Tempting Aquisitions (13 page)

“You always have a choice, Keira.”

The light veil of resistance that always seemed to block what was between them was nowhere in evidence as she smiled up at him.

“I think I’m long past making it because not one single argument I make to myself seems to stick.” She lifted on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his.

Satisfaction slammed through him with a raw intensity that had his fingers shaking as he placed his hands on her waist. The fear he’d harbored, that she was lost to him, evaporated as if it had never been.

He reached behind her for the handle, maneuvering her backward through the open door. That amazing sexual tension that simmered between them with a slow burn flared as they moved through her apartment, never breaking the contact between their bodies.

A long hallway ran the length of her apartment and her heels tapped lightly along the hardwood floor as she pulled him farther into her home. “I should probably be a good hostess and offer you a nightcap,” she whispered against his ear. The heat of her breath and the brush of her lips had his body tightening in urgent need.

“Courtesy is highly overrated.”

Her laugh was deep and throaty as she pulled him through the doorway to her bedroom. A small light burned on her dresser, illuminating the contours of the room while leaving the corners in shadow.

“Give me a minute?” She moved out of his arms to deal with her heels and jewelry, and he took the moment to look around. He could sense her in here, her essence evident in every line of the room, from the multicolored silk duvet that covered the bed to the bold, vivid prints framed on the walls.

The room was as vibrant as she was, and he suddenly wondered how they’d managed to find each other.

Or how he’d ever lived without her.

Keira had brought bold color into his world, color he’d never even known he was missing. And now that she was here, he knew he could never go back.

“What?” She turned from the dresser, the long sweep of her hair falling back against her neck as she began to pull out pins.

“Let me.”

“First tell me what the look was for.”

“You’re beautiful. Truly beautiful.”

He watched her dark eyes soften before a light sheen of tears filled them. Moving closer, he pulled her into his arms. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ruin the moment and make you cry.”

“Ruin it?” A few tears spilled over and ran down the wide smile that creased her cheeks. “You really are a man.”

“I hope so.”

“It’s impossible to ruin anything when you tell a woman she’s beautiful.” She punctuated the comment with a light swat on his shoulder. “Besides. Women do cry when they’re happy.”

“Are you?”

“I am. Here. When it’s just you and me, I’m incredibly happy.” A small frown marred her features. “Maybe we need to stay here and never leave.”

The thought flitted through his mind that maybe he could drop the whole takeover and find another way before he pushed it aside. He’d never walked away from a lucrative deal, and it wasn’t the time to start now, even if the thought of taking over McBride Media was growing less and less attractive.

“That’s not a very practical thought.”

For the briefest moment he wondered if he was reprimanding himself or replying to her comment.

“And I am perpetually practical.”

Unwilling to dwell any further on the course of action he’d already set for his business, he forced a lightness into his tone. “Oh, I don’t know. I’d say this dress”—he skimmed a hand down the length of her bodice—“is highly impractical. And more the better for it.”

“Maybe you can make it more practical and remove it.”

With gentle pressure, he pulled her toward him and backed them both to the bed. As the mattress hit the backs of his legs, he dropped down, pulling her forward as he reached for the zipper at the back of her gown.

“An excellent suggestion.”

He made quick work of undoing her dress, and the indigo satin that had sheathed her like a second skin fell over him in a soft wave. She rolled to her side, allowing him to drag the material down her body until it fell off the side of the bed.

With tender movements, he painted a line of kisses down her neck and over her collarbone. She was a feast for his senses and he relished the wash of need and male satisfaction as she began to writhe underneath him, her breath coming out in a light moan.

Desperate to make her come undone in his arms, he rolled to his side and changed the pace. He took in the slim, graceful lines of her body as his fingers followed the same path.

Delicate lace in a strapless indigo blue covered her breasts and matched the small scrap of material that covered her core. He skimmed his hands over her soft skin, drawing a light sigh when his fingers ran circles over her belly before moving higher to cup her breasts.

He drew another moan, deeper this time, as his fingers grazed her nipples, their points hard underneath the lace. Impatient to feel her, to taste her, he dragged one of the cups down and took the tight nipple into his mouth while he played with the other one through the material of her bra. Heat exploded through his body and his erection strained against her thigh. The taste of her was more luscious than any dessert, richer than the finest wine, and he was immediately drunk on her.

Keira
. His Keira.

He felt her hands on him, one on his back and the other at his neck, her fingers threaded through his hair. Restless energy quivered under her skin and her legs writhed against his as the passion built between them, a raging fire that was rapidly burning out of control.

