Millionaire Boss, page 9
She was sure she would never experience anything again that would humble her more, yet produce, at the same time, such happiness, such a glorious sense of fulfillment, such a sense of completeness…until he cupped a palm at her cheek, turned his face to hers and pressed his lips against her throat.
Then she knew.
With tears flooding her eyes and her heart full of her love for him, she wrapped her arms more tightly around him and held him to her until his breathing slowed, until the perspiration began to cool on his skin. And when he slept, she released her hold on him only long enough to pull the comforter up over them both.
Pressing her lips against his temple, she whispered, “You’re home, Erik. You’re finally home.”
When Penny awakened, sunshine flooded the bedroom and pushed stubbornly at her eyelids. She moaned and tried to roll away from the bright light…but discovered her legs were pinned.
Startled, she flipped open her eyes to find Erik lying opposite her, propped on an elbow, watching her.
Remembrance rushed through her. Kissing him, making love with him, holding him while he slept, their bodies still joined. She started to reach for him, wanting and needing to hold him as badly as she wanted to be held, but stopped when she saw the frown that creased his brow.
Unable to resist touching him, if only tentatively, she smoothed a finger across his forehead. “Is something wrong?” she asked uneasily.
He caught her hand and drew it to his lips. “No. I just thought for a minute—” He shook his head and chuckled self-consciously. “I know this is going to sound crazy, but while I was watching you sleep, I had this weird sense of déjà vu. As if I knew you. Before,” he added, his frown returning.
Penny held her breath, sure that he had at last recognized her. And though she’d wanted him to remember her, prayed that he would and had been furious when he hadn’t, she suddenly didn’t want him to remember the shy, awkward girl she’d been ten years before.
As quickly as the frown had formed, though, it disappeared, and he was smiling again. “I guess I should say good-morning, huh?” he teased.
She went all but limp with relief. “Yes, I guess that would be appropriate.”
His smile softened and he reached to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear, then brought his gaze back to hers as he drew his fingertips along her jaw to her chin.
His touch sent a shiver chasing down her spine and released a flood of memories of those clever hands touching her in other, more intimate places.
Without moving his gaze from hers, he laid his head down next to hers on the pillow and drew her hand to hold it against his chest. “I guess I should say thank you, too. That was quite a welcome home party you threw for me this morning.”
Welcome home party? she thought in confusion, then stiffened when his meaning became clear. Surely he didn’t think she’d planned what had happened? she asked herself, panicking.
He laughed softly and leaned to plant a quick kiss on her lips. “Not that I’m complaining, you understand.”
Unsure how to explain to him that she hadn’t plotted to seduce him, that she’d first thought his presence simply a figment of her dream, Penny could only stare.
He laughed and bumped a knuckle beneath her chin. “Talkative little critter in the morning, aren’t you?”
She cleared her throat, knowing that she had to say something. But what? Oh, I didn’t really plan to seduce you. You see, when I realized you were in bed with me I assumed it was just a dream, the same as the thousands of others I’ve woven about you over the years.
Hoping to avoid an explanation, she attempted to sit up. “Would you like some coffee?”
He hooked an arm around her waist and hauled her back down beside him. “What’s the rush? It’s Saturday…or at least I think it’s Saturday.”
“Yes, it’s Saturday,” she assured him, then tugged the sheet to her chin when she remembered she wore nothing beneath it. “I…I didn’t expect you to return until Monday.”
“Finished up early.” He pushed himself up to an elbow again, never once moving his gaze from hers, as if he suddenly found her the most fascinating creature on earth. “I’d ask you what you were doing in my bed, but I’m afraid that might sound ungrateful.”
She clutched the sheet closer to her chin. “I worked late and decided to spend the night. I wanted to get an early start this morning.”
“An early start? On what?”
“Your apartment. The decorating,” she clarified, when his frown deepened. “I wanted to finish everything before you returned on Monday.”
The creases on his forehead slowly smoothed. “Oh.” He gave the room a cursory glance, before bringing his gaze back to hers. “Nice job,” he said, then grinned. “Especially the new addition to my bed.” He shifted closer, placing his groin snugly against her hip and leaned to sip at her lower lip. “Though I’ll probably have a coronary when I hear how much its going to cost me.”
She braced a hand against his chest and pushed back in alarm. “I assure you that I kept my expenditures to a minimum. In fact, I did quite a bit of the work myself.”
He choked on a laugh. “I wasn’t talking about the cost of decorating the place. I was talking about you.”
Her eyes widened even more. “Oh, but I don’t intend to charge you for the time I spent painting.”
Laughing, he hooked an arm around her neck and drew her face to his. “You truly are naive,” he said, before capturing her mouth in a deeper, much more intimate kiss. Just when she was beginning to melt, to have visions of a repeat performance of their earlier lovemaking, he bumped his nose playfully against hers. “Do your talents include cooking?” he asked, as he sat up.
It took Penny a moment to mentally catch up. “Well…yes. Though I doubt there’s much in the refrigerator to make a decent meal.”
