Chapter Nineteen
Lauren shut the door of the bathroom. If only she could do the same with her emotions. Her back pressed against the wood, thankful for her temporary escape. She didn’t want to keep talking to Matt. Damn him for doing this to her. She didn’t want to know him any more than she already did.
Every second spent, every word spoken, made her feel more.
When this stopped being about sex, she became lost. Without control. And falling in— Her teeth sunk into her bottom lip. Falling in love. Her chest tightened painfully. She’d thought about this before. About loving Matt. What it would be like if things weren’t as they were. Him being her boss. Her being his employee. The facts were clear. No matter how hard she fell for Matt, they could never have a future. She knew it and so did he. So why was he even trying to get to know her? It made no sense.
This had to be kept in perspective and all about sex. Her mind raced. Her heart pounded like a drum in her chest. There had to be a way to get things back on track. Which left her where?
An idea formed, rolling around in her mind until a slow smile turned up the corners of her lips. She hadn’t even show appreciation for her gift. A gorgeous, sexy lingerie set lay beneath her clothes. Lauren pushed off the door and started stripping. With her movements came excitement and relief. Now, she could enjoy this evening. Getting back to the core of their relationship—sex—would allow her to enjoy the evening.
No more worries about the future. No more thoughts about love.
She stood facing the mirror. Being with Matt had become a confidence builder. He had a way of making her feel sexy. Why that was she didn’t know. The pink silk of her bra was a bright color but sheer. The tops of her breasts were exposed with only the darkness of her nipples covered by the thin fabric. She had been blessed with generous but not too large breasts that were high and firm. She hadn’t realized what a blessing that was until this moment. Maybe she just never gave herself any credit.
Lauren smiled. Feeling sexy came to her like a gift. One Matt seemed to deliver. She refused to analyze why that might be. Instead, she thrilled at the way she filled out the bra. And the panties…a tiny, barely-there triangle meant to entice. Touching her leg, she eyed the pink stitching on the black thigh-highs, wishing for her heels, now in the living room.
They would complete the look.
Imaging how Matt would react to her outfit, she fluffed her hair. Wine and desire had dilated her eyes. Anticipation had her body thrumming with warmth. Her nipples ached for his mouth. Turning, she looked at her butt in the mirror, the way he would. She sighed and turned back around, unable to resist a fat check. And she passed. Not fat. That, in and of itself, was a testament to how she’d grown. Matt had helped. He wasn’t responsible for her evolution. Yet, he’d certainly given her opportunity to explore and freely express herself.
With Matt inhibitions had no home. And neither did her heart.
But when she opened the door, a surprise waited. Candles flickered in a seductive dance around the bedroom. Matt sat on the bed. Watching her. Waiting. Apparently, a plan of his own in play. Perhaps, he too, had decided they needed to get back to the basics. To the safe game of sex.
Since this is what Lauren wanted, why did her chest tighten with the thought?
* * * * *
A goddess.
That’s what Lauren looked like standing in the bathroom doorway, light behind her. Matt’s body tightened. His mouth watered. After tonight, he had a newfound love for pink. Lauren had worn a hot pink silk blouse to work the prior week and the color had made her green eyes sparkle like emeralds. But what a little slice of pink silk did for her gorgeous body…well it was nothing shy of absolute, fucking perfection.
His cock thickened, pressing against his zipper. “You’re sexy as hell sweetheart.” He extended his hand feeling the rise of aggression. She did that to him. Made him hunger deep and burn hot. “Come here.” It was an order.
One dark brow lifted and her eyes held a challenge. One that said, she’d come because she wanted to. Not because he demanded so. With slow, seductive steps, Lauren moved toward him. Each sway of her hips expanded his cock, and made him throb.
His hands went to the mattress, holding it tight to keep from acting too abruptly. Too now. She paused, standing just out of his reach. “Thanks for the lingerie.”
He should thank her. This was one gift he benefited from. “I wondered if you wore it today.”
“Did you?” she asked, a bit of a taunt in her voice.
