The Tycoon's Resistant Lover (3 page)

“Entertaining? Absolutely. Satisfying? Most definitely.” She smiled up at him, feeling relaxed all of a sudden. His laughter was a balm to her nervous body and she ached to reach up and feel his lips and run her hand along his strong jaw. Instead, she pushed her hands behind her back, afraid she might give in to the temptation.

Fortunately, a long, black limousine pulled up at that moment and his driver came around to open the door for them. Since the man was waiting, James sighed and put his hand around her back once again, leading her down the last few steps. “You’re going to pay for that, my dear.”

She laughed again and looked over her shoulder at his big, strong body. “Ah, the tough guy suddenly afraid of a little piece of furniture?” she asked. “I thought you big, American types were all strong and daring, not afraid of anything.

He didn’t have a chance to respond since she slipped into the back seat of his limousine at that moment. Besides, he was struck by her legs, revealed when she slid her cute little bottom onto the leather seat, then swung her legs into the vehicle. Models and actresses would pull that move off and ensure that their dress rode up their legs to show off their muscular limbs. But as Julianna did it, there was only a brief glimpse of her long, slender leg, but even that brief view had him aching and hard once again. He almost groaned as he followed her into the car, gritting his teeth because he knew it was going to be a long drive to her house.

He sat down next to her and gave his driver her address. Julianna didn’t wonder why he had that information already memorized, but was still feeling fabulous since he’d asked for her help in decorating his house. “How big is your new home and what kinds of pieces are you looking for?” she asked, mentally going through her inventory and trying to think of pieces that would work for a man of his size.

He thought about some of the antiques he’d seen in the past and tried to picture them in his new home. Or what his new home would look like once it was completed. It was an older house that was currently under renovation. Some of the rooms were so damaged that they had to be completely gutted in order to make them safe enough to live in. “I’m a real estate guy, which means I build houses. I know what I want in my own house, but honestly I have no idea how to describe it or even how to achieve it. Why don’t you come tour the house tomorrow and then you can tell me what might look right, with the understanding that many of the rooms are stripped back to the original wood so it will be hard to get a good idea of what the final effect will be?” he suggested, but his mind was no longer on the house. It was on her, on her lips and what they looked like in the darkness and he was wondering how he could kiss her, wanting to feel her lips against his and taste her sweetness. She looked so incredibly beautiful sitting here in the dim light and all she wanted to do was talk about antiques.

Julianna glanced back at him and instantly the pieces she’d been considering for him disappeared from her mind. Instead, the thought of what it would be like to be kissed by him shot through her, keeping her still and, not really apprehensive, but somehow anxious. She wanted it so badly, she could almost taste the sudden tension in the air and she sucked in some air, wanting to clear her mind but all she got was more of his scent. More of that masculine muskiness combined with the spicy smell of his aftershave.

With a jerk, he pulled her into his arms and Julianna went willingly, enthusiastically even. Her face was already turned up to his and she grabbed the lapels of his jacket to pull herself higher to meet his kiss. She wanted this more than anything she could remember in her life and when his lips finally touched hers, she opened her mouth, eager for his explorations. His hands dove into her hair, dislodging the pins that held it neat and smooth. He pulled her head back to give him better access, but she was just as willing, the heat driving her need as if it were a physical force.

With wanton abandon, Julianna kissed him back, her mouth hungry for his kiss, eager for the touch of his hands on her body. No longer was she able to ignore the pull of this insane attraction to a man who was completely inappropriate for her. She wanted him, he wanted her and she couldn’t pull away even if she wanted to.

He lifted her up and onto his lap, his mouth devouring hers as he finally learned the taste of this prim and proper woman. And it wasn’t ice in his hands that he felt as he kissed her, he realized. Julianna presented a cool, sophisticated, even icy demeanor to the world but that woman was gone and in her place was this sexy, warm giving woman that heated his blood with her need for him. This woman was fire and heat and he loved the way she was melting into his arms. Her slender arms moving around his neck as she kissed him back, her tiny bottom wiggling on his lap and making him ache to have her, to possess her and put his stamp of ownership on her.

