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His words were nothing less than the truth. He had to give Alexander props for the mistress thing. It was so much easier than dating. No coy games or subtleties—just full-on lust. He liked it. He didn’t expect to be keeping mistresses full-time in the future, but the more he thought about the idea, the more he liked it.
“I want you, too. What else?”
“I will pay your bills. I might need you to accompany me to a few social events, but given that you are writing an article about me perhaps we should keep that to a minimum?”
“Why? Reporters follow their subjects all the time,” she said. “But if I agree to this, I don’t want anyone to ever know about our arrangement. I think moving into your place would be a bad idea. There will be doormen and maids who will know I’ve stayed there.”
“What’s the alternative?”
“You can come to my house,” she said.
“You have neighbors, right? The risk of discovery is just as great. Perhaps you should just disclose that we are dating and let the cards fall where they may after that.”
“I’d have to ask my boss,” she said. “Actually, that sounds like the best option. Most people won’t guess that we have any other arrangement.”
“Exactly. A win-win. You get your story, I get your body and we both leave happy.”
She tipped her head to the side, staring at him askance. “Happy?”
“I think so,” he said. And he’d be in control of the article. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of this before.
“Okay, so I want two different stories from you. The first is strictly about the dating industry and your involvement with the venture. I’ll include the stuff you mentioned earlier about vetting gold diggers, that sort of thing.”
“Fine. That’s no problem at all,” he said, glancing at his calendar to see what would have to be moved so he could spend the rest of the day with Nichole. In her arms. It looked like the mistress deal was in the bag.
“The second story will be about the effect your father’s betrayal has had on your own dating habits and maybe your sister’s. I think it’s interesting that she is the home guru yet single.”
“No.”
“No? To what part?” she asked.
“All of it. I’m not talking about my father. I’m certainly not talking about Jane.”
“I want two stories,” she said.
“I will not talk about my private life,” he said. “There’s no merit to it other than gossip and you said you weren’t that type of reporter.”
“I’m not. I think it’s a human-interest story. There are readers out there who want to know what happened to you. They watched you grow up—”
“Too bad. I’m afraid that’s a deal breaker for me,” he said.
She retreated around the desk, back to the guest chair. He could tell her mind was going one hundred miles an hour trying to come up with something else to tempt him. But he knew the mistress deal was over. He wasn’t going to talk about his father—ever.
He never had and never wanted to. His father was nothing more than part of a past that Conner had already forgotten. “I think we’re through here.”
“Are we?” she asked. “I’m willing to settle for a different type of story.”
“The one on dating?” he asked.
“Definitely, but also one on you. Maybe as a corporate raider,” she said. “You have done some amazing things with failing companies.”
“Yes, I have. But that type of article is more suited to the business pages than the lifestyle section that you write for,” he said.
She sighed.
“What’s your decision, Nichole? Will you be satisfied with the one article from me in exchange for being my mistress?” he asked.
At this point it was all down to her. He’d live up to his end of the bargain, but he knew there were lines that he’d never allow her to cross. And seeing the way she interviewed him he knew that he’d have to be careful not to reveal too much. He also knew that he was playing a dangerous game by bringing her into his home because reporters were never really off the record.
She wouldn’t be satisfied with just one interview with him and one article. But she knew there was more than one way to get what she wanted. And for now it seemed that she should retreat and give this some thought.
It was easy to say that it didn’t matter to her if she slept with Conner in exchange for the information she needed. She was a sophisticated, new-millennium woman, but the truth of the matter was she was a bit old-fashioned. And though she often told her friends that she liked to keep her personal life light, so it didn’t interfere with her professional life, she knew that deep inside she was afraid to let anyone too close to her.
Living with Conner, even for only a month, would jeopardize that. She was afraid that once she saw what she’d been missing all these years, she might want more.
“I have to think this over,” she said. “It’s not a decision I can make easily.”
“I can respect that,” he said. “To be honest, I didn’t expect you to agree to it.”
“Then why did you make the offer?” she asked.
He shrugged. “There’s something about you that brings out impulsive instincts.”
“I feel the same way about you,” she said. He was different than other men. It wasn’t just the wealth and the upbringing that he’d had. It wasn’t just that she thought she’d known him from the background research she’d done. It was that she’d been surprised by how different he was than she’d expected.
