Her Gentle Capture (7 page)

Where was he?

That’s when she knew she was in trouble. The door slammed shut behind her and she spun around, her eyes changing from irritated to wary in a flash as Mitch’s determined expression registered. “What are you…?”

“Don’t talk,” he commanded, walking towards her with heat in his eyes. “Don’t say a single word.”

She opened her mouth to say something, moving back a step for each one he took towards
her but his legs were longer and he was more determined. Before she could take three steps, he had her in his arms. When she opened her mouth to protest, his mouth covered hers, kissing her with an intensity that melted away any resistance on her part. Before she knew what she was doing, her arms were around his neck and she was lifting herself up on her toes, needing to feel as much of him as
she could.

Obviously, that wasn’t enough for Mitch because he lifted her up against his body and moved her backwards. When she felt the hard surface on her bottom, she shifted against him so that she was sitting on that surface. Still not good enough, Mitch pushed the skirt she’d been wearing up higher, revealing her thighs and, with one powerful move, his hips were between her knees, his
hands cupping her bottom once again and pressing her against his hardness. Adriana instinctively raised her knees, her legs almost wrapping around his waist while he bent over her, continuing the kiss, deepening the kiss. Her tongue battled with his, feeling the tension rise up between the two of them.

His fingers slid up her thighs, pushing the material of her skirt higher. When his fingers
touched the tops of her stockings, he froze and looked down. “Stockings,” he groaned, pressing his forehead against hers as his fingertips reverently touched the lace straps of her garters. “Damn, you have no idea how much I like these,” he told her.

She felt the shudder run through his immense frame and she smiled, her expression filled with feminine power. “Oh, I think I might have a small
idea.”

Mitch groaned, bending lower to kiss her again. His hands moved higher and Adriana was shocked at how much she wanted him to continue. Never had any man’s hand been where Mitch’s was right now and she thrilled to the touch, reveled in the sensations of his long, strong fingers touching her there.

The vacuum starting up startled both of them and Adriana froze, turning her head towards
the sound. “Oh my gosh,” she gasped and pushed at Mitch’s broad shoulders so she could slide off of the table. “We weren’t…” she pushed her hair back, fumbling for the pencil that had been holding her hair off of her neck and out of her eyes. It was nowhere to be found so she focused on pushing her skirt down again, straightening her clothes. “I have to go,” she stammered out, unable to look
him in the eye after all that she’d let him do to her.

Mitch watched her try to straighten her clothing. It was a useless effort, he thought. Anyone who walked into his office right now would know exactly what they’d been doing. Just one look at her kiss-swollen lips and the starry look in her eyes would be a dead giveaway. He thought she looked enchanting.

When she started to fall forward
in her haste to get away from him, he knew he had to step in. “Adriana, stop,” he told her and grabbed her arms, pulling her to a stop since she was still trying to get away from him. “You haven’t done anything wrong. We weren’t doing anything wrong.”

“Except…” she started to say something but he shook his head.

“No. We’re two consenting adults.”

Adriana sighed, her hands fluttering about
because she wasn’t sure what to say or do. This was a whole new experience for her.

The cleaning sounds were getting closer and she glanced towards the still closed doorway. “Please, Mitch. I need to get out of here.”

“No, you don’t.”

She shook her head, biting her lower lip. “It’s late and I’m tired. I really need to...”

“You need to let me take you to dinner.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“You’re
going to eat anyway,” he said and picked her jacket up off of the floor. She hadn’t even realized she wasn’t wearing it but worse than that, he picked up his own jacket from the floor.

“I didn’t do that, did I?” she asked.

Mitch slid his arms into the sleeves, looking down at her with amusement in those strange, blue eyes. “Adriana, in the grand scheme of our actions tonight, pushing my jacket
off of my shoulders really isn’t the most wicked thing that happened.”

“Oh no,” she gasped and buried her face in her hands.

Mitch laughed at her stricken expression, finding her priceless. If he didn’t know better, he might guess that she was an innocent. But he did know better. No one could kiss like she did and be as innocent as she seemed. He didn’t care though. He liked her flustered.
It gave him more time to touch her.

Sliding his arm around her waist, he led her back to her office. “Come along. Let’s get your purse and then dinner.”

“Really, I’m not hungry.”

