Five
“Oh,” she said, blinking as if she were coming awake after a long nap. “About what? Our custody agreement? Aidan, you don’t have to worry. I already took care of that. It’s been signed and sent back to the lawyers.”
“Good, but this has nothing to do with that. This is about…this.” He took one more step closer and covered her lips with his in a kiss so tender, so sensual, so much sweeter than any chocolate, he found himself in danger of losing it right there. He clamped on tight to his control because there was no way he was stopping now.
“Just had to get that out of the way,” he muttered, running his fingers along the side of her face, his desire to touch her more urgent than the need to breathe.
“Okay,” she whispered and swayed a little unsteadily. “Okay. Good. Practice. Like you said. Probably a good idea, really. Makes perfect sense.” She licked her lips and stared up at him.
That was enough to push Aidan into going for more. The taste of her lingered on his mouth, like a fine wine that made you thirsty for more.
He pulled her close for another kiss, then changed angles and used his tongue to urge her lips open. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed herself against him, her fresh scent surrounding him as her soft curves molded to his hardness. He kept his hold on her gentle while his tongue plunged and wrestled with hers in a sensuous dance that left him on a dangerous edge. He wanted to go deeper, taste more of her sweetness, more of her essence, more of everything.
“More,” he murmured, and moved his hand to graze the smooth arc of her breast. His mouth returned to hers, claiming her for his own with another mind-numbing kiss so hot it felt as if he were branding her. Or maybe it was the other way around.
“Yes,” she answered, holding on to his waist in an effort to press herself even closer to him. It was a possessive move that he enjoyed way too much. He wanted her even closer, but that wouldn’t happen as long as they were both wearing so many clothes.
Taking a step back from her, he grabbed the hem of her top and lifted it up and off in one smooth move. She reached out and did the same with his shirt, tossing it aside.
“Better,” she said greedily, and splayed her hands against his bare chest.
He laughed, but the sound emerging from his throat was raw with need. “Almost.” He untied the knot at her waist and her skirt slid down her legs to pool on the floor around her feet. He held her arm to steady her as she stepped out of her clothes and slipped off her flirty sandals, ending up in only a lacy pink bra and a tiny matching thong.
“Much better,” he managed to say.
As he encouraged her, she seemed to gain more confidence. Now she tentatively hooked her thumbs under the thin straps of her panties and then glanced up at him.
“Yes,” he said.
She pulled them down slowly, her gaze fixed on him all the while.
He hadn’t thought he could get any more rigid, but he was wrong. In a rush now, he grasped her petite rear with both hands and hoisted her up into his arms. Their mouths met in a frenzy of heat as he walked into the large master suite with her arms clinging to his shoulders.
He knelt on the end of the bed and laid her on the cool linen, then followed her down. With both hands, he brushed her hair back from her face and then ran his palms along her jaw, her throat, her shoulders. When he reached her breasts, he cupped their warm softness and rubbed her pink nipples with his thumbs, causing her to moan with pleasure.
“Beautiful,” he whispered and bent down to take her in his mouth, first one breast, then the other, licking, sucking and nibbling as Ellie writhed with delight. Her hands grabbed his shoulders and held him tightly as she moaned her approval.
Sensation soared through him like a heat-seeking missile. His body was hard and aching and he yearned to release himself within her heated depths, but knew it was more important and ultimately more fulfilling to bring her to pleasure first. Mainly because it brought him so much pleasure to touch her like this. Especially her breasts. He couldn’t get enough of them.
Truth be told, he’d been thinking about her for two long days and dreaming of this moment for two damn nights. Hell, longer really, if he was being honest. He’d spent most of his time in California dwelling on her. And that was before he’d seen her taking that erotic shower in her bikini.
And now he couldn’t get enough of her. And unless he’d missed his mark it was obvious that Ellie felt the same way. Okay, maybe her true motive was to get the baby she’d always wanted, but she was still enjoying herself.
He wasn’t ready to think about her need for a family of her own. Right here and right now was all that mattered. This was real, he thought, as he ran his tongue over her delectable nipples. Sex was real. Ellie’s lush body was real. Her staying on the island was real.
