Seducing Seven (What Happens in Vegas) (6 page)

If he could just avoid her, he would, but part of the agreement was to spend time together. And the best way to handle being around her was by knowing how she operated.

Watching her move across the front of the room, he couldn’t help but respect the way she held the attendees’ attention. She commanded the space, but in a way that was approachable, an atmosphere to learn in. She exuded sophistication and sensuality in her white dress and shining black hair. Her look alone gave her an unarguable level of credibility. Did she realize it?

Hell yes, she did. She didn’t do anything on accident.

An attendee spoke up during the question-and-answer section. “Why are people so drawn to alpha heroes?”

Oh, this would be good. It was simple. Women wanted to be taken care of, even though they fought the perception to exhaustion.

Seven repeated the question, projecting her voice to the back of the room even without the microphone. So much vigor in a tiny package. Blake leaned forward in his seat, keeping his head ducked behind a woman in front of him with a large bun.

Placing her hands on her hips, Seven smiled at the audience. “I’m one of those people, not just as an author but as a reader. In my opinion, there’s nothing better than sinking my teeth into a meaty, juicy alpha hero. They are the ones who can take a woman up against a wall, but make her feel as if she’s the most intelligent and beautiful woman on the planet. Alpha heroes speak to everyone’s desire to be wanted, to be desired, to have someone willing to move heaven and earth to be with you. They’re about indulgence, too, wanting something a little bit dangerous, wanting a thrill. But alpha heroes are mostly about us being willing to feel vulnerable with someone else and trust them enough to care for us, even when they don’t have to, which comes down to respect.” She turned to the audience, looking everyone in the front row in the eye before she continued. “There are alpha
men
out there who possess one or two, maybe even three of those alpha attributes, but respect and sensitivity are usually the difference between them and alpha heroes. Do they care enough to put you first, or is it all about them? Is there trust and respect?”

His stomach turned. He respected her. He could be sensitive when he wanted to. Was the antithesis of the man she described really how she saw him?

She took a few more questions, answering each with the same authoritative but kind enthusiasm. Her readers and writers in the room all connected with her, wanted to hear what she had to say, trusted her. He understood why. She was brilliant. Goddammit.

His stomach rolled again, and he breathed out against the sour sensation.

He’d meant what he said about the fantasy she sold, but if both parties in a relationship treated the other with the same ideals she talked about, could he see it another way? A scene in her book came to mind. What had the hero said?
I choose you, not because of who I am when I’m with you, but who I become with each passing day.
The statement was one of respect, but also one of awe. And he wanted to prove to her he was capable of those things.

He was in awe of Seven.

Motherfucker. He felt things, things he didn’t know what to do with. Goddammit. He needed to get the hell out of there without being seen before this whole stupid idea blew up in his face.

One more glance confirmed the worst. He wanted to take
her
up against a wall, not because of what it meant if he didn’t, but because of what it meant if he did.

Panic tightened his chest. He shook his head in denial. Temporary, desperate solutions.

He’d be damned if she was going to turn him into her fucking alpha hero.

He was nothing if not all alpha man. Relationships didn’t work, but he needed a night with Seven like he’d never needed anything else. He needed to get her out of his mind before he slid any further.

Chapter Six

S
on of a bitch. Watching as the tail of his suit jacket followed him out the door, Seven dug her nails into her palms. Flying high on the end of a well-received presentation, she was once again grounded by a slap from Blake. What the hell was he doing there?

Nothing good, no doubt.

He’d give anything for some material for mocking her and her work, not to mention her fans. Well, she was just the girl to set him straight.

She stayed just long enough to answer a few last-minute questions, give a few more hugs, and sign some books. Loving this part of her connection with her fans, she hated to leave, but she was never one to shy away from her problems.

Marching through the lobby, the hem of her dress swirling around her calves, she mentally counted all the ways he was an ass for showing up while she was working.
Don’t touch my work
, he’d said. But there he’d been, not giving her the same respect. Finally, she rapped on his door.

The door opened, revealing a shirtless Blake already walking back toward his desk. “You have a key. Why’d you knock?”

“I saw you.” She fisted her hands to keep from touching him. It wasn’t fair for him to stand there without his shirt, the top button of his dress slacks undone. Her eyes drifted over the golden skin of his chiseled abdominal muscles, following a dark sprinkling of hair on his lower abs until it disappeared under the band of a pair of dark blue briefs. She gritted her teeth and yanked her eyes back to his only to find him staring at her with a smile. Crossing her arms at her chest, she tapped her foot. “Are you ready to mock my work again?”

“Does it have to be my next meeting?”

She opened her mouth to defend herself, trying to make sense of his question. “What?” Seeing so much of his skin was playing havoc with her senses.

“If I lose the bet, do I have to sell your book at the very next meeting?”

Distracted by his line of questioning and the fact that he was walking toward her, she shook her head, trying to clear it. She took an involuntary step back. “Any meeting where your bosses are attending.”

He grinned, and she swore a look of relief softened his usually intense features.

