His Girl Friday (8 page)

She sighed, stretching, her eyes on the powerfully built man fumbling with the coffeepot. Funny, she couldn't remember ever seeing him fumble, and he'd said something incredible about her if she could only remember what. She felt real y good. Light-headed. Delightfully boneles . Nothing mat ered anymore. She hummed to herself, raising one leg lazily, idly noticing the fabric sliding down to her hips, leaving her long, elegant legs in their silky hose bare and pret y. She didn't have bad legs, she thought, even if she couldn't win a beauty contest.

Cabe had started the coffee, and turned back just as the skirt of her dres slid away. His jaw clenched. God, he'd never seen anything half that lovely, and the way she looked today, he couldn't blame Ben for taking her out. The miracle was that he'd been able to bring her back. She real y was something when she dres ed properly and emphasized her as ets. And what as ets they were, he thought, studying her boldly.

She turned her head a lit le, aware of his blatant stare. He'd never looked at her like that before, she told herself. But even with alcohol fogging her mind, she knew that she shouldn't encourage him. He was a playboy, and she certainly wasn't cut out to be a one-night stand.

With a faint sigh, she turned over on her side, pulling her skirt discreetly down as she closed her eyes sleepily. Cabe watched her with turbulent emotion. Why had Ben encouraged her to drink like that? His new sales manager had been exhibiting some odd behavior lately, and he was sporting a new Jaguar. Cabe knew his financial situation, and he was certain that the younger man couldn't afford a set of wheels like that on what he was being paid at Rit er Equipment Corporation. He frowned, brooding over Da-net a's sensuous figure while he answered two phone cal s and checked the outer office for customers. Fortunately it was a slow day.

He poured a cup of very strong black coffee and sat down beside her, touching her shoulder lightly to awaken her. She opened her eyes and stared up at him blankly. Then she smiled, and it was like sunshine on a rainy morning. "Hi," she murmured.

"Hi, yourself," he replied tersely. "God, what a headache you're going to have. Here. Sit up and drink this." She dragged herself up, facing him, her body stil feeling boneles . He had to help her hold the cup while she took several brief sips.

"It's too strong," she complained.

"It has to be," he replied. "I can't run the office by myself."

She caught her breath. It suddenly dawned on her where she was, who she was, and what she did for a living. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Mr. Rit er," she blurted out. She colored violently. "Ben bought this expensive bottle of white wine, and I didn't real y want any, but it seemed impolite to say no when he'd paid so much for it."

He scowled. None of this made much sense, least of al Ben's sudden interest in Danet a. Ben was the real playboy in the company, although he was relatively discreet. He liked the hard-drinking, hard-playing kind of woman, and Danet a certainly wasn't that.

"Your parents should have encouraged you to date a few rakes while you were in your teens," he said unexpectedly, stil scowling as he studied her flushed face. "You don't have the experience to recognize one."

She lifted her eyebrows. "Certainly I do," she said. "I work for one."

He searched her soft, gray eyes but didn't smile. "The image is convenient," he said. "I encourage it. But don't make the mistake of thinking that I'm everything I seem to be." That didn't make sense. Of course, nothing else did, either. She sipped more of the coffee. "Ben's nice." He glared at her. "I gather he's the reason for the change from your regular uniform?" he asked, his blue eyes sliding down her body. "I don't wear a uniform," she protested.

"Long skirts and granny blouses and your hair in a bun," he said curtly. "You never come to the office looking like you do today. Except once," he bit off, remembering too vividly the occasion.

"I am aware that sexy women are endangered when in the company of rakes," she said with deliberate enunciation. "You said not to give you the wrong idea." "I said a lot of things," he replied angrily. "You were right about that," she said, wondering why he was so angry. "I don't do one-night stands, and you wouldn't want a secretary that you'd.. seduced. I only dres ed up for Ben today."

He took a slow breath, his eyes holding hers. "Danet a, as difficult as it may be to convince you of this, I don't do one-night stands, either," he said quietly. "In fact, I don't sleep around. I never have."

She stifled a giggle. "Sure."

He raised an eyebrow. "Only a child like you would accept a facade like mine."

