A Win-Win Proposition

She ascended fast. Faster than he’d anticipated. Great breaths turned her lungs into bellows as she neared the top. Her orgasm hit her so hard she almost took him with her. He’d never experienced anything as incredible as the feel of her as she abandoned all control to him and came apart in his arms.

To his dismay, Sebastian’s knees lost strength. He knelt and supported Missy as she sagged, easing her to the floor. Once she was flat on her back, he followed her to the carpet, pressing her breasts beneath his chest. Linking their fingers, he set their joined hands beside her head and surveyed her flushed cheeks and unfocused gaze.

Mission accomplished. She looked as shell-shocked as a well-satisfied woman should.

Time to stop before either one of them did something they couldn’t take back. He’d agreed to a night with her. No reason that night had to involve either of them naked and rolling around on Egyptian cotton sheets.

They could spend the time working.

That’s what he should do. It’s what logic told him to do. She might be disappointed, but she wouldn’t be surprised. He always based actions on reason, not emotion.

Sebastian dipped his head and stroked his lips against hers. His heart rocked in his chest. What was he doing? This was madness.

He released her hands and framed her face with his fingers. She caressed his shoulders and gathered handfuls of his hair, tugging him closer. He obliged her with a second sweeping pass. This time, finding her lips parted, he lingered, tangling their breath, coasting his tongue along the inside of her lower lip.

She tasted delicious. Tart and sweet like lemons and cherries. Savoring her low hum of encouragement, Sebastian explored her teeth, noting a slight roughness on one in front. Her tongue flicked against his, and the insistent ache in his groin grew. He ignored it. This wasn’t going any further.

Missy had other ideas.

He sank deeper into the kiss, losing himself in the heady wonder of it.

His world narrowed to her soft mouth and the passionate undulation of her body. Intoxicating noises erupted from her throat, their crescendo warning him she was on a fast track to another orgasm.

He might as well help.

Breaking off the kiss, he slid down her body. Her skirt had ridden up and exposed two inches of skin above her black stockings. He shoved the hem even higher, giving him a glimpse of black underwear. Silk. Tiny. And if that wasn’t enough to enthrall him, the musky scent of her arousal invaded his nostrils. There was no turning back.

Sebastian placed a kiss on her skin just above the black material. She gasped. Intrigued, he drew his tongue from hipbone to hipbone and her body began to tremble. His mouth played over the fabric of her thong, teasing her with lips and teeth, down between her thighs to where moisture soaked the silk.

He smiled as he hooked his fingers around her panties and tugged them downward. As she was slowly exposed to his gaze, he was forced to take a series of deep, steadying breaths.

She was a true redhead, he noted absently as he peeled the underwear over her thigh highs and heels and cast them aside. Then, settling back between her thighs, he leaned forward and with the tip of his tongue licked the seam where her inner leg and body came together. Her hips bucked.

Her wild, unrestrained movements made him want to forget the preliminaries and take her. But he held his own needs in check. He was the one setting the tone here. The one in charge.

By the end of the night she would learn what happened when she provoked him.

It was a mistake she would never make again.

He set his mouth against her. His first taste made him groan. Blood surged into his groin, drained from every other part of his body. He sucked hard and her hips jerked and twitched in helpless yearning. Using his tongue to tease and his teeth to tantalize, he brought her to the edge of orgasm twice, backing off each time until a low, keening sound emitted from her throat.

Then she did something unexpected.

Her hands had been busy in his hair, against his shoulders. Now, as he eased the pressure of his mouth and let her body quiet, she tugged her dress off her shoulders, exposing her black bra.

She snagged his hand and brought it to her neckline. Understanding what she wanted, he skimmed his fingertips against the rough lace before hooking them beneath the fabric. Her skin might look like cool porcelain, but heat raged below the surface of her breast, scorching his knuckles.

“Sebastian.” The plea broke from her throat.

