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  “Do you have something you want to tell me?”

  “What? Oh.”

  “I thought we were past this.” I tried to keep my tone even, but when was she going to learn to keep Blake out of my business?

  “Erica, he’s my big brother. What do you want me to do? He wanted to do something to help. You know how he is.”

  Yes, I knew how he was and how impossible he made it to say no, especially when he had his sights set on something. I walked around the room admiring how the space had completely transformed since I’d last seen it. I couldn’t imagine anything better. All I could think to do was mentally map out furniture placement. Blake had done the rest. Damn it all.

  “Well it looks amazing. It’s perfect.”

  “I know. I sneaked a peek before giving you the keys. He did a great job. Just what I envisioned.” Her wariness at my reaction had clearly waned, her excitement shining through.

  I sighed and tapped my foot. Damn it, I was excited too.

  “All right, I’m still mad at you though,” I said, thoroughly unconvincing.

  “I’ll buy you a drink sometime and you’ll forget all about it.”

  “I usually need a few drinks to forget.”

  She laughed. “Not going to argue with that. Well, enjoy the space. Congrats.”

  “Thanks, I’ll talk to you later.”

  I dropped my bag—heavy with cleaning supplies that were now unnecessary—to the floor. I sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, taking it all in. Every baby step we’d taken with the business these past few weeks had seemed overwhelming, and Blake never failed to take everything up a notch.

  Just then the door opened, and Blake’s frame filled the doorway. His hands were full with a bottle of champagne, a blanket, and a brown paper bag. A knowing grin curved his lips.

  “How's my favorite boss?”

  “Can't complain,” I said flatly, looking up at his impressive frame towering over me.

  He unfolded the blanket, sat down, and patted the spot next to him for me to join him there.

  “What’s all this?”

  “I was thinking we could have an office picnic to celebrate the new digs.”

  He smirked and twisted the cork off the champagne, then poured the bubbly into two glasses he retrieved from the bag.

  Our gazes locked. He was gauging my mood.

  “You mad?”

  “Maybe,” I lied. Luckily he’d done such an amazing job that I’d already forgiven him and his accomplice.

  His eyebrows shot up as if he were waiting for me to react. I got a little lost in his eyes. His beautiful hazel irises under thick, long lashes were the centerpiece on a face that took my breath away with alarming regularity. The sharp lines of his jaw. His lightly tanned skin and full delicious lips that reminded me of the terrible, wonderful things they could do to me. I could stare at him for hours and never tire of the way he made me feel. Possessed and obsessed. I’d never felt so wanted or so enraptured by another human being. Blake was the whole gorgeous, maddening package, and I loved every inch of him.

  I sighed, hoping I didn’t look as hopelessly in love as I felt. “I’m accepting your insanity.”

  “Good girl.” He visibly relaxed and flashed me a smile.

  Eager to be closer, I accepted his earlier invitation and shifted to join him on the blanket. I took the glass of champagne he handed to me and took a sip.

  “Do you like it?”

  “I love it.” Despite his misgivings about the location, he seemed to have had some vision for the place after all.

  “I hoped you would.”

  “Why the change of heart?”

  He frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “You made no bones about hating this place when we looked at it.”

  “Obviously I was going to want you closer. But this is what you wanted. You’re accepting my ‘insanity’ as you call it, and I’m accepting your obstinacy.”

  I stared at him a moment. I couldn’t quite argue with his description of me. “Some might call that progress.”

  He smiled in a way that made me believe no one had come this far with him before. We hadn’t talked about it, but Blake didn’t strike me as someone who made compromises often. Frankly, neither of us did, but somehow we were figuring it out. Remodeling the office was way over the top, but accepting my decision was a step in the right direction.

  I sipped the chilled bubbly. Silence settled over the room. “You need to let me struggle a little bit, you know.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Do you hear yourself?”

  “Yes, I do. And I know I won’t grow if I always have you butting in before I can face a challenge or make a mistake. I want those opportunities, otherwise I’ll just bumble along in this fantasy world where you make all my problems go away and I’ll never know what it’s really like to run a business.”

