Caramel Kisses (6 page)

“I’ll see you in twenty minutes.” The words came out all breath and need, but she didn’t give a damn.

“Thought so,” he said flatly.

Sigh. No wonder both her and the pawn were hooked on Viktor. The man played them so well.

Chapter Five

“
Sydni
, you’re mumbling.”

“Huh? Oh. Sorry. Something about the numbers on the purchase order report I was looking at earlier just don’t make sense.” She looked up from her chicken salad. Her heart skipped at least a couple of beats when Drew flashed a smile that totally reached his eyes.
Sydni’s
concern about work leached right out of her bones and disappeared.

“Uh, I think I’ll worry about it later,” she said, staring at Drew so long she almost forgot to chew.

“Damn straight. Besides, you have a bet to fulfill and a hungry man to feed.”

Oooh, and there went another twinkle in his crystalline gray gaze. The man was so good at double entendre.
If they hung out long enough perhaps…
Whoa. Back the hell up,
Sydni
. Keep it together girl.

But Drew was stroking the back of her hand, looking her dead in the eye with a hunger so blatant it set her pulse racing.
Woo, just breathe, girl. Breathe.

“You have no shame, do you?” she asked him baldly, pulling her hand away. He wouldn’t let go.

“None.
Not an ounce. I told you yesterday that I intended to see you again. And
again,
and again.”

“But why me?
I mean, there are a ton of other women out there you could see, again and again.” Just the thought made her sick but she squashed it down.

“If that was what I wanted, I’d be there. Now how about another bet?”

“
Puh
!
I don’t know. You made out like a bandit last time.”

“I did, didn’t I?” he chided. God, he was such a handsome man, built like a damn tank, yet so stylish he could grace the cover of the nearest billboard. In a word, he was a stunner. She still couldn’t figure out what the hell he wanted with her. Self esteem was not an issue for
Sydni
…except when it came to dating. Former lovers had really pulled a few on her that left her jaded and a bit on the frosty side. Yet, something about Drew made her melt.

“So, since I made out like a bandit last time, you come up with the trivia question. I
win,
I get dinner and a chance to get to know you.
Oh and endless kisses.”
He dipped his head and kissed her wrist. “You win, you get what you want.”

“But I don’t want anything.”
God, that
sounded petulant. She rolled her eyes at herself. Drew must have thought she was rolling them at him.

“I’m sure you can think of something. But leaving you alone isn’t an option. Not unless I really repulse you,
Syd
.”

Crap. Why’d he have to go and say that? Drew didn’t repulse her at all. In fact, the man intrigued her, attracted her. She’d just formed the thought in her head to say that if she won he’d find someone else to pester when he’d added that little caveat.
Sydni’d
always played by her own rules, set her own stage, yet something compelled her to let Drew define the pace of this game. Perhaps it was the fact that he’d just neatly plucked her only strategy right out of her hands.

“So what do you say,
Syd
?”

“Fine,” she agreed, her brain hastily scrambling for the toughest movie trivia question she could think of. And just as hastily, she lost the bet.
Again.

So why wasn’t she more upset that she’d just, in essence, landed herself a boyfriend? One who was really looking forward to getting to know
her.

In the biblical sense.
“Oh shut up,” she half-grinned, half-snarled to herself as the image of a off-balanced washing machine with her name plastered across the front of it popped into her mind. The man really did make her dizzy.

After lunch, Drew insisted on returning her to the exact spot he’d picked her up—her office. They strolled into
Expedex
, Inc. corporate headquarters, through the huge stainless steel and glass lobby and to the bank of shiny, silver elevators. The second the doors
snicked
closed,
Drew hit the button for the eighteenth floor. And
Sydni
found herself backed against a mirrored wall, effectively caged between Drew’s thick, cashmere-clad arms.

“Now,” he growled. God, she loved the growly thing he did when he held her close. “I believe you owe me a kiss or five,
Syd
.”

