An Improper Affair (Millionaire of the Month #4)(29)
Author: Anna DePalo

"I know." he said quietly, catching a tear with the pad of his thumb. "You know?"

He nodded. "The first thing I did when my ownership became official was to call up the managers at Sperling headquarters and find out where your contract was in the pipeline."

She smiled through her tears. "So you could torpedo it, I would have thought."

He shook his head, his expression wry. "So I could move it along. Imagine my surprise when I found out the negotiations had stalled… at your request."

"I wasn’t sure you’d believe me if I told you I’d pulled out before your takeover became public."

"I would have believed you, because you’re too important to me. My first order of business was to find out what had happened to your contract." He smiled ruefully. "Imagine haw perplexed the people at Sperling were when the new majority owner’s first questions were about a contract that most of them had never heard of and that had worked its way down the food chain."

She blinked back tears.

He sobered. "Why did you do it? Why pull out when Sperling was the key to your going national?"

"Pride," she said. "Brenda told me that you’d given her some money." Ryan cursed under his breath. "She told you?" "Yes." "And you drew the worst possible conclusion," he guessed.

She nodded. "I wanted to repay you. I didn’t want you to think I was some— " her vision got blurry’ again "— some floozy you could b-buy."

"Aw. honey" He grasped her upper arms and started kissing away tears that had seeped out. "That’s not why I did it. I wanted Brenda to go away, so we could concentrate on straightening things out between us. I’d just had the most incredible weekend of my life."

"That’s just it," she said, hiccupping. "Your paying off Brenda, coming on the heels of my finding out you’d known all along about my sexual history or lack thereof, made me think that sex was all you wanted from me."

"Honey, if all you want from me is sex, I’ll die a happy man." She gave a watery laugh.

He sobered again. "The more I fought against my attraction to you, the more I fell under your spell. It became impossible to ignore how alike we are."

"Two people trying like crazy not to be their parents’?" she supplied.

Her comment elicited a smile. "Actually, your sexual inexperience made me realize you’d been just as affected, if not more so, by growing up as Brenda Hartley’s daughter as I was by being raised as Webb Sperling’s son."

"The first guy I slept with was a fellow college student," she supplied. "Then he met Brenda and announced our relationship couldn’t possibly go anywhere. He had serious plans to storm the corporate world, and an in-law like Brenda would have been a liability."

"Idiot."

She smiled. "Between that and the sex not being all that terrific to start with, Tyler sort of soured me on relationships for a long time. After growing up with Brenda, it had been a leap of faith for me to get involved with him to begin with."

He nodded. "My parents had an unhappy marriage, and when I arrived in Hunter’s Landing, you were the last woman I would have said I’d get involved with. But you made me love you."

"I love you. too." she said shakily.

He leaned in for another kiss, one that quickly turned hot and full of promise.

She pulled him closer, her fingers splaying and delving into his hair as he plundered her mouth.

When they finally broke apart, they both took labored breaths.

"I need—"

"Make—"

They both stopped and Ryan grinned.

"Bed," he said simply.

Somehow, they made it up the stairs and to her bedroom.

She went to him then and stood by the bed, sandwiched between his legs.

He went to work on the buttons of her blouse, kissing each inch of skin as it was exposed.

She sighed and held him to her. Outside, the storm continued to rage, beating against the windows, but inside they were locked in their own world.

He peeled the blouse from her, then gazed into her eyes. "I’ve been a fervent admirer of your br**sts."

She laughed. "I thought I saw you looking— " "It was impossible not to."

"And yet you resisted me."

"It was a losing battle."

Then his mouth nestled in the dark valley created by her cle**age, placing moist kisses there.

Kelly gave a low moan.

When he released the clasp of her bra, her br**sts fell into his hands like ripe fruit, tight and firm, and he laieaded them until she felt warmth spread within her.

Her skirt hit the floor next and his hand smoothed up and down the side of her thigh.

"Fantastic legs, too." he murmured.

"Being on my feet all day gives them plenty of exercise." she demurred.

"You’re the total package. Beautiful inside and out."

She was sensitized to react to his even’ word.. .his every look.. .his every touch.

He undid his shirt, then stood, and between increasingly passionate kisses, he let her help him off with the rest of his clothing.

Her hand grazed his erection, stoking their need as their breathing became heavy with desire.

Once he’d lowered her panties and she’d stepped out of them along with her slipper-footed mules so that they both were naked, he tumbled her onto the bed next to him and began to caress her.

She arched to his touch, feeling him bringing her to life with every masterful stroke.

When he reached the spot at the juncture of her thighs, her world tilted, her breathing coming in audible gasps.

He licked and she was on fire.

He refused to relent, however, until she trembled and shook against him, cresting on a wave of deliverance and emotion that left her spent and replete at the same time.

He moved next to her then, driving need stamped on his face, heavy on the scent of his skin and etched in the tension of his muscles.

"Protection." he rasped, looking around at the jumble of his clothes.

"You know I haven’t been with anyone since— "

He went still. "It was a long time for me before you and I’ve been tested."

"Me. too."

"Are you sure’?"

Her heart opened. "Would it be so bad if we got started on kids sooner rather than later?"

"Heck, no." he said.

"I want it all." she said, "the career, kids, you." Then there was no talking as he gathered her against him. He positioned himself and slid into her on a wave of mingled moans and sighs, and together they began to ride the wave.