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“Miss Montgomery.” He let out a haggard breath, his put-together facade fraying at the edges. My nipples pulsed against his fingers, completely under his spell. “You’re gonna be the death of me, aren’t you?”
I answered him by finding my way to his crotch, running my hand along the defined erection probing at the fly of his slacks. He was solid and throbbing, the blood engorging him matching the roar in my ears. I’d never been so in tune, so matched with another lover. Nerves were barely on the radar. There was no room for anything except the consuming need to feel him inside me.
His mouth crashed into me, tongue thrusting past my lips. We swirled and flicked; we moaned and grunted as our bodies collided.
“Jacob,” I chanted, breaking the kiss only to take the tender skin of his neck between my teeth. “Oh Jacob.”
He brought his hands to the hem of my skirt and hiked his hand under the material, finding the curve of my bare bottom and growling with approval.
“What?” I said playfully, kissing the bob of his Adam’s apple. “Surprised I followed your instructions?” I twisted my fingers in his hair, feeling my heart swell in my chest as my eyes bore into his. “I know I’m headstrong, Jacob. But isn’t that one of the things you like about me?” I traced his jawline with my pointer, the last bit coming out in a throaty whisper. “That I’m ‘different’?”
He went rigid as a plank.
I reared back, looking at him with surprise. “Jacob?”
The sound of his name shook him from his stupor and the eyes that were glassy with lust hardened to obsidian as he separated himself from me.
“Is everything okay?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“Of course.”
He turned away and when my fingertips grazed his back, he lurched forward, like my touch was toxic.
My mouth twisted in hurt and anger. What was up with the mixed signals? One second he wanted me, teased me, and the next he was recoiling like I was diseased?
He finally faced me, but he was completely closed off, like he’d flipped some switch and now there was a sign that read, ‘Keep Out’.
“Did I do something? Say something?” I pressed.
“Everything is fine, Miss Montgomery.”
I rolled my eyes. “So we’re back to that.”
“You were the one that wanted to keep things professional.”
I let out a groan of frustration. “You can’t tell me that being in the room with me, touching me, makes you think about business and mergers.” I looked at him hard, wondering how I could get back in. Maybe he needed me to take the first step. To open up.
I swallowed. Here goes nothing.
“I fought you at every turn before because I’ve always been in control. I’ve never had to not work for anything my whole life.” He was still as a marble statue, but he wasn’t bolting from the room, so I continued. “Even if you never noticed me and just kept walking in the lobby that day, I would have been the best damn research aide Whitmore and Creighton ever had. I would have kept my nose to the grindstone and eventually snagged a position as an aide to a PR specialist, and climbed my way up the ladder. But you had other plans.”
He finally took a step in my direction. “Leila-”
“Let me finish,” I said gently. “I don’t regret accepting your proposition. It was the right move for my career. But agreeing to the other terms? It’s a huge thing to me. Giving myself to you is not something I take lightly.” I took a step, and then another, looking up at him and fighting the urge to kiss him. I had to get out the last bit. “I held back in the stairwell, and in the office. But I don’t want to hold back anymore.”
There it was. All my cards out on the table.
And he didn’t say a word.
I felt my eyes water and kicked myself. Of course I was gonna cry. That would show him. “Are you having second thoughts about this arrangement?” A traitorous tear unhinged and spilled down my cheek. “Am I unsatisfying?”
Tears were like kryptonite to most men and I didn’t expect a hardened male like Jacob to be any different, but he brought his hand to my cheek, wiping it away.
“You’re far from unsatisfying, Leila. I-” His mouth hung open, whatever was to come next painfully unfinished.
He cleared his throat and broke contact. “I should check with the pilot and see if we’re ready to get in the air.” He turned his back to me again and I could have pummeled it with my fists, trying to force him to let me in.
He pulled the divider open and stepped back into the cab of the jet. He flashed me one last look. “Take as long as you need.”
