WLUV Box Set: Ignited, Consumed, Burned (5 page)

“This gate card will open the gate and the door. Starting tomorrow,
you can use it. I had our chief engineer zap it, or whatever it is he does, to
make it work. It should work. I have no idea how. But it does. You can even
leave it in your pocket and then put your hip to the thingy and it will open
the door.  Okay, then, I’m on my way out now—that is, if there’s nothing else.”

“No. That’ll do it.”

Wes heard Mrs. King’s familiar plod fade down the hall. He
decided to take a chance. “Macy. Is that you out there?”

Macy walked into his executive office, “It is. Hello.”  Her
honey voice was cultured, to be sure, but there was something lower in it,
something sexy. He wanted to hear it in his ear.

“Have a seat, the newscasts are about to start. Let’s watch
together.” Wes turned up the volume on the center screen of the five monitors
he had mounted in his office.

“I’d normally prefer to watch in the news director’s office,
but he’s been in there slamming the phone down and stalking back and forth on
the carpet all day. I’m going to go with I’m not invited.” She smiled. It was a
self-effacing, welcoming gesture, and it was dead sexy. Laughing, that was his
next project. Did she laugh? Moaning, what did that sound like from her lips?

Wes sat next to Macy on the leather couch facing the
monitors and set the remote that controlled the bank of televisions down on the
coffee table. He leaned back with one arm on the rest and the other on the back
of the couch. He wouldn’t touch her unless she made it clear she wanted it.

So far he only sensed her interest. As the boss in this
situation, he was very careful not to put pressure on her. She seemed like the
type that had total control of her relationships and was not one to be swayed
by a compliment. She had to have received millions.

Macy listened to the WLUV news as it began. She was coiled
up tight and focused. That seemed to be her natural state. All three local
stations led their shows with the impending winter weather. Just a day before
WLUV viewers would have had to wait until 6:17 to get the forecast. Today it
was right up front for WLUV as well. That was a good development, Wes figured.

He watched her as she studied the monitors and something on
the #1 station, WPBN, caught her lovely green eyes as they darted between the
multiple screens. Macy’s focus seemed to crank up another notch to the agitated
position on her emotional dial.

Wes had no idea what had wound her tighter. Then, he noticed
her looking around the couch until she spied the remote control for the
television. Unconsciously she put a hand on his knee, stretched across him, and
reached towards the coffee table for the remote. She had it absently, as though
he was part of the décor. Her goal was to get that remote and figure out
god-knows-what on the newscast.

But the contact of her hand on his knee released a pin
somewhere between them.

“Shit.” Macy must have realized what she’d done. Sensation
zinged upwards from where her hand rested on his knee. Then she did the most
spectacular thing; she did what he’d been wanting her to do. She leaned in and
kissed him. Her body pressed close to his. He inhaled her.

Wes was hoping just to find a little crack in her armor, and
here she’d flung it to the floor. It was all he needed. He had been reclined
when she’d leaned over him, but everything in him surged forward towards her.
His lips came down hard on hers in response, and he plunged his hands into her
hair. It was as lush as it looked. She matched his kiss with her own. He knew
it: Macy Green had been just as hot and bothered as he’d been since they’d met.
Their two bodies were magnets; when their two fields got close enough, the
remaining space disappeared. They were pulled together by an elemental force
they could neither see nor resist.

First, it was her mouth on his, but in an instant, he
crushed her lips with his.  He was shocked at how desperate they both were to
get closer to each other, arms, legs, even heart-to-heart. It was a fevered
connection. The thought of this happening between them had invaded his brain
since he first laid eyes on her, but the reality was more exciting. Strange,
now that it was actually, physically happening, it seemed dreamlike.

Wes nipped at her lower lip and quivered when a honey-coated
moan escaped her delicious mouth. He probed her mouth with his tongue. The kiss
was incredible, but he couldn’t stop there. He slid his hands from her hair to
her shoulders and pulled her even closer to him; he needed every part of her.
Her reactions to him confirmed that she felt the same need.