Aidan raised his head to look at her and saw her smiling at him. Something twitched in his chest, something warm and unfamiliar that was probably hazardous to his health. He would have to think about that later. Right now, the need to taste her again was overwhelming and he stretched up to meet her mouth with his in a sizzling kiss. As their tongues linked and tangled together, he slid his hand down the length of her body. Her skin was smooth and slightly damp from their exertions and he wanted to savor every inch of it.
He could feel her heart beating in time with his own, could feel her anticipation spike as he moved his hand across her thigh. As he touched her most sensitive skin, she moaned and pressed up against his hand, urging him to touch her everywhere. He strained to control his own needs, but he was on dangerous ground as he entered her warm core and heard her gasp.
“Please, Aidan, please,” she said, writhing with pleasure as he stroked her, stoking her heat again and again.
He glanced up at her. “Please what, baby?”
“I want you inside me now,” she cried. “Now.”
With a feral grin, he moved to his knees to comply with her demand. Spreading her legs, he entered her in one swift move, covering himself to the hilt.
She gasped and clutched his shoulders. “Oh, yes.”
“Oh, yeah,” he muttered gutturally in response, as he thrust once again to embed himself even more deeply within her tight, lush folds. After a moment, he began to move, slowly at first, deliberately, inexorably, the sweet friction building pressure as he pushed himself into her warmth, then out.
He kissed her again, sweeping in with his tongue to parlay with hers. The provocative movement mirrored their more primal rhythms, pushing him relentlessly to the edge each time, before he was able to reel himself back with what was left of his ragged control.
She gasped with joy, giving him the strength to rally, and with one last burst of power, he plunged again, and again, impaling her with more sensual force than he’d ever been capable of before. As she screamed his name, he thrust inside her one last time, then fell to earth and into her welcoming arms.
*
Outside, the tropical air was hushed and still. In Aidan’s room, Ellie could hear only the sound of their breathing, heavy and tattered, and the soft whirring of the ceiling fan above the bed. Despite her near exhaustion, Ellie was exhilarated. She wanted to burst into song, although most sexual etiquette books would probably frown on that.
She lay on her back and stared up at the ceiling fan, feeling dazed and confused in all the best ways. Who in a million years would’ve ever believed that she would wind up having incredible, mind-blowing sex with Aidan Sutherland? Not Ellie. Heck, not anyone who knew them. Yet here she was, damp, spent and completely enthralled by what they had just done together.
And before she went spiraling down into a dark place, she quickly told herself that enthrallment just meant that she’d had fun. That was all. It didn’t mean she would suddenly become obsessed with him, for goodness sake. This was business. Or rather, pre-business.
Tonight was merely a practice run for later when she would be ovulating, at which time she would hopefully get pregnant. But that didn’t mean that what they’d done tonight didn’t qualify as amazing and exciting. True, she didn’t have a lot of empirical data to compare it to, but she was willing to bet that their lovemaking could match up to anyone else’s on the wildest side of the wild scale.
As Aidan turned onto his side and wrapped his arms around her, her heart swelled. He had been so generous, so caring, so thoughtful. So sexy. So forceful and compelling.
She had expected sex with Aidan to be fun. She hadn’t expected it to be so deep, so intense, so shattering to her heart and soul. And didn’t that spell trouble? Probably so. But she figured as long as she kept the thought tucked in a corner of her mind that this was essentially a business arrangement, she knew she would be able to control her emotions.
“I can tell you’re thinking too much,” he murmured. “Let’s have none of that.”
“But it’s all good thoughts,” she assured him. “I feel good.”
“Yes, you do,” he said, rolling up onto his elbow and eyeing her as a panther would eye a doe.
Without a word, he dipped his head down and licked her breast, causing her to moan in response. He took her nipple into his mouth and tormented her with his lips, tongue and teeth.
“I have to have you again,” he said.
She ran her fingers through his hair, then latched on and pressed him to her breast. “Yes, please,” she said.
