Between The Sheets (12 page)

Pleasure and Sizzle Nipple Stimulator. Crème de Menthe flavor. Caution: For females only. Women will experience more pleasure than men.

Damn straight.

In all fairness, the room was dark and the jars were similarly shaped. A mistake anyone could have made. But he didn't think April would see it that way. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her off. Not after they'd gotten this far.

Fortunately she hadn't noticed a problem yet; in fact, she looked thoroughly amused.

“You find something funny about me sitting here bare-assed with my dick sticking straight up in the air?”

She burst out laughing and collapsed onto the bed, sprawled like a pale goddess in the silvered darkness. Metal chains tinkled as her breasts plumped against the mattress,
and the smooth dip of her waist and lush curve of her bottom drew his gaze and made his erection throb hard.

Which only rekindled the sizzle.

“Argh.” He ground against the bed in agony, deciding he'd keep his mouth shut about the problem if it killed him. At this rate, it just might.

But all his noble intentions went straight to hell when she asked, “Rex, is something wrong?”

“I'm stimulated,” he said, forcing a smile.

She wasn't buying it. The play of emotions across her face told him she'd put two and two together. Plucking the jar of offending lubricant from his hand, she glanced down at the label and her eyes grew wide. “Oh no.”

“Oh yes.” If he was going to lose her, he knew right now was the time. But he didn't want to lose her. Not when he was aching, and
sizzling.
“Either you do the honors, April, or I'm off to the shower before my happy penis falls off.”

He held his breath. She would either come to the rescue or punch him. A definite possibility given the high-handed way he'd just asked her to give him head.

“I can help,” she said, shimmying toward him in a sleek motion of pale curves that made him catch his breath, and sizzle some more.

But she was still smiling, and the instant her tongue stroked his burning skin, Rex didn't regret any part of the process that had landed them in this bed. His whole plan had revolved around helping her relax enough to seduce her. But April was caught up in the moment, caught up in the excitement and challenge of sex with the Fetish Collection.

When he watched her, eyes sparkling, tongue lashing out to soothe away that killer crème de menthe ache, he wouldn't have sacrificed even one damned second of the pain.

Threading his fingers into her hair, he savored the fine texture, the sexy strokes that made the sizzle cool to a slow burn. “That feels…so…much…better.”

“It's going to feel even better, I promise.”

That was a promise April intended to keep. This accident was a wrong she could right. She hadn't had to call 9-1-1 or drive Rex to the emergency room. That alone squelched the familiar feeling of incompetence, helped her put it behind her to accept what he offered—pleasure, orgasms and the feeling that he trusted her to do something…no,
everything
right.

This was a feeling that inspired her. Made her yearn for him so much that her sex clenched with needy little spasms. Her breasts had grown taut and the nipple clamps pinched, heightening her excitement and leaving her feeling exposed with the chain dangling against her stomach, his thigh. The ache inside grew, made her think bold thoughts about ripping open their Blueberry Blue condom and sheathing this exquisite erection….

His low growl broke the silence, startled her, and she glanced up just as he reached for her. Without a word, he pulled her into his arms. With strong hands he anchored their hips together, twined his legs through hers, pressed that hot erection into her stomach.

“God, I want you,” he whispered against her lips and April thrilled to the hunger in his voice, the honesty.

Her fingers closed around the foil-wrapped condom and she pressed it into his palm, sighed when his hand tightened around hers, a reassuring squeeze. Then he opened the packet and sheathed his erection. April watched him, marveling that she didn't feel self-conscious with her legs spread, her breasts aching,
wanting.

Sinking into her arms, he kissed her, a greedy, possessive kiss that promised her more than she'd ever dared hope for.
Then he pressed inside, and her sex unfurled around him, discovered the feel of his body filling her so completely. She slipped her arms around him and held him close, awed by the feel of their bodies together and overwhelmed by her need.

Still he didn't move, only let his lips trail from hers so he could raise his head and skim that beautiful dark gaze over her with a need that reflected her own.

He freed her nipples from the clamps, bent forward and blew on one, then the other, gentle gusts of air that brought her sensitive skin to life and a moan to her lips.

