Aftershock (5 page)

“They sound wonderful.”

Tag laughed. “Oh you say that now,
but wait till you meet them. They’ll get your entire life story within minutes,
trust me.”

Winding her arms around his neck,
her lips twitched as she tried to stop from smiling. “You mean, like you’re
doing now?”

Tag’s laughter rumbled deep in
his chest. “Hey, we’re sharing information here. I’m not grilling you like my
family will. Trust me, sweetheart. They’re worse than I am. But I promise I’ll
protect you.”

Caitlyn couldn’t help the tingle
of excitement she felt when he talked about her meeting his family.  Like they
had a future together. “You’re lucky to have them. I want that. Hopefully,
someday I’ll get it.”

Tag gave her a curious look. “What
do you mean?”  

She ducked her head, color
staining her cheeks as she realized what she’d said. “Oh, nothing.”

 “No, no,” Tag insisted. “That’s
my question. It’s my turn. Tell me what you meant.”

She sighed, giving in. “A family.
You know the little things. Family dinners, vacations…holidays. My children
will never question that they are loved and I want a man to share it with. I
want a family.” 

Caitlyn said it so simply that Tag
was humbled by the things he had never thought twice about. Things he always
had. His dark eyes gleaming with emotion, he stroked a hand over her hair and
laid his lips gently on her forehead. “You’ll get your wish, baby. I know you
will.”

 “Umm, thanks.” Feeling
embarrassed by her disclosure, she started playing with the buttons of his
dress shirt again. She smiled as she realized that two of the tiny plastic
pieces were about to fall off from when he had ripped his shirt off earlier. “Anyways,
my turn. I want to know what—” 

She was cut off as bright lights
turned on overhead, and with a jerk the elevator started moving.

***

Chapter Seven

Caitlyn tried to scramble off Tag’s
lap as the elevator began to rise, but he held her in place. She slapped his
hands away and glared at him as he laughed. Lunging for her suit jacket, she
picked it up off the floor and struggled to put it on as she stood up.

She could feel their mixed juices
on her thighs with each move she made as she smoothed her skirt down again and
fit her feet back into the torture devices she called shoes. Turning, she
looked over at Tag and her mouth fell open in horror.

“Oh my God! Your shirt!”

“It was a casualty of war, baby. Don’t
worry, I like that you were in such a hurry you tore the buttons off.” Tag
laughed as he reached down to pick up his own jacket to put over his damaged
shirt. He also picked up his tie and shoved it into his pocket.

“I didn’t do that, you did!”

Tag winked at her. “You’re right,
I did. You can do it next time.”

Groaning, Caitlyn watched as Tag
bent down to pick up her pink, lace thong. Bringing it up to his nose, he
inhaled deep. 

 “Give that back to me,” Caitlyn
hissed, feeling her cheeks heat.

He shook his head. “These are
mine now. To the victor go the spoils and all that. I should probably start investing
in getting you a lot of lingerie, since I’ll end up ruining most of it. Although,
I like you better wearing nothing.”

Flashing a wicked grin at her
gawking face, he balled up the small scrap of fabric and tucked it into his
pocket.  Her cheeks flushed pink with embarrassment and it made him want to
kiss her again, desperately.

Caitlyn couldn’t believe his
audacity. Well, actually she could. There was something so raw, so provocative
to see her lover putting her torn panties into his pocket as she stood there
bare beneath her skirt. To the world she looked like a rumpled office drone,
but underneath, she was a well-loved woman who’d just had the wildest sexual
experience of her life.

For a moment they stood staring
at each other and Caitlyn could feel the powerful punch of desire. Tag’s dark eyes
flickered with some emotion, something she couldn’t identify. They started
toward one another when they reached the top floor, and with a ding, the
elevator doors slid open.

Four men stood in the doorway and
Caitlyn blinked at them in confusion as all four men sighed with relief. One of
the security guards rushed forward. “Thank god you’re okay, Mr. Steele! We’re
so sorry for the inconvenience. The system is up and running again.”

A man in a suit stepped forward,
laughing. “Inconvenience? Hell, I would love to switch places with you if I
could get stuck in an elevator with this beauty.”

In a split second the bubble of security
Caitlyn had felt burst as the stark reality of what they said hit her full
force. “Mr. Steele?” Caitlyn whispered.

Tag cursed softly. “Caitlyn, I
can explain.”

“The building is secure again.
The backup generator needed some tweaking, but everything—” The security guard
continued on.

Not listening to a damn word the
guard was saying, Tag cursed again as he grabbed Caitlyn’s hand in his, pulling
her forward into the top floor office lobby.

Caitlyn tried to jerk her arm
free, but his hold was too tight. She tried digging her feet into the plush carpet
to stop herself from being pulled with him as they entered the main office
area, but Tag just swung her up into his arms as he continued forward with
confident strides. With a shriek of outrage Caitlyn tried to free herself from
his hold, but he simply kept walking.   

