Intimate Seduction (7 page)

And he was caring, although such a depiction might be stretching it a bit. For all she knew, his current show of tenderness was just part of his ploy to get inside her panties. But still, the large hand gliding softly across her back was tumbling her into a myriad of sensations and feelings she hadn’t counted on. For the moment, she didn’t have to think about her class load for the fall and how many lab projects she would have to assign. The only thing she wanted to think about was the here and now in Donovan Steele’s arms.

It didn’t take long for the music to stop, and with the ending came the return of her senses. She lifted her head from his chest and retreated a step, noting he kept a firm hand on her back. “Let’s take a walk,” he suggested softly.

“A walk?”

At his nod, she asked, “Where?”

“Outside. For just a minute. I need to catch some fresh air.”

She was about to tell him that he didn’t need her to go with him to catch some fresh air, but the hand in the center of her back was propelling her forward, through the double doors that led out back. The moment their feet touched the porch, he turned her into his arms to face him.

The moment she looked up into his eyes, she knew. And it had nothing to do with getting fresh air but had everything to do with him getting her.

Donovan tried drawing in a controlling breath and knew it was a waste of time. As calm as he might have looked, he was totally out of control. And he placed
the blame solely at Natalie’s feet. He wasn’t sure if it was the way she was dressed, in a pair of snug-fitting jeans that were molded to her hips and to her backside with flawless precision and the white blouse that had a few buttons undone to show the rounded curve of her full breasts. Or it could have been the perfume she was wearing that made his body think of hot sex every time he sniffed it. But then it could have been the way she was wearing her hair, pulled back in a cute ponytail with ringlets of curls crowning her face. He felt a naughty urge to remove that rubber band from her hair to see it tumble around her shoulders and then run his fingers through the lustrous locks.

Those were just some of the reasons his heart was now beating erratically in his chest and he had an erection. They were also the reasons his tongue felt thick in his mouth, filled with a greedy desire to mate with hers.

But the main reason he was in such a bad way was how she’d felt in his arms and how with every sway of her hips against him he’d had to take a steadying breath—and each breath only intensified his desire for her. So now, although he was fighting like hell to remain calm, he was feeling every amorous bone in his body tilting over the edge. And it wasn’t helping matters the way she was looking up at him, with an expression that said she was waiting for him to do something, even though she didn’t have a clue what he’d be doing.

Deciding not to keep her in suspense any longer, he lowered his head to hers, his lips delivering minimum pressure on hers, fighting back his desire to devour them to the full extent. He nibbled at her, used his tongue to lick the corners of her mouth over and over again.

And then under their own will, her lips parted, eased open slightly, enough for his own tongue to slip inside and claim her mouth fully with a possessiveness that had him moaning deep in his throat. And then he confronted something else he knew that would do him in. Her taste.

He felt his erection throb. He felt the tips of her nipples press hard against his shirt, and immediately his hand went into action and drifted lower from her back and beyond the smallness of her waist to settle on the curve of her butt. Amazing and magnificent all rolled into one single piece of hot flesh.

He groaned again, and the tone of the kiss changed. He became greedy as sensations washed through him, sensations he felt all the way down to his toes. He heard her sexy little moan, and he couldn’t help wondering how it would feel to share an orgasm with her. To ease his throbbing erection. To press the hard strength of his body inside her all the way to the hilt. To thrust into her with the same rhythm he was using on her mouth.

In his bed.

He wondered if he were to ask whether she would go home with him tonight, sleep in his bed, make love with him as many times as the two of them could handle. All night long sounded pretty damn good about now. With his hand on her backside he pressed her closer, knowing there was no way she could not feel his hard-on pressed against her stomach.

He slowly pulled his mouth away from hers but it didn’t go far. It nibbled around her lips, kissed the corners of her mouth. “Natalie, come home with me tonight,” he whispered hotly against her moist lips.

