Tempting Aquisitions (9 page)

As he began to move, her already sensitized body responded to him immediately and she matched his long, sure thrusts. The impossible pressure built again. How it could so quickly after her last orgasm she had no clue, but with each thrust of his body, she felt her own moving closer and closer to another release.

The hard lines of his back and buttocks bunched and rolled underneath her hands, his breathing heavy as he dragged them both closer and closer to the edge of the cliff and Keira uttered his name on a breathless whisper.

A hard cry rose up in her throat as her orgasm crested hard. She heard the echo of his own release as he buried himself in her body one last time, felt his rigid muscles contract and release as he sought fulfillment within her.

Quiet enveloped them as they both calmed, the rush of need changing into something more tender. Nathan shifted to his side of the bed and pulled her against him, the heavy weight of his arms settling around her waist. Small aftershocks still flooded her nerve endings and he ran light, lazy circles over her back as they shared the moment together.

Thoughts and emotions clamored through her mind, all screaming for attention in the silence. She had no regrets, but she couldn’t calm her racing mind.

“I’m really glad you dragged me away from the party.”

Nathan’s words caught her up short and she shifted her gaze to his. She couldn’t miss the clever light that danced in those bright blue irises.

“I dragged you?”

“You most certainly did. I was conducting any number of important business deals until you hauled me away like some conquering cavewoman, drunk on her own sexual power.”

A gasp fell from her throat. Although she’d never call herself a wild woman in the bedroom, she’d certainly slept with a few men through the years. And not one of them had ever attempted to joke after sex.

It was a surprising facet of Nathan’s personality, one that sent a shot of warmth to the center of her heart. Without thinking, she rose up from his arms, straddling his hips. “Drunk on my own sexual power?”

“Oh, yes. I was helpless to resist you.”

“Seems we have a different version of the story, pal.”

“Maybe you can refresh my memory. Remind me how it all went down.”

Keira didn’t miss the innuendo, or the tightening of his hips as she deliberately ground herself against him.

“Maybe I can do more than that.”

With slow, measured movements, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his chest, flicking her tongue over one nipple. His sharp intake of breath confirmed his interest, and she did it once more before moving up to his neck, then on to his ear.

His hands shifted on her hips, settling her more firmly against his erection and she marveled at how quickly she could want him again. With a mischievous smile, she fanned her breath against his ear and snaked her hand between them. “Never encourage a woman with the upper hand to show you how it all went down.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” His tone was husky as he lifted his hips to meet her touch. “Seems like I have a particular aptitude for being taught.”

With a carefree giggle, Keira set out to show him exactly how much they could learn together.

…

Keira walked toward her gate at McCarran Airport on Monday morning with a jaunty step and half of the large latte she’d ordered still in its paper cup. Despite minimal sleep, she was riding the high two consecutive nights of pleasure could give a woman. Even coffee had become unnecessary. Almost.

The rest of the weekend had passed in a blur, the usual rush of the trade show taking a backseat to the rush of being with Nathan. True to his word, he hadn’t interfered with her work and had even gone down to help her with last-minute preparations on Sunday morning before the floor reopened to guests.

If he’d inadvertently scrambled her brain by stealing moments throughout the day, well, she could multitask. And be silently grateful the last day of the show was running like a well-oiled machine.

Heat flooded her cheeks as she remembered the kisses Nathan had lavished on her in a small prep area off the main floor sixty seconds before she had to go out and introduce one of the hottest chefs on the Strip for the last demonstration of the day.

With a light sigh, she pushed the delicious image to the side and tried to focus on the day’s meetings instead of her rampaging hormones. Her next flight was a short ride to San Francisco to meet with a key West Coast account, and then she’d head home from there. The quiet cab ride to the airport had given her time to think, offering a small measure of distance from the passion that simply seemed to take over whenever she and Nathan were near each other. With a small, secret smile, she acknowledged she had no regrets over spending the weekend wrapped up in Nathan. Not one.

“Keira!”

The familiar voice pulled her up short as it broke through the tinkling of the slot machines in the airport concourse.

“Dad?”

The sight of her father, his large frame striding toward her with his arms outstretched, was so jarring that she wondered momentarily if she had actually fallen asleep and was dreaming the encounter.

“Hi, baby.” He enfolded her in a hug, the heavy scent of his cologne enveloping her. “How are you?”

“I’m good, Dad.” She pulled back, the tote in one hand and the coffee in the other a convenient excuse not to wrap her arms back around him in kind. “Real good.”

“How’d the show go this weekend?”