His fingers shaking with the pent-up desire that coursed through him, he reached behind her back and made quick work of her bra’s clasp, returning his mouth to her other nipple as soon as the material was out of the way. The lush, ripe taste of her on his tongue only reinforced this mad, crazy desire.

This desperate urge to brand her and make her his.

Before he could follow the thought to its logical end, she shifted beneath him, her movements quick and full of sensual mischief. She shed the panties he’d begun to remove at her waist before straddling his hips. “Now, Mr. Cooper. You mentioned excellent suggestions and I have one of my own.”

He stared up at her, the mystery of how she could be powerful while naked and vulnerable hitting him like a lightning rod. And then she slid down his body, her hands finding their way to the opening of his slacks, and all rational thought fled. Even as her intent was more than evident in the sinuous movements of her body, it still caught him off guard when her hands closed over the hard length of his erection.

From base to tip, she was relentless in drawing pleasure. And when her mouth followed the movements of her hands, Nathan was lost.

“Keira.” Her name was a fierce whisper on his lips as she took him through his paces. Hard, choppy waves of pleasure assaulted his senses and he fought to maintain control. Fought to retain the upper hand.

Her dark, unfocused gaze locked on his before she kissed a trail over the sensitive flesh of his stomach. “I’m right here, baby.”

“I want you.”

With a temptress’s smile, she moved her body over his once more, positioning herself on his straining cock. “Then show me.”

Her words only drove his need higher as they both danced on the razor’s edge. He reached for her hips, pulling her over his body. He felt the way she clenched around him, then saw the matched desire in her eyes as she began to move.

With long, sure strokes, she rode their bodies to completion. His hands never left her hips as he guided the rise and fall of her body. And his gaze never left her face as he watched her take her pleasure and saw the beauty that lined her features as she climaxed.

The dual urges to mate and protect beat with a raw, insistent intensity in his veins, in time with his racing heart. And an earthy, desperate, driving need for her coursed through him.

“Keira.”

He whispered her name—just her name—in the heat that flared high and bright between them before he allowed the moment to take him over.

…

Keira heard her name and felt it echo through the great swirling mass of pleasure that suffused her body. Nothing in her life—no accomplishment, no experience, no moment before—matched the time she shared with Nathan.

In or out of bed, Nathan lifted her up and made her see the world differently. And in that new sight, she saw
herself
differently.

She was a woman in love.

The fears she’d harbored about being like her parents fled in full, any lingering thoughts unable to withstand the onslaught of what was between them.

Eager to share in the afterglow of pleasure, to try and give him some measure of what he’d given to her, she pressed her lips to his, her tongue immediately seeking its partner. Although the initial frenzy of their mating had faded, in the quiet they shared long, slow kisses that were as intimate as the joining of their bodies. Moment after moment spun out between them, and Keira had the distinct sense they used their bodies to say all the things both of them were unable to put to words.

As the intensity of the moment faded, she smiled against his lips before pulling back. “How is it you’re still dressed?”

A lazy smile spread across his face as Nathan’s gaze dropped to his midsection. His dress shirt hung open and one leg of his pants had come off during their lovemaking. “You didn’t let me get that far.”

She giggled and reached down to drag on the other leg of his slacks before settling her chin on his stomach. The hard planes of his pectoral muscles and the light spread of hair that covered them tantalized her fingertips, and she took a moment to savor the sensation.

“I think you’ve been lying to me, Nathan Cooper.”

His gaze roved over her face as he brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “And what have I been lying about?”

“You’ve introduced yourself as a glorified bean counter, yet this chest is clearly the work of a man who uses his body. Are you sure you’re not laying tar on the weekends or shingling roofs?”

His throaty laughter turned into a moan as her fingers played over his erect nipples. “You are absolutely, unequivocally tantalizing”

“I’m just a woman who knows what she wants.”

His gaze sharpened at that and she felt his body strain against hers with renewed urgency. “Then take it, Keira.” He shifted his hips, rising to meet the entrance to her body. “Take what you want.”

At risk of being outdone at her own game, she draped herself over him, pressing her breasts against that chest she’d so lovingly caressed. “Let’s both take it, Nathan.”

…

“I can’t feel my legs,” Keira moaned into Nathan’s neck a long while later. She’d draped herself over him after the explosive climax they shared and hadn’t moved in several minutes. Wouldn’t have even thought of moving from his delicious warmth and the lovely stretch of his hard body underneath her if it weren’t for the very real worry she’d never move again.

“I can’t feel anything but a dull, crazy roar in my head trying to calculate how fast we can do that again.”

When the telltale signs of a new erection quivered against her, her laughter died down. “You’re not kidding.”

