Читать книгу Sweet and Sinful - Jodi Lynn Copeland - Страница 8

A knock sounded outside Blaine’s open office door, followed by Courtney’s “Is now a good time?”

With an absent nod, he looked up from scanning a set of plans. She came inside, pulling out an armless, padded green chair on the opposite side of his desk and sitting down. A half hour had passed since he left her in the lunchroom. Long enough to move past the heart-pounding fear he felt upon realizing she was choking. But not long enough to forget how amazingly good she’d felt cradled against him, once the candy had dislodged from her throat.

In any other venue, he would have given in to his urge to nibble on the sweet spot of her neck. Not at work. Even in his office with his lower half hidden behind his desk, he shouldn’t allow himself to be physically turned on by her.

At least he’d made it back to his office before his cock had grown noticeably hard. Closing out the paperwork portion of a project he’d been avoiding had taken his mind off her to the point that his erection had faded away.

Now to keep his mind focused on work while she sat across from him in that bull’s-eye red top. The square cut of the neckline didn’t show off her cleavage, like so many of her shirts did these days, but when he’d been standing behind her, he’d had a prime view down the front. Her white cotton bra fit the secretly sensual woman she used to be instead of the outward vamp she’d become.

Blame it on the fact he’d yet to end his celibacy streak, or maybe the way his time in a mostly impoverished area had strengthened his appreciation for the simple things, but the plain style was a huge turnon.

Turning off that line of thinking, Blaine set the plans aside. “Looking for that figure?”

Courtney frowned. “Figure?”

“The reason you knew my schedule.”

“No. I ended up tracking it down myself.”

Had she? Or had she made up the need for a project fee to avoid admitting she wanted to track him down for another reason like to discuss what had happened in his kitchen Friday night? The openly appreciative way she’d eyed his body in the lunchroom suggested as much.

Resting her crossed arms on the edge of his desk, she sat forward. “I know I sort of said thank you for helping me, but words seem a bit weak considering it’s potentially my life we’re talking about.”

He had been afraid. And he had been trying to be good. Now his thoughts were centered on the press of her arms around her breasts, creating a generous supply of cleavage where before there had been none.

Pulling his attention back to her face, Blaine risked testing the waters. “Did you have a good time Friday night?”

Wariness shot through Courtney’s eyes. Her gaze zipped to his open office door.

For someone who’d recently made a habit of flirting with every guy at Pinnacle, be they single or attached, she was awfully worried about being overheard. “Dancing,” he improvised. “I heard you tell your friend you wanted to go out dancing.”

Visibly relieved, she looked back at him. “It was a pleasurable experience.”

“You’re into pleasure?”

Her eyes narrowed a fraction, conveying what he already knew—that he shouldn’t have asked the question in this setting. Her voice dropped to a throaty whisper with her response. “I’m not into pain, if that’s the alternative.”

Since he’d dared to start the conversation, there was no point in backing down. Giving her breasts an open leer, he pointed out, “Then you’ve never been exposed to the right kind.”

“Of pain?” She looked and sounded appalled.

He wouldn’t mind one bit changing her stance on the issue. His cock twinged with the idea of pinking her backside, and he amended that “wouldn’t mind one bit” to “he’d downright love it.” Keeping his tone professional, he said, “Like most anything else, there’s good and bad.”

Courtney seemed to turn the words over, as if weighing whether to give pleasure-pain a try in the near future. Then all at once, a naughty smile took over her lips and she asked, “Can I take you out to dinner tonight?”

If her smile was a foreshadowing of the night she had in mind, then the answer was a big hell yeah. Before he accepted the offer, Blaine made one thing clear. “I don’t date.”

“I meant as my way of saying thanks beyond a few lame words. Dating’s overrated.”

It was what he’d expected her to say, what he’d been counting on. The reply also made it seem Jake and Randy’s belief she had a full-time guy lined up for down the road was a crock of shit emerged out of office gossip.

Recalling her Friday night words, about some people not getting the concept of no strings, he nodded his understanding. “Has a way of landing a person in a position where they feel the need to escape.”

“Exactly.”

“So I’ll pick you up at seven, we’ll have dinner out, and then go back to my place for dessert?”

“No good. Picking me up will make it feel too much like a date. I’ll meet you at Valerio’s at seven.” Courtney’s voice dropped a few notches, and her eyes sizzled with sensual heat. “Then we can go back to your place for dessert.”

