The Seduction Plan (8 page)

Lana relaxed. He sounded protective and worried but she knew she was probably reading too much into his tone of voice. She liked it though. She liked having someone worry about her, even if it were in her mind. It had been a long time since someone cared about where she was or how she was moving about the city. “I took a cab. I didn’t know anyone was waiting to drive me home but that’s a very sweet thought.” She relaxed back against the desk chair, feeling her muscles un-knot as they felt support for the first time in several hours. When she worked, she didn’t let her back relax, knowing that good posture would help her to concentrate.

Victor’s shoulders relaxed and he ran a hand through his hair. He couldn’t understand his reaction to the news this morning that Lana wasn’t there any longer and no one had seen her leave. He didn’t want to identify it too closely but knew that he didn’t like it. “Next time, you let Jimmy drive you home to make sure you arrive safely. I don’t like not knowing you’re okay.”

His comment made her feel all soft and mushy inside and she smiled. “Sure thing. Is there going to be a next time?” she asked tentatively, worried that he might have only been in this for the one night despite his comment.

He chuckled softly. “Absolutely. There’s so much more you need to know. I’ve never written one personally, but I would imagine a romance novel has several scenes in which passion is the main issue. And you’ve only had one lesson. There are so many variations on the same theme but they’re important. A good novelist must do her research, you know.”

He leaned back in his desk as she laughed softly, propping his feet up on the polished surface and looking out at the skyline of New York City from his window. For the first time in his life, he was ignoring pressing business and just enjoying a conversation with a woman. Normally, the women in his life were allowed to interfere only in the evenings and, even then, only when he was sure they wouldn’t interrupt any business discussions he was having. Since most of the women he saw socially were selfabsorbed and only interesting to him sexually, and even then only for a short while, he didn’t allow them into his life except during entertainment events. Lana was different. He wasn’t going to explore why she was different. He just accepted that she was and would enjoy her refreshing personality.

“Is that so?” she challenged him.

Victor could hear the smile in her voice and thought even her voice was a turn on. She had a husky sound that made him think of what she sounded like in bed. He hadn’t noticed that before since he’d been concentrating too much on getting her into that particular place. “Exactly so,” he confirmed. “What are your plans tonight?”

Tingles of excitement instantly started to spread through her body. She smiled and her excitement came through in her voice. “I don’t currently have any plans. Did you have something in mind?” She hadn’t felt this excited about seeing someone since she’d had her first date in high school.

Scratch that, she thought a moment later. This is even better. Her first date had turned out to not be so exciting and Victor was definitely that, and a whole lot more.

 

He laughed again. “Oh, I have lots of things in mind. And I guarantee you’ll like every single one of them. I’ll send a car for you.”

 

“I’ll be waiting,” she said softly and hung up the phone, staring at it with a silly grin for several minutes while she mulled through the conversation once again.

On a surface level, she never would have thought of Victor as someone she could laugh with. When she first saw him, accepting she’d looked at him through a haze of tears, he’d seemed to her to be too hard to tease. But she was finding that he was not only incredibly intelligent but deep down inside, the man that looked tough and mean and hard to the core, was sweet and considerate. And he teased her, laughed with her and made her laugh as well. What a contradiction, she thought to herself.

Again, she wondered what he could possibly do for a living. All businesses had their cut-throat qualities to them. But anyone that lived as he did in New York City had to be extremely wealthy which meant he was most likely one of the high fliers of industry. She could see it in him, but how could a man as nice as Victor survive among the sharks that thrived in the business world of this city?

Pushing that aside for the moment, Lana focused all her energy on her manuscript. And if Victor’s kisses, or some of the ways he’d touched her last night slipped into her mind, she forced them out and made her mind work through the plot of her story instead of fantasizing about being with Victor once again. Although some of the sex scenes did end up in her book and she felt racy and daring just writing them down.

By the late afternoon, she shut down her computer and eagerly got ready for her evening with Victor. The previous night, her hands were shaking out of fear of failure, rejection or continued dislike of the sexual process.

