Scandalizing the CEO (9 page)

She walked around him and stood behind him as he had positioned himself behind her. She touched him from his shoulders down the center of his back and then cupped his tight buttocks. She put one arm around his chest and drew him back against her. The other arm she put around his lean waist and then she went up on her tiptoes and bit him lightly on his neck.

She unzipped his pants and let her hand drift lower inside his underwear to caress him. She rubbed her fingers up and down his length and then massaged the crown of his erection. She felt him shiver in her arms and she smiled to herself.

She was just following what he’d done to her. She unfastened his belt, drawing it slowly from around his lean waist.

She reached into the opening of his pants, touched him through his underwear and then found the opening in his boxers and let her fingers sweep inside and stroke up and down his length. He turned in her arms and knocked her off balance, but he caught her quickly, lifting her up in his arms and going to the love seat. He set her on her feet and
pushed his pants and underwear down his legs. Then he took off his cuff links and shrugged out of his shirt.

He stood before her, an Adonis of a man—perfectly formed. His erection stood out from his body and she felt a rush of pure desire as she realized that she had turned him on.

“Take your panties off,” he said, his voice low and raspy.

She hesitated for a second and then kicked off her shoes. She started to undo the garter belt, but he stopped her.

“Leave that on.”

“Okay.” She got her panties as far as her knees when he stopped her again.

“Turn around.”

“Why?”

“Because I love your behind,” he said. And I want to see you when you bend over.

A shudder of awareness ripped through her at his words and she did as he asked. As soon as she bent forward she felt his hands slide over her back. Then his nails did the same down the line of her spine.

She stepped out of her panties and when she stood up, he kept the pressure on her back. “Stay like this.”

She wasn’t sure what he had in mind, but she did as he said.

“Are you on the Pill?”

“No. Sorry, I didn’t think about protection,” she said, trying to turn around and stand up.

“Don’t worry, love, I did,” he said. He reached for his pants and pulled a condom out of the pocket. She heard the packet rip. Then she felt the tip of his erection against her. He held her hips in his hands and leaned forward so that his chest settled against her back. He reached around
her. Held her wrapped in his arms as he eased himself into her body.

Just the tip in and out until she thought she was going to die from wanting him.

He reached lower between her legs and parted her nether lips. His finger rubbed her up and down until she felt like she was going to come. She couldn’t stop moving her hips. Couldn’t stop trying to get more of his hardness inside of her.

“Steven, take me.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said. He bit down on her neck and thrust himself deep inside her. Ripples of her climax washed over her and she was a shivery mass of nerves.

He continued to thrust into her, driving her to another orgasm, and the third time she came, he did as well.

He fell back on the couch and held her in his arms as they both came back to themselves. She curled herself into his arms, feeling more vulnerable than she ever believed she could. For the first time the girl who never thought she’d find a man to love realized that she wanted this one.

A
insley woke up at 2:00 a.m. and knew she wasn’t alone. She bolted upright in bed, jerking all the covers with her.

“Love?”

“Steven?”

“Who else would it be?”

“I don’t know,” she said feeling very silly. But she had never shared her bed with anyone.

Steven stroked his hand along her spine and then drew her down into his arms. He was warm and her head seemed to find the perfect spot on his shoulder. He put his arm around her shoulder and she lay quietly trying to go back to sleep. It was hard.

Way too hard to figure out how to sleep with this man…

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

“That I’ve never slept with anyone,” she said. An only
child, she’d never been scared of the dark and as a child her parents’ bedroom had been off-limits to her.

“Never? Not even as a child?” he asked.

“Nope. My parents believed in kids in their own beds. And I wasn’t very social as a child, so I didn’t do sleepovers.” She had been chubby even as a child, but more than that she’d simply liked being by herself. She didn’t mix well with others. She’d been more interested in the world she’d created in her head. A world where she could be a princess and everyone liked her.

She hadn’t thought of that in years. Thought of that painful time in her childhood.

“So I’m your first?” Steven said.

He was in so many ways. The first man she’d made love to, not the boy-man she’d had sex with before. She tipped her head up, but her room was dark. She wished she could see his expression better.

“Is that good?”

He shrugged, dislodging her from his shoulder. He didn’t say anything else. What did this mean to him? What did it mean to her? She knew better than to make decisions in the middle of the night, but a part of her wanted to. She wanted to figure Steven out so she wouldn’t get hurt, but a part of her was afraid that it was too late for that.

She was already falling for him.

She wasn’t going to ask, but she wanted to know. Did she mean more to Steven than this one night or even a series of nights that added up to weeks before he moved on?

She had no idea what any of his behavior meant.

“Are you sleeping?” she whispered.

“With your hand stroking my belly button? No, I’m not sleeping.”

She hadn’t realized she was doing that, but sure enough her hand was low on his stomach. She stopped moving it.