“Hell no, I’m not kidding.” He reached up and placed both hands on her face, pulling her close for a hot, sloppy kiss. “You’ve put a spell on me, and I have no interest in finding a cure.”

She finally forced her tired, sated muscles to lift her off his body and back onto the level expanse of the bed. He settled her against his side, and Keira curled into his warmth. “At the risk of sounding repetitive, do we have to leave?”

“Yes, but I promise to drag you back here as fast as humanly possible.” His head shifted so he was looking at her. “After your meeting tomorrow, why don’t you leave and come play hooky with me?”

“I can’t leave.”

“Why not?”

“Well, because.” She heard the sputter in her own voice and wondered when she’d grown up and become a stick in the mud.

“I’m not saying to skip the meeting with Breslin, but to have something to look forward to afterward. You didn’t get a weekend because of the show. You’re entitled to a day off.”

“This from Mr. Type A.”

“Maybe I’m turning over a new leaf.”

“Where will we go?”

His gaze roamed around the room before he added a wry smile. “I’d say right here is just fine.”

“Much as I love the idea, we really will kill ourselves if the last hour is any indication. No. If I’m going to go to all the effort of being a bad girl, we need to pick a place.”

His eyebrows wiggled and she laughed in spite of herself. “I think this really is the proper venue for a little bad-girl behavior.”

“Nathan! I’m serious.”

“All right. We’ll go to the zoo.”

“What zoo?”

“The one in Central Park. You know the place,” he said with a wink. “It’s right up the street.”

“I’ve never been there.”

“Then it’s the perfect spot. Your meeting’s at eight. I’ll see you there at eleven by the sea lions.”

The zoo? The idea was as odd as it was enticing. Another unexpected facet of Nathan Cooper, corporate raider, museum stargazer, and zoo aficionado.

“Now then.” Nathan shifted her so that he covered her with his body. “About those calculations I was working on in my bean-counter’s brain?”

“Yes?”

“My tar-laying body thinks all the figures are adding up rather nicely.”

Thoughts of the zoo fled at the insistent press of his body to hers. “How nicely?”

“Let me show you.”

Chapter Eleven

True to her promise, Keira met Nathan at exactly eleven o’clock in front of the sea-lion pool in the Central Park Zoo. Nathan was dressed casually in a pair of khakis and a gray T-shirt, and her breath caught in her throat at how he managed to strike such a sexy note in the simple clothes.

“So this is how corporate raiders spend their afternoons?”

Nathan leaned down and bussed her cheek before pulling her close under his arm. “Only when world-class CEOs offer to play hooky for the afternoon.”

“I still can’t believe this is where you wanted to go.”

He kept his arm around her as they passed through the entrance area to find places near the feeding pool. “Why not?”

“I don’t know.” She measured her words before returning the first one that had come to mind. “It seems wonderfully silly. And normal.”

“I am normal.”

She laughed at the horrified expression on his face. “I didn’t mean that. It’s just not what I expected you’d want to do with a day off. Just like last night and the way you knew the museum so well.”

They moved up to an open spot against the railing and he turned to lean against the metal poles. “What can I say? I’m a geek at heart.”

On impulse, she reached up and placed a hand on the back of his neck, pulling him close for a kiss. “I guess you are. Maybe I like geeky more than I realized.”

“Lucky for me,” he murmured before taking her lips.

A muted-yet-insistent sound interrupted their moment and Keira pulled back to see one of the zoo workers, a microphone in hand, clapping for them. “The show’s over here, people. With the gang and me.”

Nathan shot him a good-natured grin. “You can’t blame me for taking advantage of the attentions of a beautiful woman, now can you?”

“Nah.” The zoo worker waved a hand. “But consider me deeply jealous.”

Keira laughed before her attention shifted to the two sea lions making their way over the rocks in the center of the pool. “Oh, look!”

The sea lions entertained them for the next several minutes, doing tricks ranging from high fives to midair catches of fish to some impressive dives off the rocks.

Despite the tension of the last twenty-four hours—heck, the last two weeks—the moments passed by in carefree abandon as she watched the animals.

“Did you see that?” Nathan bumped her shoulder as the largest male executed an athletic flip.

“He’s adorable.”

Just like you
. The thought reared up as she gazed at Nathan’s profile. Whatever impressions she’d formed in her mind over the last few weeks had been re-formed and reshaped more than once. Today was a perfect case in point. The carefree smiles and easy enjoyment of a day off were a facet of his personality she hadn’t expected. If she were honest with herself, it had been like that from the start. Every time she thought she had a handle on him and on what motivated him, her image got turned on its ear.

Of course
, a small voice whispered,
one of those many facets wants to take over your company.

