An Executive Decision (23 page)

When they arrived back at Dee’s place, they all got out of the limo. Harris took Dee in his arms and hugged her tight, lifting her off her feet. ‘Take care of yourself, Ms Diva. I’ll see you soon.’ Then, for good measure, he shot Ellis a warning look that was returned in spades.

Chapter Thirty-two

They watched Harris leave. Dee waved as he turned out of her driveway, and he waved back. She watched him until his car disappeared at the end of the street, not really ready to face whatever might come next and hanging on to the last view of her friend for courage. When she turned to Ellis, his gaze was locked on her.

‘You told him.’

Her insides knotted and she found herself blushing furiously. ‘He came over to tell me what he’d learned at the law library. He knew something was wrong. He doesn’t give up easily.’

‘I got that,’ Ellis said.

‘And he isn’t exactly known for keeping his opinions to himself.’

‘I got that too. He told me he’d rip my throat out if I hurt you.’

‘He’s pretty protective of me,’ Dee said.

He lifted her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. ‘I was damn near tempted to let him.’

She tried to look away, but he held her.

‘We don’t have to go back to my place if you’re more comfortable here, Dee, but I’m not leaving until we’ve talked.’

‘Here’s better,’ she said, feeling like her pulse would hammer a hole in her throat. She’d rather have this discussion in her territory this time. At least there’d be no running into prying brothers and on-again-off-again former fiancées.

Ellis nodded. ‘OK. Let’s talk here then.’

Inside, the two cats were still curled up in the shopping bags and the floor was still littered with cat toys. The open bottle of wine and the two glasses still sat on the floor where she and Harris had left them, and her tea mug was still on the table by the door. The insulated lining had kept a bit of the ice from melting. She grabbed it and took a sip for courage as she closed the door behind them.

‘Ellis, I –’

‘Shh!’ He placed a finger to her lips, and sat the mug on the table. ‘Don’t talk, just listen. Stacie’s a clumsy oaf. She really did fall in my pool. Tripped on her own dress. I didn’t invite her. She just showed up. Stacie’s like that.’

‘Ellis, this is none of my –’

‘Shh! I’m not finished. My brother’s a jerk sometimes, but he means well. I didn’t tell him about the Executive Sex Clause, about us. Though it is my fault that he figured out what’s going on. I wasn’t exactly discreet about my desire for you when we were in New York, and Garrett’s not stupid. Dee, I would never tell anyone. I would never do anything to hurt you. You have to know that.’

‘Ellis, I –’

This time, he stopped her words with his mouth. She was shocked at the power of her own response, practically eating his face off in the explosion of need that tore through her. He crushed her against him, then his hands moved up to stroke her face, rake through her hair, caress the nape of her neck, and he groaned. ‘I don’t want to leave without knowing things are OK between us, Dee. Hell, I don’t want to leave without making love to you until neither of us can walk. I wanted you in my office yesterday evening. I wanted you every second of every day all week long. Don’t make me wait any longer.’ He held her until she relaxed into him, until she settled her head against his shoulder. Then he lifted her into his arms, and she offered a yelp of surprise as he carried her up the stairs like she weighed nothing. ‘I know my way to your room, Dee, and I’ve taken you to bed there before. But this time I won’t be taking you there to sleep.’ He settled her onto the comforter and sat down next to her.

Then he lifted his T-shirt off over his head, helped her out of hers, and lay down beside her, easing one thigh between her legs and positioning it to rub intriguingly against her crotch. She closed her thighs around it and shifted her hips, her breath catching as the friction of denim against denim translated to heat on the bare skin underneath. He kissed along each of her bra straps and worked them off her shoulders, then he nuzzled his way into her cleavage, forcing a lace cup down with the nip of his teeth. The shove and press of his cheek and chin were stubbled and rough after the all-night session with Wade and Harris. The rake and scratch worked delicious counterpoint to the velvet humidity of his tongue and lips and the sharp tug of his teeth at first contact with the tetchy swell of her nipple. She arched up and held him to her, fingers scrabbling in his short hair.

