Bedeviled Read online

  “Well, you’re only 30 and I have never seen you be flighty.”

  “No,” Charlotte agreed sadly. “I was born serious. I wouldn’t mind being flighty now and then.”

  “Really? What would you do if you just let loose?” he asked, intrigued.

  “I am not sure. I have never really thought about it.”

  “Well, think about it. Then, let me know. I would love to see you when you finally cut loose and go wild.” After a few minutes of silence, Alex asked Charlotte, “So, why were you always serious? What was your childhood like?”

  “The usual, you know,” she demurred.

  “No, I don’t know. In fact, considering all the time I have spent with you, I actually know very little about you. I know you are from an esteemed and powerful Boston family, went to Harvard, got a job in a NY real estate management company that you left quickly to return to Harvard. I know you were looking for a change from your job at Independent Life when you met Regan through some big-donor Harvard fundraising event, but I don’t know why. I know you have a brilliant financial mind, you’re funny and sweet. That is all I know. Oops, not true. I know you have a gorgeous body, which is all I am interested in at the moment.”

  “Alex!” Charlotte sounded affronted by the last statement, but secretly she was very pleased. “You are such a pig.”

  “Are you kidding? You are so hot in that dress. And be honest. Where was I supposed to look when you ran with me in next to nothing? I am a normal, healthy guy, for god’s sake. I have resisted you for ages and believe me, it was not easy.”

  Charlotte was grateful for the darkness hiding her smile. So her efforts had been noticed after all. After waiting a beat, Charlotte admitted, “it hasn’t been easy for me either.”

  Alex looked away from the road just long enough to flash her his irresistible smile, his teeth blindingly white in the dark interior of the Mercedes. “Really?” he asked with a touch of insecurity interlaced with bravado.

  “Mm hmm.”

  As they sat in the shadows, Alex took her hand in his, raised it to his mouth and placed a long, hard kiss into her palm. He felt her shiver in response and nipped lightly with his teeth before letting go to return his hand to stroking along her arm.

  “So, you were saying?” he probed. “I’m waiting.”

  “Saying? Are you that insecure? Yes, I find you very attractive.”

  “Good,” he gloated, “but I meant you were telling me about your family.”

  “Actually I wasn’t saying,” she corrected with a tiny laugh. “I have parents who are over protective and two brothers, one older, one younger. The youngest is at the Culinary Institute in New York, studying to be chef. I am so proud of him.”

  “I still can’t get over your parents being okay with that. A chef in the high-brow Roche family. And your older brother and father?”

  “Yeah. My brother, Jake, got his MBA from Harvard two years before I did. We are very boring compared to being a chef. We are just boring period. I would rather hear about you. How did you like Stanford? Did Aubrey go there too?”

  “Aubrey went to my mother’s alma mater, Vassar. As for Stanford, the education was great of course, the weather was fantastic and I loved living in Palo Alto.”

  “But you didn’t stay there?” Charlotte was struggling, focusing hard to follow the thread of the conversation. Her body was tingling everywhere Alex ran his hand, heating under his touch, craving more.

  “This is home for me.”

  Before either of them could learn more about the other, Alex was sliding the car smoothly into his reserved parking space. “Enough of that now, though.” Charlotte waited for Alex to continue but he sat in the small car, shadowed and quiet until finally he shifted in his seat to face her fully. “We have other things to discuss. Important things that we probably should have discussed sooner.”

  “Such as?”

  “Plans, protection, the night ahead.”

  “Really?” Charlotte asked as a twinkle lit her eyes.

  “Yep. I should probably warn you that I am planning to make love to you until you can’t stand up,” Alex stated bluntly. “Any objections?”

  “Well…I guess since I am having trouble standing already, I can approve that plan.”

  “Good point. Okay, next. There is no delicate way to say this but I think you already know that I have slept with a lot of women. I get tested frequently, so I know that I have no STDs, etc., but just say the word and I will use protection.”

  “Wow, I guess we really are covering the nitty gritty here.” Charlotte had gotten a pained look on her face in reaction to Alex’s blunt statements, but chided herself with a mumbled reminder that he was correct. It was nothing she didn’t already know about him. Still, he could see it hurt her.

  “Once I touch you, Charlotte Roche, I know I won’t be able to stop, and this I will promise you: from that moment forward, there will be no one else but you,” he reassured her. “Still, we better discuss all of this here and now.”

  “Very practical, Mr. Gaines. Okay, since I do not sleep with a lot of people, not even close, I can tell you that I too have no diseases to speak of. However, I have not really needed to think about birth control in a while.”

  “Then we have our answer. Protection it is.” With that, Alex unceremoniously ended the conversation, jumped from the car and went around to open Charlotte’s door. Taking her hand, he walked briskly to the elevator as she did a little skip step to keep up with his long strides. He realized he was moving too fast, slowed down, and wrapped his arm around her waist to assist her.

  “Sorry. I completely forgot about the boot. You really look stunning tonight.”