She’d managed to leave the thought buried since the night before when they’d left the museum, and she wondered why her conscience chose that moment to interrupt with the truth. She’d come here to enjoy herself and to take a few more precious moments with Nathan. She’d be damned if she let outside influences interfere.

The real world would interfere soon enough.

Resolving to give herself this one day more, she turned back to the sea lions. The warm day ensured the animals were in fine form and the entire audience gave them enthusiastic shouts as they finished their routine. And before she knew it, their trainer wrapped up his scripted patter and wished them a happy day at the zoo.

“I can’t believe I’ve never been here.” Keira watched the audience depart the show in small groups, everyone smiling and happy as they went off to spend the day with those they cared about.

“It’s a little gem, right in the center of the city.”

“You’re the gem, Nathan. I’d never had imagined I’d have this much fun. Or see this side of you.”

“I’m not all that complicated.”

“No, I think you’re very complicated. And like Shrek with all his onion layers, every time I peel back another one I’m surprised by what I find.”

“So first I’m abnormal and now I’m a smelly ogre?”

She wrapped an arm around his waist as they moved toward the reptile enclosure. “If the shoe fits.”

…

They fit
, Nathan thought to himself an hour later as they walked out of the zoo and onto one of the myriad paths in Central Park. He held her hand in his, their fingers entwined, and they moved through the park talking about everything and nothing.

“Since I’ve called you both abnormal as well as a beloved green cartoon character, the least I can do is buy you lunch.”

“I’m not sure my gentlemanly urges can handle a woman paying.”

She pointed toward a vendor about twenty yards ahead of them. “It’s only hot dogs.”

“Well, when you put it that way, how can I refuse?”

Keira had been a revelation. While it seemed as if they’d hit a tentative truce the night before, he couldn’t quite shake the feeling that what was building between them was temporary.

Or that she was looking for a reason to run. He’d suggested a day away from the office so they could try and get back some of the magic they’d experienced in Las Vegas. What he hadn’t banked on was her ability to truly push the office aside.

There had been one moment earlier, by the sea lions, when he’d felt her stiffen next to him. At first he’d ignored it, but the expression on her face had him reconsidering, so he watched as a play of emotions worked its way across her face.

And then the moment vanished as if it had never been.

When her laughter returned at the sea lions’ antics, she’d looked up at him with such a wholesome freshness he’d almost convinced himself he’d imagined it.

Almost
.

“What do you take on your hot dog?”

“Ketchup only.”

“No onions?”

“More
Shrek
insinuations?” He reached for the red plastic container of ketchup as she handed him one of the hot dogs.

“I’m a mustard, ketchup, and relish girl myself.”

He watched her fix her own hot dog, a ritual as elaborate as a general preparing for battle. “Doesn’t the hot dog get cold?”

“It doesn’t matter if the ketchup, mustard, and relish ratio is exactly perfect.”

“And people call me Type A.”

“Oh, you ain’t seen nothing yet.” She winked at him as she took a big bite of her lunch before closing her eyes. “You could take me to the best restaurant in New York and I don’t believe it could compare to this taste.”

“New York street vendors do produce some unique food magic out of those little steel carts.”

“The best.”

They found an empty bench to finish eating. A light breeze rustled stray leaves at their feet and Nathan couldn’t hold back just how satisfied he felt.

How complete.

“So how does it come to pass that a born and bred New Yorker has never visited the Central Park Zoo?”

“I’m really not sure.” She shrugged as she wadded up the aluminum wrapper that had held her hot dog. “There are some days I remember my childhood vividly, and others where it seemed to pass in a morass of experiences.”

“Your parents never took you and your sisters places?”

“We had a very dignified family vacation every year to somewhere spectacular like the French Riviera or Chile or Bora Bora. And then we’d come home and my parents would go back to their respective corners.”

“Sounds lonely.”

“I had Mayson and Camryn, and it’s hard to be lonely with the two of them.”

He heard the telltale quaver behind the gentle smile. “But your parents?”

“My mom did the best she could. She was around far more often than my dad, but she was embarrassed to go out without him. Like it would somehow be admitting we were a dysfunctional family. So we did a lot at home. And we had a wonderful relationship, don’t get me wrong.”

Keira hesitated and he gave her the room to gather her thoughts.

“I think in a lot of ways that’s why the business part of our lives has always come so easily for my sisters and me.”

“How so?”

“Relationships are hard, but talking business is easy. You figure out what you want and you figure out what your opponent wants and you make a deal. It’s way easier to navigate than those sticky landmines of human emotions.”

She stood and extended her hand. “Come on. Let’s walk.”

