Not sure whether to scream, laugh hysterically, or throw a punch, she followed his advice and bolted the entire contents of the flute down at one time. Nick must have sensed the anger beginning to boil up inside of her, and wisely guided her to a somewhat secluded corner of the room. Only then did she lash out.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she hissed. “And what’s this bullshit about being my – my
date
? My God, you’ve done some ballsy things before, Nick, but this one really wins the prize. How dare -”
He cut off the rest of her fiery diatribe by bending his head and kissing her – not one of his usual domineering kisses but a light, almost sweet brush of his lips against hers. She gazed up at him in bewilderment when he lifted his head.
“What – what was that all about?” she asked dazedly. “You – everyone just saw – they’ll all be talking -”
Nick shrugged. “Good. Let them talk. I guarantee that by Monday morning it will be all over the office that I kissed you and that we’re a couple. You got a problem with that, Angel?”
“No.” She shook her head, then paused. “I don’t know. Maybe. I mean – what? God, you’re driving me nuts here, Nick. Why are you doing this?”
He didn’t answer for long seconds, merely sliding his hand to the small of her back as he continued to guide her around the room. “I’m trying, Angel,” he replied in a low voice. “Trying to – well, to compromise, I suppose. And I know how much it always bothered you before to have to keep our relationship a secret. This – tonight – is my way of showing you that’s one of the ways I’m willing to give.”
Her spine stiffened as she glared at him. “Except that you’re
not
my date. You lied – blatantly – to poor Felicity. And apparently charmed the socks off of her in the process.”
Nick grinned wickedly. “I heard through the office grapevine that you were invited tonight. And that you weren’t bringing a date. And, no, I didn’t wheedle that information out of Cara. The person I charmed it out of,” he added with a mischievous smile, “was Stan’s assistant. And since the Wagners belong to the Biltmore Club, I was able to – let’s say,
obtain
– their phone number. Felicity was more than delighted to learn you were bringing a date after all.”
She pursed her lips, wondering if she looked as pissed off as she felt. “You’ve really got a nerve, Nick, I’ll hand you that. I’ve got half a mind to walk out of here right now.”
He shrugged. “Fine with me. This hotel has an excellent restaurant where we’d have a lot more privacy and probably a much better meal than what we’ll have here. I’m ready to go whenever you are.”
Angela glared at him, resisting the urge to flip him off. “I didn’t mean walk out of here with you.”
Nick snickered, capturing her hand in his and drawing it to his lips. “Now, why would you do something like that, Angel? It’s not polite to stand your date up.”
She tried to tug her hand free. “Except you’re really not my date, are you? And being polite to you is the last thing I care about.”
He slid an arm around her waist, hugging her close against him as he nuzzled the side of her neck. “Was there a particular reason you chose this dress tonight? Feeling sentimental, perhaps?”
“Hardly,” she scoffed, trying really, really hard to ignore how good he smelled and how tempting it would be to lean her head against his broad shoulder. “I didn’t have time to go shopping and just pulled the first thing I saw out of my closet.”
He brushed his lips against her temple. “You always were a really bad liar, Angel,” he murmured in amusement. “You chose this dress because it held some incredible memories for you. Just as it does for me. Do you remember the limo ride up to Pete’s house? Your pussy tasted ten times sweeter than the chocolate fondue he served for dessert.”
“Jesus, Nick.” She felt her cheeks flame in reaction. “For God’s sake, keep your damned voice down.”
He smiled wickedly, running his knuckles over her flushed cheek. “But as beautiful as you looked that night, you’re even lovelier tonight, Angel. Normally I like your hair loose but fixed this way it really shows off your gorgeous face. Did you spend the whole afternoon at the salon?”
“No. My friend Julia – you must remember her, given that you tried to crash both her bachelorette party
and
her wedding – did my hair and makeup.”
Nick took her lips in another soft kiss, leaving her breathless. “She did a good job,” he told her huskily. “You’re glowing, Angel. You looked beautiful at your friend’s wedding but tonight – you’re a siren. And I’m falling a little deeper under your spell with every minute.”
