Money Shot (19 page)

When Zaira reached Trent’s office, his door was open this time. She knocked briefly to let him know she was there before coming inside.

He glanced up from his work and gave her the same slow caress as he did yesterday. “Nice to see you here earlier in the day.”

“I just thought maybe you would like to leave earlier today. I know our schedules won’t always jive.”

He smiled. “I’ll work with whatever time frame you’re available.”

“Thanks.” This time, Zaira sat in one of the guest chairs directly facing him and placed her suitcase in the next.

“You were certainly in a rush to get away from me last night.”

“I didn’t want to interrupt your phone call with your girlfriend,” she said, bluntly.

He laughed. “All you needed to do was ask and I could have told you that the woman on the phone was my agent and she was calling me about my timeshares.”

Zaira swallowed, crossed her legs and smoothed her skirt down against her thighs. “Okay. Well, I also think we got a little out of hand yesterday too. I needed some air after that.”

“You call that out of hand?” he asked, sitting back in his chair.

“Kissing while working in a place of business is a little out of hand, don’t you think?”

He grinned and Zaira wondered why she even bothered to ask him that question. This was Trent Stone she was talking to here.

“My door was shut. I have blinds on all the windows and they were closed. There couldn’t have been more than a few people here last night working. No one was concerned with us and what we were doing. If that’s what you were worried about.”

“Anyone could have walked in on us.”

Trent shrugged. “Maybe.”

“You don’t care, do you?” She shook her head. “You just live on the edge with not a care in the world.”

“I wouldn’t say that I don’t have a care in the world. But walking up on a man and a woman kissing is not out of hand by any margin.”

“We were kissing in a public office,” she stated.

“After hours,” he added.

“If we hadn’t stopped…” She was so caught up in the moment yesterday she believed it would’ve been virtually impossible to stop herself. Being extremely attracted to Trent only diffused the situation. And the kiss made her feel…elated.

“Go on…if we hadn’t stopped then what?” he urged.

“Then—”

Someone burst in the office at the same time Trent shifted his gaze away from her up towards the door.

“Oh, Trent, I’m glad you’re still here.” It was a woman’s voice. She brought in a stack of letters and put them on Trent’s desk.

Zaira recognized the woman, but with over a hundred employees at her Dad’s company, it was difficult to identify them all by names even though she tried.

“Oh, hi, Zaira!” The woman greeted her. “I didn’t know you were still working here. I thought Trent had completely taken over this position.” She pressed her hand to her chest. Her breasts were virtually spilling out of her extra small top and it appeared she was a solid D cup. “Don’t tell me that no one has given you the news.”

“I got the memo, thanks,” Zaira replied.

“But you’re usually here in the evenings. What are you doing here so early?” the woman asked.

“I’ve been helping Trent with the transition.”

A bit of disappointment flashed across the woman’s face. “Oh good for you. Well, I’m one of the corporate secretaries on the payroll. After this transition, he’ll be in great hands.”

“If you say so…” Gossip got around quick and she was certain if her Dad caught wind of her getting saucy with one of the secretaries, she’d be on his bad side for months.

“Trent has been absolutely swamped. I’ve been trying to help him with anything I could.” The woman plastered on another wide smile, and then turned to address Trent. “Haven’t I, Trent?”

“Yes you have.” Trent said. “Thanks Olivia.”

“Anything for you.” Olivia leaned over and pushed the mail closer to Trent. “I made three stacks like you said and even color-coordinated them.” Olivia pointed to the colored dots she stuck on each stack. “Red for junk mail, green means it requires immediate attention, and yellow means there is no pressing due date.”

“Great job.” Trent said, loosening his tie. “I appreciate your help with this.”

Olivia twirled a lock of blonde hair around her finger. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“I’m fine, thank you. Zaira and I will be working for a few hours on reports, but I have everything I need.”

“You sure?” Olivia placed both hands on her hips. “I can go pour you another cup of coffee while I’m up. Didn’t you enjoy the first one?”

“That will be all. Close the door on your way out.”

“Okay. I’ll check back in a few hours when she’s gone.” Olivia turned with her back facing Trent. That’s when her sweet playboy smile turned into a nasty sneer as she virtually threw daggers at Zaira. It was obvious that Olivia wasn’t happy about her arrival.

Zaira kept a straight face and shot back a look of what she hoped to be the impatience that she was feeling right now. The days of fighting over a man were long gone. She didn’t have the time or inclination for that craziness.

“Well isn’t she chipper,” Zaira said once Olivia shut the door. “It didn’t take you long to find your secretary.”

“She had already been assigned before I checked in this morning. Your Dad called me last night telling me he would make the arrangements. He moves quickly even when he’s in another country.”

