The Unblocked Collection (7 page)

I felt her eyes on me while I lead her toward the table. Then they moved to Derek, and back to me. “I’m pretty sure I just figured out what’ll get his attention.”

“What would that be?” I whispered. I could feel my nipples deceiving me, hardening under his gaze and poking through the thin silk shirt that covered them.

“You, Frankie,” she said. “It’s you.”

DEREK

FRANKIE WALKED
toward our table, the skinny jeans outlining her perfectly tight frame, the heels making her even taller than I remembered. Her nipples poked through her shirt, begging my teeth to bite them. She demanded my attention. Claimed it easily, in spite of the other women standing near me. I needed to have those legs wrapped around my waist and bury myself in the deepest, wettest, tightest part of her.

“Aren’t you going to finish your lunch?” Julia asked.

I’d only eaten half of what I’d ordered, realizing once again I was hungry for something much more sensual than food. I was done with this meeting and done with Julia, and once my conversation with Frankie was over, I’d be leaving this restaurant. “I’m not interested.”

“Can I order you something else?” she asked, oblivious.

“No.”

My eyes slowly moved up Frankie’s body and stopped on her face. There was something different about her today. She was looser, more confident. I assumed part of that came from the bottle of wine that was on her table. This restaurant was a setting that allowed her to be herself.

I liked what I saw.

Julia noticed I was staring past her and turned around. “What the hell is
she
doing here?” She said it loud enough for Frankie to hear, even from several steps away from our table.

“Derek,” Frankie said, her hand reaching for mine. “It’s so nice to see you again.”

I shook it tenderly, knowing full well I wouldn’t be able to show her pussy as much restraint. I needed to own every fucking inch of her skin, to work her body until she begged for mercy, until she couldn’t take another orgasm from my tongue, or my fingers, or my cock. “Frankie, it’s a pleasure to see you again. Are you here for business, or just having some fun?”

She smiled, and the blood rushed below my waist. “In our world, Derek, there’s no such thing as ‘just fun.’”

“I bet I could change your mind.” I glanced down at her wrist, at the silver and gold bangle gleaming against her skin. The metal twisted like a piece of rope. “You weren’t wearing that the other day…just the Rolex.” I would have noted it if she had. Wrists were one of my favorite spots on a woman. I took notice, always.

Her cheeks flushed a darker shade of red. I couldn’t blame that on the wine. My thumb brushed over the metal, skimming her skin during each stroke. “No, I wasn’t.” Her eyes fell to my wrist. “You weren’t wearing yours, either.”

She’d seen the thin leather straps that tied around my wrist; a gift Hayden had brought back from her last trip to Colorado. “Are you sure about that?” She was right. I just wanted to hear her answer.

“Positive. I’m observant to a fault.” She held our stare for a few more seconds, then glanced at her side. “Derek, please meet my assistant, Brea.”

Frankie’s hand was replaced by Brea’s. I liked hers far less. She was a pretty blonde with striking eyes, but she lacked Frankie’s sexiness, her beauty, her charm. “Mr. Block, it’s an honor. I’ve been checking you out online and your work is truly magnificent.” She spoke with a slight slur.

“Call me Derek.” I glanced at Julia, who was chewing the inside of her cheek. “I assume you ladies know each other?”

“We do,” Julia said. Her hardened stare shifted from me to Frankie. “This is the first time she’s ever followed me, though.” She reached across the table and placed her hand on mine, her nails so sharp the tips stabbed me. “The agents in this city are like vultures, Derek. They’re dying to get their claws into my clients.” If she thought she could use her claws to claim me, she was in for a rude awakening.

“
Your
clients?” Brea asked.

Frankie’s expression told me she was as confused as Brea. I needed to fix that. “Let me be clear,” I said, “I’m not
anyone’s
client yet.”

“Not yet,” Julia said. “But I think it’s
very
clear who should get to cover your tower.”

Brea snorted.

Frankie’s eyes lit up as she held back her laughter. Her shoulders relaxed, the tension leaving as fast as it had come. The honesty in that steely glare was gorgeous.

Julia had gotten one thing right: the person who deserved the job wasn’t the whore who kept referencing my tower. It was the dark-haired beauty with the gunmetal eyes and the charming personality who was standing in front of me.

I had a rule that I’d never broken: I didn’t sleep with anyone I worked with. I needed the people on my team to help run my business, people I could count on to be there, to be honest without things getting awkward. I couldn’t risk losing them over something like sex, no matter how strong my attraction was. Frankie would be on my team soon, responsible for selling my biggest build-out to date. Once I signed her contract, I couldn’t lose her. But it was taking everything I had not to carry her out of this restaurant, spread her over the hood of my Suburban and bury my face in her cunt.

As painful as it was going to be, I had to wait.

But the moment the last unit was sold, she’d be my reward.

I realized that could be a long time from now, but she’d be worth it.

“Julia,” Frankie said, “Brea and I were here for lunch long before you had even arrived. I’m not in the business of following you—I assure you of that. And despite your accusations, it’s been wonderful seeing you, as always. It’s too bad we have a showing we need to get to because we’d love to sit and hear all the reasons why you think you’re the perfect candidate to work with Block Development.”