One more step back had her up against the wall, and he stepped close. She could feel the heat radiating off his skin, and she sucked in a breath. She was there on a mission to set him straight. “What are you doing?”

Holding her gaze with his light eyes, he trailed a finger across her brow, then down her cheek to the soft skin of her neck. An involuntary shiver raced through her. Following the neckline of her dress, his finger trailed lower toward the swell of her breast, making it difficult to swallow against the goose bumps racing up her neck.

“I can’t pitch your book at my interview, but you win.”

Her mouth dropped open, then she snapped it closed. She won? Something akin to terror and elation raced through her senses. “I win?”

His finger dipped under the edge of her dress, causing her heart to slam with insistence, then trailed to her arms. “You were right. I did go there to gather information, until everything you said made me realize you won. I want you.”

His hips shifted forward, pressing her back, then his fingers fluttered from her arms to her neck. It was an agonizing trek that left her more confused than ever.

Wrapping her hands around his wrists, she stilled his roaming fingers. “That wasn’t the whole bet.”

He’d said nothing about feelings, about wanting her as a person.

“I want
you
, Seven. You.”

A delicious feeling as if she were floating washed through her.

He wanted her.

He desired
her
.

B
lake had no clue what to expect, and when Seven wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her mouth against his, kicking his heart into overdrive, he couldn’t wait to find out. The past hours of constantly resisting the woman’s easy teasing and pointed seductions had been slow torture.

Angling his head, he slid his tongue into her mouth, tasting her sweetness. Kissing her was like biting into a pastry. At the feel of her tongue sliding against his, his dick bucked in his pants. He slid his hands down the sides of her arms—fuck, her skin was soft as silk—and then dropped to the swell of her hips and her full, round ass. Flesh overflowed his hands and he squeezed. Sweet mother of God, the woman had an ass that would make J-Lo jealous.

After seeing her all hot and bothered with that damn vibrator last night, he’d wanted nothing more than to finish the job for her, but there was something holding him back. He’d never questioned women’s decisions before; they were in charge of their own fun. So why the fuck he wanted to take charge now confused the hell out of him.

Pulling back, he asked through a gasping breath. “Are you sure about this? Because if you’re not, tell me to leave now.”

“It’s your room.” She bit her lip.

Fuck, please don’t tell me to leave.
Goddammit, why the hell was his conscience coming into play when his dick was so very interested in the game? He never worried over one-night stands before.

He pressed a kiss to her mouth. “I’m serious.”

Seven looked him in the eye. Something passed over her face as she studied him. He waited, holding his breath.

She nodded, then whispered, “This is Vegas, baby. You say I won the bet, but you just won the jackpot.”

He lifted her up against his chest, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, rubbing her body against the ridge of his length. Son of a bitch, if she didn’t slow down, he’d go right now.

He pressed her up against the wall, grinding into her, hoping to relieve the pressure, his dick swelling thicker still, and he growled low in his throat.

The twin thumps of her shoes hitting the floor sounded, and Seven slid her tongue along his lower lip and sucked it into her mouth.

His knees buckled, and he pressed into her more fully to gain some stability. “Fuck.”

“I’m trying.” She smiled against his mouth, then trailed her lips along his neck to his earlobe, biting with a gentle tug, sending shivers down his spine.

Not the wall. Not the wall.

She tugged on his earlobe again and he went blind. What the hell was this woman doing to him? He needed to get it together—this wasn’t his first Vegas trip. Pulling in air, he tightened his grip on her ass and stepped back from the wall. In two steps he was by the bed, her body sliding down the length of his. He grabbed the hem of her dress and dragged it up her body as she went.

Her lacy nude bra teased him with a peekaboo effect that made his mouth water.

Placing her hands on his shoulders, she moved backward up onto the bed, bending at the knees, and ran her lips down his chest until her mouth closed around his nipple. Every muscle in his body tightened in hot need. That was exactly what he wanted to do to her. “Whoa, slow down.”

She nipped at his chest with her teeth. “Why, can’t keep up?”

He slapped her round butt cheek, but grinned at the top of her head. “Don’t be an ass.”

She fell back on the bed, lifting her hands to him. “Salesmen talk too much.”

Blinking against the sight of her lush body, Blake shucked his pants and boxer briefs. Placing one knee on the bed between her ankles, he rolled on a condom. Her large chocolate eyes watched his hands and made him grow to gargantuan proportions, pushing his control beyond reason.

He resisted the urge to just push her panties aside and dive in, but he needed to get the rest of her clothes off—now. Her waist was impossibly small and flared out into the juiciest ass he’d ever seen, and his mouth watered. She was a damn hustler for wearing that sack of a dress when they’d first met.

He ran his palms up her legs and over her hips, and uncrossed the hands she’d wrapped around her stomach; she was the last woman who needed to ever cover herself. Her cheeks flushed, and he would have laughed at the idea of her shyness if his body weren’t so painfully aware of how much he wanted to sink into her beautiful heat. Frankly, if she chose to go the rest of the weekend naked, he’d be all for it.