It was sad, really it was. But Courtney couldn’t stop from giggling her anticipation of the night ahead as she dropped down on the apartment couch and pulled on a pair of heeled black slingbacks. She’d thought Blaine wasn’t interested in sleeping with her for real, after he’d gotten so sedate following her choking session. But he did want to sleep with her for real.

More precisely, he wanted to have her for dessert.

She shivered with excitement just thinking about spreading whipped cream on his meat-flavored banana and then licking it back off.

Perched on the arm of the couch, wearing her typical summertime evening gear of gray cotton shorts and a white, midriff-skimming T-shirt, Gail pointed out, “You’re incredibly giddy for someone not going on a date.”

A few months ago, Courtney would have been dressed much the same and be gearing up for yet another routine night at home, watching movies with Gail. Now she was dressed to get laid and, yeah, giddy as heck about it.

She really didn’t think that Gail needed to follow in her sex-diva footsteps, but she wished her friend would at least go on one date this year. Since she’d broached the subject numerous times and Gail seemed less impressed each one, Courtney didn’t bother to bring it up. “Did I tell you I got a present from a secret admirer today?”

“No.”

“Yep. A fifty-dollar box of chocolates I almost choked to death on.”

“You mean over the cost?”

Courtney shook her head gently, careful not to relax the curl she’d spent a good half hour styling into her normally stick-straight hair. “They’re filled with some kind of imported liquor. Nasty stuff. I bit into one and ended up gagging and swallowing a big chunk of chocolate. Or I should say not swallowing, since it lodged in my throat.”

Gail stiffened. The color rushed from her face. “Oh my God! You could have died, Courtney!”

Oh my God, was right. What a dummy. After her roommate’s admission a few weeks back that she was concerned for Courtney’s safety, the last thing she should have done was brought up the choking incident.

Purposefully reverting to giddiness, she sent Gail a teasing smile. “There was no chance of dying. Super Blaine had just returned to the office and, as soon as he realized I was in trouble, he swooped in and saved the day. This nondate is my way of saying thank you for performing the Heimlich.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “If I’m lucky, I’ll get to add a ‘thanks for performing the hind lick’ to that before the night’s over.”

As Courtney could have predicted, Gail didn’t laugh. She did relax though, and the color returned to her face. “Don’t you find it strange Blaine returned to the office right when you got the chocolates and then he was there to save you from choking on one of them?”

“You’re getting worried about me again, aren’t you?”

“How can I not be? The last day and a half you said he wasn’t around the office. And yet there he suddenly is, right when you need him.”

“It was coincidence. Pure and simple. He’s not even close to the type to take the covert approach to gift giving. I just wish I knew who is the type.” She’d considered candidates all afternoon. The only guy to show more than a passing interest in her was Craig Dooley, the beefcake who’d let her videotape their sexcapades a few weeks back, and then asked for a copy of the tape. He’d supplied her with his name and address so she could send him that copy. Courtney had sent the tape anonymously ensuring he would have no way of knowing her name, let alone where she worked.

Ironically, she had run into Craig last week at a nightclub. Even flirted with him a bit, but she hadn’t left with him, and she also hadn’t dished on any personal information.

“Whoever my admirer is, he didn’t taint the candy in some way that would make me choke.” Or make her tongue feel like ten pounds of cotton. Thank God, that icky sensation had finally passed.

“I hope not.”

Courtney sighed at the doubt in her friend’s voice. “Seriously, Gail, I love you, but you’re starting to sound too much like my mother.” Pasting on an innocent smile, she asked the question she’d earlier avoided. “What do you say I set you up with one of the good-looking, single guys from the office?”

The doubt in Gail’s voice flowed over into her eyes. “You worked at Pinnacle for two years and never mentioned a good-looking, single guy until after your transformation. That pretty much tells me they aren’t the type who went for the natural version of you and so they won’t go for me.”

“You mean the average version of me. I’m still natural.” Courtney eyed her breasts. They weren’t huge by any means, but water bras and underwire had a way of creating remarkable illusions. So far no man had complained about the variance in what she put on display and what she really had.

Hopefully, Blaine wouldn’t be the first.

Tonight wasn’t a date and they probably wouldn’t sleep together again after sharing dessert. Still, between having the hots for him from the day they’d met and being aware of all the stunning arm candy that had traipsed through his life the last couple years, she wanted to make as positive and lasting of an impression as possible.

