Can't Buy Me Love (11 page)

Meg bit her bottom lip. They’d move again soon. She had realized this the moment Phil leaned toward the other blonde and ignored her mother. Hopefully, her mother would wait until after the Christmas play at school. Maybe this time Mama would wait for the semester break.

“Don’t ever give your entire heart to a man.”

Meg looked up into her mother’s tear-soaked face. She didn’t understand why so many men passed through their home. Or why when one disappeared, they suddenly moved.

“And don’t mess around with your
boss
.”

Meg awakened with a start. A hard mass of body lay beside her.

Cole.

Meg shivered. She’s violated all of her rules and invited chaos into her life. The same type of chaos she’d lived as a child each time one of her mother’s sordid affairs with an employer ended.

Despite her fears, a smile hovered about Meg’s lips. In sleep, Cole’s face appeared softer, carefree. His boyish charm captured his face. Last night might have been a mistake, but damnit the mistake had been a delightful one. Vivid memories from the night before flashed through her mind, each one connected to sensations she still felt on her skin. Perhaps it was worth it, whether they ignored it for the rest of their lives or embraced it.

Meg turned her head and stared out the windows at the never-ending ocean. As if Cole would saunter into Comnet and announce that not only had he bedded Meg Parson but that he’d also promoted her to the most coveted position in the company: president of operations for the newly acquired TBC. Meg cringed. The mean-nasties would have a field day.

Any knowledge of this night would besmirch her reputation. Forgotten would be her years of hard work and the TBC deal. Both would be replaced by whispers and innuendos about how she’d slept her way to the top. Her entire promotion would be attributed to her spectacular ability in the sack.

“So pensive so early,” Cole said.

He tightened his grip around her waist and pulled her close. His touch felt good and chased away her worries.

“What has captured your mind?” he asked, his voice thick with sleep.

“Work.” Her fingertips drifted along his forearm.

“Forget work,” Cole said. “We’ve got much better games to play right now.” His hand slipped from her back and started slow circles around her buttocks. Her mind might resist but her body couldn’t.

“People will talk. They’ll say I only got my promotion because…” Meg let her words drift away. She didn’t want to say them. To actually say the words was to make them more true, more real.

“Because you banged the boss?” Cole cocked an eyebrow and a devilish grin spread over his face.

“Not funny.” Meg pushed at his chest and knit her brows. “I wouldn’t have said it quite like that, but yes.” She tried to roll away from him. She didn’t want to be so close to him after his words.

“Hey, come back, come back.” He pulled at her. “I promoted you
before
we had sex. Remember?”

Somehow his words didn’t help. She’d still fallen into bed with her boss, a man who eschewed any relationship lasting over six weeks.

“This”—Cole eyed her nakedness and then his own—“isn’t about TBC. It isn’t about work. This is about something else.”

Sex. Lust. Insatiable desire. Now that he’d been sated, Cole would quickly move on to the next conquest.

“Right, got it.” Meg again tried to roll away from him. She wanted her own bed, her own room, a shower.

Cole grasped her tighter. His arousal pressed against her. “Again, I don’t think you do.”

His arms wrapped her from behind and stilled her urge to flee. His fingers traced a lazy circle over her breasts and her nipples. He swept her hair away from the nape of her neck and pressed his warm lips to her skin. She fought, but couldn’t hide the quiver that trembled down her back.

“I know you like lists,” Cole said playfully. “So let’s go over the pertinent points one by one, shall we?”

Cole left one kiss at her hairline, on the back of her neck.

“First, I planned on promoting you prior to the deal closing and regardless of the outcome—”

“What—” Meg squirmed to look at him, but he grasped her tighter and pressed his cock even harder against her.

“Second”—he kissed the vertebrae at the base of her neck—“my desires for you have nothing to do with the TBC deal.” He gently pinched her nipple as if for emphasis.

“Third”—his kisses descended to a spot between her shoulder blades while his fingers teased her nipple—“I don’t give a flying fuck what anyone at the office has to say about this. It’s none of their concern.”

“And finally”—he reached up and turned her chin toward him—“I’ve wanted this for a very long time.”

