Читать книгу If Only for Tonight - Sherelle Green - Страница 13

Chapter 4

At thirty-two, Shawn had finally met his match. He’d finally met a woman he couldn’t get out of his mind, although part of him refused to admit it.

There were over three hundred employees and friends present at the Peter Vallant Company appreciation tour kick-off reception but Cydney Rayne was not yet amongst the crowd. Shawn tried to will his head away from the ballroom entrance as he checked for her in a pool of new attendees who entered. Still no Cydney. He barely registered all the women openly checking him out as he greeted employees he’d recently met.

Shawn usually had no problem bedding one woman after another, but after he’d met Cydney eight months ago, he hadn’t felt compelled to have sex with any other woman. And he’d received plenty of offers. Cydney. He’d thought about calling her by her nickname, Cyd, but Cydney rolled off his tongue with such ease that he had to use her full first name. Plus, from the brief moments he’d gotten to observe her with her family at the wedding, he noticed that everyone affectionately called her Cyd and she played into the darling role. But when he was with her, he didn’t see anything darling about her. She was a unique treasure. But his definition of treasure definitely meant in the bedroom. When he was around her all he saw was fiery passion, pure lust...all woman.

You should stay away from her, he reminded himself. He shouldn’t even flirt with her. But since when did it hurt to do a little flirting? The voices in his head were not cooperating with one another and he could only assume it was a matter of time before the lower half of his body started siding with the less logical part of his brain. Shawn made his way across the room to Mr. Vallant, who was conversing with a few executives.

“Hello, Shawn,” Mr. Vallant said as Shawn approached the group.

“Hello, ladies and gentlemen,” he greeted. Curt nods from the men and polite smiles from the women were exchanged. Within two minutes he stopped a nearby waiter to ask for tequila on the rocks. He needed a shot of something to get through this night, anything to help him deal with uneventful conversations amongst an uptight executive team who had nothing better to do than kiss Mr. Vallant’s butt. He didn’t know why the men looked so tense. He didn’t want any of the women in the group. There was only one woman on his mind. Only one woman he wanted to devour...whole, if he could. A woman with a sexy smile, succulent lips and a behind that fit so perfectly in the palms of his hands you’d think her butt was created just for him.

“You okay?” asked Paul Jensen.

Deciding to forget about Cydney, he focused his attention back to the group in front of him. “I’m fine. Just wondering what’s the score of the football game.”

“Bears are winning for now,” responded Brittany Higgins, taking a sip of her drink while gaping at Shawn over her glass. When she fully lifted her head, her eyes told it all. He could sense that she’d wanted him from their initial meeting, and now had no qualms about making that fact obvious.

I really don’t need this right now. After all, he was here to do a job, and if the FBI’s suspicions were right, a man who worked for the Peter Vallant Company, more than likely an executive team member, played a significant role in the case. The team had been trying to demolish a huge drug operation for years and had recently tracked a van that was dropping off boxes of cocaine. The van traced back to the Peter Vallant Company and a lead informed them that someone who had higher ranking in the company was a key element in the operation. Peter Vallant, longtime friend of Shawn’s boss, Agent Larry Wolfe, had agreed to help find the culprit, but Shawn knew he and his team had to pay attention to details. He needed to do more than just catch the person responsible. He needed to uncover the entire operation.

Shawn had always been great at socializing and after analyzing the group and providing a few key comments, the group was warming up to him.

“Here you are, sir,” said the white-gloved waiter as he delivered his tequila on a silver platter.

“Thank you,” Shawn said, taking the glass and sipping the strong drink. The cool liquor slid down his throat and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on alert. Shawn looked at the glass, surprised by the sudden kick he felt after only one sip. He quickly took another, this time feeling a kick in the lower part of his body. He shuffled his feet, his pants suddenly feeling too tight around his groin. Maybe I shouldn’t have had tequila after all. He was seconds away from disposing of the drink when he heard the voice of seduction.

“Good evening,” Cydney said as she sashayed her way to the group. He should have known she had entered the room. His body never reacted that way to a few sips of his favorite drink. Why did she have to dress so sexy? Her deep magenta dress clung to her curves while her jet-black hair was pinned back on one side and played over her shoulders. She didn’t need much makeup but the slight makeup she had worn looked flawless on her smooth, buttery complexion and accentuated her natural beauty.

She found a place in the group standing right across from him with a glass of wine in her hand. Why did she do that? Why had she chosen to stand right across from him? He now had nothing better to do than imagine her sprawled across his bed, waiting to be enraptured by his body. Who told her to come down in a dress so tantalizing he swore he could see every crevice of her body?

But he wasn’t the only one who’d noticed Cydney. The other men in the circle were on full alert, cracking imprudent jokes that caused her to giggle in delight. And Jim Pearson was the worst. Everything he told her made her slightly throw her head back in laughter and place her arm on his shoulder. But make no mistake, Shawn saw her glance at him every time she opened her sweet pink lips to let the cool wine enter her mouth. He watched her tongue slip in and out as if savoring the flavor before taking another sip, her long eyelashes fluttering with each taste. She was baiting him. He knew it. An unfortunately, the lower part of his body knew it, too.

Down boy, he inwardly cautioned to his piece, knowing he could spring out at any second if he continued to watch Cydney drink her wine. She wasn’t going to make his undercover job easy, and now that he knew what he was dealing with, he would spend the night regrouping and reminding himself how important this case was. But right now, he needed to escape from the ballroom and away from temptation.

