Microsoft Word - Seven Nights of Sin (32 page)

Mmm, she’d forgotten that she might feel a bit new, different to him now. It turned her on just to think about it.

“You feel better than anyone, ever,” he went on.

And her chest contracted at his words. “Ever?” she managed. Now he fucked her slowly again, his erection seeming to stretch to impossible lengths inside her.

“Ever,” he repeated. Then he whispered, “You’re the only woman besides Angie I’ve ever

fucked without a condom.”

The statement left her stupefied—for multiple reasons.

He hadn’t been wearing a condom. How the hell had she missed that? She’d realized, of course, that he hadn’t, but why hadn’t it alarmed her? Too much time married, feeling perennially safe in that way, she supposed. And she’d been too consumed by all that was happening this week. So what did this mean? Had they made a fatal mistake? And why  ?Why was he not wearing a condom?

“I’m on the pill, you know,” she reminded him, peering up into those beautiful eyes, “but

that doesn’t protect from…”

He lifted one warm palm to her cheek, still moving ever so slowly inside her. “Don’t worry, babe. I’m safe. Because like I said, I’ve always been careful. Always. And I know you’re safe just because…I know you’re safe.” He smiled softly.

Beneath him, still soaking up the friction he created with his sweet cock, she bit her lip.

“Why? Why did you not…?”

He brushed his mouth across hers. “It was an accident at first. But after that…you felt so amazing, and I just…wanted to be that close to you. Nothing between us. Nothing.”

She pulled in her breath, utterly amazed by the depth of his tenderness. And by what she could have sworn she’d heard in his words. The same thing she felt. Love .

Although maybe she was crazy. Maybe she was reading too much into it. Maybe this was just…his way of ending it. Tonight was their last night together, after all. Their last night in  Sin City.

Yet she couldn’t help remembering that tonight, he’d put a little distance between them and the city of sin.

“I don’t want this to end,” he told her, his voice deep, gravelly.

Oh God. Had she heard that right? “Wh-what do you mean?”

He combed his fingers through her hair. “Just because we’re headed home to L.A. there’s no reason we can’t keep this good thing going, Brenna.”

“But I thought you…I mean…”

Again, he kissed her. “Yeah. Well, usually I don’t. But maybe now I do. I can’t make you promises—I haven’t been in a real relationship in a lot of years. But I don’t think I can be with you and not want you. I don’t think I can see you as just a friend.”

Brenna feared her heart would explode through her chest. Had he really just made her dreams come true? Really just told her this wasn’t ending? “You have no idea how happy

that makes me.”

“Then you feel the same way? You don’t want this to stop?”

“God, yes, I feel exactly the same way. I…I love you.”

Oh no, what had she just said? It had just come out, unstoppable! Stupid, stupid, stupid.

But then Damon’s mouth covered hers again, and this time his tongue twined around hers, and her desire seemed to double somehow in that moment, making her pull him closer, wrap her arms around him as tightly as she could. And when finally the kiss ended, Damon leaned down near her ear and whispered the sweetest words she’d ever heard. “I think I’m falling in love with you, too.”

“Oh. Oh God,” she said, peering up at his beautifully handsome face.

And almost convulsively, she pumped against him, hard, needing to feel him still deeper.  She didn’t even care if she came—she just wanted to feel him, filling her up. “Come in me,” she breathed, desperately begging him. “Come in me, hard.”

She needed to make it happen, needed to draw that pleasure from him—and she needed

him to leave part of himself inside her.

“Oh yeah,” he groaned. “Oh yeah—I can’t stop. I’m coming in you. I’m coming deep inside  your sweet little pussy.” And he thrust hard, hard, hard, pressing her ass to the ground,  somehow making her smell the dry scent of the desert more, feel the moonlight more  intensely.

No sex in her life had ever left her more satisfied. In a different way than last night or the night before. That had been so physically intense, and the mental part had been about her, about her daring, about her feelings for Damon. But this—this was about him . About him loving her. And about her wanting to give him pleasure so very freely, without any want or need of her own.