His hand brushed down the front of her body and stopped at her curls. She pressed into him. Cole’s finger slipped between the lips of her pussy and gently rubbed the tiny hot spot between her legs. Meg couldn’t prevent the quiet moan that escaped over her lips.

 “And it would seem with your response, you might have wanted this too.”

Yes, she wanted this. Yes, she wanted him. What she didn’t want was the inevitable outcome of this affair—the horrendous end. The broken heart, the self-recrimination, her inevitable firing or the necessity of seeing him each day at the office knowing he’d made her moan his name over and over again.

Cole continued the slow insistent circle on her clit and held her close with his other arm. His cock pressed upward against the back of her thighs and with the wetness between her legs none of her fears seemed to matter. She wanted him in her and her back arched with the invitation. He leaned forward, his lips brushing her ear, setting her body further to fire.

“Don’t fight this, Meggy,” Cole whispered. “We both know this is real.” His mouth was firmly on hers as her body surrendered to his touch. Within moments, again, she was his.

*

Bright midmorning sunshine awakened her, and the surf pounded out its beat. The smell of ocean breeze and coffee and something sweet tickled her nose. Meg sat up slowly. Her body ached with the feeling of use. A good feeling, a complete feeling, a sated, warm sexpot of a feeling. She was a woman—a woman who had bedded Cole Jackson. The brightness of the new day scattered the fearful thoughts that plagued her the night before.

“I didn’t realize you could sleep this late?” His voice felt like a caress.

Cole stood on the far side of the room in front of the open window wall. He wore stone-colored loose-fitting linen pants and a white shirt, unbuttoned, exposing his hard chest and abdomen. He looked like a model for a luxury beach vacation ad. He smiled a playful smile, a lighthearted smile, a smile that, even after three years as his assistant, Meg was completely unaccustomed to receiving.

“Waffles,” Cole said. He lifted the tray from an ottoman and walked toward the bed. “And coffee and juice and raspberries.” He set the tray on the bed. “I guessed you could use some calories after last night.”

Meg blushed. She picked up the white linen napkin and spread it over her lap.

“What about you?” she asked as he poured maple syrup over her waffles.

“Me? I’ve run, eaten, showered and was just about to crawl back into this bed and wake you up properly when you popped up.”

“All that?”

“And more. Seems legal hammered out the contracts for the TBC deal.”

“Already? It usually takes weeks.”

“Pre-prepped, just in case.”

Meg chewed slowly on her first bite of waffle. She hadn’t realized just how hungry she was. She looked out the window toward the shoreline. The sun sat high in the sky…

Panic surged through her.

“Wait…what time is it? What day is it? Where is my BlackBerry?” Meg pushed the tray away and jumped from bed, “Today is a
weekday
! I have phone conferences, and analyst reports, and a conference call with the two party coordinators and new caterer for the Comnet Charity Ball—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa—” Cole held out his hands to stop her. “Relax. I have your BlackBerry right here.” He slipped it from his pants pocket. “Everything is on hold. Jordan has taken care of it.”

“Jordan? Who is Jordan?”

“My temporary executive assistant,” Cole said.

“You’re firing me!”

“Uh…I promoted you. Remember?”

“But…but I still have responsibilities and the ball and TBC and the transition and I thought I’d screen the candidates for your new executive assistant and—”

“And you will do all those things, Meggy.” Cole herded her back to the bed and the down comforter and tucked her in. He reset the tray over her lap.

Helplessness mixed with anxiety overwhelmed her as she stared into her breakfast. Her carefully crafted existence was upended in every way. She missed her morning meetings, she slept with her boss, she didn’t have an action list even in the same room. Meg closed her eyes. She breathed deep in a futile effort to center herself, to calm her heart.

“How are we going to do this?” Meg finally asked.

“I thought we did it quite well,” Cole said. “I mean, we can practice more and I’m sure I’ll get better—”

“No, not
that
,” Meg said, exasperated. “This, this…working together and—”

“Being a couple,” Cole said.

 “I was going to say sleeping together.” Meg raised her eyebrows. “You want to be a couple?”

“I’d prefer it, yes. I’d rather you not make a liar out of me to Stan and Allison,” Cole relaxed beside her on the bed. “Plus, do you think I’d risk an asset like you for just one night?”

