Unlawful Attraction: The Complete Box Set: Alpha Billionaire Romance (26 page)

“There is. She violated the rules and she knows it.” Gavin shrugged and held out his hand to Carrie. She hesitated, looking at him with narrowed eyes, but after a moment, she placed her hand in his. He looked back at us. “Take one of the private rooms and work whatever this is out.”

As they both walked away, I turned my gaze to Dena.

She wasn’t looking at me. In fact, she was trying very hard not to look at me.

After a few more seconds, I held out my hand. “Shall we?”

Dena lowered her gaze to my hand and scowled. She edged around, presenting me with a view of her narrow back as she started toward one of the private rooms. Falling into step behind her, I bit back a curse and wondered how she managed to do this to me.

I couldn’t think around her.

Not at all.

She didn't look at me until she stopped in front of a door, and only then it was a glance. Still, it was enough for me to see the faint flush on her cheeks. I couldn’t place the tension in her body right away, but once we stepped inside, I caught on easily enough.

The room was familiar.

In fact, it was the room I’d brought her to the first night we’d been here.

The lights were low. The bed was close by and I could instantly imagine backing her up against it, stripping her naked, tugging the slim-fitting jeans she wore down to her ankles, kissing the hollow at the base of her neck as I slid my hand inside her panties and found her wet.

I’d make her come for me before we did anything else, even before we talked. She was pissed off, angry and brittle. Hard. I didn’t want her hard. I wanted her soft and wet and welcoming in my hands.

I’d make her come, then she'd cuddle up and sigh against me. I could hold her and then we could talk. Work this whole thing out.

But then she closed the door and dropped the key into a glass bowl on the low lying table near the couch. Instead of going to the bed, she settled down in an elegant sprawl on the couch and crossed one slim leg over the other.

“Well.” Her lips were pursed in a mockery of a smile. “We were sent to our room, Mr. Porter. How long do you think we have to pretend to talk before we can go our separate ways?”

Chapter 8

Dena

A muscle pulsed in his temple.

Or maybe it was a vein.

Either way, it was a clear sign he was pissed.

His jaw clenched tight and his eyes burned as he stalked toward me. Part of me wanted to draw back, but then he stilled a few feet away and I relaxed a little. I still wasn’t entirely sure I should have come into this room with him. Actually, I was almost
positive
I shouldn’t have come into this room with him.

But we were going to bump into each other. And he was right that we needed to talk. If not about whatever this was between us, then at least about...

“What were you doing at my client’s house?” Arik demanded, the question coming out like an accusation.

I didn't remember moving. One minute I was on the couch, and the next, I was in his face, jabbing a finger into his chest. “What was
I
doing? I was doing my job. There. I answered your question.” I raked him up and down, putting as much scorn into my look as I could. “Now you answer one of mine. Just how much of a coincidence was it that you showed up here right around the time I got hired at the DA's office.”

Arik dipped his head, his mouth less than an inch away from mine. “I don’t think I care for the accusation I’m hearing coming from you.”

“Just doing the same thing you are, jackass,” I snapped. “Doesn't feel very good, does it?”

I started to move away, wanting to get as far from him as possible.

Except I didn’t get far.

Strong arms came around me and I bit back a gasp as he hauled me back against him. This time, I didn’t dare struggle. I didn't even move. I'd felt his reaction to me out there. More, I’d been painfully aware of mine. If I pushed him too far now, we’d be all over each other in a blink and that wasn’t what I wanted.

Liar
.

It was a manic, delighted little voice that came from deep inside me. I wanted to throttle that voice, lock it in a trunk and throw in the Hudson, then toss the key into the sewers.

I hated it, but I couldn't actually deny it.

“What’s the matter?” Arik whispered, his voice a husky purr in my ear. “Where’s all that passionate fight now, Dena?”

“Let me go, Mr. Porter.”

I fell back on formality, focused on the wall in front of me, hoping that maybe, just maybe, if I kept my wits intact, I could get out of this with my dignity not totally shredded. I never should have looked twice at him. I never should have looked
once
at him.

He could ruin my career.

It was already teetering thanks to Bethany. And this wouldn't be a claim I could deny.

A smooth, warm hand slid up my bare arm, higher, across my collarbone and then he placed his palm against my throat, curled his fingers. It was a terribly vulnerable position to be in, his hand around my neck. I could feel my pulse fluttering against his hand. Then he lowered his mouth and skimmed it along the curve where neck met shoulder and it took everything I had in me not to respond, not to tremble.

“Dena...” His voice was like honey. Like silk.

Fuck that.

It was pure sex.

“Let me go.” I tried to demand it.

“Why?” he asked, his tone so terribly reasonable. “It seems to me you were happy here just a few days ago.”

“That was before I found out you were defending a woman my office is trying for murder.”

“Hmmm.” His lips slid down my neck, then up.

That really shouldn’t feel so good. I hated that it did.

“That is something to consider,” he admitted. “But I didn’t know you were an ADA, Dena. I didn’t even know you were a lawyer.”

His teeth caught my ear and I shuddered. For that long moment, I was so caught up in what he was doing to my body that I barely noticed his words. Heat exploded through me as he tugged on my hip, and I had to fight a whimper as he moved forward, bringing my butt in full contact with his cock.

We were both clothed. That was the only reason he wasn’t already inside me, and we both knew it. I wanted him inside me so badly that it nearly hurt. I wanted to feel his cock stretching me, invading me, bringing me to another earth-shattering climax. I wanted the release that only submission to him would bring.

