Freefall (The Indigo Lounge Series, #5) (36 page)

When he’d spoken to her, his voice exuded sexual promise. Not that she wanted him to make good on that, quite the opposite. Since her younger brother’s death, her father had needed someone to leave his empire to. She wanted to be that person despite his archaic views on women in business.

Particularly the football business.

He believed too many women around a football club would distract the players from their focus. He could just about accept that women were needed as office staff, in the cafeteria and to clean. But in positions of power and responsibility? She’d spent the best part of the entire year he’d owned Westchester United begging him to allow her to use her degree and prove him wrong.

A woman could work in a high profile career in a football club without having to sleep with the players. Or, as her father put it, allow herself to be fucked by them.

The game ended. Allegra made her way to the executive lounge. After one drink she could escape to her office and catch up on some work before Monday morning. Surely her father wouldn’t expect her to hang around any longer than that?

Allegra sat in a corner, nursed her drink and waited for her father to arrive and effectively dismiss her. She told herself she didn’t need that, didn’t need his permission. But she did. If she wanted him to see her as she knew she was—a smart, professional, hard-working employee he could rely on, he had to see her there.

“Can I sit here?”

His voice flowed over her. Deep, melodic and warm enough to light a fire in her belly.

She swept an arm out in front of her. “I think there are lots of other seats.”

He shrugged. “None I’d like to sit on.”

Gabe didn’t wait for a definitive answer before he sat. She supposed he was so used to getting his own way, it wouldn’t really matter what her response would have been.

He must’ve had the quickest shower in history. Allegra tried to pull her mind away from dangerous thoughts of water cascading over Gabe’s naked body. It’d be easier if he didn’t smell so fucking delicious.

“Gabriel, what do you want?”

He leaned forward and put out his hand. For one awful, heart-stopping moment she thought he was going to touch her...right there in the executive lounge in front of...well, everyone except her father.

Picking up the lanyard around her neck, he examined the picture on her security badge.

“Nice.”

Actually, it wasn’t. As with most pictures taken by computers her skin was leeched of any color, she looked as though she could carry a whole family’s luggage in the bags under her eyes, and worst of all she still wore her glasses.

She grabbed his picture. Annoyingly he looked healthy, vibrant and sexier than anyone on a stupid bit of laminated paper deserved to. Dropping it back against his chest, she leaned back in her seat.

His Westchester United polo shirt hugged his biceps. A tribal tattoo snaked out of his left sleeve and caressed its way down olive skin to his elbow. Words she couldn’t see properly swirled in black ink on the inside of his right forearm.

Tattoos had never been her thing. They did nothing for her. Yet now, all she wanted to do was trace a finger over his tattoo, following it up where it disappeared beneath his top. Hell it probably had nothing to do with whatever it was he had written on his skin.
She simply wanted to touch him.

She crossed her arms over her chest and pinned him with her best stare. “My father wouldn’t like to find you here talking to me.”

“I don’t care what your father would like.” The quick glance he shot around the room showed his words to be a lie.

His gaze seemed to burn into her, as though he could see what she wore under her very sensible black jeans and oversized Westchester training top. Her skin heated and she shifted uncomfortably.

“I understand he has a team picked out for you in deepest Russia if you displease him?”

“He wouldn’t sell me.” Gabe picked up her drink and took a sip of the dark red Merlot. “The fans would be in uproar.”

“I think he cares more about his business than he does the fans.”

“And not about you?”

“Of course he cares about me,” Allegra corrected. “Otherwise he wouldn’t have issued his warning.”

He studied her. “You think your father cares more about the club—his business—than he does about you?”

“That’s not what I said.” She hoped he emphatic delivery of her words would convince him. Her eyes strayed to the glass he’d touched. Her drink. That he’d helped himself to.

“You mentioned the club before yourself.” He leaned forward again. “I know how that feels.”

Confused, she could read the pain in his eyes but didn’t understand. “What?”

“To have a father who cares more about the game than his flesh and blood.” His voice was low, as though telling her a secret.

She didn’t want to have anything in common with Gabe, she certainly didn’t want to feel sorry for him. Actually she’d prefer it if she didn’t have any emotions towards him at all.

“My father cares only about counting his cash.”

“And not you?” he repeated.

“Certainly about me. I am his family.”

