not the definition of waiting,” he told her hoarsely and let her slide to the ground as he slammed the door shut with one foot.
“I’m not very patient.” To prove it, she half turned and presented the zipper to her dress.
He reached out and pulled it. That glittery fabric snaked from her body and landed in a heap around her ankles as she spun back to face him. She was naked, and her high, peaked breasts called to him.
A curse worked itself loose from his mouth. “Are you trying to kill me?”
“No, I’m trying to get you into bed. Apparently I’m doing it wrong since you’re still dressed.”
Laughing around the raging desire clogging his throat, he stripped and scooped her up, then complied with her directive, depositing her gently on the bed. He rolled into her, and that fragrant, fruity scent encompassed him just as completely as the woman did.
“I’ve been fantasizing about this moment for a long time,” she confessed. Her honesty tripped something inside him.
Honeyed warmth spread through his chest as they stared at each other. This wasn’t supposed to be anything other than two people connecting with no expectations. Guess that wasn’t even possible with someone as unique as Alexandra Meer. She pulled things from deep inside that he’d have sworn were frozen. Things he didn’t want to feel for another woman. But it was hard to shut down.
He liked her. She was smart and successful with a touch of vulnerability that set her apart from other women in his path. That had been true from the first moment he’d met her.
He might as well admit the same. “Me too.”
Phillip kissed her and she slid a long, smooth leg between his, teasing, tempting and torturing all at once, and that was it. This wasn’t going to happen slowly. He wanted her as badly as she seemed to want him.
He fumbled in the nightstand for some condoms he was pretty sure were still in there from the last time he’d brought a woman home maybe eight months ago. A year? He had a bad moment when he couldn’t find them and then his fingers closed around one.
He tore it open and somehow got it on in one shot and then she was back in place against him, her gorgeous, sweet body aligned with his. After an eternity, he pushed inside and they joined in a clash of bodies that felt so right, Phillip could hardly stand it. She was unbelievably lush and sensuous.
They moved in a timeless rhythm that somehow became new and electrifying. She gave as much as she took and his mind drained of everything except returning the pleasure. Higher and higher they spiraled as her moans spurred him on. Their simultaneous climax was like icing on an already lip-smacking cake.
He held her quaking body tight against his as the release blasted through him. And then he couldn’t let go. She smelled like pears and well-loved woman, and he craved her heat, even in the aftermath. Usually he preferred to recover on his own, but he still couldn’t get enough of this amazing woman.
Sure, he’d wanted her, but sex wasn’t the be-all, end-all. He’d wanted to explore the connection they’d both felt from the very first. It had been just as amazing as he’d hoped. But he’d anticipated burning off that attraction and moving on. Epic fail in that regard. He wasn’t close to done and that felt like a problem.
He had to get her out of his bed before he started rehearsing a pretty speech designed to convince her to spend the night. Which was enough of a warning to scramble from the sheets. He had never slept with a woman other than Gina. Tonight was not the night to start.
Later, he drove Alex home in his Tesla instead of sending her with his driver, Randy, like he’d planned. He couldn’t seem to let her go. The night had ended far too soon.
And though he couldn’t give her everything she deserved, he didn’t want to let Alex walk out of his life.
Just because they’d said no expectations didn’t mean he couldn’t ask to see her again. After all, he didn’t really know what she was looking for in a relationship. How could he say what he had to offer wasn’t enough if they didn’t talk about it?
At the door of Alex’s house just north of Dallas in University Park, he kissed her good-night and then pulled back to gorge himself on the sight of her beautiful face. Tomorrow, she’d go back to T-shirt-and-jeans Alex.
He wanted to see her again, no matter what she was wearing.
“Can I call you?” he asked hoarsely and cleared his throat. “Let me take you to dinner.”
She smiled. “I’d like that.”
Phillip mentally flipped through his calendar and then cursed. He’d fly to Washington tomorrow and hadn’t planned to be back in Dallas for the foreseeable future. “I can’t set a firm date. But please know it’s not because I don’t want to. I have to be in Washington. Duty calls.”
“Phillip, no expectations.” She cupped his face with both palms and held it. “I like spending time with you. But I’m not going to wait by the phone for you to call. I have a company to run. I’m busy, too. Call me when you’re free.”
A bit blindsided, he stared at her. Most women—all women he’d ever met—wouldn’t have considered giving him a pass like that. Alex was something else. “That’s very gracious.”
She shrugged. “You’re worth waiting for.”
Something turned over in his heart. This was crazy. Instead of exploring their attraction and getting it out of their systems, he was trying to figure out how to juggle his schedule so he could see her again. He should be running back to his car and driving away very fast in pursuit of someone who was much better suited to being the wife he needed.
The wife he needed would understand he couldn’t be disloyal to Gina. The wife he needed would stand by his side as he navigated the Washington social scene, wearing couture and cosmetics with ease. The wife he needed would understand that his career might require sacrifices to her own career.
Above all, the wife he needed would not generate all of these unexpected, confusing emotions. Alex was not what he needed.
His career was everything to him. It had saved him from drowning in grief two years ago, and with his eye on the White House, Alex would only complicate his life. No, she wasn’t what he needed—but she was everything he wanted. And that made her very dangerous indeed.
Four weeks later...
The packaging on the pregnancy test was too slick for Alex’s shaking fingers to grip. Gracelessly, she stuck the end in her mouth and tore it open. The slim stick fell out and tumbled end over end into the toilet bowl with a splash. Of course.
This was surreal. The walls of the company she’d cofounded surrounded her. Fyra was a multimillion-dollar cosmetics powerhouse that she’d worked tirelessly to manage alongside her friends and partners. Every single dollar of revenue and every dime of expense had passed through her fingers from day one. She was responsible for hundreds of employees’ paychecks.
And she couldn’t do a simple thing like open plastic packaging.
“What happened?” Cass’s