The urge to snap at him that he could have easily come and seen for himself rose up, but she bit back the words with a hard snap of her teeth. “Really great. Biggest show we’ve ever put on, lots of happy advertisers.”

He shook his head. “I will never understand what these marketing people find so interesting about standing around a booth all weekend, but that’s their choice.”

“Um, about thirty thousand excited potential buyers is a big enticement to stand around a booth all day. We’ve got a tile company that’s putting out a new waterproof offering, and they’re now sold out for the next six months.”

The general disdain he felt for the family business flashed in his gaze before he must have remembered to pull it back. “Great. Good.”

“So what are you doing here?”

The disdain vanished as he took note of a tall blonde who stood in front of a souvenir shop a few yards down the concourse. “Amy wanted a spa weekend, and I’ve been anxious to hit up the blackjack tables. We decided to make a weekend of it.”

“Great. Did you win?”

“Do I ever win?” He hid the response with a bright guffaw, but she knew the truth. Her father rarely won when he gambled, nor did he know when to cut his losses. It was part of what had made him a poor leader of McBride Media for so many years.

“Oh. Well. Hopefully you had fun getting away anyway.”

“Sure did.”

The announcement for her flight came up, and Keira took the call as a lifeline. “That’s my flight. I need to get going.”

“Don’t you want to meet Amy?” His grin fell and she had the fleeting impression of a disappointed little boy on Christmas morning who didn’t get the present he’d been hoping for.

“I’d love to, but I’ve got to make a quick call before we take off. I should do it from my seat so I can look at my notes.” She reached up and pressed a kiss to her father’s cheek. “We’ll set something up when we’re both back in the city.”

“Sure, baby. Sure thing.”

He wrapped her in one more hug and Keira vaguely wondered what could be so wrong with her that she couldn’t muster up even the slightest interest in hugging him back.

Chapter Seven

Nathan walked through the new Las Vegas offices, pleased with what his team had put together. The space was sleek and efficient, reflecting the essence of Maverick Capital. It would be a far better option than working out of a construction trailer, and it would provide the right sort of environment to meet with clients when they came out to see the property.

Before he could reach his private office, a loud voice bounced off the lobby walls.

“Couldn’t stay away, could you?”

Nathan turned to see Holt Turner standing in his way. “Seems I should be saying that to you. What are you doing here?”

“I extended last week’s stay through the weekend.” Holt slipped his hands into his slacks and took a seat on the edge of the large desk that fronted reception. “Heard you were in town yourself.”

“I was.”

“If I’d have known, I could have hooked you up with some fight tickets. It was a crush on Saturday night.”

Nathan’s thoughts filled with how he’d spent his Saturday night—wrapped up in Keira—and knew he’d had the better evening. “I had plans.”

“With Keira McBride, if the rumors are true.”

“Since when do you believe in rumors, old boy?”

Holt’s direct stare never wavered. “When the rumor is backed up with photographic evidence on Page Six that my office assistant e-mails to me, I’m inclined to believe it’s true.”

The fact his own assistant hadn’t given him a heads up on the photo didn’t sit well with Nathan, but he had no interest in debating the point with Holt. Even if the man was his best friend, some things were meant to be private.

Very private.

“I’ve been spending some time with her. McBride Media had their annual trade show out here. I wanted to see the company in action.”

“Get an idea of what you’re in for when you buy them out?”

Nathan couldn’t put his finger on why Holt’s words chafed, or why the thought of completing his plans left the mental equivalent of a blister. He pushed it aside. “More like get a sense of what I’m looking to invest in.”

“Invest? Did you suddenly change your plans for McBride?”

“No.”

“Then when has a profitable company you can break up and sell off been something you plan on making an investment in?”

“Figure of speech.”

Nathan knew Holt’s shrewd gaze missed nothing, but gave his friend points for his equally-shrewd sense of when to keep his mouth shut as the man shifted topics. “Since you’re here, care to join me for dinner with a prospect? I’ve got a line on an athletic company that may be interested in having a small store in the new hotel. They want to make it a flagship property, setting up customers up with a full technology package that matches to the products. Sneakers that talk to your phone and tell you how far you ran, that sort of thing.”

The words were nearly out, that he needed to get back to New York, before Nathan checked himself. He could easily leave after the dinner and take an all-night flight home. Even if it meant he’d miss Keira this evening.

“I’d be happy to join.”

Holt’s shrewd stare held his for a long moment before Holt nodded. “I’ll see you later, then. Susan will text you the location.”

