Who Knew (2 page)

“Because men generally don’t want women like me.”

“Well they’re idiots.” He cared not what ruled other men’s lives. James judged by the spirit of another and by his own
gut
instinct.

“This can’t go anywhere. It’s not like we will ever meet.”

Barrier three, rationality.
“How do you know?” He was making plans in his mind as they spoke. Not meeting her was not an option.

“Oh God,”
Bridie
choked out.

James gripped the phone in worry. She sounded upset. The primal need to protect his mate grabbed at him. “What?”

Bridie
saw the flowers heading in her direction but never for one second did she assume they would be for her. They were always for someone else.
“Daisies.
On my desk.”
For the first time in a very long time
Bridie
burst into tears. “You—you sent me flowers.”
James sent me flowers
. It just didn’t seem real and yet as she touched the petals she knew he was the only real, true thing in her life at that moment.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“You know. Don’t you feel it?”

Oh yes
. “But it’s not rational.” James had no idea what she was like or even looked like. It was crazy.

“Life isn’t about getting facts and figures done by knock off time,
Bridie
.”

“No.” She stopped and blew her nose. Fellow staff members were looking at her but trying not to look at her, as people did when someone got flowers. “Everyone thinks I’m mad.”

“Is that any different from normal?”

Bridie
laughed. “No.”

“So here’s what I propose. Let’s get to know each other on e-mail and the phone and go from there.”

“Where’s there?”
I want to go there right now with you.

“We meet.”

“Oh. I look better over the phone.”
Meet?
I would have to lose ten pounds, get a new body, hair, skin…

“I doubt that.”

There was so much she wanted to say, to explain,
to
make him understand. “James—”

“Don’t give up on me, on us,
Bridie
.”

* * * * *

For the next two weeks, James and
Bridie
abused the corporate mail and racked up personal calls on the business telephone talking about anything and everything. It was an old-fashioned courtship conducted with modern technology and if it had happened to anyone else,
Bridie
would have scoffed at the notion.

I will be in Brisbane on Friday.

Bridie
stared at the screen for what seemed like hours but was only minutes. He was coming to her. She didn’t know whether to cry or scream. Friday was two days away. The phone rang.
Bridie
snatched it up.

“James.”
Come. Don’t come. Please come or not—God, I don’t know.

“You knew it was me.” He sounded pleased.

Who else could it possibly be in her world right now
? “This is a bad idea.”

“Why?”

“What if—”

“I have to meet you,
Bridie
.”

“I know.” Their fate had been sealed over that first e-mail.

Chapter Two

Bridie
knew the exact minute James walked in the door. The fine hairs on the back of her neck stood up and her stomach tightened with anticipation. She was positive everyone in the office could hear the pounding of her heart. It was crazy and ridiculous. James was just another person. A colleague and yet—

“Turn around.”

That was James’s voice.
Bridie
would know it anywhere. The sound of it made her skin tingle and her hands shake. “No.” It was such a simple request yet it had huge implications that she knew would change her life forever.

“Why not?”

“Because.”
It was a half-assed response from a woman who normally was never lost for words.

James chuckled. “I may not be who you want me to be?”

“You will be.” If she knew nothing else,
Bridie
knew that.

“So? Are you chicken or something?”

“Oh hell yes.”
Face-to-face contact when you could see the truth in another’s eyes was frightening. There were so many “ifs” racing around in her mind.

“That’s what I love about you,
Bridie
. You say exactly what’s on your mind. Tell me more and ignore everyone else.”

“Oh God, people are watching?” Well of course they would be. It was an office environment where nothing happened and everything from the photocopier toner leaking to the coffee van coming caught people’s attention.
Bridie
put her hands over her face as if to blot out that which she could not deal with. As much as she craved seeing James, she didn’t want to do it in front of a gawping audience. The biggest mistakes were made in times like this.
And I don’t want ruin this
. “I just know I’m going to do something stupid.”

“That’s okay. We can be stupid together.” James voice was soft with reassurance. “Please,
Bridie
. I want to see your face.”

“What if…” She knew he was going to be gorgeous and she was so average. If James disliked the look of her now,
Bridie
knew she would be devastated and not able to hide it. This meant too much. A stranger had shaken up her world and she liked it.
If James leaves now…if he hates me…

“There are no ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’ and I have longed to be with you,
Bridie
.”

That was exactly what she wanted to hear but reality had a way of turning tables on you. “Yeah but—”

“You are the woman I have spoken to everyday on the phone and in e-mails. The woman I have told things to that not even my closest friends know. I need to see you. I have to know that you’re real.” James reached out and touched her shoulder. “Please. You’re shaking.”

