Man at Work (8 page)

They all decided to call it a night. Gabe
escorted the ladies back to the hotel’s posh entrance where the
valet drivers bought their cars around. Candace was still waiting
for her Lexus long after Toye and her sisters had departed. Gabe
stood with her near the glass doors at the front of the hotel.

“
I wonder what’s taking so
long,” she murmured. “I hope they haven’t lost my car.”

When Gabe stood beside her, she felt the
warmth of his body. He pointed to the sky. “Look at those stars.
Diamonds in the sky.”

She stared heavenward and her breath caught
at the dazzling display of stars. “Beautiful.”

“
Y’know, when I was a boy,
I wanted to be an astronomer.”

Candace couldn’t stop the giggle that
escaped her lips. “Really?”

“
Yeah. Is that so
crazy?”

“
I can’t see you as a
nerdy kid with your eyes glued to a telescope. Most boys want to be
police officers or firefighters.”

“
Well, what did you want
to be when you were little? I know you didn’t say to
yourself,
‘When I grow up, I wanna flip
houses’
.”

She laughed again. “No, but I was constantly
redecorating my Barbie Dream House.”

Gabe’s chuckle echoed in the air. “Now,
you’re making others’ dreams come true.”

“
I hope to be—if we can
meet this deadline.”

He stroked her cheek. “We’ll make the
deadline. You worry too much.”

“
I’ve had a lot to worry
about in life.”

“
Not tonight. Tonight,
you’re hanging with me.”

“
Excuse me?”

“
C’mon.” He grabbed her
hand as the valet pulled up in a sleek, black Ford truck. “My Lady,
your chariot awaits,” he said.

Her mouth dropped. “What happened to the
Sanford & Son truck?”

He cocked his head to the side. “What was
that?”

Damn, I can’t believe I said that aloud!

“
Um, I mean your red
truck. What happened to it?”

“
I gave it the night
off.”

Candace paused as a man in a black valet
uniform held the passenger side door open for her. “I can’t,” she
protested. “My car is still parked here.”

Gabe tipped the valet. “I’ll drop you back
here to get your car.”

“
I don’t
think…”

His fingertips stroked her languidly from
elbow to shoulder, sending a spark of desire through her. “Candy,
I’ve enjoyed myself more with you tonight than I can remember doing
in a long time. I’m not ready for it to end. And neither are you.
Let me take care of you tonight. I promise I’m worth it.”

“
Well, when you put it
like that, how can I say no?”

# # #

Gabe’s idea of taking care of her was both
terrifying and thrilling. Candace wasn’t afraid of heights, but she
didn’t go out of her way to get airborne either. So, when Gabe
drove to a heliport and parked in a nearby parking spot, she wasn’t
sure how to react.

“
Why are we stopping
here?” she asked.

“
I want to show you
something that can only be seen from the air.”

She stared, open-mouthed
at the chopper looming in the distance. Imposing blades perched
like enormous,
metal fingers
atop its roof. “Wait a minute. You know how to
fly that thing?”

“
So many questions, woman.
Don’t you ever just relax and let others do all the
planning?”

“
No.”

He laughed and shook his head before coming
around to the passenger side to open her door. “Well, that’s just
too bad. If you want to hang with me, you have to do exactly as I
say.”

Thirty minutes later,
Candace was strapped into the back seat of the spacious helicopter.
Gabe sat beside her, his fingers entwined with hers. The pilot,
whom Gabe had made prior arrangements with, sat up front and
executed a perfect vertical takeoff.
For
almost forty minutes, they hovered above the skyline, with Gabe
serving as the perfect tour guide, pointing out landmarks and other
special sights. Seeing the city lit up at night and from an aerial
view gave Candace a new appreciation for Miami. Gabe pointed out
the Seaquariaum, the American Airlines Sports Arena, Freedom Tower,
and Jungle Island Zoo. The glittering lights made everything seem
so magical.

“
Look
Gabe! I can see
Biscayne
Bay.” At thirty-five miles long, the moonlit preserve was
visible even from thousands of feet in the air.

