Wanted by the Boss: Sleeping with the Boss / Cowboy Boss / Billionaire Boss

Rick smiled, remembering the impulse that had told him to buy a couple of the dusty packages of condoms he’d found on a back shelf. ‘‘Stop-and-shop gas stations carry a lot of items these days.’’

She dropped backward onto the mattress and arched her hips as his fingers brushed the juncture of her thighs. She sucked in a gulp of air and released it from her lungs slowly. ‘‘Thank heaven, you’re a careful shopper.’’

He watched her through narrowed eyes. Flickering light played across her features as she practically vibrated under his touch. ‘‘One of my many gifts.’’

‘‘What’s another?’’ She lifted her hips into his hand, her breath hitching as his fingertips stroked her center.

‘‘You’re about to find out.’’ Rick’s heartbeat pounded in his ears. Blood rushed through his veins, creating a heat that made him feel as though he were standing in the center of a roaring fire. His breathing strangled, he gave into the urges riding him and grabbed her legs. Pulling her quickly around, he turned her abruptly on the mattress and yanked her toward him.

‘‘Hey!’’ She grabbed at the sheets beneath her as if holding on.

‘‘Shut up, Ryan.’’

‘‘Excuse me?’’ She lifted her head to stare at him.

Tugging her to the edge of the bed, he spread her legs with a gentle touch, then sank to his knees in front of her. ‘‘I said shut up.’’

‘‘What the he—’’ She stared down at him. ‘‘Rick…’’

He looked at her and his breath stopped. Candlelight danced in her eyes and brushed her skin with a soft golden haze. She looked beautiful and wild and lush enough to steal a man’s soul.

If he let her.

Rick wouldn’t.

He just had to have her.

‘‘Trust me,’’ he whispered, his voice a hush, lost in the fury of the storm beyond the cozy, softly lit room.

Lifting first one of her legs and then the other, Rick laid them across his shoulders, then scooped his hands under her bottom. Her body trembled and she arched her hips, squirming as if trying to free herself. But she wasn’t trying hard.

‘‘Rick, you don’t have to—’’ She reached one hand out to him.

‘‘Like I said—shut up, Ryan.’’ He locked his gaze with hers as he took her. His mouth covered her center. Her eyes went wide, her mouth dropped open and air rushed from her lungs in a whoosh.

She watched him take her, and feeling her gaze on him fed his own hunger. He licked her soft flesh and she whimpered, threading her fingers through his hair and holding him to her as if afraid he’d stop. She needn’t have worried. He couldn’t stop. The feel of her body melting beneath his touch inflamed him. Her sighs filled him. He tasted her, dipping his tongue within her tender flesh, sending her higher than she’d ever been before.

One hand kneaded her bottom while he swept the other around to dip first one finger, and then two, into her depths. She shuddered, lifting herself into his mouth.

‘‘Rick, that…feels…so…good. Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop.’’

Her broken voice, her breathy words, carried on the next clap of thunder, and he instinctively gave her more, pushing her farther, faster.

Eileen moved with him, rocking her hips, reaching for the wonder she knew was waiting for her. She watched him, unable to tear her gaze from the sight of him taking her so intimately. His gaze burned into hers. Candlelight flickered over his features and he looked dark, dangerous and too damn good.

He lifted her bottom off the bed and she was dangling in his grasp, his mouth the only stable point in her world. His hot breath dusted her most intimate flesh and his fingers and tongue worked her body into a frenzy of sensation that pooled in her center and spiraled throughout her insides. Her heartbeat drummed in her ears. Her breath staggered. She couldn’t hold out much longer. Couldn’t make it last, despite wanting his mouth on her forever. The end was crashing down on her and she rushed to meet it.

She cupped the back of his head, holding him to her as she cried out his name. He kept kissing her until the last of the tremors subsided and, when she thought she might shatter, he eased her back into the middle of the bed.

Her vision blurred as she looked up at him, kneeling between her legs. ‘‘You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?’’

‘‘I try.’’

‘‘Well, you’re doin’ fine,’’ she assured him, and told herself that it didn’t matter if her heartbeat was somewhere around three hundred. If she died of a heart attack right now, she’d meet death with a satisfied smile on her face.

‘‘Glad to hear it.’’ He grinned and leaned over to snag another condom from the bedside table. As he tore the foil packet open, he looked back at her. New desire shimmered in his eyes, sending a wicked spiral of want and need spinning through her. Surprise and pleasure shifted inside her, opening her to more sensations, making her wonder where this was all leading. Making her stop and think. Which she didn’t want to do at the moment.