"The way you kis ed Karol the other day was no facade," she shot back, outraged al over again at being an involuntary witnes to that ardent as ault. He watched her sudden color with interest. "I didn't say I was total y inexperienced. I just said that I don't sleep around."

"Then why let everyone think you do?"

His sensuous mouth curved up at one corner. "Because it keeps marriage-minded women out of my hair. No sane homebody goes after a playboy with happily ever after in mind."

"No, I gues not." She wasn't sure if she was real y hearing this or if she was stil in an alcoholic stupor. She pinched herself and grimaced, just to make sure.

"You aren't dreaming. Your head wil tel you that later," he mused. He brushed the untidy hair away from her face, his fingers slow and tender. "Did it bother you, watching me kis Karol?" he asked unexpectedly, and saw the answer in her expres ion.

She finished her coffee with hands that tremored faintly. "I'm bet er now," she said. "I'l get back to work." But he didn't move, and she couldn't. His hand brushed her cheek, resting there while his thumb smoothed lazily over her soft lips. His blue eyes began to darken, to narrow. "Has a man ever twisted you into his body that way and put his mouth against yours as if he'd die to have it?" She turned scarlet. "Men don't feel that way about women like me," she said, averting her gaze to his jacket. It was a silky light gray, very becoming. The white shirt and red pat erned tie under it emphasized the darknes of his skin, and he smel ed of expensive cologne. He was too close again.

"Why don't they?" he asked. His fingers trailed lightly down her throat, making her weak.

"I'm not. . not the kind of woman who inspires violent emotions," she stammered. "I'm old-fashioned and quiet and.. "

"And exquisitely sexy," he breathed as his warm mouth brushed softly against hers in a shocking, sweet contact. He lifted his head and searched her face, as es ing her helples response with pure pleasure. "Give me that," he said softly. He took the coffee cup,.empty now, and put it on the coffee table before he turned back to her. His eyes were darker now, smoldering with emotion, and there wasn't a trace of expres ion on his hard features. He framed her face in his lean, warm hands and drew her mouth up under his.

"You said.. the other day.. " she faltered, trying to think when al she knew was the warm whisper of his breath on her lips.

"I said that once my mouth covered yours, there was no going back," he whispered. His hands tightened. "I meant it. Don't pull away from me. Let me fit my mouth to yours. . let me open yours, the way I told you I would.. .Danet a!"

He did that, slowly, with deadly mastery, so that she lost the wil to resist almost immediately. Her eyes closed helples ly as the hard, warm crush of his mouth began to burn on hers, his lips pushing hers apart, the kis growing steadily more intimate until her breath mingled with his and she could feel his tongue stealing inside her mouth. She stiffened and gasped, startled by the invasion. That kind of kis was one she'd always avoided with her infrequent dates, but Cabe wouldn't let her pull back. One big hand slid to her nape and trapped her mouth against his while his tongue shot inside it, in slow, deep thrusts that made her body clench. She moaned. Her nails bit into his broad shoulders, into the fabric of his jacket, and she shuddered as the rhythm of his penetrating tongue became violent, as he groaned harshly against her mouth and she felt his hands tremble where they held her face.

The danger of what was happening filtered through to his brain, even as his body was beginning to tense in agony. He had to force himself to lift his head, and when he saw Danet a's sensuous, rapt face, it took al his wil power not to take her mouth a second time.

Her eyes opened, soft like a gray mist, trusting, faintly hungry and a lit le dazed. Her mouth was swollen and trembling. He searched her eyes in a heady silence, his hands smoothing her hair while he fought for control of himself. "French kis es weren't al owed before this, I gather?" he asked huskily.

"You.. made me," she managed, her voice thready and high-pitched as she came down from the heights he'd taken her to.

"Yes." He touched her sensitized lips, masculine appreciation in his narrow eyes. "You need teaching," he said huskily. "You even taste virginal." Her heartbeat shook her as she met his gaze. It had never been like that with anyone. The intimacy stil unnerved her, because it had been so suggestive. Would it be that way in bed, she wondered helples ly; would he insist if she resisted the stark intimacy, would he make her give in to him____

"It was only a kis , Danet a," he said, his voice deep and quiet. "Nothing to be afraid of."

