Playing with Temptation (6 page)

Raina nodded politely at the man sitting opposite her, and he actually had the nerve to
smirk
at her. God, could this situation get any more awkward? Logan Cruz already knew her body intimately, was searing her with his gold-green gaze, and the formality was so out of place.

“Cruz has been with our firm for over three years,” Dean said to Raina. “He’s a former Marine, his credentials are impeccable, and he has a spotless record with us. I would trust him to protect Jillian, that’s how confident I am in his abilities as a security agent.”

It was an impressive, reassuring recommendation from someone whose business and reputation was based on the quality of men he hired, and Dean’s endorsement of Logan put Raina at ease.

Dean turned his attention to Logan and began filling him in on the threat she’d received that morning. A deep frown formed on Logan’s brow, his jaw clenched, and the muscles across his broad shoulders tightened as he listened to the details she’d shared earlier with the two other men at the table.

Once Dean was finished, Logan shifted his darkened gaze back to hers, clearly disturbed by what he’d just heard. “Was there anyone else at the club, before you met me, who said or did anything that made you feel uncomfortable?” he asked, surprising her with the depth of his concern.

She gave his question serious consideration and realized she’d overlooked another possibility. “Actually, yes, there was a guy who followed me around the club before I met you. He was tall, with blondish hair and brown eyes. Very arrogant and persistent. We didn’t exchange names, but he asked me to do a scene with him, which I turned down and he wasn’t happy about. He didn’t physically threaten me, but he definitely made me feel uneasy.”

Dean wrote another note on his pad of paper. “We’ll definitely check with the club to see if any complaints against any members have been issued lately. In the meantime, until we’re absolutely certain that Raina is safe and the threat is diffused, Logan, you’ll be assigned as her security detail, since your schedule is the most flexible for the next few weeks.” He glanced from Logan to Raina, his gaze direct and businesslike. “Do either of you have any issues with this arrangement?”

Logan was much too quick to speak first. “Not at all. You?” He glanced across the table at Raina, an unmistakable challenge in his sinful eyes. The kind of look that dared her to say
yes
, to him, to them, together.

She barely suppressed a shiver. Even from across the table, the sexual tension between them was palpable. The slight curve to his sensual mouth spoke volumes and made her shamelessly wet and aching, because she knew the kind of exquisite pleasure this man was capable of giving her.

He was temptation personified. Despite knowing how dangerous this situation was going to be to her, both physically and emotionally, Raina wasn’t about to show any weakness where Logan was concerned. She’d just have to prove that she could handle him being her temporary bodyguard, that she could maintain control and not be swayed by the heat in his eyes or the memories of how amazing he’d felt thrusting so deep inside her body.

Yeah, good luck with that, girlfriend.

“I’m fine with Logan,” she said, determined to be equally professional about the situation.

“Good to hear,” Dean said with a succinct nod of his head. “He’ll escort you to your store and stay there during the day as surveillance and security, and he’ll make sure you get home safely in the evenings. He’ll do a sweep of your apartment, and since you have a security system, he’ll make sure it’s armed and in working order before he leaves.”

She understood Logan making sure she made it to work and home without any incidents, but the last thing she wanted was the distraction of him being in her store all day long, too. “That’s a bit over-the-top, isn’t it? I have my manager, Aaron, at the store during the day, so Logan really doesn’t need to be there, too.”

“Logan’s only job is to look after you and protect you,” Mac said, his voice firm and inarguable. “And that means at work, too. If someone is watching you, they’ll see Logan and be less likely to approach you or take this to a more physical level. And if anyone does try anything, Logan is well trained in martial arts, and that other person won’t stand a chance against him.”

Raina believed every word that Mac spoke, and knew that she’d lost this battle.

Dean stood up and grabbed his portfolio. “Mac and I have a meeting with a client we need to head out for. We’ll be in touch as soon as we get the chance to talk to the manager at the club. In the meantime, don’t take any of this lightly, Raina.”

With that, Dean headed for the door, followed by Mac, who stopped and glanced back at them with a devilish look in his eyes. “Play nice, kids,” he said, clearly referencing the undercurrents of attraction still simmering between her and Logan.

Then he was gone, leaving Raina alone with the one man she’d thought she’d never see again.

T
he conference room
grew quiet, with Raina refusing to look at Logan now that Mac and Dean were gone. She shifted in her seat and placed her purse on her lap to rummage through the contents—for what, he had no idea. Now that it was just the two of them, she was obviously nervous, even a little flustered, and that knowledge gave him a whole lot of satisfaction considering the way she’d left him high and dry the evening before.

He was also placated by the realization that she wasn’t as unaffected by what had happened between them at the club as she’d like him to believe.

But as much as her abrupt departure last night had chafed him, that really wasn’t what concerned him right now. Knowing she was in danger, that she had a potential stalker pursuing her to the point that the person knew where she lived, raised every one of his protective instincts. Ensuring her safety was his main focus, and if that meant being able to spend more time with her, well, he wasn’t about to complain about that bonus.

She withdrew her car keys from her bag and stood. “Are you ready to go?”

“Sure.” He scooted out his chair and straightened to his full height, watching as she headed for the door with her gaze averted and her chin thrust out a bit too stubbornly.

In two steps, he reached her and caught her arm, gently but firmly bringing her to a stop. That got her attention, and she sucked in a quick breath and quickly turned her head to look at him, her long blonde ponytail swinging over her shoulder and her expression startled by his bold move. Her lips parted, and he was momentarily distracted by thoughts of how that soft mouth would feel sliding along the length of his cock and sucking him deep.