“Later, then.”

Nathan saw his friend out and then headed for his office. Restless energy hummed under his skin and beat an unpleasant tune. He’d nearly missed out on a business opportunity so he could get home early to see Keira.

Shaking off the discomfort, he pulled out his thin laptop and set up at his desk. His assistant had already texted him the technology passwords for the new office and he was up and functional in less time than it took to pour a cup of coffee.

The quiet of the office surrounded him and, for once, Nathan appreciated the lack of motion. He’d use the time to get some work done and shake off the malaise of whatever it was that gripped him with inaction. And if the small kernel of discomfort that settled in his gut nagged that there
was
something different, well, he’d work until he’d gotten past it.

…

Keira switched off the phone, the call she’d told her father she needed to make now behind her. With brisk motions, she stowed the phone, then pulled a file from her bag to refine a few of her presentation points before the meeting.

When she was still staring at the same paragraph a half hour later, the plane well on its way to San Francisco, Keira closed the folder and let her thoughts have free rein. How did her father always manage to leave her feeling cold and disappointed? And why did she give him the power to leave her cold and disappointed?

He wasn’t going to change. No matter how badly she wanted him to, no matter how badly her mother had wished for it, Andrew McBride was never going to be anything other than what he was. Self-centered and willfully ignorant of his responsibilities. Even Amy wouldn’t last long in her father’s world, Keira knew. No matter how young or beautiful, good old Andy couldn’t make a commitment to anyone. Not his family and certainly not the bimbette du jour.

Without warning, an image of Nathan rose up in her mind’s eye. For all intents and purposes, the stories about him weren’t all that different from her father. Nathan was attentive to her, but she assumed he treated all the women he spent time with the same way.

To think he felt differently for her wasn’t the smartest path to tread, especially when she had such a shining example of playboy behavior so close to home.

Nathan’s not your father.

That small voice in the back of her mind was strong and insistent as she reached for coffee. With a detachment she didn’t feel, she tried to honestly assess her personal situation. Nathan had given her no indication his intentions weren’t honest. Neither had he behaved in a way that suggested things between them were going to have any level of permanence.

Besides, when did she start wanting permanent anyway?

It couldn’t have been in the forty-eight hours they’d spent together.

And it certainly wasn’t when he was parading his intentions about taking over McBride in front of the New York financial community.

So when had her thoughts changed?

And how could she put the genie back in the bottle now that the idea of something permanent had put down roots in that quiet place inside she guarded with fierce intensity?

…

Nathan plugged in his charger and settled his mobile phone on the edge of his desk. He hadn’t been off the thing all morning and the urge to rustle up a cup of coffee and an early lunch had him ignoring the voice mails that had piled up while he was on his last call. His fingers also itched to call Keira, so to avoid the temptation to give in and talk to her, he was going to ignore the phone. So why did the damn urge to hear her voice nearly have him dialing her once again?

She hadn’t been out of his thoughts for longer than fifteen seconds at a stretch, which was also the reason he’d not yet responded to the e-mails from his legal team, pressing for next steps on the McBride takeover.

He meant what he’d said to her on Saturday night. Work and personal were separate. They had to be, and he had every intention of taking over McBride Media. But regardless of his goals, he wasn’t out to ruin the company. Or the women who’d almost returned it to its former glory.

He was determined to ensure a place for Keira and her sisters. Even if the company were divided up, the products that thrived were going to need top senior staff, and who better than the women who knew the products best to stay on board and run them?

Footsteps in the outer lobby caught his attention and he walked up front to greet whoever had found him, grateful for the distraction. They hadn’t publicized the new location yet so it was likely Holt, back to give him a hard time about something else. Or to drag his ass to lunch, which was the only reason his step hitched briefly when he came face-to-face with his father in the lobby.

West Harrison inclined his head as he glanced around the oversize reception room. “Nathan.”

“Father.”

“Heard you set up shop out here. Since I was in town, I thought I’d come see for myself.”

It briefly crossed his mind to ask why, but Nathan held his tongue, refusing to give the old man any more of an upper hand than he already commanded by the surprise attack.

“The piece of property you closed on was a good, solid choice. You’ve got a premium lot on the Strip and easy access from the highway. Nice investment.”

“Thank you.” Nathan was willing to cede the next point in favor of assuaging his curiosity. “However, since the deal was just closed, I’m not quite sure how you came to find out about it. The formal press release won’t go out until the end of this week.”

West’s eyes flashed toward him. “It pays to have a reporter staked out at the city government offices. Amazing what you can pick up on by following local politics.”

