Hypnotic Seduction (The Seduction Series) (12 page)

Regrettably, he tasted too darn good. His lips had a unique, masculine
musty
flavor. As in must-have-more.

~*~

Jordan couldn’t remember the last time a woman felt this spectacular in his arms. As Hannah’s hands moved urgently over his shoulders, his body stiffened. Or more accurately, the southern half of him. In a fraction of a second, his semi-erect flesh inflated as fast as if he had one of the erectile dysfunction implants that Calder’s medical device division produced.

She moaned softly, her mouth parting beneath his, tasting of the wine they’d drunk with dinner. He pulled her closer, slipping his tongue between her lips and thoroughly exploring every inch of her delectable mouth.

It was her hair that smelled like strawberries. He
panted
in harmony with her erratic breaths, molding her against his aroused body.

This was a bad idea. She was his assistant. His sweet, generous, efficient assistant. The same assistant who made his whole life run smoother and made his grandfather’s eyes light up.

In spite of all those things, God forgive him, Jordan wanted her. Right here. Right now. The faster the better.

Caressing her back, he spanned her midriff and groaned, sliding his palms lower. Her soft body fit him so perfectly. Squeezing her fanny with one hand, he cupped her lush breast with the other. He’d never dreamed Hannah could have such a slender waist and round bottom under her baggy, shapeless clothes. Why would she hide such ripe curves? And how the hell had he missed noticing these incredible breasts?

Her nipple swelled between his fingers. He ached to see them—taste them. Inch by inch, he scrunched her skirt higher and higher and slid his hand under it. He stroked the satiny skin between the tops of her elasticized stockings and her silky panties, elated to have an answer finally. Her lingerie was just as much of a paradox to the rest of her as her sexy stiletto sandals. He’d never ached so much to see a woman in only her underwear and shoes.

As he pressed her against his car, a tiny whimper purred in the back of her throat, making him feel as if he were thirteen again and kissing a girl for the very first time.

Lifting her onto the Lamborghini’s hood, he slid her skimpy panties down, stripped them off her legs, and stuffed them into his trouser pocket. The blood thrummed in his ears, and the distant thunder grew closer by the second. Fat, cold raindrops splattered on his neck. He laid her back on the sports car and kissed his way down the column of her creamy throat, breathing in her floral scent.

“We shouldn’t do this,” she murmured, her hands roaming frantically over him, tearing at his shirt buttons.

“I know,” he whispered in her ear, tracing its delicate curve with his tongue while he unzipped his fly. But, hell, he’d been rock hard all afternoon. A man could only take so much.

The frigid rain and the thunder booming in the surrounding hills should have cooled him down, but instead, they simply inflamed him. A storm cloud burst overhead, turning the soaking rain into a virtual waterfall. Their wet lips slid over each other’s drenched faces—nipping and kissing until their mouths found each other again. His tongue danced a frantic
pas de
deux
with hers,
teasing
and tasting, accompanied by the symphony of their mutual hungry moans. Her eager fingers peeled back the soaked fabric from his chest, and her palms glided over his slick torso.

He must be insane, making out with a woman in an electrical storm—particularly in the middle of a vacant parking lot. Tomorrow’s headlines could very well end up reading—CEO Fried Canoodling Secretary

That hint of danger simply heightened his excitement and made the encounter that much more tantalizing—and forbidden. Lightning flashed again, illuminating the naked desire in her eyes. She wanted this as much as he did.

He slid his hand between her legs and shuddered as his fingers encountered the slick crevice he’d been dreaming about plunging into for weeks.

Damn, she was wet—and not just from the downpour. Despite her drenched state, her passage was surprisingly tight—encasing his middle digit as securely as a damn virgin. Was it possible....?

No way. Earlier, she told him she’d slept with her ex-fiancé for eight months before he’d cheated on her, so it was unlikely her close fit was due to a lack of sex. It could only mean the amoeba had a needle-dick.

Jordan’s groin throbbed at the thought of making Hannah climax during sex, her barely-stretched flesh clenching around him while he slid in and out and....oh, man. The prospect of her extra-snug sheath squeezing and massaging his metaphorical sword was too tempting to resist.

