Taking the Score (22 page)

“I think I need a trial run before I agree to anything.” Pants zipper down, she freed his erection and absorbed with her hot mouth the hiss of pleasure that slipped his lips. “I’d want to know how forward-thinking this company is.” She pushed him back on the desk and straddled him.

“Lots of opportunities for a woman with initiative,” he murmured.

“So no objections when your female employees take on more dominant roles?” Two slow fists of his cock and she lined him up at her entrance. The anticipation was excruciating.

He slipped in, slowly, slowly, his hands on her ass securing her in place. Where she belonged. He closed his eyes, his mouth working to speak, but nothing came out. Her body started to soften, adjust to the increasingly massive size of him until she accepted him completely.

She halted, and as so often happened when making love to her, time ground to a stop. He didn’t need her to say she loved him because his love was enough for both of them. Not that he wouldn’t work every day to regain that broken trust, for the rest of his life if need be. For now, keeping her safe and loving the hell out of her would be its own reward.

“No problem with women on top, Mr. Kane?” Moving up and down, the rhythm of give and take, hot and hard, coiled the pressure in his gut.

“You’ve always been the boss of me, Ms. Strickland.”

Epilogue

Emma adjusted the bikini halter top in the mirror, ensuring those puppies were displayed to their best advantage. A quick turn, a naughty cock of her hip, and she was in business. Oh, one more thing. She pressed play on her phone and cranked up the volume.

Bang, bang, into the room…

The door to their bedroom in the suite at the Four Seasons in Houston spilled open. Her client had arrived. She peeked over her shoulder, her lips forming a surprised pout.

“I think I have the wrong room,” she said in her best Marilyn Monroe. “I was told someone needed a lap dance.”

The man she would never tire of ogling quirked a set of full, sensuous lips and raised an eyebrow in query. He’d already lost the tie and suit jacket he’d worn to Liv’s wedding rehearsal dinner, where she’d met the rest of his crazy Texan family, including the nutjob senator and the bride he stole from his son. Emma had been as sweet as pie to Broderick Kane II. After all, his rotten parenting skills and broken moral compass had brought this beautiful man to her.

She let her gaze travel down the full length of his body until she got to his socks. Her latest gift: C3PO and R2D2.

“What else were you told?” he asked.

She walked toward him, the sultry swing of her hips made all the more potent by the high heels. “That the client was older.” She leaned in and whispered, “Some grabby-assed lecher who can’t get it up. Does that sound like you?”

“Grabby-assed.” He demonstrated this. “Lecher.” A leer of her pert breasts assured her of his qualifications in the domain of sleaze. “Who can’t—”

She coasted a hand down the front of his pants. “I’ve been misinformed.”

Roughly, she shoved him on the bed. “But I’m a professional and the show must go on.” Stepping back, she started to sway, a soft, sexy wave she had learned from Katerina at the pole dancing classes her friend now offered. Emma had been instrumental in helping the Romanian blonde open her own business, and with Emma running the show while she finished up her degree at night, it was bound to be a stunning success.

If she did say so herself.

With an almost-graceful pivot, she swung her ass back and forth, all while inching closer and closer to him. At the last moment, she turned and straddled him.

“I’m Chardonnay,” she said, her voice a breathy whisper, “and I can make all your dreams come true.” That his sexy-nerd glasses hadn’t already fogged over told her she was not doing her job effectively. “You don’t like Chardonnay?”

“Oh, she’s—I mean, you’re lovely. And while I appreciate the gesture, I’m afraid I can’t let this go on. You see, I’m in love with a very special woman.”

She shrugged. “That’s what they all say, but once you’ve had Chardonnay, no other woman can compete.” She cupped his neck with her hands and leaned back, ensuring her breasts looked pretty damn awesome. On her return upright, she flattened him on the bed, but he had plans of his own. In a flash, he’d rolled her over and immobilized her with his hard, muscular body.

“Let me tell you about this woman of mine.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, you’re one of
those
. A talker. No matter, costs the same.”

He kissed her forehead, dragged his lips to the tip of her nose, and applied a sweet pressure to her mouth. She chased the kiss but he pulled away. Infuriating man.