Thankfully, Rick splintered her thoughts and sent them packing when he asked with a wink, ‘‘Ready to go again?’’

Six

In the candlelight, his skin gleamed like polished oak. Every well-defined muscle stood out in sharp relief and all Eileen could think of was that she wanted to trace every inch of his body with her fingers. Her lips. She wanted him as she’d never wanted anyone before. She couldn’t seem to get enough of him. And that thought shimmered briefly in her mind before she set it aside to explore later.

There would be plenty of time for thinking once the sun came up and their one-night bargain ended. For now…there was Rick. Nothing else.

‘‘Sleep,’’ she said, ‘‘is vastly overrated.’’

‘‘Is that right?’’

‘‘Oh yeah,’’ she said, and squirmed slightly on the bed, scooting closer to him, feeling the brush of his hardened body against her core. ‘‘It’s a known fact. You don’t need more than twenty minutes sleep a night to function at your best.’’

‘‘That’s a relief,’’ he said, pulling the condom from the packet.

‘‘Wait,’’ she said. ‘‘Let me.’’ She snatched the condom from his grasp. Half sitting up, she covered the tip of him with the pale latex, then slowly, sinuously, rolled it down along his length.

He sucked in air with a hiss.

Her fingers folded around him and squeezed gently.

His eyes closed and a muscle in his jaw twitched.

She touched him, sliding her fingers up and down the hard, solid length of him, then stopped to boldly cup him. His eyes opened and the candlelight reflected in those dark depths made him look dangerous again as he pulled her hand away.

‘‘That’s it,’’ he muttered, and leaned over her. He grasped both of her wrists in one tight fist, holding her hands against the bed, high over her head. She writhed and twisted beneath him on the bed, moving into him, lifting her hips, inviting him in.

Rick surrendered to the fury pulsing within. Desire scratched at him. Need howled inside him. Hunger raged in him. And when he pushed himself into her body, it all escalated. His heartbeat raced, his blood pumped and his breath staggered in and out of his lungs. All he could hear was her sighs. All he could feel was her breath as he lowered himself to kiss her. She nibbled at his mouth and planted her feet on the mattress to rock her body against his. She was all.

She was everything.

And for tonight, she was his.

Releasing his grip on her wrists, he groaned when she dragged her nails along his back. Then she pulled his head to her breasts and he pleased her, suckling, drawing, pulling at her nipples, first one, then the other. The scent of her drove him wild, the taste of her created hungers he’d never known before.

They moved together, two shadows in the candlelight. And while the storm raged beyond the windows, two souls found something neither of them had been looking for.

Dawn arrived sooner than they would have wanted.

‘‘Storm’s over,’’ Eileen said, knowing Rick was lying beside her, wide-awake.

‘‘Yeah, looks like.’’

Rain dripped from the eaves, sounding like a clock, ticking away the last seconds of an incredible night. The first brush of daylight softened the room, obliterating the light from what was left of the candles. Most of them had guttered out in their own wax hours ago. The last few were unnecessary now.

Eileen winced and shifted position, tugging the edge of the quilt up over her breasts. Though why she was bothering with modesty at this late date was beyond her. There wasn’t one square inch of her body that Rick hadn’t seen, tasted or explored.

She slapped one hand across her eyes and tried not to think too much about everything they’d done together in the dark.

‘‘Regrets?’’ he asked, his voice a low rumble close to her ear.

She thought about that for a long minute. Did she regret any of it? Could she? He’d made her feel things she’d merely read about. He’d made her body sing. No. She didn’t regret it. She was only sorry their agreement had been for one night only. Though it was probably safest that way. She wasn’t going to get involved here and she knew darn well that if she kept sleeping with him, her heart would make the leap whether she wanted it to or not. So in the spirit of self-preservation, she’d stick to the bargain despite the clamoring of her hormones. ‘‘No. No regrets.’’

‘‘You had to think about it, though,’’ he teased her.

Turning her head on the pillow, she looked at him. In the early morning light, he looked just as good as he did in candlelight. ‘‘What about you?’’

He slid one hand up her body, across her rib cage to cup one of her breasts.

She sucked in a gulp of air.

‘‘No regrets,’’ he said, and leaned in close enough to kiss her. Then he pulled away, rolling onto his back to stare up at the ceiling.

