Million Dollar Mistake (27 page)

“No, that wasn’t it.” He cupped her chin and brought her attention back to him.

He sighed when he saw the glaze in her eyes. She wasn’t a sloppy drunk. She didn’t slur her words, and she didn’t get belligerent. Well, not that belligerent. Alcohol just seemed to break down the walls she constantly kept erected around herself. Let loose, her emotions were fighting over which could show itself first. Hurt, joy and confusion were all there for the world to see.

With her, alcohol brought out honesty.

Cam took a deep breath. He had to get her out of here. Sober her up and help her get things straight in her head. The misunderstanding with the Underhills needed to be cleared up as soon as possible—for her sake as well as the company’s. They’d hurt her this morning and without cause. She deserved an apology, and he was going to make sure she got one.

This newfound sister, though. He glanced over his shoulder to the bar. She was a different issue entirely.

He watched as Roxie flirted with a particularly ugly biker, checking out the tattoo on his shoulder. He didn’t like coincidences, and he didn’t like surprises. This woman was both, and he didn’t want Lexie around her until he had the opportunity to check her out.

And he had the resources to do a really close check.

He brushed his thumb against Lexie’s waist and pulled back. “Let’s go straighten things out with Julian.”

Her breath caught audibly. Face paling, her gaze flew to the door. “Is he here?”

Cam sighed. Damn that man. “No. We’ll go find him after you’ve had some coffee.”

“Is anybody else coming?” She rubbed her bare arms. Without her jacket, she seemed vulnerable. Ten minutes earlier, she’d been dancing around and having fun. At the mention of her family, though, she needed her armor.

He stroked her waist, trying to get her to relax. “You got me. Just me.”

“Oh.”

The emotions in her eyes tumbled again, and confusion won the battle this time. She glanced around the bar almost forlornly. Cameron braced his hand against the jukebox, wanting to punch it. She was so easy to read this way, but it was a painful read.

“Do you really dislike me that much, Lexie?”

“I don’t dislike you.”

Could have fooled him. “Then what is it? You’ve been avoiding me ever since I first started working at Underhill. Are you afraid of me?”

She shifted uneasily. She’d ventured into a biker bar and had made it her own, yet looking him in the eye seemed to be too much for her. “Kind of.”

Cam nearly winced. That honesty was a double-edged sword. “Why?”

“Why? You want to gut my family’s company.” Her brow furrowed. “I mean, Underhill Associates.” She shook her head, the confusion too much. “I have good workers. Smart people. They should know their jobs are secure.
My
job should be secure.”

“I’m not talking about work here,” he said bluntly. “And I think you know that.”

Her lips parted. “But work is all we…” Frustration colored her cheeks. She lifted her hands and pressed her fingers against her temples. “Argg. You’re doing it again, confusing me and twisting everything up. I couldn’t sleep last night after you did what you…and firing me…and, and cleavage…”

He could look at her cleavage all he wanted right now, but things were suddenly getting interesting. “You couldn’t sleep because you were thinking about me?”

She rocked her foot back onto its heel, and he instinctively positioned himself closer so she couldn’t kick him. The move put his body a hairsbreadth away from hers. She was warm from all that dancing. Her skin glistened with perspiration, leaving it damp and kissable. Lickable.

She flattened her hands against his chest again, but this time he didn’t budge. It flustered her. She shifted against the jukebox, but he wasn’t letting her get away now—not when he finally had her talking to him.

Her lips pressed into a straight line. “I wasn’t thinking about you, I was thinking about my proposition…purpose…my
proposal
.”

Interesting choice of words.

But the alcohol she’d consumed had her on a roll. “You made me late today. I kept wondering what you were going to do. What were you going to think? How were you going to smell?”

“I smell?”

“Not you. It’s just…” Her cheeks went red. “Your aftershave smells nice.”

Her words died away, but all thoughts of taking her home to Daddy left Cam. Taking her home, though, wasn’t such a bad idea. His body felt hard and hot. He’d been stressed all day, but the tension gripping him now was another sort entirely. “What do you think of me, Lexie? Really?”

Her gaze locked with his, and he saw something new in the dark depths. Something that made his heart rate slow down, and the thick pumps sound loudly in his ears.

“You make me uncomfortable,” she said, her voice low.

“Uncomfortable, how?”

She bit into her bottom lip, and her gaze skittered away. “Just…uncomfortable.”

The awareness he’d felt on the elevator came back, heavy and deep. It was the first indication he’d had that she saw him not as a threat, but as a man.

He wanted another.

But he didn’t know when he’d ever get it.

She was skittish around him. Guarded. The closest he could get to her was in meetings. Stuffy, mind-numbing meetings. Right now, her defenses were down. He couldn’t. He
shouldn’t
, but he wanted to know…

He reached for her.

Ever so gently, he ran his fingertips down her bare arm, all the way from shoulder to elbow. As he watched, goose bumps popped up on the warm flesh. She shivered and her breath caught. When she looked at him, her gaze was a little wild.

“You make me uncomfortable too,” he said gruffly.

They stared at each other, the music throbbing and the air hazy around them.

“Really uncomfortable,” he muttered.

Closing the distance, he sank into her. He watched her closely as their bodies pressed from chest to knee. The heat was intimate, the contact electric. For a moment, she was stunned still. Then all those emotions she’d kept tempered for so long rushed forward to meet him. Her anger. Her heat. Her sweetness. He felt it in the way her body melted. He heard it in the catch in the back of her throat.

“Lexie.” He kissed her. Firmly, fully, mouth locked on mouth. He sealed their lips tight, and the sensation was so good, it damn near made him groan aloud.