With ruthless urgency, he yanked the fabric downward, freeing her breasts. Large and round with erect rosy nipples. Every bit as perfect as he’d imagined they would be. He filled his hands with them, a savage groan rumbling in his throat as he settled his mouth against her once more.

Her every cry drove his desire higher. He threw finesse out the window and stormed her with everything he had. She shuddered against his mouth, her body taking her places he doubted she even knew existed.

She released a half-strangled shout. Sebastian pushed her still more and watched her climax unfold. Watched her unravel. It was a thing of beauty.

And he needed to be a part of it.

Fumbling his belt free with one hand while his other continued the movement that would extend her orgasm, he succeeded in getting his pants and boxers down far enough to free his erection. Harder than he ever remembered being in his entire life, he slid up her body and placed his tip at her entrance. Braced above her, he paused for a fraction of a second to ask himself what he was doing. Before the answer came, her hips lifted off the carpet, taking him in an inch. The silken caress smothered the voice of reason. He thrust forward. She was both tight and slick. The last pulses of her orgasm sucked him in.

The wonder that settled over her features matched the sensation expanding in his chest.

“Missy?” His fingertips grazed her cheek.

Her eyes flashed open, unfocused and dazed.

“Don’t stop now,” she whispered, depositing a clumsy kiss on his chin. “It was just getting good.”

She wrapped arms and legs around his body, binding him to her as he began to move. A low growl of satisfaction rumbled out of him at the incredible slide of their bodies. They fit together as if she’d been fashioned for him alone. The sensation was beyond anything he’d ever felt before.

Pressure built in his groin no matter how he tried to hold it off. He wanted to savor the moment as long as possible. But her movements beneath him were impossible to resist and he drove furiously to his own finish. As with her, the orgasm hit him hard and without warning. Stars exploded behind his eyes as he emptied himself into her.

And collapsed, breathing hard, too spent to consider the consequences of what he’d just done.

Three

So that’s what all the fuss was about.

Too exhausted to hold on any longer, Missy let her arms fall away from Sebastian’s shoulders. He lay with his face buried in her neck. His chest pumped against hers as if he’d finished a mile-long sprint. She marveled at the feel of him buried inside her.

He filled her unlike any man she’d ever known. Of course, there’d only been two. Tim and her high school boyfriend, so she didn’t have much to compare him to, but deep down where it counted, she knew that only one in ten million men could have done the things to her that he just had.

“Well, that was something,” she said into the silence, her heart clenching in a manner that had nothing to do with her winded state. Repercussions swarmed her mind. She shoved the irksome thoughts away. She didn’t want this moment to be tainted by regrets. What she did want was much less clear.

Sebastian had always been able to jumble her emotions. He could make her hungry for his approval and curse his pig-headedness in the space of one conversation. She craved his full attention but feared the effect it had on her hormones.

So, what did she want? An honest answer eluded her. Since she was fifteen, she’d let her family’s expectations subjugate her heart’s desires. Liberating her wants was as uncomfortable as standing from a crouch held for hours. Just as muscles and joints protested being used again after a long period of inactivity, so did her spirit.

Fear drove a spike of doubt into her chest. She closed her eyes until the pain eased. In her mind, she summoned every fantasy about Sebastian that she’d stockpiled during her four years of working for him. Was it reckless to want to explore a couple dozen?

Absolutely.

But if she couldn’t check her inhibitions at the door in Vegas, where could she?

Her fingers itched to wander over Sebastian’s back, shoulders, face, but he’d shuttered emotion and passion behind his granite features, and her earlier boldness was in short supply.

Glancing down his body, she stared, dumbfounded, at the erotic picture that greeted her. Her splayed legs cradled her oh-so-formal boss. The sight of him so intimately arrayed between her thighs, still mostly dressed, flooded her with satisfaction and possessiveness. He was hers. At least for tonight.