Natalie wasn’t sure why she allowed Donovan to kiss her, why even now she wasn’t resisting while he continued to kiss her, other than by doing so she was proving Karl wrong. If she couldn’t kiss worth a damn like Karl had claimed then someone had forgotten to tell Donovan Steele. He appeared to enjoy locking lips with her as much as she was with him. If he hadn’t liked it he wouldn’t have let it last so long. He sure wouldn’t be still messing around with her mouth the way he was, licking it, greedily nibbling on it like it was better than any candy he’d eaten. And it sure wouldn’t have him hard to the extent that she could feel his aroused shaft pressing against the lower part of her.

But more than anything, he wouldn’t be asking her to go home with him if she was such an awful kisser. However, she wouldn’t be going anywhere with him since she wasn’t fooled, not for a second, what he was all about. He wanted a wham, bam, thank you, ma’am, and unfortunately she didn’t know the first thing about engaging in short, meaningless affairs. But then the one she thought was going to be a long, meaningful one with Karl had left a bad taste in her mouth…a bad taste she had to admit Donovan had just replaced with a pleasant one.

“Natalie.”

He whispered her name again in this deep, husky voice that could make the area between her legs ache, make her panties get wet. She could barely resist the urge to reach out and undo his zipper and take that aroused part of him in her hand to see how the thickness would feel touching it.

How could she think of doing such a thing? She was actually contemplating playing out what her mind had dreamed several times. For the first time in years her body felt ravenous for a man.

Her lips parted with a groan. That was all the opening it seemed that he needed to slide his tongue back into her mouth in an attempt to kiss her into agreeing to go home with him. She wouldn’t change her mind about it. But he could try.

And he did.

This time his lips were hard and demanding yet at the same time persuasive. So persuasive that she had to grip his shoulders to keep her knees from buckling beneath her. Never had she been kissed like this, being rendered helpless to do anything but to kiss him back.

At that moment the back door flew open and they quickly pulled apart and glanced over at the intruder. One of the cooks stood in the doorway with an apologetic look on his face. “Oops. Sorry. I just wanted to come out here to grab a smoke.” And then just as quickly as he had appeared, he was gone back inside.

But his appearance had given her just enough time to clear her head and make her take a step back. She glanced up at Donovan, met his gaze and swallowed deeply. He had desire in his eyes, deep, dark, seductive, and she knew if she wasn’t careful she would be falling under his spell.

“We need to go back inside, as well,” she managed to say. “And I won’t be going home with you tonight, Donovan.” There, she’d said his first name. To call him Mr. Steele now wouldn’t make much sense, especially after the torrid kiss they had just shared. So much for
keeping things on a professional level. All she could do at this point was make sure things between them didn’t escalate any further.

“Well, at least you’re not calling me Mr. Steele anymore,” he said, mimicking her very thoughts. “And you’re sure you don’t want to go home with me?”

She tilted up her chin, met his gaze. “Positive. I know when and where to draw the line.”

A smile touched the corners of his mouth, and it was so magnetic she almost felt her lips being pulled in its direction. “And I know when and where to turn up the heat, Natalie,” he countered.

There was no doubt in her mind that he did. Nor did she doubt that he would. “Donovan,” she said, hearing his name a second time and trying to downplay how much she liked saying it. “I think we need to make some decisions.”

He lifted a brow. “About what?”

“Whether I should remain your housekeeper. Like I said on Monday, we have a number of other ladies who can—”

“No. And if you’re basing your suggestion on the kiss we’ve shared, forget it.”

She glared up at him. “You’re being difficult.”

He raised what she thought was an arrogant brow and said, “Sweetheart, you’ve never met a Steele at a time when he’s being difficult, and trust me, you wouldn’t want to. What I’m being is realistic. I know what I want, just like I know what you want. If I didn’t before, I do now. Your kiss said it all. Stroke for stroke. Lick for lick.”

She tilted her head back and she knew that
defiance—in all its glory—was shining in her eyes. Fine! So she’d never met a Steele being difficult. Well, he was about to meet a Ford when she was. “I’m not one to act mainly on physical attraction. I will not be pushed into an affair with you.”

He chuckled. “I don’t plan to push, Natalie. I plan to seduce, and when I do, babe, you won’t stand a chance.”