Still his eyes didn’t leave hers.

Allegra squirmed under his scrutiny, wishing she’d thought to wear a thinner top underneath the bulky, overly-warm training top. Taking off clothes, even outer-wear, wouldn’t be the best decision she ever made.

He’d taken a taste of her wine to un-nerve her. Well she damn well wasn’t going to let him. Two could play at his game.

Allegra picked up her wine glass and swirled the contents round. Dark red liquid sloshed perilously close to the rim. Her hands were shaking, she wished he didn’t make her so nervous.  She licked her lips and watched his blue eyes darken, his pupils expand as his gaze focused on her tongue.

Draining the Merlot, she put the glass back on the table between them. The sounds of the room died down and all she could hear was her own breathing.

“Allegra...”

“It’s time for me to leave. I need to work for a few hours...”

“Don’t leave yet.” He reached out and put a hand on her arm.

Her breath caught in her throat as zings of pleasure ricocheted through her body and settled in her core. He hadn’t even touched a remotely erogenous zone yet her body reacted as though he’d placed his hand inside her knickers.

“Why?” She hated that her voice trembled and he would know how affected she was by his touch.

“I’ve got a proposition for you.”

#

“A
business proposition,” he clarified.

“Business?” She shook her head, as though having trouble concentrating on his rapid turn of conversation.

“I need your help.” It was always best to get straight to the point. Too much time in her presence made his groin more than a little uncomfortable. Especially when her pink tongue flicked out to lick her lips.

“With?” She dropped her gaze to the table.

Irrational irritation threaded its way through Gabe. He didn’t want her to be attracted to him, it would make his proposal more difficult. But he didn’t want her to be oblivious to him either. That would just be wrong.

“I’ve been asked to be the spearhead of a charity,”

Cautiously, she looked up. The ugly glasses she wore added to his ‘Allegra fantasy’—the one where she threw off her spectacles, over-sized-cover-everything clothes and lay on her desk in nothing but red fuck-me stilettos and lacy underwear begging him to lock her office door and bring her to a screaming orgasm.

Yeah, he’d thought about this way too much.

He needed to go out and get laid. Pure and simple.

“What charity?”

Gabe dragged his attention back to the conversation he’d started and away from wondering whether she shaved her bush.

“I’ve spent some time in the local hospital. They are building a wing especially for teenage cancer patients and have asked me to raise money for it. I thought...”

“What do you want me to do, Gabe?” Her voice had an edge to it he hadn’t heard before. A warning. Despite that, her innocent words turned him on.

Suck my cock.

“I was no good at school. I can barely add up with a calculator. I need someone with your type of expertise to keep control of the money raised. Can you do that?” Gabe softened his voice and gave her the smile that always worked when he wanted something. “Will you do that? For me, please?”

“No.” A hint of a smile played around the lips he longed to taste. Gabe opened his mouth to speak but she held up a hand. “I won’t do it for you but I will do it for the children.”

The stirring of an erection he’d felt imagining her mouth around his cock deflated faster than a popped party balloon. Contrition flooded through him. What sort of a shit was he that he could think of nothing but screwing Allegra when the reason he was there was so serious, so important to him?

“I’m grateful.” He kept his voice light, dropping the flirty tone he usually used to such good effect. “The children will be too.”

“I’m sure.” She hesitated, as thought there was something else she wanted to say but couldn’t find the right words.

“What is it?”

“If this is a veiled attempted to get me into your bed, you will be unsuccessful.”

Gabe choked back an astonished laugh. “No. No, not at all.”

She raised a perfectly arched eyebrow.

“Okay, if we are being honest...”

“I think that’s best if we are going to work together.”

“Of course I want to fuck you. Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because I’m a woman and it’s failure on your part if you don’t?”

“No, because...” Gabe stopped.

He could hardly insult her by telling her he thought if he got her naked he was sure there was a killer body under her freakishly ugly clothing. He didn’t need to look around the room to know she was the only woman dressed in jeans and a Westchester United training top.

Some would be wearing clothing a lot more...obvious. Flimsier clothing that meant every man in the room would be able to tell exactly what was underneath. Suddenly Gabe was glad Allegra wasn’t dressed that way. He wanted to be the only man there fantasizing about what was under her clothes.