She was saved from having to think of a reply – a very good thing, considering he’d just rendered her speechless – by the call to dinner. And throughout the meal, Nick continued to act the part of devoted date – showering her with attention; making sure her wine and water glasses were refilled; asking how she liked her food. He found little ways to touch her at frequent intervals – a hand on her arm, the brush of his lips against her temple, his thigh rubbing against hers beneath cover of the table. He even chatted pleasantly with the other guests at their table, suavely fending off questions about the nature of his relationship with Angela, and managing to steer the conversation back to more neutral territory when a question got too personal for his liking.
After dessert and coffee were served, he drew her out onto the dance floor, and she finally sighed in surrender as his arms closed about her. He’d rarely taken her out dancing when they had been together in the past, and she exulted in this rare pleasure.
“I see we fit together as well as ever, Angel,” he murmured against her ear. “Though I would have never doubted that fact.”
Angela lifted her head from his shoulder to give him a warning look. “I wouldn’t push your luck, Nick. I’m still not sure I shouldn’t be royally pissed off at you right now. And you haven’t even considered Dwayne in all this.”
“Ah, yes. The boyfriend,” replied Nick lazily. “How is your young man anyway? More importantly, why isn’t he here with you this evening?”
Angela considered lying, then thought better of it, knowing Nick could sniff out an untruth faster than a bloodhound. “Dwayne’s in Europe right now, competing in a series of track meets. He’ll be back in the States in a few weeks. And, well, we’re not – seeing each other anymore. We’re still very good friends but we decided that’s all it will ever be between us.”
Maddeningly, Nick didn’t look the least bit surprised at her news. “Correction, Angel.
You
decided that’s all it would be. I’m guessing good ole Dwayne would have gladly taken whatever scraps of attention you chose to throw his way.”
She refused to admit that he was right. “It wasn’t like that. Dwayne and I – it was never really more than friendship. We never even -”
“Fucked?” As usual, Nick never held back but at least he’d kept his voice pitched low. “Yeah, I figured that. He’s a nice enough guy for a nerd, but there was no way he’d have been able to handle a woman like you, Angel. After all,” he whispered, his teeth nipping at her earlobe, “it takes a man with certain talents to keep you satisfied. And I really doubt Dwayne would know how to -”
He yelped as she stomped on his instep with the stiletto heel of her shoe. “Don’t you dare,” she hissed. “Just – don’t.”
Nick laughed as he wrapped both arms around her waist, twirling her around the dance floor. “I knew he’d never been your lover,” he told her in a hushed tone. “Because you’d never have responded to me the way you did at the wedding if he had. In fact, I’d wager a guess and say that you haven’t had a lover in a very long time.”
“Unlike you,” she replied in a hollow voice. “And don’t you dare try and bullshit me, Nick. There’s no way I’ll believe you’ve been a monk for the last few years.”
“I haven’t. At least not for four years. But would you believe me when I tell you there hasn’t been anyone for almost two years now?” he asked quietly.
She hesitated, wanting with all her heart to take what he said as truth, but finding it hard to accept, given what she knew of his immense sexual appetites. “No, not really,” she acknowledged.
“It’s true,” he assured her. “Part of it was because I’d been working so hard to prepare for changing firms. But most of it was because I just got tired of it all, of how empty I felt. Of how,” he added in a husky voice, “I never came close to feeling what I did with you.”
“Nick.” Her voice was breathless, wispy, and she felt like swooning beneath his intense regard.
“Let’s get out of here,” he urged. “I want to be alone with you, Angel. Will you come with me?”
He took a step back and held out his hand. She hesitated, knowing that if she placed her hand in his she’d be falling back into more than just his arms. He would own her again, become the center of her universe, and she’d be risking far more than just her heart – her very sanity would be on the line as well.
Taking a deep breath, she placed her hand in his.
