One Night for Love (7 page)

Except she wasn’t cool and collected. To think otherwise was to lie to herself. The memory of his hands on her rocked through her. Her toes curled. She closed her eyes and her fingertips drifted down across her sex. Tristan—even thinking about him made her crave the release his body brought, aroused her want for him.

The lingering memories of last night and the heat that balled in her belly informed her that the desire she held for Tristan had not diminished. Unfortunately, being with him had only fueled it. She pressed her hand to her forehead. She would force herself to ignore this sexual chemistry. She would make another attempt. She could do this. She had to do this.

She ran her hands over her eyes—what was the saying? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result was the definition of crazy. Then she would
be
crazy again, for today at least. She would dress and be Professional Prim and make another attempt, hopeful that the outcome between them would be different than it had been last night.

She forced her eyes open. Work. She had work. Today was a weekday.

She reached over toward the nightstand and lifted her phone. Shit! It was nearly seven and she had a morning meeting with the head of marketing at eight a.m.

Prim rushed across her bedroom toward her en suite bathroom but stopped in the middle of her bedroom. There on her dresser was a bouquet. A brilliant bouquet of violets. Her favorite flower. How would he know? And how could he have possibly gotten them here inside her room without her waking? She lifted the card from the bouquet.

For you. See you soon. T.R.

Prim pressed her lips together. Sex. Flowers. Want.

This was bad.

This was very, very bad.

What had started as an anonymous one-night stand while on vacation was turning into something very delectable and yet very complicated. She couldn’t be with Tristan. First, because she didn’t want a relationship with a man like Tristan Rhodes, a man who lived for his work and saw profit as the only definition of success. Prim walked into her bathroom and turned on the shower to Hot. If and when she decided to become a part of a couple, it would be with a man who had interests outside the business world. She would not be with a man consumed with the conquer-and-succeed mentality, a man who bought companies and then picked them apart with complete disregard for the employees who made it their life’s work to build a business.

The hot water pulsed against her skin and beat into her flesh. She soaped up and washed away the scent of Tristan, his touch, and if she could have washed away the memory of him, she would have done that as well.

*

She didn’t see Tristan until late in the day. She’d avoided the very conversation that she knew they needed to have. This couldn’t happen again. They had to find a way to rein in their desires.

She walked into Tristan’s office. She had one minute until the four p.m. meeting started, and she wanted to minimize her time in the same room with him. If she could stay away from him as much as possible then perhaps she could ignore these feelings. She’d spent most of her day attempting to refocus her mind from replaying every delicious minute of the night before. She’d anticipated the presence of three, perhaps even four, other colleagues in Tristan’s office. Instead, Tristan stood at his office window, looking out at the Pacific. The door closed behind her with a loud click.

“Miss Baxter,” Tristan said and turned away from the window and toward Prim. “We have a problem.”

She nearly sank to her knees. Even after a full day of self-talk about ignoring the night before and pretending, yet again, that the desire between them had finally flamed out, his hard-cut jaw, his mouth—oh, the things that mouth could do—his eyes that burned and his hair that danced along the edge of his collar caused her body to boil with a molten desire.

She’d clasped her fingers through Tristan’s hair and pulled. She’d thrust her greedy hips against those gorgeous lips so that they tantalized her sex. She’d clutched the muscles of his back as he fucked her and made her call his name.

“I expected sales and publicity to be here,” Prim said.

“I rescheduled the meeting.”

The crease between her eyebrows deepened. Why had he moved the meeting? Getting the meeting on the books had taken both a transatlantic and cross-country flight.

“What’s the problem?”

His gaze locked with hers and the corner of his mouth hitched upward. Heat seared between them still.

“
You
are the problem.” Tristan walked toward her. He was right up next to her. His beautiful suit and his beautiful body underneath that suit, a body she’d become very well acquainted with, pressed close to her. “We are the problem,” he said, his voice softer. His eyes were filled with heat. He reached out and pressed the pad of his thumb to her cheekbone. She leaned into his touch—she couldn’t help it—her eyes closed. She was like a cat pressing into her master’s hand; if she had the ability to purr she would.