He picked her purse up off of the corner of her desk where she’d left it. “Really, you’re going out to dinner. I know you. You’ll just curl up and forget to eat, berating yourself for giving in to kissing me.”

Adriana couldn’t really argue with that since it was true. But it was also true that she wasn’t very hungry and, sitting across the table from him, picturing all that they’d been doing only moments ago, would further dissipate her appetite.

“Fine,” she replied with ill-grace. “If you want to throw your money away, buy me dinner.”

“And wine. I think you need some wine to help you relax.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t debate that,” she replied, starting to smile now that they were out of his office and heading down to the parking garage.

But on the ride down in the elevator, she started to think about what had just happened. When Mitch touched her, she lost control. Yesterday, he’d distracted her, today they’d almost had sex on his conference room table. What was happening to her and why
was she even allowing such things?

“What are you thinking about?” he asked, watching her carefully. He’d noticed her cheeks turn pink and her breathing had suddenly become more rapid.

She looked up at him, then quickly away, shaking her head nervously as if to dismiss his question.

Mitch wasn’t satisfied with that response and turned to face her. “Adriana, what’s going on?” he demanded.

Adriana stepped back, suddenly afraid of what he might do. She had no fear that he would hurt her physically, but she was afraid of her response to him. He was like some sort of magician who could turn all of her morals and ethics to empty platitudes.

“Why are you pulling away from me now?” he asked softly, gently because he sensed that something had changed dramatically inside of her.

“I
was thinking about what just happened. In your office.”

His eyes lit up and he moved even closer. Adriana held up her hand, silently begging him to stop his forward momentum. “Please,” she whispered. “Don’t touch me.”

“Why not?” he asked, moving slightly closer.

She stepped away again, but her back pressed up against the wall of the elevator. She couldn’t move any further. Raising her
hand, she reached out to stop him but her hand touched his chest and her eyes dropped, looking at the place where their bodies were touching. It was just her hand, but she felt it everywhere and all of those feelings were once more pooling in her belly.

“We can’t,” she whispered. “Please, listen to me.”

Mitch wanted badly to move closer, to obliterate her argument with a kiss. But something
held him back. Something he didn’t understand but for some strange reason, no matter how much he wanted to make love to this woman, he wanted her to be fully on board with it as well. He knew he could easily overcome her arguments, whatever they were, by just touching her. But it wasn’t enough. For the first time with a woman, he wanted it all. And he wasn’t even sure what “all” was.

“Talk
to me,” he urged. He couldn’t stop himself from getting closer, but he didn’t touch her. The doors to the elevator opened and closed, both of them ignoring it completely, too focused on each other.

Adriana took a deep breath and looked down, taking her hand away and ignoring the tingling sensation on her palm that was telling her to put it right back on his muscular chest, to explore that
indentation between his ribs.

Shaking her head, she refocused on what she needed to say. “This…whatever is happening between us is happening too quickly,” she finally explained.

“Why? It feels pretty good to me,” he replied.

She smiled slightly, nervously, but it faded when she thought of what she was feeling and thinking when he wasn’t touching her. “I don’t understand what is going on.
I don’t understand why, one moment, I don’t like you at all and the next moment…” she left that part hanging.

“You want to tear my clothes off?” he offered.

She looked up at him, her brown eyes revealing her confusion, fear and desire. “Yes,” she finally said.

“And you can’t figure out how to control it?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“You want to control it.”

She shuddered. “Yes.”

One side of his
mouth quirked up in a half smile. “I don’t think that’s possible.”

The silence of the elevator made their breathing even more pronounced. “We have to.”

“Until you think you understand it?”

She nodded her head.

“And you think we’re going to understand it at some point?”

She shrugged one slender shoulder, unaware of how much he wanted to touch that shoulder, see it naked and bare against his
bed. He took a deep breath, trying to control the desire that was now a pounding force in his head. And lower.

“We’ll slow down,” he promised her, and just prayed that he’d be able to deliver on that promise.

“I don’t want…”

“No, Adriana. Don’t even think that we can ignore this. There’s no way. What’s happening between us is too powerful.”

“We need to learn to control it.”

“Do you really
think that’s possible?”

She started to nod her head, but she sighed and looked down. “No,” she finally admitted. “But it’s too strong.”

He pulled her closer, just holding her. “It feels damn good to me,” he countered. “But I’ll agree to slow down. Just don’t make me wait forever.”