“Don’t stop. I like it.”

She started moving her hand again, and noticed that his hand was caressing her arm. There was nothing overtly sexual in the touching; it was two people comforting each other, she thought.

“I haven’t slept with that many people, either. I tend to go back to my place instead of sleeping over.”

“Really? Why?”

“I don’t like mornings. It’s always awkward.”

That revealed a lot to her. He didn’t like to stay because though sex was okay, anything resembling a relationship made him uncomfortable. “Awkward how?”

“Normally I have work to do and have to leave early and—you don’t want to hear this.”

Yet she did want to. She didn’t want to know the details of his past affairs, but she did want to know why he left. Or was she simply drawing a conclusion based on her perceptions of who he was? Work was one reason but she suspected that was an excuse. Steven was the CEO of a large company. If he came in late, no one was going to say a word to him.

“Work’s not the reason you leave,” she said. “You leave because you don’t want to stay.”

His hand stopped moving on her arm and she wondered if she’d said too much. Even so, she didn’t care if she had. This affair with Steven was something totally new to her. She wasn’t going to hedge her bets or try to play it safe. If he didn’t want her once they’d slept together, she wanted to know now.

“I think you’re right. I’ve never given it much thought.
Just got up and left when I wanted to. Work calls…My job is my life…”

“And no woman could compete with that,” she finished for him.

“That’s right.”

She lay still next to him, knowing that she was going to ask the next question whether it was wise or not.

“What about me?”

He turned on the bed so they lay facing each other. He put both arms around her—one around her neck the other over her waist and drew her flush against his body.

“I have no clue. You aren’t like anyone else.”

That didn’t reassure her at all and in fact raised more doubts about being with Steven. He wasn’t an easy man to get close to. With each step she took toward him, he found a new way to freeze her out and keep her at arm’s length.

She wanted to ask more questions, but she had a feeling that was all he’d admit to her. She closed her eyes and enjoyed being so close to him. She put her arm over his waist and tucked her head under his chin.

He held her like that until they both drifted off to sleep. Ainsley tried not to let it mean too much that he held her as tightly as she held him.

Steven woke to bright sunlight streaming in through some filmy curtains. Ainsley was curled by his side. He eased out of bed to go to the bathroom and saw his clothes where he’d left them on the overstuffed chair that sat in the corner of her bedroom.

He almost walked over and got dressed. He could leave. Nothing was keeping him here. But as he looked at Ainsley sleeping in her bed, her hand reaching out to where he’d lain, he couldn’t do it.

He didn’t want her to wake up alone. He had the feeling from what she’d said last night that she’d led a very solitary life.

Dammit, he cared about her. Yet he didn’t want emotional entanglements. How had this happened? She was a woman who looked like she shouldn’t have touched any of his emotions. But she had.

And that was the problem.

“Steven?” she called his name as she sat up in bed. She wore a pretty flower-printed nightgown and her hair was tousled around her shoulders. Her eyes were sleepy as she tried to see him. Last night he’d learned that she wore contacts—something as new to her as her weight loss.

He saw her reaching for her nightstand and the glasses she had set on the top last night.

“I’m here.”

“Are you leaving?” she asked.

“Do you want me to?” he asked. It would be so much easier if she said yes. He could walk away and he’d never forget the time he’d spent with her, but this encounter would fade into a memory. Nothing more.

“I would like it if you came back to bed.”

He smiled. He went back to the bed and sat down next to her.

“Happy now?”

“Yes,” she said, squinting up at him.

“Put your glasses on,” he said.

“No. They aren’t attractive at all. I’ll go put my contacts in.”

That made no sense to him. “You don’t have to.”

He reached for her glasses and handed them to her. She held them for a minute and then put them on. “There you are,” she said lightly.

“Here I am.”

He leaned in and kissed her softly. “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” she said.

“Why didn’t you want to put your glasses on?”

“I…they are part of the old me. Not this new person that you found attractive.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. He was getting a picture of Ainsley as a woman who hid her true self from the world. “So who’s the real Ainsley? The sexy temptress I met last night or this shy woman I’m seeing this morning.”

She bit her lower lip. “I don’t know. I would have said this is me, but last night I felt comfortable in my body for the first time. I’m not talking about just since I lost weight—I mean ever. I’ve never felt like my skin fit me. Last night, when I was in your arms, I found myself.”

She shook her head. “Oh, God, I sound like a moron.”

He laughed, but deep inside he knew that being with him wasn’t an easy decision for Ainsley.

Hurting her was the very last thing he wanted. He had to be careful if he didn’t intend to lose his heart or let his emotions overwhelm him. And the only way to protect himself was to make sure she didn’t get too involved with him.

He wanted to go back to bed with her but he wasn’t sure that was wise. He’d only brought two condoms with him last night. It would take a box to continue this affair with Ainsley. Twice wasn’t nearly enough to get his fill of her.

