Satin Pleasures (8 page)

“You’re sure it will work?”

“Nothing’s sure in this volatile business climate, but, yes, I think it will increase foot traffic and draw customers into our stores.”

Laura’s lips pursed into a pout.
“I still can’t use anything like a bazaar.”

Refusing to look too close at her motivation—she certainly didn’t care Dan hadn’t used her given name in that provocative, come-hither tone—Tess broke in. “Of course you can, Laura. Place your retail supplies outside the door. Set up a manicuring table and give customers a special rate.
If you want to go all out, raffle off a complete makeover for some lucky woman.”

“Once you bring attention to your services,” Dan agreed, “your customers will come back.”

Laura batted her eyelashes at him. “Maybe we can get together over coffee, and you can give me a few more ideas.”

Ideas weren’t what Tess wanted to give her. A swift kick to an ample area came to mind. How dare the woman use this forum as her own personal dating service? “I’d like a show of hands. Who isn’t completely satisfied with the marketing program I’ve outlined?”

Only half a dozen hands went up, Laura’s among them. But, of those, two were major retailers and one was an anchor store. It was their profits she most needed to salvage!

Resigned to another rash of eighteen hour workdays, she kissed her weekend plans with her
parents
goodbye. “I’ll be happy to address each of your concerns,” she told the rebelling ranks. “Either
talk
with me before you leave today or call for an appointment.”

Several nodding heads told her there were others with doubts that hadn’t raised their hands. She fingered Dan’s stress card in her skirt pocket, tempted to pull it out. Not to give it back, as she’d intended when she placed it there this morning, but to test it once again.

Yet, she knew pleasant thoughts wouldn’t begin to calm the sea of acid now churning in her belly. She hadn’t a clue where to shake more time from her schedule. One thing was clear, though. Longer hours would become the rule not the exception if, when, she got her promotion. She’d better get used to it.

Not that her mind didn’t stage its own mini-rebellion. Her plate was full. She’d been fighting headaches and indigestion for months. And, although she spoke on the phone with her parents several times a week, she hadn’t seen them in over a month. Was it any wonder they’d begun to suspect something was wrong?

With a sigh, she crushed the mutiny. This promotion was vital to her career, critical to her father’s health. She had no choice. First, she’d clean up this little mess. Then she’d hit her directors again and again, until the shopping center was operating the way it should. Finally, somehow, she’d find a way to make the next Sunday brunch at her parents’ house to smooth over their worry about her.

Who needed five hours of sleep anyway?

***

Tess knew right away, she was dreaming. A lowly
Thorgram
Group manager with one fingernail on the next promotional rung did not openly defy her directors about company policy. And, she frowned, it would never occur to her to wear black silk stockings with a strapless, red sequin sheath to the office. Thankfully, she could do anything she wanted in her dreams.

A small smile played with her mouth, making her Vermilion Passion lipstick shine more appealingly. Maybe her subconscious had an idea of worth. She’d tried about everything else in her bid for cooperation from her superiors. Taking a step backward, she allowed the scene to unfold in her mind.

From her perch on the edge of her desk, Tess smiled at the glazed expression on Mr.
Thorgram’s
face. The CEO sat before her in her big swivel chair while her shoeless foot worked its way up his pant leg. The old codger, her worst critic among the directors, probably hadn’t seen this much leg in the past thirty years. She wasn’t sure how much he could take before he keeled over, but she was determined to sway him to her way of thinking.

This time, the bugger would pour her a cup of coffee!

Her smile faltered when the scene melted, coalescing into something new. Her toes, sensitized by the feel of silk against her skin, were no longer skimming
Thorgram’s
leg, but caught in the firm grip of a large masculine hand. She looked into Dan McDonald’s hot gaze seconds before he stood, swept her neat stacks of papers from the desk beneath her and laid her back against the bare cherry wood top.

Her legs wrapped around him as she lifted into his kiss without a whimper of debate. Their lips locked. Tongues mated. A tangled mix of tastes and scents assailed her senses.
Coffee and peppermint.
Woodsy aftershave and clean male.
Bittersweet chocolate.
She moaned. Reality was never this good.

Tess moaned again when she woke up and stared directly into turbulent, sea green eyes. “Sweet mercy, you’re real!”

Dragging her fingers from Dan’s hair, she scrambled off her office couch, her breasts heaving.
With embarrassment.
With unfulfilled desire.
Her subconscious had a hell of a lot to answer for…as soon as it stopped laughing. “I’m sorry that I, that you—”

Staggered by the force of Tess’s passion, Dan rose from his kneeling position and spoke without thinking. “I’m not.”

Her tousled hair, mussed linen suit, and startled eyes caught at something deep inside him. Caught and yanked hard. He’d gently touched her shoulder to alert her to his presence, and she’s assaulted him with a knockout kiss that ripped an erotic path to his toes and back to places he dare not think about without a bedroom nearby.

Watching her walk in stocking feet behind the protection of her desk, he muttered. “I’m a firm believer in dessert after dinner.
The sweeter, the better.”

Tess’s quick glance told him he should have spoken more quietly. “I didn’t mean to kiss you like that.”

A little devil tweaked Dan’s curiosity. “You didn’t mean to kiss me? Or you didn’t mean to kiss me like that?”

“I didn’t mean to kiss you at all! I was thinking of someone else.” Tess glared at her swivel chair, as if expecting to find it occupied, before she dropped into it. “What are you doing here, Dan?”

He wished he knew. The reminder about her lover, Anthony, was the slap in the face he needed. “We missed you at the restaurant.”

“Oh, no.
I was supposed to—”

“
Attend
A
Touch of Silk & Satin
’s
pre-opening dinner party.”