Her lips were soft,
velvety
and they clung. The kiss deepened, their mouths opening wider for more contact. For a woman who was as strapped in and lashed down as she was, she knew how to kiss.

And then some.

That hard-on he’d gotten when he’d seen her dancing atop the bar came roaring back to life. He kissed her harder, letting his tongue slide over hers. A sound left her throat, and her fingers bit into his shoulders. He did it again, loving her heat, loving the way she responded. She moved restlessly, her body grinding against his. Softness against hardness. Heat against heat.

Cam wanted to pick her up and carry her right out to his car. He could feel her nipples poking him and her hips rolling sexily. Her arousal was like every other emotion the alcohol had freed. Hot, immediate and right on the surface.

What had started as an exploratory kiss was quickly turning into a blistering-hot make-out session. They were hidden together in the corner. Music pounded around them and bodies shifted nearby. They were in public. Anyone could see them.

And he didn’t care.

He moved closer, rocking his hips into her. She let out a soft whimper as her hands glided from his shoulders to lock around his neck. Their bodies fit together like yin and yang. Her breasts pressed tighter against his chest, and he settled his growing erection right where it wanted to be, in the warm nook at the top of her legs.

He tangled his fingers in her hair as he nuzzled the feminine curve of her jawline.
God, her hair…
He clenched his fist in the dark curls. If the rest of her was this silky, he’d never last. Hungry for more, he sent his other hand down her side. His blood thundered hard when he found the not-so-professional slit in her oh-so-professional skirt.

“You want the truth?” he whispered into her ear. “The billboard wasn’t pretty enough.”

Strictly business? Try telling that to her heart…

Worth the Scandal

© 2012 Karen Erickson

Worth It, Book 1

Alexander Worth, President and CEO of Worth Luxury Goods, is a man never to be crossed. His unwavering sense of responsibility to the family business requires him to always be in complete and utter control. Until it comes to Tessa Crawford.
 

She’s quietly professional, shy, voluptuous…and she works for him. Which means she is the one woman he must never touch, no matter how hard his gut twists with need for her.

After rising above her disadvantaged childhood, Tessa knows the last thing she should do is risk throwing it all away by falling into bed with her sexy boss. But on an extended European business trip, all self-imposed barriers burn away in the heat of their sizzling chemistry.

Once back home, though, whispers of corporate espionage turn into full-blown scandal—and Tessa finds out the hard way where Alex’s loyalties lie. Determined to soldier on, she picks herself up and carries on with a secret, yet welcomed burden. Never guessing that Alex will make a reappearance in her life, ready to show her once and for all that family does, indeed, come first.

Warning: Contains a sweet-yet-strong woman, and a bossy alpha male brought to his knees by the woman he desperately loves. Involves enough begging and groveling that the reader may be tempted to “accidentally” leave it for her significant other to “find”. For instructional purposes only, of course!

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Worth the Scandal:

Tessa Crawford scanned the e-mail Hunter Worth’s assistant had forwarded her earlier this morning, ticking each item she’d completed off her mental list. Arrangements for the private jet had already been made by changing the passenger’s name from Hunter to Alexander Worth. She was still working on the hotel reservations, having already called two of the four hotels named in the e-mail, she’d made the necessary adjustments.

He would be gone for ten days, taking his brother’s place on a whirlwind tour relaunching four of the newly remodeled flagship Worth Luxury stores. Ten long days without seeing his handsome face, hearing his deliciously deep voice, admiring his tall, broad form clad in his elegant suits.

A little sigh escaped her. She would miss him terribly, which was foolish. Her childish crush on her boss could never go farther than her mind, of course. If anyone knew the depth of her feelings for Alexander Worth, she would be the laughing stock of the entire building.

As if he paid any attention to her. He didn’t know she existed beyond keeping him on task and answering his phone calls.

So she silently suffered. From the moment she’d first locked eyes on him, her entire body had reacted. Physically he was perfection. As she’d continued to work for him, she’d discovered he was driven, intelligent and excellent at what he did. Nothing stopped him from getting what he wanted.

Too bad he didn’t want her.

This was her ideal job. Since her early teens she’d loved fashion. Poring over fashion magazines, she’d dreamed of becoming a designer. But after doodling on the sketchpad she’d saved up for all those years ago, she’d realized her talent didn’t lie in design.

So she’d taken some fashion retail and design courses in college but eventually had dropped out before receiving her degree due to lack of funds. Had found a job at one retail store in Times Square, then another, then another, until eventually she’d ended up applying for an assistant-manager position at a Worth Luxury store.

She got the job. Within two years she found herself working as Alexander Worth’s personal assistant.

Tessa still couldn’t quite believe it.

The office door swung open and out strode Hunter Worth, handsome as ever, a giant smile curving his lips. “Did my assistant e-mail you the list for the tour, Tessa?”

“She did, Mister Worth, thank you. I’ve already started making the necessary arrangements.” She offered him a brief smile. All three of the Worth brothers were handsome, though the other two couldn’t hold a candle to Alex—at least in her eyes.

“Perfect, considering I got Alex to agree to go only a few minutes ago.” Hunter winked at her and with a chuckle strode toward the elevator. “Have a nice weekend,” he called over his shoulder.

Tessa swallowed hard. Hunter made her nervous. He was almost too smooth, too flirtatious, and she often wondered if he had ulterior motives.

And then there was Rhett Worth, who didn’t have a serious bone in his body. He rarely made an appearance at Worth, didn’t even bother pretending he actually worked for his family’s business.

But Alex…he was so compelling, so powerful. He entered a room and everyone immediately knew he was in command. He ran the company with a ruthless yet fair hand, was so incredibly serious and smart and handsome…