He drew her on to his lap and moved his hands up and down
her sides. God, he wanted to touch skin. Remembering the top of that stocking
he’d glimpsed this morning, he pushed her skirt up and ran his fingers along
her flesh. She exhaled slowly in response and he crept his hand higher up her
thigh.

Riiiiiiing
!

They both jumped. The piercing jangle of office phone was
like a bucket of cold water extinguishing the scorching heat between them.

Thank god for the phone.

Or curse the phone. Macy wasn’t sure which.

When it rang, she went rigid in Wes’s arms, mortified at her
unprofessional behavior. She was on his lap, for god’s sake! Wes’s hands were
still hot on each of her hips. She sprang back to her part of the couch and
squeezed her legs together to relieve the pressure that had built up in those
few hot seconds.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know—I don’t know what…” Macy put a hand
to her swollen lips. Wes’s eyes followed her fingers. She wiggled away the
tiniest bit more on the small couch.

The phone rang again and it went unanswered. If it hadn’t
startled her out of their lip lock, she was pretty sure she’d be naked by now.
Naked in the GM’s office on his leather couch with the door open! Holy mother
of…

“I can’t see why there would be a reason for you to
apologize.” Wes’s eyes were dark and he raked them across her.

“I shouldn’t have kissed you just then.”

“I would disagree. You should have kissed me then, and you
should kiss me again, Gorgeous.”

Macy couldn’t deny the tidal wave of arousal she was nearly
drowning in. He needed to stop calling her gorgeous.

A war between Macy’s brain and body froze her in place. A
part of her respected that Wes was not pushing her past this rational moment;
he was watching her work through it. In some unspoken way, he seemed to be
letting her take the lead as to what would happen next. She considered leaning
back in and doing it all over again, but she had already lost control, and in
the worst way. It was not a smart thing for a single woman in the office to do.
Even so, a part of her wished he would push her, give her a reason to give in.
She was teetering there on the brink, thinking about letting go of the reigns
of her self-control. All he had to do was press.

They were locked in that tableau until Wes reached out,
slowly, for that button that had been straining all day. . She looked down at
her blouse. Of course, the button had come undone. Even her clothes were
conspiring against her—they were removing themselves! Macy could only imagine
what she looked like, swollen, askew, panting, breasts spilling out of her
oh-so-professional network intimidation blouse.

She sat as still as a statue, if a statue’s breasts could
heave. Wes touched the open button. She felt his fingers lightly feather across
the flesh of her cleavage. Then he gently refastened the button. Her eyes
watched his hands and then his eyes.

Macy tried to still her breathing but couldn’t. She
inadvertently licked her lips. Where had that come from? She saw Wes’s eyes
follow her tongue. She was on a cliff and one toe was already dangling over
into the abyss. This was a dangerous game, having sex at work.  A game she’d
already lost once. So she mentally and literally moved back to safety.

“I don’t make it a habit of having a... of getting involved...
at work. Well actually I’ve done it, and it’s been bad, really bad.” Macy stood
up and smoothed her skirt. The fight or flight instinct switched to flight and
she backed out to the door.

“Macy, there’s no need—”

She put a finger up. “No. Please just forget this. I’d
appreciate it.” She really had no idea what sputtered words tumbled out of her
mouth but she’d be damned if she would act like a teenager. Slowing her steps,
she struggled to walk out of Wes’s office with some sort of dignity.

Macy wasn’t fresh out of college. This wasn’t her first
kiss. She was perfectly able to fake her way through the rest of the evening.
She checked on the night crew, offered guidance in what they should consider
for the late news, and hoped more than anything else that no one had a clue
what was racing through her mind and her nerve endings.

She was scared to admit that, even if it wasn’t her first
kiss, it seemed like it was the only one she’d ever had. Suddenly she had a
hard time remembering any other. What had happened in Wes’s office was sexier
than anything she’d experienced in her life. She was up-ended. Even Phil, the
guy she’d lost everything over, paled in comparison. She struggled to push
“stop” on the scene replaying in her head as she said her goodbyes for the day
and made her way to her car at the end of the day.