“What? Surely you weren’t serious about that whole endless kiss thing?”

“Wrong. Serious doesn’t begin to describe how I feel about you, woman.”

“But you don’t really know me,” she protested breathily. Hell, it sounded pitiful even to her ears.

“But that’s going to change, remember? Besides, I know plenty about you,” he whispered, lowering his head until they were practically nose to nose. “You’ve taken care of your sister and put her through college. You’re a successful woman with exquisite taste and style. You’re strong, giving, smart,
funny
.”

A light brush of soft lips over the skin just shy of her jaw sent a shiver vibrating across her collarbone.

“How can you know? I mean…”

“Just the fact that your sister thinks you’re second only to God says plenty about the kind of person you are. I’ve been asking her to formally introduce us for a year. She moves a bit slow, that one.”

Sydni
laughed,
then
sucked in a breath as she got a whiff of not just his cologne, but the man’s natural scent, just there at the crook of his neck. And when had he pulled her completely into his arms? More importantly, when had her feet moved to accommodate him?

Sydni’s
protests morphed into needy little whimpers when Drew proceeded to snatch the objection right out of her head with a kiss hot enough to make the nail polish on her toes liquefy. When he broke away, she was sucking wind, trying not to squirm from the zing shooting down between her thighs. It was enough to set her ablaze, make her want nothing more than the fulfillment of those endless kisses he’d finagled out of her.

“Dinner?” he suggested between nibbles and nips. Then he returned to his starting point, tasting her lip gloss in between short, panty breaths—mainly
her
short panty breaths
..

Dinner?
Why? They’d just had lunch. Besides, why bother with dinner when she could simply eat him up in four, well maybe six, big delicious bites. And Drew knew just how to work her. Knew which buttons to push.
Knew how to make her want more of the sensuous mouth driving her wild.

Something dinged in the back of her mind. Duh—the elevator sounded for each floor it passed.
Still, a few more levels to go.
Plenty of time for her to chase his tongue from one edge of his yummy mouth to the other.
All she needed was one more kiss. Yes, one more should do it.
Wait,
another.
And another.

God, the feel, the taste of his lips on hers was like caramel and vanilla heaven. The arms wrapped around her body were unyielding, strong, made her feel safe and secure, yet so unsteady it was downright disconcerting—as if the elevator plunged straight down instead of heading up to the eighteenth floor.

This man who touched her so tenderly, yet boldly, made her feel more alive than she had in years, almost as if she were outside of herself. Suddenly the warmth of his body eased away. The spell entwined around her senses dissipated. Well, sort of.

Sydni’s
eyes remained closed, arms looped around his neck.
Good gracious, get a-hold of yourself,
Sydni
. It’s just a kiss and he’s just a man.
Right?

“
Syd
?”

“Huh?” Were those her words whooshing around like that?

“Dinner tomorrow night?
I’ll pick you up at seven sharp.”

She was still trying to catch up to her lungs when the elevator doors slid open with a hiss. Drew shooed her out of the small space and out into the reception area. Gray eyes sparkled as the man watched her watching him through the shrinking space of the closing doors.

“Ms. Cannes, everything okay?”

Twirling around toward the voice,
Sydni
swallowed a surprised gasp at the knowing look on the receptionist’s face. Pulling her wits about her, she nodded to the woman then marched down the hall to her private suite of offices wondering how Drew managed to roll right over her and get exactly what he wanted. And how in the world would she keep him from doing it again on their date tomorrow night? More importantly, did she even want to?

Drew headed out early, glanced at
Sydni’s
car parked on the executive level as he passed by and recalled how she felt in his arms. During their cozy lunch this afternoon, the woman’s nearness crawled underneath his skin and wiggled until there was no way he could resist kissing her. Thank god for winning that bet. She’d probably fall out if she knew he’d totally guessed the answer while his gut danced around with nervousness at the possibility of him guessing wrong.

