Aftershock (2 page)

***

Chapter Two

Oh dear god…

Caitlyn’s hands began to sweat as
she pushed through the revolving doors of the entrance to the brand new
headquarters of Steele Technologies. After hanging up the phone, she threw her
stuff into her briefcase and made a mad dash downstairs, almost killing herself
in the process as she teetered on those stupid red stiletto heels.

The Steel Tech building was
impressive on the outside, made of steel and tempered glass, but it was even
more so once she entered the main lobby. Intimidating was the first word that
came to mind. As soon as she walked in, she could feel the power and money that
the company represented. The building itself seemed more suited to downtown LA
rather than San Francisco and had only been completed a few months ago, so it
still had that new feel to it. With its streamlined contemporary furnishings
and sleek interior, it made her feel even more apprehensive being there.

Rumor had it that Grayson T. Steele,
the CEO of Steele Technologies, was ready to launch a new cell phone prototype
and they were shopping for a firm to market it for them. Manchester Klein was
hoping to acquire the account, even though it seemed odd that Steele Tech would
be looking outside their own company to do so. Still, it would be a huge win
for her firm and Caitlyn knew the details to the account since she had basically
drafted the proposal herself. But that wasn’t the real reason she was so damn
nervous.  

No, her anxiety came from an
entirely different reason...

Somewhere in this building was
her dream man, or as she personally liked to call him, Mr. Tall, Dark and
Delicious. It never failed that every time she saw him her brains seemed to
leak out of her head and left her a raging idiot. She had no clue who he was,
but there had been several incidents where she had made a perfect ass of
herself in front of him and had ruined any hope of that ever happening.

She had first seen TD&D a few
months ago while she had been walking back from the coffee shop down the street
with Jesse. It had been a simple glance across the street as two men had gotten
out of a town car in front of the new Steele Tech building.

That was when she saw him.

Both men had been wearing what
looked like expensive, well-tailored suits, but she had eyes for only one of
the men. He was dressed in a black suit, with a pristine white dress shirt and
a bold red tie. With his black hair, golden skin and dark eyes, he looked as if
he were some dark, mythical god come to life. His face was intense, with strong
chiseled features. Even from a distance she could feel the weight of his
penetrating gaze as their eyes met.

“Holy sex on a stick,” Jesse had
murmured, and Caitlyn had to agree.

It had been as if her brain malfunctioned
at the sight of the dark god and she had completely forgotten how to walk. She
had tripped on her own feet and ended up spilling coffee all over herself.
Mortified, she had glanced up to see that both men had seen her folly and she
had quickly ducked her head in shame at their amused smiles. Jesse had tried to
console her, but it was no use. She’d hurried back into the Manchester Klein
building and had all but buried her red face in work for the rest of the day in
a desperate attempt to forget what had happened.

The next incident had been just
as bad. Caitlyn had walked to work one morning, only the San Francisco hills
had made that a very short phase of her impromptu workout plan. That particular
morning had been hotter than expected and Caitlyn had been sweating by the time
she had gotten to the office. She had been walking with her head down when she
had run into a muscular, broad chest, literally bouncing off and falling on her
ass.

She had glanced up and saw her
dream man looking down at her with unfathomable dark eyes that seemed to peer
straight into her very soul. He had asked if she was alright and had helped her
up, his deep voice sending shivers of desire down her spine. She had managed
some sort of stuttering reply then had fled as fast as her feet would take her,
not hearing what he said as she bolted for safety.

There had been a few other brief
encounters, but the latest debacle had occurred only last week. There had been
a downpour of epic proportions outside when her boss had demanded she run to
the post office down the street right before closing in order to get some essential
client documents sent out. Usually this wouldn’t have been something she had to
do, but most of the office had been out at other clients meetings so it had
been left to her. Resigned to her fate, she had carefully wrapped the envelope
in two plastic bags before making her way outside.

 Praying she wouldn’t get hit by
a car, she had run across the street, trying to make it before she was washed
away in the rushing currents of water flooding down the drains. She had just
made it onto the sidewalk when a brutal gust of wind had literally ripped the
umbrella right out of her hand, turning it inside out. Caitlyn had turned just
in time to watch in horror as her umbrella sped like a heat seeking torpedo
right at her dream man as he got out of a car in front of the Steel Technologies
building.