He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood, locking his hands high above his head and stretching them toward the ceiling. At the sight of his nude body, at the muscles that swelled and lengthened on his back and legs, Penny’s mouth went dry as dust.
With a growl, he dropped his arms and leaned across the bed to give her a get-moving slap on the rump, then straightened and headed for the bathroom. “See what you can find,” he called over his shoulder. “I’m starving.”
Penny stared after him, her fascination with his near-perfect physique and his lack of modesty preventing her from immediately registering the directive he’d left her with. But as she slowly realized what he’d said, what he’d done, she shoved back the covers and pushed from the bed, blinded by tears.
She’d thought lovers awakened to cuddling, playful kisses and whispered endearments. And what had she received instead? Humiliation. A return to serfdom.
Furious, she dashed a hand over her eyes and grabbed her clothes. “The jerk,” she muttered as she tugged on her jeans. Him, with his take-it-for-granted attitude that she would cook his breakfast for him. Him, with his less-than-romantic slap on the rear. Him, with his earlier inference that she expected payment for the “welcome home party” she had thrown for him.
The more she thought about his attitude as she stalked from his bedroom, the madder she became. She wouldn’t be treated like some call girl summoned for a night’s entertainment, she told herself as she slammed around the kitchen in search of something to prepare for his breakfast. It wasn’t as if she’d planned to be in his bed when he arrived home. And she certainly wouldn’t make the mistake of letting him find her there again!
She pulled the griddle from beneath the range and slapped it down over a burner. Then, realizing what she was doing, she snatched it right back up. And she sure as heck wasn’t cooking his darn—
She shrieked, dropping the griddle, as strong arms circled her waist from behind.
“What are you doing?” she cried, trying to wriggle free from the damp body currently wrapping itself around hers.
He nudged a wet nose against her ear. “I was lonely in the shower.”
Lonely? Lonely! Seething, she closed her hands around the arms that vised her waist and tried to force them apart. “Then perhaps you should consider buying yourself a rubber ducky.”
He dragged a hand up her middle and closed it over a breast, squeezing as he nuzzled her neck. “I’d rather play with you.”
Penny closed her eyes, melting as he nibbled a path up her throat to catch her earlobe between his teeth. Feeling herself weakening, she stiffened her spine. “Tough,” she said through clenched teeth. “I’m not for sale.”
Frowning, he drew back and slowly turned her in his arms. When she refused to look at him, he crooked a finger beneath her chin and forced her face up to his. He raised a brow when their gazes met. “Whoa. You’re mad.”
She shoved at his hand and looked away, narrowing her eyes against the tears that threatened. “Brilliant deduction, Einstein.”
“Was it something I said? Something I did?”
“Right on both counts.” She jerked free from him, snatched her purse from the bar and stalked for the door, shoving the strap up over her shoulder. “I’m going home. And by the way,” she called back to him, “my services are not for sale. Not to keep you company in the shower, and most assuredly not to entertain you in your bed.”
Erik stared after her, dumbfounded. Her services weren’t for sale? What the hell did she mean by that?
“Now wait just a damn minute,” he said, charging after her. “I never tried to buy your services.”
She stopped in front of the elevator and whirled. “You most certainly did. When we were in your bed, you—”
He leveled a finger at her nose. “That’s exactly right. My bed. Mine. And I didn’t sweet-talk you into it, and I didn’t invite you there, either. I found you there. Remember? And if you’re thinking about screaming sexual harassment, you can forget it, because I didn’t force myself on you. As I recall, you came on to me.”
“I didn’t realize what I was doing. I was asleep.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she wished them back, knowing how bizarre that sounded.
“Asleep!” he roared. “You expect me to believe that you slept through the whole thing? That you were never once, throughout all that heavy breathing and groping, throughout a climax that was probably recorded on every piece of seismographic equipment between here and California, you were never once cognizant of your actions or mine?”
She ducked her head and toyed with the clasp on her purse. “Not at first.”
He tossed up his hands and spun away. “I don’t believe this.”
She snapped up her head, angry because he refused to accept her explanation. “You can believe whatever you choose, but it’s the truth. When I first discovered you in bed with me I thought it was a dream.”
He turned to face her again. “Dream?” he repeated slowly, then shouted, “Dream!”
She flinched and backed away. “Y-yes. A dream.”
Erik stared at her, not wanting to believe her, knowing it was insane to think that anyone could sleep through a lovemaking session the likes of the one they had shared that morning and believe it was all a dream. But he had to remember that this was the mouse he was dealing with. The mouse who, while on their trip to California, had metamorphosed in a single afternoon from a frumpy, scared-of-her-shadow secretary into a gorgeous, if irritating, sex goddess.
And as badly as he wanted to discover differently, he could find nothing but honesty reflected in the green eyes that met his.
The mouse, he told himself again, his mind spinning crazily as he remembered awakening to find her bottom nudging seductively against his groin.
Slapping a hand across the rods of tension on the back of his neck, he turned away. “If that’s what you’re capable of asleep, I’d hate to think what kind of seduction you could pull off when you’re fully awake.”
Penny’s eyes widened. “Are you saying that I was…good?”