He wanted her legs around him and he slid his hand down her leg until he found the hem of her dress, his fingers trailing a line of fire along her outer thigh as he explored her soft, perfect skin. It wasn’t enough though. He told himself to slow down, but the little gasps she made each time he touched her in a new place, or even in the places he’d already touched, she still whimpered with the impact and the sounds drove him higher, crazier with the need for this woman only. As he explored, he slid his hands higher, moving the material along with his hand in search of his ultimate goal. He moved slowly, carefully so she wouldn’t be frightened of his caress. She gasped loudly and her fingers gripped his hair when his fingers moved against her upper thighs and he slowed even more, not wanting to go too fast. Despite her current heated response, he suspected that his newly discovered tigress was actually a bit of a fawn and would scatter and return to hiding if he wasn’t careful.

Julianna couldn’t believe what was happening to her. She was in this man’s lap and she was kissing him and she was actually angry that his hands weren’t ripping her dress off. She needed him with a burning, almost painful need that swamped her and pushed her beyond reason. If she had been thinking properly, she never would have engaged in this kind of activity in the back of a limousine. She knew that it happened, but had always considered it tacky and cliché. But those adjectives were far from her mind at the moment. The only thing she was thinking, if one could actually call this burning echo in her mind as thinking, was more! And faster!

He shifted so that she was laying underneath him and he had to shake his head to clear it when he felt her body arch against him, her legs sliding against his as she shifted slightly in this new position. “Don’t stop,” she gasped when his hand moved away for a moment.

“I wasn’t intending to,” he groaned when her hand unbuttoned two of the buttons on his shirt and he felt her long, dainty fingers against his skin.

As his hand moved higher, he pulled his lips away from her mouth and nibbled on her neck, her collar bone, eliciting gasps or a deep, soulful moan each time he touched her skin. He was on fire for her and he knew that she felt the same way. A part of his mind wanted the drive to her house to last forever while another part of him wanted the ride to end immediately so he could get her into a bed and strip her naked, to enjoy every part of this experience with her in the comfort and privacy of her house or his, he wasn’t picky just so long as she was there just like this.

His hand moved higher along her leg, feeling the lace top of her stockings and he thought he might just lose it right there with that discovery. The prim and proper Lady Julianna had a slightly sexy side? Where were the pantyhose? Didn’t women in these kinds of dresses wear control top pantyhose? He much preferred thigh highs any day so he wasn’t going to complain. He reveled in this discovery, thinking this was a new part of her that he wanted to explore more deeply.

He slid his hand higher and felt for the edge of her underwear, hoping and praying that perhaps she matched her underwear to her stockings, and in a perfect world, her bra as well. But when his fingers felt only smooth, soft skin, he shifted his hand around higher. Nothing! James pulled back and looked down at her, his mind just starting to absorb what his hand was discovering. “You’re not wearing anything underneath!” he growled, a smile forming on his handsome face and he truly thought that all of his fantasies were finally encapsulated in this slender, glamorous woman who intrigued him beyond words.

As soon as he said that, he knew that he’d made a mistake. Julianna’s whole body stiffened and the look in her eyes told her he should have just shut up and enjoyed his miraculous discovery of her sensuous nature.

Julianna couldn’t believe that her secret had been revealed. She froze with horror and fear, and the most acute embarrassment she’d ever experienced in her whole life. When she pulled her eyes away from his, she saw only darkness and then a passing light. She was in a car? She’d been about to have sex with a man, with
this
man in a car?! She scrambled out from underneath him, horrified that she’d let things get so out of hand. She was in the back of a limousine for goodness sake!

And of all the men she might have lost control with, why did it have to be with the ever-so-brazen and over the top James Cavanaugh. He would never let her live this episode down. She could imagine him pestering her for an explanation and never letting the subject die until he had the whole truth.

