The Elliotts: Bedrooms Not Boardrooms!

“Me too. I’m sorry I’m late. I went home to change first.”

Tension eased from his shoulders. He’d feared second thoughts had caused her tardiness. “It was worth the wait. You look incredible. Sexy as hell.”

She swallowed the champagne in her mouth with a sudden and audible gulp and her cheeks flushed. “Thank you … You too.”

“Thanks.” He’d showered, shaved and yanked on pale gray slacks and a pullover sweater in a darker shade. Same routine he’d follow for any other date, but this wasn’t like any other date. Tonight he was as nervous as a kid on prom night.

The elevator stopped on his floor and the doors opened. Liam made no effort to step out. Aubrey had said she fantasized about making love on an elevator, and he intended to fulfill that fantasy tonight—if she’d let him. The doors closed.

Her violet eyes found his and the awareness of his intent widened her pupils and quickened her breath.

Liam fought the hunger that urged him to grab her, yank the tie on the sexy dress to reveal the satiny skin beneath and then bury himself inside her. Hard. Deep. He used to have more finesse, more patience, but tonight a battle raged inside him.

Slow down.

“Decent day?” he forced out even though his mouth watered for the taste of her.

She rolled one shoulder. “As decent as it gets.”

The telling flatness of her voice said more than her words. “You don’t like your job.”

She stared into her glass, swirling the pale liquid around and then sipping. “I’m good at what I do.”

“But?”

Her troubled gaze met his. “But no, I don’t enjoy my job.”

“Why don’t you leave?”

Another swirl of champagne. Another sip. “It’s complicated.”

“Try me. Tomorrow is Sunday and neither of us has to work. We have all night.”

Her lips parted and then her pink tongue darted out to dampen them. “My father was there for me when I needed him. I owe him.”

“Family duty is a heavy cross to bear.” A fact he knew well.

“What would you do if you didn’t work for EPH?”

If he didn’t work for EPH … Not something he’d ever contemplated. “I don’t know. Maybe try my hand at making wine.”

“Making wine?” Her eyebrows arched in surprise.

He leaned against the brass rail separating the mirrored upper portion of the compartment from the dark wainscoting lining the bottom of the walls. Why did he feel comfortable confessing this to Aubrey when he’d never done so with his family or friends? “Wine’s a hobby. I’ve been studying viticulture and enology for years.”

She saluted with her now empty flute. “I don’t know how much you’ve learned about growing grapes or making wine, but may I commend you on your taste in champagne?”

He nodded acceptance of the compliment. “Refill?”

The corners of her lips turned up. “Maybe later.”

Liam’s pulse beat as fast as a drum roll. He wanted to make love with Aubrey. No doubt about it. But he would have been happy to just have her company. He took her glass and set it beside his on the floor, and then he straightened. The desire in Aubrey’s eyes slammed into him like a subway train, knocking the air from his lungs and the ability to think from his head. He lifted a hand and cradled her silky cheek. She leaned into his palm and her lids fluttered closed. A smile of pleasure curved her lips.

“I’ve been thinking about this since last night,” he confessed, and then he kissed her, sinking into the damp softness of her lips and savoring the taste of Aubrey, a flavor uniquely hers combined with a nuance of the champagne.

He tunneled his fingers through her soft hair to cradle her nape and banded his opposite arm around her waist to pull her flush against him. Warm and pliant, she arched into him in perfect alignment. Her breasts teased his chest and the softness of her mound cushioned his erection.

Her arms wound around his waist and her fingers kneaded the tight muscles of his back. She angled her head, granting him deeper access, and hunger inflamed him. He shaped her shoulders with his palms, traced the line of her spine and the indention of her waist, and then he filled his hands with her tight, round bottom. A perfect fit.

