Secretary on Demand (16 page)

He pulled her underwear off but, instead of joining her on the massive sofa, he remained standing to stare intimately at her fully unclothed body and Shannon obligingly parted her legs just slightly, enough to afford him the briefest glimpse of her scented womanhood.

They devoured each other with their eyes and when she could bear her mounting need no longer he knelt down and eased her towards him, parting her thighs still wider, then he blew gently between her legs and she whimpered involuntarily.

‘You tasted me,' he said, catching her eye and laughing softly as she blushed at the directness of his statement. ‘Now it's my turn.'

Kane peeled aside the softly swollen lips sheathing her femininity to expose the small nub, then ran his tongue over it, applying a delicate pressure that made her cry out and buck against his mouth. Her fingers scraped along his shoulders, curled in frenzied passion into his hair, and the delicate pressure became firm strokes.

He eased himself into her so fluidly that Shannon felt not the slightest twinge of discomfort. Her body was ripe and ready for him and his slow thrusts, building up as he moved quicker and faster, brought her to a shuddering climax that seemed to go on for eternity.

Her body was still alive and he gently stroked the flanks of her thighs, as if he were soothing an excited horse. Then, tentatively, he traced the outline of her breast, spiralling his finger in small circles until he was feathering her pink, engorged nipple.

‘I think I've developed a taste for you,' he murmured huskily, and she gave a shuddering sigh.

‘Is that good or bad?'

‘Perhaps I ought to remind myself of it to find out.' He laughed under his breath, a dark, sexy laugh that made her head spin.

Then he pulled her so that she understood what he wanted, easing her along him until his flared nostrils could breath in the musky scent positioned provocatively
above his mouth. From her advantageous position, Shannon could see his tongue flick out to touch her sensitised womanhood. Just those delicate flicks were enough to make her arch back and her legs stiffened as his finger moved inside her to touch her deepest depths while his tongue caressed and rubbed until she had to close her eyes, gasping as another orgasm shuddered through her body, as powerful as the first.

This time, as she finally lay beside him, she felt drained. Beautifully drained. There were no thoughts in her head and she might have dozed off if he hadn't spoken, with infinite gentleness.

‘I think it's time for bed.'

‘Already?' She sighed languorously.

‘My bed,' he said gravely, and she gurgled her pleasure.

‘But what about Eleanor?'

‘Asleep and oblivious. As I'm your boss, it's your duty to comply with my orders.' He cupped her breast in his hand while his thumb stirred her resting nipple into upright alertness.

‘Are you saying that I have no choice?' she teased, wriggling on the sofa.

‘Correct.'

She giggled and obediently complied. Trusting in the darkness, they grabbed their clothes and hand in hand headed for his bedroom, their footsteps making soft, padding sounds along the carpet.

She had never felt so whole in her life before. The thought that this was simply the start of an affair, no strings attached and no promises given for anything beyond that, was not enough to quell the bubble of joy that had spread through her.

‘Are you taking anything…?' he asked, chucking his
clothes on the deep two-seater sofa by the window, and Shannon looked at him blankly.

‘Anything like what?'

‘Anything like contraception?' he asked.

She hadn't given that a moment's thought. She knew enough about the biological workings of her body, however, to realise that the chances of becoming pregnant were pretty slim. ‘I'm in a safe period,' she said quickly. ‘Why? Do you think I should go on the Pill? I'm not sure I like the thought of—'

‘Shh.' He took her in his arms and cradled her head against his shoulder. ‘It's my responsibility as much as yours. If you don't want to take the Pill, I'll make sure I use the necessary protection.'

Shannon closed her eyes and smiled. How could she ever
not
have fallen in love with this man? He made her feel safe, as if his presence could cocoon her against everything unpleasant in the world.

‘Don't you mind that I'm so…'

‘So what?' He led her towards his king-sized bed and then covered them both with the sprawling duvet, wrapping his big body around her small one so that they were nestled into one another.

‘So…hopeless,' Shannon said. ‘I mean…well, I bet all the other women you've slept with in the past were on the Pill. I bet you didn't have to worry about accidents happening…'

‘You mean apart from my wife…'

‘Well, yes.'

