She felt like she could float away on a cloud of ecstasy. Were it not for the hard, heavy weight of his body over hers and the kisses he was pressing along her skin as he made his way back up her body with her hands still in his, she was sure that she would
have.
"Good?" His question sounded against the underside of her breast, where he was nuzzling her, his evening shadow scratching her skin in just the right way.
"So good." When he didn't respond, she realized she'd only mouthed the words. Working to get enough breath in her lungs to actually speak the words aloud, she tried a second time. "So good."
His face was level with hers by then, and when he smiled at her--a wonderfully wicked smile--she lost her breath all over again.
"I could do that all night." He pressed his mouth to hers for a soft kiss, before asking, "What about you?"
She did want that. What woman wouldn't? But tonight, she was even greedier. "I need you." Without her hands free, she couldn't strip his clothes off. But she could tell him, "All of you."
He stared down at her, his eyes dark and intense. "Are you sure?"
A week ago, she'd thought they were going to have as little to do with each other as possible and had assumed that lawyers would take over after their initial meeting. The last thing in the world she would have thought could happen was this--the two of them in her bed, with her begging him to take off his clothes and make love to her.
"I've never been this sure of anything in my life," she told him. But this wasn't just about her and what she needed, what she wanted. Alec had to be sure too. "What about you?"
He didn't answer right away. And though she was hovering on a breathless edge, she was glad for it. Because if they both thought things through, there would be less chance they'd regret them.
Not that she'd be regretting anything. Regretting making love to Alec would be like regretting a lavender bush's fragrant bloom, or a hummingbird drinking nectar from honeysuckle.
"I'm sure that I want you," he finally replied, his deep voice thick with the very desire he spoke of. "I'm sure that everything about you and your garden and even the sheets on your bed makes me smile." But he wasn't smiling as he continued. "And I'm sure that I'll never forgive myself for hurting you."
"You won't. I promise you, I'm not going to fall apart, or cry, or even stalk you online when this is over."
Finally, she got a hint of a smile from him. "Do you even have a computer?"