Her nipple became engorged and leaden, sensitive to the point that even the slightest flick of his tongue sent aftershocks down between her legs to the empathetic engorgement of her clit. When he finished with one nipple, he nuzzled aside the other cup and repeated the pleasure. This time when she arched up to him, he slid a hand down over her belly and undid her jeans. Everything between her legs clenched in anticipation as he scrunched her panties aside and rested the cup of his palm on her mound. ‘Dee.’ He breathed her name against her nipple. ‘I can’t get enough of you. I can’t even come close.’

He slid two fingers down either side of her clit and stroked. She moaned and shuddered. He lifted his face from his attention to her breast and looked up into her eyes. ‘I want to watch your pleasure, Dee. I want to see it on your face. You can’t imagine how stunning you are when you’re turned on.’ He slipped a finger between her swollen folds and she thrust her hips up to meet his touch. ‘And when I’m the source of your pleasure, Dee, I feel like the best, most powerful man on earth – that I can give you what you need, that I can make you come.’ He slipped a second finger into her to press and stroke her G-spot, and she felt the rush of her juices against his touch. He felt it too, and the catch of his breath, the dilation of his pupils, told her the effect it was having on him.

He guided her hand down onto the strain of his cock against his fly and held it there. ‘You see what you do to me, Dee Henning. All the time. Every time I think about you. And I think about you a lot.’

She curled her fingers around the shape of him through his jeans. His eyelids fluttered and his chest expanded with his gulp for air. He frantically fumbled to release himself into her hand, slapping away her clumsy efforts to help.

‘I want to see you, Ellis,’ she breathed. ‘I want to see how much you want me.’ With efforts made awkward by need, they both shifted on the bed. He lifted his butt and shoved at his jeans and boxers with his free hand, not missing a beat with the press and stroke of fingers that slickened her, eased her open in anticipation, made her swell and pout and hunger.

Once his cock was free, she raised herself up on one elbow, which not only gave her a good view of his erection, resting heavy and full against his thigh, but also gave her more leverage with which to bear down against his hand. She took hold of him, feeling the silken softness that sheathed iron, feeling the surge of his penis and the tensing of his balls beneath her touch. ‘There, now.’ He shuddered and rested his hand on hers. ‘You see how badly I want you.’

She pushed away from him and slipped out of her jeans and panties. While she was at it, she lost the bra. Then she straddled him, taking her time to touch herself and rake her clit, fingering herself open so he could see the whole of her, so she could hear his groan of appreciation, so she could feel his gaze taking in the height of her arousal almost as physically as his fingers did. Then she positioned herself and slowly settled onto him. He lay still, holding his breath, hands cupping the swell of her hips as she eased down the length of him, feeling the head of his cock opening her relentlessly until he was deeply and fully sheathed in her tight grip.

He sucked breath between his teeth. ‘Fuck, Dee! You feel better than anything.’ He kicked and bucked his own jeans and boxers off. He would have unseated her had he not held her hips firmly. Then she began to rock and shift against him and he mirrored her movements from below, raking against her clit with each upward undulation.

He cupped her breasts, gliding his thumbs over the hard peaks of her nipples, then he pulled her forward against the rise and fall of his chest, her knees bent so that her thighs pressed in tight on either side of his ribs. His hands moved down to cup her bottom, to knead and clench and spread her open, the act of which made her anus tighten and grip at its sudden unexpected exposure. He teased around and over it with the press of his middle finger, making her squirm, making her grip and anticipate anything, everything Ellison Thorne might do to her.

He clasped her to him and rolled with her until she was beneath him. His angle of penetration was steep enough that her bottom and her hips were off the bed. She grunted at the sudden shift of positions, an act which caused her to clench at his probing finger, and he chose that moment to push it home. She bit her lip to maintain control, and tightened her grip on his cock.

His breathing was laboured; his eyes were dark with need. All the while the angle of his penetration grew steeper and steeper until each thrust forced him up onto his knees. Each thrust felt deeper than the one before, deeper than she’d ever thought possible, until it felt as though he were thrusting up into the very heart of her. Her world was reduced to Ellis Thorne. He filled her head as well as her body, as though he had penetrated every cell of her, every breath of her. The bed shook beneath them and she rose up to meet each thrust, feeling suspended between the fullness in her slit and the press of his finger in her anus, feeling lost in the man whose world she had only begun to understand. And there was nothing else.

