His fascination at her reactions was rewarded when she splintered apart in his arms; it was possibly the most erotic moment of his life. He had to grit his teeth to hold back his own release for several moments but, in the end, he couldn’t hold restrain his own climax.
When the storm finally subsided, he fell down on top of her, barely able to pull to the side and gather her into his arms. He almost chuckled when his newfound beauty sighed with happiness, curled up against him with her hand on the middle of his chest, and promptly fell asleep.
So much for recriminations, he thought with a silent chuckle. His fingers stroked her shoulders and back while he stared up at the ceiling. He had a job to do, and making love to the most incredible woman he’d ever met was definitely not in the plan. But he didn’t regret a single moment. In fact, his mind went through all the changes he was about to make to this gentle woman’s life. She’d have to move, he thought, his feet hanging off of the end of her tiny bed. There was no way he was going to allow her to stay here. She was too delicate. She would perish in this kind of a rough environment.
He smiled into the darkness, thinking of the wardrobe he would drape her lovely figure into as soon as he could get her out of this place. He’d take her shopping, dress her in the finest fabrics…and then take them off, kissing every inch of her beautiful, sensitive skin.
The sun was just starting to glimmer over the horizon when the foreign noise began. Tamar heard the beeping but tried to ignore it. He had never felt so content as he did laying here in this woman’s arms. She was soft and sexy, and every time he moved, she snuggled up against him more tightly. Normally, he left after sex was finished, not liking the coital postlude, which usually involved snuggling and discussions of emotions. But with Wyndi, he couldn’t seem to pull himself away from her. In fact, despite the incessant ringing of his cell phone, he wanted to bury himself in her heat once more, to pull her against his already hard erection and plunge himself into her, feel her heat squeeze him. The sex between the two of them had been explosive. Never before had he experience anything as erotic as watching this woman climax in his arms, nor had he been prepared for the mind-blowing experience of his own orgasm with her soft, tiny hands on his body.
He sighed and reached around, grabbing his phone and, for the first time in his life, resented his work. He knew that inevitably it would pull him away.
“Yes?” he said curtly but quietly, so he wouldn’t disturb the blond beauty that curled back up on his chest. His hand absently ran down her spine and back up again. He wasn’t even aware of the smile that came onto his face as she arched against him in her sleep.
But when the speaker gave him the message, his hand froze, his attention captured. “I understand. Tell them I will be there shortly.” He ended the call and rubbed his hand over his face, irritated that he didn’t have time to make love to this woman once again. He had to hurry, needing to follow up on a lead. He was in the city to investigate someone hacking into his government’s files, as well as the files of some of his own companies. He knew it was the same hacker since the digital signature was the same. Normally, his technology people would handle something like this. It had only been brought to his attention because they couldn’t stop whoever was doing it.
It wasn’t like the hacker, or team of hackers, was even stealing anything, which only worried him more. The person was getting into the files, sifting around and getting out, almost undetected. They’d been doing that at each of his companies and the government files for the past six months and nothing, no software or code could stop the person. The fact that they weren’t stealing anything worried him and his teams more because they were probably copying information, and that was a very valuable commodity. He was determined to stop this person or team of people, not wanting his companies or the government of Surisia compromised in any way.
He dressed quickly, all the while watching the lovely woman curl up in the small bed, pulling the pillow close as if she needed a substitute now that he was gone. He smiled softly as he bent down to kiss her goodbye. “I’ll be back,” he whispered, even though he knew she wouldn’t be able to hear him. She was exhausted since he’d barely let her sleep all night. It was nearly dawn and he’d pulled her into his arms over and over again throughout the night, needing to feel her tremble in his arms.
Even now, he was craving her touch, wanting to crawl right back into her bed and make love to her once again. His body hardened just at the idea of her long, slender legs wrapping around his waist, her heat pulling him into her depths. He groaned as he turned away from her, grabbing his tie and slipping it into his pocket. He had to get out of here before he disregarded all of his responsibilities.
Wyndi rolled over, stretching sore muscles as her body tried to figure out why she felt like a boulder had repeatedly pounded her.