Screw the board, he had to take her, if only to find out if she’d make him go off like a skyrocket—as he suspected she would—in a fraction of the time he usually took to come.

As he reached for his zipper, a set of headlights spun into the lot and shone on them like a spotlight. He yanked Hannah off the car and jumped in front of her, shielding her from view.

“Oh, it’s you, Sir,” The guard called from the security van’s open window as it pulled up to them. “Sorry to disturb you. I noticed some activity on the surveillance monitor, but the rain distorted the picture. I thought maybe a couple of teenagers were using the parking lot to—”

“It’s okay, uhh....” Jordan glanced at the man’s nametag. Chuck Howell. “That’s what I pay you for, Chuck.” He fumbled with his buttons. This was just great. He’d forgotten about the damn cameras in the parking lots. By Tuesday morning, the corporate grapevine would be buzzing that he’d been doing his assistant on the hood of his car in the middle of a cloudburst.

“Aren’t you normally on the eleven to seven
shift
?

“One of the evening guards took off for the long holiday, so security was a little shorthanded tonight. I’m putting in some overtime.”

“Well, thank you. I hope I can trust you to be discreet about this incident?”

“Yes, Sir.” Chuck’s lips pressed together in a barely suppressed smirk.

“And I’d appreciate it if you’d erase the surveillance tape when you get back before the rest of security sees it.”

“Right away, Sir. Have a good evening, Miss Oliver,” the guard called, emphasizing her name. Obviously, the jerk wanted them to know he’d seen who she was.

“That guy gives me the creeps,” she muttered.

“Don’t worry. I’ll go back to security in a few minutes and make sure he erased the tape.”

Just as quickly as the torrential rain started, it stopped. As soon as the guard drove away, Jordan turned to Hannah, panting. The soaked, summery material of her outfit stuck to her curves like the skin on a succulent peach. The rain had turned the pink gauzy fabric nearly transparent, so it seemed as if her clothes had magically vanished.

She appeared to be wearing just a bra on top—a sheer bra that revealed the shadow of her erect nipples as distinctly as the dark mound that showed through the skirt plastered between her thighs. Her body was sex personified.

His grandfather knew what he was talking about. A little mystery definitely added to the excitement. Hannah couldn’t look more erotic if she were stark naked.

She shivered and buried her face in her palms. “I can’t believe I did that. I’m going to strangle Callie.”

“Callie? What’s she got to do with this?”

“The hypnosis was all her idea. I never would’ve kissed you in a million years if—”

“Thanks.” He snorted. “You do wonders for a guy’s ego.”

“I didn’t mean it like that. I know how you feel about office romances. I think you’re wonderful. I just—” She tipped her head back, turning her wet face up to the floodlights. “Great, now I’m going from bad to worse. You have to understand, my awkwardness around men has always been a problem. But after Kevin dumped me, I felt about as desirable as an iguana.”

Jordan bit back a smile. “That’s pretty high on
the yuck
scale.”

“I’ll be thirty years old next week. I had to do something drastic to stop freezing up around
guys
. Otherwise, I’ll never get married.”

“Hannah, believe me, you have a lot more going for you than an iguana, and you’re far from frigid. He cupped her icy cheek and stared into her eyes. “Well—maybe right now you are.” But in his arms a few moments ago, she’d sizzled like Death Valley in August.

“Don’t you get it? I’m not the same as I was before my hypnosis.” She shivered. “Even you noticed the difference.”

He opened the passenger door to his car, took his suit jacket out, and helped her into it. The sleeves hung past her fingertips, making her look like a little girl playing dress-up in her daddy’s suit. “You can bring it to the office on Tuesday.”

“Thanks.”

“The change in you isn’t a bad thing, Hannah. Wasn’t the whole point of your therapy to help you relax around men?”

“Yes, but ever since I had my first session, it’s been like trying to damn up Mount Vesuvius to keep my thoughts from spewing out of my mouth. It’s as if I haven’t any inhibitions.”

She could say that again. Her enthusiastic response tonight had aroused him to no end. And, yet, it made him a bit uneasy. His experience with Marcy and her drunken friends had left him leery of women cutting loose.