He gave her a half smile that she was coming to realize was his only way of smiling. He didn’t give much away when it came to emotions. He’d admitted to wanting her, but that was lust and she suspected he’d put it down to chemistry. But his real feelings he kept buttoned up.
She glanced at her watch, surprised that she’d taken up thirty minutes of his time. It felt like she’d just arrived. That should be another warning to her. She wasn’t herself around him.
“I should be going. I’ll get back to you in a few days to let you know my decision.”
He stood up and came around his desk, holding his hand out to her. She took it in hers, realizing that although they’d kissed they’d never shook hands. Unsurprisingly, his handshake was firm, conveying confidence.
But it also made her want more. She wanted him to touch her as he had earlier on her leg. She couldn’t believe she was going to walk out the door when she wanted him as badly as she did.
“Are you sure I can’t change your mind?” he asked as he rubbed his thumb over the back of her knuckles.
“No, I’m not at all sure. But this seems like the kind of thing I really need to think about,” she said.
“Thinking is going to overcomplicate it. No one has to know what’s between us. How is it any different than a relationship?”
“The agreement. We’d both know that we aren’t just dating,” she said.
“It’s more of a commitment than most relationships.”
“Most of yours?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“How many dates do you usually have?” she asked. Thinking that she wanted to know personally, but also testing her theory that his father had damaged some relationship skills in Conner.
“Two. You?” he asked.
“Um … about the same. I tend to seek out men who aren’t looking for anything long term.”
“Why?” He still held her, his thumb making those maddening circles on the back of her hand.
“My career. I don’t want anything to derail it.”
“Interesting that you are going to walk away from me and the interview that could rocket your career to the next level,” he said.
“It is interesting,” she said. “But I’m not sure that we’d be okay even if my boss knew we were dating. I can’t take a chance of losing everything that I’ve worked so hard for.”
She pulled her hand away. “I … would you reconsider the one-kiss-to-one-question ratio?”
“Not for the long term,” he said.
She arched her eyebrow at him. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t want you to walk out that door without having one last kiss with you,” he said. “I know that once you get back to your office and have time to mull my offer over—you’ll more than likely decide I’m not worth the risk.”
She suspected by the way he’d worded it that he’d heard that at some time in his past. Was it only his father’s secret family that had soured Conner on relationships or was there more to it?
“I doubt I’d ever think you weren’t worth the risk,” she said impulsively.
“You already do. Or you wouldn’t be leaving,” he said.
“Touché,” she said. She wanted so much more than what he’d offered her. She saw in him a man she could invest herself in. He was a mass of contradictions and she knew that she shouldn’t take a chance on him. Shouldn’t let him into her heart and mind, but she was afraid it was too late.
“So one last kiss,” she said at last.
“Yes,” he said, pulling her off balance and into his arms.
Her handbag fell to her feet as she put her hands on his shoulders and looked up into that bluer-than-blue gaze of his. She let herself get lost in his eyes. Forgot that she’d come here for business, but was going to leave with only pleasure.
It was worth it. This little forbidden delight that was Conner Macafee and his kisses.
She leaned up toward him as his mouth slowly descended to hers. He was taking his time, she realized. He didn’t want this to end, either. And that made her like him a little more than she already did.
She tipped her head to the side as his mouth moved over hers. His hands caressed her back before settling on her waist and drawing her ever closer to him. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and drew her closer so they were chest-to-chest. Her nipples hardened as his tongue traced the seam between her lips.
Just that little touch made everything in her body clench as she moistened in her core. Her hands clutched his shoulders as he deepened the kiss. It was demanding and passionate and most of all it said goodbye.
Four
Conner felt more than a little regret as he held Nichole in his arms for what would probably be the last time, but he knew that he had to say goodbye to her. Though she stirred him as no one else had in a long time, she wasn’t the right woman for him. And despite owning a matchmaking business, he wasn’t even looking for someone.
Her lips under his were soft and her mouth tasted like the most exotic flavor he’d ever sampled. He was addicted to it, he thought, as he plunged his tongue deeper and deeper. He wanted to sate the hunger for her in this one kiss, but that didn’t seem possible.
