Seduced By My Billionaire Boss (The Billionaire Boss Series, #1) (14 page)

I had signed up for a weekend of impersonal sex. To borrow a phrase from Tom—to fuck it out. I never anticipated the weekend would turn into something like this. Reliving old memories, falling together in the snow, tender kisses and soft Christmas lights.

I’d never anticipated it, and yet, I couldn’t think of a single place in the world I’d rather be. The house still smelled of sugar cookies and pine, and I took a deep breath, resting my head back on Tom’s shoulder and shutting my eyes with a contented smile.

It was then that his hand slid up my thigh.

My eyes flew open, and I turned to see him watching me with a little smirk. The hand crept higher as he leaned in, but before I knew what I was doing, I was jumping to my feet.

Tom blinked up in surprise as the blanket tumbled to the floor. “Are you okay?”

I thought of the bottle of vodka in my bag and sent a silent message of thanks to Rose.

“I...think I’m going to need a drink.”

I
f there’s one piece of advice I could pass on to the masses, it would be this: Never play drunk Monopoly against a Wall Street genius.

Piece of advice number two: If you do happen to play, never play for stakes.

It had all started out innocently enough. To take a small step back and to settle our nerves, I’d pulled out the vodka, while Tom had retrieved a worn copy of the board game from a downstairs linen closet.

The rules were simple. Every time we rolled a two, we had to drink. Every time we landed on a railroad, we had to drink. And every time someone owed upwards of five hundred dollars...you get the picture.

Needless to say, the bottle didn’t last very long.

But that’s not what had me standing there, peering into a tiny shower in the bathroom on the second floor. It was the final rule Tom had created before the game got under way.

Loser had to strip naked and jump into the shower.

It seemed fine at the time. The vodka was working its magic and, however foolishly, I was liking my chances. Now that the losing moment was upon me, it didn’t seem too brilliant...

“You know the rules,” Tom had said with an unmistakable sparkle in his eyes. “You lost, Jen. Now strip.”

Never one to back out of a bet, I’d wandered up to the little bathroom and here we were.

I had paused, wondering what exactly I’d gotten myself into, when I felt two warm hands on my shoulders. Before I could turn around, Tom leaned his head down beside mine.

“You going to stand there looking? Or are you going to get inside?”

The tiny, one-person stall suddenly seemed a bit daunting, but I swallowed quickly and nodded. “Yep...here I go...”

I felt him smile beside me, his face still pressed against the side of mine. Then, before I could have any second thoughts, those warm hands started sliding off my clothes.

I froze like a statue, standing perfectly still as he took off layer after layer. A silent thrill of relief ran through my skin when I remembered I’d worn my most impressive underwear, and the hands paused for a moment in appreciation, before gently undoing the clasp.

When he was finished, and I was completely naked, I finally turned around. His eyes swept over me once, dilating until there was more black than blue. Without breaking my gaze, he slowly reached behind me and turned on the water.

“So this is how it is, huh?” I asked with a little smile. My heart may have been pounding, but I was incredibly comfortable in my body—I always had been. I knew how to handle myself, and I knew my effect on men. As usual, Tom didn’t disappoint. “I take off all my clothes, and you get to stand there in a nice, warm suit?”

His mouth opened to answer, but it was like some unseen force had frozen him in place. I saw the slightest hint of a dimple forming at the corner of his lips, but other than that, he was completely immobile—staring hungrily as clouds of steam filled up the tiny room.

“That’s fine,” I murmured, taking him coyly by the tie, “you don’t have to take off your clothes. But I do hate to shower alone...”

With no further ado, I pulled him inside with me into the warm water. He resisted only for a moment as he realized what I was about to do, but the second the first spray of water hit him, he let out a bark of laughter and shook back his hair. I smiled to myself as I pulled his tie even closer, bringing his face down to mine.

He kissed me without hesitation, his hands exploring my body, as mine rushed to take off his clothes. I dropped them in a soggy pile outside the shower door as he slipped his fingers around my thighs and lifted me up around his waist.

What a body!
Now that I’d seen the whole thing, I didn’t know if I could ever go back to seeing him in simple suits and ties again. This man was born to be naked.