“
Lemme see.” He leaned
over and peered over her shoulder to the bay below. He was so close
the clean smell of his cologne tickled her nostrils. Jeez, the man
looked good and smelled good. “Incredible,” he whispered against
the back of her neck. “Almost as incredible as the woman sitting
next to me.”

Staring out the window,
she closed her eyes and savored the sound of his deep voice. He
said such
beautiful
things.

The gentle kisses he dropped on her bare
shoulder practically made her melt. “You look so stunning tonight I
can’t take my eyes off you, Candy.” He punctuated his compliment by
nibbling a trail of kisses from her shoulder to the nape of her
neck.

“
Thank you. You don’t look
so bad yourself.” She really wanted to tell him he looked damn good
in all black, but she couldn’t think straight with his lips doing
such wickedly delicious acts.

His long fingers cupped her breasts,
lovingly fondling her nipples through the fabric of her dress. She
was ashamed when the buds immediately pebbled to life. The staccato
of her heartbeat increased as she turned to stare at him.

She darted a nervous glance at the pilot’s
back. “What about him?”

“
Don’t worry about him.
He’s hearing impaired. He won’t hear your whimpers of
delight.”

The space between her legs pulsed at Gabe’s
words. “Is he sight impaired too?”

Gabe leaned forward and closed the dark,
privacy curtain that separated the passenger cabin from the
cockpit. “He is now.”

Candace felt better. The
cabin was enveloped in darkness except for the
neon lights of downtown Miami
twinkling outside the window. She convinced
herself that the noise from the chopper blades would drown out any
sounds coming from the back of the cabin. Yet still, the pilot must
know something kinky was going on behind the curtain.

Gabe unbuckled her seatbelt and pulled her
into his lap. “Now, where were we?” he coaxed.

“
You were going to make me
whimper with delight.”

“
Oh, yeah.” His lips
descended on hers and she tasted faint vestiges of coffee as his
tongue swept across hers. Candace sighed into his mouth. The man’s
kisses were recipe for disaster. If they kept this up, she would be
laid out flat on the helicopter floor. As if proving her point,
Gabe cradled her in one arm while his other hand slid up her thigh,
wrinkling her silk dress in the process. The material would be
rumpled, but who gave a damn? Gabe’s touch was pure ecstasy.
Quivers of excitement launched deep in her abdomen as his strong
fingers dipped beneath the scalloped edge of her lace panties. She
spread her legs to allow him uninhibited access. When he slipped a
finger inside her, she gasped with pleasure.

“
Ssh,” he cooed. “Remember
the pilot. No noise.”

She struggled to speak. “I thought…you said
he was hearing…impaired.”

“
I might have exaggerated
a bit.”

“
Wha—” Her response was
cut off when he pushed his finger deeper inside her. Any further
distractions were forgotten as she succumbed to the erotic rhythm
of Gabe’s touch. He muffled her mewls of passion by covering her
lips with his. He overwhelmed her senses. The taste of him. The
smell of him. The sound of his rapid-fire breathing. The feel of
two of his thick fingers sliding in and out of her slick wetness.
She wantonly bucked her hips back and forth against his fingers,
squeezing the walls of her pussy with each motion. A white-hot heat
spiraled through her, setting her whole body on fire. She’d barely
known Gabe three weeks, yet she was allowing him to finger-fuck her
in a helicopter. As she surrendered to a mind-numbing orgasm, guilt
was the furthest emotion from her mind. She could only admit that
Gabe had been right about one thing: he had made her whimper with
delight.

# # #

Gabe stood with Candace on the balcony of
his suite on the thirtieth floor of the Eden Roc Hotel. No matter
how many times he stayed here, he never failed to be amazed by the
view of the ocean. He could think of no one he wanted to share this
with more than Candace. The restaurant below was lit up and the
black ocean stretched for miles. As Candace gazed at the scenery,
the ocean breeze lifted the ends of her blonde bob.

“
This view is gorgeous,”
she said.