It thrilled her to have driven the impassive Sebastian Case to make love to her on the floor. He hadn’t even gotten his pants all the way down. Or his coat off. She bet his tie was still perfectly knotted. The image of them with clothes askew in such a compromising position struck her funny bone. If her friends in the office could see them now. Few would believe that the decisive, controlled Sebastian Case could have gotten swept away by the moment. And not one would believe he would have done it with her.

He lifted his head, eyebrows hammering together as he stared at her mouth and the grin she couldn’t control. “Did you plan this?”

“No.”

Her wager had been desperate and mad. She’d never dreamed she’d win. Or that he’d actually honor the bet.

If she’d had any inkling, she would have stood at that roulette table, tongue-tied and as trapped by her family’s expectations as ever. Even now, if she opened the door to her rational side even a crack, she’d start to hyperventilate at the stark reality of her and Sebastian together like this.

She waited for him to move, but nothing happened. Was he intending on staying like this all night? Not that she was complaining. Just thinking about it caused an immediate spike in her hormones. Tiny ripples of delight, aftershocks of that last incredible orgasm, tugged in her loins.

Chaos muddled her emotions. She cleared her throat. “So, what do we do now?”

For a long moment he stared down at her in that unfathomable way of his. Then, he seemed to arrive at some sort of decision. Tension seeped out of him. “What would you like to do?”

Her mouth opened, but nothing came out.

“You appear stumped.” He eyed her. “Would you like me to offer some suggestions? I am at your disposal for the night.”

Irony rode his tone. Missy chomped on her lower lip. Was that true? Did he intend to let her have her way with him? As if she could. He could snap her like a twig. Not that he would.

“You’re frowning.” He dusted his lips between her brows. “What’s on your mind?”

His kiss relaxed her and increased her tension at the same time. Soothed her soul and awakened her desires.

“I don’t have much experience with men like you,” she admitted. “I’m not sure of my options.”

“I see.”

Was he laughing at her? Missy surveyed his expression. Neutral. No amusement crinkled the skin around his eyes or curved his lips.

She began again. “I mean, we’ve already done a couple things …” She ran out of words about the same time she ran out of bravado.

“So we have.”

“What would you suggest?”

Grabbing her by the hips, he rolled until she sat on him. “We have lots of things we could do next.”

Where a second earlier she’d been exhausted, being on top inspired a rush of exhilaration. “Such as?”

His eyes burned with scarcely banked desire as he watched her. “There’s quite a list.”

“Starting with?”

“I could tell you.” A second later he’d rolled her beneath him once again.

Breathless and lightheaded, she clutched at his shoulders while he dusted her chin, her eyes, her nose with his lips. The light kisses frustrated and aroused.

“Or?” She groaned as he framed her face with his hands and continued to ply her skin with gentle sweeps of his soft lips.

“Or.” He drew the word out, nipping her neck, making her shudder. “I could show you.”

His offer liberated her breath. It whooshed out of her. “Perfect. I love demonstrations.”

Sebastian rested his forearm against the shower wall and his forehead on his arm. The effort it took to stand upright spoke to the rousing night of lovemaking he and Missy had shared. Cold water poured over his shoulders and back, deflating his morning erection. Waking with an ache below the belt wasn’t unusual. The curvaceous Missy slumbering beside him was a different story.

The bedside clock had warned him it was eight in the morning. After the night he’d had, he was a little surprised he’d regained consciousness before noon.

To his intense dismay, he’d spooned Missy at some point during the wee hours after they’d surrendered to exhaustion. Arm wrapped around her ridiculously tiny waist, face buried in her neck, he’d aligned them head to toe.

He’d never spooned a woman in his life.

Hell, aside from his ex-wife, he hadn’t spent the night with more than a handful of women, and none since his divorce. He’d didn’t like being touched while he slept.

Yet there he’d been, cuddled up against Missy as if he was afraid she’d steal away in the night. With a heavy, thick erection that poked at her backside. He’d kissed the side of her neck, his fingers gliding along her petal-soft skin. She’d stirred. Murmured. Stretched.

