The Devil in Denim (18 page)

“No one’s going to make you do anything you don’t want to,” Alex said softly.

“What I want to do isn’t the problem,” Maggie said, wishing she could look away from the heat in his eyes. “The problem is what I should do.”

“Life’s too short to always do what you think you should do.”

“Spoken like someone who always gets away with what he wants.”

“Spoken like a chicken,” he returned. He lowered his head another half inch until his lips were close enough that all she had to do was move just a fraction and they’d be touching hers.

She remembered what that felt like … remembered the taste of him, dark and hot.

Remembered his hands on her back scorching through the thin fabric of her dress.

Remembered why she had to stay away from him. She pulled back. “Chickens are very underrated birds.”

Alex moved with her. One step. Two. The backs of Maggie’s thighs hit his desk. Damn it.

Trapped. Only it didn’t feel like she was trapped. Not like this was against her will. No, her will was very, very much in favor.

“What are you so scared of?”

“Doing something stupid,” she said. She folded her arms across her chest in an attempt to bolster her powers of resistance.

“I’m not stupid.”

“No, but us sleeping together would be.”

“Why?” He traced a finger along one of hers, the lightest of touches. Still, it was enough to make her shiver. “I think it would be fantastic, not stupid.”

“You’re not the one with something to lose.”

“I’m not going to fire you if you kick me out of your bed,” Alex said. “You said you’d studied me? Ever hear about me doing anything like that?”

“Having an affair with a coworker? No.”

“Well, there you go.”

That was way too convenient. “Maybe you’re just very good at covering your tracks.”

He frowned. “Do you really think I’m that sort of guy?”

“I—” She paused. “I don’t know.”

“I’m not,” he said. “If someone finishes with me, we’re done. No confusion.”

“No regrets?”

“I didn’t say that.” His eyes darkened further. “But I’ve learned that you can’t keep someone with you by sheer force of will. If they’re out, they’re out. Cut your losses and move on.”

“Kind of proves my point.”

“What?”

“That if we finished, you’d just move on.”

“I thought we were talking about you kicking me out of your bed, not the other way around.”

“Does it make a difference?”

“Yes. For one thing, right now, I think it would take a very long time for me to get tired of this.” He dipped his head, brushed his mouth across hers, dragging her lower lip away from the upper and sucking it briefly.

“D-don’t.”

“That wasn’t very convincing.”

But he stepped back. Apparently no meant no with this man. Nice to know.

Maggie sucked in a breath, tried to think. Her body fought back, sending a surge of warmth through her as Alex’s scent came with the air she drew in.

“Too fast.”

“Ah.” He stayed where he was, considering her for a moment. “Well then, how about I call a different play?”

“Different?”

“Slow ball,” he said with a grin. “A test, if you will.”

“A test of what?”

“To see if we rate further investigation.”

“Investigation?” She was starting to sound like a parrot. A breathy parrot.

“Uh-huh. No sex.”

Her body disapproved of that idea. Vehemently. “That sounds—”

“Actually, let me rephrase. No home runs.”

“Oh.” Her brain translated the phrase with a slight delay.
“Oh.”

“Just some exploratory fieldwork.” He grinned. “Try out a few bases.”

This time her brain got it immediately. And immediately started spitting out images to match Alex’s words. Alex kissing her, Alex’s hands on her. Sliding over and under and … oh my. “Aren’t we a bit old for that?” Her voice sounded squeaky.

“I don’t know. There are a couple I’m quite fond of. Besides, we can always redefine a few if we want to.”

“Is that within the spirit of the game?”

“Our game. Our rules. What do you say? Wanna play?”

Desperately. But she still didn’t know if she could live with the result. Still, she couldn’t stop herself smiling at him. “Who’s the referee?”

“You want to stop, we stop. That rule’s nonnegotiable.”

She considered him. Considered the rush of heat in her blood, the heated tingle that was stealing across her skin in all the right places. Her body liked his proposal. More than liked it. “That sounds fairly straightforward.”

“Straight’s simplest for now, don’t you think? We can complicate things later if you want. Depends what you like.” He lifted an eyebrow.