And Ellis. He spoke her name over and over again, like a mantra, like the in and out of his breath, like he’d somehow come to possess her, heart and soul. And if she hadn’t been frantic, on the edge of orgasm, she might have run away in terror at the bright glimpse into the heart of the man, but even that she could have stayed for. It was the revelation of her own heart laid bare that would have terrified her. But then Ellis slipped another finger into her anus at the very second he plunged into her deep and hard. She gripped him in a clench that felt fatal and they tumbled over the edge together, into a release that threatened to shred both of them.

‘Let me go with you,’ she whispered against his chest. They lay curled around each other in her bed, with time quickly becoming their enemy.

‘I need you in New York,’ he said, kissing the top of her head. ‘What you’re doing is every bit as important as what I’m doing. You know that. We can’t give Jamison any way out.’

She raised herself on one elbow and looked down at him. ‘Why are you going, Ellis. I know you don’t have to. You’re Ellison Thorne. You have people who can do this for you. I know you do.’

‘Dee,’ he said, brushing the pad of his thumb over her lips and holding her gaze. ‘I have to go because I have to. What I do, what we do at Pneuma Inc., is what it is because I understand, because I go and see for myself. Then I tell Wade, and he understands. He understands differently than I do, and things happen, good things. If I send someone else – well, people are too willing to tell me what they think I want to hear, and their opinions are coloured by so many variables. That’s just the way it is. But I have to know what needs to be done, and I need to be sure that I never get complacent, that Pneuma Inc. never gets complacent. You have to understand that. It’s the most important thing of all.’

She fought back the lump in her throat she hadn’t expected and nodded, afraid of what might happen if she spoke, then she nestled down against his chest, next to the powerful, steady beat of his heart. His heart. Did anyone have any idea of the depth and the tenderness of that heart? She suspected Beverly did, and suddenly she missed the woman terribly. She wished Beverly could tell her what was going on in her own heart.

When the limo came for him, Jeffries discreetly waited in the car while they said their goodbyes. ‘I’ll have satellite link-up at least some of the time, Dee, and I’ll keep in touch as best I can. Word’s out that I had to make an emergency trip to Spain. My connections there will make sure the cover story holds. Probably it won’t be necessary, but I’ve learned from experience it’s wise not to take chances where Jamison’s concerned.’ He lifted her chin, and brushed a kiss across her lips.

‘Good luck in New York – and Dee, be careful with Daniels.’ Before she could protest, he raised a hand. ‘I know you think I’m being paranoid, but trust me on this, I know what the man wants.’

He ran a finger along her cheekbone and looked down at her over the top of his glasses. ‘You’re in charge of Pneuma Inc. until I get back, Dee. That being the case, I know the ship’s in good hands.’

This time when he kissed her, it was more than just a brush of his lips. He lifted her off her feet and his mouth ravaged hers, bruising and hungry in its efforts. When he pulled away, breathless, he held her in his dark gaze. ‘That’s just to remind you that I’ll be pretty tetchy when I get back. I’ll need a debriefing in the worst way. You’ll want to make sure that’s in your calendar. It’s already in mine.’

Chapter Thirty-three

Kendra often house-sat for Dee when she was away on business. Since Kendra had sold her PR firm in Los Angeles and returned to Portland, she’d been living in a small studio apartment until she could find just the perfect place, so for her to stay in a real house was a treat. And Dee was happy to have someone to look after the cats and just be there. Since Dee’s flight to New York was an early one, Kendra came over the evening before so they could have some much-needed girl time. They’d managed a run together on Mount Tabor, then they ordered Chinese and sat on the living room floor eating kung pao chicken and dumplings. Afterward they adjourned to Dee’s bedroom so Dee could pack.

Well into her glass of wine, Kendra watched Dee place lingerie into the bag for New York. ‘Wow! Nice stuff you’ve got there, kiddo. I see you’ve had an upgrade in the lingerie department as well as the career department.’ She nodded to the leopard print French-cut panties and matching bra Dee pulled from the drawer. ‘Too bad the oh-so-hot Mr Thorne won’t be there with you. I’m sure he’d appreciate a quick peek at that juicy little combo. Is he a tit man?’

