Give Me All Of You (4 page)

He stamped down his unruly libido.
A dozen thoughts zapped through his mind. Alert but far from comfortable he splayed his legs further apart, jammed his hands into his trouser pockets and waited.

Dinner had been
a torment. Watching her sip delicately at her soup, following the tip of her tongue as she’d unobtrusively catch errant spots of red wine on her lips had nearly made him reach for himself. His ears burned in remembered embarrassment. At thirty-five he’d sampled many women but he’d never been made to wait for one.

All thanks to Hermile Bronswort’s fanatical protectiveness of Mina and a swell of unusual reluctance which made him curb his baser instincts the few times he’d been alone with her.

She never showed it throughout dinner, but she’d known he’d been watching her. Every now and again she would lean forward just enough and he’d catch a glimpse of the lacy top of her black bra.

Was
she wearing the matching bottom? He groaned silently at the delectable thought. The lingering steel of his arousal reacted instantly and pulsed uncomfortably against his navel.

His campaign for her
hand had been going on for six painful months. How much longer would he have to wait for her to give him a chance?

He cleared his throat.
“You want to make me a better offer than your father?” his voice came out rusty, he winced. Was he really this susceptible to her charms? He ignored the answer to that question.

The s
mile on her soft lips faltered but she kept her gaze fixed on him. “I’m offering you carte blanche over the operations on Jacobe Aisle. I’ll disappear from your work life, so will my father.”

“
Carte …?” Furiously he rifled through dozens of French phrases that had nothing to do with lingerie.

Mina
sighed, a sound loaded with superiority and eyed him with pity. “It’s an agreement-”

“
Which gives me complete control of all operations on Jacobe Aisle with no input from outside sources,” he finished.

Her gorgeous hazel eyes lit up. She stared at him expectantly.

It was his turn to emit extreme boredom, “No.”

“No?” She jerked out of her
chair and came around the table to him. She caught her full bottom lip in consternation, her eyes sparked with anger.

So this was what she’d been concocting at the dinner table.
Entice him with her seductive charms first, manipulate him second.

Hermile had wa
rned him to expect this. She was spoiled, selfish.

He hadn’t needed to add that she was
also rivetingly beautiful, smart and tough. A magnificent woman.

Now s
he’d broken precedent and gotten closer to him that she’d ever willingly done before.

He
clenched his fists into tight balls at his side to keep his hands down and away from her. But he couldn’t do anything about his senses. She wore a different scent tonight.

Warm
, spicy orchids rose from her skin. His mouth watered with urge to taste her. Any and all parts.

Perhaps he shoul
d. Forget rules and Hermile Bronswort’s presence somewhere in the house. If Hermile was so concerned about his daughter’s innocence he shouldn’t have gone to bed early, leaving them alone to finish dessert.

B
esides she deserved payback for her shameless behavior at the dinner table.

He relaxed his stance a
nd shifted closer. She didn’t move, she was too incensed by his refusal.

S
he failed to sense the growing danger.

He grasp
ed the chance, and reached out. Trailed one hardened fingertip along the soft curve of her cheek. Her eyes widened in surprise.

Satin.
Her skin felt like satin, soft, supple. He almost regretted touching her with his toughened hands. But he had to feel her.

She flinched but didn’t pull back
.

S
he fumed up at him. “You want me to believe that you’re willing to work for free just for the chance to marry me?” She huffed disbelievingly, “I’m giving you complete control of Jacobe Aisle, isn’t that enough?  Are you that greedy?” she screeched.

He seized the opportunity and
drew her roughly to him, “Yes. I am.”

S
he glared up at him.

He savored the heat that her anger had brought into her face, making
her cheeks glow with color.

Braver, he stroked the sleek line of her jaw, she shuddered at his touch, he moaned. “H
ow ‘bout I throw out my own amendment to our agreement? I’ll accept carte blanche but with one stipulation, I can make love to you right here. Right now.”

She
gasped and transformed from an angry beauty into a woman who realized with daunting trepidation where she was.

She
stiffened in his hold, her chest rose and fell rapidly, causing the front of her v-necked blouse to gape even wider. The plump top of one breast revealed itself only inches from his mouth and teeth.

Cursing,
he bent and skimmed a kiss in the scented hollow of her throat.

Her gasp
was quickly muffled. There were no forthcoming shrieks of feminine outrage.

She felt the way he’d always imagined her to be.

Hot, soft, sensitive. His tongue darted out and he trailed tiny swipes along the slender column of her throat.

His shaft hardened to stone when her n
eck fell back, offering him better access.

He
accepted gratefully. Dipped lower, sucking, biting and savoring her creamy skin.

S
weet, creamy, rich. Those were the only words he could formulate amidst the rapidly growing confusion wreaking havoc inside his brain.

He groaned.

Above him she muttered incoherent babble. Her hands clasped the sides of his head, her fingers sunk to his scalp. Pleasure at her touch made him smile against her neck. Then she tensed as if in preparation to shove him from her.

H
e neatly ducked out of her grasp. She tittered off balance and he seized that moment to swoop back into the opening of her flailing arms and caught her and her surprised, wide open lips.

Quick as an adder she
bit down halting his advance.

A moan
strangled his throat. He didn’t try to evade the sharp sting of her teeth.