When Macy got to the hotel, she decided to have a drink at
the bar to calm her nerves after her epic office make-out session. She needed
to do something to settle the incredible restlessness that roiled in her since
the moment her lips touched Wes’. She felt her entire body longing to be right
back on that couch. Her own memories were making her blush. She logically knew
nobody had a clue what she was seeing in her mind’s eye, but her cheeks flushed
nonetheless.

 “What can I get you, beautiful?” the bartender asked.

“I’ll take a vodka martini— and kick the vermouth in the
side with a steel-toed boot.” A good stiff drink might take the edge off.  Or
at least it’d make her fall asleep faster, and maybe drown out the inevitable
sultry dreams that Wes was sure to star in tonight. The hunky bartender
produced the drink quickly.

“Would you like an appetizer menu as well?” he offered.

She looked at him. Maybe
he
could take the edge off?
Macy wasn’t the one-night stand type, but Wes had her revved up and distracted.
The bartender could be a nice diversion. He was a little young, but fairly good
looking, with ripped abs, and he was making eyes at her. Sure that was probably
his job, but who gave a damn? She was more sexually frustrated than she’d ever
been in her entire life.

“No, thank you.” Macy was not hungry for food. She smiled at
him as she mentally calculated the pros and cons of picking up the bartender.
Pro, no ugly entanglement; pro, she was desperate; pro he was right there. Con,
it was Wes instead of the bartender she saw in her mind’s eye when she
envisioned going upstairs. Macy put her head down on the bar with a thud.

“Now, it’s not as bad as all that.” The unmistakable deep
voice of Wes Thompson was actually there, right behind her, and not just
rolling around in her fevered brain.
Shit
.

Maybe if she kept her head down he’d go away.

“Actually we’ll take her tab to my table.” Wes ordered the
bartender as Macy lifted her head to see Wes smiling at her. It was an evil
smile, a smile he clearly did not use at the office, except perhaps to seduce
consultants. This was going in the opposite direction of relief. Wes slid his
hand on her back, grabbed her shoulder, and more or less pulled her off the
barstool.

“We had a business dinner planned, I’m sure you remember.
You’ll be eating. I’ll be watching you do it, Gorgeous.”

“Stop calling me that.”

“Sure G, in public I will.” Wes wasn’t going to make it easy
to keep it all business.

Macy simmered at being ordered around, but she let Wes lead
her to a table. It would be less of a spectacle than arguing with him in the
hotel bar. If she sat down with him she could clear the air and move on; she
could do what she came here to do for WLUV and then get the hell out of Grand
City and out of Wes Thompson’s neck of the woods. Oh, his neck. God, did she
want to nuzzle his neck. She shook her head briskly. How’d that frame of video
get in there? Cut it!

“I really wasn’t going to eat dinner. I was just going to
take my cocktail upstairs, and do some work in bed.”

“Well, when you enjoy your work it isn’t really work,
right?” Why did she always suggest sex around him? “We made this date
yesterday, remember? I haven’t seen you eat one thing since you arrived. A
martini olive isn’t really a meal.”

Macy assessed the scenario objectively. There was nothing
wrong with eating dinner with the station owner; she’d done that a dozen times.
No one would question the propriety of it, even though they were sitting at a
secluded table in the corner. It was banked by windows and the city lights made
for a lovely backdrop.

It was more romantic than your typical business dinner,
sure, but hopefully no one would see them. Who went out on a weeknight in Grand
City anyway? No one in this town even knew who she was. The dinner in public
was a safe thing to do. She trusted herself not to rip Wes’s clothes off in the
restaurant, but just barely.

Wes opened the menu while Macy kept her menu shut.

“You have a hollowed-out look in your cheeks because you
work too hard and, I think, because you are afraid to let yourself enjoy
anything. I’m going to have to insist you eat, even if I have to feed you
myself.

“It’s not a date.” Macy grabbed the menu and studied it,
anything not to look at Wes, because she absolutely wanted to eat from his
hand. Her face flushed at the thought of his finger in her mouth. What was
happening to her?

The waiter appeared.

“I’ll have another one.” She jiggled her cocktail.