  He exhaled loudly. “All right, then. How involved do you want me to be?”

  “How about you let me ask for your help when I need it?”

  He shook his head. “You’ll never do that.”

  I rolled my eyes, but he was partially right. I was stubborn as hell and rarely reached out for help.

  “Hey.” He caught my chin, turning me toward him. “I’m proud of you.”

  “For what? Roping you in for four million dollars?”

  He laughed. “If that was all part of your master plan, then yes, I’m extremely proud, because I never saw that coming.”

  I smirked despite myself. I would have done just about anything to avoid taking his money, and he knew it.

  “Seriously though, this is a big step. I want you to remember to enjoy the moment.”

  And I did just that. Being with Blake made every moment just a little sweeter. A lot sweeter. He gave everything a kind of wonder that made me question how I’d ever survived the tedious existence I called life before he walked in and turned everything upside down.

  “I am, thanks to you.” I leaned in closer and met his lips.

  He cradled my face in his palm and traced his tongue along my lips, coaxing them open, dipping into my mouth with soft lashes of his tongue.

  “Aren’t you going to ask me what’s in the bag?”

  I pulled back a fraction, breathless and a little dazed on his taste and scent. Clean, rough, and masculine, uniquely Blake. He turned away and unpacked the contents of the brown bag. He set out a container of strawberries, whipped cream, and a small glass jar of gourmet chocolate sauce.

  “What kind of picnic did you have in mind?”

  He held up the glass jar. “They drizzle this amazing chocolate sauce on the lattes and confections downstairs. I guess it’s not for sale, but when I politely explained to them that I’d be licking it off your naked body to christen the new office, they finally obliged.”

  I giggled and tried to imagine that unlikely conversation between him and Simone. He twisted the lid off and offered it to me. I dipped my finger in the chocolate and then into my mouth. The chocolate coated my tongue, the taste decadent and divine, the experience only heightened by the surety that Blake would be making good on his plans shortly.

  “I thought you were opposed to office nooky,” I said.

  “This is your office. Different rules.”

  “Which I see you’re already making.” I dipped my finger through the chocolate sauce again, but before I could make it to my mouth, Blake pulled it swiftly into his and tongued my fingertip suggestively.

  “Take your shirt off and lie down.”

  I grinned and rose slowly to my knees, pulling my tank top off. “You’re bossy today.”

  He pulled a black silk mask out of the bag and slipped it over my eyes. “It’s not a mood, baby. It’s who I am. You'd do well to remember that.”

  His breath was warm against my collarbone. I held my breath in anticipation of his mouth on me but was surprised instead to feel his hand slide up my back. His fingers deftly unhooked my bra and I heard the garment land a few feet
away. Bare-chested and chilled by the cool room, I was acutely aware of my present vulnerability.

  “Lie down and don't make me repeat myself again.”

  I released the breath I'd been holding, suddenly weakened by the command and the edge in his voice. Arguing with his simple but forceful request was a distant thought, quickly overwhelmed by the desire to have him take control of my body for as long as he saw fit.

  I obeyed and lay down on my back, resting my palms on the textured fabric of the blanket, cool against the heat that prickled beneath my flesh. He unbuttoned my jeans and tugged them down my hips, stopping just short of my pubic bone.

  He trailed hot open-mouthed kisses along my belly that had me breathless for more. I arched into his touch as he caressed the juts of my hipbones with his thumbs.

  “I love this part of you,” he murmured. “One of many. Your body… Erica, you’re so fucking sexy.”

  “Touch me.”

  “I plan to, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Stop squirming.”

  “You're torturing me,” I whimpered.

  He laughed quietly. “Not nearly.”

  With that he left me, creating an unwelcome distance between us. The room chilled again. Where was he and what was he doing? I shivered at the first drop of liquid sliding into my navel. He drizzled a trail up my chest, circling my nipples, each beading under the sensation.