‘If he is, I missed the memo.’ Ellis’s admiration for her breasts hardly needed a memo, she thought.

‘I suppose most guys are, aren’t they?’ Kendra said, taking a look down the front of her T-shirt at her own braless rack.

‘Yep,’ Dee agreed. ‘In the same way most women like cock.’ Just as Dee turned to put several pairs of stockings into the bag, McAllister did a twisty turn around her ankles and she pulled up short to keep from kicking him, showering Kendra in stockings.

Both women laughed, which McAllister found highly offensive. He scurried out of the room while the two bent to pick up stockings.

‘Whoa! What have we here?’ Kendra came up from fishing under the edge of the bed with a pair of men’s boxers hung over one finger. Ellis’s boxers. They’d not been able to find them when he left on Saturday and he’d had to fly off to Valderia commando, a thought which made Dee all moist and tingly. Fantasy fodder for sure.

Dee reached for them, but Kendra pulled them away, lips curving in a filthy smile. ‘Mmm, expensive boxers too.’ She twirled them casually around her finger. ‘I can only think of two men in your life, Ms Diva. Harris, I figure, is more of a tighty-whitey sort of guy, and neither of you would ever consider fucking your friends, which I find quite sad, really, but there you go.’ She looked back at the dark blue silk hanging from her finger. ‘So unless you’re doing the mail man and he’s got a second income to afford silky little numbers like these, that just leaves Mr Ellison Thorne, with whom you spend an enormous amount of time and who is outrageously sexy and who, I’m sure, must have exquisite taste in women. Therefore, who else can it possibly be?’ She grabbed Dee’s hand and pulled her down on the bed next to her, giving her the evil parent look. ‘Come on! Come clean. You know I won’t give up until you tell me.’

Dee heaved a sigh and reached for her own glass of wine. This time Kendra didn’t pull away when Dee took the boxers from her and quickly stuffed them into the top drawer of her nightstand. OK, she was dying to tell Kendra. She needed to tell her, actually. Harris already knew, and both her friends would be racked and tortured and take her secret to the grave with them before they would tell. And with everything that had been happening, she needed their support. The nod she offered in response was only half a nod before Kendra smothered her in a bear hug, threatening a wine bath for both of them.

‘Fuck me!’ she squealed. ‘I’m all a-flutter.’ She fanned herself with an open palm. ‘You and Ellison Thorne!’ She gave Dee another bone-crunching hug, ignoring the spill of wine on her pale lilac yoga pants. ‘I suspected all along the man had exquisite taste in women, and that’s why he was waiting for you.’ She scooted back enough to look into Dee’s eyes. ‘Details, babes, I want all the juicy details. Does Harris know?’

‘Yep. He knows.’

Kendra offered her a little pout. ‘You told him before you told me?’

‘It wasn’t like I had much choice,’ Dee said. ‘There are no secrets from either of you. You know that.’

‘I always hoped you’d fuck him,’ Kendra said. ‘You and Harris are far more picky than I am. I like to get laid, but I’m not into anyone, don’t want to be, but you two, well, you’re different.’ She sniggered into her hand. ‘Harris told me about your mishap at The Boiling Point.’ She raised a hand to stop any comments. ‘My fault. I should have known better than to suggest the place to you and Harris. And here you were fucking Ellison Thorne all the time. That’s good. You two fit each other. You’re right for each other.’

Dee felt a knot tighten below her ribcage, remembering her nightmare on the flight home and the uncomfortable fact that Garrett knew what was going on. ‘It’s just sex, Kendra. That’s all. I mean, we’re both free to see other people if we want.’

‘Bullshit,’ Kendra said. ‘It’s never just sex with you, Dee Henning. That’s why you keep a steady supply of batteries handy for your vibrator. You don’t do
just sex
.’

Dee stood and continued with her packing, not quite sure how much to tell her friend. But Kendra was often more insightful than Dee and Harris gave her credit for, and it was almost always when they would have preferred her not to be. ‘So what is it you’re not telling me, Dee?’