“You know I did.”
“Yes,” she said in a soft whisper of a reply.
God, how he wanted her beneath him. On top of him. All over him. He reached for her, but she sidestepped. And then she was behind him on the bed, kneeling on her knees. He tried to turn but Lauren stopped him by wrapping her arms around his chest and whispered in his ear. “No. Stay. I’m in charge.”
A smile tugged at his lips. “Okay.” He felt her lips on his neck, soft and seductive. Playing havoc with his body. Urging him to act. Matt knew his willpower was low. “For now.”
A light scrape of her teeth made him shiver. “Unbutton your shirt,” she said near his ear and then nipped the lobe. Never one to disobey an order he wanted to follow, he did as she said. All the while she touched, kissed, and teased anywhere she could reach. Once his shirt was gone, he felt the coolness of her hands. They slid down to his back, a tantalizing contrast to the heat in his body.
Her mouth was on his shoulder as her hands roamed his chest, and moved to his stomach. Soft curves and those lush breasts pressed against his body. Leaning backwards, he laced one hand into her hair, and urged her mouth to his. A hungry slide of his tongue and he was tasting her. Savoring her like fine wine. Taking her in with a deep, slow exploration that was both sensual and hot.
Suddenly, she was sitting across his lap. He didn’t know who had moved. Her. Him. It didn’t really matter. She belonged there, tight against his cock, her softness molded to his hardness. He couldn’t kiss her enough. He couldn’t touch her enough. There would never be…enough.
Palming her breasts, Matt kneaded, and drank her sexy little purr with a kiss. Pushing aside the lace his fingers found her nipple. With a light twist he plucked and pinched. At the same time, he nipped her lip with his teeth. Her hand pressed on his chest, and her mouth withdrew.
“Damn you, Matt,” she said in a hissed word, her chest rising and falling with tantalizing results. She shifted so that she straddled him.
He didn’t know what she cursed him for. He could feel the V of her body over his throbbing erection. Those were only a few things on his mind. Reaching behind her, he went for the hook to her bra. To please her. Fuck her. No. Make love to her. She made him so damn hot it was easy to get wild with need.
Her hands went to his arms as if she might stop him from removing her bra. “I said I’m in control.”
“You are,” he said, finishing the clasp so that the bra fell free. Despite her verbal resistance she shrugged away the straps. “If you weren’t I wouldn’t feel so damn urgent.” He filled both palms with her breasts. “Damn woman. You drive me wild.” His thumbs stroked her nipples.
She bit her bottom lip and he could tell she bit back a moan. But then her hips ground into him, rubbing his cock with divine friction. He lifted off the bed to meet her. Matt reached behind her neck, pulling her lips to just above his. “Feel how hard I am? If that isn’t control, I don’t know what is.”
And then they were kissing. Wildly tasting each other. His head spun with the taste of her. The addictive sweetness only she delivered. He could kiss her for hours…or maybe forever. The next lap of her tongue turned maybe into yes.
He wanted forever.
But before he could even process the thought fully, she pulled her mouth free, her chest moving up and down in a fast rhythm. He could feel her heart beat between her legs, throbbing as his cock did. Pounding a beat that cried for completion.
“My turn,” she w
hispered, taking him off guard as she did a slow slide down his body.
Then she started unlacing his shoes. She made a tantalizing sight, bare-breasted with her long hair streaming over her shoulders as she sat at his feet. A sight like that brought out caveman-like feelings in a guy. It made him ache to possess.
Once his shoes were gone, she reached for his pants. Matt leaned back, fists in the mattress, allowing her better access to his snug zipper. He lifted his hips as she pulled down his slacks and underwear in one movement. When he sat up again, his cock stood at attention. Straight as an arrow, his arousal was in full display.
Lauren’s hand wrapped his length and Matt sucked in a breath. “Very impressive,” she murmured, sliding her palm from top to bottom several times. Her eyes lifted to his face as her fingers slid along the tip.
“Lauren,” he said in the midst of a pleasure-based sigh.