Courtney momentarily forgot about Blaine and the promising night that lay ahead with the realization Gail hadn’t said no to her date suggestion. With an encouraging smile, she pushed onward. “For all I know plenty of guys were attracted to me before. I was just too afraid of being rejected to find out. I know you too well to think you’d fear rejection.”

Gail considered a few seconds, and then stunned Courtney by nodding. “All right. Next weekend you can set me up. I already agreed to watch Jessica’s kids this weekend so she and Matt can have some grown-up time.”

“See, even after nine years of marriage, your sister and brother-in-law appreciate the value of a good sex life.”

Gail actually laughed at that, shocking Courtney for a second time. Then she stood from the arm of the sofa and turned serious again. “They also appreciate a good security system. I talked to Eddy today about having an electronic system installed here and he said to go ahead.”

Courtney frowned, well aware Gail had talked to the super first so that the old guy would get excited about the investment and expect it to happen. In other words, so that Courtney wouldn’t veto the idea. “Why are you suddenly so freaked out about our safety?”

“I’ve run out of comedies to watch while you’re out getting your man fix every other night of the week, so I’ve taken up watching horror movies,” Gail joked. When Courtney didn’t crack so much as a smile, she soberly added, “I don’t know, Court. Maybe it’s just how much this part of the city has grown the last few years. Whatever the reason, I’ll feel much better once the new system’s in place.”

“Okay. Go ahead and get one put in.” If the system relaxed Gail enough to make her stop jumping to unlikely conclusions that all involved Courtney’s safety, it would be a worthwhile investment. “I’ll even foot half the bill. But just remember whose idea it was when I have to wake your butt up at three in the morning because I forgot the code and can’t get in.”

“I’d much rather wake up to let you in than be woken up by someone breaking in.”

“Is this weird for you?” Courtney asked Blaine from across the restaurant table once their waiter had presented a bottle of Chianti and left to place the entrée order.

Her serious tone didn’t come close to matching the rest of her. In a clingy, scoop-necked top in his favorite shade of blue and black hot pants, her trim body was pure dynamite. Open-toed black heels revealed toenails the same shade of soft pink as her lips. Her mouth always looked extremely kissable. Something about the way she’d styled her hair into soft curls stepped up the sweet and downplayed the sinful appeal of her face, and had him more anxious than ever to taste her lips.

He should have insisted he pick her up at home so that he could have given her a mouth-to-mouth greeting. Her logic for meeting at Valerio’s was too sound to refute. Unfortunately, the restaurant was too tasteful to allow for the kind of kiss, and likely groping, that would ensue the moment their lips met. He’d just have to be a big boy and wait an hour or two.

If he were patient enough, he might be rewarded with the kind of kiss that didn’t have a thing to do with his mouth.

His pulse stirred with the thought. Not about to let his cock follow suit, Blaine teased, “Eating in a nice restaurant? Surprisingly, I do get out of my cave from time to time.”

She laughed. “No. I meant us. Being out on a…nondate.”

“It’s no different than eating together in Pinnacle’s lunchroom.”

Courtney’s eyebrows rose as she glanced from the low-lit crystal chandeliers to the marble wall sconces that sprayed forth trailing greens and small, white heart-shaped flowers to the servers moving about in tuxedo uniforms. Looking back at him, she smiled wryly. “I’d say the ambiance is just a little different. Besides, I didn’t mean now so much as what’s going to happen later.” Anticipation flickered in her eyes. “When we have dessert.”

Normally, he didn’t rely on euphemisms to get his desires across. Back in his office, with the door wide open, he hadn’t felt comfortable talking frankly. Now, he couldn’t help but taunt her a little with the idea it really was only dessert he had in mind. “I just hope you like it. After what happened at lunch, I made sure to veer away from anything chocolate.”

Her mouth fell open a half inch, freeing a low gasp. “You mean we’re actually going to—Nothing. Never mind.”

Courtney lifted her wineglass to her lips, sipping at the Chianti. Attempting to hide her displeasure was the truth of it, Blaine knew. He considered letting her off easy by leaning across the table and whispering what he planned to do with her once they got back to his place in details so explicit she would be left squirming in her seat, wet with eagerness. Before he could say or do anything, their waiter reappeared.

The dark-haired guy set a loaf of Tuscany bread and a short crock of olive oil on the table. With a clap of his hands and a cheerful, “Piacere. Enjoy,” he left them again.

