Taking Care of Business Read online

  Kate went back to her room, slightly lonely but pleasantly drunk. She let herself think of Dix briefly as she changed out of her clothes and hung them up carefully.

  She showered and, clean, warm and naked, she headed to the bed dominating the room. The cool cotton sheets lulled her a bit. Briefly, Kate entertained calling her parents to tell them she'd arrived and had closed the deal on her condo. But she was too drunk to deal with her mother's attitude just then. One drink less and she'd be perfect, just tipsy enough to ignore the barbs and to deliver a few of her own. At present, she lacked the filters she needed to survive a phone call without calling her mother's behaviour out.

  Shuddering, Kate changed the direction of her attention to something much better. The thought of Dix brought her cunt to life. Mmm, yes, that was a much nicer train of thought. Her eyes drifted closed as she trailed her fingers down her belly. And fell asleep.

  'Dude, you totally have to tell me what the hell happened last night after I left the bar,' Kate whispered to Leah as they met on the conference-room floor of the hotel the following morning. 'Was there any lawn mowing or hedge clipping involved? Did you make him stutter, "P-p-please, mistress!"'

  Leah blushed but before she could answer she gave Kate a sharp elbow to the ribs.

  'At long last, I finally meet my lady face to face.'

  Kate turned and tried to keep a pleasant expression, pretending she hadn't ever heard the groan he made at the back of his throat when he came. When really, as she watched Charles Dixon approach, all she wanted to do was fall into his arms and kiss him.

  She felt like a teenaged girl. Crap. All the schooling, all the years she'd spent smoothing out any professional edges and it all threatened to slip through her fingers. He was the highway to hell and she suddenly wanted to wrench the wheel and take off.

  Oh the clichés!

  Buck the hell up, Katherine!

  Tugging the hem of her jacket down, she straightened her spine, took a deep breath and tried to keep her smile professional.

  When their eyes met . . . holy shit, holy shit, holy shit.

  She froze as green eyes bored into hers. Unable not to, she ate him up with her gaze. Perfectly cut dark-brown hair, as dark as the sinful chocolate he represented to her, tempted her fingertips. The suit he wore fitted him well enough that she knew it was made for his body alone. When he smiled he showed white teeth, not blindingly so, but perfect enough, and she remembered what they felt like closing over the sensitive skin of her shoulder.

  He took her hand and the shake was professional, but there was no mistaking the intent in his eyes. Or her body's response. Utterly mutinous hormones shot through her, nipples hardening, pussy slickening, blooming, cripes, she had to squeeze her thighs together to try to relieve the tension.

  'Hello, Dix,' she said, one eyebrow rising as she struggled to get her bearings. She wasn't some newbie. Not to being a woman and certainly not to her job. Tonight they'd meet and have sex. She could last. She'd meant to masturbate the night before to take the edge off but she'd had a few too many tequila sunrises and had fallen asleep before she'd been able to do more than run the idea of making herself come through her head.

  'I take it your incredibly interesting seminar on confidentiality agreements went well yesterday?' One corner of his mouth lifted and for a fleeting moment he looked like a pirate in a business suit.

  He smelled good. Really good. Dark and spicy. She knew what he smelled like covered in clean sweat after a rousing bout of sex, what he smelled like first thing in the morning. What he tasted like. Inwardly, she took a shuddering breath.

  Beside her, Leah shifted and Kate latched on to her friend's presence to bring her back to shore before she lost it and sniffed at him for real.

  She pushed Kate away and pulled Katherine around her like a shield. 'Yes, as a matter of fact it did. I've actually got some material for you. We can go over it later if you like. I took the liberty of drawing up a few memos for you on the non-compete stuff as well. I just finished a case that has some corollary issues with yours.'

  'Sounds good. We can talk after the sessions today. Legal is only needed in the morning and early afternoon.' He indicated with an arm that they should precede him into the conference room but she felt him at her back.

  Throughout the morning session Katherine listened to the company president drone on. There wasn't much to say at that point so she frowned in the appropriate places. Allied had some problems that might very well end up in court. They'd come up with several innovations in both packaging and shipping but their contracts were open to interpretation in some cases with regard to their non-compete and confidentiality clauses. Meaning some of the people who knew the freaking secret box formula, or

  whatever the hell it was, could take it to another packaging company without problem.

  Dix had taken over the in-house legal counsel position for Allied Packaging and Shipping eighteen months prior and the horrific problem had slowly come to light. Leah had suggested Katherine as someone to consult on the issue and that's how she'd first come in contact with Charles Dixon.

  He'd called and something about his voice and his manner had made her respond. Made her let him push her buttons. She secretly liked it because it was something just between them. He flirted but nothing too outrageous. He didn't waste her professional time, which meant a lot to her. Something about the slight accent, the dark masculine bass of his voice always made her want to melt into a puddle of female goo.