Despite his understandable wariness, there was no question his previously jittery assistant had blossomed the last few weeks. If shedding some of her self-control had been responsible, he could only see it as good.

He pursed his lips, holding back his smile. “Being uninhibited isn’t always a bad thing.”

“It is when you hit on your boss.”

He tipped her chin up and stared into her eyes. “If you recall, I didn’t pull away.”

“I would’ve died if you had.”

“But I
should
have. I’m supposed to set an example for my employees. As it is, I’m having enough trouble convincing the board I’m a suitable choice for
chairman
. Next week, it could be all over the office that I seduced my secretary on the hood of my car. What do you think will happen then?”

And how betrayed would his grandfather feel when he heard Jordan had sampled the girl Edward was taking his time to court and claim for himself?

She wiped the rain from her cheeks. “Do you really think anyone would believe something like that?”

“You mean you haven’t heard the rumors about my last assistant?”

“Callie told me Renee came on to you, and you fired her. Why do you think I’m upset? I don’t want to lose my job, too.”

“I didn’t fire Renee for making a pass at me. I let her go because she tried to blackmail me into sleeping with her after I told her I wasn’t interested.” He sucked in a breath, trying to slow his racing heart. “Obviously, you haven’t heard what happened at the last company Christmas party.”

“No. I really try not to listen to gossip.”

“Well, you’re a rarity among my employees.”

“So what happened?”

“My date developed a case of verbal diarrhea and ran off at the mouth to a group of women in the ladies room.”

“What’d she say? I assume it was something about you.”

“Nothing negative. In fact, some men might consider her remarks highly
complimentary
. Let’s just say April shared a lot of very personal information about me.”

Hannah’s mouth dropped open. “You mean about you in bed?”

“Exactly. I think she must’ve been a little drunk—or I like to think her judgment was impaired, and she didn’t maliciously set out to embarrass me. By the end of the week, the entire company knew every freaking detail about my sex life.”

“How awful. I hope you stopped seeing her.”

“Naturally. But by then, the damage
had been done
. Someone eventually sent all the board members a copy of the bogus marketing ad
being e-mailed
around the company. It included a smutty caricature of me as Calder’s new Love Machine. It was quite elaborate and the artist captured my face perfectly.”

Hannah stared down at the ground. “And you thought I might be trying to make you look bad to the board with my typos?”

“Maybe now you can understand why I’m a little gun-shy.”

No one had any concept of what it had done to Jordan’s self-worth and trust to be used by women his whole life—if not for his bank balance, than in satisfying them in bed.

“I can’t imagine why anyone would want to hurt you like that.”

“I deal with a lot of disgruntled employees, Hannah. Anyway, after it got around that I’d received a five-star endorsement on my prowess, half the women in the company wanted to audition as my new bed partner—including my last assistant.”

He told Hannah about the fiasco with Renee, omitting the part where he’d found her stretched
au
naturel
out on his desk.

The difference between that evening and tonight was he wanted Hannah. Whereas, gorgeous Renee and her perfect fashion model figure hadn’t stirred him whatsoever. Not even stark naked.

“Now, to save face, she’s telling people I gave her the axe because she refused to sleep with me.”

“And you’re the one who turned her down.”

“That’s about the size of it.” He lifted his hands and let them drop to his sides. “I’m sorry. As CEO, my behavior needs to be above reproach. Becoming
chairman
is the least of my worries. If I want to keep the job I have, I can’t let anything like this happen again. I think we should both forget about this evening.”

“Right.” She nodded. “That’s exactly what we should do.”

Even to
his own
ears the suggestion sounded ludicrous. He’d need the willpower of a saint to keep his hands to himself now that he knew how responsive she would be if he dared explore the curves she hid beneath her old-maid clothes again.

And how the hell would he be able to stand it if his grandfather ever succeeded in his efforts to romance her and took her into his bed?

The memory of how Hannah felt in Jordan’s arms and the sounds of pleasure she made when he touched her were going to haunt him the rest of his life. Putting this night out of his mind would be like trying to forget how good chocolate tasted.