Tall, Dark and Charming (Tall, Dark and Sexy 1)

Yeah, he hadn’t held back and had made some pretty explicit sexual demands. But she’d never blanched or given any indication that he’d gone too far. “Not once did I hear that fuckable mouth of yours complain or protest when I told you to do something.”

Her eyes darkened at his choice of words, but she definitely had the kind of soft, full lips that would feel amazing sucking his dick. The thought made his cock twitch beneath the sheet around his hips.

“I liked it when you told me what to do,” she admitted, and the current puckering of her nipples backed up her claim as she held his gaze. “A lot.”

Yet for a woman who clearly had a healthy sex drive and more than enjoyed the act, she’d gone three years without getting laid, even casually. He wasn’t a double-standard kind of guy when it came to no-strings-attached encounters and believed in equal opportunity for anyone who wanted to fool around, as long as it was mutual. So the fact that Daisy had abstained for that long made him curious to know if her dry spell had been situational, deliberate, or because she was discriminant, which, of course, he totally respected.

“How come you haven’t been with a man in three years?” he asked, genuinely interested in her answer. “I have to say, after being with you tonight, I think you need to get fucked more often, Ms. Parker.” Yet even as he spoke the words, the thought of another man touching her the way he just had made him feel a little territorial. What the fuck was up with that?

“Why?” she asked, brow raised as she reached for another strawberry and dipped it into the chocolate sitting on the tray on the bed between them. “Did I come across as deprived?”

He didn’t miss the slight insecure note to her voice, which wasn’t his intent. “No. You came across as a woman who enjoys sex but doesn’t get enough of it, so I’m just curious why it’s been so long. I mean, even if you’re working long hours, there’s always time for sex,” he joked.

“Spoken like a true man.” She rolled her eyes humorously as she ate the berry, suddenly looking anywhere but at him.

He pushed a few of the pillows against the headboard and sat up in a more comfortable position, with the covers still around his hips. She still had her gaze averted, and she still hadn’t told him why she hadn’t been with a man in three years, so obviously, her reply wasn’t as simple as “I don’t have the time” or “I’m too career focused,” either of which would be totally relatable.

“Why do I get the impression you’re evading the answer to my question?” he said point-blank.

She sighed, the sound rife with exasperation, but at least she was now looking at him, even if her green eyes were a little annoyed at his persistence. “Maybe because I am avoiding it?”

He knew he was pushing, but he really wanted this deeper insight to this woman who’d intrigued him for the past three years—and now the warm, willing woman she’d been with him tonight that she’d kept wrapped up in nondescript suits and behind a conservative façade.

He wasn’t above using a little leverage to get her to talk. He smirked, trying a different tactic. “If you don’t appease my curiosity, no more orgasms for you tonight.”

That made her laugh and lightened the moment a bit, which was what he’d been aiming for. “Wow, you drive a hard bargain.”

It still wasn’t the answer he was waiting for. He thought back to the discussion they’d had in the bar before coming up to his room. The one where she’d set down her rules in a straightforward manner yet hadn’t been able to completely conceal the vulnerability he’d heard in her voice. The one that made him wonder if she might have been hurt in the past, and maybe that’s why she’d avoided being with a man—and opted instead to focus on her performance at work and earning her current promotion.

He went with his gut, even knowing how intimate and personal he was making this conversation, which was something he never did after fucking a woman. “Did you break up with someone or end a relationship before coming to work at Roth Owens?”

Her green eyes widened in surprise. Bingo. Her reaction was all the answer he needed to confirm his hunch.

He reached across the short distance separating them and feathered the back of his hand along her soft, warm cheek. “He had to have been a real douchebag to let you go,” he said, meaning it. Even though he didn’t do commitment, it didn’t mean he couldn’t appreciate the qualities a woman like Daisy would bring to a relationship.

She abruptly laughed, but the sound lacked humor. “I let him go after finding out he was married.”

“Shit,” he muttered beneath his breath, not missing the pained look in her eyes that reached into his gut and squeezed hard—for her, and because it reminded him too much of his father’s infidelity and how it had devastated his mother at a time when she’d needed her husband the most. “I’m sorry.”

She shrugged her shoulders, causing her breasts to jiggle enticingly, momentarily distracting him. “It’s over and I’ve moved on.”

He studied her for a moment—her stiff posture and how she was trying to remain composed but was obviously bothered. So, no, he didn’t think she’d moved on. Not completely, and he didn’t like that she was holding it all in when he was there to listen.

“Tell me, Daisy,” he urged softly, not questioning why this mattered so much to him . . . maybe because he knew how that kind of betrayal could shatter a person’s trust. “I really want to know what happened.”

It was the truth, even if it did surprise him. While he’d always avoided this kind of getting-to-know-you stuff with his one-nighters, Daisy wasn’t someone he’d never see again. They worked together, and he’d like to think they were friends who could talk to each other without her feeling as though he’d think badly of her because of what had happened with this other guy, who was a douchebag.

After a long moment, she exhaled a deep breath and lifted her gaze back up to his, though there was still enough hesitation etched on her expression to keep her from sharing.

“No judgment, sweetheart,” he said, just in case she was worried about that, considering she’d been involved with a married man.

She picked up the small tray of food and set it on the nightstand next to the bed, then resettled on the mattress a little closer to him before speaking.

“So . . . I met Troy online,” she said in a quiet voice as she absently picked at the comforter. “He contacted me on Facebook thinking I was someone he went to school with, though I’m not really sure that was the truth now that I look back on everything. Anyway, we started talking. He knew I lived in Los Angeles at the time, which is where I worked before moving to San Diego to accept the position with Roth Owens. He told me he lived in Denver and that he traveled for work a lot as a pharmaceutical rep and he had a few accounts in LA. He asked to see me the next time he flew out, and I agreed. That was the start of a nine-month long-distance relationship.”

She drew her knees up, still covered by the sheet, and wrapped her arms around them, the gesture expressing how vulnerable she felt at that moment. “He was genuinely a nice guy who did and said all the right things to make me fall in love with him, because on the surface, he was perfect, and I really believed he loved me, too. And when he asked me to move to Denver, I put in my two-week resignation at the firm where I was working and started packing up my things to go . . . until I got a phone call from his wife, who’d seen the calls and texts to me on his phone and realized that her husband was having an affair with me.”

She winced, as if the memory was as fresh as the day it had happened. “I was shocked and horrified, and she was so pissed because she thought I knew about her, which I didn’t, not that it mattered. She called me a home wrecker and a slew of other ugly names that I didn’t even know existed. Come to find out, Troy had been married to this woman for eight years and they had two young kids together.”