Courtney set her wineglass down and eyed the bread appreciatively. “I have a huge soft spot for homemade bread and that smells incredible.”

Blaine pulled the wooden breadboard toward him. He sliced and buttered her a generous piece of bread, and then watched as she attacked it with gusto. He’d be the first to admit he could be vain about the women he chose to spend time with. It never bothered him much if so many of them relied on eating tiny portions of food as a way to stay slim. But then, he also never found himself smiling over the sheer bliss one of those women found in something as simple as bread, the way he was doing with Courtney.

Her happiness came out as an elated murmur with her next bite. How much that murmur sounded like the one she made as she climaxed had him quickly slicing and buttering a piece of bread for himself and stuffing it into his mouth.

The bread all but melted in his mouth, the baked-in seasonings enlivening his taste buds. A moan of pure contentment escaped before he could stop it. Not only was the bread delicious, but he hadn’t taken the time to indulge in a high-quality meal since returning from Iraq, and the food over there had been basic fare at best.

“Good, huh?” Courtney’s voice was edged with amusement.

Setting the bread on a side plate, he looked across the table. While there was humor in her eyes, there was far more desire. The kind of red-hot sensuality that threatened to harden his cock. If he suggested they leave now, to go back to his place to have each other for both the main entrée and dessert, she was likely to say an emphatic yes. But she was enjoying her food, the wine, and she looked too charmingly appealing with her hair curled and those soft pink lips to mess them up quite so soon.

“Excellent.” Blaine took a drink of wine as he sought out conversation not likely to have a stimulating effect on his body. “For the record, I don’t let my nondates pay for dinner.”

“The point of us coming here was so that I could buy you dinner. But since you probably make a buttload more money than I do, I’ll forget the point.”

His income wasn’t a topic he discussed with his lovers. Since Courtney had access to the billing rates of every Pinnacle employee, he didn’t bother to deny the observation. “I did pick up a nice chunk of pocket change working abroad.”

“Is that why you went over there? For the money?”

“Money isn’t an issue. Like you said, I bring in a decent wage at Pinnacle, and I don’t have a wife and kids to support so a good share of my paycheck goes directly to savings.”

“Then what would propel a person to thrust themselves into such a dangerous place?”

“The whole country isn’t dangerous, just certain parts. Where I went was more of a high-risk zone, though.” His gut roiled with the memory of the trip in and out of the rebuild area. He’d seen things so horrific they would be forever embedded in his mind and that he wouldn’t share ever, let alone while eating. “Once the convoy arrived at the construction site, we couldn’t go outside the designated parameters. Then there are the rodents and insects. Damn camel spiders are bigger than my hand.”

Instead of shuddering, the way most of the women he spent time with would do, Courtney smiled brazenly. “Let’s not forget about the heat.”

“Not possible.” Blaine smiled back, thankful for the reminder of a far more pleasant experience. Thoughts of chilling her sex with ice and then warming her up again with the glide of his fingers inside her pussy did rile his testosterone, but it also eased his gut enough to allow him to continue the conversation. “There are days I feel like I’ll never get clean again working on the construction sites around here. Over there, it’s like a dust bowl. You don’t just end up with that shit in places you didn’t even know you had. You can feel it in your lungs.”

“Yet you volunteered to go over there, not even caring about the money factor.” Admiration shone in her eyes. “Where I come from, that’s called noble.”

“More like intrigue, and might I remind you I didn’t care about the money factor—but I still took every dollar they paid me.”

The admiration didn’t dissipate. If anything, she looked impressed by his honesty. “Which part intrigued you?”

He talked about his family with his lovers as seldom as his finances. Courtney could find out about his background almost as easily as she could learn his salary, so he answered truthfully. “My younger brother’s a sergeant with the Army. His unit was called over to Iraq when the war first broke out with an expected year-long tour of duty. They ended up staying an extra three months. Then when he did come home, no more than a month had passed and he was raring to be deployed again. A short while later, he was right back into the heat of things. He’s on his third tour now.”

“You went over there to figure out why he’s always so anxious to get back.” The words were a statement not a question, and another testament to her astuteness.

Blaine had appreciated both her work ethic and her ass for over two years. Now he found he was also appreciating the woman beyond her job and looks. “Pretty much. I ended up only getting to see him for about an hour. It was enough to tell that he loves his job. And more than enough to see I wasn’t cut out for working twelve-to sixteen-hour days in a hundred-and-twenty-degree temperatures, sleeping on a hard-ass cot, and living in a tent with nine other guys who haven’t showered in days.” His brother’s face filled his mind, and he smiled. “I’d never have guessed it, considering what a whiner he was growing up, but Jamie has my total respect.”