Ainsley was finding her confidence as a woman in his arms. What she’d said about finding herself made sense to him. Because he’d noted that change in her. She dressed like a confident woman who knew the power of her sexuality but until last night he didn’t think she really had.

“I have a meeting with Henry and Geoff in an hour,” he said.

“I am actually going to be late if I don’t leave in ten minutes. Freddie is never going to let me live this down.”

“What does he have to say about this? I thought he worked for you.”

“He does, but he’s also one of my best friends.”

“You’re friends with a man?”

She laughed at him and punched him lightly in the shoulder. “Yes, I am. Don’t you have any women friends?”

He didn’t. If pressed, he might describe Dinah as a friend, but she was really more of an employee. “No, I don’t. And you don’t need any guy friends while you’re with me. I can provide all the testosterone you need.”

“Steven, I’m an independent woman and I’m not about to let you tell me who I can be friends with. I’m not going to be sleeping around, but Freddie and I are still going to stay friends.”

“Fine.”

This was precisely why he avoided relationships. Because he was always afraid of losing the very thing he wanted. And he hated to admit that he might need anything from Ainsley other than sex, but she was different. And he disliked this feeling of needing to be the only man in her life. It was crazy.

She looked up at him with her wide violet eyes and he was very afraid that she’d complicate his life. That his life had changed so much last night when he’d taken her in his arms.

He didn’t want his life turned upside down, so he left a few minutes later when she got into the shower. He wasn’t a
man who was jealous or possessive, yet Ainsley awakened both emotions in him. Why?

As he drove through the early morning traffic, he had doubts. Why was Ainsley affecting him this way? He had always been able to put women in their place in his life and just keep on his path to total world domination. But she was playing with his head and he was very afraid for his heart.

He knew that he couldn’t insist on crazy things, like forbidding a woman to have male friends, and he had never done that with his other girlfriends. So why with her? What made her so different?

To a man used to always having the answers, this situation was thoroughly unsettling. Until he knew why Ainsley was affecting him this deeply, he needed to keep his distance. He didn’t want to end up with a messy personal life the way Malcolm Devonshire had.

Ainsley couldn’t talk to Freddie about last night no matter how many times he asked. Steven had left while she was in the shower. And even though she knew he had a meeting this morning, she’d expected him to say goodbye. She knew he had things to do and she hadn’t expected him to just hang out at her house all day, but leaving without a word…well, she knew he was running away.

It shouldn’t matter, but it did. She’d taken a big risk last night by having sex with him and the reward had been better than she had expected. She’d never had an orgasm like that before or that many. She’d also never felt as appealing to the opposite sex as she had when she’d been in his arms.

But she’d never been as disappointed in a man as she
had been when she’d come out of the shower and realized that Steven had left.

It had been a cowardly thing to do. Frankly, she’d expected better of him. When her staff meeting ended, she stood up and left the room. Freddie followed close on her heels.

“Hold up, boss lady. We need to talk.”

She shook her head.

“Nope, I’m not going to let you get away with that. We’ve been friends too long for you to hide things from me.”

Ainsley stared at her friend. He wore his short hair spiked up this morning. He had on a pair of gabardine slacks, combat boots and a vintage Stones T-shirt. His round, horn-rimmed glasses were for show, but the expression in his eyes was sincere.

“I can’t talk about it. Not yet. We can do drinks later in the week and we can talk then.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded. “I’m too raw about this. I have a magazine to run. I can’t afford to let this bother me.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing,” she said, aware that she was making this into something bigger than it was. But she’d let Steven see the most vulnerable side of her and he’d left without saying anything.

“Fine. Drinks Friday. I’m not going to let you get away with keeping this in.”

“Sounds good. Now get to work.”

He hugged her and then walked away. The fact that he’d hugged her told her that she needed to get to her office before anyone else noticed that the ultra-efficient boss they’d come to know wasn’t herself.

Cathy had left a stack of messages for her and there were
proof sheets that she needed to sign off on, but all she could do was think about last night. She spun her chair around to face the window, but found no solace in the spectacular view.

St. Peter’s now reminded her of Steven.

She turned back to her desk, opened her e-mail account and thought for a long minute before she started writing to Steven.

Was there an emergency this morning? Leaving without saying goodbye was cowardly. I thought you were a different kind of man.

She hit Send before she gave in to her anger further and called him an ass. Twenty minutes later her cell phone rang.

She glanced at the caller ID to see Steven’s name. She didn’t want to talk to him, but she realized that calling him a coward and avoiding his call would make her one.

“This is Ainsley,” she said as she answered her phone.

“I’m sorry about this morning. I just felt the walls closing in and I had to get out of there. It wasn’t you,” he said. “It was me.”

“What does that mean? Walls closing in?”