She wet her lips. And knew what came next. As her mouth lowered to his cock, his body burned with expectation. A low, warm breath escaped her lips, blowing along the surface of his skin in a tease. Looking up at him, she smiled, and then her lashes fluttered downward. Then, her little pink tongue flicked out and touched the very tip of his erection, circling with wet, tantalizing perfection.
He moaned.
With a gentle suction she took the head into her mouth, and her tongue slid along the lower side. Matt’s hand instinctively went to her head, his fingers delving in the soft strands of her hair. Lauren treated him like an ice cream cone, licking from top to bottom with long, sultry strokes of her tongue.
There was no question who had control now.
Lauren did.
His body was racing with fire, throbbing with building pleasure. Relentlessly, Lauren drew him into her mouth, suckling as her hand cupped his balls. Gentle at the right places, and more intense where needed. Soon, he had to hold himself up with his free hand. Lauren gripped the base of his cock with her hand, applying pressure and sucking him to the absolute edge. The urge to thrust into her mouth overwhelmed. His hips bucked several times and he knew he could easily loose control. Reaching deep, he forced a breath, trying to regain his composure. Trying to contain the urge to plunge his throbbing dick deeper.
But he didn’t want to come like this. He wanted to spill himself deep inside her body. With the last of his resolve, he pressed her shoulders backwards, trying to pry himself free. Lauren continued her tasting him, relentless in her giving of pleasure.
“Lauren, stop. I want to come inside you.” He slid his hands to the side of her face. “Stop.”
She looked up at him. Oh, what a vision. He was still in her mouth. He squeezed his eyes shut. It was almost enough to make him come. The pulse of his body warned of his near release. “No,” he whispered and then opened his eyes. “Stop. Let me make love to you, Lauren.”
He wanted that far more than the simple act of taking the pleasure she offered. Tonight was about so much more than a simple orgasm. Slowly, Lauren did as he said, and standing up between his legs. And though he doubted she knew the importance of the moment, he did.
Tonight they became more than lovers.
Chapter Twenty
Filling his hands with her lush breasts, Matt kneaded as she arched into his touch. His tongue flicked one ripe nipple and then the other. Lauren’s hands went to his hair. “Kiss me,” she pleaded.
Sliding his hands into her hair, he dipped his tongue into her mouth, tasting her with hunger, desire, and just plain lust.
“Climb on top and ride me, baby,” he said against her mouth. “Let me watch you come.”
Matt lay back on the bed, his legs still hanging off, as she climbed on top of him. He could see the desire in her eyes, making them dark and dilated. When she was turned on, she always got this sleepy, sexy look he loved.
He held her waist as she balanced above him, holding him in her hand as she slid down his length. “Oh, yeah, baby,” he said breathlessly as she took him deep.
She made a noise, her eyes falling shut, her face etched with need. Slowly, he started moving, and she met him, moving her hips against his. What a sight she made, sitting on top of him like that. Her creamy white body moving against his darker one, her nipples pebbled with pleasure.
He kept his eyes open, watching her, increasing the rhythm, loving the show. As he increased the pace, moving with more frenzy, her breasts bounced, making him hotter and harder.
He moaned as she arched her back, pushing her nipples higher, and taking him deeper. She rippled around him. He could feel her orgasm start. That feeling, the way her muscles worked, made him come. It always did. Pleasure spiked, making him buck, pressing deeper to feel release. And he shuddered and shook with one last delicious thrust.
Deeply and gloriously, they finished together. And then she collapsed on top of him.
And he held her tight, never wanting to let go.
* * * * *
Hmmm. What a perfect, sensual dream. Lips brushed her neck. Her cheek. Her hair. “Morning,” came the soft, sultry male voice.
Lauren’s lashes lifted as Matt voice drew her into reality. This was no sleep-driven vision. This was real. No surreal. “Hi,” she said in a half-whisper.
Matt rested on a knee beside the bed, and she blinked him into full focus. Now, here was a man who knew how to wake up looking like sex on a sizzling platter. Here was a breakfast hero.