  “Do you like strawberries?”

  I smiled at the hint. “Yes.”

  “Good. I'm going to feed you one.”

  The fresh aroma of strawberries mingled with the chocolate as he rested a piece of fruit on my lower lip. I opened my mouth, but Blake kept it just out of reach. I arched to grasp it until he finally let me sink my teeth into it. I chewed and swallowed, savoring the flavor and the new experience of combining my obsession with Blake with my love of food. Strange, but I couldn't argue with having too much of a good thing, or many good things, in this case.

  He pressed an unexpected kiss to my throat, nibbling my flesh. He traveled down my collarbone and passed between my breasts. His tongue slowed and circled one peak after the next. He sucked and licked slow velvety strokes all over my torso, spreading his attentions to any remote expanse of skin. I gasped at the sensation of his tongue taunting and taking its sweet time to lick my flesh clean. Once he had, he slid a hand into my jeans and cupped my sex over my now soaked panties.

  “I'm going to fuck you now, Erica. Do you want that?”

  His breath over the wet flesh of my nipple gave me gooseflesh, my skin electric from all the ways he'd tantalized it.

  I moaned a loud affirmative, my hands nearly numb from gripping the blanket with restraint. Ready to burst, I released them and found his hair, fisting the silky strands that slid between my fingers as I held his mouth tight to my breast. He nipped me gently and I yelped.

  He took me by the wrists and replaced them above my head. “Stay still.”

  The bag crinkled again, and then he bound my wrists with some kind of silky fabric and tightened the knot, leaving no question about my ability to wriggle free from it.

  He stripped me from the waist down and I heard his clothes drop to the floor at my feet before his body covered mine.

  I twisted my wrists, a pointless effort since I had no way of breaking free on my own. As I did, my heartbeat ratcheted to a rapid rate, panic seeping in. He'd done this before, left me helpless, unable to touch him or move. Those bonds had been a little easier to negotiate, but these didn't budge. I couldn't see him now. I was helpless and in the dark. A cold fear crept in, replacing Blake with a nightmare, the darkest memory.

  “Blake.” My voice was uneven, tainted with the uneasiness that grew. I wasn’t sure if I could do this.

  His hand rested over my heart, my chest rising rapidly with the breathing I could no longer control.

  “Shh, baby. I've got you,” he murmured.

  He covered my body with the warmth of his own, claiming my mouth with his, tender and full of love, silencing my fears. He kissed my jaw and moved to the sensitive skin of my neck, just below my ear.

  “Do you feel me? It's me, baby. It'll always be me.”

  With those words, my body went lax beneath him. I released the fists I'd been clenching and focused on his touch, unlike any other. No one had ever touched me the way he did, like he knew my body better than I did.

  Slowly the panic subsided, melting away as he reintroduced himself to my body, his voice bringing me back to the moment, our moment.

  “I've been hard all day thinking about you like this. Do you have any idea how impossible it is to work that way? Thinking about your tight little body quivering under me, ready for me?”

  Inch by inch my skin came alive, quickening as his hands and his mouth claimed me. Urgent touches and hot, wet kisses. His voice talking me through every motion, every plan. My hips circled into the motion of his fingers massaging me, sliding through my wet folds and inside of me, a promise of what was to come.

  My focus pinpointed on the contact. I was panting, aimlessly wondering how much longer I could hold out like this. God, the man loved torturing me.

  “You okay?” He circled my wrists gently and feathered down the sensitive skin on the underside of my arms.

  I roused myself from my longing to consider his question. Panic was so far in my rearview. I could think of nothing but the sweet inevitable of having him inside me.

  “More than okay. Don't stop.”

  He spread my legs around him. He notched at my opening and pushed in, slow enough to drive me a little crazy. I held my breath until he was rooted, stretching me fully. He took my mouth in a deep kiss, and I took my next breath from him as he ground his hips gently, reminding me how deeply he could possess me in every way. I moaned, and fire spread through my veins, heating me from limb to limb as I clung to his body the only way I could. I hooked my ankles behind his thighs, urging him into me, the need to have him moving inside me almost more than I could bear.