Need rose inside him with overwhelming, suffocating strength. He raked his hands over her hips, down her thighs and then up again, carrying the hem of her dress with him. His fingertips encountered silken hose, an elastic band and a strip of bare skin. Stockings. He groaned into her mouth and traced the line of lacy elastic across the backs of her upper thighs. He explored higher and found nothing. Aubrey wasn’t wearing panties or even a thong. Gasping for air, he yanked back his head and then he gritted his teeth as sexual heat pulsed through him with an urgency he’d never faced.

“You definitely fight dirty.”

A smile quivered on her damp lips and mischief sparkled in her eyes. “I like to be prepared.”

He eased a few inches between them and pulled the string fastening her dress at her waist. The rustle of the fabric ties against each other seemed unnaturally loud in the small compartment. He lifted both hands to cradle her face and kissed her again, fighting desperately to get a grip on his slipping control. He mapped the shape of her ears with this thumbs, smoothed over her fluttering pulse and then traced the V of her neckline. When he reached the valley between her breasts, he nudged the fabric aside and his knees nearly buckled.

Aubrey’s tiny black bra only half-covered her breasts. The puckered tips were clearly visible beneath the border of the lacy cups. His mouth watered. His heart pounded. His lungs struggled to find sufficient oxygen in the suddenly airless elevator. Liam circled his thumbs over the lace, easing it aside, and then he dipped his head to take one tight tip into his mouth.

Aubrey whimpered and collapsed against the elevator wall. Her fingers tangled in his hair, holding him in place as he sampled first one breast and then the other, sipping, nipping, lightly abrading with his teeth.

His palms glided over the hot satin of her skin, outlining her waist and hips and then parting her dark tangle of curls, seeking and finding her moisture. Her gasps filled his ears, and her fingers tightened in his hair almost to the point of pain. Liam captured Aubrey’s hands in his and transferred them to the cool, brass rail. “Hold on.”

He took a moment to savor the sexy picture of Aubrey with her dress gaping open, her breasts damp above the skimpy push-up bra and her long, slightly parted legs encased in those sinful thigh-high stockings and stiletto heels. An aroused flush covered her face and chest, and desire kept her lids at half-mast.

He dropped to his knees, cupped her buttocks and tasted her. He stroked her with his tongue, filled his nostrils with the scent of her arousal and savored each whimper of pleasure he heard over the loud drumming of his heart. And then she climaxed. He supported her weight as pleasure undulated through her and then he rose, dug into his pocket for a condom and reached for his belt buckle with trembling hands.

“Let me,” Aubrey whispered. Her fingers made quick work of his belt and pants, pushing them down his thighs. Good thing she worked fast since each brush of her fingers sent him closer to the edge of the cliff, and going over without her wasn’t an acceptable option. She took the condom from him and smoothed it over his rigid flesh. All Liam could do was lock his muscles, grind his molars and battle his raging need.

“I need you inside me, Liam.”

Her husky whisper nearly unmanned him. He’d never been happier to oblige a request in his life. He lifted Aubrey, rested her bottom on the brass rail and hooked her legs around his hips, and then he drove deep into the slick, hot glove of her body. Her arms twined around his neck, holding him close. For a moment he remained buried and still, as sensation engulfed him, and then he withdrew and plunged into her again and again until his lungs burned and his legs trembled.

Her lips found his, devouring him with one ravenous kiss after another until they were both gasping, and kissing became impossible. And then her head tipped back against the mirrored wall and she cried out his name. Her internal muscles clenched him and his own climax slammed through him.

He planted his hands against the mirror on either side of

Aubrey’s head and lowered his forehead to the fragrant angle of her neck and shoulder. Satisfaction thickened and slowed his blood. “You smell delicious.”

Her teeth caught his earlobe. “So do you.”

And just that easily desire rekindled. How did she do it? How did Aubrey Holt turn him inside out and give him pleasure exponentially more satisfying than anything he’d experienced before?

It wasn’t a question Liam could answer with his pants around his ankles and his brain lost in the ozone. Later, he promised himself, later he’d figure out why and how Aubrey knocked him sideways.

But first, he’d promised her dinner and a bag of books. And he always kept his promises. Always.

Six