As if in slow motion, Caitlyn had
watched the dark god open his own umbrella, unaware of the chaos she had
unleashed. She tried to call out, but before she could shout out a warning, her
umbrella hit his, jerking it from his startled grasp. Mockingly, both umbrellas
waltzed in the air for a moment before being swept away in the swirling wind.

Caitlyn had stood there, frozen
in mortification as she watched her dream man’s head whip around to zero in on
her through the torrential downpour. She had call out a pathetic apology, glad
that he couldn’t see her tears of embarrassment mingling with the rain streaming
down her face.

Both of them soaked, he had
started toward her.

“I’m sorry,” she had whispered
again, watching as his dark brows creased in what could only be anger. She had
let a choking sob escape before she turned and ran, leaving her dream man and
her umbrella behind.

Caitlyn had been having
nightmares about that last incident all week. She couldn’t even imagine how
much he must hate her after destroying his beautiful suit. She knew she should
seek him out to give him a real apology, but she just couldn’t bring herself to
do it. She was terrified that she would end up injuring him somehow and she’d end
up getting sued, or worse, killing him by accident.

Obviously, god seemed to have a
twisted sense of humor where she was concerned because as soon as Caitlyn
entered the elegant lobby of the Steele Tech building, she saw him. There he
was, the bane of her existence, in all his dark gorgeous glory, standing at the
front desk speaking to one of the security guards. Panicking, she hurried
across the marble expanse toward the elevators. She didn’t want to give him a
chance to have her thrown out of the building and if she missed the meeting she
had a good chance of being fired.

Punching the up button to the
elevators, she kept her head down, praying with all her might that he hadn’t
seen her. She waited impatiently for the elevator and stepped in as soon as the
steel doors opened, pressing the button for the top floor. 

To her extreme horror, Caitlyn looked
up just in time to see her dream man step into the small space of the elevator with
her and her breath caught. He pushed a button on the inside panel and the doors
silently slid closed, locking them in together. She blinked her eyes a few
times, praying that her eyes were playing tricks on her, but no such luck.

Their eyes met and she forgot how
to breathe. Jesus, he truly was the most breathtakingly handsome man in the
world. A cold dose of reality swept through her as she remembered their last
encounter when she had practically tried to kill him with a freaking umbrella.
What the hell could she possibly say to him now?

 “I’m s—sorry,” she stuttered
out. “I didn’t mean to try and kill you last week. It was my umbrella’s fault.
Or the wind. Or, well…”

Shit, was she mentally
handicapped or what?

A slow smile spread across his
perfect face as the elevator began to move. Dear god, she didn’t think it was
possible for him to get any better looking, but his smile made her heart race
like it wanted to jump right out of her chest to give itself to him.

Behave!

Suddenly, a rumbling sound
started, surprising her into tearing her gaze away from his. She looked around,
franticly hoping that she was imagining what was happening as the elevator
began to shake, jostling them. A startled gasp escaped her lips as her dream
man suddenly wrapped his muscular arms around her, sheltering her smaller frame
as the earthquake rocked their world and the ominous groaning of metal filled
the air.

Oh god, I am going to end up
killing him!
 

Fuck it, she officially quit.

Even nature seemed to be working
against her. As least it couldn’t get any worse now, she thought then cursed as
the lights went out.

***

Chapter Three

Grayson Taggart Steele, or Tag as
his family and close friends called him, had first watched the raven haired
beauty walk into the building across the street from his new office almost two months
ago. Since that first day, his fascination with her had grown into a hunger he
had never felt the likes of before.

Compared to his six foot two she was
a petite little thing, but she had a woman’s curvy figure. It was a body that
had haunted his dreams to the point that his hands actually ached to touch her
smooth skin while she trembled beneath him. As a strong man who was very aware
of his own strength he couldn’t stand women that were built like toothpicks. It
made him afraid he would snap them in two.

No, even though she was petite, his
sweet girl had a body made for loving.

From the window of his office he
would glance down at the streets below just to catch a glimpse of her exquisite
body moving gracefully down the street. By some lucky coincidence, he
discovered that his office was on the same level as the floor his dream girl
worked on. Sure, he was the CEO of his company and everyone expected him to
have his office on the top floor, but he didn’t play by other people’s rules.

Never had and never would.

He did have an office on the top
floor of the high-rise, but that was mostly for show. It wasn’t where he worked
on a daily basis. The truth was he hated heights and preferred to have his
office on a much lower floor, where he could look out the window without
wanting to close his eyes and pray.