And then the night came back to her. A boulder? More like a rock. Or many rocks, she thought with red cheeks. She looked around, her eyes taking in the rumpled bed, all but one pillow on the floor and the intoxicating scent of Tamar filling the air. Along with those scents, all memories of the previous night came back to her, startling in their clarity and intensity. Had she really done all that with him? She buried her face in her pillow as she remembered all the things he’d demanded of her, all the things he’d shown her how to do. Oh, and how incredible all of it had felt. Not once had he allowed her inhibitions to slow him. He’d simply teased her until she was right there with him, abandoning all of her preconceived notions about sex and what happened between a man and a woman.
She glanced to the side of her bed and gasped, sitting upright. She was late! She glanced at her clock and groaned, springing out of bed. She showered faster than she ever had in her life, trying to wash off his scent but she finally accepted that it wasn’t on her skin but in her head. The man had really gotten to her last night. She pulled on her boring, white cotton underwear and bra, bracing because her nipples were even sore from all of the attention he’d paid to them last night. A clean pair of jeans and a pink tee shirt completed her outfit before she raced out of her apartment, arriving only thirty minutes late for her shift.
“I’m sorry!” she gushed to Jimmy, her boss. Billy was already in the kitchen, cooking up breakfast for the regulars while Linda waved to her, indicating that Wyndi could take over her tables once again. Wyndi gathered up all her tips and gave them to Linda, even while she helped with Linda’s tables as well, trying to make up for her tardiness earlier in the morning.
When the breakfast rush slowed down, Linda sidled up to Wyndi, a smile on her face as she nudged Wyndi with her shoulder. “So what had you blowing in here so late this morning?” she asked.
Wyndi blushed and pushed her hair back, sticking another pencil in the side to hold it back from her face. “I forgot to turn on my alarm last night,” she replied. It wasn’t a lie. She had forgotten. She’d forgotten to eat, to sleep, to turn on her alarm and everything else. And even this morning, she hadn’t had time to check the results of her latest searches, which was an astonishing realization. Nothing had ever interfered with her mission until Tamar and his touch last night.
She’d been trying to find her brother for six months. It had taken her this long just to finish the software program that would let her sneak into various company databases to find her brother’s name. So far, she’d come up with ten different Royston Charmichaels, but no luck in finding her actual brother. She’d thought that it would be a simple matter, but she hadn’t anticipated other parents thinking that the name “Royston” was a good one. Of course, her program only allowed her to search a few company databases each night, so it was a painfully slow search. She was working on a new program that would speed up the process, but so far, she’d run into glitches.
“Honey, you’ve got to get a life,” Linda admonished. “I was so excited this morning, hoping that you’d actually gotten a man. The one yesterday that was sitting in the booth over lunch time, actually. Now he seemed like the kind of man who knew his way around a bedroom,” she chuckled. Thankfully, Linda was filling up salt shakers and looking down, so she didn’t see the blush that covered Wyndi’s neck and cheeks as she filled the napkin dispensers.
She cleared her throat. “I’m not looking to have fun until I’ve found my brother.”
Linda stopped and put the salt shaker down. The older woman – with her bleached blond hair and bright pink lipstick – might look like a tacky, Hollywood version of a truck stop waitress, but she had a warm heart that was filled to bursting with the need to care for every person who crossed her path. And right now, the main person in her path was Wyndi. “Darlin’, what if you never find your brother? What if this…thing…you’ve created just doesn’t work?”
Wyndi had asked herself the same question and the answer terrified her. She refused to think about the possibility that she was alone in the world. She and Royston had been siblings who’d fought and yelled at each other, but he’d always been there for her as well. She knew that he had a temper and was stubborn, but if he’d gotten into trouble because of it, she’d find him, get him out of whatever trouble he was in and they’d be a family again. The foster care system had torn them apart after their parents had died in car crash, and the result had been a nightmare for her and her brother. They’d been separated, placed in separate families at a time when she’d desperately needed her big brother. She rapidly blinked back the tears that formed at the memories. She was scared for Royston, thinking his temper might have gotten him in trouble, maybe even in prison. He’d been so hotheaded as a kid!