‘‘So,’’ Eileen said, feeling the loss of his hand on her body, ‘‘now we get up, get showered and move on.’’

‘‘Right,’’ he said.

Boy, that had sounded like a good idea the night before. Now though…she sat up and swung her legs off the edge of the bed, before she could do something really dumb like suggest that they pretend it wasn’t morning yet. ‘‘Night’s over, so we’re finished.’’

‘‘Exactly. Back to business.’’

‘‘Right,’’ she said. She was achy all over. Muscles she hadn’t used in ages were shrieking at her. And still, it was all Eileen could do to keep from turning back around and jumping on to him. She stood up and walked across the room toward the door, snatching up the complimentary plush white robe on the bench at the end of the bed. Slipping into its warmth, she belted it at the waist and paused in the doorway to look back at him. ‘‘I’ll go over to my room, hop in the shower and then meet you in the living room for breakfast in an hour or so?’’

He went up on one elbow, his dark brown hair falling across his forehead to give him a rakish air he wouldn’t have once he was back in one of his blasted suits. Her palms itched to smooth across his chest again. To feel his heart beating beneath her touch. She curled her fingers into fists and shoved her hands into the robe’s pockets.

‘‘An hour,’’ he said tightly, and watched her go.

* * *

Standing under the pulsating jets of hot water, Eileen struggled to clear her mind. To push the night’s memories into a dark corner, where they couldn’t sneak out to taunt her. But it was no use.

Hot, needlelike punches of water beat on her body in staccato bursts from the shower massage and reminded her of his hands on her. Of his mouth. Of his touch. Of the fires he could stoke with a look.

And she ached for him.

At the slide of the curtain rings on the metal pole, she turned in time to see him step naked into the shower behind her. ‘‘Rick—’’

He grabbed her and pulled her close, sliding her water-slick body along his. ‘‘Sun’s not all the way up yet. Night’s not over.’’

She stared up at his taut features, swallowed hard and said, ‘‘Works for me.’’

Turning her around, Rick pressed her back up against the shower wall and lifted her off her feet. Steam from the shower rose up like a soft fog, enveloping them in a small, private world. Water pounded on his back like a heartbeat. She wrapped her legs around his waist and he entered her with one quick lunge that stole his breath. He’d tried to stay away. But hearing the water, knowing she was naked and wet and warm, was simply too much of a temptation to ignore.

Now he moved within her, racing toward the ecstasy that had become familiar during the long night. Burying his face in the curve of her throat, he gave himself to her and took all she had to give.

* * *

An hour later, they were in her bed, having breakfast. Wrapped in the thick terry robes, they shared strawberries, Belgian waffles and hot coffee.

‘‘When does your first client get here?’’ Eileen asked, biting into a fresh ripe strawberry direct from the inn’s greenhouse.

Rick checked the bedside clock. ‘‘About an hour.’’

She nodded. ‘‘Probably a good thing, huh?’’

He looked at her and all he could think was that he wanted to taste her strawberry-stained mouth. His body stirred and even he was amazed. He should be exhausted, yet he felt more awake, more alive than he ever had before. She was like a jolt of pure electricity. She kept his body humming and his blood pumping and he hadn’t had nearly enough of her yet. ‘‘Yeah,’’ he murmured. ‘‘A good thing.’’ Pouring more coffee into both their mugs, he said, ‘‘There are three meetings today and one tomorrow morning.’’

‘‘Okay.’’

‘‘If you want to, later we can go out. There’s an Indian casino near here. We can catch a show.’’

‘‘Sounds good.’’

Rick winced at the stiffness in her voice. Hell, in his voice. ‘‘Look, we don’t have to be this polite and formal with each other,’’ he said, hating the distance springing up between them, even though he knew it was for the best. No point in dragging this on, right? Not when he knew damn well he’d be saying goodbye to her in another week. And he would say goodbye.

That’s what he did.

He didn’t stick around and give women the chance to leave him. Not again. Not ever again. ‘‘We had a good time,’’ he said. ‘‘Now it’s over.’’

‘‘Right,’’ she said, and relaxed back against the headboard. ‘‘We’re adults—neither one of us is committed to someone else. No reason we can’t walk away. We can do this.’’

He smiled at her. ‘‘Just as well we’re not going to be having another night like last one.’’

‘‘Why?’’ She cradled her coffee cup between her palms.

