Up Close and Personal (10 page)

On my way back through the main floor corridor, I hear Sterling’s unmistakable slide and thump approach. Not wanting to meet him, I duck for cover into a room I’ve never seen before. Moonbeam streams through the open window lighting a massive wood desk and furniture that could easily be featured in a home design magazine. The study smells of lemon wax and expensive leather. It’s easily twice the size of Sterling’s office, and its furnishings are more luxurious than his, which are modern in the extreme.

“Thank you, Minouette. You were very accommodating to my needs.” Sterling MacKay’s voice rings out from the hallway.

Accommodating? My heart thumps. Is Minouette what I think she is? I didn’t close the door. As near as they’d been, the click would have given me away. I’d hoped they would pass me by while I hid in the dark confines of the space. But rather than continue their journey, they’d stopped right outside the door. And with the darn thing ajar, I can hear every word.

“Not a ‘ardship, Messieur. You’re very, ‘ow can I say, gifted with your mouth? You will ask me back,
oui
?”

Did he do what I think he did? I gasp and almost gag from the strong scent she’s wearing. How can he stand her perfume when I can’t even wear cologne?

“I’ll call Madame Sally and let her know you did a good job.”

A good job?
That’s what every working girl wants to hear.

“I’ll add a little extra for traveling in such inclement weather.”

“Not an inconvenience at all, Messieur. The car service picked me up and will deliver me back to my apartment.”

After an eternity in which some rustling and a soft sigh ensue, the thump and shuffling resume and drift away from me. With any luck, I’ll be able to dash out as soon as they turn the corner at the far end of the hall.

Unfortunately, they don’t. “My butler has your coat. He will show you to your car. Follow the hall and make a right. I’m sorry I can not accompany you, but—”

“No need to apologize. I understand. Au revoir, Messieur MacKay.” Some more rustling and then the cloying scent dissipates.

When the thump and shuffling return, my heart goes to double time. What if he comes into the study? He won’t. It’s after two. Surely, he’ll need his rest after the workout he enjoyed with Minouette. I clamp my teeth to keep them from chattering. The study is freezing cold. The thump and the shuffling come closer and closer. It’ll only be a few minutes until he walks by and then I can make a break for it back to my room. But he doesn’t walk by. He stops right outside the door. Oh, God.

“Please come out, Miss Bennett.”

I hesitate. Maybe if I don’t emerge, he’ll think he made a mistake.

“I’m waiting.”

Darn. I widen the door, walk out. Glass gripped tightly in my hand; cheeks no doubt blazing red. I witnessed something I shouldn’t have. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I was just getting some milk to help me sleep.”

“Next time you ‘eavesdrop’ you need to be more careful.”

I gulp. “What do you mean?” I’d been as silent as a mouse.

“Your scent gave you away.”

“My scent?” His lover’s heavy perfume made me gag, and yet, it’s my scent he detected. “I’m not wearing any cologne.”

“You don’t have to wear cologne for me to know it’s you.”

Guess I’ll need to give up bathing from now on, because all I’m ‘wearing’ is some good old-fashioned soap.

“Do you do that often?” A note of resentment slips out.

“Often enough.” He takes a step forward, right into my private space, and that spicy scent of his hits me. My breath shorts, my knees grow weak. Everything in me reaches out, but I can’t let him affect me this much. Hoping a small distance will lessen his power over me, I jerk back. Some of the milk spills from the glass and lands on his feet. “Shoot.”

His lip curls in distaste. “What is that?”

“Milk. Sorry.”

“Drink it.” He orders.

“Right now?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” Trembling all the while, I do as I’m told.

“Get rid of the glass.”

For a moment, I hesitate. “I should take it back to the kitchen.”

“Hang the kitchen.” He’s angry, and I have no idea why.

I put down the glass on a side table and momentarily consider making a break for it.

“Don’t even think about running away.” He’s a mind reader now.

Remembering my earlier promise to myself, I dredge up my best business voice. “Why? Is there something you need from me?”

“Yes, this.” His mouth finds me in the dark, and he presses me against the wall. He’s wearing nothing but a pair of lounge silk pants and a robe. His chest is bare. I can feel his need right against my belly. How can he be this hard when he just had sex with Minouette?

“We shouldn’t.” I whisper when I come up for air.

He barely spares my protest a second before he grabs my hand and steers us toward the staircase. “We can’t stay here. Come.”

I hold my granny gown in one hand and trip along trying to keep up with him. “Where are you taking me?”

“My room. It’s way past time we settled this between us.”

I come to a dead stop. “We can’t do this.”

Pushing me against the wall, he kisses me stupid. Again. “Yes, we can.”

I finally manage to catch my breath. “You’ve just been serviced by another woman. How can you want sex again?”

He suckles my bottom lip into his mouth, love bites it. “She didn’t satisfy me.”

That doesn’t make any sense. The woman trades in sex. From their conversation, she’s a regular visitor which means she ‘satisfied’ him before. And yet tonight, she didn’t? “How can that be?”

He rests his forehead against mine. For a few seconds, we breathe the same air. “I couldn’t get hard. You want to know why?”

His hands, clamped around my temples, stop me from shaking my head. “N-no.”

“She wasn’t you. It’s you I want, you my body desires. Sweet, innocent, true Caitlyn.” He drags my hand to his erection. When I curl my fingers around him, he moans. “You see what you do to me? I want to bury myself in your heat, fuck you until you scream. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Tonight.”

Dear God.

By fits and starts we make our way to the staircase. I don’t dare struggle on the way up. He could stumble and fall if I do.

When we get to his room, he slams the door close and pushes me against it. “What are you wearing? Describe it for me.”

“A flannel gown. I get cold easily.”