Apparently this is what he'd been waiting for because he pulled back on a breathtaking stroke that brought him almost clear out before he drove back inside with a low groan.

And that was all April knew. With his next stroke she was blinded to anything but the strength of his body arching above hers, the feel of those hard thrusts, the magic of the way he levered his hands beneath her bottom to help her create friction exactly where she needed it.

She had the wild thought that the average woman could survive this for nearly twenty minutes. She knew she'd die of pleasure long before then.

His every stroke fed the fire building inside her, and he knew somehow…knew to time his strokes to match hers…knew to roll his hips to catch the pleasure point that dragged each breath from her lungs as a sob…knew to kiss the sound from her lips, even as his thighs started to tremble….

Then she was gone. He dragged her right over the edge to a place where their breaths collided and their hearts beat together. Their hips levered against each other to capture each sensation.

Rex cradled her close and she clung to him, memorizing the way his arms felt around her, marveling that he'd coaxed
responses from her body that she hadn't believed possible, that she'd abandoned all hope of ever feeling.

April told herself not to think, to simply steal this moment as hers, imprint it in her heart forever. The dawn would bring the reality of what they'd done. And along with reality would come the problems, and the cosmic irony that the only man who could make her feel right, the only man who could bring her to completion was the one man she couldn't be honest with.

A
PRIL SNUGGLED
against Rex, inhaled deeply, a breath filled with the scent of his skin and their sex. Far too potent a combination for her to resist even though she'd known better than to give in to his kisses. Even drugged by his touch, she'd recognized the point where she'd chosen to place desire above her common sense.

She'd complicated both their lives in the process. Even sleepy and sated and more content than she'd ever felt in her life, she still possessed enough clarity of thought to understand the problems.
All
of them, and there were a bunch.

The biggest was that she'd repaid this man's kindness with deception. He'd been thoughtful and she'd lied about who she was and why she'd become his assistant. And she couldn't even feel guilty. She was doing her job. Penance might have made her feel better, but she just got to feel horrible for deceiving him.

Rex affected her like she'd never been affected before and her need was so singular that she couldn't have resisted if her life depended had on it.

Desperation. That's what this was.

She should be humiliated but all she could think about was how his hard body molded around hers, how her muscles ached with a delicious feeling she'd never known before.

How she hadn't wound up calling 9-1-1.

Their encounter hadn't been snafu-free, but Rex was still
in one piece, seemingly content to hold her as if he didn't want to let her go.

The night surrounded them, the darkness so filled with promise. His strong leg fit between hers perfectly. His heart beat steadily beneath her cheek. He watched her with a lazy smile, a man who'd earned a privilege and intended to enjoy it.

“You look worried.” He traced a fingertip across her lips. “You shouldn't be. We're good together.”

April wished. But all her concerns for what the light of day would bring were only emphasized by his tender touch.

“Let me tell you another story.” Slipping a knuckle beneath her chin, he tipped her face toward his. “Once upon a time there was a businessman from a family with a hardworking Irish father, an Italian mother who liked to cook and four younger sisters. Two men against five women. An uneven balance that made for some really interesting situations.”

“I'll bet.” John had a similar situation with his family, and she'd witnessed firsthand the nuances of being outnumbered by women.

“This also meant that father and son had to work hard to care for the family and make ends meet, but the son was okay with that. He happened to be responsible and liked that his family felt they could depend on him.”

“Sounds like the model son.”

“Not quite model. Not all the time, anyway, but a son who usually made his parents proud. There's a downside though.”

“Really?”

“Really.” He nodded with mock seriousness. “This son grew up to be just as responsible, dependable and capable in his own life as he'd been growing up.”

“That's a downside?”

“Not in school or business. Those qualities were a real asset to getting ahead, but they didn't do a thing for this guy's personal life.” He pulled her closer.

“There's a twist. I'd think those qualities would have served the guy well in all aspects of his life. Most women like responsible, dependable and capable men.”

“You'd think so, wouldn't you? They just might have, had the guy had sense enough to slow down long enough to find out.”

“He didn't?”