They were the problem indeed.

“How do we fix this problem?” he asked. “I thought that perhaps after last night—”

“We’d have this out of our system.” Prim finished his sentence.

“Exactly.”

“I believed that too,” Prim said. “People tend to want what’s forbidden to them.”

His fingers stroked down her neck and stopped at the edge of her blouse. Her sex clenched with the memory of that hand, those fingertips, all over her body.

“I don’t suppose you’d consider leaving now?”

Prim’s eyes narrowed. “Not a chance.”

“So we have three months in close proximity,” Tristan said. “The idea of you with another man, with me unable to touch you but having to be with you …” He closed his eyes and pain whispered across his face. “Well, you saw last night how poorly I behaved when I thought you’d slept with Roger.”

The tiniest hint of pleasure slid through Prim that Tristan felt jealous of Roger, that she had that kind of power over Tristan and his moods. “What do you suggest?” Prim asked. “We have to work together and we haven’t assuaged these desires.”

 “I suggest a limited partnership,” Tristan said. “An exclusive limited partnership for the remainder of your time with Metro. You and me, together, only with each other, until your contract is complete.”

Her heart beat fast in her chest. Exclusive partnership. Tristan wanted an exclusive partnership? The sex was enticing: Tristan, his body, his hands, the fact that this agreement was limited. The best sex she’d ever experienced for another eleven weeks. Wouldn’t she be finished with him by then? Tired of him? She couldn’t fall for Tristan. He was myopic, a bit selfish, and cocky—she couldn’t forget cocky. In eleven weeks she could find all kinds of things wrong with him. By then the heat of sex would have worn thin while the little annoyances that came about in any relationship—not that they were having a
relationship
—those little annoyances that one discovered with any lover would have grown into insurmountable obstacles.

 “I see doubt in your eyes,” Tristan said.

“I don’t do exclusive. Or, well, I haven’t in a very long time.”

“When you were engaged?”

Prim’s heart hammered. She didn’t speak of that time in her life, right after she finished college and did a year at Oxford, but before she went to B-school in Boston. The event her mum had desperately wanted and the engagement that had made Prim feel as though her entire life was about to end. Prim’s chest tightened and the overwhelming sensation of being tied up and unable to move burst through her body.

“You looked me up,” Tristan said. “I had to look you up as well.” He stepped closer. His breath smelled of mint. His cock was hard beneath his thousand-dollar suit and pressed against her hip. “I could barely stand to leave you this morning,” he whispered. His lips were next to her ear. “I kept thinking about how I wanted to wake you, how I should wake you, how I will wake you tomorrow and for the next three months.”

Heat throbbed through her. He was offering her a way to solve all the problems this wild attraction caused. This agreement was temporary and solved several very big issues. She would remain with Metro Media during the transition as she’d promised Ryan, she would try to convince Tristan not to sell off Metro Media piece by piece, and once their passions were spent, there would be no worry that this arrangement would lead to any continuing desire.

 “I think a limited partnership is exactly what we need,” Prim said, “but there are mandatory deal points.”

“Deal points?” Tristan’s eyebrow lifted. He fought to keep the smile from his face.

“One deal point is privacy,” Prim said. “An affair won’t damage your reputation within the business community, but it could damage mine.”

“Fair enough.”

“Number two: no restriction on behaviors. I can eat with who I want, see who I want, do what I want, with the exception of”—Prim focused her eyes on him with the word on her lips—“sex.” She tamped down her satisfaction when lust flickered in his eyes. “Neither of us will engage in any sexual behavior with another person during the three months.”

“Done.”

“And the nonrestriction?”

“If you mean last night, I’ve never behaved so poorly before.” His fingers brushed her hair back over her shoulder. “I did apologize and I’m still sorry. I will trust you and your judgment when it comes to members of the opposite sex in regards to meetings, meals, and business.”

She tilted her head and studied his face. He seemed sorry for his behavior.

“Is that it?” Tristan asked.