She was, but
Bridie
was no coward. She would deal with whatever happened with no recriminations. After a deep breath,
Bridie
turned to face him. “Hello, James.” And then worlds collided as each of them looked at the other for the first time. James was indeed gorgeous in a raw, masculine way that made her want to throw herself into his arms and never let go. From the top of his auburn hair to his broad shoulders and lean waist and hips he was everything
Bridie
wanted. His deep blue eyes held hers and if
Bridie
had not already fallen in love with his words she certainly would have then and there. The look he gave her was so intense that
Bridie
could almost feel his mouth against hers. “You’re freaking me out here. Say something.”

“You’re beautiful.”

Bridie
let out a long sigh of relief.
“Really?”

“I can barely breathe just looking at you.”

“Me?” And no one else existed in the room.
I believe he loves me.

“Yes.” James could not believe his eyes. This was the woman who thought no man would ever want her? Were the men in this city blind? Or maybe it was because he was already in love with her through her words and voice.
The shy, sweet, funny, tough woman who barked orders at him in one breath and cried over the phone in the other just because he sent her flowers.
James caught her trembling hand in his and pulled her to her feet. The sight of her curvaceous form made his cock jerk with excitement. That he had found his perfect match on the office e-mail seemed a one in a million shot but every so often fate gave you a chance.
I will not waste a moment
. “Let’s go.” James wanted to only be with
Bridie
.

“Where?”
She hesitated.

“Trust me.” If
Bridie
did that, his world would be complete.

“I don’t know you.”

James smiled at her indulgently. “Don’t you? Did my words mean nothing to you?”

Bridie’s
other hand caught against his chest. “They meant everything. More than is rational for someone I have never met.”

When she touched him, he felt like a teenager finding his true love. “People don’t have to meet in the flesh to know each other.”

“No.”
Bridie
kept her hand where it was.

“Scared?”

“I don’t want to mess this up.”

Her words made his heart beat faster.
She loves me
. “I will not let that happen.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because I knew the first moment I heard your voice that I would want no other.”

“Wow.” Her eyes were bright with interest.

“Impressed?”
I want to kiss her so badly.

“I just never thought you were the kind of man to watch soap operas.”
Bridie
smiled at him.

James was mesmerized by it.
“
Bridie
.”

“Yes James?”

“Come with me. Just be with me. We can talk or—”

Bridie
interrupted his words. “I want to touch you. I want to taste you. I don’t want to waste any more time.”

James lifted her hand palm to her mouth and kissed the soft skin. “Thank you.”

* * * * *

They barely got through the door of his hotel room before their lips met and their hands were pulling at each other’s clothes. It had been the longest ten-minute drive that
Bridie
had ever experienced. Nothing but pleasantries passed their lips and for one moment she thought she’d made the biggest mistake linking her life, in a matter of words, to a stranger’s. But then, as they got out of the car and James looked into her eyes and took her hand,
Bridie
knew it was no mistake. The passion she saw burned through to her heart.

“I hate buttons,” she muttered between kisses as her hands moved down his shirt front.
Bridie
didn’t want to stop kissing James for too long as he was the most delectable treat she had ever tasted.

“Yep, buttons are bad.” James mouth left hers as he pulled off her shirt. “Oh man…”

He sounded like he was in pain. That was not good for her confidence. “Okay, I have cellulite and stuff and my stomach is not flat—”

“Lace on breasts.
It makes a man crazy.”

Oh okay, this sounded like a good pain
. “We wear bras for that reason you know.”

“Take it off.”

Since the moment she saw James, or maybe since she first spoke to him, she knew one day she would be naked with him. No fortune teller had to tell her that. But reality was quite different from the kismet stuff.
“Um.
They’re not perky.”

“
Bridie
.”
James’ hands covered her lace-encased breasts.

That felt so good. “Yes?”

“I want to love you, not a simulated catwalk model. I want a real woman. I want my woman.”

My woman.
“You know all the best things to say.”
Bridie
reached around and unclasped her bra. When his hands cupped her bare breasts for the first times,
Bridie
choked back a sigh. No one had ever touched her so gently. “I wanted to ask you to do all sorts of stuff to me on e-mail.” As soon as she said it,
Bridie
realized how dumb that sounded.

“That would have killed me,” James murmured his eyes on hers, his fingers teasing her nipples. “I was having enough trouble trying to keep my cock under control as it was.”

“Really?”
Bridie
reached down to the front of his trousers. There it was, hard, long, stiff,
perfect
.

“
Bridie
?”
His eyes closed for a moment. “Keep doing that and you’re going to be flat on your back in a second.”