He craved more. Why didn’t he just take what he wanted? It was clear that she wanted him, too, and though she was trying to use that desire as leverage to do a deal with him, in his arms she didn’t seem to remember that she was a reporter.
He swept his hands down her back, lingering at the small span of her waist. He lifted her off her feet and held her against him, feeling her almost melt into him as all plans of deals went out of his mind. All he wanted was for this kiss to never end.
She clung to his shoulders and her breasts rested so softly against his chest. He took two steps backward so he could lean against his desk and continue to hold on to her. Her legs parted and she brushed against his erection as she wrapped those long legs of hers around his hips. He moaned deep in his throat and heard an answering mewling sound from her.
He slid his hands from her knees up to her thighs as he’d been longing to do since she’d walked into his office and perched so femininely in his guest chair. She moved against him, her legs moving around his hips to find purchase with her knees. But the position was awkward and he cupped her butt in both his hands and turned them so she was sitting on the edge of his desk and he was standing between her spread thighs.
The movement pulled their mouths apart and she braced her hands on the desk behind her, looking up at him with those wide, fathomless eyes of hers. Her lips were wet and glistening from his kisses and there was a pretty pink flush of desire on her neck and upper chest.
“One more kiss and then I’ll ask my question,” she said.
He nodded, not even listening to her words beyond … one more kiss. He wanted their next kiss to end with him buried hilt-deep in her sexy body.
He lowered his head again and she started to lean up toward him, but he liked her spread out before him like a sexual offering and stopped her with a hand on her chest. “Stay like that.”
“Like this?” she asked, leaning back on her elbows again.
“Yes,” he said, his voice sounding guttural to his own ears.
He leaned down over her, taking his time, his hands slowly moving up from her waist to her breasts. He skimmed the edges of them at her side and then moved farther up, tracing the line of her collarbone and the skin underneath. “I love your freckles.”
She scrunched her nose up at him. “I don’t. They aren’t sexy.”
“On you they are,” he said, lowering his head to lap at one of them. “Are they all over your body?”
He felt her skin heat under his hand and he glanced up, surprised that she was blushing. “Yes.”
He growled as an image of her completely naked on his desk, covered only in those freckles, danced in his mind. He reached for the zipper at the side of her dress, but she stopped him with her hands on his and he realized he was in his office.
He stood up and started to walk away from her to cool down, but she pushed her fingers through his and drew his hand to her mouth where she kissed his palm. Then she lifted herself up into a sitting position.
She shifted forward, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, and the motion moved her feminine core against his hardening shaft. She lifted her free hand to his neck and urged his head down toward hers.
The next moment their lips met and once again he found that the only thing that mattered was Nichole and this moment. This time she didn’t just let him devour her mouth, she was aggressive and passionate in the kiss as well—more of a participant this time. He felt her move his hand to her breast and then her hand fell away and he was cupping her through her bra and dress.
He had a realization that Nichole was bold and brash in her reporter mode, but the woman was a bit shier and softer. He liked that. He wanted to have that woman in his arms. But he knew that he could never separate the two.
This was goodbye and he needed to remember that. He wanted this complex woman, but these stolen moments in his office were all he was ever going to have.
He rubbed his forefinger over her breast as he plunged his tongue deep into her mouth and when he felt her nipple bud against his finger he concentrated his touch there. She shifted in his arms and then he felt the strong suck of her mouth on his tongue.
His hard-on strained against the front of his trousers and he used his other hand at her waist to draw her closer to him. He rubbed himself against her and felt her rock her hips against him.
He tipped his head to the side to take more of her mouth, wanting to see this through to climax. Nothing could stop them now. Their bodies knew what they wanted and now that they were touching their minds had stopped arguing for anything else.
He pulled the fabric away from her body and slipped one finger under to feel the softness of her skin.
There was a loud rap on the door and Conner stepped away from Nichole. He realized that he couldn’t let his body take over. This was probably how his father had gotten into the mess he’d made of their lives.
“Just a minute,” he called, turning back to see that Nichole was struggling to get up off the desk. There was a strong blush on her face and she looked unkempt. He gestured to his washroom. “Why don’t you take a minute to repair the damage I did.”
She nodded and walked across the room. As he watched her go, he knew that he’d had as much of Nichole as she could afford to give.
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