She heads for the door and I reach for the envelope, opening it up to find a check for sixty thousand dollars and a note: Nick,
You promised to take this and I believe that you’re a man of your word. And I owe you this and so much more and I’m not talking about money. I’ll be waiting on you when you get home.
Naked.
Faith
My lips tighten and I re-read the note a total of three times before I set it on the desk. I don’t want her damn money, but I do want her. And naked or not, I like the idea of going home to her. I exhale and tap the desk, and while it matters to me that she isn’t in this for the money, I want her to take the damn money back.
My cellphone buzzes where it rests on my desk and I grimace at my broker’s number on caller ID yet again. But Rita is right. The man has a shit ton of my money.
I take the call. “Ned,” I greet.
“What the fuck is this fucking shit you’re fucking doing to me?”
“Once a New York fuck-mouth, always a New York fuck-mouth,” I say.
“I’ll fuck-mouth you, Nick Rogers.” He pauses. “No. No I won’t. Fuck you for even tricking me into saying that. I got you out of Blue Textiles. They were tanking.”
“I had 200 in them. How badly did they tank?”
“I got you out before you lost your original investment and fifty more.”
“I was up a hundred and fifty.”
“Fucking call me back when I call. In case you’ve forgotten, I shouldn’t have pulled you without your approval. Bottom line. I got you out fifty up, man. And I have a deal now that will make up your loss and then some. This is a 200k buy-in and it’s hot. I need you in now and the money will be big and fast.” He gives me the pitch and it sounds worth the risk.
“Do it,” I say, and when I would hang up, I hesitate, “And,” I say, an idea hitting me. “Do a separate buy-in of sixty thousand dollars, under the name of Faith Winter. Whatever you need on Faith, Rita can get you tomorrow.”
“That’s one hell of a gift.”
“Do it without comment,” I say, ending the call.
And now, I feel good about taking Faith’s money.
It’s two hours later by the time I’ve finished my prep for tomorrow’s meeting, and I’m just about to call Faith and see if she wants me to pick up dinner, when I hear footsteps in what I’d thought was the empty offices. A few seconds later, Faith appears in my doorway, the sight of her setting my blood to pumping, and not because her black jeans and light blue t-shirt accent every one of her many curves. It’s simply because she’s here. She’s Faith. And she rocks my world.
“Hey, sweetheart,” I say.
“Hey,” she replies, leaning against the door frame and looking a bit tentative. “Rita helped me get past security.”
“Remind me to give her a raise tomorrow.”
She pushes off the door, shuts it and the leans against it. “So, I’m not interrupting?”
“Come here,” I order, softly.
She gives me one of her seductive looks that tells me she’s feeling out of control, which means sex is her weapon, her way of getting it back. That’s going to be a problem because in this, I’m not giving it away. She walks toward me, the sway of her hips a seductive, sweet dance, and I don’t remember a woman ever making me this hard and hot this easily, but Faith does. She rounds my desk, and I roll my chair just enough to allow her between me and the desk, my hands settling at her hips.
Her hands going to my hands, her perfect backside resting on my desk. A fact that I’m certain I will think about many times in the future. “I like you in this office, behind this desk.”
“Do you?”
“You’re Tiger here. Powerful. Confident. Sexy.”
I don’t let her take me to the fuck zone. Not yet. “I’m always Nick to you, Faith. You know that.”
She inhales, her mood shifting, softening, a tentative quality to her voice as she asks, “Did you get my note?”
“I got your note and the check. And I still don’t want your money.”
“You promised to take it.”
“As you pointed out in the note. And I did promise, therefore, I will take the money. But we are at that place in our relationship where there is more ahead of us, not less. I won’t try to define what that is right now, in this moment, but it’s a hell of a lot more than how badly I want to be inside you right now.”
“You want to be inside me right now?”
“I always want to be inside you, Faith. You know that, too. And you know that gives you control. You have a lot of control but I need you to let me be who I am. And who I am is the man who wants to take care of you. I want to handle the bank. And I damn sure want to buy you the outfit you need for court.”
“I bought something today.”
“Faith—”
“You paid my bills at the winery today, Nick. I just couldn’t let you do more today.”
“I’m not Macom, Faith.”
“Stop saying his name.” Her hands come down on my shoulders. “I am not thinking about him. Nothing about you feels like him. Nothing about us feels like what I was with him.”
“Then let me be me.”
“Then you have to let me be me, too. It will take me time to lean on you, Nick. Because it’s not natural to me.”
“Because when you leaned on Macom, he abused that trust.”
“Now who is making him a part of our relationship? But if you’re going to go there, I always on some level felt alone with Macom. So. I’ve always been alone.”
I stand up and cup her face. “So have I. But we aren’t alone anymore.”
“I’m going to protect you just like you do me, Nick. You need that, too.”
“Sweetheart, you can’t protect me by protecting my money. Money’s been saving me my entire life. You are what I need.” I kiss her, my mouth closing down on hers, tongue licking into her mouth, the taste of coffee, and sweetness, her sweetness, exploding on my taste buds. It only makes me hungrier for her, for that certain little sexy thing she does and doesn’t even know she does. And she gives me exactly what I crave. She breathes into the kiss in that way that says, “Now I can breathe.” Now I have what I need and it sets me on fire, burns me inside and out, and I don’t play the control game I’d been ready for when she entered the office. I let myself go, deepening the kiss, letting her taste the hunger in me, the unleashed passion and she seems to feed off of what I feel, molding herself to me.
I drag her shirt over her head and I don’t stop there. Her bra follows. Her zipper is next and then I set her on the desk, my gaze raking over her breasts, before I reach for her leg, and settle the high heel of her boot on my leg. I unzip it and pull it away. Repeating the process with the other leg before I set her back on the ground, our bodies melding together, lips following, but I want her naked. Need her naked. I drag her jeans down her hips, and since impatience is my virtue right now, her panties with them. I lift her and maneuver her jeans away from her feet. And now, once again, she is naked and I am not.
Trust.