  He slipped his arm around my waist and splayed his hand at my tailbone, protecting me from the hard floor as he thrust into me harder. I gasped, relief and ecstasy flooding me.

  He rocked into me, finding a steady rhythm. Between kisses, he murmured in my ear. “Love you, baby. Being inside you…like this. Controlling your pleasure. I need this.”

  He whispered the things he wanted to do to me, how every minute inside me made him feel, staying with me so I'd never forget who was loving me.

  “Blake, oh God…” There was nothing but the sound of his voice and his cock plunging into me. No distractions, only the fierce claim of his body over mine. My lip trembled as the tension mounted.

  “That’s it. Now you're going to come loud and hard and introduce me to the neighbors.”

  He took my hands in one of his, holding them tight above me while the other found my hip. Then, lifting me a few inches off the floor, he drove in hard so his cock hit the spot inside me that made everything go white behind the black.

  His name left my lips in a hoarse cry. Colors exploded behind my eyes as my body seized around his, the tremble rocketing through my core.

  “Christ, Erica… Fuck, just like that.”

  My toes curled as he rolled into the last few strokes that took us both over the edge. He gripped my hips roughly and buried himself in me one last time with a loud moan.

  He collapsed over me, his body slick and fevered. I twisted my hands again, wanting to touch him and soothe him through the aftershocks. He untied the fabric deftly, freeing me. I squinted against the light pouring into the room when he slipped off the mask.

  Blake’s face was relaxed but his eyes were dark and serious. He stroked my face reverently, pushing tiny strands of hair away as we caught our breath.

  “I missed your eyes. Next time I want to see them every minute I make love to you, all the way to the end. I want you to see what you do to me.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  “I love fashion.”

  I didn’t do
ubt it. Dressed in a sleek black designer wrap dress matched with heels that I would absolutely fall over in, Risa Corvi was very well maintained. Almost too put together. She didn’t have the effortless beauty that Alli carried, but nothing was out of place, from her shoulder-length jet-black hair to her fresh French manicure.

  She came across as high-maintenance. I bet she got her eyebrows waxed like clockwork too. Sadly, I could probably take a few notes from her. I scanned her resume. For an entry-level candidate, she boasted some impressive work, but I was still skeptical about hiring a friend of a friend.

  “I can see that. Tell me about some of the campaigns you’ve worked on.”

  Risa pulled out a large portfolio case with sections of printed material organized by campaign. Every page was aligned perfectly and the content was equally clean-cut and professional. Lots of stock photo models sporting fake and perfect smiles, because their retirement accounts were making them that happy. The technique was overused and a far cry from who we were as a company.

  “This is great, Risa. But to be honest, these are very mainstream. We want to be mainstream, but we also want an edge to our brand that makes it feel young, exclusive, and hip.”

  “I completely understand. These are very safe. Obviously I was limited by what the client wanted here, but I could explore many more directions with Clozpin. We can do edgy high fashion and make it clean and elegant, you know? Simple but sexy.”

  She talked a good game, but could she deliver? I flipped through the rest of the portfolio and studied her a moment.

  “How do you feel about networking and sales? Landing new accounts is possibly the most critical component to this position. You can love fashion all day long, but you need to be able to sell it.”

  “Agreed, but it’s really difficult to sell something you don’t love. I can sell this service, and if I have to do after-hours events for the networking effort, I’m totally fine with that.”

  I sat back in my chair and weighed her words. She was hungry. No one could deny that. In the past couple weeks of interviews, I hadn’t come across anyone who exuded as much passion as she had in the past five minutes.

  We had no real office culture, so I had no idea how she would gel with Sid and his new troupe of techies. More importantly, how would she gel with me? The clock was ticking on getting our newly funded plans in place, and I needed to make a decision. Hiring her on the spot seemed rash, but she was basically perfect.