Planning out his next moves with
Sydni
in his head, Drew headed straight to the shopping district, pulled into a swanky shop on designer row. Parking quickly he jumped out of his car. The receptionist, a pleasingly plump, gray haired woman dressed to the nines, greeted him as he entered the glass double doors of the establishment.

“Hi,
Landy
,” he called with a wave.

“Hi yourself, handsome.
Go on back. She’s expecting you.”

“Thanks.”

The flirt blew him a kiss followed by a chuckle as he sent her one right back. After slipping into the new set of duds laid out in his personal dressing room, Drew headed into the fitting salon where
Charli
waited.

“So how was lunch?”
Charli
asked in a sing-song voice.

She tucked a few pins into the cuffs of the pants he wore then folded them under.

“It was interesting. Your sister is going to be a tough catch.
Stubborn.”

Charli
laughed heartily. “You have no idea.
You up to the task?”

“Are you kidding me? I’ve been waiting for a chance like this since I saw her the first time at that soiree she threw for you when you launched the new business. I’m up to it, all right,
Charli
.”

“Yep, my sister is as stubborn as a free-born mule. She’s also convinced that all she needs is work, work,
work
.”
Charli
left out the part about
Sydni
thinking Drew was simply too young for her. The man would just have to figure that one out on his own. And if
Charli
knew her handsome friend, he was exactly what
Sydni
needed—a man as stubborn and self-assured as
herself
.
Charli
bit the inside of her cheek to keep from cackling. God, she couldn’t wait to see the fireworks when these two got together.
Sydni
wouldn’t know what hit her!
Hee
hee
! But there was one thing she needed to say first.

“Look, Drew, I know you’ve been bugging me for a long time to hook you up with my big sis. But in all honesty, the reason I didn’t was because I’ve known you for years and I’m more than aware of the kind of women you’re typically seen with.”

Charli
knew she had his attention when he stopped fidgeting with the waistband she was adjusting and went completely still.

“The kind of women I’m usually seen with? What do you mean,
Charli
?”

“I mean they’re usually petite little perky blondes several years younger than the both of us. And my sister is anything but. I wasn’t sure you were serious before.”

“And now?” he asked, carefully, guarded.

“You’ve been bugging the hell out of me since you started working at the same company as her. All you talk about when we get together is
Sydni
. You ask about her.
Wonder about her.
Guess about her.
And it seems you haven’t dated in awhile. So I figured perhaps you were really serious.”

“Hell, now that I see her all the time, all I can think about is her. I know she’s not the type of woman I usually date, but I don’t give a shit. I want her.”

“For how long?”
Charli
asked pointedly.

“As long as she’ll have me.
The problem is getting her to the “have me” stage. I had to trick her into letting me stick around. Now I’ve got to figure out a way to keep her.”

“Why her, Drew? I mean, why
Syd
? And if you tell me you’ve got a sudden thing for black women I’m going to kick your ass,”
Charli
quipped.

“Everything about
Syd
,
Charli
.”
With that, heedless of the pins stuck in various places of his pants, he stepped down off the tailoring block and sat down in the nearest chair.
Charli
didn’t think she’d ever seen Drew look more intense. Not even when they took the bar exam together.

“
Charli
, I swear, this isn’t a simple fling for me. I’m old enough to know when someone has snagged my attention.
Sydni
not only snags it, she holds it. It was bad enough when I saw her at various functions with you. But now that I see her every day I find myself trying to run into her just so I can see her smile.
To watch her walk.
To hear her talk.
To hear her speak with such confidence to her peers, then listen to her crack a corny joke and show her non-executive side. I don’t even care which direction she’s going and I’m trying to find a reason to follow her there. Her skin is perfect, flawless,
smooth
like Dove chocolate. Her hair is always pulled up into a classy knot on top of her head. I’d love to take it down and roll her long
locs
around my wrist and…ouch!”