‘It’s just that he’s my boss, Kendra. I have a very difficult job with huge responsibilities, and sex –’

‘Sex complicates things. Yes, I know, sweetie. But sex always complicates things. You’re into him, aren’t you? Well, I mean, obviously you are.’

‘He’s my boss.’

‘And you’re into your boss. I got that. And he’s into you?’ She raised a dismissive hand. ‘Well, of course he is. He’d be a fool not to be, and Ellison Thorne is no fool. His expensive boxers covered in hot male sweat under the edge of your bed – that speaks volumes, sweetie.’

This was definitely not a topic Dee wanted to discuss further, but it was too late to get squeamish now. Kendra was in pitbull mode.

‘You know, Dee, Ellis Thorne didn’t get where he is by being stupid. Seems to me he’s pretty smart having sex with you. I mean, I know you don’t have time for sex, and I can’t imagine him having any more.’ She shrugged. ‘Oh, I’m sure there’s a bevy of expensively groomed socialites and a long list of perspective trophy wives who’d jump at the chance to be seen on his arm, but then he doesn’t seem the type.’

‘He’s not!’ Dee said. ‘He’s not the type. And you’re right. With sex as a part of our working relationship, we both get it, and our work benefits.’

‘Hold it, hold it!’ Kendra gulped back the last of her wine. ‘Sex is a part of your working relationship? Did I just hear you right?’ She refilled their glasses and pulled Dee back down next to her. ‘OK, whole story! I want it now, and no hedging. Come clean, Ms Diva. Now.’ Dee sat down next to Kendra, took a deep breath, and told her about the Executive Sex Clause.

‘Can you see? Can you see it?’ Ellis moved in close to where Dee stood gazing into the telescope, and rested his chin on her shoulder.

She gasped. ‘My God! It’s beautiful!’

And it was. He’d never seen the night sky so clear, or the stars so brilliant. He felt a swell of pride, as though he had laid it all out himself especially for her benefit. ‘That’s the Andromeda Galaxy, our nearest neighbour. The way you’re seeing it now is the way it looked two and a half million years ago. That’s how long it takes light from there to get to here.’

‘It’s like seeing eternity.’ Her voice was barely more than a whisper pressing against the luminous darkness.

He slid his arms around her waist, and moved still closer. ‘It’s on a collision course with our Milky Way.’

He felt her ribcage expand against him as her sense of wonder spread upward with her breath and found release in her voice. ‘Imagine the fireworks.’

‘Yeah, imagine.’ They both looked up with a start as the sky effervesced in a cascade of meteors. Then she turned in his arms and whispered against his ear. ‘You betrayed me, Ellis. Everyone knows about the Executive Sex Clause, and it’s all your fault. I can’t stay with you. I can’t stay with a man I can’t trust.’

‘No Dee, I didn’t betray you! I wouldn’t. I promise I wouldn’t …’

But she wasn’t listening. She stepped out of his arms, shaking her head. He reached for her, but she pulled away. Then she turned and walked into the woods at the edge of the field.

He stood for a stunned second and watched her, then he called after her. ‘Dee, wait. Don’t go. I don’t want to lose you. I can’t lose you.’ And suddenly he was running after her through dense woodland hung with moss, ferns slapping at his legs, roots threatening to send him sprawling. He ran. But she was always just ahead of him, just out of his reach. ‘Dee, I can’t lose you. Please stay. Please let me explain.’ But she grew farther and farther away with each step, with each desperate breath, until he caught one last glimpse of her through the trees, and she was gone. All around him the forest was silent, unmoving, too dark for the night sky to penetrate the canopy. ‘Dee!’

He woke with a start, drenched in sweat, gasping for air that was close and humid, thick with the smell of humans in a small space. It took him a second to recall where he was. The tent was tight and hot and next to him the two other men still slept, oblivious to his distress. One of them was Harris Walker. God, he hoped Walker hadn’t heard him cry out, because it was Dee’s name he called. And if any of the other details of the dream bled through to the waking world – well, he’d rather it not be Harris Walker who caught the gory details. He fumbled for the flashlight at the side of his sleeping bag, then he slipped out from under the mosquito netting and quietly unzipped the tent. He had to have some air. He had to think. He had to feel what was real again.