"It would be like that. .in bed," she whispered, so shat ered that she voiced her thoughts.

His expres ion hardened, his eyes began to burn. "Yes," he ground out. "Exactly like that. You'd pull back out of fear and I'd hold you to me, I'd gentle you in the sweetest kind of way, and you'd yield to my body. And then you'd stop being afraid and it would be like fires burning in the darknes , like thunder in a black sky. You'd resist, but only for a few seconds. Then you'd want me back, and you and I would go up in flames."

Her body trembled at the pictures in her mind, and she knew that he was doing it deliberately. His eyes held hers, unblinking, watching her reactions.

"One day," he said huskily, "I'l have you. In spite of everything, you'l lie in my arms and give yourself to me." She couldn't breathe. He pulled her face into his throat and wrapped her up in a rough, tight embrace, his powerful arms contracting until she was crushed to him, drowning in the scent and feel of him. She should have protested that last statement, she should have said something. But she already knew that it was the truth. If she didn't get away from this office, it was going to happen. Now that she'd had a taste of him, it wouldn't be enough. She closed her eyes and wanted to cry. She'd been afraid of this moment subconsciously since the very first day she'd walked into the office, since her first sight of the elegant and very sexy Mr. Rit er with his icy pale eyes and sensuous mouth. She felt him move, felt her body descend to the sofa. He was easing her down, and the look on his face was exciting and terrifying, because he looked like a man whose control had snapped. His eyes were burning into hers, his hands held a faint tremor as they lifted her backward onto the couch. She watched him, helples , her body as hungry as her eyes, confused by her own reactions to his potent ardor. "Hel o?"

They both jumped at the loud voice coming from the waiting room. He let go of Danet a and stood erect, scowling down at her while he tried to make his mind work.

"Is anybody here?" the loud, half angry voice came again.

"My God," Cabe breathed, his eyes holding Danet a's for just a second before he straightened, turned on his heel and went out into the waiting room. He'd closed the door behind him. Danet a threw her shaky legs over the edge of the sofa and struggled to her feet. She was stil unsteady, but the coffee was beginning to work. She took her cup to the pot and poured it full again, leaning back against his bookcase to sip it. Her life had become too complicated for words in the past few days. She stared into the coffee dazedly. Was she delirious, or had Cabe Rit er just kis ed her into blind submis ion?

She finished the coffee just as he came back into the office, somber and a lit le distant.

"Feeling bet er?" he asked.

She nodded. "I'm very sorry," she repeated numbly. "I didn't mean to get sauced at lunch, and I won't do it again. I. ." She glanced at the sofa and blushed, avoiding his eyes. "I'l just get back to work, now."

She put down the cup and started toward the door. He looked as if he might reach out and catch her on the way, but he leaned back against his desk instead, his hands on the edges, the knuckles turning white.

Her hand paused on the doorknob of the outer office. "I apologize for the way I acted just now," she said expressively, stil with her back to him. "It was the wine. I've never done anything like that before. I hope it didn't give you the wrong idea," she faltered.

"No," he said softly. "There's nothing to be embarras ed about, Danet a."

She grit ed her teeth. "And I am sorry, Mr. Rit er."

"My name is Cabe," he said, his voice quiet, very deep.

"Yes, I know, but. ."

"If you'd rather not use it when we've got clients in the office, I don't mind. But when we're alone, I don't want to be cal ed Mr. Rit er again." She mustered enough courage to glance at him, fascinated by the expres ion on his face. Tendernes mingled with soft indulgence lay there, and his blue eyes were without their usual hardnes .

"Al right, Cabe," she said in a barely audible whisper.

His eyes slid down to her mouth and lingered there posses ively. He thought about the deep, intimate kis they'd shared and his body tautened at the pleasure it brought back. She was exciting to make love to. Dangerously exciting. She was a virgin and she'd expect to marry the first man who stormed the citadel of her innocence. Why couldn't he make himself remember that?

"Get me Howard Drake on the phone, wil you?" he asked suddenly, and forced himself to move behind the desk and sit down.

"Yes, sir," she replied. She went back to her own desk and placed the cal for him. It was going to be a chal enge to put this day behind her. It was like a turning point in her life, but where it would lead, she couldn't gues .

Five