Detour to her Billionaire Page 5

  Getting one conversation with Mae's undivided attention was completely worth adding the other six.

  I didn't have to turn around to know she was following me. Besides the quiet thump of her thick heeled shoes following me, that was the kind of person Mae was, by her own admission. She stuck to the rules, she followed the plan, she rarely stepped outside her expectations. But when she did...

  I had to stop thinking about those kinds of things while wearing a suit. Someone might think I was hosting the Russian Circus in my pants.

  I sent a notification for the valet to bring my car around as Mae and I entered the elevator. We were alone.

  "Are we going to your office?" Mae asked.

  "No."

  She fidgeted a moment before asking, "Are we going to a conference room?"

  "No." I was enjoying her discomfort. That was unkind of me, wasn't it? But I'd been off balance and uncomfortable for over two months because of her. She could handle the next ten minutes.

  "Do you want to tell me where we're going?" Her voice was breathy with exasperation.

  "Not particularly." I had to hold back a laugh. My anger was fading as I took back control of the situation. I would have my answers sooner or later. I would also have her, sooner or later. Of the two, if I had to choose which to have first, it would be Mae. Answers could come after.

  Her discomfort was rapidly morphing to irritation. Red was creeping up the sides of her cheeks and her eyes were sparking. Damn if that didn't make me want to push her buttons even more.

  "Mr. Dahl." Her tone was all broken glass and iron bars as the elevator door opened. "I will have no qualms about filing a suit for sexual harassment, if need be."

  She was like an angry kitten, all blonde fluff and tiny claws. I suspected she wouldn't find that image as amusing as I did, so I kept it to myself. "I assure you, your honor is safe with me."

  She raised one eyebrow. "My honor can take a jump. But am I safe with you?"

  That was the question of the day, wasn't it? As curious as I was to know the full story, why she had left, what the last two months had been like for her, the urge to undress her and return to where my worship had left off was entirely too tempting. I hadn't forgotten that I had been denied the experience of tasting her release, of pleasing her with my tongue for however long it took until she was a quaking, shaking mess beneath me. The image of the woman before me today, relaxed casual, but put together, was a far cry from the ripped jeans and flannel, the messy bun of two months ago. But at her soul, I could tell she was the same no matter what clothes she wore. Or didn't wear, as the case may be.

  "Well? Am I safe with you?" she repeated as we stepped outside the building. My car was waiting for us.

  "For now," I said finally.

  She appraised me, her eyes raking me from head to toe. I wondered what she saw. I wondered if she liked what she saw. I hadn't looked any different at Nick’s with a similar suit and tie, but the setting was certainly different. And who knew what her last image of me had been. I could have been drooling all over my pillow. Hell, I could have been drooling all over her. I didn't think I would have done that. I hoped I wouldn't have. And I really hoped she hadn't noticed that used condom clinging to my dick. The only thing worse than that would have been if I'd jizzed in my pants like a damn teenager.

  I opened the passenger door for her before the valet could steal my thunder. She slid into the car without looking at me. I knew she liked to feel in control. I understood that feeling because I was always in control. I had no problem letting her feel like she had a grasp on the situation, though. I knew what the reality was. Getting back in her good graces was going to be a challenge. Until now, I'd had a strict no-employees policy. But until now, no one had tempted me to break it. I knew I was past temptation. If she'd let me, I knew Gertrude Mae Gomez was going to be my undoing.

  Mae

  I knew I shouldn’t be following him blindly out of the office and goodness knew where. I was technically his employee now, and while he had referred to me as Ms. Gomez more than once, there was no denying the heat I saw in his eyes or that I reciprocated. I asked him multiple times along the way, where we were going and each time he gave me a non-answer. The only thing I knew for sure at this point was that if I’d been listening to him during the meeting, my brain would be filled with more knowledge and less questions.

  If only he knew how distracting he was. Or maybe he did and that was why he was tormenting me so. I needed to tell him about the baby. But how? “Thanks for an awesome night and for knocking me up?” or “It seems to me you need to read the condom package directions better next time?” or “Remember that time I ran out on you after you had me seeing stars? Yeah, I kinda didn’t leave alone…?”

  There was going to be no easy way to do this. I had to rip it off like a band-aid. But not here, in a car going who knew where. Truthfully, I didn’t care where we were going. Being with him had me feeling settled for the first time since I got here, since even before I took the test. It was selfish of me to want to hold onto that feeling for longer, especially when doing so meant postponing telling him. What kind of a jerk had I become? No, not a jerk. A lonely woman, in a new town, facing an uncertain future after taking a detour of mammoth proportions.

  We pulled off to the side of the road, in front of a huge hotel. Surely he didn’t think…? Who was I kidding, even if he did I wasn’t going to turn him down. I had somehow become that pathetic.

  “A hotel?” And by hotel, I meant a ritzy place I couldn’t afford to walk into.

  “Lunch.” He smirked. Oh, he loved where my brain had gone. Had his gone there too? Did he think about our night together? A man like him could have any woman he wanted. My lack of experience paired with my poor attire that evening and my excessive curviness couldn’t have possibly lived up to the caliber of women he normally had. The thought of that pissed me off. Not that I wasn’t good enough, but that there were others. What was wrong with me?

