Lawful Lover (Eternal Bachelors Club #2) (3 page)

“Thanks for holding. How may I help you?” a woman who sounded like she was chewing gum answered, interrupting her thoughts.

“Yes, I was expecting one of your trucks to arrive with my boxes three days ago. Can you tell me where it is?”

On the other end of the line, Sabrina heard the woman furiously typing away on a keyboard. “What’s your name?”

“Sabrina Palmer. The invoice was billed to Daniel Sinclair. It was a move from San Francisco to New York City.”

“Please hold.”

Before Sabrina could object, she heard the same monotonous elevator music again that she’d listened to for the past thirty minutes. She let out a frustrated groan and began to pace again.

No wonder moving ranked among the highest stress-inducing events in a person’s life, along with a death in the family and divorce. Didn’t these people realize they were dealing with all her life’s possessions? How could they be so cavalier about this?

“Thanks for holding, Ms. Palmer. It appears that your delivery should be arriving sometime today.”

“Do you have any idea what time today?”

Not that it really mattered. It wasn’t like she was going anywhere. Still, she was mildly irritated that she had to spend the day waiting for the movers when they should have been here three days ago.

“Please hold.”

“No! Don’t—” Sabrina was cut off by the music. “Ahh!”

It took several minutes until the woman was back.

“Miss Palmer, they’ll be there between now and four.”

It was already midday. “Between now and four?” she repeated. As if that narrowed down the waiting time. “Thanks.” She hung up the phone, stopping herself from getting upset with the woman. It wouldn’t change anything.

Sighing, she walked into the kitchen. Ice cream would calm her. It always did.

Sabrina had just opened the freezer when the doorbell rang. Was it possible? What were the odds of the movers arriving now? Swinging the freezer door closed, she rushed to the door and looked through the peephole. Sure enough, the man who stood outside her door wore overalls with the emblem of the moving company on its breast pocket. She opened the door.

“Are you Ms. Palmer?” the man asked.

“Yes. I’ve been waiting for you. I expected you three days ago.” The least they could do was give her an explanation for the delay.

“Sorry, ma’am, but I just follow the schedule I’m given by the office.” He nodded apologetically as two other men stopped behind him, each pushing a dolly with boxes in front of them.

Sabrina opened the door wider and waved for them to come in.

“Where would you like these?” the man asked.

The phone started ringing at the same moment.

“Uh, you can put the boxes over there.” She pointed to a niche next to the dining room, then reached for the phone on the side table. “Yes?”

“Miss Palmer, this is Harvey from downstairs. I’ve sent the movers up to you as requested.”

“Thanks, they’re here.” She put the receiver down.

Daniel had explained to her that anybody who entered the building had to be announced before they were allowed up to their residence, unless they had standing permission, such as the cleaners or delivery companies did.

Sabrina turned around and looked at the boxes the men were unloading.

Her decision to move to New York had been rather abrupt, and so had her packing. She’d simply thrown her belongings into boxes without any real organization and without marking them. She had no idea what was in each box. It would be easier to have them all piled up in one spot so she could go through them one by one later.

As the movers stomped through the apartment, their boots leaving footprints on the hardwood floors, she watched them stack box after box on top of each other. Did she really have that much stuff? It hadn’t looked all that much when it had been stored away in her closets.

“Where do you want this?” Two men came in, carrying her hope chest.

It was her maternal grandmother’s. She’d given it to Sabrina right before she’d died, and she now considered it her only real treasure. It was the one piece of furniture she wasn’t willing to part with. Virtually everything else she’d left in the apartment she’d shared with Holly, since Daniel had told her that there was no space for any additional furniture in his place.

“In the bedroom at the end of the hall.”

Sabrina cringed as she watched them make their way down the hallway, hoping they didn’t scratch the pristine walls with the bulky piece. Like a never-ending parade, the men walked in and out, bringing in more boxes and carefully-wrapped pictures, which she had no idea where to hang. She tried to direct the men, but the niche where they’d placed the first boxes couldn’t accommodate any more items.

“Where do you want the paintings?” one of the men asked, sweat building on his forehead, as he continued holding up the large frame.

