“Oh Nicholas…” Mindy’s voice grated on my nerves and I had to physically bite my tongue not to snap. 

    What kind of a name was Mindy anyway?

    She was yammering on in a way that made my head splinter. Long ago I’d developed a nasty habit of blanking out during rolling, senseless dialogue—a family necessity—but there was a throbbing at my temples all the same. She was arm candy courtesy of my mother—another family necessity—but leave it to mother to focus more on last name than conversation quality.

    I snatched my ordered scotch as soon as the server brought it and tried not to slug it back too quickly. As soon as the glass lowered from my eyesight something glinted across the room. I shifted my grip on the glass to hold it at my side. The sparkle I’d seen just a moment ago was gone but it didn’t stop me from scanning the room for it. 

    Mindy brushing her fingers down my arm distracted me. I felt my face pinch and this time couldn’t contain it. 

    “Please don’t, Mindy.” I stepped aside so she would have no question as to what I was asking of her. 

    “But why?” She whined and the octave made me inadvertently arch back and crack my neck. 

    “Because I asked you not to.”

    She stuck her lip out. 

    “Okay. Because we just met. Because I have associates here. The press. Do you need additional reasons? Do I really need to explain myself?” I knew I was being terse but I couldn’t help it. 

    But then the golden shimmer across the room caught my eye again. And this time it wasn’t just a glimmer. It was a fucking magnet attracting every ounce of my concentration. I couldn’t look away. And it wasn’t just because the of the gold that caught my attention. It was because gold was bouncing across the smoothest, supplest skin I’d ever seen. Skin that covered mile long legs. 

    “Fucking Christ.” I didn’t mean to say it out loud and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mindy swivel to look at me. 

    I was too busy imagining those perfectly toned legs wrapped around my hips to give a damn. I took my time raking my eyes up the perfect ten across the room. Eye catching, dick twitching and perfectly classy all at once. 

    And then there was her face. Mischievous. Gorgeous. What was better was I recognized her. Kate. Fucking. Elliott.  

      Her photo in Forbes hadn’t nearly done her justice. She had looked pretty, but average. Professional. In reality she was anything but. Perhaps it was the lack of a power suit or the legs that came up to my hips. Maybe the slight jiggle of big tits she’d tried to hide in the pages of the magazine or even the pinup red of her lips, but whatever it was, she gave me a semi. 

    I shifted my legs hoping to rearrange ad hide my growing boner. I had to make myself concentrate. She needed sizing up and not in the what-does-your-pussy feel like kind of way. I wanted her company and this was my moment to get her.

    Fuck. Get IT. 

    A group of faceless businessmen sidled up to yammer about a lesser one of my recent acquisitions. I snapped into my role perfectly but I couldn’t get the image of Kate out of my head. Bottom lines, shipping routes and Kate Elliott spun through my mind and for the first time it wasn’t planning the takeover of her company or what I’d do with it once I got it. 

    My eyes roved the room whenever I sipped on the fresh scotch continuously coming my way when I should have been listening to the group congregated around me. When I noticed perfect legs, legs that I already recognized, striding straight toward me, something inside me twisted. Before I even realized I was twisting to meet her. 

    What has come over me?

    “Mr. Bryant, my name is Kate Elliott. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She had a sensual purr of a voice and the way her mouth massaged the words was bewitching. The things that mouth could probably do…

    “Ms. Elliott, the pleasure is all mine.” 

    And God damn if that wasn’t the truth. 

    I offered her a handshake and her grip was firm but with long, delicate fingers. Whether she meant to or not, she gasped the tiniest bit when we touched. 

    She was perfection. She awoke a savage beast deep inside me that snarled. And was tempted to throw her over my shoulder to carry her out of the ballroom straight into my bed. In the split second since we touched, I could picture my hands on her, roving up her legs, brushing along her neck, wrapping around that pony tail and pulling. Hard. 

    Just like me. 

    “I’m sure you have, he’s quite a catch.” Mindy’s screechy voice interrupted us and the moment was shattered. 

    But then the face that Kate made in response was almost more enjoyable than her smirk. It was pinched and icy, every bit the CEO mask that I could pull into place. This was the woman that had an empire. Part of me wanted to let it play out and see what a provoked Kate might do, but rescuing her came far more naturally.

    “Ms. Elliott runs a very successful company in the city. I find myself with similar interests and have been looking forward to meeting her as well.” 

    I couldn’t take my eyes from her. 

    “Well, fine! I’ll leave you two to talk about silly, boring work.” For the first time Mindy made me smile. I turned toward the server carrying champagne to hide my grin. 

    When I handed Kate her glass her skin flushed and her eyes bugged. But then she wrangled her face back to stoic seamlessly. 