When he slid a hand up my belly, my breath exploded out of me in a rush.

“Did you know?”

I had no idea what he was talking about. All I knew was the feel of his touch.

His fingers popped the button on my jeans as a part of my brain screamed at me to listen.

I caught his wrist, stopping him. I was pretty sure there was a reason he didn’t need to be undressing me, and I’d figure it out in a minute.

“Know what?” I managed to ask, panting in an effort to restore the flow of oxygen to my brain.

“Did you know I was a defense attorney?” His voice sounded far too serious and stable considering the fact that his fingers were tracing a path up and down the inseam of my jeans.

How could he talk about anything even remotely logical?

But then my brain locked in on just
what
he was talking about and surprisingly, my brain cleared.

I pulled away from him and took a few shaky steps. Turning toward him, I swallowed. My hands shook as I smoothed back my hair. Face burning and heart pounding, I looked around at anywhere but his face.

“If I’d known you were an attorney of
any
kind, I never would have come into one of these rooms with you, much less gotten naked with you.” Pulling up the threads of my control, I managed a faint smirk. “Apparently, I need to start some sort of background check next time I get naked with a man.”

Arik didn’t even crack a smile.

I didn't really think it was funny either.

He came closer and reached up, shoving a hand into my hair and tangling it, tugging back until my head was cranked to a near painful angle. “My temper is already at a snapping point. Want to see me go over? Talk about getting naked with another man, Dena.”

I shoved at him, disregarding the hand he had fisted in my hair.

He let go, but my scalp felt raw. “We don't have any sort of
understanding
, Mr. Porter,” I said scathingly.

“We can change that.”

The words caught me off guard. So much so that when he turned me around and brought me back against him, my back tucked to his chest, I didn’t even think to move. It felt so good. His chest was warm and solid, heating me through and through.

“I have a hold on you now,” he murmured against my ear. “I like this hold. You like it.”

I did. But I shouldn’t.

“You need to let me go,” I said, my voice rough.

“Why?”

Why...

His question bounced around in my brain. There was a reason. I knew there was.

Finally, after far too long, I remembered.

I swallowed to loosen my tight throat before I spoke, “Because we can’t be doing this. We’re both working the same case – on opposite sides.” My breath hitched as he rubbed his thumb across my belly through the material of my shirt.

The garment might as well have not even been there with the heat coursing through me. Struggling to think about anything that didn’t involve him touching me, his hands on me, his body, I managed to drag my mind back to the present.

“We can’t be doing this because it’s unprofessional. I’m an ADA assigned to the prosecutor in the case. You’re the defendant’s lawyer. It’s called conflict of interest. Surely they taught you about that in law school.”

When he didn’t let go, my frustration at the situation, at myself, spilled over, and it came out in a waspish bite. “Come on, unless you got your law degree from a crackerjack box or you bought it online, you know this is a problem.”

“I assure you, my law degree didn’t come from a box or online.” He chuckled, not sounding at all offended by my words. “You’ve got nasty bite to you, don't you? Keep it up, and I'll be tempted to do something about it.”

His palm flexed, pulling me more firmly against him, but he spoke at the same time, distracting me from the hard, heavy pressure of his cock against the small of my back.

“What are you doing on the case, Dena? I know Bethany. She's a shark. If she smells blood in the water, she goes after it. She doesn't share.” His teeth caught my ear, tugged.

I felt my knees weaken. I had to get away from him before I did something really, really stupid. Like beg him to take me.

Twisting out of his arms, I put some distance between us before looking at him. “Bethany's my boss, and she's the ADA of record on the case.” My mind struggled to remember all of the legal arguments as to why we shouldn't do this. “That's enough. Besides, I was at your client's apartment. Seems like I'm plenty involved.”

He didn't seem bothered at all by what I said. “Yes, you were there, but it was the weekend. Bethany thinks too much of herself to work on the weekends if she can dump it off on somebody else.”

A hundred possible replies popped into my mind. Part of me wanted to tell him the truth, that I'd been moved off the case so that there was nothing keeping us apart. But I knew that this was a bad idea all the way around. I'd eventually have to face off against him.

Unless I got fired first.

Arik's eyes narrowed. “What, specifically, are your duties on this case?”

Dammit.

“Bethany wasn’t pleased with some bullshit I called her on. I’ve been pulled from the case,” I finally said, biting each word off. “I’m mostly working on research and filings with the paralegals.”

“You called her on her bullshit?” He looked impressed. “What was it?”

I could tell by looking at him that he wouldn’t let it go, even if he should. “You know damn well I can't tell you that.” I shook my head. “See, this is why you and me and this...” Abruptly, I laughed. “There
is
no you and me. Who am I kidding?”

I was so done with this shit. I got up and started for the door.

I closed my hand around the doorknob, but his arm came over my shoulder and kept me from opening the door.

“No you and me?” His voice was low. “Are you sure about that?”

I shivered as he pressed his lips against the side of my neck.

“You don’t really think you can ignore what we have between us, do you?” There was a pause, and then he added, “Do you even want to?”

I didn't bother to answer his question. Easing out from between him and the door, I turned to look at him. “I don’t see why not. You asked for my number and then ignored me. I'm not one of those Subs who takes whatever a Dom dishes out. I don't sit by the phone waiting for anyone, Arik.” My mouth curved into a brittle smile. “Now you tell me, how many of those nights did you spend alone? Any of them?”

“I never thought you were that kind of woman.”