Courtney returned his smile. “He sounds great. I don’t have any siblings. My parents have always been very focused on the blueberry farm. I guess too much to take time out for more than one kid.”

“You’re a country girl?”

As if he’d hit on some dirty little secret, her smile wavered. Quietly, she said, “Um. Yeah.” She looked away, then quickly back. Relief slid into her eyes with the return of her smile. “Oh, good. Our waiter just came out of the kitchen with our food.”

Courtney had never been embarrassed to admit where she came from before tonight.

She was proud of her parents’ success in the blueberry industry. Their Newaygo-based farm turned over a healthy enough profit to see her four years of college tuition was paid up front and a steady supply of money was in her bank account, so that she’d been able to focus on her courses instead of working a part-time job to afford groceries and rent. It was their old-fashioned ethics that bothered her. More so, the fact that she’d lived by those same ethics for far too long. Denied herself pleasure because of them.

Tonight, she wasn’t about to deny herself a thing. Tonight, she was going to screw the guy standing across the kitchen counter from her, mixing ice cubes into a bowl of boiling water and strawberry gelatin powder, while she kicked back on a barstool and enjoyed a cold beer.

That was, if Blaine wanted to sleep with her.

To think otherwise seemed ridiculous, given what she knew of him. But then, at dinner he’d made it sound like he really did want her at his house solely for the purpose of sharing dessert. The edible kind. The kind that had nothing to do with getting naked, even if the quickly melting ice cubes reminded her of the last time they’d been in his kitchen alone together, and had her sex moist and her nipples erect as a side effect.

“Who would have guessed staring at ice could make a person horny?” Blaine asked.

Courtney looked up from the mixing dish to find him smiling at her knowingly. “What makes you think I’m horny?”

“A vast knowledge of the female mind and body. Your cheeks and lips are rosy, and your breathing’s coming faster than usual.”

How did he know how fast she normally breathed? Unless he made it a point to pay attention, which would suggest he had wanted her for some time.

She took a pull from her beer before asking casually, “Does that knowledge tell you we like to get gifts at work?”

“Like the box of candy you got today?” At her nod, he continued, “My knowledge tells me most women know that kind of gift is just as overrated as dating. Either you eat it and it’s gone, which basically makes it a waste of money, or you don’t eat it and it goes bad, which definitely makes it a waste of money. If I’m going to give a woman a gift, it’s going to be delivered in person and be way better and much longer lasting than chocolate.”

“Guess that rules you out as my admirer.” Courtney should be glad, considering the guy who gave her the box of candy claimed via lyrics that she was always on his mind. Since she wasn’t looking for a serious relationship for the next while, it wouldn’t do to sleep with a guy who felt that way about her. Still, part of her had held out hope the candy was from Blaine, if only because it would make certain that he still wanted her.

Now she was at the mercy of his response to give some indication of his feelings. Only, he didn’t respond, just focused back on making the pie.

Opening a container of whipped cream, he spooned it into the bowl and whisked the filling mixture for a good minute before adding strawberry slices and starting back in on the whisking. She was ready to say to hell with looking stupid should he answer in the negative, and ask him outright if he planned to sleep with her, when he finally quit stirring.

Blaine looked up at her, his smile as knowing as it had been before. The look in his eyes was different, though. Before, they gleamed with amusement. Now, the irises were dark, almost black with unconcealed want. “I didn’t send the candy, but that doesn’t mean I don’t admire you.” His hot gaze moved down her body, stilling on her breasts. “There’s a whole lot to be admired about the way I could see down the front of your shirt when you were standing in front of me in the lunchroom today.”

Courtney’s belly surged with warmth. Her nipples ached beneath his attention. Her pussy joined in, throbbing for his touch. “I thought you just wanted to have dessert?”

“I do.”

She groaned with the noncommittal response. “God, call me dense, but I can’t read you. Which kind of dessert are we talking about?”

“Both.” The single word was edged with rough desire that had her heart slamming.

Blaine grabbed the graham cracker pie crust he’d earlier pulled from the refrigerator, and poured the filling mix into the shell. “There’s a reason I waited until we got here to make this. It takes several hours to set. While it’s chilling, you’re going to heat me up.”