“No, he didn't. He was so busy being responsible and dependable and capable that the next thing he knew, he'd been out of college for a decade, had a very successful career and no life whatsoever. He was even avoiding trips home because he was tired of listening to lectures about not making time to do anything but work.”

Given Rex's upbringing, April could see how he could have easily fallen into that trap. She was ensnared firmly herself and she could completely relate to being tired of the lectures. But unlike Rex, she had a reason to hide.

“So has this guy conquered the working-too-much thing yet?” she asked, needing to keep things light, until she could think this situation through, figure out what to do next.

Thinking was completely impossible while her body was wrapped around his, still moist and tender from lovemaking, still yearning to feel his touch.

“No. But he's working on it, and he thinks he might have just fit another big piece into the puzzle.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

She wasn't going to ask. Something about his quirky smile warned that
she
somehow factored into his epiphany. She didn't want to know how.

But before she could come up with a way to segue from his story, he asked, “So did you get the moral?”

“I think I missed it,” she admitted.

“The moral is, it doesn't matter what's getting in your way, work or not being able to relax, the result is the same. Life passes you by. Just like your boss told you.”

Here was another prime example of how his interview technique ranked far beyond mere mortal levels and how she was in way over her head. With his relaxation therapy, his orgasms and his strong arms, Rex had slipped himself into the intimate places of her life. “Why are you thinking about this?”

“I like the way you feel,” he said simply. “I'm not sure what to say besides that.”

“Why me?”

“I like your take on life. You make me laugh.”

Well, that definitely wasn't news. April Accidentally made a lot of people laugh, only, she typically didn't feel as if the trick was any accomplishment. For some reason making this man laugh felt like one right now.

She wasn't sure what to say. The conversation had gotten away from her, just as the night had.

“I enjoy being with you,” he said. “And I'm a good influence.”

“How do you figure that?”

It was a really good question. The man had distracted her from her job, made her chuck reason and integrity out the window and had made her forget her decision to give up men and sex.

She'd
never
met a man like him, had
never
had sex like this.

Letting her eyes flutter shut, she blocked out the satisfaction in his sleep-softened face.

“I'm not sure I want to tell you right now.”

“Why not?” How much worse could this possibly get?

He was silent so long that she finally opened her eyes and looked at him, which must have been what he'd been waiting for.

“Do you realize how long you've been lying down? And you haven't been fidgeting. Miracle of miracles.”

No lie.

“You're distracting me with your massages and your stories and your—” She'd almost said “And your orgasms,” but caught herself in time. She needed to forget all about those orgasms and get back to business, figuring out what to do now that she'd jumped into bed with Rex and totally messed things up.

“Yes, I am.” There was no remorse in that statement.

“Well, you can just stop right now.” She wedged her elbow between them and levered herself out of his arms. “I'm here to do a job. You shouldn't be distracting me.”

“I'm helping you, April. Don't stop me now.” He raised up on an elbow. “I promised to be a gentleman and I will.”

Their interpretations of gentleman were two different things, but the earnestness in his words made her melt. Or was that just desperation?

She didn't know. She only knew that when she peered down at this man with his sleep-tousled hair and heavy-lidded eyes, when she listened to him talk about helping her in that whiskey-rough voice, she wanted nothing more in the world than to let him.

 

R
EAL ORGASMS
were good things or so April had always heard. The ones she'd experienced to date had certainly lived up to their press, which meant that a day starting off with not one, but
two
should have been great.

April's day had been more unsettling than great.

She hadn't so much minded Rex coercing her into a jog through a nearby park before they'd showered.

Given her metabolism, cardiovascular activity hadn't ever ranked too high on her priority list. She had a treadmill at home, positioned strategically in front of her computer, more to get her blood flowing than to keep her heart rate up. She worked off her excess energy in John's home gym three times a week, for all the good it did her when Paula insisted she sit down to a full meal before heading back to her apartment.

“Is this part of your relaxation therapy?” she'd asked.

He'd caressed her with his dark gaze and said, “Regular exercise will help, but I just don't want to go without you.”