She whirled around, searching for a safe place to leave her paintings, which were mostly prints by famous artists. She glanced at the open plan dining room which lay in between the living room and the kitchen, considering it as a possibility. But when her eyes fell on the glass china cabinet with the expensive looking dishes inside, she decided otherwise. She didn’t want to take chances and damage anything there.

“Against the wall in the living room,” she instructed the man.

He nodded, and simultaneously, the phone rang again.

She sighed. During the entire time that she’d been here on her own, the phone had barely rung, and now, when she was busy, it rang twice in the space of fifteen minutes.

“Yes?” she answered the call.

“I’m sorry to disturb you again, Miss Palmer. It’s Harvey again.”

“Yes, Harvey? Who is coming now?”

“Nobody, but I’m afraid the mover’s truck is parked at the incorrect loading dock and has to move. A larger truck is trying to get in and can’t. Can you please send one of the men down and have him move the truck to dock B instead of A? I’d very much appreciate it.”

“Of course,” she said and disconnected the call.

Frustrated that this meant that there would be even more of a delay until all her things were unloaded, she approached the man who seemed to be the leader of the moving team. “Excuse me?”

He turned to her. “Yes?”

“Security just called from downstairs. You’ll have to move your truck to the other loading dock. It’s blocking a larger truck that’s trying to get in.”

The man scratched his head, then he called out to one of his colleagues. “Hey, Frank, can you move the truck?”

“Now?” the man replied.

“Now. Just move it to the other loading dock.”

As the man left, Sabrina felt exhaustion crash in over her. Sure, she wasn’t the one carrying the boxes, but the prospect of having to unpack them and find space for all her things overwhelmed her.

In addition, she constantly worried that the movers might damage some of Daniel’s expensive items. The furniture looked virtually unused, and the shelves and tables displayed priceless pieces of art, sculptures, and paintings.

Sabrina looked around the apartment and felt the stress physically. She’d never lived in a place like this, where everything seemed new and expensive, where she was afraid to touch anything for fear of damaging it. Did people in New York really live like this? Well, clearly the rich ones did, and even though she’d known that Daniel was rich, until now she hadn’t really grasped what this meant.

When she heard the elevator alight on her floor again, she turned to the open entrance door. To her surprise, it was Daniel who walked out of the elevator.

“Daniel! You’re home early,” she greeted him.

He approached her, pulled her into his arms and pressed a kiss on her lips. “Looks like the movers finally arrived, huh?”

“About time too,” she said as they walked inside. “But what’re you doing home so early?”

Daniel set his briefcase on the floor and pulled her into his arms once more. “I left work early because I missed you.”

Sabrina put her arms around his neck and smiled. “I missed you, too.”

“I want to make love to you, Sabrina.” He kissed the sweet spot on her neck just below her ear, and she moaned softly. “I want to kiss every inch of your body, and I want to taste you.”

He brought his mouth to hers, his intent to kiss her evident, but before their lips met, one of the movers squeezed by them.

“Excuse me,” he said and pushed the dolly past them.

Wiggling out of Daniel’s arms, Sabrina tried to hide her disappointment. “I’m sorry, Daniel, I’m afraid that’s really bad timing.”

Daniel looked around the apartment. All he’d wanted was to come home and sink into Sabrina’s sweet body, to make her scream his name as he made her come, to find warmth in her arms. It was clear that this wasn’t going to happen any time soon. So he decided to do the only thing he could to speed things along: he helped the movers get things settled.

Luckily, there were only a few boxes left, and once those were brought in and the movers left, he helped Sabrina unpack the boxes that littered the apartment.

Sabrina was like an Energizer bunny, moving from room to room, unpacking one box and putting its contents away, then moving on to the next one without stopping or pausing to take a breath. She seemed to have an abundance of energy. He only wished that they could put this energy to better use than unpacking boxes.

When she approached yet another box, he followed her.

“Take a break, Sabrina,” he suggested and wrapped his arms around her from behind.

She leaned into him, sighing. “I had no idea I had so much stuff. Honestly, it didn’t look like that much when I packed it.” She turned her head, looking at him apologetically.