He definitely intended to find out.

“Tell me something,” he murmured as he caressed the sensitive crease of her elbow with a stroke of his thumb, gratified to see the pulse at her neck flutter at his touch and her eyes darken with that same desire he’d witnessed last night. Even her nipples beaded against the pretty pink dress she wore. “Are you more afraid of me or the stalker?”

Her gaze turned guarded, contradicting the sugary-sweet smile she gave him. “I’m not afraid of you.”

No, not in a threatening sense, but physically he could feel her resistance. Hell, the way she’d bolted on him last night was a clear indicator that the combustible chemistry between them had spooked her. Given this second chance, he planned to take full advantage of their time together and the attraction that hadn’t dissipated one iota. But first, he needed to knock down some of those walls she’d erected between the two of them.

“Maybe you
should
be afraid of me,” he said, giving her a wolfish smile. “Because I’m itching to put you over my knee and spank you for being so insubordinate last night.”

Her brows shot up, and then the most beautiful thing happened—that strong, confident woman he’d met last night at the club reappeared right before his eyes.

Fire and sass sparked in her gaze, making him hard in a flash. “Oh, I’d like to see you try.”

He flat-out grinned, welcoming this more flirtatious side to Raina. He lowered his head closer to hers, so that his mouth was near her ear. “Sweetheart, it would be my greatest pleasure to feel your smooth ass beneath the palm of my hand. But I don’t think that Dean or Mac would appreciate me doing so right here in their conference room. However, if you’d like to wrestle it out later to see who comes out on
top
, I’m certainly game.”

She gaped at him, though there was no misinterpreting the amusement in her gaze. With the awkwardness between them finally dispelled, he released her arm but didn’t step away. “Now let’s get you to work before I change my mind and give everyone in the office a titillating peep show, with your bare ass as the main attraction.”

She opened her mouth to say something, thought better of it, and instead walked out of the conference room and toward the elevators. He fell into step beside her, deliberately placed his hand on the base of her spine, and wasn’t at all surprised to feel her body tense at his unexpected touch.

“Sweetheart, you’re really going to have to learn to relax around me,” he said in a low voice. “I swear I don’t bite, unless you want me to.”

She glanced at him and sighed. “You’re not going to make any of this easy on me, are you?”

“Why should I?” Reaching the elevator, Logan pressed the down button, glad that Gail wasn’t at her desk at the moment so they could finish this private conversation. “You certainly didn’t make it easy on me last night.”

She winced, her expression filling with contrition. “I’m sorry about that. I know I should have handled things differently. What do you say we start fresh and new?”

Oh, hell no
. Logan wasn’t about to allow her the luxury of wiping the slate clean and pretending their erotic, sizzling encounter at The Players Club had never happened. “That’s impossible. There is no forgetting
anything
about last night.” Not the way she’d ridden him or the soft, wet heat of her body enveloping his cock or the flush on her lovely face when she’d come for him.

She was saved from responding when the doors to the elevator opened and they stepped inside with two other women already there. Logan leaned against the brass railing along the side wall while Raina stood a few feet away from him, looking straight ahead as the elevator stopped on various floors on the way down to drop off and pick up people.

He was certain she was grateful for the reprieve, and he really couldn’t blame her. From the moment they’d seen one another in the conference room, they’d both gone through varying degrees of emotion, but the strongest one that remained for him was a renewed lust and need for this one particular woman. And considering how he’d lived his life the past six years, he wasn’t sure how he felt about her pull on him.

When it came to The Players Club and his choice of women, he was never impulsive. He’d always been much more calculated in his pursuit of sexual pleasures, finding women who were far more malleable and submissive than Raina—women he knew he could walk away from because they were easy and a one-time challenge because a long-term relationship wasn’t what he was in the market for. Not when he could still feel the burn from the way his high school sweetheart/fiancée and his best friend had so completely devastated him with their betrayal.

But from the moment he’d seen Raina dancing up in that gold-gilded cage at the Rave party, so uninhibited in her sensuality and that long, gorgeous blonde hair begging to be wrapped around his fist, he’d been riveted. And even though his gut told him she was different, that she was the exact opposite of docile and pliable when it came to his demands, his cock had wanted her.

The moment he’d crowded into that cage with her and pressed her against the bars, he’d known that she wasn’t a pushover, that her ability to yield to him would be based on him being stronger and more dominant—a prospect he’d found incredibly arousing. He’d managed to keep her fingers wrapped around those bars while he’d slid his hand beneath her dress to make her come, and had restrained them again behind her back when she’d straddled his lap on the chair and he’d sunk balls deep into her silken pussy.

But both times, he’d been well aware of the defiance and rebellion in her body’s movements, along with the struggle and need for
her
to be in charge. She’d been passionate, full of fire, and an exciting challenge in terms of him maintaining control of her and the scene. She was clearly a woman who liked being on top, and he’d allowed her that position at the club because it had been convenient to have her sitting astride his lap because of the chair. But make no mistake, he intended to make sure she knew that
he
was the top when it came to sex, and he welcomed the challenge of that particular power play between them.

As he watched her lick her bottom lip, something deeper stirred within him, and he was struck with the realization that he didn’t merely want to fuck her. No, he wanted to unravel her, figure out what made her so guarded and wary beneath her tough facade, and ultimately, he wanted to possess her.