“I like…” That was a concept too difficult to answer right now. Not when she was still getting her head around the fact she was standing in Alex’s office negotiating the rules of making out with him. “Right now, simple sounds good. As a test.”

His smile blazed to life. “That’s my girl.” He walked over to the door, flipped the lock shut, then was back at her side before she had time to change her mind. “Now … where were we?”

“You were talking about bases?”

“Bases, right. Like first base?” He reached out, settled his hands on her waist. She lifted hers to his shoulders. It felt strange for a moment, like she was a teenager trying to figure out how to kiss a guy for the very first time. Which was dumb because she’d already kissed Alex.

She wanted to kiss him again. “First,” she said softly, and pulled his head down to hers.

Neither of them bothered with starting slow. No, this kiss was fierce and strong and seemingly designed to set her every nerve on fire.

It went on, teasing and testing and tormenting, until she was drunk with him.

He bent her back until she was resting on the desk, legs wrapped around his waist, arching against him as he kissed her with the mouth of a pro.

This was a long way from making out under the bleachers with a clumsy teenager, which was probably the last time she’d been worried about first base. Such a long way it felt like an entirely different universe.

Still, Alex seemed to be in no hurry to move on. His hands held his weight above hers and he made no effort to try and move things along. But she was growing impatient, hungry. Aching and restless. She wanted more. Wanted his hands on her. She pushed him away gently. He backed off immediately and Maggie sat up.

Alex’s eyes were dark as he looked at her. “Are you saying stop?”

She shook her head, moved her hands to the buttons of her shirt, and undid them as fast as possible with fingers that seemed to have forgotten how exactly that task was accomplished.

Her shirt fell open, leaving her in her bra. She could feel her nipples straining against the flimsy lace, knew that he could see them. Wanted him to.

“Second,” she reminded him when he just looked at her, eyes almost black now.

“Bossy,” he said softly, but he slid one hand up her stomach, around the curve of her ribs and up along her side. His fingers grazed the side of her breast but didn’t touch her where she wanted to be touched. No. Instead, he continued to drift his fingers across her skin, tracing the lines of collarbone and shoulder and bicep. Little trails of pleasure followed his touch. She bit her lip, closed her eyes, and laid her head back. She was the one who’d asked for slow. Apparently the man was following orders. Well, she’d let him be in control for now.

Mostly because it felt so damned good.

“Nice lace,” he said softly when his hand finally reached the point where the edge of the bra cupped her skin. “Expensive?”

“Sort of?”

“Guess I’d better be careful then.” He bent and breathed on the lace, right over her nipple.

The warmth hit her skin like the fabric wasn’t even there and she tightened painfully. God. He was killing her.

“You know, anyone who takes this long to get from first to second isn’t going to make it to the bigs,” she managed.

He laughed, the sound gusting more air over sensitive skin. “You trying to bench me?”

“No, just encourage you.”

“Hmmm.” He still sounded amused. “Then let me see if I can remember what comes next. Oh yeah. This.” His fingers closed around her nipple and tightened just enough. The lace pulled across the skin and she gasped, the sound escaping her before she could stop it.

“Or maybe this.” He jerked the lace down and replaced fingers with his mouth.

God, the man really did know what he was doing with his mouth. She pressed him closer, arching her back urging him on as he moved his attention from one breast to the next, sucking and nibbling and licking and setting her skin on fire. He lay across her this time, weight only on one arm, freeing his hand to add to the torment. He used his fingers as skillfully as his tongue, manipulating flesh and damp lace and driving her rapidly out of her mind. Her shirt was pushed down over her shoulders, trapping her arms mostly at her sides so that she couldn’t free her own hands to explore his skin. No, she just had to lie there and let him do what he wanted, which was appallingly sexy, the knowledge that she was half naked on his desk while he was fully clothed and in control.

Crazy
, she told herself. Crazy to feel this way, to do this.

She turned her head, twisting in pleasure, and stared at the window. The sky was dark out, and against the blackness, their reflections were silhouetted on the glass.

Alex’s mouth on her skin, his body over hers. The dark gray of his shirt against the whiteness of her skin. A shudder rippled through her.

Hot.

So hot.

Too many clothes.