He hadn’t known where his dream
girl worked when he had chosen to put his office on the seventh floor. Seven
was just his lucky number, and that was why he had chosen it. And lucky it had
been. So, what if he happened to have a telescope in his office? He’d had it in
there before he even knew she had existed. But that didn’t stop him from using
it once he knew she was there. When he needed a break from work he began to
watch for signs of her during the day, looking forward to seeing her face.

And watching her day by day just made
him want to see more.

Up close and very personal. 

She was almost always alone,
unless she was with her one friend. At first he had assumed that the man had
been more than her friend, until he saw him kissing another man in front of
their office. Tag had watched his dream girl join the two men. It had relieved
him greatly when she had hugged them like brothers before the three of them
walked down the street together to a local bar down the street.

  Watching as her co-workers left
for lunch or after work, she was never with them.  It made him wonder, about
her life, her friends, her family.

How she tasted.

What she cried out in ecstasy.

He was driving himself fucking crazy
constantly thinking about her. He was not a stalker, damn it. He was powerful,
wealthy and women pursued him all the time.

But he wanted her.

He had tried to approach his
dream girl several times now and somehow he always managed to fuck it up. The
first time he had seen her he had just gotten out of one of the company cars
with a friend when she had suddenly appeared across the street. He had never
been one to believe in love at first sight, but he had been struck dumb in that
moment.

“Jesus, Tag. You’re eye fucking
that poor woman on the street in front of her boyfriend,” Adam had said as he
nudged Tag in the shoulder. Tag has smiled sheepishly at his friend, but he
sobered as his dream girl fled inside her office building, out of sight.

The next time he had tried to
approach her it had been before work. He had seen her walking and jogged across
the street to meet her. Before he could speak, he had accidently knocked her
down on her sweet ass. Feeling like an idiot he had tried to apologize, but
obviously hadn’t done a very good job of it as she hurried away from him.

Last week had been another
clusterfuck of epic proportions.

It had been raining like crazy
when he arrived back at his office from a very long lunch meeting with a very
annoying colleague. Tag had been in a bad mood as he got out of the car, when
his umbrella was ripped out of his hand. Soaked to the skin in a matter of
seconds, he had looked over and his anger had faded under the weight of his
concern as he saw his dream girl shivering in the onslaught of rain. With no
thought but to take her inside with him, he had started forward, but she had
let out a sob and ran from him…again.

Every damn time he saw her, his
cock would twitch, angry with him for not pursuing what it craved. That day it
had been painful to let her go when she was so upset, but he hadn’t wanted to
scare her even more by chasing her down and carrying her off like some sort of
raging caveman. And that is exactly what he would have done. The rain had
plastered her blouse to her full breasts and he had remembered her hard nipples
poking through the thin material.

It had almost pushed him beyond
his control.

Now here she was, in his arms,
crying out in fear. A wave of fierce protectiveness swept through him as he
wrapped his arms around her, holding her close to him. He felt her own arms
wrap around his waist so their bodies were pressed together as the elevator
went pitch black. She let out a low moan of distress and his hold on her tightened,
trying to give her what comfort he could. A few seconds later the low amber
glow of the emergency lights kicked on, chasing the darkness away. 

Feeling like a fool, Caitlyn released
her death grip on him and pulled back, but he didn’t let go of her. His face
was an expressionless mask. Black hair hung down over his forehead and she saw
him clench his chiseled, square jaw. Dark obsidian eyes held hers in their
intense gaze making it impossible for her to look away.  She could feel a blush
rising to stain her cheeks pink as she tried to remove herself from his arms,
but again his steel roped arms held her still.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry. I’m so
sorry, I’m all over you, and I don’t even know who you are,” Caitlyn managed to
croak out.

“My name is Tag. Don’t worry, I
like you where you are. I’ll keep you safe.” He spoke softly as he held her against
him tenderly, like a precious treasure.

“I’m ah, Cait…Caitlyn. Really,
you can let me go now. I think the earthquake is over.”

A phone rang from a panel inset
into the wall of the elevator right below the panel of buttons.  Without
looking away, Tag retained his hold on her as he reached down to flip the panel
door open. He pulled out the phone, bringing it up to his ear, his piercing
eyes never leaving her.