Rick grinned and took a sip of the hot, rich brew. ‘‘When Mrs. Hammond brought the breakfast tray up here, she asked me if I’d heard anything unusual during the night.’’

Eileen’s eyes went wide. ‘‘Unusual?’’

‘‘Uh-huh. Seems that just before the rain started, she heard a loud yelp.’’

She clapped one hand across her mouth. ‘‘Oh, God.’’

He chuckled and shook his head. ‘‘Don’t worry. She thought a coyote had gotten hold of some small animal.’’

‘‘A coyote?’’

‘‘Yeah. Apparently, you hit just the right note to sound like a dying rabbit.’’

She bounced a pillow off his head.

* * *

‘‘Okay, this no more sex thing just isn’t working out.’’

‘‘Yeah, I noticed.’’ Rick rolled to one side of her and lay on his back, struggling to catch his breath.

Lying naked on the braided rug in front of the fireplace, Eileen winced and reached beneath her. She pulled a ballpoint pen out from under her bottom. ‘‘That’s what that was.’’

‘‘Huh?’’

‘‘The pen your last client lost?’’ she asked, holding it up. ‘‘I found it.’’

Rick chuckled, then shook his head. ‘‘What the hell are we doing, Eyeball?’’

‘‘Beats me, Hawkins.’’ Holding the stupid pen, she let her hand drop, falling across her abdomen. ‘‘But if we don’t figure it out soon, we’re gonna end up killing each other.’’

The last client had only left the inn an hour ago and already, Eileen and Rick were naked and exhausted. Sexual heat still shimmered in the air and Eileen felt the first stirrings of need building within her again. Much more of this and they’d be too weak to drive home.

They’d made it through the long day, though the tension between them had been thick enough to chew on. Eileen had taken notes, typed them up and helped Rick draw up the paperwork for two of his clients to diversify their stock holdings. She’d made small talk and tried to avoid meeting Rick’s gaze. She’d felt him watching her as his clients came and went. She’d smiled and visited with the older men who, each in turn, told her what a great catch Rick Hawkins would be. How smart he was. How rich.

Of course, when the talk had turned in that direction, Eileen had actually seen shutters drop across his eyes. As if he was distancing himself from the conversation, even though he had to know the men had only been teasing. She’d had the urge to tell him that he was safe. She wasn’t interested in a ‘‘great catch’’ or any other kind of catch. But in front of his clients, that hadn’t seemed appropriate—and once she and Rick were alone…well, the subject hadn’t come up.

‘‘Well,’’ he said finally, ‘‘our one-night bargain is shot.’’

‘‘Pretty much,’’ she agreed.

‘‘Do we make a new one-night agreement?’’

‘‘That would technically be a two-night bargain.’’

‘‘Fine. Two nights. Whatever.’’

She turned her head to look at him. ‘‘Whoa. Lack of sleep making somebody cranky?’’

‘‘No.’’ He met her gaze. ‘‘It’s not sleep I’m craving.’’

Eileen’s stomach flip-flopped, then did a slow whirl. ‘‘Me neither, big boy,’’ she admitted, then added, ‘‘but before this turns into the Lost Weekend, we’d better have some ground rules.’’

He rolled onto his side and propped his head on his hand. ‘‘Rules are good.’’

Eileen chuckled. Now there was a statement on his personality. ‘‘Figured you’d say that.’’

She too went onto her side and lay facing him. Flames danced in the hearth behind him, sending ripples of light around the room and gilding the ends of his hair until he looked almost as if he were wearing a halo.

Rick Hawkins? A halo?

Okay, rules were definitely in order!

Idly he reached out one hand to stroke her breast. Eileen hissed in a breath and let it out again. ‘‘First,’’ she said, a little more loudly than she’d planned, ‘‘no strings.’’

‘‘Agreed,’’ he said, his now-narrowed gaze focused on hers. ‘‘I’m not looking for anything permanent.’’

‘‘Ditto.’’ She caught a flicker of surprise in his eyes and addressed it. ‘‘What? You think every woman you meet is trying to lure you into a bear trap?’’

One dark eyebrow lifted, managing to convey a world of comments.

‘‘You can relax on that score, Mr. Wonderful,’’ she assured him. ‘‘You’re completely safe.’’

‘‘No strings means what, exactly?’’ he prompted, ignoring her last statement.

‘‘I guess it means we enjoy what we have while we have it,’’ Eileen said, and gulped when his talented fingers tweaked her nipple. Closing her eyes briefly, she opened them again and stared directly into his. ‘‘When one of us has had enough, it’s over. Deal?’’

