It was him.
I slid my hands up his back and over his shoulders, my fingers sinking into his hair as I silently begged for more, for harder, for deeper … for everything.
From him.
Caine released his hold on my neck only to trail his fingers along my collarbone. As he skimmed his fingertips slowly over the silk of my dress, shivers cascaded down my spine, giving me goose bumps and causing my nipples to peak against the fabric of my dress. His thumb brushed lightly over my breast and stilled at the evidence of my arousal.
He broke the kiss, pulling back only an inch to gaze into my eyes. His lashes were low-lidded with lust as he studied me. I held his heated gaze, my lips swollen and stinging, my whole body taut with need.
Caine slowly lowered my leg and for a few awful seconds I wondered if that was it.
“Take off the dress.”
His voice was thick with need, but still there was authority in it—bossiness.
Turned out in the right situation, Caine being bossy was less annoying and actually very, very hot.
Slowly, I let go of him, and still holding his gaze, I reached behind my neck for the crystal clasp on the halter.
Caine took a few steps back, allowing cool air to rush in around me.
I’d undressed for boyfriends before. It wasn’t something I’d ever been shy about, because unlike most of my friends I didn’t really have any body hang-ups. But it was different standing in front of Caine, preparing to bare myself to him. For some reason it didn’t just feel like I was taking off a dress. It felt like I was letting him see me naked.
And there was a difference.
I hesitated, my fingers fumbling on the clasp.
Caine saw it. His answer was to tug at the bow tie around his neck. I watched him as he removed it and then he began to shrug out of his jacket. As he started unbuttoning his shirt, he said in a low, deep voice that made me pop the clasp, “I fantasize about fucking you in this office a hundred times a day.”
His confession made me breathless.
I’d wondered if he was attracted to me, but I never thought he’d admit it or act on it.
But to know he was as attracted to me as I was to him … well, that made me brave again.
I pulled the halter of the dress down and watched Caine’s eyes grow impossibly black with heat as I bared my breasts to him. My nipples pebbled under the kiss of the cool air, and gaining my confidence, I tugged down the dress and shimmied out of it. I lifted it up off the floor and draped it across the back of the sofa. Caine’s gaze devoured every inch of me.
I was left in only my jewelry, my underwear and my heels.
I curled my fingers into my panties.
“Stop.” Caine took a step toward me and I let my own gaze eat him up. His shirt was completely unbuttoned, revealing a sliver of his tan skin and hard abs. “Leave them on. Sit on my desk.” He moved aside of it, leaving me a clear path.
He could hear how breathless I was when I asked, “Are you this bossy with all your women?”
Caine grinned, a wicked full-on smile that made my heart palpitate. “No, you just bring it out in me.”
I smiled back. “You’re saying you have a thing for bossing me around?”
“Just like you have a thing for being a smart-ass. Now sit on my desk and spread your legs.”
My whole body zinged with anticipation and I released a hitched breath.
Caine’s eyes gleamed at my response.
Straightening my shoulders, I walked toward his desk and him, my breasts bouncing with the movement, and I was more than smug about the fact that Caine’s arousal was straining to break free of his zipper. I slipped past him and lowered my ass to his desk. I shivered at the coolness of it against my skin as I settled my weight on it and spread my legs.
The air in the room fairly crackled as Caine approached me. His fingertips trailed over the tops of my thighs as he moved in between my legs and bent to brush his lips over mine. I clung to his waist and captured his mouth again before he could pull back.
Soon the kiss was out of control, wild and hurried, as I pushed his shirt out of the way and smoothed my hands over every ripple and hard muscle on his torso, and he touched me everywhere.
Abruptly Caine pulled back, panting. “No, you don’t,” he murmured against my mouth.
“No, I don’t what?” I said, confused by being suddenly wrenched from his lips. God, the man could kiss like no one could. “I want your tongue back.”
“And you’ll get it.” He pulled away only to tug his shirt off impatiently.
I grew hotter at the sight of him half-naked and turned on. His strong shoulders, muscled biceps, and hard, sculpted six-pack … All he needed was a trickle of sweat running down those washboard abs and he would be a diet soda ad. I licked my lips and Caine groaned.
“Do you know how sexy you are?”
A burn, the exact opposite of the burn that had been stinging in my chest all week, flared out near my heart. “I do now,” I replied softly.
Because I did.
I had never felt more so in my life than in that moment under Caine Carraway’s needy, heated gaze. I’d never felt more wanted.
And from a man I thought would never want me.
Tonight was blowing my mind in more ways than one.
Caine lowered himself to the floor and curled his hands behind my knees, tugging me gently until my ass was practically hanging off the desk.
My head fell back in a groan as he began pressing soft, teasing kisses along my inner right thigh. I jerked at the touch of his mouth against my sex. He blew the lace of my panties against me and I shuddered.
“These are soaked.” Caine curled a finger around them, brushing my labia. “Let’s get rid of them.”
“Uh-huh.” I was barely coherent.
Suddenly the panties were gone and Caine was pressing my thighs apart again. “You’re so fucking beautiful,” he said reverently, his breath puffing against me.