“Put me down, you son of a
bitch!” Caitlyn snarled.

“Well, well. Nice of you to finally
show up,” a smug voice said.

Caitlyn froze, going deathly
still. She let out a low sound of distress before she could stop herself as she
turned her head. Carl was standing in the doorway of what looked like a
conference room off to the right with Ryan leering at his side. 

Tag frowned down at Caitlyn then his
head whipped around to arrow straight at the bastard that had spoken. An
overwhelming wave of protectiveness had Tag’s eyes narrowing on the two
sneering men.

 “Who the hell are you?” Tag’s
voice was like the crack of a whip.

“Put me down.
Put me down now
.”
Caitlyn kept her voice low, so only Tag could hear it, but he could hear the anger
in her tone. Tag looked back down at her, his arms tightening reflexively, refusing
to let her go.

“No.”

“Let me go!” Caitlyn shrieked as
she swung her legs trying to get free. Tag relented, putting her down, but kept
an arm wrapped around her waist to hold her at his side.

 Carl was obviously stupider than
he looked as he glared at them. “Would you shut up, Caitlyn. My name is Carl
Lowenbaum. I’m one of the department heads of Manchester Klein. Who the hell
are you?”

Tag’s smile was feral. “Tag
Steele. Grayson Taggart Steele.”

Carl blanched, but he recovered
quickly. He shot Tag a nasty smile as he chuckled.  “Mr. Steele. Well, it seems
as though you have already met my…colleague. I’m sure she has shown you just
how…thorough she is at her job.”

“What?” Caitlyn gasped.

“Enough!” Such icy fury filled Tag’s
harsh voice that it made both Carl and Ryan take an unconscious step back. “Get
the fuck out of my building.”

Carl’s jaw tensed. Switching targets,
he shot Caitlyn a look filled with such hatred she was shocked by it. “So that
ice bitch routine at work is all show, huh?  You just save it for people who
can help your career. At least now I know how you really keep your clients
happy.”

Ryan snickered at Carl’s side. “I
knew she had to be doing something…extra.”

Caitlyn’s eyes went glacial. “Go
fuck yourself. You’re just bitter because I’m better at what we do and all our
clients know it,” she snapped. She was past the point of caring that Carl was
her boss. Fuck it, he could fire her right now. She would not let Carl or Ryan
talk to her that way. 

“You little bitch.”

Caitlyn tried to leap at Ryan,
hands reaching out as if she could already imagine them around his scrawny little
neck, but Tag easily held her in place at his side. The icy fury she was sure
was shooting from her eyes had Ryan stepping out of range of her reach.

“Coward,” she spat. “You fucking
coward!”

“Consider yourself fired, slut,”
Carl snarled.

Tag pulled Caitlyn back, forcing
her behind him then he stalked forward like an animal in pursuit of his prey.
Lethal rage radiated from him in waves that had Ryan backing away in sheer
terror. Edged with burning rage, his eyes narrowed on Ryan, but then turned so
the full power of his wrath was focused on Carl instead.

The blood drained from Carl’s
face and he gulped.

“If either of you ever,
ever
speak to her like that again, I will end you. I will fucking break you in half.
Be afraid, very afraid. You’ll get out now, in one piece. But next time, if
you’re stupid enough for there to be a next time, I won’t be as generous.” Tag’s
voice was soft, but with a lethal edge that made him even more terrifying.

And no one could mistake his
feral smile as anything but that of a predator.

Tag jerked his head toward the
security guards standing off to the side. “Get these assholes out of my sight,
now.”

The security guards jumped
forward to take care of Carl and Ryan.

Stepping forward with determined
strides, Tag grabbed Caitlyn’s briefcase from the man in the suit holding it. 
He turned abruptly then stalked back to Caitlyn. Grabbing her arm, he all but
dragged her with him into his office at the end of the hall, passing the very
shocked face of his admin and slammed the door shut.   

***

Chapter Eight

The minute the door closed, Caitlyn
jerked her arm away from Tag and bolted to the other side of the room. Breathing
heavy, she stared at him with contempt. 

“Goddamn it. Goddamn it to hell
and back! What the fuck,
Mr. Steele
? You fucking asshole! Everything,
everything I have fucking worked for is screwed. How could you do this to me?”

“I didn’t do anything, Caitlyn,” Tag
shot back. “How can you stand working with those pricks? Who gives a fuck what
they think.”

“I do!” Caitlyn felt tears
stinging her eyes and felt her nails bite into the palms of her hands as she
clenched them into fists. “I just got fired. Fired! You may not fucking care about
my job, but I sure as hell do.”