By unspoken agreement, Nathan sensed she didn’t want to discuss her family any longer, and he wasn’t about to push. He reached for her hand and linked their fingers. He knew all about those sticky landmines, had stepped on more than a few in his youth, and he’d made it a practice in his adulthood to avoid them at all costs. Which was why the words that spilled forth as they moved toward the Reservoir, the large body of water that dominated the center of the park, were an unexpected surprise.

Or a confession
, he amended to himself.

“The day I graduated from business school, my father offered me a job at his company.” She looked up at him, a question in her eyes, and he answered it before she even asked. “I didn’t accept it. Turned him down cold.”

“How’d he take the rejection?”

“Not well. Badly, actually.”

Nathan pulled up that day in his mind’s eye, the memory one of his easiest to recall. His mother had still been alive then and she’d been delighted West had arrived at their small Lower East Side apartment for a visit. And she had been equally upset when West had walked out twenty minutes later.

“What happened?”

“A full-court press by my mostly absentee father, followed by the worst fight of my life with my mother.”

“Why did you have a fight?”

“She attempted to convince me how ungrateful I was being by rejecting the offer. She only pushed harder each time I insisted he couldn’t just reappear in my life and think he had any influence.”

“But he does have an influence, as my father does on me. It may be more negative than positive, but it’s still an influence.”

He’d never looked at his relationship with his father through that lens, and, as he did, Nathan realized it made sense.

“Maybe your mother fell victim to the classic parental blunder.”

“What’s that?”

“Our parents sometimes think the path of least resistance is best, and it’s usually not because we don’t stretch and grow on that path. But pushing us in that direction keeps their fears about us getting hurt at bay.”

He hesitated but figured he owed it to her to keep going. “I think her concern was even more personally motivated than fear.”

Keira squeezed his hand. The thoughts he’d harbored about his mother ever since that day had burned a hole in his heart. He knew they were ungrateful and more than a little judgmental. What he hadn’t known was how much easier they were to bear with the support of someone else.

“She thought I should go with the man she’d always loved and whose faults she was blind to.”

“We often forget our parents are human, too. They’re such imposing figures in our minds, I think we shortchange them their humanity.”

The judgment of his mother’s actions subsided, replaced with the anger he’d spent a lifetime honing to a razor-sharp point. “She never got over him. And never once, in all the time since the day she met him, did he treat her as she deserved. Not once.”

“She loved him.”

“He never deserved it.”

“No, from the sound of it, probably not.”

A cool breeze lifted off the water of the Reservoir and blew over them. A few strands of Keira’s hair slipped loose from their knot and flew around her face. He spotted an exit off the path around the water. As soon as they were out of the way of oncoming runners and walkers, he pulled her into his arms. With aching sweetness, he brushed the strands of hair behind her ear, then leaned in to press his lips to hers. “Thank you for understanding.”

“Thank you for trusting me with the information.”

And when their lips met, something was different. He felt it immediately.

Whereas before, spending time with her had been fulfilling and exhilarating, now it had become something even more.

“Nathan,” she whispered against his mouth. “Let’s go home.”

…

Keira answered the call from her doorman and let him know he could send up their dinner.

“You can get dressed faster and you don’t have to put on a bra.” She gave Nathan a winsome, toothy smile, picking up the debate they’d started around the time she had called in the Chinese food order. “So you can go grab the food when the delivery guy knocks.”

“You don’t need to wear a bra. You look amazing without it.”

“Yes, well, unless you’d like the deliveryman to think the same thing, go answer the door.”

As if punctuating the statement, the buzz of her doorbell echoed through the apartment.

“Fair point.”

He nodded and dragged on his khakis as he went. She couldn’t help but once again admire his firm butt and the broad back that rose up from slender hips to expand into those magnificently broad shoulders. Nor could she help the self-satisfied smile that refused to vanish from her lips.

Taking the afternoon off had been a truly inspired idea.

Spending half of that afternoon in bed had been an even better one.

“Moo shu’s here!” His deep voice carried down the hall. “And you’ve given me quite an appetite, so get down here before it’s all gone.”

His T-shirt still lay in a discarded pile on the floor and Keira reached for it as she stood. As she pulled it over her head, she heard the muted ring of her cell phone. She poked her head through the cotton and glanced at the readout.

Camryn.

The urge to ignore it and just talk to her sister in the morning was strong, but the small kernel of guilt that had planted itself that morning when she ducked out of the building was too strong to bypass.

“What’s up?”

“Are you near a TV?”

“Yeah. I’m at home.”

“Put it on. Hurry up.” Camryn barked out the channel and Keira could hear Mayson and Sally in the background as well.