Dirty Ties

Her hands slid down the front of her dress, pressing against her flat stomach, the curves of her chest heaving against the fabric, stretching it. She nibbled on her bottom lip, her blue eyes focused inward, so deep and full of thought they sucked me in, made me want to learn everything about her for reasons that had nothing to do with her family.

She glanced down the uninhabited hall. The quaint hotel had three floors and maybe twenty rooms total, and the clerk had mentioned I had the third floor to myself this evening. She could scream my name through the walls, and no one would hear.

My God, just thinking about that wrenched my gaze to her mouth. A sinful mouth that had haunted me since that night in the elevator.

As I watched her, everything I wanted to know—including things I never knew I craved—stretched out in the depth of her gaze. Her worries, her desires, her painful beauty swirled in a mesmerizing dance of complexity, one I had no hope of untangling in the short span of a single night.

Her eyes shifted back to the room, connecting with mine. “I know talking isn’t on the agenda, but I…” She drew in a breath, released it. “I need to tell you something.”

My heart skipped. Tell me what? That she was married? Shit, maybe she would expose something crucial, or maybe—if I was really lucking up here—she would unload everything, and I could skip the whole CEO charade.

I held her gaze with a patient, open expression, even as logic told me she would never reveal her secrets to a stranger.

She stepped into the room, just enough for me to close the door behind her, and stopped against the wall, her looming disclosure buzzing between us.

Slipping my jacket off her shoulders, she set it and her purse on the chair beside her. “Okay.” She turned to face me, her shoulders squared and head tilted back. “I’m just going to say it.”

Christ, the way she looked at me, so many layers working in her eyes, none of which I could read, but whatever she was thinking, I knew it centered on me. My body tingled with expectation.

“I like you. I mean…” Lips parted, her half-lidded eyes swept over my body and returned to my face. “God, I love the way you watch me, the way you touch me.” She leaned against the wall, tucking her hands behind her back, arousal flushing her pretty cheeks. “Your mouth, the feel of your tongue against mine, your kiss.”

I licked my lips, my cock swelling with each husky word. “It’s all yours. All night.”

Her ravishing smile reached deep inside me, pulling me toward her with shocking force. My feet closed the distance, my body covering hers, my arms braced against the wall, trapping her.

She reached up and fingered the buttons on my shirt, not freeing them, just fidgeting, tormenting, her smile waning. “I don’t do this sort of thing without…” She cleared her voice and forced her eyes to mine. “For reasons I won’t get into, I always require an investigation and non-disclosure agreement.”

My gut clenched, but with an incredible amount of effort, I kept my face relaxed and impassive as I stared down at her. She just admitted she slept around and did so with a contract. Evidently, her romp with Evader had been exempt from paperwork since she thought I couldn’t see her face.

I wanted to believe our moment in the elevator had been significant to her, that whatever it was crackling between us was unique. Her non-disclosure bullshit crushed that notion, which made what I was about to do a hell of a lot easier. Her involvement at Trenchant aside, she was here by choice, cheating on her husband by her own free will.

She flattened her hand over my tense-as-hell chest. “Tonight…this…is really impulsive for me, so I’m… I guess I’m asking for your word that you won’t ever use it against me.” She swallowed, her voice small and unsure. “Please.”

My mouth dried. She assumed I didn’t know who she was, and of course, she knew there was a good chance I’d figure it out down the road. I could recognize her photo somewhere and sell the sordid details of our affair to the tabloids.

I couldn’t fault her for being cautious, even if it wouldn’t help her this time.

The sour tang of guilt hit the back of my throat. I swallowed it down with memories of my mother, her warmth and patience, her easy smile, and her tough love.

Kaci’s family had taken her from me, left me without a single living family member. The boys’ home hadn’t been terrible, but Jesus, I’d missed her. Still did.

I needed to stop Trenchant Media from destroying any more lives.

Smoothing the guilt and grief from my face, I leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Don’t care who you are”—I pressed my lips to her other cheek—“or what you’re hiding. I just want to bury myself inside you for the next however many hours.”