*
A while later, she struggled to lift her head off his chest. “Was that naughty sex?”
He chuckled. “Officially speaking, tonight we’re featuring romantic sex.”
“Romantic sex,” she murmured. “I like it. Although I really think I’ll like naughty sex, too.”
“I’m sure you will,” he said, and reached out to nip at her earlobe with his teeth. He licked the tender skin, then moved along her jawline, kissing and nibbling as he went. “Let’s be sure to work on that one later in the week.”
She shivered. “I’d like that.” Experimenting, she reached down and stroked his length, tentatively at first, then with confidence as he grew more rigid in her hand.
“I like that, too,” he muttered, gritting his teeth.
“You don’t mind?” she whispered.
“I’ll mind a lot more if you stop.”
“Good,” she said as she continued learning every inch of him. She wanted him in every way, wanted to experience more of him, all of him.
And what was wrong with that? she thought. Want wasn’t the same as need, right? Right. She would simply enjoy herself for as long as she was able to. It didn’t mean she was obsessed; it meant she was having fun.
Besides, enjoying herself, relaxing, was essential if she was trying to get pregnant. And pregnancy was the ultimate goal. Once she’d achieved that, she would deal with the myriad feelings and worries. For now, she would concentrate on enjoying sex with Aidan.
Stretching up to meet his gaze, she said, “I like the way you feel.”
“Feeling’s mutual,” he was barely able to utter. And then he didn’t speak at all.
*
An hour later, she stirred beside him.
“I should go,” she whispered.
“No,” he said, surprising them both.
It meant nothing, he reasoned, only that he wanted her in his bed for a while longer. Why not? Their connection was strictly physical. His heart was not engaged, only his libido. That made it okay for her to stay. At least, that’s what he told himself because it couldn’t be anything more than sex, right? The greatest sex of his life, for sure, but still, it was just sex.
And besides, it was just one night. Everything would go back to normal tomorrow.
“Stay,” he urged, ignoring the warmth spreading through his chest, dangerously close to his heart. He wrapped his arms around her and gathered her close so that her curvy backside was pressed against him temptingly. “A few more minutes won’t matter.”
*
The next day, Aidan was too busy to leave his office so he didn’t run into Ellie at all. He had hoped she would stop by at some point during the day, only because she was his right-hand man…person. They always had business to discuss.
But he didn’t buzz her and ask her to come by because, well, he didn’t want to seem too eager to see her. Even though, truth be told, he couldn’t wait to see her again.
“Great. It’s already getting weird,” he muttered, scowling at his coffee mug.
He pushed away from the desk and poured himself another cup of coffee. Yeah, it was getting weird, and it was all on him.
He’d originally suggested helping Ellie out so that her child would grow up knowing its father and so he wouldn’t have to run his business without her. And yeah, okay, there was that little issue of wanting Ellie in his bed more than just about anything. But now that he’d scratched that itch, so to speak, he should’ve been over this feeling of constant need for her. Instead, he found himself thinking about her too much, wanting her too much.
So yeah, the weirdness was all coming from him. Idiot.
“It’s just sex,” he said under his breath. And therein lay the problem. He hadn’t had a good, healthy bout of wild sex in a long time, so naturally, he was still thinking about it. The fact that he’d had that wild sex with Ellie wasn’t the issue. He would’ve felt this way about anyone.
Good. Problem solved. He wasn’t as big an idiot as he thought he was.
It was no big deal. They were both having a good time. Eventually, Ellie would get her baby. Aidan would achieve his goal of keeping her child from growing up without the support of one of his parents. And Ellie would stay on the island, which meant that the Sutherland Corporation would continue to operate at the same high level of efficiency that Aidan and Logan and their investors had come to expect.
And that meant that all of this wild sex was a win-win for everyone.
Yeah, that was his story and he was sticking to it.
Good. He’d worked it all out, so now he could get back to concentrating on business. He had a load of work to get through today and he was going to stay in the office all night if he had to in order to get it done. He didn’t have time to dwell on Ellie’s extremely hot body, her shapely thighs or her magnificent breasts, or the startling image of her clever hands wrapped around his—
“Stop that,” he berated himself aloud. Taking in a deep, bracing breath, he let it out slowly. “Now get back to work.”