He absent-mindedly stroked her thigh and she covered his leg with her own.

‘I've always been careful,' he told her thoughtfully. ‘It's better to be in control of a situation than to discover down the line that the situation was in control of you…
As to you being hopeless…maybe I like it…' He nuzzled her jawline and then raised himself on his elbows to look down at her. ‘You bring out the caveman in me…hadn't you noticed?'

‘Mmm. Not sure I like the sound of that…'

‘Maybe I mean protector…'

‘Oh, yes, I can see that,' Shannon said wryly. ‘My mother's surprise visit was proof enough.'

‘And how pleased she would be to know that I'm going to carry on protecting you,' he told her smugly. ‘Keep my eye on you, stop you from straying off the straight and narrow…'

‘Thrilled, I'm sure,' she said with a laugh.

But, she thought to herself, that was a little piece of information she definitely would be keeping to herself.

More difficult, she thought three weeks later as she walked into her office, was keeping it from all her friends at work. No one had said anything, but Shannon was sure that they'd noticed the difference between herself and Kane. For a start, he came to the office canteen for lunch whenever he happened to be in the building, and instead of discreetly sitting at a distant table, out of sight, he always made sure to sit where she was, seemingly oblivious to any abrupt silences that greeted his arrival. Lunching with the head honcho reduced even the most garrulous to awed, stuttering silence.

‘People will suspect,' Shannon had told him the week before.

‘Suspect what?' He had moved across to perch on her desk and idly played with a strand of her hair.

‘Suspect what's going on.'

‘Why?'

‘Because you never used to go to the canteen before?
Because you always come and sit where I am? Because most people can add two and two and get four?'

‘I'm just a good boss,' he'd said soothingly, ‘taking an interest in what's going on on the ground floor.' And that had been the end of that.

‘Christmas,' he said, as soon as she walked into his office with his ritual cup of coffee, very strong and black.

Shannon was now well accustomed to his lack of preliminaries when it came to conversation.

‘Two weeks' time.' She sat primly in the chair, facing him, and felt that familiar stirring as he leaned back in the swivel chair and looked at her from under his lashes.

‘I want you to stay here with me. With us.'

‘I can't,' she said with a little sigh. ‘Mum would hit the roof.'

‘We could go away. Somewhere hot. Two weeks in the Maldives. Wouldn't it be nice? Making love on a beach every night?'

‘Every night?' She blushed and he pushed himself away from the desk and patted his lap invitingly.

‘I bet you've never done it on a bed of sand before…'

‘You know I haven't.'

‘Come and sit closer and tell me why you won't consider it.'

‘We can't…not here, Kane…not in the office… What if…?'

That was another thing she had become accustomed to. The deceptively chivalrous nature that fooled you into thinking that all his actions were ruled by an inner code of good behaviour. In public perhaps, but in bed, he threw off that mantle and was thrillingly primitive in his love-making. He was also thrillingly inventive.

‘You worry too much, my sweet,' he said, crooking
his finger for her to come to him. ‘The outer door is closed, isn't it?'

‘Well, yes, but…' She glanced nervously over her shoulder and obediently sidled around the desk to be yanked down forcefully on his lap.

‘But nothing, woman. Can't you see how much you turn me on? I can't see you without wanting you. I amaze myself by even being able to work fairly normally when I know you're only a matter of a few feet away.' He unbuttoned her decorous blouse and groaned when he saw that she wasn't wearing a bra. ‘Was this for me?' he asked, cupping her breasts in both his hands, weighing them and then opting to lick and suck her left nipple while she cradled his dark head in her hands.

‘My bras don't seem to fit any more,' Shannon said in little pants.

‘Good. Get rid of the lot. Mmm. And your nipples look bigger as well. Maybe they're responding to frequent use…' He demonstrated his definition of ‘use' by virtually making love to her breasts until she was squirming on his lap. ‘For a lady who was so concerned about being caught in a compromising position,' he told her huskily, ‘you've managed to shed your inhibitions pretty quickly. Not, my little wanton hussy, that you have any inhibitions…'

He paused to reach into his drawer and Shannon scolded him reprovingly but indulgently as he withdrew a condom, shifting her so that he could unzip his trousers and slip it over his hardness, already fully erect and hungry for satisfaction. He had been true to his word. After the first time, he'd taken no chances of any unwanted pregnancy; no sex without protective measures.

