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Deacon’s eyes widened. “Three?”
A smile tipped her mouth. “Yep.” Before he could get his head around that, she opened the door and walked out of the dressing room, leaving Deacon too stunned to move. It took Miles hustling in to break through his daze.
“Come on, lover boy,” he said as he pulled Deacon back to the set. “Time is money.” He smoothed Deacon’s hair before tapping his nose. “Remember. Sexy thoughts.”
Deacon didn’t need the reminder. As soon as Miles moved out of the way, his gaze sought out Olivia. She stood to the side, just to the right of one of the umbrellas. The area she stood in was too shadowed for him to tell if she wore something beneath the white shirt. But Miles had no more than crouched down and aimed his camera than she pulled something from the opened neck of her blouse. And it didn’t take more than an eye-narrowing to see that it was a ribbon. A purple ribbon.
“Perfect!” Miles yelled before his camera rapidly clicked. “Just keep those naughty thoughts coming, my sweet. Women are going to eat you up with a spoon.”
Deacon didn’t want women. He wanted one.
***
Deacon allowed the photo shoot to last much longer than he wanted, but only because it seemed to mean so much to Olivia. She stood right behind Miles, offering up suggestions and a multitude of praises when they hit a pose she liked. Occasionally she would stop the shoot and hurry over to fix a shirt collar or straighten a piece of wayward hair. The ribbon had disappeared, but in the bright lights he had no trouble seeing the outline of the corset through the white of her shirt. And when she smoothed his hair off his forehead, he couldn’t help leaning down and whispering in her ear.
“With or without panties?”
She froze with her fingertips resting ever so softly against his temple and her breath falling in warm puffs against the skin of his neck. Her gaze lifted to his. “Without.”
He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to control the wave of desire that threatened to overtake him. It was a losing battle. It had been brewing since the moment she’d flaunted the ribbon. Or possibly from the moment he’d first kissed her sweet, plump lips. Deacon opened his eyes to discover Olivia licking those lips with a heat in her eyes that scorched his very soul.
“Enough fawning, Olivia,” Miles said. “I only need a few more shots.”
Without taking his eyes off her, Deacon spoke. “No more shots. Olivia and I have a meeting to attend.” Then without one thought for how it would look to the photographer or his brothers, he took her hand and pulled her around the extension cords and lighting umbrellas and out the door.
“What are you doing?” she whispered as he led her to the elevator. She struggled to catch her breath, and he now knew why. “People are going to talk.”
“Let them.” He pulled her into the elevator, where he would’ve kissed her and taken a quick peek at the corset if two women hadn’t joined them. He probably should have let go of Olivia’s hand. Instead he continued to hold it as Olivia greeted the women in a strained voice.
“Hi, Elaine…Tiffany.”
They nodded a greeting, and then studied their purple high heels until the elevator doors opened on the executive floor. Hoping to avoid Kelly, Deacon headed for Olivia’s office. Unfortunately, his assistant seemed to be everywhere these days.
“Oh, there you are,” she said as she hustled up. “I was just going to interrupt the photo shoot to tell you that Parker—I mean Mr. Calloway—wants a meeting with you, and he seemed pretty pissed off. Like so pissed off that he might explode. I think it might have to do with the rotten egg I placed in his desk drawer—”
“Later,” Deacon said as his hand tightened on Olivia’s. “Right now I want you to hold all calls and interruptions.” Without waiting for a reply, he pulled Olivia into the office, closed the door, and locked it. His grip loosened, but he refused to let her go. “I think you know where this is headed.”
Her breath caught. “Yes.”
“And you know that mixing business with pleasure isn’t smart.”
A smile tipped up the corners of her mouth before she bit her lip as if to contain it. “I guess that depends on your definition of smart. A very smart man just recently told me that sometimes it’s better to go with your gut than with your head.”
He didn’t even try to bite back his smile. “And what is your gut telling you?”
She linked her fingers with his. “That it would be really stupid to pass up this opportunity.”
Something inside his gut said the same thing. Although he wasn’t as concerned with the feeling in his gut as he was with the feeling in his chest. His heart thumped much too rapidly. As if it was scared of an impending doom. He ignored it and tugged Olivia closer.
As much as he wanted to devour her, he took his time. Linking their hands, he lowered his head and sipped at her soft lips. One kiss. Two. Three—followed by twenty more. She tasted like sweet tea. Smooth, amber-colored sweet tea that had been brewed and steeped to perfection. And as with the Southern drink, sipping Olivia was addictive. Something he could’ve gone on doing forever if she hadn’t released his hands, slid her fingers through his hair, and pulled him closer for a deep, wet, tongue-mating kiss that had his cock lengthening and his hands curling around her waist. A waist that had been cinched into a rigid cage of material and ribbon. A waist he could easily span.
She pulled back from the kiss, her eyelids lowered, pupils dilated, and breath coming out in soft pants. “So I guess you want to see the new design, boss.”
Before he could do more than nod, she reached for the fly of her jeans. It took more than a few hip wiggles to get the jeans down her hips. She stepped out of the heels before peeling them off.
“Keep the shoes,” Deacon said.
Her eyes grew even hotter as she kicked the jeans out of the way and slipped her feet back into the heels. Starting at the top, she slowly unbuttoned her shirt, her nimble fingers twisting and sliding to reveal a peek of soft cleavage, followed by dark purple crisscrossed with ribbon resting against a patch of golden blond. Deacon’s breath mimicked Olivia’s, and he had to fist his hands to keep from reaching out for her and stopping the seductive show.
