IN BED WITH THE BOSS

“I have a sweet tooth.” said Vivian.

“Among other things,” Scott murmured oddly.

About to ask him what he meant by that-

“Do you want coffee?” he got in before her.

“And spoil the taste of the wine? Thanks, no,” she refused.

“Then if you’ve finished do you mind if we leave now?” he asked.

“Oh…” Vivian tensed, her slender spine arching up on the sudden realization that she’d talked his socks off all the way through the meal! It was no wonder he was wearing that blank expression on his face. “I had lost track of how long we have been here…”

“And the restaurant has emptied,” Scott pointed out dryly. “We’re the last ones here…”

Flickering a surprised glance around the empty tables she noticed the restaurant staff standing around, trying hard not to look impatient for them to leave. “Why didn’t you say something sooner?” she whispered from the depths of a sinking embarrassment.

“You were enjoying your meal. There was no need to rush.” With the merest glance in the waiter’s direction he brought him rushing to his side. “My companion’s jacket,” he instructed, handing over a credit card. “You have time to finish your wine,” he indicated smoothly to Vivian , as if she would dare to take another sip!

“No.” She stood. “I think I’ve had enough.” A flush of hot color was burning her cheeks. She wanted to die where she stood-deflate like a balloon and disappear altogether. She almost snatched her jacket from the waiter when he arrived with it, so eager to remove herself from here now that she could barely stop herself from doing it at a run.Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

The waiter was handing Scott his credit card. Vivian fumbled in her urgency to drag her jacket on and missed slotting her arm in the sleeve.

“Allow me…” he said.

She froze as Scott took the garment from her and politely held it open, ready for her to slip it on. Her hair became trapped inside the black satin and she used the need to release it as an excuse to keep her head lowered so no one could see how hot her face had gone.

Outside the cool night air hit her like an icy slap in the face and she shivered. Scott placed a hand against her lower back to walk her towards his waiting car. A beep sounded as the locks sprang free and his hand guided her into her seat.

The car growled into life. It moved away from the curb with the sleek prowling grace of a hunting panther. As he began to drive, her gaze was drawn downwards to watch as his long fingers moved the car through its gears, her breath suddenly caught in her throat.

“What-?” Scott asked, so sharp he obviously did not miss anything.

“Nothing.” Dragging her eyes away from the dash, she tried to ignore the nausea. Then, without any warning at all, she choked, “I feel sick.”

The stunned silence which followed her announcement held for a second or two, then the car ground to a jerking halt. Scott was out of it and striding round to yank her door open before Vivian could do it for herself. Out in the night air again, she began to shiver so badly he must have felt compelled to offer a supporting arm around her shaking shoulders while she stood fighting a battle with nausea that she was sure had a lot to do with the amount of wine she had drunk.

Scott felt bad. In fact, he was cursing himself. He wished the hell he knew what he had been playing at back there, feeding her wine by the glassful to draw her out of her shell. What had he hoped to gain from it? An insight into what made his personal assistant tick, or had his motives been fixed somewhere else?

“It’s usually better to throw up and get it over with than to fight it,” he advised, trying to recall the last time he’d deliberately set out to get a woman drunk. There had never been another time. He had never sunk this low before. She got to him and he didn’t like it. She made him think, do and want things he did not want to think, do or want.

“I’m all r-right.” Making an effort to pull herself together, Vivian stepped away from his supporting arm to stand by herself.

Letting his arm drop to his side he sighed, “I’m-sorry.”

He was sorry? “What for?” she asked.

“I should not have let you drink all that wine.” he replied.

“It’s fine. I can take my wine, Scott McCall” Vivian threw back. “I grew up making and drinking wine. Maybe It was your car that made me feel sick. I will walk the rest of the way-”

“What do you mean, my car made you sick?” Grabbing her arm as she went to walk away from him he pulled her to a halt.

Vivian shivered. Pushing off Scott’s hand, she started walking, needing to get as far away from him as fast as she could. The nausea was churning up her stomach and her arms had wrapped themselves tight around her ribs.

“Stop, Vivian” Scott caught up with her. “Slow down before you twist off those ridiculous high shoes,” he instructed impatiently, curling a set of long fingers around her arm.

“You have forgotten your car,” she muttered in the hopes that he would take the hint and leave her to walk home alone.

“And you’ve forgotten the rules of dating again,” Scott responded coolly. “I see mine to their door.”

“We did not have a date,” Vivian denied. “You hijacked me in the street.”

“It doesn’t matter. Same rules apply.” Still holding on to her, his attention had diverted to the two streams of traffic moving up and down the street. His fingers tightened. “Come on,” he said, “let’s go back to the car.”

She pulled her hand away from his. “I don’t feel like it, Scott”

She tried to walk away again, but now Scott was mad. He grabbed Vivian’s arm as she turned away from him. “Stop this right now, Vivian, and don’t you ever walk out on me like that again!” he said angrily.

Vivian let her eyes settle on his hand for a few seconds before she yanked her arm away from his grip. Noticing that she missed his touch, she shook the thought away. “The only time you have the right to tell me what to do is during working hours, and the last time I checked…. No one is working right now.”

His eyebrow lifted, as if calling her bluff. “Really?” he asked. One side of his lips curled up in a smirk.

Vivian didn’t care. She was finding it very hard to keep her mouth sealed at the moment, and she didn’t even try to stop herself.” Yes. I am not your employee right now so I can do exactly as I please!”

Something new charged up the atmosphere. It began with a small flicker of his long eyelashes as he dropped his gaze to her mouth. He wanted to kiss her. Vivian knew it with an instinct older than time itself. Her heart stopped beating, then started up again at a faster pace because-, she wanted him to-so much.

He knew he was going to do it. He knew he just couldn’t hold back. She was beautiful, a warm, soft, achingly desirable creature with passion in her angry eyes, and on her softly pulsing mouth.

“That’s funny?” He said, but there was nothing funny about the look in his eyes. His mouth hardened with lust. “Well, since we’re going with that, it also means that I can do the same, right?”

Without giving her a chance to respond, he grabbed her waist and he pulled her right up against him-so close that she could feel every hard muscle in his body. His body heat warmed her, and his palm settled at the base of her spine. She couldn’t think straight… Not when he bent and nipped at her bottom lip, then sucked it, soothing and enhancing the sting before returning to devour her mouth. As if she was something he knew he shouldn’t have but couldn’t resist.

Sliding his fingers into her hair, he stroked a fingertip along the smoothness of her extended throat. Her lips parted, and he felt the growing rush of her blood flow into his own. She swayed even closer, a willing recipient of what was happening. Feeling like a man controlled by a magnet, Scott kept totally still as he slid his tongue into her mouth and deepened the kiss.

A car drove past them sounding its horn noisily and they sprang apart like two tightly coiled springs breaking free from their restraints. Dizzied by the pressure that had built up inside her, Vivian stumbled backward a few steps at the same time that Scott broke the grip he still held on one of her arms.