I tightened my thighs around his hips and grinned down at him as streams of water trickled slowly down my face. I felt him pull in a sharp breath beneath me, and with just one hand, he reached up and slowly brushed back my dripping hair.

Things got more heated after that.

I gasped a little as we came together. It was more forceful than I’d thought. Almost frantic, as a week’s worth of sexual frustration went up in flames. He slammed into me again and again, moaning into my neck as I raked my fingernails down his back. I reached up onto the walls to steady myself, as he ripped back my hair, lips coming up to attack my throat.

And then all at once, we were slipping.

I shrieked and clung to him for dear life as the paneling on the shower door gave way, and we tumbled out onto the floor. He protected me from most of the fall, holding me delicately beneath him, as a torrent of steaming water came rushing out with us, pooling on the floor.

“Are you okay?” he asked anxiously, gripping the back of my head and examining me for signs of injury. My breathless laughter stopped his search, and a second later, he was chuckling along with me. “Alright...so some of the appliances might be a little out of date.”

I just laughter harder and tilted up on my elbows to see the damage. “Turn off the water Tom, it’s getting everywhere.” A small reservoir continued pouring out around my head, and I looked up at him in surprise. “Tom—turn it off!”

But he was just grinning at me. “There’s no rush,” he leaned down, brushing his lips softly against mine before nipping playfully at my ear. “I was just getting started...”

About two hours later, I was wrapped in a fluffy robe, sitting in front of the fire. Tom was bustling around the kitchen, making us hot chocolate, as I gazed lazily out at the flames. The water heater had kept things hot for a long time—a
really
long time—but unfortunately, the second we’d opened the door to the bedroom, we’d discovered that the house was built at a slant and the entire dam of water we’d been keeping in went rushing over the floorboards.

Since the bed was pretty much soaked, Tom compromised and spread out a bunch of thick fur blankets on the floor in front of the fire. It was here that I had perched, stretching out my bare legs, and warming my toes by the flickering flames.

“I hope you like marshmallows.”

It had to be the most adorable version of Tom I’d seen so far. He had graciously given me the bigger robe, but all that left for him was a short kimono that was most likely made for a petite woman. It barely came down past his thighs, but he was wearing it nonetheless—offering me my choice between the two mugs.

I suppressed a little smile. “I don’t, actually.”

He settled beside me and shook his head, scooping my marshmallows into his. “First you don’t like Christmas; now you don’t like marshmallows... Let me guess—you also have a severe dislike of kittens and all things pink.”

I chuckled along with him and clinked my mug against his. “Pink’s not really my color.”

“I beg to differ, Miss Harks,” he said, running a finger along my blushing cheek.

My hair fell in between us, hiding my grin, as I stared down into my mug. “So...” I began tentatively, “sorry I got your clothes wet. It’s just, well, you did keep me waiting...”

His blue eyes sparkled as he tilted up my head and suddenly kissed me. My breath caught in my throat, and I tried my hardest to keep from grinning like an idiot. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to him kissing me—not matter how many times it happened.

“I don’t care about the clothes. And I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.” For a split second, he looked a little unsure. “I’ve...never done something like this before.”

The admission surprised me. I would have thought that the concept of a ‘sex weekend’ was literally made for people like Tom. People without a lot of time, who lived under constant media scrutiny. I’d automatically guessed that he was much more experienced at it than I was. After all, he was so quick to offer his cottage.

But the more I looked around at the cottage, the more I wasn’t so sure. This place didn’t exactly fit the Larchwood brand. It was small, sparsely filled, and a little run-down (the flimsy shower being evident of that just by itself). And yet, there was something tenderly familiar in the way Tom bustled about it. Something fond and nostalgic in the way he moved. And then, of course, there was the box of childhood ornaments...

“This was your parents’ old cottage, wasn’t it?”

He stopped cold, and I instantly regretted my sudden guess. I knew that both of his parents had started out with absolutely no money, and had built the empire together. I also read, along with the rest of the world, when his mother died in a car crash a few years back.