She dressed carefully again tonight but instead of her hands shaking out of fear, they were shaking with excitement. She couldn’t wait to see Victor, to have him hold her in his strong, muscular arms and feel him against her.

Sighing, she put on a pretty pink color of lipstick, then surveyed her appearance in the mirror. What a difference twenty-four hours makes, she thought and smiled.

That night was the first of many nights of pleasure with Victor. Just like that first time, she would wake up in Victor’s bed with a smile on her face even though she was usually alone. She didn’t even mind that part, knowing that Victor would leave her something on the bedside table. It was just a note or a cup of coffee, sometimes a single flower but whatever it was, it made her smile as she read the words or took in the delicate scent of the rose he thoughtfully left for her. She learned to bring a change of clothes with her when she met with him, knowing where their evenings would end up and she’d be too exhausted to get home once they were finally sexually exhausted.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t just the sex that excited her, Lana acknowledged. She loved talking with him. Once their mutual desire was satisfied, Victor would ask her about her day, laughing when she told him a funny part of her book or helping her with a strategic point. He didn’t tell her much about his work but he still told her funny things that happened. He never seemed to be frustrated by the events of his day, or have problems he couldn’t solve. He was rational and immensely capable, she gathered from their conversations and even his intelligence and the cool way he spoke of his meetings was interesting, and shockingly, a turn on for her. His intelligence and thought processes somehow made him seem more secure, more….she wasn’t sure exactly how to define it but she liked it about him.

She never woke up in his arms, but Victor had figured out what time she generally woke up and he’d call her to talk and make plans for their next rendezvous. And as promised, she let Jimmy drive her home each morning. Apparently the chauffer would drive Victor to his office early although Lana had no idea what time that was but it must have been before the sun came over the horizon, then he would come back to be here for her when she was ready to go home.

The schedule was crazy, being with Victor from dinner until the next morning, but her writing was exceptional. By rights, she should be exhausted, getting only four or five hours of sleep each night. But actually, she felt rejuvenated, exhilarated, filled with a joy she never would have conceived possible before meeting Victor. He thrilled her in so many ways. Just eating dinner with him was filled with either laughter or challenging arguments about any subject available. They talked about everything while enjoying lavish meals prepared by his cook, then, after decadent desserts, he would pull her into his arms and carry her off to bed where they would spend the rest of the evening, reveling in each other’s arms.

A week and several sleepless, sexually mindboggling nights later, Lana was working on her manuscript in the afternoon when the buzzer for her apartment went off. She looked up at the intercom, irritated by the interruption since the scene she was building was getting better and better as her fingers flew over the keyboard. The interruption was offensive, even though the person doing the interruption couldn’t have any idea what he or she was doing to her concentration.

Glaring at the door, she accepted that the fastest way to get back to her story was to answer the silly caller and get rid of them. It was probably just a marketer since her friends and business acquaintances would call before coming over, so she could get rid of them quickly. Knowing that they wouldn’t leave her alone immediately, she sighed heavily and swallowed her irritated words. Walking over to press the button, she said, “Hello?” She cringed when she heard the almost harsh tone of her voice. Since when had she become a shrew? That was never like her before. But she’d never been this involved with her manuscript before and she was hurrying in the hopes that she wouldn’t lose her train of thought.

“Delivery for Ms. Michaels,” a male voice said through the speaker.

Lana was startled by the response. A delivery? For her? That was very odd. She never received deliveries. “Okay, leave it at the door and I’ll pick it up later.” She looked down at her leggings and baggy shirt, then shrugged. Before meeting Victor, she’d never leave her apartment looking this unkempt. Lana had always made sure she looked neat and coordinated, a legacy left over from Drew who would criticize her if she didn’t look her best. But her whole world had changed in the last couple of weeks. Her wardrobe was just one of the details that had fallen to the wayside in deference to her writing. She simply didn’t have time to worry about what she looked like until it was time to meet Victor in the evening. Life seemed to be rushing at her more quickly, and she really liked it.