*
Ellie re-read the custody agreement one more time. The lawyers had sent her a fully executed original and since she’d already signed it, she was satisfied with it. It was a done deal. But she still couldn’t quite believe Aidan had agreed to go through with it, so she’d decided to read the document again, just to make sure. And oddly enough, just reading the legalities of what Aidan had consented to do for her made Ellie feel even closer to him, somehow. Oh, they were definitely closer now that they were having sex, and that was wonderful. But this agreement made her feel even closer to him on a vital, life-giving level.
They had agreed on many of the essential points she had listed in her slide presentation and most of those items had been integrated into this legal document. But Aidan had fought back persuasively on a few of the others. He simply hadn’t been willing to relinquish all his claims to Ellie’s future baby.
He wanted to be listed as the father on the child’s birth certificate and Ellie was in complete agreement with that. A child should know who her father was, right? Even if that father wanted nothing to do with her.
Ellie rubbed her arms to ward off the chill that that thought brought. Even though her own father had cut off all ties with her and her sister, that didn’t mean that Ellie’s own child would ever experience that same level of hurt and confusion. No, her child would always know that she was completely loved and wanted by Ellie. They were a complete family, just the two of them. But now Aidan wanted to play a tiny part, too, and she had decided that that was fine. After all, once the baby was here, she didn’t expect him to be much more than a friendly visitor in their lives.
But Aidan had surprised her again by requesting a more liberal visitation arrangement than she had originally proposed. Of course, since her original idea was that there be no visitation at all, no connection between her child and Aidan or his family, she supposed she couldn’t blame him for asking for a little more leniency on that item.
Still, Ellie had argued with herself on that one. After all, some anonymous sperm donor wouldn’t be given those rights, would they? No, of course not. But since it was Aidan and since his family was so lovely, she couldn’t find it in her heart to fight him. Besides, they would all be living on Alleria so it would be pretty hard to avoid having her child run into its father from time to time. Better to be upfront about all of this from the get-go.
But then Aidan had insisted on supporting her and her child monetarily, too. Ellie had tried to turn him down, but he had persisted. She’d pointed out that it was odd for a man who had no interest in children to be so adamant about supporting this child. Aidan had brushed it off as being something any man would do, but Ellie knew he was wrong about that.
Finally, Aidan had included a clause that stated that he intended to rewrite his will to include the child, which, in the privacy of her office, had moved Ellie to tears. She had never expected that level of generosity and support, especially from a man who, let’s face it, had only offered to father her child to keep her on the island. That’s what she’d originally thought, anyway. Clearly, she was wrong about him in more ways than one.
*
The following morning, Ellie decided that this must be her week for signing personal legal documents. Soon after she arrived at her office, her assistant dropped a thick, padded envelope on top of her inbox. It was her copy of the Sutherland partnership agreement Aidan had promised her. How he had been able to have the lawyers write it up so quickly was a mystery to her, but she’d read it over carefully, called the lawyer to clarify a few issues, then signed it the next day.
Unable to hold in her excitement, she checked that her secretary wasn’t watching, then jumped in the air and clicked her heels with joy. She was now a partner in the Sutherland Corporation! She clutched the document to her heart and tried to hold back the happy tears trying to escape her eyes. It wouldn’t do to burst into waterworks in the office, but this was a moment worth savoring. After all, it seemed that so many of her dreams were coming true. A fabulous career advancement, a baby someday soon, and hot sex with her fantasy man.
This called for a celebration. She brushed her hair and added a touch of lip gloss to her lips, then walked down the hall to Aidan’s office.
“Are you busy?” she said when he opened the door.
“Always,” he said, but since he was smiling and holding the door open, she walked in.
“I wanted to thank you,” she said.
“For what?”
She threw her arms up in the air and whirled around. “It’s official, I’m a partner! Thank you so much, Aidan. I won’t let you down.”