Seven helped as he removed her bra and panties, pulling him on top of her in a frenzy of limbs and lips and tongue. Her breasts pressed back against his chest, her stiff little nipples rubbing against him as he moved. He felt the hard nubs all the way to the end of his dick. Bracing his weight on his forearm, he leaned back just enough to palm her breast in his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze and then brushing his fingertips back and forth over her nipple, tightening it even more.

She whimpered into his mouth and sucked at his lower lip, then slid her tongue against his. He’d die before he finished if she kept that up. Positioning himself between her thighs, he ran himself up and down her center. She was slick and hot and ready.

Grabbing at his ass, she pulled him to her. “Now.”

He didn’t have to be told twice, and with control he never would have believed he possessed, pushed between her folds, an inch at a time until he was fully inside her. His arms shook, he struggled for air, and his body demanded he move—now. With slow, purposeful strokes, he pulled out and then pushed back in, and with each slow slide, she pulled her knees closer to her shoulders. For fuck’s sake, she was hot.

They mirrored the action of their bodies with their tongues, and Blake swallowed every moan and whimper and demand she uttered.

An urgency built at the base of his dick as he thrust into her again and again until he couldn’t hold back any longer. Surrounded by her sweet scent, her soft skin, and her sexy voice, he’d gladly die right then and there.

Reaching his hand between their bodies, he pressed his thumb in a gentle rhythm against her, the feel of her silky skin under him, the sweetest drug. Insistent whimpers and her tightening muscles warned him she was getting close. She arched into him, tight as a strung bow. Deepening their kiss, he tightened his grip with one arm, holding her body in place, pushing her to ride out her pleasure. She clamped around him, yanking him with her, contraction after contraction, and he groaned into the pillow. As he rocked forward, plunging deeper into her, his sight went white, and he felt the sweet burn of his release throughout his whole body.

He stayed poised above her, buried to the hilt, her legs around his back, and the sound of them both struggling for air the only noise he could hear beyond the ringing in his head. Her legs slid down his back and settled in the bend of his knees, and he lowered fully on top of her, still inside, burying his nose in her hair. His arms shook with the effort to keep all of his weight from her, and he slid to her side, half on her, half off, unable to hold himself up any longer.

He shook his head and blinked. What. The fuck. Was that?

Resting his head on her chest, he breathed in her sweet scent, resisting the urge to glide his fingers around the dip of her navel and over her hip.

His usual MO was passing out after sex, but this time his eyes were wide open. He’d underestimated Seven Michaels.

S
hock and awe wouldn’t be far from the truth if someone had asked Seven right then and there what she was feeling. She licked her lips and tried to swallow. Lying on her back with her arms thrown above her head, she swore she was nothing but a sack of skin and bones. Her muscles felt nonexistent, like she couldn’t move if she tried. The sweetest fatigue pulsed through her from end to end, and she didn’t want it to stop.

Blake’s warm body enveloped her in the haze of his masculine scent, warm and woody with a hint of something spicy. Dark hair tickled her skin where he rested against her, and his large, thickly muscled shoulder all but occluded her vision like a mountain peak.

His quiet breathing lulled her into a cozy cocoon, but truth be told, she was freaking out. She glanced down at the top of his head on her chest. It would be nice to be a man and have no thoughts at all, just doze off without a care in the world.

When he’d answered the door, she thought she was in for a female set of blue balls. Well, he’d surprised her.

She’d been panting after her editor for so long, she’d forgotten how it felt to be desired. That must be why she felt so different. Why sex with Blake had been so different.

She liked being wanted, and damn it, she was going to get as much of it as she could in the next twenty-four hours. Blowing out a breath of relief, she relaxed next to him.

Her rules were working quite nicely after all. She should have thought of this a long time ago. Those rules hadn’t created false constructs; they were all about selflessness and investing in the other person. They helped create something real.

Maybe things would have turned out differently with any number of her relationships if she’d gone about them this way. Well, she could always give it a second try once she got home. A cold chill swept over her.

Blake shifted against her side, his hand sliding across her stomach and over her hip, triggering a low thrum between her legs. Whoa. She was a one-and-done kind of girl, but this man’s touch made her greedy, and if the tightening of her nipples was any indication, ready to play—again. That must be what happened when a single lady went too long without a little fun.

She moved against him, stretching her legs long and arching her body up a bit, thrusting her breasts high. Blake gave a low growl and nipped at her side. She’d had a hint of shyness when she’d first lain down on the bed, but the look in his eyes wiped that nonsense away in a flash. And the growl he just gave obliterated it.

With a firm hand, he rubbed up her side and wrapped his fingers around her breast. She filled his hand, a perfect fit, and his flexing fingers reached her chest, sending goose bumps down her sides. Her breasts weren’t huge—the universe saved that for her ass—but they were perky and sensitive, and the quickest way to get her going was a little breast play. Damn if he wasn’t good at it, too. What a nice surprise.

Blake ran his lips along the underside of her breast, his hard ridge rubbing against her thigh, and all her body wanted to do was dive back into round two, but she had work, and so did he. She’d never do anything to hurt his chances with his promotion.