Intimate Seduction Part 8

"You're pregnant?" Donovan asked, looking into the smiling face of his cousin Vanessa. She had come into his office first thing Monday morning and dropped the bombsh.e.l.l, and he wanted to make sure he'd heard her correctly.

"Yes," she responded, bubbling all over with joy. "Cameron and I found out this morning. I'm sure Cameron has told Morgan already, and I talked to Mom, Taylor and Cheyenne on my way to work. But since Chance and Bas haven't arrived yet, you're the first here to know."

Feeling happy for his cousin, Donovan stood up and came from behind his desk to give her a huge hug. "I can imagine how happy Cam is," he said.

Vanessa smiled while at the same time wiped tears from her eyes. "He's extremely happy. I think we decided how much we both wanted a child the night we took on the role as babysitters for Little Dane," she said of her best friend Sienna's son. "He was such a joy, and we knew then we wanted a child of our very own."

"Let's just order up one baby this go-round, please," he said grinning. "I don't think the family will be able to handle it if you follow in Cheyenne's footsteps and have multiple babies." Vanessa's sister Cheyenne had given birth to triplets last year.

Vanessa chuckled. "Yes, but you have to admit Chey is doing a grand job with them along with Quade's help. I'm glad he convinced her to make North Carolina their home and use the house she owns in Jamaica as a vacation home."

Donovan nodded, thinking his brothers had all gotten married and now all of his girl cousins-at least the ones living here in Charlotte-were having babies. Taylor and Dominic's son had been born the first of the year.

"So when are you going to settle down, marry and start a family, Donovan?"

His answer was quick. "Never. I happen to like being single."

"I thought I did, too until I fell in love. So beware, your time is coming," she warned.

He frowned. "Don't hold your breath, sweetheart. Just glow in your own happiness and leave mine alone."

Vanessa studied his features. "But just think how much happier you could be curling up with the same person each night, someone who you loved."

"Love? I'll pa.s.s. There's not enough love in the world to make me fall in love with any woman."

He went back around his desk and sat down, thinking that he was beginning to feel smothered by all these Steeles who were either getting married or having babies.

Chapter 8.

Humming her favorite tune, Natalie unlocked the door to Donovan's home around nine o'clock Friday morning. She had called when she'd been a block away hoping he didn't answer, an indication that he'd left for work already. Her plan was to get in and out before noon just in case he decided to come home for lunch.

Placing her purse down on the sofa she moved toward the hall closet where he kept the cleaning supplies. She was in a good mood. Her aunt's visit to the doctor yesterday had gone well, and during Natalie's restless nights she had been able to finish the first part of the project she was working on with NASA.

She still had her nightly dreams and figured there was no help for them. She was a woman whose needs were letting themselves known, but she was determined to ignore them like she always had, although they were more prevalent now than ever before.

She had finished cleaning the kitchen and had started in the living room, establis.h.i.+ng her rhythm as she dusted the furniture while the sound of Ne-Yo blared through her earbuds. She liked music and enjoyed dancing, although her moves on Friday night had been different. She had been on the dance floor with Donovan, in his arms while moving to a slow tune. It had been a long time since she'd been held by a man that way. And even now she was experiencing aftershocks from when he'd taken her outside and kissed her, practically devouring her mouth.

Suddenly there was a tap on her shoulder. Startled, she yelped then spun around only to collide with a wide, solid chest. She jumped back, almost losing her balance in the process while placing her hand over her furiously beating heart. Donovan was standing there in bare feet and wearing a pair of jeans and a s.h.i.+rt that was completely unb.u.t.toned and hung open showing a beautiful muscular chest. He looked as s.e.xy as sin.

She s.n.a.t.c.hed the earbuds from her ears as her gaze s.h.i.+fted from his face and moved lower to where a path of hair trailed from beneath his navel past the waistline of his jeans. She felt the heat of embarra.s.sment rush to her cheeks when she looked back to his face and knew he was aware what area of his body had grabbed most of her attention.

Natalie wished he would b.u.t.ton up his s.h.i.+rt and was tempted to suggest that he do so, but this was his house and he had the right to dress as he pleased. She swallowed, momentarily at a loss for words until she remembered he had just scared her out of her wits. She opened her mouth to speak, but he beat her to it.

"I tried to get your attention to let you know I was here, but you were too busy dusting and dancing around." He smiled. "And those were some pretty good moves, by the way."

She frowned, not in the mood for any of his humor. "What are you doing here, Donovan?"

A slow, deliberate smile touched his lips. "I live here."

She rolled her eyes. "Why aren't you at work?"

"I'm working at home today."

"Why?"

"Because I felt like it."

She wished she could throw her feather duster at him.

"I have a lot of work to do, and I promise to stay out of your way. The only reason I came downstairs was to grab a piece of fruit."

"So you won't be leaving for work today?" she asked.

"No."

"I wish you would have contacted the agency to let us know. We could have changed your cleaning to another day," she said.

"Why would you want to do that?"

She gave what she thought was an obvious answer. "You're here."