He glanced at the remaining boxes. “It’s much less than I expected. But then—” He winked at her. “—you’ve always been a no-frills kind of woman. And I love that about you.”

His ex-girlfriend Audrey had been a high-maintenance woman. Just thinking that Audrey could have moved in with him instead, made him shudder in horror. She would have brought her interior designer with her first, before even contemplating a move.

“I’m not like those other women you dated.”

“Thank God you’re not. You wouldn’t be you otherwise.” He massaged his hands over her torso, sliding to her back and shoulders. As he kneaded them, she dropped her head forward.

“Oh, that’s good.”

“Just relax a bit. Moving is stressful enough.” As he continued to massage her shoulders, he shifted his groin forward and rubbed himself against her backside, taking away an ache of an altogether different nature.

“Oh, Daniel, what are you trying to do?” she murmured.

“What’s it feel like?” he whispered back.

Sabrina ground her backside against him. Then one hand slid along his thigh as if she tried to press him harder to her. “It feels like you’re trying to seduce me.”

“Is it working?” He pressed his cock harder against her ass cheeks.

A sigh escaped her lips. “You’re very bad, trying to distract me from unpacking.”

“Everybody needs a little break now and then.” And he’d rather have this break now than later. He slid his hand to her jeans. “I wish you were wearing a dress.”

“Why?” she asked, but her provocative tone told him she already knew the answer to her question.

“Because then I could just lift it and slip your panties down.”

“And then?” she asked, her voice breathless.

“Then I’d bend you over one of those boxes and thrust into you.”

He slipped one hand between her legs, rubbing against her sex.

“Maybe it’s a good thing then, that I’m wearing jeans, otherwise we’ll never finish unpacking tonight.”

“You sure?” he asked, grinding his cock against her from behind.

“Yes,” she said, then sighed. “Daniel?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you think this will work?”

He glanced at the boxes. “Of course. There’s plenty of space in the closets and you can always put any overflow into the guest bedroom. Don’t worry—”

“No, I mean us. Do you think it will work with us?”

Daniel turned her in his arms and looked into her eyes. Tenderly, he caressed her cheek. “It will. I promise you. I’ve never felt like this before. I’ve never wanted a woman to move in with me.” Then he winked. “And I’ve never desired a woman like I desire you. I’ve never been so constantly hard with any woman as with you.”

She chuckled. “I’m afraid we don’t have time for that right now.” She smiled at him mischievously. “You could always take a cold shower to take care of it.”

Playfully, he narrowed his eyes at her. “I doubt it’s gonna work.”

Yeah, he’d tried the whole cold shower thing when they’d spent a weekend in Sonoma, and Sabrina had insisted on them not having sex. It hadn’t worked at all. In fact, he was convinced he’d come out of the shower hornier than going in.

Sabrina laughed, pulling him from his erotic thoughts. “As soon as I’m finished unpacking, I’m all yours.”

“Well, let’s not dilly dally then. We’ve got work to do. As you know, I’m not a very patient man when it comes to you.”

Several hours later, Sabrina was putting the last of her things into the bedroom closet. One look at her, and he knew she was exhausted. No wonder. It had been a long day. And it wasn’t over yet. She’d promised him to be his tonight, and he was hungry for her now. It was all he’d been able to think about all day.

Clearly wiped, Sabrina plopped down on the bed and yawned. “Thank God that’s finally done.”

Daniel looked down at her. Leaning over, he kissed her lips, softly at first, then harder, deeper, more demanding. It was a promise of what was to come. When he pulled away, her beautiful lips were red and swollen from his kiss. The sight made him hard, and his cock strained painfully against his zipper, demanding to be set free.

“I’ll take a quick shower, and then I’ll come to bed, okay?”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

He walked into his en-suite bathroom and undressed, tossing his clothes onto the hamper, before stepping into the oversized shower. He turned on the water and stood beneath the spray, letting the hot water sluice over his body and washing the stress of the day down the drain. His thoughts were focused solely on Sabrina and his need to make love to her.