Wes raised an eyebrow. “I’ll have what she’s having.”

Okay, they were two adults having dinner and drinks. It
shouldn’t be so charged with sexual tension. But it was.

“So you handled Pat today. I must say I am not one-hundred
percent convinced he’s an autumn.” Macy couldn’t stifle a belly laugh. It
wasn’t helpful when she was trying to be the sarcastic ice queen, but Wes
succeeded in easing some of her tension.

“God, you have a great laugh.” He just kept coming, didn’t
he?

“Not too ladylike.” Macy had a hard time taking the
compliment.

“But infectious. You don’t laugh much do you?” Wes asked.

“Is this pertinent in some way?” Macy was going to try like
hell to steer things back to work.

“Everything is pertinent about you. But let’s talk shop
since that’s how I tricked you into supping with me.” Wes was working to keep
her from bolting, that she could tell, and she appreciated it. She would bolt
before she flamed up and jumped him again. Jumping him or running away from him
looked like her only two options. Sitting and talking with him had her wanting
to kiss him again.

“Okay. So how did you know what I said to Pat Walters?”

“I know all and see all.”

“You do? How very NSA of you.”

“Actually I was about to head into the meeting to make sure
all was going well this morning and you were in the middle of eviscerating Pat.
I admit I hovered in the hall. I wish I had it on tape, so I could play it
back—again and again.”

“We’re going to have to let him go. I’ll do it, with your
approval of course. ANCR can help with the search for a new ND.” She finished
her first cocktail and instantly the second cocktail she’d ordered and a prime
rib appeared in front of her.

“You ordered for me?” She was constantly thrown off by this
guy. “What if I don’t like red meat?”

“You do.” He had to be guessing. But it was a great guess.
Not eating had caught up with her and she dug in. “See?”

Macy noticed Wes watched her mouth, and hoped nothing juicy
was sliding down her chin. “Good guess.”

While she ate, she decided to turn the conversation to Wes. 
“So, how’d a captain of industry wind up here?” She was curious. Was WLUV a
little toy? Was it just a billionaire’s hobby like car racing?

“This is the deal. Either you come up with a way to save WLUV,
or convince me it can be saved with some reasonable measures, or I’ll shut it
down in less than a year.” Wes didn’t really answer the question.

“Well, no pressure there.”

“I sense you thrive under pressure.”

“True.” She did, and there wasn’t any point in lying about
it. Deadlines, pressure, fast-paced environments, she’d flourished in them as a
reporter and now, as a consultant.  Her goal was to turn her newsrooms into
intense and competitive offices because she knew they produced the best work.

They finished dinner and Macy couldn’t remember enjoying a
meal more. She’d wound up with three martinis – one past her limit – and she
felt loose, happy, maybe even a little buzzed.

They’d had a really nice conversation which mostly stayed in
the neighborhood of work. Macy uncorked a little about her passion for news,
for storytelling, and for doing it in a way that made viewers pay attention.
Wes seemed interested and asked about some of her strategies for WLUV. Macy
enjoyed sharing her plans, what had worked at other stations, and what she saw
as WLUV’s strengths. 

Wes paid the check and he escorted her to the lobby, his
hand on her back as he guided her to the elevators, “I’ll see that you get
safely to your room.”

“You seem overly concerned with my safety. Honestly, it’s
not necessary. I can take care of myself.”

“I insist.” Wes pushed the up button. When the doors opened,
he entered the elevator with her. They were alone.

Macy’s tipsy state and thoughts of the encounter on the
couch reappeared in her mind now that the dinner conversation was over. The
quiet air in the elevator shifted, and the repressed attraction from earlier in
Wes’s office invaded the space.

She trained her eyes on the floor numbers.
Do not look at
Wes, do not look at Wes
…But alas, she did look at him. He was so easy to
look at. 

His eyes were on her. They were deadly serious, and intently
focused. It felt like he was already touching her. Wes was making no attempt to
avoid their attraction. Hell, he was fanning the flames. He took a step forward
towards Macy and issued a challenge: “I dare you, Gorgeous.”

Macy Green never backed down from a dare. Ever.