  “In a hotel?” I clarified because I needed something to say and my brain was producing no coherent words. How had I gone from work to a date? Or was this a date? I didn’t even know.

  “In the hotel.” The smirk was back and this time paired with a wink. If he weren’t so sexy, I’d probably be mad.

  “Just making sure,” I sighed as I went for the door, but his hand on my knee stopping me in my tracks.

  “You sound disappointed.” Was that hope I heard in his voice? Not that I wasn’t going to squash it the moment I confessed the end result of our first encounter.

  “I’m all sorts of things right now,” I mumbled as I popped open the door and climbed out.

  I swore I heard him whisper, “Me too,” just as I shut the door a little too loudly.

  The restaurant was the kind with zero prices letting me know I was beyond underdressed. Not one person gave me a weird look as Matt walked in and pretty much told them we would be having a private table. I was happy for the table and hearing him getting all bossy like that did things to me it shouldn’t. He had that same quality in the bedroom. But that wasn’t something I should be allowing my mind to wander to. Not here, in public, or semi-private as the case might be, and not after only having spent most of one night with him.

  Matt held my chair out for me like a true gentleman, and as he pushed me in, his breath caressed my neck as he exhaled, “Beautiful.” I was a goner to be sure.

  When the orders were taken and the staff no longer in ear shot, Matt finally asked his first question, the one I was dreading, but knew was coming.

  “Why were you gone when I woke up?”

  There was no good answer to his question. I spent far too many sleepless nights thinking about just that. I had connected with him. I liked him more than just because of his sexiness. Something about him touched my heart in a way no one else had. Maybe it was the hurt he wore on his face as they talked about Ms. Gracie. Maybe it was the way he took what he wanted, knowing it was what I wanted too. Maybe it was his
intelligence. Whatever it was hadn’t dissipated, as today reaffirmed. It wasn’t a memory morphed into something better than it was, which I had tried to convince myself numerous times.

  “I panicked.” And that was the reality of it. I freaked out and ran.

  “Because you don’t do things like that.”

  How did he see me? Really see me, when no one else, not even my sister, did. He reached his hand across the table allowing his fingers to connect with mine, stopping short of holding hands. None of the anger I had expected appeared.

  “No I don’t.” I flipped my hand over, encouraging him to increase our contact. For a moment, I thought he was going to move his hand further away, but he met my eyes and seemed to change his mind, placing his palm on mine. “I plan my life. Always have. And then boom, you walk in and all of a sudden I want to, no, need to take a chance. If it makes you feel better, I asked about you to see if I could find you, but I didn’t get far.”

  “You did?” That seemed to genuinely shock him. Did he not know the things he did to me?

  “I did. I wanted to thank you. Because of you I took the right chances and got a good job.” Brilliant, I made it look like a polite gesture when it was so much more than that. I needed to kick my own arse later.

  “The one I had already offered you.”

  “Which I only figured out today.” Because that is how my life works. “What would’ve been different if I had stayed?”

  “I would’ve spent the morning with you in my arms.”

  And then we would have an awkward good-bye, I added silently in my head. “So basically, nothing but more naked time?” I teased, fearing the moment was getting too far into territory we should stay away from.

  “It felt like it could be more to me.” He laced his fingers with mine, giving them a slight squeeze.

  “Me too.”

  Matt

  Now that I had Mae here, in front of me, I felt this insane desire to snatch her up and never let her go. I had started this lunch just looking for answers. Now I had only one more question: when could I get her in bed again?

  Instead, I steered back to a safer topic and said, “I'm glad you decided to take me up on my job offer, finally, no matter how you found it.”

  Her eyes flashed with the indignation I expected. Damn, I loved it when she lit up like that. It had been years since anyone had really challenged me.

  “I got this job on my own, thank you very much.”

  When she got all uptight like that, I just wanted to push her up against the wall, kiss her senseless, make her beg for more and then fuck her mouth with my cock, guiding her head with my fists in her hair, destroying this smooth, put together image and leaving her with swollen lips, glassy eyes, and roughed up sex hair.

  I shifted in my seat and tried to adjust myself discreetly. I'd been half-hard since seeing her in the hallway, and spending more time in her presence wasn't doing me any favors.

  “So tell me how you found out about the job.”

  Her posture relaxed somewhat and she gave me the hint of a smile. “I will admit that I do owe you some thanks for putting the idea of looking for internships into my head.”

  “I would think you owe me for a lot more than that. There wouldn't be internships if I hadn't created the company, after all.”

  She ignored my comment, acknowledging it only with a lift of one eyebrow. “So I started applying for internships that week, got the job, and as soon as I finished up the classes I was still working on, I picked up, moved, and started.” There was a slight hesitation as she ended her sentence, but she seemed to shrug it off. “That's it, really.”

  “I'm impressed,” I said.

  The haughty look and posture returned. “Did you think I wouldn't be able to do it on my own?”

  “I wasn't being sarcastic,” I assured her. “I am impressed. That took a lot of hard work in a short period of time. You don't stop at anything once you set your eyes on it, do you?”