Although a moment later, he apologized. “I’m sorry, babe. I didn’t make you come.”

“I don’t mind,” she whispered, smiling up at him. “I couldn’t feel any better than I do right

now anyway.”

Three

Damon handed off Brenna’s car to the valet, then led his beautiful girl through the front door of the Venetian, hand in hand. Jesus, he couldn’t believe it. He’d told her he was falling in love with her. And more than that, he’d meant it.

This wasn’t over. He was going to have more Brenna—not just as a colleague, but as…everything. A friend, a lover, and…that strange melding of the two that he didn’t even

know a name for.

He hadn’t quite realized he wanted that until he’d heard the words leaving his mouth—hell, a lot of unplanned words had left his mouth tonight. He hadn’t even known why he wanted to take her out into the desert until they’d gotten there. He’d actually thought maybe it would be a nice, quiet place to fuck, a nice way to end their affair. But the moment he’d stopped the car, he’d understood that he couldn’t end it. Just couldn’t.

And he wasn’t sure where it would go from here, but…he couldn’t remember ever feeling this great. Like there was more to life than music and sex. And music and sex—well, hell, they’d both been very good, but…maybe it was time to start making some changes in his life. He hesitated to think of it as “settling down” so decided to think of it more as “making a closer connection” and maybe having someone to lean on, depend upon, when he needed it.

At the moment, he felt totally carefree. He didn’t even care if Claire Starr sued him. If she did, he’d get through it. With Brenna’s love and support.

With her, he had the whole package. A scintillating sex kitten. A sweet, loving companion.

An intelligent friend. An insightful coworker. No wonder he was in love with her.

And if Claire sued, or if the tabloids persisted, or if more rumors abounded—he simply knew he and Brenna would get through it, together, and everything would be okay in the end because he’d still have her . He’d always thought his job was the only thing that really mattered to him, the thing he couldn’t live without. But he’d just made room for something else—someone else—in his life, and Claire Starr and nasty accusations aside, the world felt pretty fucking perfect right now.

“Happy?” he asked as they walked down the hall toward his suite, still holding hands.

She smiled up at him, biting her lip. “Very. Happy and…dusty,” she said, giggling. They were both covered with a fine sheen of desert powder.

“The price of fucking in the dirt,” he said with a grin, remembering how he’d moved on top  of her, in the dreaded missionary position—which, suddenly, had felt a lot more intimate  than dreadful—and how much he’d welcomed that intimacy this time. “How about this?” he  asked. “I’ll run us a nice, sudsy bath in the Jacuzzi, and we’ll make sure you get that  orgasm, after all.”

Four

Damon had disappeared into the oversize bathroom, and now she heard water running.

“I’m getting naked,” he yelled out to her. “Don’t keep me waiting.”

She called back, “I’ll be right there, baby—just want to check my messages first.” Because the moment they’d walked in, she’d seen her cell phone blinking. And it had reminded her of…everything.

The horrible lie, the threat to Damon’s job.

And she wasn’t sure exactly what she was going to do, but she wasn’t going to let anything ruin this, what the two of them had. She was going to work this out somehow. She was going to convince Jenkins that no matter what Claire Starr did, Damon was too valuable to let go. And she would figure out a way to tell Damon the truth.

Standing in the bedroom, listening to the tub filling and anxious to get to her man, she quickly retrieved the missed call.

“Hey, girlfriend, it’s just me.” Kelly. What a relief! No Jenkins. “I just called to see how your  big week with Damon Andros went, but I guess you’re not back yet—I wasn’t sure exactly  when you were coming home. Anyway, I can’t wait to hear all about it, and I hope I find out  you came to your senses and fucked that man’s brains out.”