Outside the air was no less thick, but it was less fetid. It smelled of fecund earth and damp heat. Not wanting to use the flashlight unless he had to, he felt his way to a tree at the left of their tent and leaned up against it, feeling the hard ripple of the thick bark pressing through his T-shirt. He couldn’t see the stars for the canopy, just like in his dream. The oppressive darkness brought back the ache beneath his sternum that he’d felt in his dream, that he’d felt when he thought he’d lost Dee. Suddenly he was desperate to call her, but the place they were tonight was in the deepest part of the Valderi forest. There would be no contact from where they were.

It was just a dream, he told himself. He was tired and it had been an exhausting forced march to get here. He wasn’t at his best. When he’d left, things had been good between them. She had welcomed him to her bed. She had wanted to come with him, and God, he’d wanted her to. But it was an unnecessary risk and he would never put her in harm’s way. Besides, she was the only one who could close the deal with Scribal and Trouvères. And it was hers to close. She deserved all the credit. He could imagine her now in New York, in the big bed in the hotel room all alone. Was she missing him? He looked at his watch. It was just about time for her to get up and start her day. He hoped she hadn’t stayed up too late working. He hoped she had rested. If he’d been there he’d have made sure she did – after they’d made love, of course. His cock stirred in his shorts at the thought of being in her space, in her bed, in her body.

How could he miss her so badly? They’d only been away from each other three days. But at the moment every part of him ached for her. It was crazy. She was his executive assistant, he reminded himself. No doubt she would have the common sense to keep her personal life from interfering with work. No doubt she would be level-headed enough to remember the Executive Sex Clause was a part of their working relationship. Neither of them needed, nor had time for, the complications of anything else, and what they had now worked so well for both of them.

He tried not to think of Garrett knowing about the Executive Sex Clause, and even more distressing, the fact that now Stacie knew, or at least strongly suspected. Dear God, surely they wouldn’t do anything to sabotage what he had with Dee. Surely it would all be all right, since they both liked her, since they both were pleased with his choice of her. He mentally kicked himself. It wasn’t like he was bringing his girlfriend home to meet the family, the embarrassing family, but it sure as hell felt that way. He wiped sweat from his forehead and swatted away an insect which buzzed around his face in the darkness. Sometimes he had strange dreams when he was tired. He hadn’t had the really bad ones since that first year after Caltech. But even they hadn’t disturbed him like this one did.

‘You all right, Thorne?’

Ellis could barely make out the shape of the man in the inky black of the night, but he recognised Harris Walker’s voice coming from the dark shadow now standing beside him.

‘Heard you thrashing about. You OK?’

Ellis gritted his teeth. ‘Fine. I’m fine. Just a dream. Probably the strange place and not enough sleep.’

Harris came to his side. ‘And missing Dee. You called her name.’

‘Probably dreaming about work,’ Ellis lied, and did his best to sound matter-of-fact. ‘I do that a lot.’

‘Who doesn’t?’ Harris said. ‘I had nightmares all the time when I was practising law. Not so much any more, now I’m not. But I never called out my legal assistant’s name and told her I couldn’t lose her.’

Ellis felt the muscles in his shoulders knot. ‘I told you it was just a dream.’ He shifted against the tree, sensing the presence of the man rather than seeing him, and knowing full well that even though Walker couldn’t see any better than he could, he was still studying him.

‘I talked to Dee before we left,’ Harris said. ‘She said the two of you were good.’

Ellis didn’t say anything. He wanted to tell him it was none of his fucking business, but, at the same time, he was pleased that Dee had such a loyal friend. If the shoe were on the other foot, Ellis might have already resorted to violence if he’d been Dee’s best friend and she had returned home from the stupid comedy of errors she’d had to deal with at his house.

Harris continued, ‘You didn’t ask for my opinion, but as long as I’m Dee’s best friend and you’re both playing at this stupid Sex Clause thing, you get it anyway. You’re both in over your heads. The sooner you figure it out, the sooner you face what’s really going on, the less painful it’ll be when the shit hits the fan. And you can’t possibly think that it won’t happen when you’re playing with the kind of fire you two are playing with.’