Lost and Found (Growing Pains #1)(94)

“Well, Krista,” Tory said, avoiding his dessert. “Thanks for the interesting and lively chat. Someday I do hope you will get to meet my wife. She’d love you.”

With that he stood up and moved off toward the restrooms. Krista was left on her own to finish her dessert and then her wine, and then to listen to the president give a speech about how the money donated would help some organization or other.

As people started to leave later in the evening she figured it was safe to get up and head to the bar. She had a good buzz already, but no one was talking to her anymore so she figured one more wouldn’t hurt.

Full glass in hand, she turned back toward the dining area and right into Sean, standing so close her foot bumped his. His heat and smell shocked into her body, mixing with the alcohol and liquefying her bones. She wanted to reach out a sure hand and feel those hard pecs, or connect her body with his, reaching around to feel his perfect butt. Fantasies exploded her thoughts; what it would feel like to trail her fingers along his warm skin; slide her palm up the inside of his leg; cupping his—

Don’t touch his crotch!

“How did it go?” Sean asked quietly, lightly grabbing her arm and steering her away from any listeners.

“How did what go?” she asked stupidly, looking up into his eyes. They were dark and ominous and tinged with worry.

She couldn’t help the lean, frustratingly unashamed of her breast making contact and sending ripples of heat into her core. His hand tightened slightly.

“Dinner. With Mr. Hartling?” Apprehension lurked right below the surface of his words.

“Mr. Hartling is someone of note?” she asked, bewildered. An abominable snowman called “Fear” chased the heat from her body. Suddenly, Tory’s conversation topics seemed a lot more designed. And spot on.

She might have seriously, unforgivably f**ked up on this one.

“Are you serious, Krista?” Sean said with an edge to his voice.

Fuck.

“He is the CEO. of the company we are chasing!” he seethed.

Her stomach hit her shoes. She broke away from Sean to think. To recall every word she said. Every word she heard from him. It took ten minutes to realize she should definitely have kept her mouth shut on a ton of stuff!

But at least she did lie in the right places, so that was good.

Oh God, but was it good enough?

Sean, seeing this reaction, led her to a bench beneath a tree at the outskirts of the event. In solitude, he sat her down and pulled up a chair so he was directly facing her, his intense eyes focused on her unwaveringly, “Tell me everything.”

Krista tried to think through the buzz of lust; tried to turn her thoughts from the primal energy radiating from him like heat weaves off concrete in the summer.

“Okay,” she blew out a breath, gripping the arms of her chair with claw-like fingers to keep her body from leaning in and soaking up that heat. “He was suspicious of me at first. That confused me because I didn’t know who he was. He asked me about…uh, oh, what I did! For a living. I told him.”

“Did you mention the company name?”

“Of course I did. It would’ve sounded stupid if I omitted it. Plus, I didn’t know him from Avery.”

“Who’s Avery?”

“I don’t know, just a name-- Anyway, so he asked something about...uh...—oh, I know, he asked why I was there dateless. Here. So I said it was a gold star for doing well in a presentation—it was a white lie—and that my boss didn’t like these things. I think he agreed with that logic. But that was at the bar. Um…”

“I need more than that, Krista.”

“Um, let’s see. Oh, he asked about jewelry at one stage. I mean thank God I didn’t know who he was or that would have been tragic, right? I would have lied all over the place.”

“But you didn’t?”

“No. He made a comment that different colors are taboo—you know, gold and white gold worn at once. I informed him that that was his generation talking. And—“

“More detail,” Sean whispered, eyes roaming her face.

On lust hiatus, Krista let spill every word in her head. His presence, his passion for this event, for his job, was acting like truth serum. She couldn’t refuse. She told him the conversation, from beginning to end, leaving out nothing. Not even the swords. She told him what she said about him, and also what she said about John.

Sean listened to every word, leaning forward to catch every syllable. His knees pushed between her, spreading her thighs, lifting her dress. His fingertips tickled her inner thigh, dangling from his slackening arms.

They’d stopped talking without realizing the absence. He perched on the edge of his seat, his body trying to close the distance to hers. She yearned for the same thing, hands loosened, allowing his draw to pull her closer.

The lights twinkled around them, enchanting, reflecting in his deep eyes, burning with lust and something else, something close to anticipation.

Her lips parted, chest heaving, desperate for breath. Her legs parted, too; she was past thinking, past consequences.

Her hand reached for his knee as his made more contact with her bare leg. Her heart was beating wildly, her mouth dry, sopping wet between her thighs. Shamefully she opened her legs wider to him, permitting his hand to reach for her apex, almost there. Her hand slid up his knee, reaching for his body, needing to see how it felt, how he felt. Inside her. She needed some part of him inside of her.