Lovely Trigger(64)

Those Troublesome dimples came out to play. “You know. Magic.”

I pulled him into my office, not even giving a gape-mouthed Kate any explanation. “Seriously, tell me how you did that, because unless you really have sold your soul to Satan for some magical powers—”

“Hey now!”

“Unless that has happened, there is an explanation for that trick back there, and you really need to tell me, because that one freaked me out.”

He shook his head, smiling. “I can’t just give out trade secrets. I need some guarantee, boo, some sort of contract between the two of us that assures your loyalty.”

“I swear I won’t give away the trick,” I told him.

He tilted my chin up with a light touch, his eyes so affectionate that I had to blink rapidly and look away, to stay unaffected.

“Okay, I’ll take that, and now I just have to keep you close, as insurance, you understand.” He smiled. It was overkill. “It was actually a two-bit trick. The cheapest kind of all. The really difficult involved stuff is never fully appreciated, which, as a professional, is vexing. But this one was simple.”

“You somehow have an extra page that you carry around and slip into the magazine, after she picks a card?”

He laughed and shook his head. “No. That would be a feat, there. I’ve seen the magazine before, and I knew about the page, about the card. I’m actually responsible for that page being in all of the copies of that publication, and it’s a popular one around town.”

“Well, that seems pretty damned involved to me. But that makes no sense. She picked the card.”

“It’s not involved, since I do the damn trick all the time, and I get many uses out of it. I make James provide copies of those magazines all over the property, which is easy for him, since he owns the publication.”

“But that doesn’t explain why she picked that card. She said so.”

“She thinks she picked that card. But she didn’t. I suggested it, not in a way she realized, and that is all there is to it. Like I said, cheapest trick in the biz.”

“Wow. They all work like that?”

He shrugged. “It depends. To say I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve is like saying James has a lot of money. Not even touching on the surface of it.”

“You think a trick like that would work on me? Could you have suggested which card to pick to me like that?”

His mouth twisted, and he stroked a hand over my hair. “Well, no, certainly not now. It’s all out in the open, for you and me.” Something dangerous was bleeding out of his eyes.

I backed away. “I need to get to work. Tell me your good news fast, because I’m heading out on the floor.”

He shook his head, his eyes on my body.

I was wearing a fitted navy polka dot halter dress with a big bow at the neck, and a sweeping hem that hit just above the knees. I hadn’t been dressing to impress when I’d put it on, but suddenly it felt like the dress was too sexy to wear to work.

That’s what his eyes did to me. They had the power to transform. The way I felt. The things I wanted.

“You aren’t going to tell me your good news?” I asked, breathless now.

“I can’t even remember what it is.”

“Must not have been that good of news.”

A ghost of a smile played around his mouth. “It had some stiff competition, in terms of my attention. Never had a shot.”

He took a step in my direction, and I inched a careful step back. There had to be boundaries, somehow, someway, and it seemed like not having sex in my office in the middle of business hours was a good place to start.

“I really do need to get back to work,” I told him, when he’d backed me to the wall.

He picked me up by the waist, carrying me straight to my desk. He set me on the edge there, and it was high enough that he could squeeze his hips between my thighs, and hit just the perfect spot.

“This won’t take long.”

I snorted. “Well, that’s hardly selling it.”

He smiled, and sank down to kneel in front of me.

I’d never realized before just how multi-functional a stand-up desk could be.

He buried his face between my legs without even pulling up my skirt. He just inhaled, making me squirm.

His hands began to inch my hem up. I helped him, officially gone to the dark side for the immediate future.

Sanity rushing out of me between one ragged breath and the next.

And in that same breath coming back, I let sensation in. Blissful oblivion in.

It seemed like a good trade. Impossible to turn down, really.

He bunched my skirt up around my hips, nuzzling into my sex. I sucked in harsh breaths as he pulled my panties off.

With this teeth.

I struggled to watch, when my eyes wanted to drift closed in pleasure.

It was a sight worth seeing.

I dragged a fistful of my skirt up, stuffing it in my mouth in an attempt to muffle my own cries.

How could I have forgotten the magical things his lips could do? And his tongue.

And his hands. Once those magic hands set to work on me, there was no setting up boundaries, no stifling cries.

He licked, lapped, tortured and teased, while my hands in turn stroked his hair or tried to pull it out. That delicious scruff on his jaw added to the torment, tickling at the skin of my inner thighs.