***
The elevator doors had barely closed behind them when Nick shoved her up against one wall, kissing her like a starving man. Angela groaned beneath the ferocious demand of his kiss, by the way his tongue plundered her mouth almost brutally. She slid her arms inside his unbuttoned tuxedo jacket, pulling him even closer against her as she clutched fistfuls of his dress shirt. He was already hard and ready, grinding the enormous swell of his erection against the silk of her gown, and she thought faintly that she could come very easily if he just kept that up a few more seconds.
She was barely aware when the elevator doors slid open and Nick guided her out, his arm wrapped around her waist as he walked her down a long, carpeted hallway. He stopped half a dozen times on their way, pushing her against the nearest wall or door as he kissed her again, each time a little more aggressively than the last. It was only when he paused to pull a card key from his pocket and open a door that she realized he was tugging her inside a hotel room. She’d just assumed they’d be leaving the hotel, to get his car or a cab, and then go – where? To her flat – the same flat where Lauren was bunking for the weekend? Surely not to Nick’s place, especially since she still didn’t even know where he lived.
But then none of those details mattered, that he’d evidently planned all of this out and had counted on seducing her tonight. Because all she wanted was to give in, to stop fighting this wild attraction that had never really died. She was finally being honest with herself – completely, totally honest – and admitting that she’d never stopped wanting him, that she’d only been fighting herself and not him these past months.
As Nick closed and locked the door behind them, she stood in the middle of the room, her arms crossed over her chest as she suppressed a shiver. But for once she didn’t feel in the least bit cold; rather, an all too familiar heat was suffusing her body and the shiver was pure reaction, nothing else. Her eyes drifted shut as she felt him step up behind her, his broad, hard chest pressing against her back, while his long fingers trailed slowly, arousingly, up and down her bare arms.
“It’s been so long, Angel,” he whispered, his breath tickling her ear. “I wanted to take this slowly, to savor you, seduce you. But all I can think about right now is how hard I am, how much I need you. Can you feel how much I want you, Angel?”
She trembled as his arms wrapped around her waist and he pulled her even closer against him. The hard bulge of his cock rubbed suggestively between her buttocks, in the place he’d sworn never to take her because it would be too much. “Yes,” she gasped unsteadily. “I can feel you, all of you. And I – I want you, too, need you just as much.”
His hands began to search along the side of her dress. “As I recall,” he murmured huskily, “this particular garment has a hidden zipper somewhere. Ah, there it is. Careful now, we don’t want to tear this.”
He unzipped the fragile silk easily, then helped her slide the garment off her body, leaving her clothed in just her lingerie and high heels. Nick turned her to face him, his big hands gripping her hips as he did so, and he looked his fill. His eyes grew darker, his skin ruddier, as he drank in the sight of her in a strapless bra of pale blue lace and a matching pair of panties.
He trailed a long finger over the exposed upper curves of her breasts, his breath starting to hitch a little faster as he observed the taut peaks of her nipples straining against the lacy bra. “Beautiful,” he rasped. “Every bit as beautiful as I remembered. Still too thin but we’ll get to work on that quickly enough.” One of his hands slid around to squeeze her ass cheek, half-bared by the high cut of her underwear. “I should really be spanking you right now, for neglecting yourself that way, for not taking better care of this beautiful body. But not now. Right now all I want to do is this.”
Angela cried out in surprise as he slipped his hand inside her panties, thrusting two fingers deep inside of her soaking wet slit before hooking them against the front of her pelvis. It took a ridiculously brief amount of time – half a dozen deep thrusts of his fingers, a few whisks of his thumb over her clit – for her to come.
“Ohh! Ohh!” she whimpered, her body bucking against his hand as the orgasm continued to ripple through her. It had been so long, she thought wildly, so very long since she’d felt this way. She’d never been tempted to make herself come, knowing it would be a poor, unsatisfying substitute for the real thing. The last time she’d felt this sort of bliss had been the night of her twenty third birthday, and her long starved body rejoiced at the pleasure that had been denied to her for so many months.