In Too Close

“Taking the kiss I really wanted.”

* * *

ELIZABETH BRACED HERSELF for the touch of Bradley’s mouth against hers. The last time he’d kissed her...it had been earthshaking, and even though she was prepared, there was that initial shock that sent waves of feeling down her body.

She shut her eyes but that only intensified the sensation of his mouth on hers. He put his hands on her waist, drawing her closer to him, and for once she just forgot about everything but the here and now.

She tilted her head to the side to get a better angle, thrust her tongue deep into his mouth and savored the taste of him. This was her reward, she thought. Justifying to herself...taking what she’d longed for.

His hands caressed her back and then slid lower. He cupped her buttocks and drew her into his body. His hips rocked against hers and he groaned deep in his throat.

She smiled inside, where she’d been alone and cold for the longest time, and then tangled her hands in his thick brown hair and drew him even closer to her. She felt the rough exhalation of his breath against the side of her cheek as she pulled her mouth from his.

She opened her eyes and looked up into the dark green gaze of the one man she’d never been able to really categorize as “just a friend.” From the first moment they’d met, she had wanted more, which made him extremely dangerous.

And danger at age thirty looked much different than at eighteen, so although she knew in her heart that he still wasn’t the safe option, she wasn’t walking away this time. She couldn’t spend the rest of her life living in a sort of shadow state, never really taking what she wanted.

“I guess I’m not the only one who wanted that kiss,” he said, keeping his grip on her waist.

She reached up and touched his lower lip, rubbing her finger back and forth against it while she tried to think of a comeback. It was hard to speak when everything in her body was focused on how good Bradley felt and how she never wanted to leave his arms.

He pressed his hips against her and arched one eyebrow.

“You always did need your ego stroked,” she said at last.

“Honey, that’s not my ego.”

“I know exactly what it is,” she murmured, reaching between their bodies to rub his cock through his pants. He groaned and his hands tightened on her a split second before his mouth came down again.

This time there was no illusion of who was doing the claiming. Bradley was staking his, and she enjoyed every second of it. He lifted her off her feet and held her securely to him as his lips devoured hers.

Elizabeth relinquished everything, stopped thinking, stopped worrying and stopped wishing this was something that she could control. And she acknowledged, for perhaps the first time in a really long time, that she wasn’t in control of anything.

Gripping Bradley’s shoulders, she held on to him as sensations swept over her, and felt herself let go. Really letting go had been a long time coming, and suddenly she couldn’t stop.

She lifted her leg and wrapped it around his hips, rubbing the center of her body over the ridge of his cock, and he shuddered in her arms. Then he pulled his mouth from hers, whispering dark words of sexual need against her skin as he nibbled at her neck, and his hands slid lower to cup her buttocks and draw her into fuller contact with him.

With her nails into his shoulders she sought his mouth again as he rocked his hips against hers. The world started spinning around her. Feeling the cold surface of the elevator car against her back and Bradley pressed along her front, she trailed her hands down his back until she felt the barrier of his belt then reached lower and grabbed his butt. Trembling with desire, she squeezed his rock-hard cheeks and drew herself against him.

He sucked her lower lip between his teeth and nibbled at her mouth for a second.

“Are you okay in the elevator?” The voice startled them both.

Bradley pulled back but didn’t let her go.

“Hell,” he muttered, putting his forehead against hers and holding her for another minute.

“Hello?” the voice said again.

“How do I respond?” Bradley whispered

Elizabeth felt waves of regret wash over her. She knew better than to start this kind of thing at work. “Let me.”

She walked to the intercom and pressed the button. “We’re fine. Sorry, we were arguing a point.”

She hit the button for the elevator to resume movement and turned to look at Bradley, who gave her a rueful smile. “Arguing a point? Who won?”

“Me,” she said.

“How do you figure, Lizzie?”

“I wasn’t sure if our last kiss was just a fluke,” she replied. “But now I know it wasn’t.” Inside, she did feel as if it was a victory of sorts, because now she knew what she wanted from Bradley.

“Well, I could have told you that from the start,” he chided. “I knew from the first moment our lips met that it was more than a coincidence.”

“Don’t go bragging,” she said.

The elevator doors opened and she started to walk away, but his voice followed her down the hall to her office.

“Why not? I like the way you stroke my...ego.”

She shook her head as she entered her office and walked behind her desk. She wanted to pretend she was still in charge, both here in the office and in life, but she had a feeling that one trip in the elevator had changed things.

A part of her didn’t regret it, but another part of her was afraid of the way that Bradley made it so easy for her to forget herself and her own rules. Something she knew was incredibly dangerous.

4 (#ulink_f40c123d-267e-5f57-b3c1-d10875c396ca)

BRADLEY TOOK HIS TIME settling into the swanky guest chair that didn’t look as if it could support the weight of anyone who wasn’t a supermodel but was surprisingly sturdy. He loosely crossed one leg over the other, resting his foot on his knee, trying to get comfortable with an erection.

He did envy Elizabeth her ability to switch off so easily. It was only when he noticed the slight flush to her skin that he recognized she wasn’t as immune to him as she liked to pretend. Something he intended to use to his advantage.

“Business first?” he asked.

“Of course, that is why we’re meeting,” she said. She pushed a button and the top of her desk opened to reveal a compartment. She took a pen and hotel notepad from it and drew them toward her.

Everything about this room and about the woman herself was feminine, from the way she held herself to the things she surrounded herself with. It was that dichotomy that had caught his attention. She looked girly and soft, but she had a core of solid steel and she was anything but meek.

“So, Carter Shaw wants to do a charity event,” she said without preamble. “He’s got a huge fan base. Unfortunately, I think having him involved will hurt the chances of making it a success. He’s an agitator and very controversial. I think we’d need to have someone who could keep him in line.”

“I agree. But he is sincere about this. He wants to get at least the date and the venue picked before the Thunderbolt Energy Games come here in January so he can promote it.”

“It is a good idea, but what’s in it for him?” she asked. “I’m trying to figure out his angle.”

“Believe it or not, I think his heart is in the right place this time,” he said. “Carter mentioned he got lucky but most sports were expensive, and snowboarding and skiing even more so when you factored in gear and lift tickets. I think his ultimate aim is to get skis and snowboards into these kids’ hands.”

She jotted down a few notes and then looked up at him with that clear blue-green gaze of hers. “Why not just give it to them?”

“I think he wants them to work for it. And I agree. I’m not a fan of just giving away gear. But if the kids compete and actually work to earn it, then I’d give them the keys to my shop.”