“As I was saying, this woman of mine is something else. Smart, sexy, funny. A mind for business, a body for sin, kind to animals and idiot Texans.”

Emma studied her nails. “She sounds boringly perfect.”

“She’s a terrible singer, not much better a dancer, though I see signs of improvement. I hurt her once, and I worry she might never forgive me.”

Tears welled, thickening the emotion in her throat. This was supposed to be sexy time! “You dumb Texas lump. There’s nothing to forgive. I’ve just been waiting—”

“Until you were sure you loved me?”

“No, until I was sure you loved me.” Foolish, maybe, but the last month together since he’d tricked her into that job interview had been a test. “I can’t risk being thrown aside, Brody, and I know you say it all the time, but I needed to feel it. Every day, not just in the heat of a sexy moment or a movie-worthy romantic declaration, but also in those quiet times on the sofa with Kevin and at the kitchen island making coffee and when I look up from a textbook and find you eating me alive with your gaze because you can’t believe your good luck. I need to know you have no regrets and I am the best thing to ever happen to you. That’s selfish, perhaps, but I’m trying to be more selfish these days and look out for me.”

Especially as very soon it would be more than just her.

He nibbled at her lip and kissed her, long and sweet. “I love you in the morning, evening, and all the night through. I love you in the office, the penthouse, the strip club, and the million places we’ve yet to have wild, crazy sex in. You are the woman I was meant for, the sun in every room I enter. And I will wait a thousand lifetimes until you’re ready and a thousand more if it never comes.”

She sniffled, ready to say the words at last. “Brody, I—I think you’re such a hot, sexy-as-all-get-out nerd.”

His growl was the opposite of nerd. How she loved her beast.

“And I love you,” she whispered. “So much, baby.”

He closed his eyes, clear relief easing his strained expression. “That’s my girl. My Ms. Strickland, my Chardonnay, my Emma, and soon, I hope, my wife.” He grinned at her gasped reaction. “I can’t let my sister lord that married status over me for too long. What do you say?”

Joy burst like sunbeams in her chest. “Say yes to give you a leg up in your sibling rivalry?”

“Can you think of a better reason?”

“Maybe.” She moved his hand down to her bare midriff and a couple of inches past the border of her shiny hot pants over the curve of her belly.

His grin turned doubly wicked. “Don’t have to be married to get some. You’re kind of easy.”

“Brody Kane, if you would stop thinking with your giant penis for once, you will understand what I’m trying to tell you.” She hauled a breath. “Kevin is going to have a little brother or sister soon.”

His hand splayed on her stomach, practically covering it entirely, and his gaze dropped to where the next generation of Kanes was growing inside her. She held her breath. Given that cargo hold of baggage he was toting, she wouldn’t blame him for having mixed feelings about this. But she saw how he treated Kevin with such reverence and love. This man would make a wonderful father.

“Anger sex in the back room of a strip club for the win.” Deep emotion shone in his eyes. “We’re having a baby. We are having a—freakin’—baby.”

Tears blurred her vision, and she swiped them away, not wanting to miss a moment of the happiness she was giving him. A lifetime love, marriage, a baby—and that was just the start of this amazing journey they were traveling together. Cupping his dark head, she drew him into a soul kiss and sealed with her lips their forever connection.

Wordlessly, they stripped each other, letting the emotion of the moment roll them along. In his silver-gray eyes, like moonlight over a calm stretch of water, she saw her present, her future. Her everything.

Only one more thing could make this absolutely perfect.

“Keep your socks on, Mr. Kane.”

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to Liz Pelletier for tapping into her big brain and helping me plot this puppy late one night in her hotel room, complete with a hilarious demonstration of what Emma’s terrible lap dance might look like (think Elaine from
Seinfeld
). And to editor Robin Haseltine for her great notes and for laughing in all the right places. You guys rock!

About the Author

Originally from Ireland,
Kate
cut her romance reader teeth on Maeve Binchy and Jilly Cooper novels, with some Mills & Boon thrown in for variety. Give her tales about brooding mill owners, oversexed equestrians, and men who can rock an apron or a fire hose, and she is so there. Now based in Chicago, she writes sexy contemporary romance with alpha heroes and strong heroines who can match their men quip for quip.

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