  There was a moment of awkward silence and I wondered what was going through her brain as she looked off into the distance. “Generally, no,” she agreed.

  I could tell there was a level of this conversation I wasn't reading, and it was driving me nuts. I was used to seeing the connections and motivations between people and words while barely trying. Now, I was bending my entire body and will to understand Mae, and I was coming up with a whole lot of nothing.

  I had this devilish urge to set her off balance, to crack open this shell she was hiding behind and see what was inside. “I've thought about you,” I admitted, and was rewarded with the shocked widening of her eyes.

  “You must say that to all the girls,” she said finally, tossing away my comment like it was nothing to her.

  “Yes,” I agreed, and her nostrils flared. “I've said it to every girl I've been with for the past two and a half months.”

  “How does it normally work out for you?” Her tone was so acidic, that if words were tangible, they would have fallen to the floor beneath us and burnt through to the ground.

  “I don't know,” I said. “I've only been with one woman during that time frame, so I'll let you know how it goes later.” There, that had shocked her out of her composure. “I really wish you'd stayed a little longer that morning. I reached for you. It's disconcerting to reach for a warm, sexy woman and come up with cold sheets. I had plans…”

  Her tongue darted out and licked her little pink lips. Again, I thought of how good they'd look wrapped around my cock and nearly groaned out loud. How was I going to get any work done this afternoon knowing that those soft lips and that sweet, sweet pussy were only a couple floors away? Fuck this afternoon, how was I ever going to get anything done? I might as well just turn my office into “Matt’s Pleasure Den” and invest heavily in some lube companies.

  I was in the process of clearing my brain so that I could act like a decent human being and not a hormone driven Neanderthal when Mae asked breathlessly, “What kind of things?”

  My cock twitched and I gave up that fight. “I wanted more of you, Mae. I want more of you still. I wanted to wake you up with my tongue on your clit, your fingers clutching at the sheets before your brain even knew why.”

  I could tell she was on the edge of something. Edge of what? Staying or running away? Before I lost her, I had to do something. I slid my chair around to hers and kissed her. There was a frozen moment, and then she melted into me, just as sweetly as I remembered. It was torture to pull myself back, but she wasn’t the only one who followed a plan. My brain had been working furiously since I saw that unforgettable ass the moment those elevator doors opened, and committing acts of public indecency was not on the schedule.

  My lips brushed hers as I whispered, “Go to dinner with me this week?”

  It was comforting how fast she shot back her answer, with no thought or question at all. “Yes. When?”

  Mae

  A date. I was going on a date with the man who had filled my dreams and thoughts for the past two months. Looking in the mirror, I decided good enough. I was wearing my best dress and shoes, which if he took me anywhere like the place we went to lunch earlier in the week, I was completely under dressed. Thankfully, I still fit into all my normal clothes. One of the joys of being “not of our recommended starting weight” when pregnant was that I still wasn’t showing. I knew the baby was there, but no one else would unless I told them. My sister, the skinny mini, was already flaunting her baby bump all over social media. It was as awkward as you can imagine for me to know that we conceived on the same night. Not that she knew I was expecting. I needed to tell Matt first, and preferably before the baby was born. I needed to grow a pair. Ladyballs, time to nut up.

  The knock at my apartment door made the butterflies that were already causing chaos in my belly to amp up their game. This man had power over me, the extent of which I was scared to begin to admit to myself. I grabbed my purse and keys as I made my way to the door. Even if I wanted to invite him in, which I wasn�
�t against, all I had was one living room chair and one plastic lawn chair in the kitchen. I intended to go look at local thrift stores, but had yet to manage it.

  “You look ravishing.” He stood before me as the door swung open, roses in hand, dressed more relaxed than normal but still GQ-worthy.

  “Says the smexy man in my doorway.” I took the proffered flowers, enjoying the look of shock on his face. “I love them.” Thankfully, they were in a vase already, which I discovered as I carefully unwrapped them. All I had was an empty milk jug waiting to be recycled, and they were far too beautiful for that.

  “Why didn’t you come in?” I asked, perplexed that he stood just where I left him.

  “One, you didn’t invite me.”

  “Sorry. Won’t you come in?” I stammered. Leave it to me to be rude to the one person I wanted to impress. “I haven’t had my own place in a long time. I tend to forget things like… you know… manners.”

  “Oh beautiful, that was only number one.” That wasn’t the first time he called me that, yet it held all of the power it had the very first time. He thought I was beautiful. Me, the chubby, underemployed, no-style girl. Me. Maybe he needed glasses. Maybe he was blinded by the insane attraction we felt. I didn’t care the reason, only that he did.

  “Two being that if I came in, we would miss our date.”

  Yes, please.

  “A little sure of yourself, aren’t you?” And the man had every reason to be. If he came in, things would get heated. When he had kissed me at lunch, he brought back all the feelings our night together. It was no longer just a memory. I could close my eyes and feel his hands on me, his lips on me.

  “Am I wrong?” He leaned into the doorway, wearing the cocky smile I loved so much. I wanted to close the distance between us and taste his lips. Who was I kidding, I wanted to taste all of him.