Frankie’s gaze glided over to me, her body tilting as well. It was just enough motion to make the top of her shirt dip and reveal her amazing cleavage. I wanted to stick my tongue in the channel between them, lick my way across each mound and clamp my teeth around her hardened nipples, biting the sensitive ends until she withered and moistened beneath me.

“I’m so sorry to see you go,” Julia said.

Frankie laughed. It was the first time I’d heard that sound come out of her. It was more sensual and enticing than I expected. “I’m glad I got a chance to say hello, Derek.”

I reached for her hand. Though a handshake good-bye wasn’t necessary, feeling her skin again was. A longing passed between us, sharpening and growing deeper the more I held on. “You’ll be hearing from me soon.”

“Should I wear a bracelet during our next meeting?” she asked.

A growl began to erupt in my throat. I stopped it. “Please.”

I hated that I had to wait to have her. Despised it. I never deprived myself of any woman I wanted.

But this time, I had to.

She laughed again, her arm still entwined with Brea’s, and they both turned around to walk toward the lobby.

I was left looking at Julia.

She held up her knife and used it as a mirror, smiling into the metal. When she was satisfied, she dropped it on the table, “So…where were we before we were rudely interrupted?” She crossed her legs, the tip of her heel rubbing against my shin. Her eyes let me know it wasn’t a mistake.

Tamra had heard from somewhere that I was shopping for an agent. I didn’t believe Frankie or the muscle-head were likely to have gossiped about it. Julia was aggressive; it wasn’t much of a leap to guess she was the one who had bragged.

I took a drink of my water, wishing it were something different…wishing the smooth, sleek rim of the glass was the lips of Frankie’s pussy. “I think we were getting ready to ask for the check—”

“I remember now! We were about to discuss my idea for marketing your tower.”

I’d been here long enough to appease Will. There was no reason to stay a moment longer. I took out my wallet and dropped a hundred on the table. That would more than cover the two meals and drinks.

Julia looked stunned. “But you can’t be leaving so soon. There’s so much I haven’t told you and—”

“I’ve heard enough, Ms. Hayes.” I glanced over my shoulder as I walked to the lobby. “My assistant will be in touch.”

FRANKIE

HEAT BLEW
against my nipple. It felt as if I was sitting in the front seat of a car, topless, with the vent pointed at the right side of my chest. But I wasn’t in a car…

I was in my bed.

A flicking sensation followed the heat, then a sharp sucking as a man’s mouth hungrily kissed my right breast, moving its way across my chest until it reached my left nipple. I couldn’t keep my hands at my sides. They needed to grip, yank, pull with all their strength at the source of all this pleasure. So I reached forward and grasped his thick strands. His mouth began to drag down my navel, stopping at the cleft between my legs.

There was more heat, as if his breath were trying to prepare me for whatever was about to happen…or maybe he was trying to tease me, to make me open my thighs even farther. Couldn’t he tell I was dripping already, that the throbbing in my clit was so intense it was making me quiver?

“If my tongue is what you want,” he said, “then ask for it.”

I knew that timbre…not intimately, and not sexually. But it was familiar. When I lifted my head off the pillow and looked at the space between my thighs, there was only darkness. I wasn’t able to see him. Still, he was there. My fingers were in his hair…

“Please,” I said.

“Please what?”

“Please give me your tongue…” My voice trailed off as his long, wet organ swiped powerfully across my clit, then continued in a relentless lapping that caused the build to flare through me.

“You’re so fucking delicious.” His mouth was full and occupied, his voice muffled, but I could make out what he said. I wasn’t used to the commentary or the compliments. They intensified the flush on my skin. It wasn’t that sex in the past had been silent, it just hadn’t ever been this loud, and it had almost never been about me and my needs.

His fingers moved in and out of me, spreading my wetness, then gliding over my stomach, my ribcage, brushing over the peaks of my breasts. Every spot on my body was being attended to, all ravaged equally.

Who was this man who knew how to make my body bend like this, who could dampen me with just his breath and the softest caress? His face was still in the darkness. I wanted him to move into the light, to see him, to kiss those wet, talented lips.

I slipped my fingers through his hair, through the milk chocolate curls that framed the top of his forehead, and I pulled him forward. His eyes began to emerge from the blackness.
Electric blue…

“Derek?”

I gasped, kicking against the mattress to put some distance between us. I pushed so hard, my back slammed into the headboard. My eyes burst open and I gasped again. I covered my eyelids with my palms to shield them from the harsh sunlight.

When my eyes finally adjusted, I found the sheet and blanket on the floor and, aside from me being in it, a very empty bed. Even in his absence, my body was still incredibly worked up from his fingers and tongue. They may not have actually been inside me, but in these dreams, they were becoming more real each time.

My phone showed it was just after six. I wouldn’t be going back to sleep, so I scrolled through my inbox. I tapped the screen to enlarge an email from Derek’s assistant, Will.

FROM:
Mullen, Will

TO:
Jordan, Frankie

SENT:
April 18, 5:57am

SUBJECT:
Tomorrow

Derek would like to meet with you tomorrow morning at 7:00, sharp.

-Will

Will had been direct when we’d met initially. His email, however, was borderline rude. Even my higher maintenance clients, whom I’d catered to my whole career, had more consideration for my schedule than this.