She sighed. It wasn’t her world, but she enjoyed being a part of it. This was much better than being on the fringes of the music business, which was glamorous but painfully sordid.
The bedroom door opened, and Lucy gasped and held her skirt in front of her until she realized the intruder was Bryan. He grinned at finding her in her panties and bra.
“You scared me half to death. The least you could do is stomp when you come up the stairs, so I’ll have some warning.”
“I’d much rather catch you unaware,” he said with a devilish glint in his eyes.
“Aren’t you fetching. C’mere.”
She did, and he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her as if he’d been away for weeks instead of hours. Her knees got all wobbly and her chest ached from shortness of breath.
“Sorry I took so long. Did you get everything sorted out with Stash?”
“You didn’t ask?”
“I came straight upstairs. Couldn’t wait another moment to see you, and thank goodness I didn’t delay.” He slid one hand inside her panties.
“We don’t…uh…really have time to…uh…” She couldn’t come up with a more energetic objection. In truth, they could have had an appointment with the Queen of England, and she’d have made the monarch wait.
“We’ll just have to be fashionably late.”
Bryan had his clothes off in seconds. Rather than take her to the bed, he sat in a cushy chair that was intended for reading, and pulled Lucy into his lap. She didn’t need much coaxing; the moment she’d seen him, her body had started preparing itself for him. She was flushed, her nipples hard and aching for his touch, and she was warm deep inside and already tingling between her legs though he’d not yet touched her there.
She wiggled out of her panties, threw her bra aside, all the while making certain to brush against Bryan’s arousal as much as possible. When she turned to face him again, she straddled him in the big chair, torturing him unmercifully by brushing her soft curls against him.
“You’re teasing me.”
“Are you suggesting we rush?” she asked innocently.
From behind, he reached between her legs and slipped a finger inside her. She gasped and whimpered, no longer in a teasing mood. “Okay, let’s rush.”
“That’s my girl,” he said as he poised his shaft at her entrance. She lowered herself onto him, letting him slowly fill her, enjoying every inch of him.
Once they were joined, he did manage to take his time, grasping her by her bottom and controlling the depth of his strokes. She braced her hands on his shoulders and, as always, let him have his way with her. Any control she had over him was a myth in her own mind.
She let her body take over, her mind just along for the ride, until the exquisite pressure released in an explosion of tingly heat and tremors that reverberated all the way to her fingers, toes and eyelashes.
Bryan let go as the last of her cries of passion echoed across the bedroom. She fell on top of him, too weak to sit up straight, and felt his body convulse as he emptied himself inside her.
They didn’t move for a couple of minutes until Bryan finally broke the silence.
“I love watching you come.”
“Ditto.”
“You don’t hold back anything. It’s all in your face to see-every emotion is all right there.”
She sincerely hoped not-because she feared she was falling in love with Bryan Elliott, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do to stop it except walk away.
And that cure was worse than the disease.
Chapter 9
They were ten minutes late for the party in the private dining room on the floor below the restaurant, but no one seemed to notice or care. The first appetizers were being passed around, wine was flowing and conversation hummed.
Bryan noticed that someone had put place cards on the table. “Was this your idea?” he said, picking up his own and showing it to Lucy.
She nodded. “I thought it might be better if everyone from the same magazine didn’t sit together. So we don’t have conversational cliques.”
And Lucy had done something else rather bold: instead of putting together two long tables, she’d arranged the copper-top tables into a big square.
“Is it okay?” she asked uncertainly. “I thought everyone would be able to see and talk to everyone else this way.”
“You think my family needs to talk more?”
“They talk a lot. Just sometimes not in the most productive ways. And some of them could do with more listening.”
Bryan laughed. “I hope you’re not fantasizing you can be a peacemaker. The bitching and moaning and yelling isn’t going to stop until someone is named CEO.”
“I can try.”
Stash appeared to take drink orders, but everyone seemed content with the wine.
“Do you want to check the menu?” he whispered to Bryan.
“I’m sure it’s fine. But I don’t see any garlic butter.”
“I’ll send someone down.”
“I’ll come up and get it. I want to make the rounds in the dining room.”
Upstairs, he did some glad-handing. He sent a bottle of wine to a man he recognized as a competing restaurateur, comped a plate of hors d’oeuvres to several cast members from a soap, paid his respects to an opera diva.
Then he spotted someone he hadn’t seen in his rounds, a woman dining alone at a small table, nursing a glass of red wine. Her eyes darted around the dining room until finally her gaze found him, and she smiled uncertainly.
He walked briskly to her table, and she stood to greet him.
“Mom. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming? How come no one told me you were here?”
Amanda Elliott hugged her son, then straightened her neat suit jacket. “I’m not sure your new hostess recognized me. And if you’re busy, it’s okay.”
“Never too busy for you. Mom, there’s someone I’d like you to meet. She’s downstairs.” He hesitated, knowing his mother was no longer comfortable around the Elliott clan. “We’re having a party to celebrate EPH profits.”
“Then you’re busy. I’ll come back-”
“No, Mom, I think you should join us. Karen’s here.” His aunt Karen was the one Elliott Amanda had remained close to, other than her sons.
“Is Patrick here?” she asked warily.
“He meant to be, so he could whip everyone into a frenzy of competition. But he canceled. Gram’s not feeling well, and he didn’t want to leave her home alone.”
Amanda immediately showed her concern. “Maeve’s all right, isn’t she?”
“Just her arthritis acting up. Come on, bring your wineglass. Everyone will be happy to see you.”
“Everyone? Then your father’s not here?”
“Everyone, and he is here. His divorce from Sharon is final, you know.”
“I heard. I also heard about your new girlfriend, and I am curious.”
Bryan took his mother’s arm, giving her no chance to protest further. He forgot about the garlic butter that had sent him upstairs in the first place.
“Everyone, look who I found.”
Amanda looked embarrassed, but Bryan wasn’t disappointed in his family. Several of his cousins popped out of their chairs to greet Amanda with a hug. They were all fond of her, and her absence at family gatherings was