  At the elevator, Alex inserted his key, pressed the penthouse button and waited beside her, facing forward, while the doors closed. As soon as they were enclosed in the quiet space, with almost 70 floors to travel undisturbed, he turned Charlotte into his embrace and bent to claim her mouth. His arms moved about her hips, drawing her tight against his body as his mouth locked to hers in skillful, scorching kiss. Alex felt Charlotte melt into his embrace, returning his kiss with fervor. He increased his heated caresses on her back and butt, feeling the slide of silk and round woman underneath his fingers. With each move up her back, he took a small amount of the full skirt, lifting it higher until he felt the bare skin of her behind and a tiny scrap of panty.

  Charlotte inhaled sharply at the glide of Alex’s fingertips along her exposed skin and he took that opportunity to plunge his tongue between her lips. He felt the moist heat of her mouth, felt her pillow soft lips give under his firmer ones as a small moan of pleasure escaped her. He was lost in the kiss, drowning in the feel of this woman under his mouth and hands when the elevator slid to a smooth stop and the doors opened into his penthouse with a ‘ding’.

  Alex scooped his arms under Charlotte’s knees and lifted her off her feet, striding toward his bedroom quickly, carrying her effortlessly in his arms despite his muscles bulging under the fine material of his suit.

  “Can’t wait,” he explained, Charlotte responded with a sexy smile then laid her head on his shoulder, licking her tongue across the bare skin of his neck as she fussed to loosen his tie.

  Placing Charlotte carefully in the center of his bed, Alex bent to yank the Velcro straps that held the heavy boot in place, then slid his hand gently up her bare calf to the knee. He stopped there, removed her small sandal and did the same with her right leg, but this time his hand didn’t stop at the knee. Rather, he moved up slowly, tantalizing her with the soft feel of his hands lightly skimming along the inside of her thigh. He lifted her dress only enough to reach under and grasp the tiny bit of fabric at the apex of her thighs. Charlotte lifted her hips helpfully and Alex slid the lavender thong down her legs and tossed it to a chair in the corner. He removed his jacket, tie and shirt and added them to the pile. He was enjoying the play of emotions he saw cross Charlotte’s features as she drank in the sight of his broad shoulders and washbo
ard abs. She had seen him in running clothes and going to and from the pool, but he could tell that this felt very different for her.

  “You’re magnificent,” she muttered under her breath, eliciting a smug grin of pride from Alex.

  “I am sure you are too. Let’s find out,” he said as he lay beside her and rolled her to a side so he could reach for her zipper. His mouth captured hers as his hands moved unerringly to slip the zipper lower and undo her bra, all one handed.

  “How do you do that?” she marveled.

  “Practice.” When she scowled at him he added, “and a strong desire to see you naked.” He rolled the colorful dress off her shoulders and low enough to expose her breasts, trapping her arms in the material as he first gazed at her, then lowered his mouth. She felt the moist heat of his breath just seconds before his mouth wrapped around one tight nipple. He sucked it deep into his mouth as Charlotte’s hips reflexively rose from the bed in need. Without removing his mouth from the taut bud, Alex lifted his own hips to undo his pants and kick them off.

  Alex circled Charlotte’s tender nipple with his tongue before moving to her other breast and wrapping his mouth around it. The cool air on her moist skin brought goose-bumps to the surface that quickly disappeared as Alex brought his hand up to stroke and squeeze Charlotte’s tender flesh. He tightened his fingers around her hard and highly sensitive peak until small mews of surrender came from her mouth. Alex abandoned the tantalizing breast with a last tingling flick to her nipple and lifted himself to draw her bottom lip, then her tongue, into his mouth.

  Pulling her dress from her body, Alex freed Charlotte’s arms, which she immediately used to run her hands over his tight stomach muscles. “You are beautiful,” he sighed at the light touch of her fingertips. Bending close to her ear, he repeated the words in a warm whisper as he lowered himself until his body crushed hers to the mattress. Only his black boxer briefs came between them.

  He felt the soft heat of her skin as Charlotte writhed beneath him, seeking to get closer still. He was holding himself in check, his kisses demanding, his hands roaming over her rounded body, mesmerized by the feel of her. He was straining hard against the fabric of his briefs, longing to plunge deep into her luscious body but stalling, touching her, kissing her until she was begging him to enter her, to take her, to satisfy the growing need in them both.

  After long minutes of mutual torture, of feeling her long fingers massaging the strong muscles of his shoulders and back, of being squeezed by the legs she had wrapped around his torso, trying to pull him into her, Alex knew he couldn’t take another minute and suspected neither could she. He had pushed them both to their absolute limits with the prolonged foreplay.

  Alex grabbed a condom from the drawer and removed his briefs in a single fluid movement, his blatant masculinity now on proud display. Charlotte took the condom packet, opened it with her teeth, and slid the prophylactic slowly and hypnotically over him. Charlotte’s grip was tight and firm around him, stroking down, then slowly up again, then down lower. Alex feared he would explode then and there from the exquisite play of her fingers.

  “You ready?” he asked on a steamy breath, his lips nuzzling her ear.

  “I’m desperate,” Charlotte replied, placing her hands hard on his butt, wrapping her legs tighter around his hips and gasping as he inched the hot length of himself slowly into her. “Oh, God, not so slow!”