“One more thing. You answer any question I ask truthfully and when I ask it.”

Tristan’s mouth dropped open for a second and his gaze flitted away from hers. “Seriously?”

Prim nodded. “Seriously.”

“Complete honesty?”

“For eleven weeks.”

“No wonder Metro has done so well. That last deal point is a hard bargain to strike. You could ruin me with a requirement like that.”

“I won’t take advantage of it. I won’t ask you for confidential information about other businesses you’re involved in. I’ll only ask you about things that involve us.”

Tristan grasped Prim’s arms in his hands. “There’s an ‘us’ now?”

“If we come to terms, there is for eleven weeks.”

“You’ll do the same?” Tristan asked. “Be completely honest?”

Prim tilted her head and straightened her spine. “I’ve not asked you for anything that I’m unwilling to give in return.”

“Okay,” Tristan said. “I have one final deal point.”

“And that is?”

“We stay together every night during the length of our agreement. Whether it be your home or mine.”

Prim swallowed. Her chest tightened. Her skin tingled. She wanted to stay with Tristan, but her insides churned with the thought of being required to be with him every night for the next eleven weeks.

“That’s a deal-breaker for me,” Tristan said when she didn’t respond immediately.

“Fine,” Prim said.

He examined her face, his eyes taking their time as they trailed over her skin. A shiver rushed through her with his examination.

“Then I believe we have a deal,” he said.

Their lips were so close. He would press those lips that she desperately wanted onto hers.

“Excellent,” Tristan said. He dropped his hand from her body and stepped away from her, then walked to his desk. “I’ll have a car here for you tonight. Is my house okay?”

The cool air that surrounded her with the absence of his touch startled her. Prim nodded. She pulled at the lapels of her suit jacket and brushed her hand down the back of her neck before flipping her mane of hair over her collar. She turned on her heel and walked toward the door. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She had seventy-seven days to get Tristan Rhodes out of her system for good.

“You’re doing what?” Meg gasped.

Prim exited the building with her cell phone pressed to her ear. She needed to get out of her office, needed fresh air. She needed to get this tight feeling out of her chest.

“We’ve decided to be together exclusively for the next three months.”

“How is that going to work?” Meg asked.

“Hopefully better than how it’s going now,” Prim said. “Look, it’s a nightmare. He almost blew a deal last night because he was jealous.”

“Tristan Rhodes almost blew a deal? Because of you?”

“You sound surprised,” Prim said. “You know some men find me earth-shatteringly hot.”

“Of course you’re hot and talented and every single thing that any man could ever possibly hope for. I didn’t mean it like that. The way I meant it was ‘Wow, you got to Tristan Rhodes.’ Because aside from Cole, he’s one of the most serious and professional CEOs I’ve ever met.”

“Right, and I’m one of the most serious and diligent executives, and right now us working together is the worst.”

“Because of the attraction.”

“Exactly, because of the attraction. I thought, I think we both thought, that if we indulged just one more time—”

“You were together again!”

“Last night,” Prim said. She pressed her fingers to her forehead. Now, in the light of day, last night did seem like a really bad decision. She opened the door to the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. The sharp scent of freshly ground coffee beans greeted her.

“And?”

“And sleeping with him a second time did not diminish the attraction. Okay? It made the entire thing worse. I mean, I want him in this weird all-consuming way.”

“It doesn’t help that you haven’t dated anyone in eighteen months.”

“My point exactly. I don’t
do
relationships. This overwhelming attraction to Tristan is chemical because of my very long dry spell.” She smiled at Dori, the brunette who took Prim’s or Prim’s assistant, Alyssa’s, coffee order nearly every day.

“So the solution is three months of constant sex?”

“Not constant,” Prim said. She mouthed “the usual” to Dori. “If we take away the restriction, the taboo of it all, then that will reduce some of the heat.” Prim ducked her head and lowered her voice. “The pheromones will play out and the passion will be spent. Plus, after eleven weeks with Tristan Rhodes? Surely I’ll annoy the hell out of him and he’ll annoy the hell out of me and we can go our separate ways.”