“If this doesn’t work, then I’ll find something else that will. We were separated after our parents’ died, but he was a good guy. I know he’s also out there looking for me. Somehow, some way, we’ll cross paths. I just know it.”
Linda gave Wyndi a gentle hug, then picked up all the refilled shakers and set them back onto the tables. “Well, I think you should have a bit of fun while you’re searching. What’s wrong with enjoying life even while you’re digging through files for a clue?”
Deegan Hunter, one of the dock workers turned around and smiled brightly. “I agree, honey. I can help you with that!” he chuckled.
Wyndi laughed softly, shaking her head at Deegan’s renewed ploy to get her to go out with him. “Not in this lifetime, Deegan.”
“Ah, honey, you’re just not giving me a chance.”
Wyndi turned to face the thirty-five year old divorced man. He had the demeanor of a grizzly bear at times, but really was just a giant teddy bear. “Deegan, you stop smoking for a month, and then we’ll talk. Deal?”
Deegan’s hand automatically went to his pocket where his second pack of cigarettes for the day was stored. His face was almost comically horrified and he shook his head. “I think you’re lying,” he came back to her.
Wyndi laughed and shrugged her shoulders. “I might be,” she challenged. “But then again, we might have the most wonderful date imaginable.”
Deegan’s eyes widened with hope. “What if I went down to just one pack a day?” he offered, trying to get her to compromise.
Wyndi instantly shook her head. “No deal. Those cigarettes are going to kill you and you’ve got three kids to support. I know Nancy might even take you back if you quit smoking.”
Deegan’s eyes almost popped out of his head with that statement. He’d fallen in love with his wife in the eighth grade and he’d never hoped to meet another woman after that. But she’d kicked him out last year, demanding that he clean up his act or get out. He’d stopped drinking every night, but that meant his smoking had increased. The man simply had an addictive personality, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t figure out a healthier addiction to rely upon.
The afternoon wore on, but because waitressing wasn’t the most intellectually stimulating, she had plenty of time to become angry and resentful at waking up to find Tamar gone. She hadn’t invited him into her apartment last night, nor had she asked him to stay! How dare he leave this morning without any word, without telling her when she would see him again! Well, that was probably a foregone conclusion, she thought, as she accidentally slammed a plate down in front of her customer, having to apologize. She’d never see the man again. She was a one night stand, nothing more. He probably saw her as one of those easy women that the rich guys thought they could exploit. And boy had he exploited her naiveté last night! She’d been so wowed by the newness of sex that she’d gone along with anything he’d told her to do. Granted, all of it had been incredible, but she didn’t need incredible! She had a perfectly satisfactory life without him. She had goals, dreams and a plan for her life and none of those included him barging into her apartment and treating her like an easy mark!
She hadn’t even remembered to give him back his ridiculous tip from yesterday!
By the time her shift ended, she was so tired and angry, she was barely able to say a polite goodbye to Billy, Jimmy and Linda. The three of them walked out the door, Linda and Jimmy heading down the street. Billy hopped onto his motorcycle and sped away while Wyndi trudged to the subway station another block down the street. The longer commute gave her time to fume as she sat on the hard, dirty bench of the subway, rumbling along to her lonely apartment.
By the time she was halfway home, she was determined to throw off her irritation over his callous treatment of her. She wasn’t going to let him ruin her plans. Nor was she going to spend one more moment thinking of the jerk!
So she’d been bowled over by an attractive, charismatic man. Lots of women had probably fallen prey to his easy charm. She’d get over him. She’d move on. And she definitely wouldn’t let him make her feel cheap, she told herself as she angrily wiped the tears from her face.
She stopped by the market on the way home, grabbing milk and several more items. She hated grocery shopping, but she’d put it off to the point where it was urgent now. She hadn’t even had milk last night for her cereal. In fact, she’d forgotten to eat! And since she hadn’t woken early enough this morning, she’d skipped breakfast too so she’d only had a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch and now she was starving. She wanted to whip up a big bowl of pasta with lots of cheese and some sautéed vegetables, maybe some crusty bread with loads of garlic butter. Her mouth was watering as she considered the possibilities. There was only one problem.