“You won’t be cold tonight.” He growls, stripping the gown off me.

He drops to his knees, and like a hungry beast, he nibbles his way up my legs to where I’m wet and aching for him. Opening my folds, he licks my clit. “You want me.”

I can’t deny it, not when I’m trembling as hard as I am.

“I’m going to make you come, right here up against the door. You want that, don’t you? You like everything I’m doing to you.”

My legs are shaking, my pussy’s weeping for him, but I refuse to give him the answer he seeks.

Nudging my knees apart, he buries his mouth in my heat and feasts on me. My knees threaten to give way, and I clamp unto the nearest thing—him—to keep me from falling. “I want to pet you, lick you, eat you until you come. You gonna let me, sweet girl?”

I whimper with need.

“I need to hear it. I need to know you want this as much as I do.”

He love bites my button, and I scream.

“Say yes, Caitlyn.”

He won’t drive me over the edge until I give him what he wants. I swallow hard. “Y-yes.”

With a triumphant moan, he buries his mouth in my mound, and he touches something inside. I come in a rush of heat and lightning and need. Not caring how much racket I make, I jerk against the door, while the cream pours out of me and he laps me up.

Just as my knees threaten to give up the fight, he stands and picks me up. In three steps he’s at his bed where he climbs into bed with me. Momentarily grateful to be horizontal so I won’t fall down, I don’t get what he’s doing, I realize I have about ten seconds to jump out of bed, grab my gown and flee. “I-I—”

He rips off his robe, yanks off his lounge pants. His erection is long and hard and thick. He takes my hand and curls it around him. “Touch me.”

“How? I’ve never done it before.”

“Anyway you want. Your hand is heaven on me.”

I’d read enough about it, but had never gone down on a man before. I hadn’t wanted to do it on my boyfriend even though he’d begged me. Maybe that’s one of the reasons we broke up. He wanted things from me I couldn’t give. But with Sterling, I’m more than willing. I want to know what he tastes like. Want to know what happens when I do. I tentatively run my hand up and down his erection and he moans. I lick the head and he practically comes off the bed. “Yes, like that. Only harder.”

“Harder?”

“I won’t break.”

I slip his veined length into my mouth and taste him, really taste him. He groans as he lays his hand on my head, caressing my hair, threads his hand through my hair and clutching when I bring him pleasure.

“Like that?”

“Yes, just like that.”

The more I work on him, the more he likes it. Who knew I was good at this? I try different methods, licking, sucking, raking my teeth down his length. He tenses at the last and only relaxes when he pops his length out of my mouth. “Lie back.”

When I do as I’m told, he reaches into his night table and grabs something. A foil packet. A condom.

That’s when it hits me. We’re going to have sex. That big, thick penis of his is going to be inside of me. “Ready?” he asks.

I can still say no. Oh, he would try to talk me into saying yes, but he would honor my wishes. Thing is I want him inside me. I want to know what it’s like. “Yes.”

“Good.” His smile could light up the room.

It’s not easy. I haven’t had that much sex and the little I’ve had is not recent. With infinite patience, he works me, works my opening, sliding in a minuscule distance at a time.

“Aarghhh.” He kicks back his head. “Fuck. You’re tight.”

“Yes.”

“When was the last time you had sex, Caitlyn?”

“Two years ago.”

His mouth devours mine and his fingers go to work on my clit while my sheath slowly opens up to him. When he finally hits bottom, it feels like heaven.

“Good?”

“Yes.”

“Touch me, sweet girl.”

I embrace him. He’s so big, so broad my hands don’t fit all the way across, but, kneading his back, I make it work. My legs fall open to give him more freedom so he can do what he will with me. When I come, I scream again. Well, he did promise.

Chapter 13

______________

Sterling

I WAKE TO FIND HER GONE FROM MY BED. Angry at myself for what I gave in to, I rush through my shower, yell at my valet, and stomp down the stairs. I text her to meet me in my office, promptly at eight.

As the clock strikes the hour, she slips into my sanctuary, smelling like everything that’s good and right in this world. But I won’t have her again. She’s too pure, too good to be my mistress, and I can’t marry her. She’s not the right sort. So I’ll keep her at arm’s length until the trip to Hong Kong. After that, I’ll give her a generous severance package and let her go.

“Good morning,” she says. Her voice comes out in a pained whisper.

“Please take a seat, Ms. Bennett.”

With a rustle, she does. Wonder what she’s wearing today? The thought side tracks my purpose for asking her here. And that’s something I can’t have. “The non-disclosure agreement you signed.”

“Yes.”

“It prohibits you from revealing details about my life.”

She gasps. “I would never.”

Under normal circumstances, she probably wouldn’t. But she’s in need of hard cash and a tale leaked to the press would gain her a quick buck. “Come, Ms. Bennett. You’re not that naive. I’m a hot commodity. The magazines and newspapers would love to get the dirt on me. A story like this would go for a cool five thousand at least.”

“I would never tell anyone. My personal life is just that. Personal.”

“I’m not talking about what we did last night. That is best . . . forgotten.”

Her breath hitches. “I agree.”

“It’s Minouette’s visit I need to keep private. We have a shareholders’ meeting coming up. It could cause trouble if word were to leak out I hired an escort.”

“You have nothing to worry about, Mr. MacKay. I won’t tattle about your life.”

“Even if you were offered obscene amounts of money?”

“No, Mr. MacKay. Not even then.” Her words come out clipped. She’s angry at me. With good reason. I assigned more importance to Minouette’s visit than my encounter with her. I don’t want to examine too closely why I did what I did last night. It’s over and done with. And it won’t happen again.

When the grandfather clock chimes a quarter past the hour, she stands. “Time for breakfast.”