She laughed but it wasn’t a very happy sound. She wrapped her arms around his waist, trying to figure out why
he could make her feel so great just by holding her. “Thank you.”

He groaned and pulled away. “Don’t thank me yet. I haven’t been tested.”

She laughed again but took his hand as he pulled her out of the elevator. “I should go home for dinner,” she said when he started to take her to his car.

“Not a chance,” he argued, opening the door and helping her into the powerful looking car. “I know
you. You’ll go home and won’t eat a thing. I’m taking you to dinner to make sure you eat something.”

She smiled, delighted that he was so concerned about her welfare. It was more than just sex, right? If he cared enough to make sure she ate, he wasn’t just after her for the sex. He couldn’t be.

They dined that night in an Italian restaurant and she ate a heaping plate full of pasta covered
in cheese and vegetables, loving every bite of it because Mitch sat across from her, talking about everything and she felt like she was genuinely getting to know him. If just a bit. He asked her more questions than he answered for her, but she’d gotten a small glimpse of him. And that was very special to her.

The following night, she worked until late, letting all of the other staff members on the floor leave. By the time she thought that the floor was empty, her fingers were shaking too badly to type on her keyboard any longer.

Her heart pounded in anticipation and she heard the movement she’d been waiting on for the past several hours. The footsteps were almost silent, but her nervous
brain heard them anyway. Each step sounded to the beat of her heart, pulsed right along with the blood pounding in her brain. And then he was there, standing in her doorway looking so big and so vital, she almost threw herself into his arms. He was feeling it too. She could see the need in his eyes, sense the impatience.

“Come here,” he growled but didn’t wait for her to stand up and come
around her desk. He walked in, grabbed her hand and pulled her up into his arms. His mouth covered hers with an impatience that startled and thrilled her, matched her own. She gave back everything that she’d been holding inside of her since last night.

His hands were everywhere, cupping her bottom, pulling her against his hardness so she was cradling his erection. She shuddered and moved
closer, needing to feel all of him. But then his hand slipped under her shirt, touching her bare skin and she gasped, jumping backwards out of his arms. Then the cool air hit her and she froze, looking up at him. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he froze as well, staring at her while silently asking her what was going on.

She shivered, then threw herself back into his arms, reveling in
the feel of his hands touching her. His fingers skimmed over her skin, testing her back then moving around to her stomach. She shifted slightly so he could feel more of her and she could enjoy his fingers more, closing her eyes as she trembled with his touch. But then his fingers cupped her breast and she gasped, her hand reaching out and grabbing his wrist to pull it away.

Once again, Mitch
froze and looked down at her. “Will you let me?” he asked hoarsely.

She started to shake her head no, but then his fingers extended, touching her breast ever so slightly. Adriana closed her eyes again, loosening her grip, bringing his hand closer so she could enjoy the feeling more. When his fingers were once again cupping the firm mound, she reached up and kissed him. Hard. But then his
fingers started to unsnap her bra and she jerked back out of his arms. “I’m sorry. I can’t let you do that,” she whispered.

Mitch had been trying hard to remember to go slowly, but he honestly had never gone this slowly with a woman. Not even in high school had he gone this slowly. “What’s holding you back?” he demanded.

Adriana tucked her shirt into the waistband of her slacks with fingers
that shook so badly she had trouble accomplishing the task. Mitch felt like howling with the pain of his need. “Adriana, you damn well better answer me or I…”

“I don’t know!” she yelled back. “You scare the hell out of me, okay? So I don’t know what’s holding me back except that I’m not used to men like you! I’m used to men who let me decide what’s happening. You don’t let me decide!”

“Damn
right I don’t!”

“Well, there you go!”

They were yelling at each other, both of them breathing hard and glaring when the humor struck her. They were both laughing a moment later and he pulled her back into his arms. Nothing sexual. Well, as non-sexual as any touch could be with Mitch, she thought as she leaned her head against his massive chest. “I don’t understand you Mitch. I really am
used to men who aren’t like you at all. So if I’m too frustrating, I’ll understand if you need to just walk away.”

Mitch heard her words and interpreted them as her fear of being with a man his size. “I’m not that bad,” he told her. Well, not horrible, he thought mentally. “I won’t hurt you.”

She lifted her head and looked up at him. “I know that. I never had any fear of you physically hurting
me.”