“Please.” I slid my fingers in his hair, staring down at him in torment. “Please.”
His eyes blazed up at me. “You want me?”
He even had to ask?
“From the moment I saw you,” I admitted.
Those eyes flared with triumph and then his mouth was finally on me.
“Oh God,” I whimpered, leaning back on my hands as he licked at me, his tongue flicking and tormenting my clit. “Caine, please.”
I could it feel it building, the muscles in my thighs trembling and tightening.
And then two fingers pushed inside me.
He sucked and licked at me and slid his fingers in and out of me. I was heading for the cliff edge. I stiffened and then fell over, crying out his name as my inner muscles clamped around his fingers in a hard climax.
Caine stood up, only to lean down into me, wrapping his arms around my waist so he could gather me against him. I lifted my legs around his hips and clung to him as he kissed me, his tongue moving against mine in hard, quick strokes—the kiss was so desperate it was almost punishing.
I loved it.
I loved the taste of him and me on his tongue.
Caine broke the kiss, his hot lips trailing down my neck. I arched my back, anticipating his needs, and thrust my breasts up for his claim.
Claim he did.
Quickly the gloriously languid aftermath of my climax was decimated by the heat he fanned in me again. He cupped and stroked and kissed my breasts, learning every inch of them. And then he wrapped his mouth around my nipple and tugged, sucked, and licked it until it was so swollen it was tender. He moved on to the other until my legs were climbing his hips, and I was writhing against his erection, desperate for him to take me.
“Caine,” I pleaded. “Come inside me.”
He kissed me, one hand under my ass urging me up against his erection as he rubbed it between my legs, the friction of the material of his trousers against my sex building me toward climax again. I gasped against his kiss as his other
hand moved into my hair, his fingers plucking at the pins that held it in place. A few seconds later it came tumbling down around my shoulders and Caine’s hand was gone.
I heard a zipper go down and then he was hot and throbbing and hard against me.
Caine reluctantly tore his lips from mine and panted against my mouth. “You’re on the pill, right?”
The question was almost pleading.
I nodded and looked down, feeling a sudden roar of fire lick up from my heels, shooting through my whole body, at the sight of him. It was big. It was thick.
I licked my lips.
“Fuck, Lexie,” Caine breathed against my mouth.
I kissed him, my tongue flicking against his lips. I took the silken heat of him in my hands and squeezed and Caine kissed me harder, gasping and panting, as I stroked him with one hand and dug my fingers into his ass with the other, urging him to me.
I guided his tip to my entrance and smoothed my hand up his rigid stomach.
With our lips still touching, our eyes met and held.
Caine gripped my hips and pushed inside.
My eyes fluttered closed at the satisfying burn that quickly evaporated under the relief of being completely filled.
“Lexie, open your eyes,” Caine demanded hoarsely.
I opened my eyes and held his fierce gaze.
“Keep your eyes open.” He thrust in deeper. “Fuck,” he whispered, “keep your eyes open.”
He tilted my hips up farther as he slid in and out of me slowly. I trembled against him as he took pleasure in taking his time, and like earlier, I couldn’t remember ever feeling more naked. It was holding his gaze, him demanding that I held it as he moved inside me. It intensified whatever this connection was between us. There was no denying this was us—him inside me.
“You feel amazing,” he grunted against my lips.
I moved against his thrusts, my heart racing out of all control. “So do you.”
“Lexie.” His grip tightened, his eyes blazing into mine. “Lexie.”
“Caine,” I whimpered back as he thrust at just the right angle to brush my clit with his movements.
“Fuck.” He started pumping harder, faster.
It began to build again and I was shuddering against him in little jerks as it did so.
“Come for me, Lexie,” Caine commanded, his voice gruff with need. “Come around me.”
That soft, hard demand was a trigger.
I cried out his name again, my fingers digging into his skin as I clenched around his driving cock, and I lost his gaze as my eyes practically rolled into the back of my head.
As I melted around him, Caine held me to him as his rhythm increased. A few seconds later, his face pressed against my neck, he stiffened and groaned my name. His hips jerked against mine and I felt the release of his climax inside me.
I held on to him as we tried to catch our breath. My skin was slick against his, my breasts crushed against his chest, and we were as close to each other as we could get. I squeezed my thighs around his hips, glorying in this delicious aftermath.
Then … his muscles grew taut beneath my hands.
Uneasiness crept over me.
Call it intuition, call it whatever you want, I just knew I wasn’t going to like what happened next.
CHAPTER 10
Only seconds before, Caine had been determined to maintain eye contact. Now he was avoiding it. He’d gently pulled out of me, grabbed tissues off his desk, cleaned up, and put his pants back on.
All the while I sat there naked on the desk, watching him put the wall back up between us. My stomach felt sick. “Caine?”
Instead of answering me he ran a hand through his hair as he glanced around the room for his shirt. He found it and shrugged it on.
“Something’s wrong,” I said. Clearly there was something wrong. One minute we’d been going at it like lust-starved teenagers and now he wouldn’t even look at me.
“Caine.”