A dark shadow of stubble on his jaw drew her hand. “I like this.” She gave him a sleepy smile. “It’s sexy.”
“And I like waking up to you in my bed,” Matt said with a grin. “I made coffee and ran a bath. Come join me.”
Lauren stretched like a cat feeling remarkably rested in Matt’s bed. “What time is it?”
“Noon.”
Rest over. She sat up, forgetting she was naked and sending the sheet to her waist. “Noon!” The cool air hit her skin and she looked down, yanking the cover back to her neck.
Matt laughed. “It’s a little late to be shy.”
Lauren felt the rush of blood to her cheeks. “I can’t…um…help it.”
“You’re such a contradiction,” Matt said, and kissed the tip of her nose. “One minute you’re wild and bold. The next all sweet and shy.” He pushed to his feet. “How do you want your coffee?”
She looked at him long and hard, feeling a bit overwhelmed by his sheer masculine beauty. His chest was bare, and sexy. Broad with a sprinkle of dark hair in just the right places. And his abdominal… Damn the man looked good. She swallowed as realization came to her. Yes, he was gorgeous, but that wasn’t what really had her spellbound. There was this intimate, couple thing going on between them that felt really amazing. And scary.
Because right now she could so believe in love. Something she didn’t want or need. This man was her boss. God, what was she thinking? She shouldn’t have stayed the night. Things suddenly seemed one hundred times more complicated than they had just last night.
“Lauren?”
Matt’s voice pulled her out of her reverie. “Lots of cream,” she said quickly, not wanting to give away her distressed thoughts.
He winked. “Be right back.”
Lauren scooted up against the headboard, sheet tightly held around her body. For long moments, she could only sit there, her mind blank. The phone rang somewhere in the distance. Over and over until it stopped, unanswered. Matt returned with coffee, apparently unconcerned about the caller. She accepted her cup from Matt, one hand still clinging to the sheet. It felt like a much-needed shield. Only, she wanted it to protect her heart rather than her body.
With an amused look on his face, Matt tugged playfully at the cover. “I’ll go warm up the bath, but you’ll have to drop the sheet to take it.”
He was gone before she could respond. The water started running seconds later. Lauren took another sip of coffee and looked around the room. It was decorated with a definitive masculine flavor. All black furnishings with a matching leather chair in the corner gave it a sleek, contempora
ry look. A clean and crisp feel came with the daylight view. Even the art was simplistic. Black and white paintings were strategically placed around the room, as were several sculptures.
But the thing she liked most about the room was a huge fish tank in the corner. Though she’d noticed it previously, she’d never really taken the time to admire it. Filled with all black and blue fish, it accented the room, and pulled it all together. She sighed, imaging how relaxing it might be to lie in the bed and simply watch the serenity of the tank.
A flash of her lying with Matt, watching the fish, and then falling to sleep made her shake herself. What was she doing here? This was real life. No fantasy to protect her from the truth of things. He was her boss. She was his employee. Another glance around the room and she reminded herself he was also very rich. She wasn’t.
She didn’t belong here.
Matt walked back into the bedroom. She watched him cross the room, smiling, charming as always. There was no hint that he might think this was a mistake, her being here in his apartment. He had even said he never brought women to his apartment. Yet he brought her. She was so very confused.
Why didn’t he see how wrong what was happening between them was?
One of them had to be logical and smart. Clearly, it had to be her. The little daydream had to end.
Chapter Twenty-One
Lauren was stalling. Trying to find a way to fight the intimacy of the morning. It amazed him how easily he read her. He knew she was scared. Well, he was too. Still, they had to deal with what formed between them. And the only way Matt knew to do that, was head-on.
They had to face it.
Matt sat down on the bed as she brought the cup to her lips and took a tiny sip. He reached for the coffee and took it from her, setting it on the nightstand. Then, he climbed on the bed, and put his knees on the sides of her legs. Her eyes went wide with surprise. “Time to give up the sheet.”