He’d jerked his hands away. The night was over. His debt paid. Awakening her with slow, sweet loving would imply that he intended to keep the affair going.

He’d been shocked by how hard it was to leave the bed. What was the matter with him? Sure, the sex had been incredible. Her enthusiastic, uninhibited responses to his lovemaking had blown his mind and unraveled his control. She’d denied him nothing. And he’d given her a night she’d never forget.

A night he’d never forget.

Sebastian shoved his head beneath the cold water to banish his steamy thoughts. Not being the sort of man who did things then lived to regret them later, he didn’t like the sensation churning in his gut. He shouldn’t have let himself agree to Missy’s wager. If he hadn’t been so damned certain he would win, he might have considered what would happen if he didn’t.

What the hell had happened to his sanity? She was his assistant for heaven’s sake.

Not anymore.

Losing the bet last night meant he would need to split his attention between the all-important leadership summit and convincing Missy to stay.

Everyone had a price. He just needed to figure out hers.

He slammed his fist against the tile. The sting restored his calm. He switched from cold to hot and soaped down.

The bed was empty when he left the bathroom to dress. His gaze slid over the rumpled covers. Images of last night’s lovemaking flashed through his head. His body’s predictable reaction infuriated him.

Convincing Missy they could go back to being boss and employee would be impossible if he let lust rule every time he thought about her.

Sebastian yanked a pair of boxers from the drawer and hauled them over his erection. Sliding into a shirt, he fastened the buttons and glared at his reflection, willing his body to behave as if he, and not it, was in control. At least Missy had made herself scarce. One glimpse of her sexy curves beneath the sheet and he’d have tossed his towel into the corner and his better judgment to the wind.

He found his watch on the nightstand and fastened it around his wrist before donning his suit coat. Sebastian closed his eyes briefly. Had he really been in such a hurry with Missy that he hadn’t taken the time to do more than shove his pants to his knees? Obviously he needed to devote more time to his sex life.

Since divorcing Chandra, he’d grown way too suspicious of the women he dated. He treated every one as if they intended to get pregnant in an attempt to compel him to marry them. He and Kaitlyn had been seeing each other for several months and hadn’t yet become intimate. So what had prompted him to throw caution to the wind with Missy?

Sebastian left the disturbing question unanswered and strode into the living room to retrieve his cell phone. The sight of Missy, wearing nothing more than a happy smile and the shirt she’d stripped off him last night, stopped him cold.

His shirt bared her long slender legs and tormented his imagination. With her moss-green eyes obscured by her glasses once again and her hair pulled into a ponytail, she looked like a cross between a pinup and the girl next door. What had happened to the conservative, somewhat frumpy assistant he knew and relied on?

“I ordered breakfast,” she said, retrieving their clothes and shoes from the floor. “It should be here any second.”

To keep from ogling her, he stared at the mixture of garments draped over her arm. “Have you seen my BlackBerry?”

“It was in your pocket.” As she held it out to him, her neckline gaped.

She’d left the top two buttons undone, offering him a tantalizing glimpse of the voluptuous curve of her breast. His fingers twitched, muscles yearning to swallow that perfect roundness in his palm.

One night. That’s all she’d demanded and all he’d intended to let her have. He needed to get them back on professional footing.

“Thanks.” He watched her carry his suit into the bedroom, unable to tear his gaze away. When she disappeared from view, he shook his head to rearrange his thoughts.

He keyed up his emails to see what sort of trouble the morning had brought with it. Dueling emails from Nathan and Max told him it was business as usual with Case Consolidated Holdings.

A troublemaker from the moment he could crawl, middle-brother Max raced cars on the weekend and partied too much during the week. But as reckless as he could be in his personal life, he was conservative in business.

That made for some interesting battles with youngest brother, Nathan, who had made his money taking risks in the stock market and venture capital. The charm Nathan used to get what he wanted was in short supply whenever Max was around.

