Interesting.
His gaze traveled over her, slowly taking in what he’d seen bare and trembling beneath him two weeks ago. She was wearing a pair of soft gray trousers, dark red flats, and a crème pullover sweater that hit just at her hips, emphasizing the dip of her waist and the flair of her hips. Not to mention the succulent thrust of her breasts. Breasts that he had tasted…but still hadn’t had enough of.
Damn.
Snapping his gaze from her body, he pinned it on her face. Her focus no longer on him, she held out a yellow envelope for Rick.
“Miss Bluth,” Rick stepped forward, taking the envelope before offering her a slight smile. “Thank you.”
“It was no trouble, Mr. Ayers,” the woman replied, her voice throaty, sensuous, striking up memories of how husky her moans, how sharp her cries of pleasure.
Rick motioned toward David. “Before you go, I’d like to introduce you to my long-time friend, David Brenner.” At the speaking of his name, there was not a single twitch or sign that she recognized it.
How was that possible?
Her assessing gaze met his again, and he couldn’t help but notice her hands were clasped in front of her, her fingers turning white.
So…she wasn’t as unaffected as she let on. But why hide it?
What does it matter to you? One and done, yeah? He could hear the sarcasm and it annoyed him.
Pulling his hands from the pockets of his trousers (he couldn’t remember putting them there), he reached out to initiate a professional and formal handshake. He absolutely did not crave touching her again. She stared down at his hand as though he were grasping a viper between his fingers.
“David, this is the best paralegal in the world, Miss Diana Bluth,” Rick completed the introductions, surprising David with his open praise for the woman.
Diana. The name of a goddess. Her silken, blonde hair, her flawless complexion and satiny soft skin, her plush, curvy, warm and luscious body, her bright and glittering eyes… A deity in the flesh.
As if shaken from her temple, the earthly Diana unclasped her hands and slipped her hand into his. He couldn’t help himself…he lingered, his longer fingers encompassing hers, and he squeezed—just enough to get her attention. Her eyes on him again, he flashed her a crooked smile, knowing full well what sort of reaction that would engender.
She pulled her hand from his, letting her arm drop until it hung loosely at her side.
“It is good to meet you…Miss Bluth,” David said, purposefully dropping his voice as he spoke her name. Her cheeks flushed, drawing out a pink so lovely, he grinned.
“Likewise,” she offered, her voice even.
Rick, unknowing of David’s connection to his paralegal, broke the silent, throbbing tension between them.
“Don’t let us keep you from your doctor, Miss Bluth.”
Doctor? She was on her way to the doctor. David looked at her anew. Her skin—before she’d blushed most becomingly—had been pale, which wasn’t all that unusual for someone so fair. But…there was also a weariness about her, an anxiety just there behind the feigned disinterest in her eyes.
Is she ill, I wonder? He considered for a moment. What has she to do with you? You’ve had your one night, leave it at that. Oh, it was easy enough to say, but he knew he hadn’t yet had his fill of the curvy woman even now trying to retreat, despite his best efforts otherwise. Despite his earlier admonition to push her from his mind. Now that he saw her again, he knew he had to have another taste, just to see if she really was as delicious—sweet and slightly spicy—as he remembered. The need was one he’d never experienced before, as though the very thought of never tasting her again, of never being inside her again was abhorrent. Like the thought of never seeing the sun again, of never feeling its warmth against his face.
Without further encouragement from Rick, Diana gave a curt nod, spun on her heel, and strode toward the doors, her hips incapable of not moving from side to side, drawing his eye and making his shaft flood with blood and heat and want. Without drawing attention to his unfortunate erection, he adjusted himself as he turned to sit. Hell, it was going to be a long, uncomfortable lunch before he could go to his flat and bang one out in the shower.
Fuck. That is what Diana had reduced him to: jerking off every chance he got, all because she had infiltrated his thoughts, stolen his wits, and turned his body against him.
With her gone from the restaurant, Rick and David returned to their seats, their conversation turning to the menu, the envelope with the documents for the settlement temporarily forgotten.
And as conversation between them flowed—David telling Rick about his recent travels, and Rick sharing about his upcoming partner anniversary party—David’s thoughts returned to the woman who couldn’t possibly have missed the connection between David and her employer that night they’d torn the sheets from the bed.
So, the beautiful temptress from the Incantata was his attorney’s paralegal; she worked for his dearest friend.
She’d known who he was before she accepted his invitation to a thorough fucking. Was she plotting something, something he’d have to reveal to Rick? Was the beauteous Diana, even now scrambling to put the rest of her plan in place?
But what, and for what purpose? Well, money, obviously. What else could a woman want other than regular orgasms, loads of money, and flattery? There was just too much of a coincidence. One didn’t run into a gorgeous woman on the way of out your lawyer’s offices and then meet the same woman, a woman who had access to all of your financial and legal information through her employer, at a bar