Finally he glanced up from buttoning his shirt. He was guarded as he avoided looking anywhere but at my face. I crossed my leg over the other and leaned back on my palms, thrusting my breasts out in defiance. That instantly distracted him. He clenched his jaw as his gaze roamed over me.
“Well?”
Eyes blazing he glared at me. “This was a mistake.”
Even though I knew it was coming, it still hurt like hell. “A mistake?”
“Yes. We crossed the line.”
“I see. We’re back to that again.” I stared at him in disappointment but refused to budge. We were not leaving this office until I’d removed the stick from his ass, something that apparently only sex could do.
Well, if I had to, I had to.
My eyes greedily took in his handsome face.
It wasn’t like it was a hardship or anything.
I smirked at the heat in his eyes. At least I knew he wanted me physically. That made it easier to keep pretending that I was completely comfortable sitting cross-legged and naked on his desk. “We should talk.”
“You,” he snapped, reaching over to grab my dress off the sofa, “should get dressed.” He held it out to me.
I took it from him, but I had no intention of actually getting dressed while my nakedness did so much to throw him off balance. We stared defiantly at each other.
“Alexa, get dressed.”
No more Lexie for me, huh? Another sharp pain sliced across my chest. I hid it from him. “We’re back to Alexa, I see.”
Apparently Caine was done with being impatient and was now moving on to annoyed. “Look, we were attracted to each other, we got it out of our systems, and now we need to go back to being boss and employee. And from this point on we’re maintaining a strictly professional—” He cut off to scowl as I uncrossed my legs only to cross them again in the opposite direction. He looked away. “Strictly professional relationship,” he finished, his voice thick. “Now get dressed.”
Realizing I wasn’t going to get anywhere with him until I conceded this one thing, I slipped gracefully off the table. “I need to clean up.”
Without looking at me he pointed to the bathroom off his office. “You know where it is.”
Shrugging on as much confidence as I could muster, I strode into the bathroom, my dress trailing from my hand, and I was satisfied to feel the burn of his gaze on my back as I went.
The truth was my heart was racing as I cleaned up and slipped my dress back on. I’d left my panties out in the office, but I was too shaken up to go back out there for them. As I stared into the mirror, seeing my flushed cheeks and bright eyes and post-sex hair, I was flooded with the sensation of being with Caine all over again. I could still smell him. Taste him. Feel him.
I’d just had the best sex of my life with a man with whom I shared off-the-charts chemistry. What was between us wasn’t average or everyday. It was extraordinary.
And he was acting like it meant nothing.
The sickness in my stomach intensified and when I looked back in the mirror I could see the flush draining from my cheeks.
I’d never felt like this about any man.
This was lust. This was what all those books and films were always going on about. This wasn’t the sexual attraction I’d felt for other men. This was full-blown desire.
Yet—I closed my eyes, remembering the way he’d held my gaze as he moved inside me—it could be more between us. If we tried, who knew where extraordinary could take us?
More scared than I had ever been in my life, I threw my shoulders back with determination and walked out into the office to face Caine.
He was shrugging on his jacket and I saw his relief that I’d put my dress back on.
My belly flipped at the sight of him all rumpled and sexy. Why, oh, why, out of all the men in the world did Caine Carraway have to be the one to make me feel this way?
I stopped a few feet before him and he narrowed his gaze, as if he sensed what was coming.
“You’re afraid to let me in
.”
He shot me a warning look. “Alexa.”
I forged ahead. “But I know something all those other women who have tried and failed with you don’t. I know you’re a good man. Real in a way they’ve never had the chance to see. I know that because I saw it when you were with Effie. I saw who you really are. I see who you are because … we’re not so different, you and I. We both deserve happiness.”
For a moment Caine just stared at me and a little bubble of hope floated around inside me. When he took a step backward, extremely guarded, that little bubble just went pop. “Happiness? This coming from the daughter of the guy who destroyed my family?”
All the air went out of the room.
It was like he’d punched me in the chest.
And he wasn’t finished. “I don’t know what this is you’re trying to do, but you and I are not the same.” He took another step back from me. “And I am not for you. I’m not your white knight. I’m just the guy who wanted to fuck you.”
I flinched under the sting of his words. Words that humiliated me. I’d idiotically allowed myself to be vulnerable with a man who’d already proven he had no qualms hurting my feelings.
My God, I was such a stupid, stupid fool. Worse. I was … some kind of masochist!
I was my mother.
I tried to pull my feelings back inside me so he couldn’t see how he’d cut me up into slices. However, I knew it was too late when he said my name in a gentle, remorseful tone. He wore guilt and regret on his face.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t mean … I shouldn’t have said that.” He ran his hands through his hair, looking appalled that he had, and frustrated by my effect on him. “I’m just not the guy you’re looking for. I’m not ever going to be that man. Trust me.”
How could I have allowed myself to forget who I was to him? That was what I’d done here.
Oh God. He must have felt terrible for having sex with me. A Holland. Warily I looked over at him. Did he want to wash me off? Forget I happened? I sucked in a breath at the painful thought.