“Then trust me?”

“I trust you. To a point,” she grimaced. “Like I said last night, I don’t understand how to control what you make me feel. It’s strange and I’m not used to dating someone like you. I’m used to being in control, setting the pace.”

“You’re still setting the pace,” he teased. “I don’t like it, but I can’t walk away.” He kissed her again – a gentle kiss that took every
ounce of his self-control to keep it from getting out of control again. Lifting his head, he held her for a long moment, trying to stop the almost painful need from taking over again.

Taking a deep breath, he grabbed her hand and pulled her out of her office. “Come on. Let’s get out of here before my ability to keep my hands off of you disappears.” He took her out for dinner again and dropped
her off at her apartment. He kissed her gently, his hands on the car seat beside her head, not letting himself touch her in any way. As she lay in bed that night, she ached to have him hold her, to touch her more intimately. But then she buried her face in her pillow, ashamed of how she was teasing him. It wasn’t intentional, but she knew it was hard on both of them.

The following night,
she left work promptly at five o’clock. Mentally, she just wasn’t able to deal with another night in his arms, even if being in his arms lasted only a few minutes, about the amount of time they could touch each other before things got out of control.

On the drive back to her place, she received a text from him demanding to know where she’d gone. She texted back almost instantly, explaining
that she hadn’t slept well the night before because of what they’d done to each other. So tonight, she was going to sleep well. He texted her back saying that it wouldn’t work – that there was only one way to get a good night’s sleep and he was more than willing to give it to her. She laughed and shivered at the same time, not sure what to text in response.

Even while her fingers hesitated
over the phone, she received another text from him. “Sleep well, my beauty.”

She tucked her phone back into her purse and sighed, trying to figure out what to do about that man.

Adriana didn’t have time that night to worry about Mitch’s reaction. As soon as she walked in the door, slipped off her shoes, and put her purse away she heard a loud knocking on the door. She looked over at the door
nervously. Surely that wouldn’t be Mitch! She stared at the door, biting her lower lip and trying to figure out what to do. If it really was Mitch, should she let him in? If she let him in, would she be able to resist him?

Adriana stared at the door, wondering what she was going to do. When the knock came again, she knew she could not ignore it any longer.

“Adriana open the door,” a male voice
called out.

That definitely wasn’t Mitch’s voice. “Dylan?” She rushed to the door and swung it open. When she saw the three young men standing in her doorway, she threw herself into their arms. “What are you guys doing here?” She looked around at all three of her brothers, Dylan the oldest, Davis, younger than her by four years, and the youngest, Antonio. “Where’s Marcus?”

Dylan nudged her shoulder,
pushing his way past her into her apartment. “He was being annoying. He said something about a girl so we ditched him.”

16-year-old Antonio stepped in front of her and swung her into his arms. “How ya doin’, little sis?” He kissed the top of her head, already more than a head taller than she was. “And what’s this I hear about you working too hard?”

Antonio was suddenly pushed out of the way. Davis
knocked his younger brother, making room for his own arms to surround his older sister. “You look like hell.” He wrapped his arms around her in a gentle hug, kissing her on the head as well.

She grimaced, looking back at her brothers as she closed her door. “So Marcus couldn’t come simply because there’s some girl that he’s chasing after?”

“No way. You know you’re the only girl in his life right
now,” Dylan said.

Davis chuckled. “Well, she’s the only serious girl in his life.” He walked in to Adriana’s kitchen, opening and closing doors, obviously trying to find food. That was the thing about having her huge brothers around, they were always hungry. “Why don’t you have any chips in here?”

Adriana rolled her eyes. “Look behind you in the pantry. There should be several kinds of chips,
just waiting for you to visit me.”

Davis turned around and opened the cabinet she’d indicated. When he saw the four bags of different kinds of chips, he looked at his big sister with renewed adoration. “I take back all those horrible things I said about you.”

She blinked as she watched him through her kitchen doorway. “What bad things did you say about me?”

Antonio walked over and grabbed the
bag of chips that Dylan had just opened. “Ignore him. You can trust me, you look like hell.” He stuffed a chip in his mouth, looking at her carefully. “You’re not getting enough sleep. So I’m guessing that what Dylan said is right. Who’s the guy?”