Brenna flipped the phone shut, smiling to herself and rolling her eyes. Kelly was going to be thrilled. Not that Brenna was going to tell her everything . Some things were so private that she could share them only with Damon. But still, her friend was going to be very pleased to hear how things had worked out.

“I’m waiting,” Damon called playfully from the bathroom.

“On my way,” she replied, starting toward him—when her cell phone rang, still in her hand.  “In a minute,” she added. “Let me grab this call and I’ll be right there—promise.” Then she  flipped the phone back open and put it to her ear. “Hello?”

“Hello, Brenna.”

Shit.This time it was Jenkins.

Her heart pounded as she walked briskly out through the dining area, across the living room to the windows that looked out on the Las Vegas lights. “Hi,” she said, sounding

terse.

“I know it’s late, but I just got some news I thought would interest you.”

Oh God. “What?”

“Claire Starr is going to file suit first thing tomorrow morning. Which means Damon’s out.  As soon as he gets back here tomorrow, I’m going to call him into the office and give him  the bad news. So I hope you learned the ropes this week.”

Brenna let out a sigh. She’d really hoped to broach this in the office, without having the  Claire Starr thing feeling like the definite threat it did now, but…well, she’d just take a different approach. She’d get into the heart of the matter—Damon being indispensable—later, but for now, she’d just speak in terms Jenkins could understand without a longwinded discussion. “Listen, I’ve learned a lot, but not enough yet. So I think it would be unwise to fire Damon right now. I’m coming home tomorrow, too, so before you call him, please wait. I’ll come straight to the office and we’ll talk about this, okay?”

“No,” he said. That simple.

“What?”

“Brenna, I understand your trepidation about having the job dropped in your lap this  quickly, but I just can’t have Damon associated with Blue Night any longer. We’re being  sued because of him. Firing him is the only way to send a clear message that Blue Night  doesn’t turn a blind eye to sexual blackmail. So repeat after me: Damon is fired, and I’m  taking his place .”

Brenna let out an exasperated sigh. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Damon is fired, and I’m taking his place. I’ve been in on the plan from the beginning, remember? But I still—”

“No buts, Brenna. It’s late and I’m tired, and I’m gonna have a media circus to deal with

tomorrow. So we’ll talk when you get back. After Damon’s been let go. Good night.”

The line went dead. And Brenna flipped the phone shut, still peering out on the neon display twenty floors below.

And it was just when she realized that the water had stopped running at some point that she turned—to find Damon standing naked behind her.

But instead of focusing on his nudity, her attention was drawn to his eyes—which told her he’d just heard her terrible secret. Her horrendous betrayal. Because she’d been stupid enough to actually talk with Jenkins about this while Damon was in the next room.

“Oh God,” she said, her body deflating as she stepped instinctively toward him. “Damon,  this wasn’t my idea, I swear.” She shook her head. “And I didn’t want to do things this way.  At all. You have to believe me.”

“No,” he said quietly, anger blazing from his eyes. “I don’t.”

She suddenly felt as if she couldn’t breathe. “I promise you, I didn’t want to take your job, and I was planning—I’m still planning—to go to Jenkins tomorrow and tell him firing you would be a terrible mistake.”

“Be quiet, Brenna,” he said, sounding too calm, only his eyes relaying his emotions, “and

leave.”

She drew in her breath. This couldn’t be happening. “Damon, please. Let me explain. Let me make you understand.”

“You can’t.” He pointed toward the door of the suite, his voice turning harsher. “Now get

the fuck out of my room.”

Brenna’s heart physically hurt—her eyes, too, as tears began rolling down her cheeks.

She reached out to touch him, but he pulled away. “Please, Damon,” she begged. “Please.

Give me a chance.”

“I already did. And you used it to steal my fucking job, to fucking lie to me.” He shook his  head. “You had me fooled, that’s for damn sure. Here I thought you were so sweet, so…so  fucking genuine .” He laughed without mirth at what he probably thought was irony.

She held her hands out in front of her, helpless, beseeching. “Everything was real.