* * *
Fifteen minutes later, Noah let himself into another apartment. It was half a block away—seventy-seven steps, to be exact—from the one where he had set up an office he planned never to use. He dropped his key onto the console table in the short entry hall and moved into the living area, where he drew up short.
“I started without you,” Nadia said.
“So I see.”
She was lying on the sofa, one foot on the floor, naked except for a royal blue silk robe that lay open. Her eyes were half closed. Her hand was rhythmically moving between her thighs. “I’m close. You’d better hurry if you want to get in on this one.”
He sauntered over to the sofa, reached down, and fingered her stiff nipple. It was enough to make her come. Smiling as he watched, Noah continued tweaking her until her arching body had squeezed every bit of pleasure it could from the orgasm, then relaxed and resettled into the sofa cushions.
“You’re shameless, Nadia.”
“I know.” She raised her arms above her head and stretched. “Isn’t it delicious?”
He began undressing. “The surprise party was a stroke of genius. Maris is now completely defused.”
“Ooh, tell me.”
“She admitted to harboring a suspicion that I was having an extramarital affair.”
“And who, pray tell, was the suspected correspondent?”
He gave her a look that caused her to purr with wicked satisfaction.
Continuing his account, he said, “Now that my wife has seen my writer’s retreat, which made her positively misty, I can use it as an excuse to get away at any time of day or night.”
“For this.”
“Definitely for this. Along with the other business in which we’re involved.”
“Maris is only half the problem, though. What about Daniel?”
“He’s an old man, Nadia. In his dotage.”
“He’ll never sell Matherly Press. He’s gone on record a thousand times.”
Nonchalantly Noah pulled his belt through the loops of his trousers and lightly spanked her thigh with it. “Not to worry, my dear. I’ll have Matherly Press sold before either of them knows what’s what. Maris is hot for a new author she’s discovered in her slush pile. That’ll keep her distracted. Daniel has virtually retired, entrusting the company’s business dealings almost entirely to me. The first they hear of the pending sale will probably be when they read about it in Publishers Weekly, and then it’ll be too late to stop it. I’ll have Daniel’s position and all the benefits that go with it, along with ten thousand shares of WorldView stock in my portfolio, and a cool ten million in my bank account.”
“And the Matherlys will be left with only each other.”
“I suppose. I really couldn’t care less.”
He stepped out of his trousers and underwear. Nadia’s eyes widened with appreciation for his jutting penis. “Is Maris responsible for that? Remind me to thank her.”
“Nothing to thank her for.”
“You didn’t get any tonight?”
“This morning.”
“I thought tonight’s party was an anniversary celebration.”
“Maris has her way of celebrating, and I have mine.”
Laughing, she encircled his penis with her hand and stroked it. “Sometime you must tell me all about it.”
“Nothing much to tell.”
She rolled her thumb over the smooth bulb. “Miss Maris doesn’t fuck dirty?”
“Miss Maris doesn’t fuck.” He knelt between Nadia’s thighs and pushed them wider apart. “She makes love.”
“How sweet.”
“That’s what I like about you, Nadia.”
“There’s a lot you like about me. You’ll have to be more specific.”
He jammed himself inside her. “You’re never sweet.”