I must have been staring at him like he’d grown an extra head, because Connor gave me a mystified expression.“…what?”“What do you mean, ‘what’? What the hell was that?!” I fumed.“My only entertainment on a boring Friday night,” he grinned, then turned around and stuck out his arm. “Stan, a pleasure. Good to meet you.”Stanley just nodded his head in stunned silence as he shook hands.“Shall we?” Connor asked me as he gestured to the elevators with one hand and put the other on the small of my back.Oh.My.God.Just that firm pressure there – the warmth of his hand, of his very large hand pressed in the curve of my back – sent a pleasurable jolt of electricity up and down my spine.And his fingers slipped a little farther down as he pushed me gently forward. Just an inch or so.He didn’t touch my rear end or anything, but… it was headed in that direction before his hand stopped and his fingertips pressed a little harder.My knees got a little weak.“Okay,” I agreed feebly, and we w
We made our way back to my desk and Klaus’s office.The silence was a little uncomfortable.They have a saying in sales: the first person to speak, loses. Imagine a salesman is making a pitch to an undecided customer. When the salesman finishes his presentation and asks for the sale, he has to stop talking and wait for an answer. If he says something before the customer does, it looks like he’s desperate for the sale, and we all know how attractive desperation is. Whereas, if the undecided customer says something first, there’s this unspoken balance of power he’s bought into and acknowledged. Psychologically, he’s given the power over to the salesman, which usually results in the customer signing on the dotted line. Whoever speaks first, loses.In this scenario, I lost.“You still haven’t said what’s so important about these files that you have to waste a perfectly good Friday night,” I said, if for no other reason than to get the conversation flowing again.“Actually, I believe I di
Connor spent another hour intently examining file after file. He asked for the companies by name, and he seemed to know exactly what he was looking for.I didn’t do much except look for folders as he sat in Klaus’s designer office chair, his rock ‘n roll boots propped up on Klaus’s desk, and read and read and read.At the end, he tossed the last file on Klaus’s desk and leaned back, his fingers steepled in front of his face as he thought.I looked at him. He looked at me.“I feel like a cappuccino. You feel like a cappuccino?” he asked.“Uh… I guess I could go get some Starbucks if you want,” I agreed, feeling a little let down. I’d spent the first ten minutes of our acquaintance fielding passes from him, and the last thirty minutes playing Susie Secretary. Now I was demoted to Gidget Gopher.“Screw that,” he said. “Last time I was here, there was a pretty nice machine up in the boardroom. Want to check it out?”My heart caught in my chest.Exerton rented the penthouse of the building
His body was heavenly, firm and strong beneath his clothes. I clutched the back of his jacket, feeling the wall of well-sculpted muscles beneath my hands. And his mouth… ohhhhhh…His lips pressed against mine, firm but gentle. He brushed them across my skin, the same way he had inflamed me just seconds ago with his touch.I opened my lips wide, inviting him in.His tongue met mine… slowly… gently… taking his time. He alternated between using just his lips, then slowly caressing my tongue with his, the most arousing kiss I’d ever had in my life.His hand around my waist slowly dropped down to my rear end and cupped my cheek, feeling my curves, then pressed me against his hips.Oh.My.GOD.I couldn’t see anything – my eyes were closed and I was completely lost in the kiss – but there was this very long, very thick, very hard pressure between me and him. He was fully aroused – he had to have been.Before I slept with them, I had felt several boyfriends’ erections through their pants du
He looked down at me, and I looked up and bit my lip. I was suddenly shy.“Please,” he whispered hoarsely, his voice choked with desire.That was all it took.I traced my fingernail softly over the shape of his shaft and watched it jump and strain beneath his boxers.I had to see it. Now.I reached up, hooked my fingers in the waistband of his boxers, and tugged a little, then moved them around to his ass, tugged a little more.The waistband slowly descended, and I could see he had an all-over body tan, that gorgeous brown from head to toe (and everywhere else).I kept pulling.The boxers slid down over the perfect curve of his ass, but his penis had shifted and was now poking straight down. All I could see was the base of his shaft, a well-groomed thatch of brown curls, and the firmest, tightest abs I’d seen outside of an Abercrombie & Fitch ad.Wow.It was… very large.Incredibly thick.I wasn’t sure if I could even get my hand all the way around it.Both incredible desire and, if I