‘‘Deal.’’

‘‘Shouldn’t we shake hands on it?’’

A corner of his mouth tipped up. ‘‘Oh, we can do better than that.’’

The rest of the weekend was a blur.

A good blur, but a blur.

On Sunday afternoon, Eileen walked into her house, left her small, rolling suitcase in the foyer, then dropped onto the worn overstuffed sofa. Its soft down-filled cushions came up around her like a warm hug. Propping her feet up on the mission-style coffee table, she scraped both hands across her face and tried to figure out how she’d work a temporary affair into her world.

God, she hadn’t planned on this. Who would have guessed that Rick Hawkins would be the man who could light up her insides like a Christmas tree? And who would have thought that a two-week favor to her grandmother would turn into…she dropped her hands onto her lap. Turn into what? What exactly had happened? One red-hot weekend?

Because if that’s all it turned out to be, a part of her would be sorry. She didn’t really want to get involved with anybody, but on the other hand, it had been a long time since she’d been with a man. A long time since she’d felt…close, to anyone. And damn it, she’d enjoyed it. Not just the sex, she thought, though she had to admit, Rick had a real gift in that area, but it was more than that. It was laughing with him. Talking to him. It was midnight meals and napping in front of the fire. It was long walks on windswept hills and hearing him try to explain the securities market.

It was a lot of things she hadn’t expected.

She hadn’t felt anything remotely like this since just before she’d broken off her engagement to Robert Bates. Frowning, Eileen grabbed one of the green plaid throw pillows and hugged it to her chest. He’d been her college boyfriend. Pre-med when she met him, they’d made plans for the future. Eileen had planned their wedding, their marriage and even how many kids they’d have—three—two boys and a girl. And then at graduation, Robert had suggested they not get married right away. Instead, he wanted her to go to work. They could live together, he’d said, and she could support him while he finished med school. Then, if the time was right, they’d get married.

Sighing, Eileen let her head fall back against the cushions. ‘‘But the time was never going to be right,’’ she muttered, remembering the look of surprise on Robert’s face when she came home early from work one night. Of course, the girl he was on top of was pretty surprised, too—but it was Robert’s expression that had stayed with her. Not hurt, not defeated or even guilty. Just angry. Angry at her for not being at work, like the good little cash cow he’d expected her to be.

She’d grabbed up as many of her clothes as she could and walked out, leaving Robert and his floozy right where she’d found them. That was the last time she’d trusted her heart to anybody. And she’d vowed then that she wouldn’t do it again.

‘‘But this is different,’’ she argued to the empty room. ‘‘It’s not my heart involved here…just my hormones.’’

Her own words echoed in the quiet and even she didn’t quite believe them. But she would. All she had to do was keep reminding herself that this whole situation was temporary.

‘‘Yeah,’’ she said, pushing up from the couch. ‘‘That’ll work.’’

Seven

‘‘Your grandma called,’’ Eileen said as she poked her head into Rick’s office Monday morning.

He looked up. ‘‘What line is she on?’’

‘‘No, called,’’ she repeated. ‘‘Past tense.’’ Leaning against the doorjamb, she folded her arms over her chest and looked at him. ‘‘She said to tell you she didn’t have time to talk. She booked a last-minute Fall Foliage train trip and she still had to shop for clothes.’’

Rick smiled to himself. His grandmother would never change. She treated life like an adventure. She never bothered to plan something out. She thought there was no fun in anything if it wasn’t spontaneous. Hence, her trip to watch the space shuttle launch. And apparently, fall leaves. ‘‘When’s she coming back?’’

Eileen laughed shortly. ‘‘She wasn’t sure. But she did say she tried to get my gran to join her.’’

‘‘Is she?’’

‘‘No.’’ She straightened up and walked across his office to stand in front of his desk. ‘‘When Gran takes a trip, she likes to go to the auto club and stock up on maps months in advance. Half the fun, she says, is planning her route.’’

‘‘Your grandmother plans, and mine’s a free spirit,’’ he murmured, leaning back in his chair to study her. ‘‘Ever think we were switched at birth?’’

‘‘Possibility. I used to plan things. I gave it up.’’

‘‘How’d you sleep?’’ he asked, his voice dropping a notch or two, until the sound of it scraped along her spine and sent a shiver of expectation rattling through her.