“Yeah, that sounds exactly like my dad.” Zaira nodded. “So that means we can get to work now that you have someone to sort your mail.”

Trent gave her a teasing smile. “Right, we should before you take off again without a word.”

It took more than a couple hours to go over all the reports with him, and by the time they reached a good stopping point it was well into the lunch hour.

Even Trent closed his laptop and glanced down at his wristwatch. “Time for a break, you think?”

“Sure.”

He sat back in his chair and peered at her across the desk. “You know, you haven’t asked anymore questions since the other day. Were my answers too much for you?”

“Sometimes.”

“Do you want the truth from me?”

Zaira nodded. “Of course.”

“And you deserve it.” Trent opened his desk drawer and pulled out a card. He handed it to her. “You like parties, don’t you?”

“What’s this?” She scanned it quickly to find out that it was a private invite to a birthday bash.

“A longtime friend of mine, Allen, is turning forty. He’s a pretty well-known music producer in Atlanta. From what I hear, the turn-out could be epic.”

“Hmmm. Sounds exciting.” Zaira turned over the invite and glanced at the address on the back. “Between me and my girls we usually get these invites. I’ve gotten so out of touch these days. I guess that’s what I get for working too hard.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.”

Zaira sighed. “I guess I could use another outing. But I learned my lesson enough to know that I won’t be overindulging on free drinks like the other night.”

“You were cooperative and not rebellious, at least.” Trent grinned.

“We didn’t do anything did we? You wouldn’t lie, would you?” Zaira side-eyed him.

“You know me much better than that. Do you think I would take advantage of you?”

She smiled. “You wouldn’t…but I had to ask.”

“So, what’s it gonna be? We can hook up outside of the office. Be more comfortable. Loosen up. We’ve been working hard here all week.”

She tossed him a sly look. “Have you ever known me to turn down an invite to a good party?”

“Not that I can think of.”

“Well, you’ve got yourself a date,” she said before she could stop herself. It wasn’t exactly a date, was it? They were just going to a party together.

Trent’s reassuring grin dispelled her embarrassment. “Do you remember how we first met each other?”

“Wow.” She couldn’t help but to break out a smile. “You remember that far back?”

He shrugged. “Why not? You’re not someone who is easily forgettable. We virtually collided into each other.”

Trent was on his way out of the driveway and she was on her way in. Both of them were on their motorcycles and apparently in their zone. Luck was on their side that day when they saw each other just in time before turning the corner and missed each other by only a hair.

“One more inch and we would have been sprawled out on my Dad’s driveway. I was angry that day. Had just broken up with my boyfriend actually.”

“I found out about that from Marcus a few days later.” He propped his elbows on the chair arm. “You’d been with that guy a while, huh?”

Zaira shifted her gaze away from him. “Six months was too long to realize the asshole was a rotten two-timing cock-head.”

“I’m sorry.”

She pinned his gaze again. “Don’t be. Now why would you want to bring that date up again?”

“Because it was the first time in my whole life seeing such an attractive woman driving recklessly on her motorcycle and nearly crashing into me. Life altering experiences like those aren’t usually forgotten.”

Her face and neck grew hot in embarrassment. “And if I can remember correctly, you were having a bad day yourself. I found out later that you’d discovered your dad’s parole hearing was denied.”

“Another tidbit from that day that I can never forget. You looked the way I felt that day,” he said.

“Well good thing we weren’t going any faster. Both of our minds were elsewhere. Your first words were: Are you crazy?”

“And yours were: Go fuck yourself,” he replied. “Pick up line of the century, huh? And still to this day, you have the most beautiful face I have ever seen.”

“No way…”

This time Zaira didn’t blush from embarrassment, instead a warm tingling feeling delved deep down into her gut and spread through her nerves and across her skin. Before she knew it Trent had stood and moved between the desk and her.

Slipping his fingers against the underside of her chin, he tipped her face upward until she was staring directly into his eyes. “You are. Inside and out.”

Zaira slipped her hand into his opened palm and came to a standing position in front of him. He pulled her closer until they were chest-to-chest and heart to heart. Her bare legs brushed against his dress pants and he pressed his thigh between hers.

Their mouths were so close, testing the distance right before contact.

“Trent Stone, I don’t think you know what you’re asking for,” she whispered, her lips subtly brushing his.

“Zaira Wright, I thought you were the one asking the questions.” He slid his palm against the back of her neck. “Now ask me to kiss you.”

“I…you know I want this too.”

They came together, mouths meshing and lips tangling. There was more demand and drive behind this kiss. Passionate and leisurely, yet with red-hot attraction. She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into her. She could feel the strong muscles in his back through his shirt. She kneaded them with her fingers, rocking her pelvis into his.