“Yes, it is amazing.”

“Heard you were in town this weekend, spending some time with one of the McBride girls.”

Once again, Nathan fought the urge to rise to the bait. The question wasn’t casual. And it wasn’t asked without some agenda.

“Last time I checked, Keira McBride has long since graduated from high school. She’s a businesswoman, Father, and a damn good one.”

“Curious way to spend your time. Women aren’t interested in taking second place to a man’s business interests.”

“In my experience, women don’t like being second place to anyone. And since I don’t, either, I’m hardly one to toss blame.”

West’s eyes narrowed at the not-so-subtle barb and he turned to walk around the room, making a show of reading the framed press releases already on the walls. Nathan had always been low on the man’s priorities and his mother even lower.

“Women mess with a man’s focus, Nathan. It’s no secret you’re after her company.”

“It was never meant to be a secret, but if it had been, broadcasting it in your flagship newspaper ensured it wouldn’t stay that way. And my focus is just fine.”

“Is it? The paperwork to her board of directors was supposed to be filed today. My reporters haven’t heard hide nor hair of it yet.”

“My business interests don’t concern you.”

“Everything you do concerns me! You’re my son.”

“Careful how you use that word, Father. It might make me think you cared.”

“You’ve made a name for yourself. A reputation you can be damn proud of. Are you going to throw it away on a woman who could ruin all you’ve worked for?”

“And just how could she do that?”

“You know damn well deals can be blocked. If she can convince the board you’ve colluded with other major shareholders, she can cross-file against you. And mark my words, if she manages that, don’t think your reputation won’t suffer for it. If she finds a way to take you down, you can kiss your career good-bye.”

“I haven’t colluded.”

“You’ve been in talks with other major shareholders, and if you haven’t crossed every
T
and dotted every
I
, she can use it against you or at least stir up enough questions by the SEC you’ll be mired in this for years. It’s no secret you’ve spent more than a little time with several major pension managers in the last month. Persuading them to see things your way, no doubt.”

“I know how to do my job, and I’ve acted above reproach.”

The old man’s eyebrows rose. “So romancing the CEO is above reproach?”

When he didn’t reply, his father simply dug his heels in further. “Sex and power are always related. I’ve seen it happen, Nathan. You’ll be a joke, and all you’ve worked for? All of it will be tainted because you couldn’t keep it in your pants.”

“While I appreciate this little father-son chat, save it for your other son. I don’t need your advice, and I sure as hell don’t need you messing in my personal affairs.”

“I know the damage a woman can cause, Nathan. Don’t make the same mistake I did.”

Nathan wasn’t sure if it was the hard edge to West’s words or the layer of guilt that shone from his eyes, but it all suddenly made sense.

“You’re talking about my mother.”

“Damn straight I am.”

Without conscious thought, Nathan leaped, slamming his father against the wall. “You have no right to talk about her. To even think about her. You made your choice a long time ago. About both of us. You can’t change that now.”

“Maybe I made the wrong choice.”

“That’s bull.” Although the anger still brewed in his veins, he released his hold on his father and stepped back. “You never cared about her. Never cared that you ruined her.”

“I loved her in my own way.”

“You had a damn funny way of showing it. Now get out.”

“You can’t have both, Nathan. It’s Keira or her company. Don’t forget that.”

West turned on his heel and left. As the door closed behind him, Nathan narrowed his gaze on a large urn on a stand next to the door. The urge to lift the heavy object and throw it against the wall briefly flitted through his mind, but he ignored it.

Violence wouldn’t solve the raging storm in his gut. Only action would.

With deliberate movements, he straightened the framed articles that had been dislodged when he’d slammed his father against the wall. And with equally calm movements, he walked back to his desk and picked up his phone. He nearly set the phone back down as an image of Keira, her eyes shut in sleep and her dark hair spread over his pillow, took root in his mind’s eye. Despite the power of that image, another one rode him harder.

His mother’s sobbing, heard from outside her bedroom door. The desperate smiles she couldn’t hide from West when the man chose to visit them. And the anger that had driven her when Nathan had denied his father’s offer of a job after college. Every one of those images, and so many more he’d long buried, lived deep inside and pushed him on, like a small ember always lingering and ready to burst into flame at a moment’s notice.

He’d spent his life cultivating his position in the world, one deal at a time.

He pulled up his lawyer’s number from his phone, pushing images of Keira more fully to the back of his mind.

“File the paperwork on McBride. I want a meeting with the board of directors tomorrow.”