Adriana laughed, rolling her eyes. But she turned her head away from their prying, too knowing eyes, not wanting her brothers to see the truth in any
of her unguarded expressions. “Is that really why all three of you guys came up here to see me?” She moved into to the kitchen, opening the fridge and retrieving a six-pack of beer from her bottom drawer. “I shouldn’t be this nice to you guys. Especially since all three of you guys seem to have come here just to insult me.”

“Absolutely not!” Davis corrected. “We’ve come here to kick the ass of
whoever is making you lose sleep.”

Adriana loved these guys, but there was absolutely no way she was going to let them know that she was seeing someone. Not after the way they’d treated her boyfriends in high school and college.

Looking at Antonio, she said, “Aren’t you supposed to be in school?” she demanded.

At the guilty look in his eyes, she gasped. “Do Mom and Dad know that you’re
skipping school?”

“He won’t miss any of his classes,” Dylan assured her.

Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the three of them.

Dylan stepped in, accepting her fury on his shoulders. “Look, I’d just finished a project in Germany the last time I called you. I heard something in your voice that made me worry, okay? So I told Mom and Dad that I was just going to drop by to check on you. These
idiots heard me,” he said, punching Davis on the arm, “so just tell me what’s going on and we can report back to Mom and Dad. Then all of us will feel better. Of course, after the three of us go kick this guy’s butt, and you get more sleep.”

Davis stepped forward. “Just tell us his name and will do the rest.”

She stared up at Davis suspiciously. He was in college and taking some pretty tough
courses, in her opinion. “Don’t you have exams this week?”

Davis shrugged his big shoulders. “I asked my professors to take them a week earlier.”

Adriana’s eyes widened. “Are you trying to tell me that you took all of your chemical engineering exams early, and you skipped an entire week that you could have been studying?”

Davis put his hands on his hips. “I aced all of my classes and I’ll graduate
next week, so stop trying to change the subject and answer the question.”

Adriana mimicked his stance, her hands resting on her hips and she glared right back at him. “I’m not going to answer the question, Davis. I love seeing all of you guys, but there is no way that I am letting you interfere with my life. Not my love life, and not my work life. I have problems, but I can handle them on my own.”

Antonio dropped the back of chips on the counter and moved closer to his big sister. “What problems?” he asked angrily, ready to fight now that she’d admitted to having problems.

Dylan move forward as well. “Who is bothering you?”

Adriana looked at her three brothers with love, her expression of irritation smoothing out. She knew that they worried about her and she also knew that they would never
stop. “So the three of you guys were at Mom and Dad’s house and thought that I needed your help. All of you jumped in Dad’s plane and flew up here to try and solve my problems. Does that sum it up?”

The three abnormally large young men looked down at her for a moment then glanced at each other, shrugging their shoulders. “It’s my plane, actually,” Dylan interjected, not that it mattered. When
they faced her again, all three of them nodded their heads.

Adriana had to laugh, but the laughter was filled with love and appreciation for how sweet they were acting. “Well, I love all of you guys as well. And since you’re here, let’s order Chinese food and you can tell me about what’s happening in your lives. But be warned, there is absolutely no way that I’m going to share my problems with
any of you. I am perfectly capable of resolving any problems in my life.”

Davis didn’t like the sound of that. In fact, all three of them were scowling down at her. Apparently none of them agreed with her declaration. “In the past, you have chosen some pretty weak men.”

Adriana thought about Mitch, about his broad shoulders, his bulging biceps, not to mention all of the other male parts of him
that she’d fantasized about during meetings recently. There was also that fascinating sparkle of intelligence flashing from his eyes that never failed to turn her on. She opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by Antonio.

“You’re thinking about him right now, aren’t you?”

Adriana tried to think of something to say but she was stopped, especially as these three sweet, annoying, obnoxiously
huge men stared down at her. “There is no way that I’m going to answer that question. Do you guys want Chinese food or pizza?”

The three of them continued to stare at her for a long moment before Antonio finally said, “Pizza.”

Dylan and Davis both nodded their heads, but Davis spoke up and said, “This isn’t over yet, Adriana.”

Dylan agreed. “And we might accept your offer of pizza, but it doesn’t
mean we aren’t going to interrogate you about this guy.”

Adriana picked up the phone and started dialing for her favorite pizza place. “Who says that it’s a guy?” She finished dialing and listened as it started to ring. “It might be just that I’m having a hard time at work. Have you ever thought about that?”