    “What sort of interests are you referring to?” The way she reverted back to business so naturally was downright enticing. She was an adversary. A fucking sexpot adversary. This was going to be fun.

    “We’re competitors, Ms. Elliott.”

    She almost choked on the champagne. “Competitors did you say? I wasn’t aware that Bryant Venture Group was interested in the fitness apparel business?”

    “We weren’t.” I smiled into my champagne flute. “Until today. I finalized a deal to purchase Nectar Clothing around three this afternoon.”

    “I had a bid on that. You’re the one who stole it away.” The tips of her ears turned pink and every muscle in her neck clenched. “Suddenly I’m not so pleased to meet you.” She sipped on her bubbles but I thought she might bite the glass instead. Kate was almost too easy to poke. 

    She’d be fantastic to poke.    

    I leaned in with that in mind, with me in her in mind. She smelled like vanilla, true bourbon vanilla. If we weren’t in the middle of a room I would have pressed my lips to her neck just to see if she tasted the same, business be damned. 

    Instead, I decided to call her bluff. “Oh, but I think you are. I think you and I are going to be great friends.”

    She sipped the champagne again only this time it was more of a slug than a sip. I made her nervous. Exceedingly so. And she wasn’t used to being nervous. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she wanted to reach out and lick me just as badly as I wanted to lick her. 

    Damn the room full of people.

    I snaked my arm around her finding the small of her back. I couldn’t help but notice that the curve of her ass was tempting my hand lower. My smile spread again, this time all on it’s own. 

    “I don’t make a habit of being friends with direct competition. Makes for strange bedfellows, if you ask me,” she said with a tiny bit of bite.

    God the mention of bed on those perfect ruby red lips.

    She tried to push back only to finally feel my hand flat against her spine. She blushed. Furiously. The scarlet on her skin was beautiful. Cherries and cream. The idea that it extended down her body, that she might be flushed all the way down beneath her bellybutton had me hard again. I inched closer to her, almost wrapped around her, her neck was tempting me with soft, supple skin again. 

    A throat cleared behind me, once again breaking the spell I’d been bewitched by. My eyes darted to the side to find Barney Fleisher standing to my side. He was an important legal councillor or I would have swung at him for pulling me away from Kate.

    Or thanked him. How could I live and die by what she was said, how her body moved, and after only two minutes. 

    “Bryant, do tell me where that delightful blonde you came in with ran off to. You must introduce me.”    

    “Barney.” My voice was sharp, apparently siding with the desperate-to-nip-Kate’s-ear side of me. “That was Mindy Fairchild and I’m not sure where she ran off to. Feel free to find her.” 

    Barney’s face twisted like he was going to question me further, no doubt confused that I didn’t give a damn about the barbie I walked in with. Thank God he hadn’t seen Kate. I had automatically angled myself between them the second I knew someone was interrupting. She’d want a moment to compose herself, to slip her stone mask back into place, and I found myself wanting to give that to her more than anything. 

    It didn’t work. Barney’s eyes flashed with a lusty hunger the second Kate stepped away from my hand. 

    “Ah, I see why I’m allowed to chase Mindy around. Who is this delectable morsel you’ve picked up? Trading up as usual?”

    Barney when to elbow me with his piss poor joke and I stepped aside, wanting to murder him instead. The image of my hands on his lapels, yanking him to my face to seethe about the pigheaded shit he just spewed ran vividly through my mind. A hook to his jaw did too.

    “That is quite possibly the most vulgar thing to ever come out of your mouth, Barney.” I channeled my fury into my voice, the one that notorious made opponents fold. “This is Kate Elliott, owner and CEO of Vesper Fitness and Apparel. I think she deserves a bit more respect.” 

    At that Kate turned an even darker and far more beautiful color. Her every response, her every move disarmed me. My fingers were desperate to trace the edges of that spreading wildfire.

    “Mr. Bryant, if you’ll excuse me.” She’d given up on getting her reactions under control and was jumping ship. My heart ached.

    My heart?

    I swept my gaze over her, missing every single inch of her even before she was gone. 

    “It was very nice to meet you, Kate.” Her name on my lips tasted like vanilla too.

    I had to have her. I had to taste her. Every single inch of her. 

    She was undeniably sexy, obviously brilliant, strong as steel but something about her screamed vulnerable and pissed off about it. I liked that combination. I liked that she didn’t fold beneath me. But if and when she finally did, I’d tongue every inch of that perfect skin. That skin that reminded me of perfection, of my photos at home…

    My dick was responding to the fantasy again.

    She was a game I wanted to play but likely shouldn’t. She was trouble. 

    But then again, I’d dealt with my fair share of trouble.