She waited several seconds for the delivery person to leave, then grabbed her keys from the hook by her door and took the elevator down to the lobby. She hadn’t ordered anything so she wasn’t sure what could possibly be delivered. Whatever it was, she didn’t want a stranger to enter the building and she didn’t want to be caught picking whatever it was up by someone she didn’t know and didn’t trust. Stranger things had happened in New York City. Everyone in a city took precautions, but a woman alone had to be a little more aware of security than people paired up.

As soon as she stepped off the elevator, she saw the large, red box with a big white bow. She saw the name of the exclusive boutique and her eyes widened. As she peered through the glass doors that separated the lobby from the elevator area, she wondered if that could possibly be her delivery. It was very large and looked very expensive. Probably someone else’s she told herself, approaching the door warily.

Lana stood at the glass door for a long moment, afraid to investigate the box. There were no other deliveries in the lobby so that had to be it, but what could it possibly be? Shaking her head with impatience, she forced her hand to pull open the door. There was no way she’d discover what was in the box and who had sent it until she picked it up and opened it.

Walking slowly across the spotted gray linoleum, she tentatively picked up the card attached to the big bow. Sure enough, it had her name on it. Without another thought, she excitedly grabbed the box and rushed back into the elevator which was thankfully still on the bottom floor for her so it wouldn’t be as long a wait for an elevator as it usually was. Taking the package into to her apartment and kneeling in the middle of her family room floor, she untied the bow excitedly, knowing it was probably from Victor.

She quickly tossed the top aside and sifted through the tissue paper, then gasped when she revealed the treasure inside. Her fingers shook as she lifted the incredibly beautiful red silk dress out of the box. The name on the label identified it as a designer she’d never be able to afford even stepping into the store for and here she was, holding the most incredible dress she’d ever seen.

Holding it in front of her, she saw the low cut front and non-existent back and instantly, her body reacted with excitement. She could feel her body heating, her legs trembling at the thought of Victor seeing her wearing something like this. Could she wear such a seductive dress? She’d say that her nightgowns covered more of her than this dress, but her billowing flannel and cotton nightgowns covered more than her day clothes so it wasn’t saying much.

She immediately pulled off her old shirt and slid the incredible dress on over her stretch pants. Spinning around and surveying her image in the mirror, she noticed that the waistband of her leggings peeked through the back. Pulling them off, she looked at her back and was stunned.

The bodice of the satin dress hugged her breasts, showing more cleavage than her bra. It smoothed over her flat stomach and hugged her hips, the back dipping lower than normal so that the top curve of her bottom was revealed.

She loved it! It was sexy and daring and more than she’d ever thought about wearing. Or less, she giggled to the mirror. It was only dinner at Victor’s penthouse so who would know? Looking in the box, she saw the red strappy shoes and her eyes widened when she noticed the small, red silk thong underwear. Her fingers shook as she pulled it on, instantly feeling naughty.

When the doorbell rang that evening, she’d already showered, curled her hair and pulled the sides up with small sparkly clips. She wore more makeup than usual, highlighting her eyes with brown eye liner and wearing red lipstick that perfectly matched the dress.
“Good evening, Miss,” Jimmy said, tipping his hat graciously. “Are you ready?”

Taking a deep breath, she smiled and nodded, holding her jacket closed. “As ready as I’ll ever be.” She wasn’t surprised that Jimmy was there instead of Victor. Usually Victor picked her up at the door but occasionally, he had a late running meeting that kept him busy. He always was driving up at his building at the same time Jimmy dropped her off so she didn’t care, although tonight she would have loved the experience of seeing Victor’s eyes light up when he saw her in the dress he’d sent.

She was sitting in the back, her hands nervously fluttering over the soft leather seat when she noticed that they weren’t heading toward Victor’s building. Lana couldn’t believe her eyes when the limousine stopped in front of a strange building. “Jimmy? Where are we?”