He lifted a brow. "Is that supposed to be a problem?"

She tilted her head while crossing her arms over her chest, leveling him with her gaze before asking smartly, "What do you think?"

A rumble of a chuckle erupted from his throat. "I think you're making too much of it. I'm upstairs in my office out of your way, so you can skip that room today. I have work to do and I'm sure you do, as well."

Her eyes narrowed as she watched him turn and sprint up the stairs.

Donovan closed his office door behind him, leaned against it and let out a deep sigh. He was not accustomed to retreating from a woman that he wanted, a woman he intended to have. But Natalie had him rethinking his strategy, polis.h.i.+ng his approach and modifying his tactics-and all with one final goal in mind. Seduction. He intended to get her back in his bed and make love to her, all day and all night. Only then would he effectively get her out of his system and move on.

With the Product Trade Show in a few months, he had too much work to do to let any one woman tie up his time with her continued rejections. He should be seducing her to his will, making love to her until he got enough, and once he got his fill he would walk away.

And not look back.

In the meantime, he would do whatever he had to do. If she thought she would eventually wear out his patience, then she was wrong. The woman had definitely underestimated his determination.

He drew in a deep breath. How could any one woman look so desirable? Those shorts and tank top she was wearing definitely weren't helping his libido. It was a different outfit from last week but it was hard for him to ignore just how good she looked in it. When he had come down the stairs and seen her move her body in a provocative dance while dusting, he had immediately gotten turned on. h.e.l.l, if he was totally honest with himself, he would admit that he had been turned on since waking up that morning and knowing that she would be coming today.

Now that she was here, the first thing he planned to do was break through her defenses. That was something he'd done Sat.u.r.day night when they had shared a very intense kiss, a kiss that had blood rus.h.i.+ng through his veins. A kiss that had kept him awake that night, fueling his l.u.s.t.

Almost a week later and his l.u.s.t was still getting fueled. Sighing again he went to sit behind his desk. He had brought work home. He had reports to read, and he had a conference call with Morgan and his research and development team in a half hour regarding Gleeve-Ware.

Donovan checked his watch. He would concentrate on work for a while, and then his full focus and attention would s.h.i.+ft to Natalie.

Natalie was on her knees in the master bathroom, scrubbing the tile around the shower when she heard the door open to the office where Donovan had been sequestered for the past two hours.

She hoped if he was headed downstairs he wouldn't enter his bedroom but would keep moving down the stairs. She only had his bedroom left to clean and much preferred that he wasn't around while she did so, considering he'd found her asleep in his bed the last time she cleaned in here.

She listened to the steady footsteps and knew the moment he had entered the room and was standing there, in the open doorway, staring down at her. She might be imagining things, but she could feel the intensity of his gaze on her backside. So, let him look if that's what he wanted to do. She would just ignore him.

She tried. However, when seconds ticked into minutes and he didn't say anything, she s.h.i.+fted around, leaned back on her haunches and looked up at him. "Did you want something?"

She realized her mistake too late. The darkening of his eyes told her she was asking the one question better left unanswered. He evidently didn't agree and responded, "Yes."

Natalie swallowed deeply. She could just imagine what he wanted. The way he was looking at her said it all, but she knew the polite thing to do was to ask anyway, just in case she was wrong. After all, he was the client. "And how can I help you?" She grimaced thinking that question didn't sound much better.

"You can start off by getting off the floor. Does it really take all of that?" he asked.

His response wasn't what she expected, and she rolled her eyes, while at the same time trying to ignore how s.e.xy he looked leaning in the doorway. "You're paying for cleaning services," she stated.

Donovan frowned. She didn't have to remind him, yet he still thought it didn't take all of that. He thought of how she'd looked on her knees with her backside tooted up in a cute way toward him. A tingle of desire had oozed through his stomach as if he hadn't been filled with wanting her already. It had been like adding kerosene to a flame already out of control when he thought about all the things he would like to do to that behind.

"Mr. Steele?"

His thoughts were pulled back at the sound of her voice. Then he concentrated on what she'd just called him. "You're starting that back up?"

"Starting what back up?"

"Calling me Mr. Steele."

"That's your name," she said, getting to her feet and pulling off the plastic gloves and tossing them into the trash can before was.h.i.+ng her hands.

"For you, it's not. I'm Donovan. I thought we had straightened that issue out on Friday."

She dried her hands. "Had we?"

"I was certain that we had," he said, watching her put his cleaning supplies back under the cabinet and appreciating how she bent over to do so. He glanced around and sniffed the air. The placed looked clean and smelled good.

"Then I guess it's gone back to being business as usual," she said smartly, coming to a stop in front of him and tilting her head back to look up at him.

He wanted to show her just how wrong she was by pulling her into his arms and kissing that agitated look off her face.

"Excuse me."

It was then that he realized she needed to get by and expected him to move out of he way. It would have been the gentlemanly thing to do. But all he could think about was that his bed was less than six feet behind him, and he would love to take her over there, strip her naked and then make love to her.

