made her bolder and she fought her flight reflex to hold her position by the bar.
He picked up her full paper cup from the counter and held it up in a dangerous and silent offer. It was her turn.
A quick glance confirmed that Batman had disappeared and there was no reason to continue with the show. Aside from her not wanting to stop. “He’s gone,” she said, giving him the opportunity to stop if this was still just a ruse.
“I know,” he said, and handed her the salt shaker.
Given that he was wearing a long-sleeved button-down black shirt, the only real option she had was his neck. She stood on her toes, straining in her heels to reach him. Emma leaned in and left a moist trail from the hollow of his throat to just over his Adam’s apple, where her tongue ran across the rough stubble that had grown in since his morning shave. She could feel his pulse quicken as she hovered near to him. This time, she noticed his skin smelled more distinctly male. Salty and slightly musky. She couldn’t help lingering to take in a deep breath and commit the scent to memory. Her body’s reaction to it was almost primal, parts deep inside of her clenching with a building need.
“Here,” he offered as she pulled away to apply the salt. He lowered onto his knees and looked up at her with big blue eyes, his hands resting on the swell of her hips.
Emma could hardly see enough of his face to piece together an expression, but his intense gaze urged her on. As he knelt, it almost felt as though he were worshipping at her feet. She liked it.
She tried to focus on doing the shot properly before his skin dried and the salt wouldn’t adhere. She didn’t want to give away her inexperience with this. She’d never even dreamed of doing anything as blatantly sexual as body shots. She didn’t think she had it in her.
She sprinkled the salt on his throat and positioned the lime between his full, soft lips. Nervously gripping the tequila in one hand, Emma leaned in a second time to lick off the salt. She could feel the vibration of a growl in his throat as her tongue slid across his skin. Pulling away, she quickly threw back the drink and placed her hands on each side of his face. Just before she was able to bite into the fruit, he spat out the lime. Emma didn’t have time to stop and their lips met with another unexpected spark.
She didn’t pull away. The old Emma would have. In her mask, she was someone else.
The second kiss blew the first out of the water. His fingertips dug into the flesh of her hips as he tugged her close against him. She melted against his mouth, slowly slipping down until she, too, was on her knees in the kitchen. The island shielded them from the crowd only feet away. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her lips clinging to his as he probed and explored her with his tongue.
It was deliciously naughty. In that moment, Emma wanted his kiss more than anything else in her entire life.
Just when she’d convinced herself that the kiss might never end, they parted. His quick breath was hot on the skin of her neck as he pressed his cheek against hers and sat there for a moment to recover. Their arms were still tangled around one another, neither grip loosening. There was an intensity in him that excited and frightened her, but she matched it with her own.
“Come with me,” he whispered, then stood and offered his hand.
Emma wasn’t ignorant. She knew what he was offering and every inch of her body urged her to take him up on it. She’d never done anything like this. Ever. And yet there was something about her hero that insisted she go with him.
So she did.
Three Months Later
“Where the hell is Noah?” Jonah Flynn growled into his telephone and gripped his coffee mug fiercely in his free hand.
“He’s...n-not in, sir.”
His brother’s administrative assistant, Melody, was audibly startled by his tone and he immediately chose to correct it. Jonah didn’t raise his voice to his employees, ever. Honestly, the only person he ever shouted at was Noah. And he would direct his anger at his brother if he could find the bastard.
“I’m sorry for yelling, Melody. I didn’t think he would be there. He’s never in the office. What I really meant was do you know where he’s gone to? He isn’t answering his home phone and his cell phone goes directly to voice mail like he’s got it turned off.”
Melody hesitated on the line for a moment. Jonah could hear the clicking of her keyboard as she checked his calendar. “His calendar is wide-open, but he mentioned as he left that he was headed to Bangkok.”
Jonah nearly choked on his latte. He swallowed hard and moved the cup out of his reach. “As in Thailand?”
“Yes, sir.”
He took a deep breath to swallow his anger. He would not, could not, take this out on Melody. She’d already called him “sir” twice, which just felt wrong. Yes, he was the CEO, but he was also wearing jeans and a Monty Python T-shirt. Everyone just called him Jonah.
“Any idea when he’ll be back?”
“No, but he did send me the number of the hotel he’s staying at. You could probably reach him there.”
“That would be great, thanks, Melody.” She read off the number and he quickly scratched it on his desk blotter before hanging up. He dialed it, getting transferred to his brother’s suite without much trouble. Of course Noah didn’t answer. He was probably frolicking with some exotic beauty. Jonah forced himself to leave a voice mail message that didn’t betray the true reason for his call and hung up in disgust.
Thailand.
If he’d had any second thoughts about Noah being involved in his current mess, they immediately dissipated. If the preliminary accounting reports he was looking at were correct, his little brother had just taken off to Southeast Asia with three million dollars that didn’t belong to him.
Jonah leaned back in his leather chair and gently rubbed his temples. This was not good.
The timing was never good for embezzlement, really, but his brother had just royally screwed him over in more ways than one. Noah didn’t spend much time in the office; his role in the company was to please their mother and nothing else. But Noah knew—he knew—that they were close to wrapping up the deal with Game Town. The auditor they’d hired was showing up today. Today!
This could ruin everything. It wasn’t a huge amount in terms of the numbers that ran through the company, but his brother wasn’t smart and took it in one big chunk, transferring it to some offshore account he had in the Caribbean. Anyone with an interest would run across it eventually. Game Town was hiring FlynnSoft to manage their monthly game subscription service. Who would want the company handling their money to have issues like that? Jonah certainly wouldn’t do it if the roles were reversed.
This needed cleaning up and fast. As much as he didn’t want to, he could rearrange his assets for some cash and cover the loss. He would take it out of his brother’s hide later. Maybe make him sell his overpriced European sports car. Perhaps even make him do some actual work at FlynnSoft for free until he paid off the debt.
But Noah would pay for this. By the time