She sat back, a self-satisfied smile changing her from prim and proper to flirty. That was all he needed. Safe Allegra was easy, his hormones didn’t rage too far out of control when she was around. When she flirted or licked her lips...all he could think of was burying himself inside her.

“Because what?”

He refused to squirm under her gaze, refused to be less than he was and fob her off with a pat answer he instinctively knew she’d reject.

“Because you’re not the type of woman who will fall over with your legs in the air begging me to fuck you.”

She flushed but to her credit, her gaze remained locked onto his. “You see me as a challenge?”

“Absolutely.”

“And let me guess, you always get what you want?”

“I always get
who
I want.” He corrected her.

“I'm here to do a job, to prove to my father I can be as good in business as any man. I’m not going to ruin that by being your plaything.”

“But you want to, don’t you?” Gabe couldn’t resist.

“Be your plaything?” She faltered. Enough for Gabe to know he’d rattled her.

“Yes.” He coated his voice with a seductive charm he rarely bothered to use. He simply didn’t need it. “You want me to play with you, Allegra, I can tell.”

“I...no...I do not.”

“You can deny it all you want, I can see it in your eyes.” Darkest brown eyes had turned almost black as he spoke, leaving her pupils barely distinguishable.

She wanted him.

“That’s ridiculous.” She stood. “Email me what you need me to do. But now I must work.”

He fisted his hands together at his side. He wanted to reach out and stop her leaving. Touching her now would not be a good idea. The absolute last thing he wanted was to make any type of scene in front of his colleagues.

Despite his assertion he wasn’t bothered about her father, he damn well was. It annoyed him. He hated caring what other people thought about him, but he did. Being better than his father didn’t matter only because he wanted to be the better player, Gabe also wanted to be the better man.

He watched as she left the room. No one gave her a second glance.

Most of the men seemed to be too busy hoping the wife of Westchester United’s goalie would finally fall out of her low-cut top.

Her plastic tits were a truly impressive size but Gabe preferred natural to synthetic. Real flesh that would move as a woman gyrated while riding him. As Allegra’s would.

It didn’t matter that she believed she was immune to him. He
would
fuck her. On his terms. When he was ready. She would be the one touching him, begging him to put his cock inside her.

She’d issued a challenge, one he could not ignore.

By Christmas she would be his plaything.

Because she was right, he always got what he wanted.

***

One on One releases 1
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May 2015

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Zara Cox has been writing for almost twenty-five years but it wasn't until nine years ago that she decided to share her love of writing sexy, gritty stories with anyone outside her close family (the over 18s anyway!). The Indigo Lounge Series is Zara's next step in her erotic romance-writing journey and she would love to hear your thoughts. Visit her
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Did you love
Freefall
? Then you should read
High
by Zara Cox!

Welcome to The Indigo Lounge, the scandalously sexy sky-high playground where anything can happen...

Flirty, dirty and utterly delicious, HIGH is the perfect next read for lovers of the internationally renowned This Man series from Jodi Ellen Malpas & Sylvia Day's Crossfire series.

Zachary Savage is a man accustomed to getting whatever and whoever he wants. He's buried his demons and risen from the ashes to become the playboy owner of the internationally renowned Indigo Lounge, a fleet of ultra-exclusive sky-high pleasure palaces.

He has everything he wants, until he sets eyes on Bethany Green. One look is all it takes ~ she has to be his.

Bethany Green has endured the worst year of her life; bad luck and heartbreak at every turn. Karma swings wildly in her favour when a money-can't-buy golden ticket lands in her lap - an invitation to experience the scandalously sexy Indigo Lounge for herself.

Green by name and green by nature, is she brave enough to accept the hottest ticket in town?

One glimpse of Zachary Savage is enough to convince her that she isn't cosmopolitan enough to play in his glamorous, sinfully sexy world. But they're already in the air, and reality is a long way behind them. The only way is up.

The Indigo Lounge. Step aboard and check your inhibitions at the door.

Praise for High:

Wow! The naughtiest book I've read this year, so hot it made ME blush!
Zara Cox
is a sizzling new voice in the erotic fiction world.
Kitty French, USA Today best selling erotic author of The Knight Series.

*Warning* This book contains explicit sexual scenarios that will make your pulse explode. 18+ only.