“I care! What can they fire you
for, you didn’t do anything wrong! Hell, even if they don’t, you should quit. Your
boss is a fucking asshole. I should’ve just beat the shit out of that little
prick.” Tag growled as he yanked his jacket off, throwing it across the room.
“Christ, if you want that damn job so bad I’ll call Richard Manchester and take
care of this.”

“I just slept with a client!”

“I’m not a fucking client!” He roared
as he stepped toward her.

“Back off. Back the fuck off
now,” she ordered softly.

At her words Tag stopped where he
was. She saw his hands were clenched into fists at his sides, his chest heaving
in his effort to control himself. Adrenaline pumping, Caitlyn had to force
herself not to look at the gleaming muscles of Tag’s chest peaking out of his
opened dress shirt. As mad as she was, she still wanted him and that pissed her
off even more.

Tag laughed bitterly. “This is a
goddamn clusterfuck. Honestly, Caitlyn. Do you think I need outside resources
to launch any of my products? Manchester Klein would have never even gotten a
meeting without you. I asked for you.”

Caitlyn’s face went blank with
shock as his words registered. “You knew? You knew who I was? Oh, this just
gets better and better…”

Shit.

Tag wanted to pull at his hair
and pace around the room, but forced himself to stay still. Christ, what he
really wanted was to go back and do the last fifteen fucking minutes all over
again. Taking a deep breath, he went for the truth instead.

“I already told you that I wanted
to meet you after that first time I saw you. I found out what department you
worked in and heard about the work you’ve done from some of your previous
clients. All of them sang your praises, so yes, I set up the meeting. That
doesn’t mean I arranged to get stuck in the goddamn elevator with you during a
freaking earthquake. ”

“You lied to me,” she whispered.

“I didn’t lie!” Tag yelled.

“Tag! You said your fucking name
was Tag!”

“Goddamn it!” he roared. “My name
is
Tag! Grayson was my grandfather. I have never, ever gone by that
name. I didn’t lie to you. Anyone who knows me knows that my name is Taggart,
but only my friends and family call me Tag.”

Caitlyn wanted to scream. She
wanted to kick something to get rid of the rage and hurt inside her. She took a
deep breath and turned away from him. His office was large, with every luxury,
highlighted in vibrant, bold colors. 

This was his kingdom.

An enormous desk sat at the far
end, dominating the room. Leather chairs were placed on the receiving end of
the desk and a matching sofa sat under the large windows facing a flat screen
plasma television. Art work that Caitlyn would bet cost more than her college
tuition hung on the wall. The office was slick and stylish, just like the man
who ran his company from this room, but it somehow seemed…empty.

 Her quick survey just made it
more obvious what different worlds they came from. This was just the perfect
ending to her already royally fucked up day. Her temper deflated like a balloon,
leaving her emotionally drained. She had just fucked one of the richest men in
the country…in an elevator, no less.

And in doing so she lost her job.

 Her voice was flat, void of all
emotion when she next spoke. “I thought you were afraid of heights. Was that a
lie, too?”

“No. I keep this office up here
for show. My real office is on the seventh floor, just like I told you.”

Okay, she would give him that
one. “You had ample opportunity to tell me who you really were when we were
stuck together.”

“I didn’t know how.” Tag’s
whisper had her looking back at him with defeated eyes. Anger had turned to
despair and he couldn’t stand knowing that he put that look in her eyes.

“Was this a game to you?”

His nostrils flared with anger. “It
was no game. What we have is real. Caitlyn, when we made love in the elevator—”

Caitlyn lifted an eyebrow and
spoke softly, almost casually. “We didn’t make love, Tag. You fucked me.”

“That’s enough, Caitlyn,” Tag
commanded with a low, firm voice. He radiated such casual superiority he wore
it like second skin. Stepping toward her, he was one hundred percent pure
unadulterated dangerous male. His eyes were blazing with temper, his expression
granite hard with resolve. “Don’t do that Caitlyn. Don’t try to make what we did
cheap because you’re hurt.”

Guilt swamped her because that
was precisely what she was doing. Tag’s hands burrowed into his hair in
frustration and then pressed his fingertips to his temple to try and quell the
throbbing there. His hands dropped.

Tag didn’t know what to do.

He couldn’t lose her now that he
had found her. The mere thought had him spiraling into panic. His heart nearly
stopped beating at the raw hurt that he could see in her eyes. Her eyes that
shone like brilliant aquamarines sparkling with tears in the light. Those eyes
that could pierce his soul.  Seeing her so wounded had the words just spilling
out of him.

“I’m sorry, baby. I’m so fucking
sorry I hurt you, but please listen to me. That wasn’t just fucking and you
know it. I swear I was going to tell you, I just didn’t want to ruin the time
we had together. Yeah, I wanted you so much that I couldn’t see straight, but I
needed
to be with you. Tell me you believe me. I can’t stand you
thinking I was playing with you. It wasn’t like that. I know we just met but,
god, what I feel for you is real. It’s so fucking real that I’m scared shitless
that you’re going to walk out that door on me. Please,
please
believe me,
baby. Don’t shut me out.” 

