His face hardened. “You mean you don’t want to be in business with me.”
She shook her head again. “It’s not a good idea for us to see each other after these two weeks.”
“Because of Aaron?”
“Because of Aaron, because I’m not cut out to run a business of this size even with you consulting, because we agreed this would only be for two weeks.”
His nostrils flared. “What spell has this man weaved over you?”
“Alexei…”
“That you would turn down this significant opportunity.”
“One I didn’t ask for,” she whispered fiercely, angry at him for putting her in this position.
“That you would run away with him rather than stand up to your father and more importantly for yourself.”
“I’m not running away—“
“That you would deny us—“
She couldn’t take it anymore. “There is no us. We’re just pretending, remember! We’re not together.”
“I am sick of pretending,” he said. “I want you in my life beyond Sunday.”
“Well, you can’t have me! I’m not some company you can just take over. I have a life and people I care about and you are pushing buttons so hard right now.”
In the furious silence that followed, the waiter arrived with their steaks. But perhaps sensing the tension at the table, he set their plates in front of them and made a hasty exit.
After the waiter left, Alexei picked up his fork and knife and said, “I am a man of my word. I will cease pushing your buttons now per our agreement.”
So she had won, but it sure didn’t feel like it when she picked up her own steak knife and fork. They proceeded to eat their dinner, neither of them offering words to fill the awful silence. And though she couldn’t say for sure that Alexei didn’t enjoy his steak, she knew hers tasted like rubber in her mouth.
Chapter Eighteen
THEY didn’t order dessert. Alexei had not been kidding when he said he didn’t want to pretend with her anymore and he had no desire to extend the awkwardness of their dinner. They rode back up to the room on opposite sides of the elevator, both of them keeping their eyes glued to the numbers lighting up on each floor until they finally hit the penthouse.
When they entered the suite, he said, “I have a business email to send. Meet me in the bedroom. I expect you to be naked when I arrive.”
He didn’t turn around to see her reaction to this order, but heard faint surprise in her voice when she said, “Okay.”
After she left, he pulled out his smart phone and sent a text message to Emilio. “Cancel my morning business calls. And make sure I’m not disturbed for the next twenty-four hours.”
He hesitated before typing the next bit. He didn’t want to break his promise, but if he was going to kill the Dallas Times story as he planned to do the next morning, he’d need a Plan B for going to battle with a man who had so far proven to be staunch competition. Also, he was no longer in the habit of not getting what he wanted, and it felt like Eva was leaving him no choice with this Aaron business. In the end, he sent a second text message:
“Also, get me everything you can on her boyfriend. I only have a first name. Aaron.”
With those messages sent, he powered the phone off and headed back to bedroom.
He found Eva on the bed, naked as commanded, but with her knees curled up to her chest and her chin pressed into the valley in between them.
He started to shrug out of his suit jacket, but then on second thought…. “You will take my clothes off for me now,” he told her.
He enjoyed the sight of her unfurling herself from her miserable position and crawling toward where he stood at the edge of the bed before situating herself in a seated position. The bed was just high enough that he could stand easily in the V of her legs, which sent a spike of heat up the shaft of his penis when her naked stomach rubbed against it as she pushed the white jacket off his shoulders.
But then she unbuttoned his shirt, so quickly and efficiently, that he bit out, “I see you’ve done this before.”
She looked away from, the sensual light in her eyes fading. “Since you seem intent on making this a pushing buttons sort of night, let me just say I’m sure there are things both of us have done before. And I’m sure your Ms. Threesome knows her way around a button-down shirt herself.”
He smiled, liking her show of jealousy, because at least it proved she cared a little bit, also because he couldn’t imagine commanding Caroline to undress him. With her, there was no back and forth. It was more like a business transaction, in which one party used all the tricks in her bag to satisfy the other. Their dynamic was nothing like his and Eva’s.
“Let us start over,” he said. He wrapped her arms around his waist. “Hello.”
“Hi,” she answered, the sensual light coming back on when she looked up at him.
“I am sorry about dinner,” he said.
She let out a short laugh, laced with relief. “I’m sorry, I’m not really laughing. It’s just I’m not used to hearing you apologize.”
“No, I suppose I have never apologized to you for anything before.” With slow deliberate movements, he stepped away from her to divest of his pants and underwear. And he could not help but smirk a little when her eyes went straight to his very erect cock.
He gently pushed her shoulders, so she was lying on her back. “I am apologizing now.”
In a punctuation of this statement, he bent and dipped his head between her thighs, giving her one long lick from the bottom of her vagina and raking his tongue across her clit on his way to the top. He lapped at her juices, reveling in the way she tasted, delving his tongue deep inside her and swirling it around. It felt like a triumph when she grasped him by the hair and arched her hips into his month.
“Baby,” he heard her whisper. “You are so forgiven.”
For a while there was only the sound of him licking up her liquid desire, which only caused her to release more of her wetness into his greedy mouth, until she began to buck forward with her climax. He placed his hands on her hips, holding her still, so he could continue administering the most intimate of kisses as she cried out with pleasure.
When she was done, he repositioned them on the bed, with him on top, bracing himself on his forearms above her. “Eva, put me inside of you.”
She reached down and wrapped her hand around his cock, guiding it into her slick passageway, opening her legs even further so he could sink in all the way to his balls.