But before Kane could slide into her, he raised her skirt, pulled her underwear to one side and inserted his
tongue into the apex between her thighs, doing there what he did so well, driving her insane with desire as his tongue flicked and explored and delicately probed the pulsating, acutely sensitive nub. It was agony having to be pleasured without moaning out loud but heaven only knew what the fall-out would have been if someone had happened to innocently open the outer door to the sounds of elevated groaning coming from the direction of Kane's office!

Then he sat her on him and gripped her firm buttocks as they lost themselves in the furious business of wild gratification.

‘Will that be all, Mr Lindley?' Shannon whispered into his ear, head on his shoulder, eyes half closed with pure happiness.

‘Why, I do believe my perfect little secretary is going to corrupt me with all of this. Quite unorthodox, my dear.'

‘You only have yourself to blame. I learnt from the hands of a master.' She blew into his hair and he clasped his arm more tightly around her waist.

‘If you insist on abandoning me for Christmas,' he said softly, with little-boy petulance that made her want to laugh, ‘then at least go for the shortest time possible.'

‘I
am
allowed a fortnight's leave from work, sir, according to company policy…'

‘Are you now?' He looked at her as if disbelieving the source of her information. ‘Actually, I only work it out as a week…'

‘Uh. I'll think about it.' Shannon reluctantly straightened herself, at the end of which she still felt wickedly debauched.

‘And I expect phone calls every day.'

‘Or else what? Sir?' She resumed her correct position
at the chair in front of his desk and inclined her head curiously to one side.

‘Or else you may find an unexpected and sex-starved visitor at your mother's door…' At which he saw fit to conclude the conversation with a glimmer of a smile on his lips and begin proceedings for the day.

It was only three days later, after a Christmas tree had been mounted amid much excitement from Eleanor, that something occurred to Shannon.

She hadn't had her period recently. Her timekeeping when it came to her periods tended to be lax but she was sure that something should have happened already.

By the following morning, as she slunk into the nearest chemist's during her lunch hour, she was in a state of thinly suppressed panic. Once. They had made love once without protection, and by her calculations it hadn't been during a fertile period. She didn't think. She hoped.

She bought the pregnancy kit and secreted it in her office, relieved that Kane was tied up in meetings and nowhere to be seen. She waited in gut-wrenching anxiety until five o'clock rolled around and she could straighten her desk and head back to the house.

Actually taking the thing out of the bag and using it brought Shannon slap bang into the darker side of reality which she had blissfully spent the past few weeks ignoring. The fact that, however much she loved Kane Lindley, the love was one way only. Even at the heights of passion, when men, she had once read, were wont to make declarations of a love they didn't feel, he had remained silent on the subject. He wanted her, he lusted after her, he enjoyed her company and he had no hesitation in telling her as much. But love?

In the silence of her bathroom, while Eleanor was downstairs doing her homework, she sat and watched
while fate came home to stay. She was pregnant. The clear blue line in the pregnancy box was unequivocal.

Shannon hadn't expected it. She'd bought the kit, she'd played with the vague notion but, looking at that determined blue line, she realised now that she hadn't expected to be pregnant at all.

The unexpected accident had happened and all the time they had been blithely making love, using protection, she'd been pregnant. She felt as though somewhere up in the heavens, the gods were watching her and snorting with laughter.

She felt a wave of nausea replace shock. What would Kane say to this sudden development in what was supposed to be a light-hearted affair with no strings attached? Pregnancy wasn't merely a string. It was a thick rope and she tried and failed to picture his reaction. He would want to take responsibility. That was the type of man he was. He might even ask her to marry him. The prospect of a marriage made under these circumstances was enough to make her blood run cold. She couldn't think straight while she was under his roof. She needed time to work out some kind of plan before she broke the news to him.