Okay. She could appreciate his honesty, even when it emphasized her own dishonesty, but her internal alarm, which had been curiously silent for so long, started blaring until Rex had dragged her into an empty office during a full slate of supervised shopping experiments.

“Did you know that kissing burns approximately two calories per minute compared to making love, which burns an average of six? I think we need to start warming up.”

No, she hadn't known that and she hadn't been able to resist kissing him either. He'd just sort of grabbed her and kissed her, not really giving her a chance to do anything but kiss him back.

But her real worries began when they'd returned to the hotel, where Rex had prepared a scrumptious chicken marsala while she'd edited the day's data. They'd chatted about the shopping experiments, dined over the coffee table before Rex casually asked her, “Do you have a preference where we sleep tonight? My bedroom is larger than yours, but we could always spend the night out here with the Fetish Collection again. What do you think?”

What did she think?

She thought her head was going to split wide-open because her internal alarm was shrieking so loudly.

She wouldn't tell him that.

The man had jumped feetfirst into a fling. She'd suspected that the moral of his story had something to do with her and she'd been right. He was planning to make time to have fun and he intended to have fun with her.

The question was: What was she going to do about it?

Nothing brilliant sprang to mind except a desperate image of standing in John's office explaining, “I did what I had to do to get the job done, boss.”

A melodramatic thought that only undermined her confidence, which didn't need any undermining, thank you very much. She'd been reminding herself constantly of her accomplishments on this job so far—small though they were—to pump up her confidence and balance out the mishaps. She wasn't sure what category a fling with Rex would fall under.

I enjoy being with you.

Until he found out that she'd been sent here to spy on him. He'd most likely appreciate Wilhemina's confidence and foresight in ensuring his name was kept clear of any suspicion, but finding out that she'd slept with him under false pretenses was bound to be an unpleasant surprise. Discovering that she'd been so desperate to experience passion that she'd sacrificed the honesty he deserved would hurt.

Because he cared. Not any love-at-first-sight, long-term kind of caring, but simply because he wanted to be with her right now, to enjoy their chemistry. He'd been up-front. He'd been kind. He'd seen past her nervousness, a quality that drove most people to distraction.

But instead of complaining that he'd gotten stuck with an inept assistant, Rex had taken action. He'd tried to help her
relax. These were the actions of a caring man, a man who deserved honesty when she couldn't be honest.

The situation sucked, plain and simple, and with that thought riding her, April did what she always did when life got out of control. She worked.

Loading her e-mail program, she logged on to the J.P. Mooney Investigators' server through a dummy account set up as her fake West Coast Luxurious Bedding Company office. She found a reply from Wilhemina.

 

To: April Stevens (mailto:[email protected])

Date: 10 Mar 2003 02:12:18-0000

Subject: Unfounded Accusations

 

My dear girl,

I would never presume to play God and
set you up.
Or Rex either, for that matter. However, if you two just happen to be together and things click…Auntie Wil says:
Go for it!
You know I love you and I'm tremendously fond of Rex. He's the type of high-caliber man I know Paula and John would approve. Unfortunately, just like you, Rex works entirely too much and doesn't make time for a life. You're two peas in a pod.

I won't deny that the idea you might enjoy meeting Rex did
cross my mind
when I was brainstorming how to tackle my current dilemma. Paula has been very worried about you since your breakup with that hot tub salesman. She mentioned her concerns several times in our phone conversations. Naturally, I'm concerned, too.

But please understand that my current situation at work is particularly difficult. I explained at Christmas that the future of the Luxurious Bedding Company is riding on my actions. Frankly, my dear, I'm very disturbed by recent events and the possibility of a threat to the launch. I'm new
to this company and haven't yet established my own regime. At this point I want to surround myself with as many trustworthy people as possible. You're trustworthy and so is Rex, which translates into one problem off my desk. I appreciate this because it frees up more of my energy to deal with the madness of these suggestive posts and their effect on my staff.

But I have every faith that with Rex to advise me and you to protect us both from false allegations, things will work out as I plan and this launch will be a success. So, to answer your question about whether or not I set you up…the answer, my dear, is:
Not exactly.
;-)