  She was gloriously tight and Alex savored every sensual movement as he sheathed himself inch by tantalizing inch into the slick heat of her body. Settling himself deep inside her he felt her shudder and knew she was already close to orgasm. Charlotte was so responsive, her every feeling expressed in her eyes, the little sounds that escaped from her mouth, her restless hands moving again and again over his heated skin. Her touches burned him, her kisses sucked him into her mouth. His body desperately wanted to give in to her demands but he willed himself to make it last as long as possible.

  Moving slowly out of Charlotte’s moist heat, he felt Charlotte grab his ass, trying to hold him still and he inhaled sharply and sank back into her, taking her mouth with his, swallowing her exhaled breath and returning it to her. He swiveled his hips as he finally moved in and out of her, steady and deep, with increasing speed. Charlotte trembled under him, and he felt the pressure of release building in them both.

  “More,” Charlotte kept saying as she ground her hips hard against his. “Please.”

  “Come on, Charlotte,” he rumbled low in his throat urging her to let go. “Yes, that’s right, yes.”

  Their sweat-slick bodies were pinned close from breast to groin, her legs wrapped like a vise about Alex’s hips as the muscles of his ass tightened with his efforts. Her small hands roamed every inch of his hard body, her mouth glued to his as their tongues did a sensuous dance of desire. Alex increased the pressure of his thrusts slightly and felt Charlotte convulse under him in a glorious release. As she clung to him, the feel of her pulsing around him was all it took to catapult him over the edge. Shouting his pleasure, Alex came hard with a mind-blowing orgasm.

  Alex felt incredible. His heart was soaring and hammering in his chest, his brain was mush. He was bursting with male pride and accomplishment. He felt like a lion, powerful, masculine and dangerous. He felt protective of this woman. Looking down at Charlotte, eye’s closed, Mona Lisa smile on her lips as her skin cooled and her body continued to flutter around his, he also felt an unfamiliar, unsettling, but not unwelcome tug in the region of his heart.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “Oh my god,” Charlotte said when she could finally breathe. ”That was incredible.”

  “No kidding,” Alex said, claiming her mouth for small a kiss that gave way to playful nips at her mouth. “Charlotte, you were amazing. I think maybe we have figured out what you would do if you let yourself loose.”

  “Perhaps, we have,” she laughed.

  They lay together for some minutes, stroking each other lightly, alternating between simple and breathtaking kisses, their passion spent. After a grunt from Charlotte indicating he was crushing her, Alex pulled from where he rested, still deep within her, and lifted himself from her body. She watched as he padded into the bathroom, his long legs built like a warrior, his butt tight, his back broad and muscled. She feasted her eyes until the door shut behind him.

  Alex emerged a few minutes later, wearing an elegant and obviously expensive robe. “Can I get you anything?” he asked her. “Water, a glass of wine?”

  “Mm. Water would be great.”

  Laying in his bed, watching him disappear down the hallway silently, Charlotte revisited what had just occurred. She had limited experience with men, a few short dating stints during her college years, then her long, disastrous relationship with Gil. But she knew that tonight had been special. Sure, the sex had been skilled and heart stopping, but the connection had been complete as well. Charlotte was helpless to deny it; she was falling for Alex.

  Why on earth did I ever suggest no strings? I am not a no-strings girl and he was offering more. Or was he?

  Charlotte scooted into the bathroom in his short absence, washed up, found a brush to run through her short locks and jumped back into bed before Alex returned with both water and wine. Her ankle throbbed slightly from the short effort but she pushed the pain to a corner of her brain, hoping it would subside.

  “So, Miss Charlotte Roche…”

  “Yes, Mr. Alexander Gaines? When did we become so formal?”

  “I guess I became formal when I realized I needed a bit of distance while I recovered my wits after a wild beauty stole them from me,” he confessed.

  “A wild beauty? I like that,” she beamed.

  Alex removed the burgundy robe in a confident gesture and slid back into bed with Charlotte. Lightly stroking her belly, then her breasts, he repeated a hypnotic pattern with his fingertips, soothing and arousing her simultaneously.

  “You are a wild beauty, Charlotte. You are so responsive and exciting. I would never
have predicted that. I knew I desired you – I have for quite a while, you know?” He didn’t wait for her response. “But I don’t think, until now, that I realized the depths of you.”

  “I think you were just in the depths of me,” she responded coyly.

  Alex laughed hard, shaking the entire bed, drowning out the sounds of Charlotte’s gentle snicker. He pulled her in close, stopped laughing abruptly and kissed her. She sensed his eagerness and surprised herself by her matching response. She felt her desire building again, felt proof of his against her thigh, and reveled in it.

  Reaching behind Alex’s head, she wove her fingers into his hair, holding him to her as she sought his mouth with her tongue. He met her demands in hot, drugging kisses until she used her shaking hands to push him flat onto the bed and straddled him, never breaking the kiss.

  Bent low over him, kissing him like he was her very breath, Charlotte was only vaguely aware when he reached for a condom and slid it on. It was all the foreplay she needed before she sank her hips over his, seating him deep inside her. After savoring the sensation as long as she could she began moving.