  After her past experience with office romance, she'd kept co-workers strictly off the sex menu. That would fall under the utterly wrong choice category. Until him. Why was she even thinking about fucking? They were not paying her $375 an hour to have fantasies about Charles Dixon shoving her against a wall, ripping her panties off and fucking her until she wept.

  But he wasn't precisely a co-worker. She was of counsel, he wasn't her boss. Technically, there wasn't really an issue.

  She dug her fingernails into her palm to make herself stop thinking about Dix driving himself into her cunt over and over, his pants pooled around his ankles, the scratch of the wall at her back, his fingers digging into the flesh of her bare ass, her skirt bunched up around her waist. The delicious tang of his sweat tickling her senses as she held on and let him take her.

  Jeez-a-lou, she did not just have a 'Dear Penthouse' letter fantasy while sitting in a conference room! Flushed, she shifted in her chair and met green eyes that knew exactly what she'd been daydreaming about.

  Dix pushed his very sexy glasses up the bridge of his nose and the whisper of a smile touched the corner of his mouth before he shifted his attention back to the endless Charlie Brown-like drone of the president again.

  'We'll break for two hours and meet back here. Katherine will give us an overview at that time,' Dix finally broke in.

  'Wanna grab a bite?' Kate leaned in and asked Leah. She needed a recap from last night and a bit of a reality check about Dix too.

  'I wish. I have to deal with these guys and then the conference-services person. We can hang out afterwards.'

  'Good. You clearly have a story to tell.' Kate laughed softly.

  'And don't think I'm not going to ask about the Dix thing.' One of Leah's eyebrows rose and Kate blushed.

  'Katherine?'

  Kate turned to answer Dix. 'Hmm?'

  'Those memos? And did you want to get some lunch?'

  Lunch? Hell no. Him, naked? Yes.

  'Oh sure. They're upstairs.' They started towards the elevator and he kept his distance. 'Do you want to meet me in the restaurant? I'll be right back down.' He might want to keep his professional hat on until the evening. In her hormone-laden rush to get him alone, she'd totally forgotten to think about that.

  'No.' He guided her into the elevator with a hand at her elbow. Totally professional, and yet . . .

  They were silent in the hall as they walked to her room.

  She slid her keycard into the slot, opened the door and turned to
tell him these oh-so-professional things when he closed the door, locked it and used his body to press hers against the wall.

  'Kate?'

  No words came. He made a sound in the back of his throat and, before she could breathe, his lips were on hers. Hot. Insistent. Urgent like he couldn't have waited another single moment before he kissed her.

  So very wrong. It was so dirty, so bad, so wrong and she couldn't remember if anything had felt better than his hands on her. One hand cupped her throat as he plundered her mouth, the other nimbly unbuttoned her blouse and pinched her nipple through the fabric of her camisole and bra.

  Heat swallowed her, washed away all common sense and she gave in. Reaching between them, she shoved off the suit jacket and, foregoing the shirt, headed straight for his belt and the button and zipper of his pants.

  Silk. First the silk of his boxers and then the hot silk of his cock as it spilled into her hands. He arched, gasping into her mouth. She swallowed the sound and made an answering one when he sucked her tongue.

  Her thumb spread the wetness at the head of his cock in circles around the crown. She reached down and held his balls before shoving his pants down.

  'Fuck, fuck, wait. Kate,' he murmured against her mouth, 'I want to taste you.' He fell to his knees and she nearly lost hers as he looked up her body into her face.

  As if she planned to stop him.

  He grabbed her ankles and drew his hands up her calves, pushing her skirt up and up, stopping when he saw the band of her stockings.

  'I've been thinking about this for the last month. Since I took you standing in that deserted parking lot in San Francisco.' He leaned in and circled his tongue over the lace of her panties. Her hips jumped forwards.

  'Thinking of my panties?'

  'Imagining sinking to my knees and pressing my face to your pussy, Kate. Look at you so pretty beneath your clothes, so sexy. I like that it's just down one layer. So aloof but scratch the surface and, well, here we are.' Hooking his fingers at the sides of her underwear, he yanked them down and she stepped out of them.

  From her vantage point, she saw the flecks of grey in his hair and it only made him sexier. She gave in and ran her fingers through it.

  'Spread your feet.'

  She did and he took one of her legs, put it on his shoulder and, without further preamble, pressed his mouth against her, holding her labia open with his thumbs.

  A shock of raw pleasure rode up her spine and her head fell back against the wall.

  'Hold yourself open, Kate, I need my hands free.' Each word vibrated off her pussy and she jerked involuntarily as she reached to hold herself open to his mouth.

  Licking, flicking, his tongue teased, tasted, tempted, seduced her. His fingers traced her gate and slowly pushed up into her, first one, then another.

  She closed her eyes against the pleasure, trying to keep control, trying not to grind her cunt against his face. It was so good between them, so raw and hard edged she didn't know how to process it. So she just let it happen. Let him devour her pussy, rode his hand as he fucked into her, let him bring her off so hard she had to bite her lip to keep from yelling as she climaxed.