He welcomed
the chance and sucked hungrily on her moist lips. The combination of pain and pleasure sent jolts of thick sensation right to his shaft. Greedily he nipped and sucked at the edges of her lips, skimmed his tongue over the velvet hardness of her teeth.

She
made strangled, frustrated sounds. They reeked of anger but also … desire.

H
is heart gloried in the knowledge as he drank her in. It was as he’d suspected. She desired him.

Impatiently he pawed her slender
hips through the ugly cut-offs and pulled her closer. He kept his hands on the soft curves, though he desperately wanted to skim them lower to the pert fullness of her buttocks or higher to the hardened tips of her jutting breasts.

He ruthlessly stamped down the
powerful urge. If he touched either one he’d make love to her and Mina wasn’t ready for the realities of that.

He nipped her succulent bottom lip
in an effort to seek relief, “Let me in Mina,” he rasped against her mouth. The urge to sample her unique taste was gnawing away at his gut, tearing down his hold on sanity.

She mewed, the sound crushed
between outrage and desire. She gulped, then twisted her head to the side, “No … stop.”

Hi
s hands fell from her hips. Emptiness overcame him and he couldn’t move, just stare down at her stupefied.

Didn’t they both want
the same thing? Hadn’t she been melting into his arms?

She was
taking her resistance too far.

“
Why the hell did you do that?” He barked, anger finally rising to his surface.

She scooted away, her f
ace carefully averted from him. She stopped at the door which was amazingly still open, anybody could’ve walked in on them. He wondered bitterly how much of their interlude had been witnessed.

“Ge
t out of my home,” she ordered in a quaking voice, her nostrils flared, her teeth clenched. She spun and walked stiffly from the room, her sandals made insistent thumping sounds as she marched down the hall.

He
watched her go without moving, though the crazy urge to follow her rolled inside him. He shook it loose.

There was no need to terrify her. He wanted her to come to him willingly. Whether she did so for herself or her company didn’t matter, so as long as she did.
He adjusted the aching bulge in his pants and made his way out.

Mina scrambled into the bed, shaking. Her eyes fixed on the locked door behind her.

How could she have let him touch her? His to
ngue had been in her mouth. She jammed her head beneath the pile of fluffy pillows.

She
needed to block out what had just happened and what could’ve happened.

She groaned
in frustration. Sucked in several shaky breaths, and listened. She wouldn’t put it past him to follow her.

He was such an arrogant ass. T
here was nothing he wouldn’t do to get what he wanted.

No trailing sounds greeted her. Relieved, s
he closed her eyes in the already thick darkness of her room courtesy of the drawn curtains.

But there was no escaping what she’d done.
Why had she allowed him to touch her, to kiss her? The ass had had the nerve to ask to make love to her, right there, in her own office. He had no decency.

He was supposed to have accepted the carte blanche agreement. None of this was making sense.

She lay still for a long time until the familiar feelings of safety and comfort began to seep back into her limbs.

Her eyelids
began to droop.

And it came back. The first day they’d met.

Her father turned to her, “Mina, this is our new architect, Hunter Roades.”

She followed her father’s gaze to the tall, silent man who’d managed to melt into
the farthest corner of the office.

He
stepped forward.

She was taken aback
. Attired in close fitting blue jeans, a casual white dress shirt, it wasn’t just that he was tall and rangy. The lines of his body showed relaxation, but yet looked about as soft as cold metal.

There was a
n unflinching quality to his swarthy face, with its shock of black, spiky hair which felt forward onto his square forehead. His uncompromising will had stared back at her from his penetrating gaze. His eyes, she sucked in a dry breath as they examined each other closely and she attempted unsuccessfully to see beneath the dark blue gaze. A distinct awareness had cannonballed into her.

She
bolstered her spine and walked elegantly forward. Stretched out a hand. “Mina Bronswort.”

He grasped it and she wasn’t surprised that he
r entire hand disappeared in his. The hardness of his palm reassured her of his suitability for the backbreaking labor which was a requirement of both architects and their workers on construction sites.

But she wasn’t one to avoid the elephant in the room. She released his hand
, pulling her fingers back with a little added force when they seem to catch in the rough valley of his palm. She ignored the light sting of static which coursed through her fingertips. Snatched a glance at him, but nothing showed in his face, his eyes though had gone darker.

Unnerved s
he turned to Hermile. “How are we going to afford Mr. Roades when we can barely hire the minimum number of skilled workers we need for this project?”

Hermile shifted, and his usually direct
gaze landed on some spot behind her. “We can’t afford it,” his looked back and his eyes pleaded with her, “but if we don’t start building again we’ll lose the rights to the land and we need this fresh source of revenue.”

Mina nodded impatiently, this was old news. “I’m working on this father, but I need more time to go over our accounts, see where we can cut and save.”

Hermile made a dismissive sound. “There’s no more time,” he said flatly, “I’ve made up my mind. Mr. Roades is willing to work for free.”

Mina thr
ew a surprised glance at Mr. Roades who remained unmoving, then swiveled back to her father, “You can’t be serious. This project will last two years.”

“I’m well aware of the time frame,” snapped Hermile
irritably.

Something else was amiss. She studied her father’s drawn face carefully. “Just how do you plan to compensate Mr. Roades?”