If my cheeks were pink before, they now burned bright red. “I’m sorry,” I set my mug down and shook my head in shame. “I didn’t mean to—”

“It did belong to my parents,” he said. “They bought it when they first moved to New York and lived here for a few years. When the firm took off, they moved into the city and left it behind.” He glanced around, releasing me from that impossible gaze. “But I always loved it here. When she...” His voice trailed off, and he moved on quickly. “I bought it a few years ago and have been keeping it up ever since.”

We both looked up as the steady drip of shower water echoed through the house.

He grinned. “Well, ‘keeping it up’ is a generous way of putting it.”

I laughed softly, and before I knew it, I was squeezing his hand. “It’s a beautiful place,” I said almost shyly. “I’m glad you asked me to come here.”

A strange looked flickered across his face as he studied me in the light. “So am I.”

I flushed again and decided to try a little honesty myself. “I have to admit—I’ve never done something like this either.” I hung my head in shame. “You should have seen the way I packed...”

“Let me guess...thick woolen sweaters?”

“How did you know?!” I demanded. “Did you look in my bag?!”

He laughed aloud. “No, I’m just getting to know you, Miss Harks. You’re the type of woman who likes to be prepared for anything.”

“Well, I certainly wasn’t prepared for this.”

The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them and I dropped my eyes to the floor. Rose was right. I couldn’t do emotionless sex. What was I playing at here? All alone, sitting by the fire in his parents’ old cabin? How could I not be feeling something?!

I was almost afraid to look at him, but he tilted my face up to meet his with two fingers under my chin. Then he swept back my hair in a sudden, tender gesture and both of us froze.

“I wasn’t either.”

He kissed me, long and hard.

The hot chocolate mugs were forgotten as he pulled off my robe and the two of us stretched out on the fur blanket, tangling around each other in sweet, unrestrained delight.

The entire next day, I’d be surprised if I wore even a stitch of clothes. No matter what we did, it was like Tom and I couldn’t get enough of each other. If he had any sentimental feelings about the house, they didn’t stretch so far as to declare any part of it an ‘off-limits zone.’ We had sex on the counter tops, on the floor, on the porch (that was very cold), on the sofa. Even one time half-crushed inside a little linen closet as I went to get some pillows for us to sleep. No matter where we went or what we were doing, we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.

I was horribly surprised, then, to find him packing up the car when I wandered down the stairs Sunday night.

“Hey,” I mumbled sleepily, still in a sex coma. “What are you doing?”

He rushed in to meet me, flushed pink with the cold. “We’ve got to hit the road, kiddo.”

I glanced at the clock. “Now? I thought—”

“Tomorrow’s Christmas, Jenna.” He said this as if it answered everything.

And in a way, I guessed it did. Of course, he would have plans on Christmas. Probably doing the whole family dinner/gift-exchange thing. I was silly not to have realized...

“Of course,” I said softly. “Let me just throw on some clothes and I’m good to go.”

“Well not so fast,” he grabbed my hips mischievously, bending me over slightly as he anchored himself behind, “I think we can spare another few minutes.”

But for the first time all weekend, I wasn’t in the mood. I gave a forced laugh and straightened up, trying to hide the tension on my face as I slipped past him into the cottage.

“No you’re right, we should probably hit the road.”

Just a few minutes later, we were sailing out of the trees and heading back to the city. The air in the car seemed to get colder the closer we got back home. There were no suicidal geese this time, no distractions. We made it back in just a little over an hour, and before I knew it, I was standing back on my curb, suitcase in hand.

“So,” he asked with a small grin, “did I convince you? Do you love Christmas?”

I forced myself to smile, unwilling to let it all come to an end. “Not quite yet...but I think it’s safe to say I’m definitely getting there.”

“Is that so?” He climbed back into his car and revved the engine, flashing me the most peculiar look as he did. “Then I guess I still have some more work to do...”

I
woke up to sleigh bells.

Yes, you heard me correctly.

Sleigh bells.

The night had only gone downhill after Tom dropped me off. Rose, surprised to see me back so soon, was literally
in the throes
with some guy from marketing on the couch. She graciously kicked him out when it became clear that I needed help, and sat up with me instead, drinking vodka on the floor (I decided to avoid the couch).