“Good?” He turned to stare at her in disbelief. “You were better than good. You were off-the-charts fantastic. Fifty on a scale of 1 to 10. A man’s ultimate fantasy.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” he replied, eyeing her warily as she took a cautious step toward him. “Really.” With her gaze riveted on his, he slowly became aware of the amazement reflected in her eyes, the layers of doubt behind it…and remembered that, for all practical purposes, he was dealing with a virgin.
A virgin, for cripe’s sake! No wonder she was acting so weird. It was her first time, and he hadn’t given a thought to what feelings and emotions she might be experiencing.
Or what pain, he remembered belatedly…and a little guiltily.
“You’re okay, aren’t you? I mean…well…I didn’t hurt you or anything, did I?”
When her face crumpled and her eyes filled with tears, he swore under his breath. Not knowing what else to do, he caught her hand and hauled her against his chest. “Now don’t start crying,” he ordered gruffly, patting awkwardly at her back. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
She shook her head, smearing tears across his chest. “You didn’t upset me. It’s just that…”
When she hesitated, he pushed her to arm’s length, concerned that he might have hurt her, after all. “What?”
She kept her gaze on his chest, dragging a fingertip around a circle of moisture she’d left there, while tears continued to stream down her face. “I’m not crying because I’m hurt or sad. I’m crying because you…touched my heart.”
Touched her heart? Erik swallowed hard. He’d been accused of a lot of things over the years, but never once of touching a woman’s heart.
And exactly what had he done or said that had touched her heart? he wondered, then made himself focus on what she was saying.
“You were so gentle with me, so tender.” She sniffed and dragged her wrist beneath her nose. “Or at least you were when we were…” She dropped her gaze, blushing. “Well, you know.”
Gentle? Tender? Him? Unsure how to respond, he pulled her back against his chest and tucked her head beneath his chin. With his arms wrapped around her, he rocked her slowly back and forth, trying to remember exactly what he’d done that she might have interpreted as gentle or tender.
He wasn’t sure how long he held her before he became aware of her hands on his back and the tiny circles she was drawing on his bare skin with the tips of her nails. And once he noticed that, he couldn’t help but remember the feel of those fingers vised around his, while they were making love. The way her nails had bitten deeply into his flesh, the way she’d clung to him, how she’d cried out his name when she’d climaxed.
And the entire time she’d thought she was asleep.
Which didn’t say much for his sexual prowess, a fact that, now that he thought about it, shrank his male ego to the size of a small pea.
“You sure you don’t remember anything?”
She withdrew slightly to peer up at him, her eyes moist, green pools of innocence. “Oh, I remember everything. It was just at the beginning that I thought it all was a dream.”
Her response did nothing to soothe his ego but did succeed in deepening his frown. “At what point did you realize it wasn’t a dream?”
Heat stained her cheeks and she dropped her gaze. “When…when my bottom bumped against your…well, you know.”
Yeah. He remembered that part, too…as well as every detail that followed it. And damn if he didn’t want a repeat performance, another chance to prove to her what a stellar lover he was…and another chance to judge her skills.
He crooked a knuckle beneath her chin and tipped her face up to his. “How ’bout we give it another try?”
The color slowly drained from her face. “You mean…”
“Yeah,” he said, and stooped to hook an arm beneath her knees. He hefted her up against his chest. “Only this time,” he warned, as he headed for the bedroom, “I’m going to make damn sure you know you’re not dreaming. You’re going to remember every detail from beginning to end.”
Seven
Later that afternoon, while rolling a second coat of sage-green over the final wall in the loft’s living room, Penny reflected back over the morning’s events.
It shamed her a little that she’d allowed Erik to carry her back to bed without putting up much of a fight. Especially after promising herself that she would never let him find her in his bed again.
But she consoled herself by recalling her conversation with Mrs. Hilloughby and the glimpse of Erik’s past his former secretary had shared with her.
Children need their families, the assurance of their love, in order to learn how to give it themselves.
He simply didn’t know how to behave any differently. But he would learn, she promised herself. And by her example. And if his expressions of love were anything like those he revealed in bed…
She shivered deliciously, remembering the hours they’d spent in his bed and the shower they’d shared afterward. She knew she would never bathe again without thinking of his soapy hands skimming over her body or how the water had pelted her skin, adding a new sensation to those she’d already secreted away, when he’d lifted her, wrapped her legs around his waist and taken her again.
Hunger was what had finally driven them from the shower, and the lack of food in his pantry was what had forced them out of the apartment and into making a trip to the grocery store.
She choked a laugh, remembering their shopping excursion. What a fiasco that had been. Her six-year-old niece, Rachel, possessed a better sense of nutrition than Erik. He had charged down the aisles, filling their grocery cart with every piece of junk food they passed. She had run herself ragged, trying to keep up with him, while returning the unwanted items to the shelves and slipping more nutritious foods into their cart.
“Where’d you put the Ding-Dongs?”
Penny tensed at Erik’s shouted request, then forced herself to relax and place the roller against the wall. “On the grocery shelf where they belong.”