But she wouldn’t give him any explanation! She shifted away, frantically pulling her dress down and ensuring that she looked presentable. Okay, shoes were needed. She looked around in the darkness, wondering how she could have lost her shoes. She found one over near the left door and the other by the right. Had she somehow tossed her shoes in that direction? There was no way they could have landed that far apart without some sort of assistance but for the life of her, she couldn’t figure it out.

“Julianna, I didn’t mean to embarrass you,” James said with a firm, almost authoritative voice. And she hated the way her body tingled, her fingers once again itched to touch him and explore…

She pushed her hair back out of her eyes, only just now realizing that it was no longer neatly pulled back and tucked into a twist. She’d had enough difficulty finding her shoes, she didn’t want to even start the search for the pins to hold her hair in place.

“Don’t talk,” she whispered, frantically trying to pull herself together. When he started to reach for her again, she shifted away from him, moving as far away as she possibly could. Julianna couldn’t even look at him, so embarrassed by not only his discovery, but also because of the way she’d practically attacked him sexually. She had no idea who that woman was, but she didn’t like the way she lost control of herself around James. He was bad news!

“The car has stopped!” she gasped and quickly put her dress back in order. She scrambled to put on her shoes which had been clasped in her hands while her mind tried to rationalize her actions over the past fifteen or twenty minutes, so embarrassed she was almost in tears.

“Thank you very much for the ride home,” she said as she grabbed the door handle. She was trying to guess how long the vehicle had been parked in front of her house. The driver must know what had been happening back here or he would have come around to open the door as was his custom. 

“Oh goodness,” she said out loud, her hand covering her face as she wondered if the driver had actually come around, opened the door to find them in that promiscuous embrace and just quietly closed it once again.

Either scenario, the one where the driver just instinctively knew what was going on or that he had witnessed the activities, threw her into a whole new level of humiliation. She stumbled out of the car, almost tripping on the hem of her dress in her haste to get free from James.

“Julianna stop!” James called to her as she jumped out of the car. His hands held her steady when she tripped, but she regained her footing and moved forward quickly. He tried to grab her hands but she was too fast for him and she wiggled out of his reach. She dropped one of her shoes and lurched to pick it up as she walked along the path to her front door.

“Put your shoes on!” James called to her, following her up the stone steps that were surrounded by ivy on both sides, but well lit from the outside lights on the brick walls. Her fingers were shaking so badly she couldn’t get the key in the lock so James took the keys out of her hand and did it for her. When she tried to slam the door closed, he shook his head with a laugh and plowed in behind her, slamming the door with his foot as he grabbed her arm, swinging her back into his arms to stop her from running up the stairs to the left of her foyer. He didn’t stop to appreciate the delicate beauty of her dimly lit foyer, too intent on keeping this incredible woman from running away from him and hiding. She hadn’t done anything wrong and he wasn’t going to let her beat herself up for becoming a woman in his arms.

“Julianna stop. We need to talk,” he commanded as he let his hands rest on her waist. As far as embraces go, this one was pretty benign and he kept his hands still, refusing to let them move over her body, concerned that it would send her over the edge. He knew that he was at that precipice himself, but he suspected that Julianna’s wasn’t quite the same quality. She was too scared and shy right now.

“I really don’t want to talk, James. I need to…” she was about to say ‘go to bed’ but stopped herself. She glanced up at his eyes, saw the amusement and the feelings shifted from embarrassment to anger. How dare he find this funny! “I need to be alone,” she gritted out finally.

“How often do you go without underwear?” he demanded.

Julianna was already shaking her head, holding her arms in front of her as if she could ward him off. “I don’t ever…”

“Then why tonight?” he asked, holding her steady and not letting her retreat. “Do you have any idea what a turn-on that is?”

She gasped for breath, sure that he was completely misinterpreting her lack of underwear. “It wasn’t for you!”

James chuckled at her outrage, his grin growing wider as the color in her cheeks increased. “I know you didn’t do it for Edward.”