Max was in Germany trying to save one of their key suppliers from declaring bankruptcy while Nathan looked for a replacement supplier closer to home in Ohio. Max didn’t believe Nathan’s claim that the new company could produce their one-of-a-kind part at a seventeen percent reduction in cost and still maintain the quality.

“I have reports to go over from Nathan about this new supplier he found. I could use your help right after breakfast.”

“I was planning on doing a little sightseeing this morning.” Her voice emerged from the bedroom, tinged with impatience. “I’ve never been to Las Vegas before.”

“There’s not much to see. Just a bunch of casinos.”

“That may be the case.” She reappeared as a knock sounded on the suite’s front door. “But I intend to win money in every single one.”

The words on his handheld screen stopped making sense as she strolled past him. His gaze locked on her bare legs.

With an effort, he refocused on his emails. She would not distract him all week. Playtime was over.

A familiar voice greeted Missy at the door. Sebastian’s head shot up. Framed in the doorway was not a room service waiter, but a tall man in his late sixties dressed casually in a golf shirt and khakis.

For about a millisecond Sebastian’s father looked startled to be greeted by a half-naked woman, then a broad grin bloomed. The man standing just behind him, however, dressed like Sebastian in an expensive gray suit, appeared positively shocked.

The very air in the room stilled as if everyone had stopped breathing.

Missy was the first to move. “Hello, Brandon. Good to see you.” She held out her hand to the former CEO and looked startled when Brandon not only took her hand, but also leaned forward to kiss her cheek. While Sebastian watched, she wrapped herself in professionalism as if she wore a business suit instead of a man’s shirt. She then extended her hand to the second man. “I’m Missy Ward, Sebastian’s assistant.”

“Lucas Smythe.”

Lucas might be seventy and happily married, but that didn’t stop his gaze from roving downward over Missy’s gaping neckline and bare legs.

“We’ve spoken on the phone.” Missy’s only sign of discomfort was the hot color in her cheeks as she stepped back from the door. “Won’t you gentlemen come in?”

“Hello, Sebastian,” Brandon called, noticing his son for the first time. “Look who I found in the lobby.”

“Dad, what an unexpected surprise.” And unwelcome. “Good to see you, Lucas.”

Even more than getting caught with a half-naked Missy in his suite, the appearance of his father knocked Sebastian off balance. What the hell was he doing here? And with Lucas Smythe? Brandon had been against the purchase of Smythe Industries from the start. Not that he had a say in the way Case Consolidated Holdings was run since his retirement nine months ago. Still, this hadn’t stopped him from popping into the office to say hello and lingering to voice his opinion of how his sons were running things.

Sebastian advanced past his assistant to shake hands with Lucas, making sure his body blocked Missy, giving her a chance to fade backward.

“Glad you could join us this week.”

“Glad to be here,” Lucas replied, his attention edging past Sebastian. “I’ll admit I’ve been a bit curious how you run things. Want to make sure my company’s going to be in good hands before I sign her over to you.”

Strong in his opinions about professionalism in the workplace, Sebastian now looked like a hypocrite. The fact that Missy had quit before they’d had sex didn’t make the situation any easier to stomach. Debaucher of female employees was not the image Sebastian wanted to portray.

“Have you eaten?” Sebastian asked as a waiter arrived, pushing a cart loaded with covered dishes into the room. “Looks like there’s plenty of food.”

“I’ve already eaten,” said Lucas, his gaze following Missy as she disappeared into a room Sebastian hadn’t noticed yesterday.

They were sharing the suite?

Giving the appearance of being oblivious to the undercurrents in the room, Brandon followed the waiter. “I’ll take a cup of coffee.”

“Of course.” Frustration engulfed Sebastian.

Uncharacteristically, he wanted to offer an explanation for Missy’s presence in his suite and her attire, but his father’s smirk and Lucas’s frown told Sebastian they’d already formed opinions.

With ruthless determination, he banned Missy from his mind, slamming the door on his personal life so he could concentrate on the business at hand.

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