34
Vivian shifted, her fingers aching from gripping her arms too tight. His anger showed in every line of his tanned skin. But she refused to be intimidated. “I talk. But you have to realize you haven’t asked me anything or any question I have to reply to. You do this all the time.” she challenged back.
She regretted the comment immediately, because he suddenly lurched forward, his calm demeanor gone in a single sharp blink of his eyes. “Explain what you mean by that,” he commanded.
“I…No.” Feeling her cheeks start to heat, Vivian lowered her gaze.
“You damn well will, Vivian” he countered harshly. “And you will do it right now!”
“Why are you angry with me?” she queried hotly.” You instructed me to go through the documents and I did. Did I do something wrong?”
She knew damn well why he was angry and was trying to divert the subject, Scott recognised, narrowing his eyes as he swung his mind back to the night of the party. “What the hell do you think -?” he shot at her.
“I don’t know!” Her eyes widened in alarm when he came striding around the side of the desk and pulled to a stop only when he towered right over her. Intimidated by the whole macho physicality of his stance, Vivian took a wary step back.
“W-what is the matter with you?” she husked out.
“That’s one hell of a question,” Scott stepped in close again, halting her next backward step by catching hold of her arms to make her stay where she was.
Feeling the pressure of his fingers slither a streak of heat over her shoulders, Vivian hurriedly tried to bury the sensation in a rush of speech.
“Let-Let go of me!”
“Why the hell did you walk away from me that night? And don’t tell me you didn’t want me because I know you did. I got a taste of it the other night. You were like hot silk in my arms when we kissed, woman. And look at me when you talk to me,” Scott rasped in annoyance.” It infuriates me when you hide your eyes from me like that.”
Pulling in a tense breath, Vivian did as he bade her, found herself clashing with a pair of dark eyes, a flame in their depths she had never seen there before. For a second she forgot what they were talking about while she absorbed this fascinating moment-
“Speak,” Scott commanded.
Vivian blinked, elaborately long soot-black eyelashes a trembling framework around the startling dark of her eyes. “Finally you said what you have been wanting to say since. I got the documents you wanted. Is there something else…. work related that you’d like me to help you with, Mr McCall? Are we done here?”
“You and I are not. I want to know why you walked out.”
“This is all your own fault, Scott!” she then flared up before he could react. “Women do change their minds, you know. Just because we kissed doesn’t mean I owed it to you to spend the night in your bed. You are the one who started this. First you kiss me and ignore me, then you get mad when you see me with a coworker because you think I’m having an inappropriate work relationship with them. And now, since that night, you have been doing the same thing. You make me follow you about like a pet dog on a leash! You glare at me if I move. You glare at me if I smile. You touch my hair, my arm, my fingers if I rest them on the table. You slide your hand around my waist when we walk! Look at you now,” Vivian charged up heatedly.” You are holding me here in front of you as if you have some special right to do so!”
Scott snapped his fingers from her arms as if she’d burned him. Vivian almost staggered off the heels of her shoes in shock. The stunned expression on his face made her wring out a little laugh. “You don’t know you do it, do you?” she choked out unsteadily. “You have no clue at all that you do any of the things I said! Well, you do, and soon people will assume from your behavior towards me that we are -intimate.” The word struggled to leave her throat.
“I don’t care what anyone else thinks, damn it. You gave me quite a lesson in teasing, lady. You were ready” he stated. “I should have….Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g
“I don’t tease,” Vivian sputtered. “And what makes you think you could have?”
Scott turned to stone in front of her. Shaken up by what she had just said to him, Vivian tried to tug in a strained breath. For the past two weeks, Scott had been treating her more like his lowly slave than his personal assistant. He’d dragged her out to every business luncheon he had attended. He’d brought her tumbling out of bed at ungodly hours of the morning to accompany him to working breakfasts too. If she spoke he didn’t like it; if she smiled he didn’t like it. If she let her attention drift to take in her surroundings he touched her hand to bring her gaze back to him, then frowned at her as if she had committed a mortal sin. Then he let her go home in the evenings-to recover, she presumed, while he went out and-did whatever it was he did in the evenings with whoever it was he did it with!
“Let me show you then… ” he said.
Her first step backward was her last. Scott’s arms looped about her to bring her to his chest, pinning her arms to her sides, and sending her handbag across the carpet. Their clothing seemed to dissolve as Vivian felt each button of his shirt imprint itself on her flesh. Hard thighs cradled the softness of hers, a granite brace of muscles and desire that burned her body.
Scott looked down at her, his lashes throwing webbed shadows on his cheeks. Vivian swallowed nervously, and his gaze flickered down her throat. The grim line of his mouth tightened. His stare returned to her face. His arms loosened slightly, yet he did not permit her to move.
He wanted to trace her ribcage and slide his hands beneath that damned clothes. He wanted to touch her bare nipples, to feel them ripen with need. The same need that coursed through his own body and made his muscles bunch. But he knew he had to pace himself, to keep his cool and launch a full blown attack on her senses, it was all about breaching her line of defense, tackling every barrier she had put up and turning her on beyond the point of no return. They were so close he could almost taste her breath in the air between them.
“I know that I could because if I kiss you right now, you wouldn’t be able to stop me. In fact I don’t think you’d want me to.” he murmured softly as she squirmed against the masculine shackles that bound her. He leaned back against the desk, then drew her forward against him. Vivian pressed her thighs into the front of the desk. His jet black gaze slid over her face, touching the parted softness of her mouth.
She struggled, found it futile, then glared at him. “Let me go”. She said
He held her easily, his eyes glittering as her tongue laved her dry bottom lip
The harsh places of his face softened into a sensual expression that heated her blood. Vivian’s bones began turning to Jell-O, her emotions playing hide-and-seek with the orders of her brain. She groaned, a low sound of frustration. “Let me go, Scott” she said again.
“I could take you right now if I wanted to. So can you drop the fucking act.” He said, and released her just as suddenly as he’d grabbed her. “Now I want to take away those files on my desk and look through them as well. Also I want you call Senator Adams and tell them I said our deal is off.
Tuning in too late to catch what he’d said, Vivian saw that he’d moved back round his desk and lowered himself back into his chair again.
“See to it right away.” he instructed, pushing a folder back across the desk.
“S-see to wh-what?” she stammered out warily.
He lifted eyes to look at her. It was like being pinned to the wall by shards of black glass. Whatever it was that had exploded inside of him was gone now and the cold hard ruthlessly controlled animal was back.
“I’m s-sorry,” she felt compelled to apologize. “But I did not catch w-what you s-said to me.”
“Do I have a poor command of the English language?” he mocked.
“N-no.” She hated him. “I… I lost concentration f-for a m-moment…’
Scott wondered what she’d do if he asked her to use that delightfully husky stammer she’d just developed, tonight while lying naked beneath him in his bed? She would probably just walk away from him again…