  He stood and kissed her hard. She tasted herself and him, tasted what was to come in just moments. Her legs quivered as she heard the plastic of a condom wrapper being ripped open. Disappointment whispered through her, she'd wanted to taste him too. But before she could be too upset about it, he'd spun her to face the wall, her hands pressed against it as he nudged her ankles wide.

  Her back arched, offering herself to his cock without any words. None was needed as the wide head of him pressed against her and then inexorably into her body, bit by bit, until he sheathed balls deep within her.

  The hair stirred at the back of her neck as he drew a shaky breath.

  'Fuck me. I need it,' she whispered. And she did. Needed him buried in her.

  He groaned and began to thrust. His grip at her hip was so tight that she knew she'd bear a few fingerprint bruises there. Her body stretched to take him and then shrank as he pulled back out. Over and over, he stroked the nerves deep inside her.

  'Harder.'

  In answer, she thrust back against him, meeting his stroke. With a groan, he increased his speed and intensity until he fucked into her so deep and hard that her breasts came out of the top of her bra, stroking against the pebbled grain in the wall.

  He traced his fingers along her lips until she sucked them into her mouth, reluctant to let him go and lose that sensory pleasure. Until he found her clit and stroked it with just the right amount of pressure.

  Before long, another orgasm began to settle into her cells, building and building as he fucked her, as her nipples abraded the wall, as his fingers played against her clit and the other hand gripped her so tight.

  When it hit her, her pussy clamped down on him, spasmed around the delicious invasion of his cock and flowed through her body. A strangled moan in her ear and one more hard press deep into her cunt and he came too, breathing hard, his head resting on her shoulder.

  8

  Dix struggled to catch his breath and get himself together as her pussy continued to flutter and clutch around his cock. Her honey, hot and silky, slid down the stalk of him, down to his balls and the need to fuck her again pounded in his head. Disbelief that they'd only taken five steps into her room before he'd shoved his face into her pussy and eaten her until she'd come with a strangled cry swamped him.

  Before that first phone call, he'd been happily single.

  Content with playing the field and finding female companionship when it suited him. But Katherine Edwards changed that in ways he wasn't even sure he wanted to contemplate.

  When he'd seen her downstairs, looked into those big blue eyes of hers, he'd known they would end up having sex the first moment they were alone. He had no patience where she was concerned. Showing up in Chicago to the CLE she'd been attending four months ago on sort of a whim, he'd just wanted to exorcise the jones he had for her. He hadn't expected the power of it. He'd been reeling ever since.

  Her reserve, thet outer layer that screamed all business, did something to him. Made him want to draw down to her basest level and revel in every step he took her.

  'It's wonderful to see you again, Kate.' He pressed a kiss to the nape of her neck and pulled out carefully. He went to dispose of the condom and, when he returned, she'd put herself to rights but the image of the tops of her stockings seemed to be burned into his retinas.

  She looked at him, clearly unsure of the situation. He'd never seen her flustered before and it charmed him on some level.

  'Why don't we order up some lunch and look at those files?'

  'Good idea. The files are right there.' She indicated a neat stack of blue folders marked 'Allied'. 'Any preferences?'

  'Oh, I have many of them.' He grinned, unable to resist teasing her, ruffling those feathers of hers. She blushed and rolled her eyes.

  'Fine,' she said. She ordered lunch for them both and hung up. 'I seem to remember you like turkey. I hope so since that's what you're getting. Oh and fries. Maybe you'll get fat.'

  He laughed and brought the folders with him to sit down. Her scent still clung to his face and hands, and his cock stirred in response.

  They worked for the next hour as she explained the cases she'd rounded up. Damn, the woman was sharp.

  He sat back, impressed with her work. 'You may have just saved us a huge amount of money. I want to present the new employment contracts tomorrow if that works for you.'

  'I do it all for the thrill of employment law.'

  'You shouldn't hide your sense of humour under a bushel so often.' He sat back and stole a French fry from her plate.

  'I don't hide it. I just showed it to you, didn't I?'

  'All that and more.'

  She sent him a smug smile and he leaned in to kiss her temple.

  'But I mean, not behind closed doors. I understand what's between us is private, Kate. I promise you that. I r
espect your job and I'd never do anything to endanger it.'

  'This shouldn't . . . it's not something I normally do.' She waved her hand back and forth between them. 'I work really hard to be taken seriously, if it got out . . .'

  He took her hand and kissed it. 'We've gone over this, Kate.

  I know that. Believe it or not, me too. I try to keep a strict line between business and pleasure. But we don't work for one another and we're professionals. I'm sure we can manage a few days of fun with our work schedule. So did you tell Leah?' 'I did last night. Rest assured all your advance reviews were quite good.' She relaxed a bit.

  He laughed. 'That's good to hear. Even right now I want to fuck you again. This every few months thing isn't enough to sate me.' He hadn't wanted something this badly for a very long time. The girls were out of town with their mother up at the lake house for another week. He had the time to spend on the buttoned-up Katherine and he planned to do so every minute he could.