“I don’t want to wait.” When James opened his eyes, she knew that was not an option. “I’ve waited forever for you.”

“Strip.”

“You too.”
Their clothes hit the ground at a rapid pace. “Wow.”
Bridie
was mesmerized by the beauty of his body. Hard muscle, tanned skin, and a chest and stomach she wanted to lick right down to a large cock that she wanted buried inside her.

“Wow good or wow bad?”

“Wow as in I may never want to leave you. You’re beautiful, James.”

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “I always wondered what this would feel like.”

“Sex?”
His cock felt so good against her stomach that she wanted to throw herself on the bed and open her legs wide in invitation.
Bridie
had no need for preliminaries. She had been ready for James since his first hello.

“No,” he swatted her ass. “I mean to make love.”

She pushed back from him. “Do you think we’re going too fast?”
Please say no.

“Way too slow.” James pulled away from her arms.

Bridie
felt naked without him. Being undressed was one thing, but when he was not in her arms she felt more vulnerable. “Where are you going?” She watched as he pulled out a long strip of condoms from his pocket.
S
mart man
.
While she wanted his cock inside her, she had not even thought about safety. “Got big plans?”

“Oh yeah,” James pulled a condom out. “May I?”

“I’ll break down in tears if you don’t.” That he wanted her—flaws, cellulite and all—made her feel like a goddess.

James chuckled as he worked the rubber up his shaft. “Please never change,
Bridie
. Always say exactly what you feel.”

“Hurry up and fuck me then.”

His hands stilled momentarily at their task and his eyes locked with hers. “You will drive me mad.”

“That’s my evil plan.”

“On the bed.”
The condom was in place.

“Um…” This was probably a good time to be honest.

“Um what?”

“I’m not great at sex.”
Bridie
knew she was going twelve shades of red. “I mean I want it with you but—”

James took her hand. “We will be great together. Are you going to cry?” He pushed her gently onto the bed.

He said the sweetest things to her.
Bridie
sniffed.
“Maybe later.”
As promised, James had her flat on her back. “What now?”
Please come inside me.

James sat on his haunches between her legs. ”I really want to play with you but I need you now.”

She wanted him now too but the liked the idea of what he might do to her. “What would you do to me?”

“I would do this.” James moved in and lifted her legs over his shoulder.

“Whoa!” Not what she expected. It was actually better.

“Then this.”
His mouth descended on her clit and sucked.

Bridie
would have defied any woman not to scream at a moment like that. She clutched at the bed sheets and bit her bottom lip. Never had any man done that to her before.
And I like it
. When his tongue slid into her vagina, Bride grabbed his shoulders and pushed James back. “I need cock.” She had never uttered that phrase in her life but desperation made her crazy.

“Thank God. I was not sure I could hold on much longer.”

Bridie
smiled at James’ honesty. “Will we always be this desperate for each other? Oh crap, I didn’t mean to say that.” It indicated a future together and while at this moment she wanted that,
Bridie
wasn’t going to demand the man marry her after sex.

James laughed. “Of course we will be. I plan to be chasing you around the kitchen at eighty.” He pushed the head of his cock into her wet core.

Bridie
stiffened.

“Relax.”

“That’s very hard to do when you’ve invited the man of your dreams to fuck you and he’s going too slow.”

“Man of your dreams?” James leaned in and kissed her lips.

“And I need fast.” In answer to that, James plunged all the way into her.
“Oh boy.”
This was not like sex she had done before. This was more and better and James.

“Bloody hell,
Bridie
,” he groaned, as he began grinding his cock inside her.
“You’re so tight I’m not sure I can hang on.”

“So don’t.” She wrapped her legs around his body.

“I wanted to finesse you with my skill.”

Bridie
giggled. “You did that in your first e-mail. Now fuck me hard.”

“Yes, ma’am.”
James’ mouth descended on her breast and sucked her nipple, his hips rocking against hers at a swift yet controlled pace.

Bridie
closed her eyes and gave into the moment. No words had to be said. They both knew. It was right. “Oh…”

James’s mouth left her breast but his hips never stopped moving.
“Problem?”

“I think I’m going to have an orgasm.” Who knew that would ever happen to her?

“You say that like you’ve never had one. No?” James paused for a beat and kissed her hungrily. “Oh,
Bridie
, I have so much I want to show you.”

She held on to James as the most delicious spirals of sensation radiated through her pelvis and up her spine.
Bridie
panted and pressed in even closer to James wanting everything he had to give—his wet skin on hers, his pounding cock, his warm breath,
his
loving eyes. She did not scream as she came, it was more a long sigh of understanding, like she knew she had found her home.