Another small smile from the man. “How did we end up in bed together, fornicating, Vi?”
Meeting his eyes seemed impossible. She studied the wall over his left shoulder, the whiteboard to his right. It had been wiped perfectly clean, not so surprisingly. All mention of women’s breast sizes and the lovely rendition of lingerie was gone. “Duncan invited me upstairs along with everyone else for a drink after work,” she said, an innocuous enough place to start. “But I was tired, so I was just going to say good night and go. There were heaps of people and he was in the middle of a conversation with some guy, so I decided not to disturb him.”
Alex nodded and stretched his muscular arms out across the back of the lounge. Damn a hot man in a fitted t-shirt. He wore it far too well.
“Go on,” he said.
“I was leaving when I saw you sitting on the end of your bed. The door was wide open. Obviously.” Her thumbs rubbed at the smooth polished wood of the chair. For days she’d done her best to wipe all of it from her memory but now there it sat in full color, filling up her mind. “You were just kind of staring into space, lost in your own thoughts. I knew you’d obviously had a few but you were perfectly coherent when you spoke.”
“What did I say?”
Vi swallowed and studied her shoes. Confessions had never been her strong point. “You just kind of looked at me. Then you asked me to come in and shut the door.”
“And you did,” he said.
“Yes.”
“Because I was your boss?”
Her gaze shot to him as embarrassment and anger rolled about inside her. And a good amount of mortification. “No! Shit, Alex. I wouldn’t do that.”
“Okay. Okay. I’m sorry. But I had to know.”
“And now you do.” It took all her willpower not to peg one of her shoes at the jerk’s head. Version two-point-oh, the good girl, was less than impressed. Her heart bounced about inside her chest. “You didn’t order it, as if things would be all doom and gloom if I didn’t comply. You just asked me. All right?”
“Yes. I’m sorry,” Alex said. “So why did you do it?”
“Well, you looked so lost. So alone.”
His brows pulled tight and he gave her a pained look. “Please don’t tell me it was a mercy fuck.”
A startled laugh escaped her. “No. It wasn’t a mercy fuck. Unless it was a two-way mercy fuck, I suppose. I just…”
“You just what?”
She felt horribly exposed. This was too big a revelation, especially when she barely knew him. Her knees were pressed so tightly together there’d be bruises later.
Alex didn’t move. He just watched her, waiting her out. His short brown hair stuck up and his five o’clock shadow had kicked in. The man had the most sublime face. Not classically handsome but stunning just the same, long with a lovely jawline, the sort that beckoned to fingers and lips. In her head she had a hundred and one reasons for why it had happened.
No, a million.
“Tell me,” he ordered softly.
And it was an order, not a suggestion. She felt it clear through to her bones. Her sex certainly knew the difference. She crossed one leg over the other, all the better to rub her thighs together. “I couldn’t walk away from you.”
“So what did you do, Vi?” he asked.
Damn it, she was completely under his spell. Her mouth fell open and out it all came, beyond her control. “I closed the door and I walked over to you. You were sitting with your legs spread, like you are now. But you weren’t leaning back.”
“What was I doing?”
“You were looking at me.”
Alex’s eyes narrowed on her mouth. “Where?”
“My face. My breasts.”
He shifted slightly, widening his legs a little more. “Did that bother you?”
She shook her head. “No. You didn’t look lonely anymore. You, ahh…you looked hungry, I guess. It was a rush.”
His gaze fell from her face to the twin areas of her anatomy in question. But that was okay, hers had glued to the growing state of his groin. Something serious had happened behind the zip of his jeans. Something that made breathing an issue.
“What happened next?” he asked.
Vi licked her lips, her mouth impossibly dry. “You ran your hands up the back of my legs. From my ankles up to just below the hem of my skirt.”
“You were wearing a skirt?”
“Yes. A skirt and a blouse.”
His gaze dropped to her legs. “Did you have stockings or pantyhose on, or nothing?”
Her cheeks heated. They couldn’t do this. They shouldn’t do this. Also, a hell of a time to have to admit to control-brief pantyhose. Maybe a lie would do. But no, version two-point-oh didn’t approve. And screw him, again, he could take her as he found her. This hadn’t been her idea.
“Pantyhose,” she blurted out.
“Pantyhose, so they went all the way up. Okay. What happened next, Vi?”
“I pulled my blouse out of the waist of the skirt and I undid the buttons. You just…you kept your hands around the back of my knees. You watched.”
“You took off your top?”
Vi nodded. “Yes, I took off my top.”
Her eyes were locked on his groin. His cock looked huge, trapped inside his pants. The ridge made a stark contrast to the flat of his belly and hips, the curves of his thighs. Her words had done that to him. Nothing else. Knowing he’d gotten so hard eroded her mind. She had no other excuse for what came out of her mouth next.
“Take it out.”
He held perfectly still. “Take what out?”
“Your cock. Take it out. I want to see,” she said, her pride demanding she brazen it out. “If you want me to keep going, then I want to see.”
Holy hell, the smile that curved his lips had her stomach dropping from four floors up. She had the worst feeling she’d just lost the battle.
But not the war, damn him.
“Keep talking,” he said, and his hands went to his waist. Belt, unbuckled. Button, undone. Zip, lowered. He raised his hips and shuffled his jeans down. Dark boxer briefs strained to cover him. The woman’s eyes were all over him, exactly how he wanted. Damned if she would keep him at a distance. He’d seduce Violet if it was the last thing he did.