He watched her face as she marveled at the
ocean-front view. Her lips were kiss-swollen from his inability to
keep his hands off her. Not for the first time tonight he felt the
stirrings of arousal in his trousers.

Thank goodness, he had the foresight to
reserve a room. But it hadn’t been totally by accident. All of this
was planned. He’d also paid the valet to delay getting Candace’s
car earlier. The extra moments had given him time to convince her
to go on the helicopter ride. He didn’t know what had gotten into
him. He’d never been that conniving when it came to women. Candace
was special. For some reason, he couldn’t get her out of his
system.

Sitting across from her at
dinner had been torture when all he wanted to do was strip that
sexy dress from her luscious curves and bury himself inside her.
And when he’d touched her in the helicopter, she was wet and ready
for him.
All for him
. The fact that he turned her on made his confidence
skyrocket.

As she watched the rolling tide of the
ocean, Gabe stood behind her and nibbled her ears and neck. Her
head fell back and he feasted on the column of her neck. He pressed
the growing hardness in his trousers against the cleft of her
buttocks, letting her know just how much he desired her. His
fingers gently tugged on the zipper at the back of her dress.
Unhurried, he unzipped the garment slowly, kissing each inch of her
back as it was exposed to him.

She trembled beneath him.

“
Cold?” his lips murmured
against her.

“
No. Excited.”

His heart pumped hard upon hearing those
words. He turned her around and stared into her eyes. “That makes
two of us.”

He sucked in a breath as her nimble fingers
began working the buttons of his shirt. A cool breeze whispered
across his chest as she parted the material. When her hands brushed
over the hard planes of his chest and landed on his nipples, heat
coiled in his abdomen. He fused his mouth to hers, plunging inside
and sucking her tongue with bold strokes. He could get lost in her
mouth. She was so warm and wet. He nibbled the corners of her lips,
and gently pulled on her bottom lip with his teeth.

“
Mmm,” he murmured. “I
wonder what your other lips taste like.”

She braced her hands on each side of his
face. “There’s only one way to find out.”

He led her to the suite’s spacious bedroom
and placed her in the center of the room. “Stay right here,” he
told her.”

Within seconds, he’d extinguished every lamp
in the room. Candace’s body was illuminated by the glow of the
half-moon spilling in from the terrace. The room was bathed in a
white, ethereal haze. They could see out, but no one could see
in.

“
Strip for me, Candy.” She
did as instructed, letting the already unzipped dress slide from
her voluptuous figure onto the floor. He drank in the sight of her,
his eyes roaming her nude body from head to toe. “Baby, your body
is beautiful.”

He liked the fact that she had a little meat
on her. He’d never been attracted to women who were all skin and
bones. Candace’s body was the prototype of what a woman should look
like. Gabe shrugged off his open shirt. He approached her wearing
only his trousers.

“
Oh, no,” she taunted.
“You’ve seen mine. Time to show me yours.”

Gabe chuckled. From the moment he saw her
strolling down the aisles at Sampson’s, he knew Candace would be
feisty. He did as she commanded. He had his trousers off quicker
than she could blink. When he pulled his boxers down, his erection
sprang forth like a flag on a windy day.

“
Damn,” she whispered
under her breath. “You said you were going to take care of me. By
the size of your equipment, I guess you were telling the
truth.”

“
You guess?” He stepped
forward and caressed her luscious breasts. “I can’t have you
guessing. I’ll have to leave no doubt as to my talents.”

Her fingers wrapped around his dick,
massaging the length of him. Her hands were magical, expertly
kneading the head and stroking his balls. He reined his ardor as
Candace used her hand to pump his erection. Good Lord! If she
didn’t stop, he would come right here in her hand.

He moved back from her reach and then dipped
his head low to pull one of her nipples into his mouth. He lavished
it with attention, swirling the dark bud around his tongue. He
licked it mercilessly, sucking the areola and tenderly biting the
nipple.

“
Umm,” she purred. “The
other breast is getting jealous. You don’t want to create a rivalry
between the two of them.”