He stood there grinning at her, so she hugged him before she could think too much about it.
“It’s probably not very businesslike, but I was sitting in my office staring at my signature on the partnership agreement, and realized I just had to share my happiness with someone. I thought of you.”
“I’m happy, too, Ellie. And so is Logan. We’re both thrilled to have you on board. And we know you won’t let us down. You could never do that. You’re our right-hand man.”
“Woman,” she amended.
“Person,” he said, and they both laughed. It was an old routine, but she loved it.
They stared at each other in amusement for a long moment. Ellie turned speculative as Aidan’s eyes turned a smoldering gray and narrowed in on her. It wasn’t the first time she’d felt like she was staring into the eyes of a sexy, too-tempting-for-words predator.
They stayed frozen in place for a few charged seconds, then both of them took one step toward the other and in an instant, his mouth was covering hers in a kiss so incendiary, it was a miracle she didn’t burst into flames.
He let her go, sucked in a deep breath, then ripped his jacket off and loosened his tie. As he grabbed at the buttons of his shirt, he dashed to the door, slammed it shut and locked it. “Take off your clothes.”
He didn’t have to ask her twice. Her shoes, gray linen slacks and pink panties were already strewn on the floor. She was halfway out of her blouse when he grabbed her and hefted her up into his arms. She wrapped her legs around his waist and they kissed again.
“This is going to be fast and hot,” he warned her, his rugged body tight with coiled tension.
“Then what are you waiting for?”
He laughed, took a quick glance around and said, “Over there.” He rushed her to the wall behind his desk and pressed her back up against the smooth surface.
“Take me,” he muttered, holding her steady as she slid down his torso and took his hot, hard arousal inside her so deeply, she cried out.
“Did I hurt you?” he asked immediately.
“No. God, no,” she assured him, her eyelids fluttering from the blissful impact. “You just feel so good.”
He kissed her hungrily. “So do you.”
She began the slow glide up and down, moaning as each thrust touched her more deeply, more thoroughly than anything had ever touched her before.
With her back pressed against the wall, her breasts jutted out at him, teasing him to distraction. He made a quick adjustment in order for his mouth to reach out and feast on her, feeling a hot blast of satisfaction as her nipples tightened in response. He used his tongue to lick and suck them until he had her shuddering in his arms.
He took over for her, grabbing hold of her buttocks and holding her firmly as he plundered her moist core with hard, slow, thrusts, doubling the gratification for both of them. He moved faster, went deeper, harder, pushing into her with a savage fervor that nearly drove him to the brink of madness. His mind blanked out and pure sensation took over. When Ellie cried out his name, he buried himself inside her with one final thrust and tumbled with her into the sweet void.
*
Replete with pleasure, unable to move, they stood against the wall hanging on to each other like drunken sailors for several long minutes.
Aidan finally found the strength to carry Ellie across the office to the leather couch, where they sprawled beside each other in full naked splendor. Ellie didn’t have the energy to cover herself, but figured Aidan wouldn’t mind.
“Now that’s a first,” he said after a while, still trying to catch his breath.
“I take it that was naughty sex,” she whispered, amazed that she was able to speak, let alone string words together to make a full sentence.
“No, that was office sex,” he said, then considered his words for a moment. “Which is inherently naughty, I think.”
Ellie considered their nakedness and the sight of all their clothing spread across his office carpet. She was still struggling for breath, but now she knew it wasn’t just from the activity of moments before. Had a line been crossed here? Her heart was pumping faster and her throat was all tangled up. Too many emotions were zinging through her to allow her to think straight. She’d never felt anything like this before, but there was no way she could say any of that aloud. Keep it light, she cautioned herself. “This definitely qualifies as naughty.”
He rolled over and kissed her, then reached to fondle her breasts. “Did you like it?”
“I did,” she said, trembling from his touch. “I liked it very much.”
“Good. Me, too,” he said, easing her up and over until she was lying on top of him, bringing him back to life. “So now that we’ve had naughty office sex, I say we move on to Congratulations, Partner sex.”