Caitlyn felt her heart stop at his
frantic plea and terrified expression. With just that look, all her anger
defused. His eyes widened in shock as she walked over to him and reached up to
stroke a hand over his clenched jaw.

“I believe you,” she whispered as
the tears in her eyes spilled over and ran down her cheeks.

Tag couldn’t help reaching for
her. His hands shook as he dragged her to him, engulfing her into the safety of
his arms. Caitlyn could feel the stiff evidence of his desire for her pulsing
against her stomach.

“Is that a natural state for
you?” Caitlyn’s question was muffled by his shirt.

“Damn, I look at you and I can’t
control my cock. I promise I’m usually not this sex crazed, but around you, I
can’t seem to control it. Just ignore him, baby.”

Tag couldn’t seem to let go of
her. He picked her up gently and strode over to the couch, placing her on his
lap so he could keep her in his arms. Cupping her face in his hands, he kissed
her, loving the taste of her on his lips. Placing his forehead against hers, he
closed his eyes. “Thank you for believing me, baby. I don’t want to lose you. I
can’t lose you.”

Caitlyn let out a little laugh. “How
could I not believe you? You don’t strike me as a man who says please or sorry
easily.”

 Tag smiled. “You’re right, I
don’t.” He sobered as his eyes opened to connect with hers. “But I will say it
to you when I fuck up. And I did fuck up, baby. I’ll try not to mess up often, but
know that I’ll always apologize when I do. Just don’t leave me.”

“You scare me.”

Tag’s face was a mask of shocked
horror at her whispered confession. “My God, you have to know I would never
hurt you!”

She waved a hand in the air. “No,
of course not. I meant I’m scared of how you make me feel. I know you were
telling me the truth. What you said…I feel it too. And that scares me, because
I’ve never felt this way before.” 

They sat there for a moment in
comfortable silence, the quiet murmur of voices outside the office the only noise
intruding on their world. Tag’s voice finally broke the calm. “Baby, do you
know you swear almost as much as me?” Just as he intended, Caitlyn laughed. The
sensual husky sound of her laughter sent a wave of desire straight to his
groin. God, he loved that sound.

“Yeah, I guess I can give you a
run for your money—” she looked around “—or maybe not. And I have a wicked
temper to boot.”

Tag gave a mocking shudder. “I
know it. Trust me when I say I never want to piss you off again.” A scowl
settled across his face. “Is that asshole really going to start trouble for you
at work?”

“Tag, Carl fired me.” Tag gave
her a curious glance as she laughed. “I was surprised he didn’t piss himself
the way you came down on him and Ryan looked like he was ready to run.”

Tag grunted. Mirth faded as she
rolled her shoulders and sighed. “That son of Satan won’t take me back. I guess
it doesn’t matter anyways, I can’t work with him after what he said.”

Tag kissed her forehead. “I don’t
need Manchester. I never did. I wasn’t lying when I told you the meeting I
scheduled was for you. Initially, I was hoping to steal you away and get you to
work for our marketing division. I still want you here. I know our relationship
might not make this easy for you, but I know we can work it out.”

“Umm, you as my boss? That could
get a bit sketchy don’t you think?”

Tag leaned back, his face determined.
“You do good work, Caitlyn. I’ve done the research and know what you are
capable of.  My people know I was after you, professionally. You would be even
better if you worked with a team of people who had half a brain. Just promise
you’ll think about it.”

“Can you make it worth my while?”
she asked, trying for a little levity.

Tag named a salary that made Caitlyn’s
mouth go dry. He then rattled off benefits that would make the most jaded of
men weep with joy.

“Oh God.”

“And that’s what I was going to
offer before I could include myself in your bonus package,” he said with a
grin.

“Stop. Stop now. I need to think
about it. Shit, I can’t think with you being all nice and stuff.” Caitlyn
cradled her head in her hands. She knew she would take the job, but damn it,
she didn’t want to let him know he had her so easily. Steele Technologies was
top dog in the industry, several actually. It was a goddamn international
powerhouse. Working for Steele Tech would be the ultimate gig. She looked back
up to see the jerk had a knowing smirk on his face.

 “Take all the time you need, but
now the crisis has passed, I think I want to take you home with me where I can
make love to you on a bed.”

Damn, that sounded good to her. “I
should go home and change or something.”

“Baby, you won’t be wearing
clothes that long, so don’t bother.”

“You’re not off the hook yet,
jerk.”

“Are you going to punish me?” He
sent her a lascivious smirk.

Caitlyn grinned slowly. “There is
no punishment great enough for your crimes, but I will try my very best to
think of something.”