Wilde Thing

I know that Mom and Dad will be thrilled, too.'

Adrian shook his head in awe. 'You must be in love, because that ring had to have cost you a small fortune.'

'She's worth it.' Eric shrugged, as if money was inconsequential to what the ring symbolized. 'I was thinking of proposing at Dad's party, in front of family and friends.'

'Are you sure she'll say yes?' Adrian asked humorously.

'I wouldn't ask her if I didn't know with absolute certainty that she'll say yes,' Eric replied confidently. 'It's the next logical step in our relationship, and I think we're both ready for it.'

Steve smiled. 'I'm genuinely happy for you.'

Adrian slapped Eric lightly on the back. 'Me, too.'

'Thanks. I'd propose to Jill regardless, but it means a lot to me that you guys are behind my decision.' Eric sent both brothers a grateful glance, but his gaze remained on Steve. 'You know, you might want to consider Jill's suggestion to bring Liz to Dad's party tomorrow. It's family and friends, so I'm sure she'd fit right in.'

Inviting Liz was a big step into his personal life, and Steve wasn't sure he was ready to take that leap. So he opted to give his brother a noncommittal answer. 'I'll definitely think about it.'

***

Friday evening was a busy night for phone sex. After verbally satisfying over a dozen customers, Liz was certain every Tom, Dick, and Harry without a date had decided to call up The Ultimate Fantasy and make up for their lack of companionship and get lucky in the only way available. The switchboard operators were jammed with calls, and Liz was so busy, she worked through her break. As soon as she disconnected one call, another came in, giving her only enough time to catch her breath before greeting another client and starting all over again.

At ten after eleven, she was the unfortunate recipient of a call from a man named Stan, who'd just had his wife walk out on him for a young stud and needed a major confidence bolster from a woman. Any woman. And it wasn't sex or physical satisfaction he was after. He wanted to talk, and went on to tell her what he did for a living, how he'd met his wife, how long they'd been married, and how he'd found out about the affair. It didn't take her long to figure out that Stan was a lonely, insecure man who wanted to feel significant, and she did her best to fulfill his particular fantasy with compliments and reassurances.

It was the easiest and most undemanding call of her evening. Unfortunately, he kept her on the line for nearly thirty minutes, and while she was thrilled to earn the extra bonus money to help pay back Steve for his PI services, Liz prayed that she'd get a chance to talk to Steve before the night was over. They had a mission to accomplish.

As soon as she hung up with Stan at twenty to twelve, her line beeped again, and she connected the call anxiously. 'Hi, lover, what's on your mind tonight?'

'You.'

She smiled, the sexier-than-sin timbre of Steve's voice making her toes curl in her sandals. She leaned back in her chair as the night's tension drained from her limbs and was replaced with a welcoming buzz of awareness. 'You've been on my mind, too.' An understatement. The man was never far from her thoughts.

'I like that,' he murmured. 'Do you want to know what I've been thinking about all day long?'

She could only imagine. They'd spent the day apart, both of them busy with their day jobs, and she'd missed talking to him. Being with him. 'Tell me.'

His exhale rushed through the phone line. 'I've been thinking about what it would be like to meet you.'

Well, he certainly got straight to the point, she thought with a bit of amusement, but knew there would be more to tonight's conversation than just a request to meet each other.

'But you've already met me,' she said, deliberately being coy and making it sound as though their acquaintance were all phone-related. 'You know who I am, and you're with me every night.'

'Sindee,' he said, using her call name. 'I know your name; now I want to meet you. For real. In person. Face to face. Skin to skin.'

Her stomach tumbled and her nipples tightened. Having had intimate knowledge of just how decadent 'skin to skin' felt like with him, she wanted that just as much. 'I'd like that, too.'

'You've become more than a fantasy to me.' His husky voice mesmerized her, as did his words. 'I crave you.'

A tiny thrill shot through her. 'Even after last night, when you had me covered in caramel?' she teased, reminding him not only of their phone conversation but what had happened at her place afterward.

'Ummm.' Another deep, rumbling growl from the back of his throat. 'That only satisfied my craving for something sweet, and you were definitely that. What I want now is a hot physical contact. With you.'

Her pulse quickened for the first time that evening, and she crossed her legs, knowing they were heading toward another provocative verbal exchange certain to make her ache and want. 'If we met in person, what would you do to me?'

'I think you know.' His tone resonated with dark sexual hunger. 'And it's not hand-holding I have in mind.'

She laughed softly, sensually. 'I'd be very disappointed if it were.'

'I think you and I would be like two strangers meeting for the first time, and there'd be an instant chemistry between us that neither one of us can deny,' he said in a low, rich murmur. 'It's powerful and irresistible, and we'd have to have each other, right then and there, at any cost.'

She wanted him now. 'Yes, I think it would be just like that between us. Urgent and sizzling hot,' she agreed, and expanded on the fantasy. 'The room is dark and shadowed, and our gazes connect and hold. We don't have to say a word, because we know what's going to happen, and we both want it.'

'Our hands and mouths would convey everything we need.' His breathing was ragged and beyond aroused. 'And our clothes only make it half off before you're straddling my lap and I'm pushing deep inside you.'

A low moan slipped past her lips before she could stop it.

'God, you're so hot and wet,' he rasped, and groaned, too. 'And every time you move on me, you squeeze my cock like a tight, hungry fist.'

Her inner muscles clenched in reaction, and she closed her eyes with a shudder, which only served to conjure images of the two of them entwined so erotically. She could almost feel him within her, so smooth and full and hard.

'I want you' he said fiercely, desperately, aggressively. 'Meet me tonight.'

'I… I can't.' She resisted, only for the sake of the roles they were playing.

'Do you want to meet me?' he demanded.

She bit her bottom lip. 'More than anything.'

'Then let's be those two strangers who meet in the dark of the night.'

'I don't know.' She infused a believable amount of uncertainty in her tone. 'I wouldn't want to break any rules here at work by fraternizing with a client without permission.'

'You won't be breaking any rules if no one finds out,' he countered, trying to sway her.

He was very persuasive, and while this was all an act between the two of them, she wondered if this was how her cousin had gotten involved with one of her clients. Had Rob been this convincing and Valerie hadn't been able to resist his allure? She could definitely see how that could happen.

'I want you,' he went on, his possessive tone singeing straight to her soul, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality for her. 'I want you bad, and I'll do whatever it takes to have you. No more phone fantasies. I want the real thing. I want to feel your skin against mine, smell your scent, and taste your desire.'

Her head spun, her body caught fire, and her mind chanted, Yes, yes, yes!

'I want to take you every way you'll let me.' His voice was raw and primal and sounded just as restless as she felt. 'Do you want that, too?'

'Yes,' she breathed. She was shamelessly turned on, her skin hot and prickly, her sex aching. She was his for the taking, any way he desired.

'Good.' He sounded pleased, with an edge of arrogance thrown in for good measure. 'Then see what you can do about making it happen.'

'I will,' she promised.