I might have screamed. I’m not sure – I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly. It was probably more like a really loud, sustained moan, and a few semi-coherent ‘Oh God oh God’s’ thrown in for good measure.I’m not a girl who orgasms easily. I had sex for the first time when I was 17, but I never actually had an orgasm until I was with my second college boyfriend. I had them occasionally after that. The few I did have were pleasant and stress-relieving.They were nothing like this.To tell the truth, I’m not actually sure anymore I’d ever had a real orgasm before this.It was like a wave of sensual electricity jolted me from my very center. My body shuddered from my toes to the top of my head, and contractions in the core of my body filled me with incredible pleasure.After it was all over and I opened my eyes (actually I think they were rolled back in my head), I saw Connor looking down at me with a grin.“Wow, you’re responsive,” he teased. “And that was just the tip.”I blushed a deep re
His hands grazed my belly, gently cupped my breasts, played over the little landing strip of hair between my legs. I returned the favor, entranced as I traced the shadowy swells of his muscles beneath his brown skin.“Turn over,” he growled.I began to get a little worried. I’d seen just enough porno clips to be concerned about where this might be headed.“Uh… why?”The corners of his mouth turned up. “Just trust me.”I wasn’t sure it was such a good idea… but I flipped over onto my stomach.He began to caress my ass, to brush his fingers across the inside of my thighs, and to kiss the small of my back. He licked lightly from the base of my spine all the way up to between my shoulder blades, then kissed his way back down.Aaaahhhh.I closed my eyes and just let him do whatever he wanted. The post-orgasmic glow was still washing through my entire body, and Connor was slowly stoking it up into a rising flame again. My brain was mostly mush at this point. I was totally in the moment, en
We walked out to the penthouse reception area. Before we stepped into the elevator, I looked at my reflection in the glossy black of the marble walls, and tried to put myself together so I didn’t look like a girl who’d had crazy, wild sex.I probably looked alright, but to my mind at that moment, anybody who saw me would instantly know. Like there was a blinking neon sign over my head: Just Had Sex On Boardroom Floor.Oh God, I was going to have to do the Walk of Shame in front of Stanley, and it wasn’t even morning.I sighed and got in the elevator with Connor.“Still freaking out?” he grinned.“Yes.”“Let me see if I can take your mind off it.”Then he raked his fingers down ever single button for ever single floor. They all lit up.Not exactly what I was expecting.“What did you do that for?!” I cried out.“So I’d have a little more time for this.”When they say ‘sweep a girl off her feet,’ I always thought it was an expression. I mean, it is an expression.Except when it happens l
The only part that was slightly sad was that Connor’s mother and brother didn’t attend. His mother was still under heavy psychiatric care. She wouldn’t have even known what was going on, according to Connor. As much as I disliked Lenora Templeton, that news saddened me. I only wanted her out of my life. I didn’t want her to end up like this.His brother had checked himself into rehab. Though he sent his congratulations, Vincent told Connor that he didn’t think he could attend, knowing what Miranda had done and how she had met her end. He felt he was still in too precarious a situation emotionally to leave the safety of the rehab center.I know that Connor still bore a lot of anger and hurt towards his mother and brother, but he would have liked to have had them there – as long as they behaved themselves.Things were improving, though. His mother was gradually getting better, and Connor had worked out a deal to take over as interim CEO of the Templeton Group while his brother was in r
But as far as wedding days go, it wasn’t the only one.Come on, I’d gotten married in sopping wet clothes, on a deserted island in the Caribbean, with only four people total in attendance.Did you really think I wasn’t going to have a billionaire-style shindig, with all my family and friends?Connor and I decided on it spontaneously, as soon as we got back home. But rather than hold it in New York City, with all its bad memories from the last couple of weeks, we held it two weeks later in Lake Cuomo, Italy. Have you ever seen pictures of Lake Cuomo? It’s like an Italian Renaissance fairytale. George Clooney bought a residence there, with good reason – it’s one of the most beautiful places on earth. And that’s where we had our wedding.There was only one shadow hanging over the entire day.After we were escorted back to St. Vincent by the policemen, Connor immediately hired a team of divers to go down to inspect the yacht’s wreckage. There was one body in particular he wanted found.B
It turns out Johnny was right: we didn’t see a single shark the entire way.That doesn’t mean it was a piece of cake. What with Johnny and Connor’s wounds, and my needing to rely on their help when I was tired, it took us almost an hour. By the time we got to the island, we were exhausted. But Sebastian was there to greet us. As we approached where the waves started to break, he saw us and started yelling and waving ecstatically from the beach.“A little help!” Johnny shouted at him. Sebastian immediately raced out into the waves and dragged me to shore. “Thank God, thank God,” he kept sobbing as he helped me lie down on the sand. Then he went back out and helped Johnny and Connor limp their way onto the beach.We all collapsed next to each other. Connor and I held hands as we stared up into the blue sky, too weary to speak.“I thought I’d never see you again,” Sebastian said, wiping tears from his face.I was touched; it was the most vulnerable I’d ever seen him.“No such luck,” Co