"You want me to move?" he asked, knowing she did but liking her standing in front of him, closer than she even realized. Her scent was sensual and set off a flutter of desire in his stomach. And like Friday night, her hair was pulled back in a cute ponytail with ringlets of curls crowning her face.

On sudden impulse, he reached out, and with a flick of his wrist, while ignoring the look on surprise on her face he sent her hair tumbling around her shoulders.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked, indignant.

Her indignation was something he could handle. What he couldn't handle-at least not much longer-was desiring her so much he could no longer think straight. His erection was growing heavier by the minute. "I just did something I was tempted to do Friday night. I wanted to see your hair tumble around your shoulders, and then I wanted to do this." He reached out and ran his fingers through the l.u.s.trous strands.

It was a bold move, and she stared up at him like he'd lost his mind. Maybe he had. While she seemed at a loss for words, totally stunned, he figured he might as well push the envelope and take things to another level.

On that decision, he lowered his mouth to hers and swept his tongue between her startled, parted lips. She moaned, which triggered his own groan, and his erection grew harder. Like the last time, this kiss was hot. It was also something desperate. Their tongues mingled and then began dueling, and in the process he felt his senses get shredded to pieces. When he felt her trembling, he wrapped his arms around her, needing to hold her as much as he wanted to believe she needed to be held.

He could tell she was too overtaken by the kiss to notice he was slowly walking backward, pulling her with him. And he continued to kiss her provocatively, without any restraints, not thinking of letting up and with a hunger that astounded him. He claimed her mouth with a free-for-all kiss as all those dreams that had tortured him this past week came surging back with megaforce. When the back of his legs touched his bed, he deepened the kiss and pulled her closer to him, gathered her tighter into his arms. Together they went tumbling backward, actually free-falling into the sheets.

But he didn't let up. In fact, knowing he had her where he wanted her actually made him sort of crazy, and it wasn't helping that she was responding to him with a pa.s.sion that he felt all through his body.

He deepened the kiss to drown farther in the sweet recesses of her mouth, but that wasn't enough. He wanted to touch her all over, taste her until he got enough...which wouldn't be any time soon. She had become an itch he needed to scratch-but way below the surface. The stark reality of just how much he wanted her loomed in the back of his mind, but he couldn't deal with that now. For him to desire any woman to this degree was unheard of, totally crazy. Insane. And he simply refused to admit to the possibility that he, the master of seduction, was the one getting seduced.

And with that possibility flas.h.i.+ng through his mind like a bold warning, he suddenly freed her mouth to draw back to look at her, observe her in silence. Her eyes were closed, she was breathing heavily and her lips looked liked they'd been thoroughly kissed. But the main thought in his mind, what he considered as a major accomplishment, was that she was in his bed, flat on her back beneath him.

He knew at that moment that she was fully aware, just like he was, of what could or would happen next. Here, in this bed with her, a bed he'd never shared with another woman, the thought of which had fueled his l.u.s.t since meeting her.

She slowly opened her eyes and looked up at him. He looked back and what he saw was a beautiful woman whose hair was tumbled around a flushed face, and whose honey-brown eyes had a degree of warmth that symbolized a level of pa.s.sion he rarely saw in a woman.

Enthralled, he held her gaze, wanting more than anything to get naked and sink into the deep, luscious depths of her. On his tongue he tasted her, even while imagining another taste of her he wanted to become familiar with. Her intimate taste. The thought of doing so made his s.e.x surge, and he knew she felt it when it did.

"You're trying to seduce me," she whispered as fragments of pa.s.sion exploded bit by bit, inch by inch in his stomach from the sound of her voice. He was getting turned on even more seeing her lips move.

There was only one response he could give her, one of complete honesty. "Yes, I am trying to seduce you." And then helpless to do or say anything else at that moment, he lowered his head to kiss her again.

Chapter 9.

This, Natalie thought, was a deliberate seduction, as calculated as it could get. And just as shrewd. Vastly intimate. There was no doubt in her mind that he was a master at it, had years of experience and had sharpened his skills just for her.

His tongue was having a field day with hers, driving her to the brink of madness by bringing forth ideas in her mind that she'd never considered before. A part of her desperately wanted to believe that his kissing her this way was a waste of his time, that she was immune to such seductive tactics. But another part of her, the one that was enjoying the feel of his tongue mating with hers, wasn't sure just how strong her willpower was.

Over the years she had encountered a number of men who'd wanted to take her to bed to not only dissect her mind but to break it down in the process. They'd felt threatened by her intellect, and when she refused to let their ruse work, they began feeling intimidated and saw her as a bother. She had handled their rebuff by displaying her competency even more. As far as she was concerned, not wanting to accept her as an equal was their problem and not hers. As a result, she'd been labeled problematic. That, coupled with her desire not to ever encounter a man close to Karl in att.i.tude and temperament, had forced her long ago to take herself out of the game. That was one of the reasons she thought Donovan Steele was as lethal as they came.

There was nothing typical with him. Everything seemed out of the ordinary. She was way out of her league with him, beyond her limited experience with men.