Natalie inhaled a deep breath. In all her twenty-six years, she had never met a man quite like him. He actually thought he was all that. He figured all he had to do was snap his fingers and they would go tumbling between the sheets. Maybe that was how easy it had been for the other women he’d encountered, but he would see that she was cut from a totally different mold. Because of her mother’s wild and reckless ways, she’d grown up with a very sensible mind. She’d done without sex for over five years and could very well do without for another five—even ten or twenty if she had to.

She was about to open her mouth to give him the dressing down that he deserved when he said, “No more arguing tonight, Natalie. Come on, let’s go back inside.”

A moment of indecision raced through her. Should she not argue anymore with him tonight and let him have the last word, or should she give a blistering retort? She had a feeling any type of rejoinder from her would fall on deaf ears. Besides, her aunt always said that with some people you have to show them rather than tell them. “Fine, let’s go inside.”

And without waiting for him to say anything, she headed for the door.

“Don’t try and get tight-lipped on me now, Nat. What is going on with you and Donovan Steele?”

Natalie glanced over at Farrah. As soon as she had gotten back inside, she had waited only long enough for Farrah to return to the table from off the dance floor with Xavier to announce that she was ready to go.

“Trust me. You don’t want to know,” she said, glancing out the window at all the bright neon signs they were passing.

“Yes, I do. You tell me about you and Donovan, and I’ll tell you about me and Xavier.”

Natalie glanced back over at her. “Is there a
you
and Xavier?”

Farrah laughed. “Not the way you make it sound, no. Like I told you earlier tonight, after what Dustin did I won’t ever let another man get close to my heart again.”

Natalie nodded. “He seems nice.”

“He is, but I was married to a nice man, remember? Or at least we thought he was nice. To some he might still be nice, but Dustin’s main problem was that he didn’t know how to keep his pants zipped for anyone but his wife.”

The bitterness was still there in Farrah’s voice, and Natalie wondered if it would ever go away. “Would you see Xavier again if he were to call you?” Natalie asked.

“Depends on the reason. If he calls because he’s interested in a long-term affair then, no. But if he contacts me for a booty call, then maybe.”

Natalie knew her friend actually felt that way, and
that was sad. Farrah had always been the dreamer, the one who wanted marriage and kids, the house with the white picket fence. The one who’d believed in forever after.

“But I won’t have to worry about Xavier wanting to pursue anything serious,” Farrah said. “I recalled hearing his name before and then I remembered where. He’s one of those men in the Bachelors in Demand Club.”

Natalie raised a brow. “What’s the Bachelors in Demand Club?”

Farrah glanced over at her when the car came to a stop at a traffic light. “I heard some of the single women at work talking about it one day. It seems that years ago, six close friends from Morehouse made a pledge to each other the day before graduation that not only would they stay in touch but they would become godfathers to each other’s children, and that the name of each of their first sons would begin with the letters U to Z. They kept their promise, and all six sons became godbrothers to each other. Most of them are now in their late twenties or early thirties. A few years ago, for some reason the six decided to form the Bachelors in Demand Club. In other words they are bachelors in demand, men who aren’t interested in settling down until they’ve sown their wild oats, so to speak. Rumor has it that each of them has his own heartbreak story to tell so now they intend to go through life making sure there isn’t a repeat by guarding their heart.”

Natalie pushed a curl out of her face and asked, “And you think Xavier is one of these men?”

“Pretty sure of it, but of course I didn’t ask him about it to be certain. I do recall that there are two of them living in the Charlotte area, Xavier and a man by the name of Uriel Lassiter. The other four are spread out over the country.”

Natalie didn’t say anything for a moment and then she asked, “What do you think is Xavier’s story?”

The traffic light changed to green and Farrah put the car in gear to begin moving. “Don’t know his hang-ups, and I’m not going to worry about what they could be. In addition to being pleasing to the eyes, he was also great company tonight, but that’s about it. He didn’t suggest that we see each other again so I’m leaving it at that.”