The happiest moment of my life was when Connor proposed to me.The second was when he burst through that door.And the third was seeing the look of surprise on Miranda’s face when she realized what I had done to her.While Connor kept her talking, I picked the lock and undid the handcuffs from my right wrist. (Bobby pins to the rescue!) Then I grabbed Miranda’s arm and slapped the cuffs on her.Anytime I’m ever depressed about anything from now on for the rest of my life, I’m just going to remember the look of surprise on that murderous bitch’s face, and everything will be better. Instant anti-depressant.Miranda yanked her arm up with a clank! of the chain, but she was locked to the metal armrest of the chair – which was bolted to the floor.She screamed in fury, and pulled the gun’s trigger.BLAM!But I’d purposefully bumped her aim away from Connor – so all that happened was one of the creepy glass spider cases shattered into tiny shards.The gunshot hurt my ears, but I’d been expe
I couldn’t take the shot. I wasn’t Johnny; my aim was good, but not stellar, and the floor was already at a 20 degree tilt. Miranda had her gun at point blank range to Lily’s head. If she pulled the trigger before I got her – I slowly held my .45 away from my body and let it fall to the floor.All the ugliness I knew was inside Miranda revealed itself on her face. It was the evil leer of a serial killer, the grin of a Great White Shark.“I win,” she gloated.My heart sank.It was over. I had failed.I looked at Lily, both sorrow and love welling up at once. She was seated in some sort of chair bolted to the floor, and was handcuffed to the metal armrest.Lily’s eyes were frantic, but her lips were moving. She was mouthing something…Keep her talking.I couldn’t tell for the life of me what she had in store, but I complied. I looked up at Miranda. “You win. You can do with me whatever you want, but please – let Lily go.”“Don’t waste your breath,” Miranda snarled. “Walk towards me w
The door suddenly burst open, and there stood Connor with a gun in his hand, just like the star of an action movie.My heart soared with love – and fear. Because Miranda was standing behind my chair, just like the villain in an action movie.I was between them – Miranda’s human shield.I felt the barrel of Miranda’s pistol jam against the back of my head.“Drop it,” she commanded, “or I kill her.”Connor looked at me helplessly.“Don’t worry about me – shoot her!” I begged him.But he wouldn’t take the chance. He held the gun slowly away from him and let it fall to the floor. CLUNK.I felt Miranda’s pistol stop pressing against my scalp, then saw it appear next to me as it pointed at Connor.“I win,” she said, and I could hear the sneering triumph in her voice.
I rushed over to Leo’s body, staggering in the tilting hallway as I ran.He was lying face-up on the ground, a pool of blood spreading out beneath him on the floor.He saw me coming. Tried weakly to lift his AR-15 – I put two more rounds in him with my .45.BLAM BLAM.He lay still after that.Adrenaline coursed through me like a drug, sharpening my senses while making everything unreal.I felt sick. I had just killed a man. I had just taken a life. He was a traitor, yes, and someone who was planning to hand me over to be killed – but still, I felt queasy.Lily.She was all that mattered. I pulled myself together.“Nice shooting,” Eve said in my ear. “Oh ye of little faith.”“What?” At first I thought she meant something about me doubting my abilities to shoot someone, which didn’t make any sense.“You thought I was a turncoat? AGAIN?”“Oh,” I said sheepishly. “Sorry about that.”“Hmph. We’ll talk later. Go down the hallway the way you were originally heading – there’s a half-dozen g
BOOM.There was a massive explosion somewhere on the ship. Every glass pane in the spider terrariums rattled, and a couple cracked.“What the hell?” Miranda said, and stumbled to her feet as the yacht began to tilt to one side.After my initial shock from the blast, I watched Miranda’s face. She was reacting with more fear – in fact, with more emotion – than I’d ever seen her display before.She looked back at me, her eyes wide with surprise.After all the indignities the bitch had put me through, I couldn’t resist. “Guess my fiancé’s here,” I said, and gave her a little smile.
I was halfway down the deck when Eve spoke in my ear. “Connor, there’s a problem.”“What?” I whispered.“Juan and Leo are on the other side of the yacht, but I’m not getting any video feeds of them.”There was a dull WHUP in the distance, then another one a few seconds later.Not like gunshots, exactly. But they did sound like a heavy book being dropped on a wood floor.I ducked into an alcove with a door in it, and hunkered down into a squatting position. “Juan? Leo?”“We separated, and Juan ran into a guard,” Leo’s voice said. “Juan’s dead, but I got the other guy before he could sound the alarm.”SHIT. Already things were going to hell, and we’d barely engaged the enemy yet.But… something didn’t make sense…I frowned. “I heard two silenced shots. How come I didn’t hear any regular gunfire?”“They’ve got suppressors, too. The first one was the guy shooting Juan, the second was me shooting the guard.”I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something seemed off. I just chalked it up to