Desire flared to life within her
as she stared into his eyes and she felt herself falling within the dark
depths. She shifted in his hold and her breath caught as she felt the hot, hard
length of him against her. Caitlyn heard the soft mumbling of a voice on the
other end of the phone, but couldn’t seem to focus on anything except for the
throbbing erection poking into her stomach.

“Work on the system, don’t worry
about us. Take your time. We’re fine. We’ll be here.” Tag hung up the phone.

At his words, Caitlyn’s eyes went
wide and had her sputtering.

“What the hell! Did you…you just
told them to take their time?  We’re stuck in here and you told them to take
their time?  Are you fucking crazy?”

 “We’ll be fine in here, Caitlyn.”
His deep voice was calm, but he words explained nothing and she started to
panic.

“We are
not
fine. We are
stuck in a goddamn elevator.
We
are definitely
not
fine!”

She struggled against his hold,
but it did no good. She started to fight in earnest, but he didn’t release her.
Her strength was no match for his. Tag moved forward to press her back against
the wall while his body caged her in, holding her steady. He was almost a foot
taller then her, but he leaned down to maintain contact. Her eyes were
hauntingly beautiful. They gave her an almost ethereal aura, damning any mortal
man who thought he could touch her.

His hands reached up to gently
cup her face and his thumbs rubbed her cheeks slowly, dark eyes searching. “Sweetheart,
the earthquake blew out the electricity and they’re worried because the
emergency generators aren’t working properly either. They haven’t completely
finished the work on the building, so they are checking things over carefully.
We are only a few floors up. The emergency crews have a lot to worry about right
now. We should be low on their priority list. Nothing is going to happen to
you. Don’t worry baby, we’ll be fine. I promise.”

A shiver ran up Caitlyn’s spine
as she tried to hold her panic at bay. Panting for breath, Caitlyn closed her
eyes trying to pull herself together. She didn’t do well in enclosed places
like this nor did she like the dark.

In fact, she hated it.

On top of that, Caitlyn had to
fight the insane urge to throw herself back into Tag’s arms and jump him. He
was going to think she was crazy…more than he already did.

Damn, this was a nightmare.

She opened her mouth to speak,
but lost her train of thought as she looked up into his dark eyes. It was like
he had this unexplainable power over her that she couldn’t control. Her body
began to tremble, and it wasn’t from the thought of being stuck in the
elevator. She wanted him like she wanted her next breath.

Tag murmured soothingly as he
pushed her hair back from her face. He seemed to be searching for something.
“This is not exactly how I wanted our first official meeting to go,” he said
softly.

She choked out a laugh. “You mean
me trying to kill you with an umbrella didn’t count?”

He slowly grinned as he shook his
head. “No, that doesn’t count. Although, I have been trying to meet you for a
while. You’ve been my dream girl, just out of my reach…until now.”

He couldn’t be serious, could he?

Her eyes widened as she looked
down to see that he was undoing the buttons of her jacket. “W—what are you
doing?”

“We might be in here for a while.
We might as well get comfortable.” He slowly slid the jacket down her arms so
it fell to the floor. 

In the low amber glow that
shimmered like candlelight, she was breathtaking. His breath sucked in sharply
as he looked down and saw her lacy pink bra showing through her pale yellow
blouse. “Damn,” he whispered.

She looked down and groaned,
wanting to beat her head against the wall in mortification. “Ah…I need to do
laundry.”

He smiled. “I like it. Pink looks
good on you.”

She felt her cheeks heat even
more and felt him stroke his thumb over her skin as he gently gripped the side
of her neck. His eyes met hers, blazing with a hunger that she had never seen
before and it was for her. All for her. It didn’t seem real. Like this truly
was a dream with him touching her, wanting her.

If it was, she never wanted to
wake up.

“God, you’re beautiful,” he
whispered as he touched her soft skin, wanting to feel more of her. Her full
lips were slightly parted, her sparkling aqua eyes wide as he struggled for
control. Caitlyn’s tongue slipped out in a nervous gesture running along her
bottom lip and his gaze dropped down, mesmerized by the pink tip.

He swore softly.

Christ, he felt like an animal
ready to pounce.  

His heart thudding in his chest
as all the blood in his body surged down to his cock, making him feel like he
was going to rip right through the zipper of his pants. He watched her throat
working as she gulped, and couldn’t help but imagine watching her drink his
seed down as he came in her mouth.

“Damn, I need to taste you.”

Her breath caught as his lips
came down to meet hers in a scorching kiss.