Well, actually several as she stared at the cheese section in her local market.
She didn’t like cooking, didn’t know how to make what she wanted, and couldn’t afford the ingredients anyway.
Sighing, she moved on down the aisle, sticking a bottle of milk, some bologna, bread, peanut butter and another box of cereal into her cart. She added a few apples and a couple cans of green beans, but that was about the extent of her shopping budget for the week.
Cereal it is, she thought as she lugged her groceries up the stairs. She was juggling her purse, her heavy grocery bags and her keys, trying to get the key into the lock when a dark hand reached around and plucked the keys out of her hands.
Fight mode kicked in immediately and she spun around. Wyndi dropped the bags, fully prepared to fight if someone was trying to rob her. But she didn’t get the chance to take a swing. “Settle down, tiger,” Tamar said smoothly with a chuckle as he put his hands on her waist. “It’s only me. I’m trying to help you.”
Wyndi was so furious that she ripped herself out of his arms, uncaring that her groceries were now spilled all over the hallway. “What the hell are you doing here?” she demanded.
Tamar smiled down at her, ignoring her hands pressing against his chest while his hands encircled her tiny waist once more. “I’m here to take you out to dinner,” he explained, kissing her neck. “We didn’t really get a chance last night.”
“And then you snuck out of here this morning!”
He was surprised at her anger, not understanding it. “What’s wrong, little one?” he asked gently, looking concerned. “You looked very warm and inviting this morning. I was going to disturb you but I figured you might be a bit tender.”
She shifted uncomfortably, wishing he hadn’t said something so considerate. Because she had been tender. Even now, she could feel parts of her body that had been over used the previous night. “I’m not a one night stand,” she told him. “You need to just go find another woman.”
Tamar chuckled and shook his head. “I don’t think that’s possible,” he replied.
She raised a honey blond eyebrow, even though it wasn’t nearly as effective as his own black brows. “Really? You can’t pick up some other naïve woman and get into her bed for a quickie?”
Tamar heard her words but wasn’t sure why she was becoming so incensed. “Why don’t you go change your clothes and we can discuss your anger over dinner?” he suggested.
She pushed out of his arms then dropped to her knees, collecting her groceries and stuffing them back into her fabric bags. “I’m not changing clothes, I’m not going out to dinner with you and I’m finished discussing anything with you.”
When she had all of her groceries packed back into her bags, she stood up, slung her purse over her shoulder and slammed her key into the lock. “Good night, Tamar,” she said over her shoulder and went into her apartment, intending to close the door behind her.
Intentions seemed to have a way of going off plan when he was around though. When he simply pushed his way into her apartment, she spun around and glared at him. “Get out!” she snapped.
He smiled gently down at her. “Wyndi, you don’t really mean that. Why don’t you let me take you away from all of this,” he said, looking around at her tiny apartment. “I have an apartment in Manhattan or Paris. I will set you up in either of them and you’d have much more space, money to buy more comfortable clothes and servants to wait on you so you won’t have to carry your groceries anymore.”
She was horrified at what he was suggesting. “I’m not a whore!” she spat out at him. “Now get out of my apartment!” She would have pointed at the door but her hands were still loaded with her groceries. She dumped them onto the small countertop, tossed her purse onto the only chair and turned back to glare at him.
“I don’t consider you in that capacity in any way,” Tamar came back, irritated that she would put those connotations to what he was offering her.
“Oh really? So you’re proposing marriage?” she asked sarcastically.
She knew the answer even before he responded simply because his face closed up. “We could enjoy each other,” he replied.
She shook her head, suddenly too exhausted to argue with him any longer. “Look Tamar, I don’t think this…” she waved her hands between their bodies, “is going to work. We’re just too different. We come from different worlds. Besides, I have things that I need to do with my life. You’re getting in the way.”