Meg didn’t know what she thought. But she knew she suddenly felt like a princess in a fairy tale.

“Look,” Cole said, and leaned toward her. “Work is work and personal is personal. I’ve been fighting these feelings for nearly a year. And you? I know that passion I felt didn’t spring from nowhere.”

Meg bit her bottom lip and examined her hands. “Three.”

“You’ve had feelings for me since you started?”

Meg nodded. She felt like a teenager caught with a crush.

“You are much slyer than I gave you credit for, Meggy.” Cole placed his fingertips under her chin and tilted her head upward. “Three years. Took you some time to build this fire.”

Meg turned her head away. “I just don’t want—people will talk. They’ll whisper, they’ll make assumptions and—”

“And what?” Cole’s voice hardened. “Who cares?”

Meg’s face crumpled. He didn’t have to minimize her feelings.

“I care. I worked hard to get this job. I hid my feelings. I remained professional. And now—now everyone will only remember one thing about me. That I slept with you.”

How could she possibly tell Cole about the countless moves from town to town? The innumerable childhood friendships started and then lost because of her mother’s careless affairs.

“This is important to you?” Cole said. “What everyone thinks?”

So very important to her. She didn’t want to be “that woman.” The woman who spread her legs to advance her career. She needed the respect of her colleagues, not their jealousy and lies.

“Then we’ll keep it quiet. A private affair.”

Cole’s love life made headlines around the world. Meg was skeptical that it would be possible to keep this secret.

“And when the time is right, we’ll let everyone know,” Cole said.

Meg paused midchew. The waffle in her mouth suddenly tasted like wet cardboard.
Let everyone know?
She couldn’t imagine when it would be appropriate to tell the world she was having a lurid affair with her boss. Cole’s BlackBerry buzzed and he examined the screen.

“I’m going to take this and then we need to go.”

“Where?”

“Back to the real world, Meggy. Back to the real world.”

Chapter Fifteen

“Let me get this straight,” Prim said, and placed her fork on her plate. “You closed the TBC deal
and
slept with Cole Jackson?”

Meg’s gaze slid through Spago. She didn’t want any executives eavesdropping on their conversation. If her peers discovered that she had spent each night since her return from Costa Rica wrapped in Cole Jackson’s arms, she might as well tattoo the word
harlot
on her forehead.

“Is this why you never answer your home phone anymore?”

Meg chewed the inside of her cheek. If she owned a dog it would have died. Since returning from Costa Rica nearly a month ago she’d been home exactly three times. On her final attempt Meg got halfway out the door when Cole stopped her and sent his valet to collect her suits for the week. Cole’s closet kept filling with her clothes while Meg imagined hers to be nearly empty.

“Girl…” Prim raised her eyebrows and shook her head in amazement. “Just wow. I had no idea that you and Cole ever had anything brewing.”

“We didn’t,” Meg said. Her throat suddenly dryer than the Sahara, she sipped her water. “Or I didn’t think we did.” Meg leaned forward, the collar of her white silk shirt dangerously close to her Caesar salad. “Cole claims that I’m the reason he stopped seeing the oil heiress eight months ago—that he fought his feelings for me for a long time.”

“And you?”

A guilty blush gripped Meg’s face. “Since the day I started.”

“Your lips are tighter than a seventy-year-old virgin!”

“Did you just say that?” Meg asked.

“My grandmama’s saying. But really. You’ve got it bad, don’t you? Like real bad.”

To deny her feelings was to lie to Prim, but to admit how deeply these emotions coursed through her was absolutely terrifying. Like an underground river—dark and powerful—Cole swept away the warnings that cluttered her brain. But just because the caution signs got wiped out didn’t mean danger wasn’t near.

“How’s everyone handling this relationship at Comnet? Bet the fire is hot and fierce, what with you getting your promotion
and
sleeping with the boss.”

Meg peeked through her lashes toward her best friend.

“Wait.” Prim paused. Her eyes widened with the realization that Meg’s was a covert affair. “No one knows, do they?”

Meg shook her head. “You’re the first person I’ve told. It’s not Cole, it’s me. He’d tell the world if I let him—”

“Then let him,” Prim squawked. “If a man wants to shout his love from the rooftops, then let him do it, baby.”