It irritated him he’d noticed her empty chair tonight.
That his interest in the celebration waned once he realized she wasn’t going to show up.
He’d spent the evening battling between an order to put her from his head and his need to check on her. Need won. The Tess he knew would never blow off a business dinner.

Whether he had a right to or not, he was concerned about her. If the shadows under her eyes were any indication she needed sleep a lot more than the meal she’d missed. “It’s after eleven, Tess. Why are you still here?”

She stiffened. “How’d you get in? I locked the office after everyone left.” Her brows descended in puzzlement. “Or was that last night?”

This woman needed a keeper. “The doors were not locked,” he said, his voice sharp. “Anybody could have barged in here to find you alone in these back offices.”

Tess bolted to her feet. “Nobody did, so stop yelling. If I need help, I’m perfectly capable of screaming.”

Walking around the desk, Dan blocked her exit. “The mall is empty, except for the four-man maintenance crew and one lone security officer.”

He drew close enough to feel the silky warmth radiating off her skin. His tone softened, but managed to sound more menacing. “Right now, those five big, strong men are having coffee together in the food court halfway across the mall. I saw them when I drove around here.

“So, scream. Let’s see how long it takes them to hear you.”

“Stop it, Dan.” She glared at him. “You don’t have to scare me to make your point.”

He clenched his fingers to prevent them from gathering her to him. He was afraid he’d never let her go again, and he’d already seriously overstepped the bounds of their relationship. “You should be scared,” he growled. “If I were your Anthony, I’d wring your pretty neck for taking such risks.” Then, he’d drag her off to bed where she could get some sleep...eventually.

Turning his back on the forbidden images that sentiment provoked, he walked back to the coffee table in front of the couch. When he returned, he set a Styrofoam container and matching cup on her desk. “The restaurant boxed up your prime rib. There’s chocolate cake in there, too. I didn’t know how you liked your coffee, so it’s black.
Decaf.”

Tess looked at his offerings, then at him. “I don’t know what to say.”

She could ask him to stay and talk with her while she ate. She could say she wanted him as much as he wanted her. She could tell him she was free so he could draw her back to the plush comfort of the couch and kiss
her
this time. He had this insane, primitive urge to eradicate every possibility of being mistaken for another man again.

He cleared his throat when he saw a flash of vulnerability in her eyes. Damn. “Say you’ll lock the door behind me when I leave,” he ordered gently.

“I’ll lock the door behind you when you leave.”

He stared a minute longer. Then, he forced himself to walk away. Double damn.

***

It was only mid-afternoon and Tess was ready to cry ‘uncle.’ She’d hardly slept a wink last night, her dreams punctuated with irritated merchants, demanding surgeons, and wistful fantasies of getting stranded in the oddest places alone with Dan. The last thing she needed was a trying day.

Today’s series of mishaps began when she left for work without her briefcase. She’d run back up four flights of stairs to her apartment, and then realized her keys were locked in the car ignition. Finally arriving at the office, her security chief waited with a graffiti artist he’d collared. By the time the police departed with the vandal, her schedule was shot and she was thoroughly frazzled. The hysterical leather goods manager who cornered her to report a mainline pipe burst over her store and ruined three racks of high-ticket merchandise was simply icing on the cake.

Still, she felt guilty slipping into Dan’s store hours later than planned. The grand opening ceremony was long past, but she was glad to see the boutique was still busy. Dan, his aunt, and two sales clerks were occupied with customers, allowing Tess the opportunity to catch her breath and skim an envious eye over the merchandise.

She immediately spotted several items she wanted to add to her small collection. Handed a bulging wallet, Tess could easily go crazy in
A Touch of Silk & Satin
. Lingerie was one of the few vices she cultivated, although more sporadically than she liked. With every free penny earmarked for her father’s upcoming surgery, luxuries had fallen down her priority list.

Mary
O’Shaunessy
came down the aisle to her side. “Tess, it’s good to see you.”

“I’m sorry I missed the ribbon-cutting.”

“Things come up.” Her gaze swept the store. “We had a crowd at the door when we opened, and it hasn’t slowed down yet. The response is better than we’d projected.”

Testing the fabric of the midnight blue, bikini panties in front of her, Tess sighed. “You carry such beautiful merchandise you’ll be expanding into the next bay within a year.”

Mary laughed. “Wouldn’t that twist
VanAllen’s
drawers into a knot? The old coot won’t accept his profits might soar with us next door. Everyone knows delicate underwear and jewels go together.”

Tess chuckled at the thought of Claude
VanAllen’s
face when he heard about his new neighbor. If he wasn’t retiring and closing the business next year when his lease expired,
Thorgram
Group might have some serious problems with the man. She hoped the next tenant would prove more amenable. She hoped there
was
a new tenant. Thanks to the current economy, she already had retail bays she couldn’t fill!

“Speaking of delicate underwear, Tess.”
Mary’s voice was loud in the sudden quiet around them. “Your order arrived this morning. Do you want to pick it up, now?”

Glancing across the room in time to see Dan watching them, her cheeks flamed. “Uh...that would be great.”

Another customer approached for assistance and, seeing Mary’s indecision, Tess assured the older woman her own order could wait. Mary wouldn’t hear of it.

Before leaving Tess’s side, she called to her nephew. “Dan, there’s a prepaid special order on the inventory table. Would you get it? It’s tied in a box, so you’ll have to open it. Tess needs to inspect it.”

He disappeared before Tess could react. She considered crawling into the merchandise drawer at her feet, but knew it was too late to hide. Sharing her lingerie preferences with Dan would not be her first choice; it was hard enough dealing with the man as a business acquaintance without him knowing what she wore next to her skin.