“Excuse me for a moment,” he said to the group as he walked toward the exit and glanced over at Micah Madden, his lead security officer, to signal that he was leaving the premises.

Once Shawn was in the hallway, he unbuttoned his suit jacket and breathed in a sigh of relief. He quickly walked down the hall and found a conference room. He tried the handle and was relieved to find the door open. He kept the lights off and escaped to a nearby window overlooking the nicely lit city. Shawn loved nighttime and he appreciated the solace of the unoccupied room with the only sounds coming from nearby traffic and trains. Dropping his head and closing his eyes, he placed his hands on each side of the counter, taking a moment to calm his body. Cydney had him on edge. Wasn’t it less than a week ago that he’d had her pinned to the wall of a walk-in closet?

“Reminiscing about great sex is not helping,” Shawn said aloud to himself just as he heard the conference door creak open.

He stepped back from the window and placed his hand in the back of his pants, clutching a small pistol he always kept on him. As the intruder peeked their head through the crack, he quickly released his hold.

“Shawn, are you in here?” Cydney’s sugary voice filled the empty room. She couldn’t see him in the dark corner, but he could see her from the light in the hallway. For a few seconds, he thought about remaining quiet so she could leave, but decided to make his presence known.

“Yes, I’m here,” he said, stepping back toward the window so the moonlight could shine on his face. As soon as Cydney entered the room and shut the door, Shawn knew he was in trouble. Even in the darkness he felt her get closer to him with each step she took. When she finally reached him, she stood there in observation, the moonlight caressing every part of her face.

“Why’d you leave?” she asked, her beauty catching him off guard even though he’d just seen her. Up close, he noticed all the little details about her that he hadn’t noticed in the ballroom. Right then and there, Shawn knew hands down she was the most attractive woman he’d ever seen.

“Shawn? Why did you leave?” she asked again after several moments of silence. Shawn crossed his arms over his chest and raised his eyebrows at her question. There was no way she hadn’t known why he left the ballroom.

“Really, Cydney,” he finally replied. “By the way you were sipping that wine, you’d think you were purposely trying to seduce me.”

She fringed a look of innocence as she shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know what you mean, Mr. Miles.”

Unlike the terse way she’d said his name earlier that day, this time she said it in an alluring way that solidified his worries. I should have kept silent, he thought, referring to moments earlier when she’d asked if he was in the room. She took a step closer to him, her bold chestnut-brown eyes trapping his sea-blue ones in her sole captivity.

“Although I was surprised to see you in the meeting this morning, I must say that I do believe this is another sign,” she said, playing with the collar of his suit jacket. Shawn kept his arms crossed for fear that if he uncrossed them, he’d have no choice but to kiss her senseless.

“I was surprised to see you, as well,” he lied, hoping she believed him. She squinted her eyes together in disbelief before tilting her head to the side with a soft sigh. Then she looked up at him and smiled that smile he was becoming all too familiar with. “What is this a sign of?” Shawn asked, although he had a pretty good idea.

Cydney moistened her lips with her tongue before dragging his head closer to her mouth. He expected her to whisper something seductive or naughty in his ear. Instead, she gave his earlobe a quick lick before moving to his neck. He was pretty sure he had done this move on her a couple times already, but she was reversing the roles. Her sensual fragrance was mingling with her natural scent of arousal, further enticing his senses. The erotic aroma smelled like a combination of seductive slices of citrusy fruits and sweet wildflower honey. He couldn’t help but uncross his arms and pull her closer to him. His hands ventured to her bottom and he palmed her cheeks as her mouth went to work on his neck. Her kisses were soft, light and wet. Her body was hot in his hands, proof that she was just as aroused as he was.

She stopped kissing his neck and gazed into his eyes. Her hands moved from their grip of his head and made their way to his chest, lingering on his dress shirt. “Another sign that our affair that should have been for one night only may not be so brief after all,” she finally answered, lightly biting her bottom lip. She leaned closer to his face again, her breath fanning his lips. She didn’t kiss him, though. Instead, she kept her face close to his and placed his right hand over her heart. The fast beats only stimulated him more and he was sure she could feel him jumping in his pants on full alert. But she didn’t budge. And when she blinked, she did so slow and inviting.

“I’m going to head back to the party now,” she said, gently pushing up from his chest while dropping her hands to her side. He didn’t let her go right away as his left hand still palmed one of her back cheeks. Seconds later, Shawn let her escape his grasp. They stood there for one more moment, neither saying anything but letting their body language speak for itself. Then Cydney turned and exited the conference room door, briefly looking toward the dark corner Shawn was still standing in.

An hour later Shawn got to his hotel room and quickly discarded his tie and suit jacket. Pulling his dress shirt out of his pants, he plopped down on the bed and dragged his long fingers across his face. He suddenly felt sorry for any male who underestimated the determination of an irresistible woman. Cydney was a siren, a seductress with the grace of a cat, fortitude of a lion and craft of a fox. Blended together, those qualities equaled temptation at its finest. They were leaving for Springfield in a couple days, so Shawn had to focus on his duties and not stray from his goal. Fortunately, the case was so personal to him, he wasn’t sure he even had a choice. Shawn knew all he had to do was remember that fateful day years ago and suddenly everything fell into perspective. It would take all of his willpower to treat Cydney like he treated the other Peter Vallant employees, but it was something he had to do. He would prevail in this case and finally close a chapter in his life whether his body agreed with him or not.