Once again she struggled upward, pushed him back so that she could set her arms free to tug at his tie and the buttons of his shirt. He didn’t protest, just helped her by tugging the cuff links out of his cuffs and tossing the shirt back over his shoulders.

She stopped for a minute to admire the sight bared to her eyes. Broad shoulders and equally broad chest, dark hair arrowing down to trail across a flat stomach and disappear into the waist of his pants.

He was definitely in shape. Perhaps not so tightly honed as the fittest of the players but somehow his muscles and skin were more pleasing. More real. She didn’t know what he did to keep fit … she’d seen him in action in the batting cages but slugging a few balls around wasn’t enough to give him the sort of body she was studying. No, that took more serious effort.

“Like what you see?”

She nodded, reached out, trailed a hand from his shoulder and down the line of his collarbone, echoing the path he’d taken. His nipples were flat and dark and she ran a hand over one, experimenting. Some guys liked it, some couldn’t care less. Alex sucked in a pleased breath and she put a check against “likes it.”

“Second base,” she said, half to herself. Her hand drifted lower, over the tightly braced abs, heading toward his waistband. His hand caught hers.

“I think that’s skipping a few bases.”

“I thought you said we could make up our own definitions.”

“I did. But you said no sex. And right now, if you touch me, I’m not sure I can keep my word on that.”

“Oh.” She pulled her hand away reluctantly, trying to remember exactly why she’d thought that no sex was a good idea. Complications, that was it. Seemed like splitting hairs considering their current state of undress but Alex was right. It was smarter to stick to slow.

“Besides,” he said, “I’m not done with you yet.” He leaned in and kissed her and then, just as she melted into him, slid his hand down and into her underwear. She gasped against his mouth and he laughed, flexing his hand softly, so that the heel of his palm pressed into her clit and sent a wave of delight shooting through her.

“I thought the next base was meant to be over underwear,” she managed as he did it again.

“Yeah. But I never saw the point of that one.”

She was sure he’d had no trouble getting into the pants of many, many girls back in high school. Still, as his fingers slid against her with unerring accuracy, she couldn’t hold a grudge against how he’d developed his skills. She was just damned glad he had.

She dropped her head back, squeezed her eyes shut, and let the sensations flow over her.

“Now that’s an expression I want to see more of,” Alex said softly. He moved his fingers slowly, his skin sliding easily against her as she grew wetter.

More. More sounded good. She made a pleased sound, lifted her hips, unable to think enough to figure out how to actually get more. Luckily Alex seemed to be doing the thinking for them both. His free hand flipped open her button and eased the zip down, so that he could move more freely. His hand slid down and one long finger eased into her, making her hips arch again as she sucked in a breath.

But then he withdrew his hand. Her eyes flew open. “Wha—”

“Don’t fret. I just want to…” He settled his hands on her thighs, coaxing them up. With quick tugs he managed to divest her of her boots and then her trousers. Leaving her in lace panties, her bra, and her shirt half hanging down her back. She should’ve felt embarrassed. Instead she just felt impatient.

One hand reached out and tugged at his waistband. “Come back here.”

He smiled. “Your wish is my command.”

God, she hoped so. Because she really needed his hands back on her. She wanted him to finish what he’d started. Not sex, no. But she wanted an orgasm. A glorious head-clearing orgasm. She got the feeling Alex knew enough to be able to achieve that aim in short order. He leaned in and kissed her.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking about,” he said, moving his mouth to her ear so the words were heat and breath against her skin. “But keep thinking it.”

He leaned forward and she leaned back, lying down against the desk, pulling him toward her. For one wonderful moment he was hard against her, her legs instinctively locking around him and pulling him closer, but then he was kissing his way down her neck, his hand sliding between them and back to the lace between her legs.

God. Yes.

That was what she wanted. What she needed. Her legs fell open, widening to give him better access as he teased her. Somewhere in the process she lost her panties too, and then as a second finger joined the first inside her, pressing up to a spot that felt so damned good she nearly arched off the desk entirely, his mouth moved lower still and his tongue rolled over her clit, and she started to scream before she remembered exactly where she was and clamped her jaw shut with a moan.