Underneath It All Read online

  So without giving another second’s thought to what she should or shouldn’t do, she turned to Devon, smiled and said, “Yes. I’d love that.”

  DEVON SHIFTED IN HIS seat for the third time since they’d taken a table at Portobano’s restaurant a few blocks from the auction. As if this wonderful evening needed anything more, his dinner with Nicole answered the age-old question: It was possible to get a hard-on just watching a woman eat.

  Advertisers had been attempting the feat for years, running with the assumption that sex can sell anything from cars to sloppy burgers. Up until now, he hadn’t bought it. But for an hour now, Devon’s dick strained every time she slid that fork in her mouth and licked those luscious pink lips.

  And it didn’t help that she found the meal delectable. When she’d taken that first bite of her lobster raviolis, her expression rolled into that of divine pleasure, a blissful look that he could only imagine seeing between the sheets, under his naked body, after he’d sent her over the brink into ecstasy.

  She did the same thing with the green beans, the bite of steak he offered, his mashed potatoes and everything else he could convince her to taste. He needed to back off before she either caught on or he succumbed to his desire to duck under the table and move on to dessert.

  “So you’ve just got the one brother,” he said in a valiant attempt to get his mind out of his pants and onto the beautiful woman seated with him.

  “Yep, it’s just me and Nate,” she said. “He’s still in San Francisco.”

  “And what had you packing your bags and moving across the country if all your family’s out west?”

  “I was looking for a change of pace. Experience the world, kind of thing.”

  There was a blankness to the statement that made it sound canned, but Devon didn’t press. Maybe she’d just been asked the question a lot. It wasn’t every day a television producer moved from a big market like San Francisco to a city half its size to take on a show even smaller than that.

  As she brought another bite of ravioli to her mouth, he asked, “And how do you like Atlanta so far?” prompting her to stop.

  She considered for a moment then said with resolve, “It’s good to get away.”

  “From?”

  “My family. That’s what I was looking for by coming here. I needed some space and time.” She set the fork back down on her plate. “My mother’s cancer took a lot out of me, made me see things differently. And when she went into remission, she didn’t need me so much anymore.”

  “That’s all very understandable.”

  “But it’s not only that.” She stared into space as if she were trying to put together the right words. “It was sort of time for me to get away from it all and find out who I was and what I wanted from life, without the distraction of all the opinions around me.”

  Devon couldn’t help but laugh. “I understand completely.” And he did. He wondered if her leaving San Francisco came with the same uproar he would probably get when he announced to his father he wasn’t interested in the family business. Regardless, Nicole was here in Atlanta looking to find her own way which was the example he needed to follow.

  “Sometimes family ties can feel more like shackles,” he said. “I admire your courage to make a break from it all. It’s something I plan to do myself when the time is right.”

  “You don’t like running an investment company?”

  “How do things like bond trading and corporate acquisitions and capital funding sound to you?”

  She smirked and confessed, “A little dull.”

  “A lot dull. I only suffered through economics in college because I thought life would get more interesting once I was running the show.”

  “But it hasn’t.”

  “Not by a mile.”

  Taking a sip of her wine, she pushed her plate away signaling the end of her meal, and Devon breathed a sigh of relief. The woman was sexy to distraction, so seductive the simple act of chewing made him hot under the collar. Not that it was a bad thing. He couldn’t remember the last time a woman lit so many nerve endings. Not since those lustful days of puberty, when anything with breasts turned him on, had he been so wired over a woman.

  The problem was, he was enjoying getting to know her and discovering the things they had in common. He’d like to keep his focus on the conversation rather than the many ways she could unwittingly arouse him.

  “So, what do you want to do?” she asked.

  “I want to build things. At the end of the day, I’d like to have created something that didn’t exist that morning. That’s what I don’t like about what we do. Bradshaw Investment Group doesn’t produce anything tangible. Basically, we help rich people get richer.”

  “But this country is founded on commerce. You may not be building things yourself, but you’re providing avenues for those that do.”

  “For a fee we find people the backing they need. But we’re just the money end of it, and even then, we aren’t paying for anything. We’re brokering in the middle, neither offering the cash nor creating a product.” He set his knife and fork on his plate and pushed it aside. “I guess I’d like to do something that really matters.”

  “And how do you think your family will react when you break the news?”

  He took a sip of his wine and considered the question. Before now, he hadn’t really put thought to how his father would react to the idea of him stepping down from the company. Though he’d joked to himself about a backlash, when pressed to really consider, he gathered the man would be more hurt than upset. The business was his pride, his life’s work. He’d wanted all his sons to keep going what he’d nourished, and though he’d been realistic enough to know not all the kids would want it, Devon doubted his father would expect him to be the one to opt out.

  Devon had always been the easy one, the kid that went along and never made waves. And he supposed in order to please his parents he felt he owed them a shot at taking over the business. But now that he had, he’d confirmed this wasn’t the life for him, and though pleasing the folks was one thing, living for them was an entirely different matter.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “How did your parents feel about your move to Atlanta?”

  She shrugged. “I think they were as upset with the career change as the move. The show I produced back in San Francisco had a lot more exposure than Just Between Us. That and they’ve only got me and my brother, Nate. I think my parents had wanted a bigger family, but it didn’t turn out that way. With just the two of us kids, it’s been even harder for them that I moved away.”

  He sensed an undercurrent of discomfort every time she spoke of her family, as if there was more going on where that was concerned. So he backed off the subject, preferring to leave his first dates on a high note—this one in particular, since he was hoping this would be the first of many.

  Backing from the table, he motioned for the check then asked Nicole, “How would you like to go for a drive?”

  The fire returned to her eyes. “Do you really own a 1959 Cadillac convertible?”

  “Yes, and I happen to have it with me tonight.”

  “This is Gabe,” Devon said after they left the restaurant and made their way to where he’d parked his old Caddy. He motioned to the car, a monstrous red Cadillac with white interior and a white canvas roof. “Gabe, meet Nicole.”

  “You call your car Gabe?”

  “Every old car needs a name. Gabe just seemed to fit.”

  She chuckled. “Please don’t tell me you’re one of those people who names their home, too. That’s so pompous.”

  “No, just the car…and a stuffed alligator named Crikey, but I don’t usually talk about that on first dates.”

  He opened the passenger side door and she slid in, one long, silky leg after the other, and he had to remind himself he’d vowed to remain a gentleman tonight. Every moment he spent with Nicole furthered his feeling that she was the one, the woman he’d been waiting for to come along and turn his head. Whe
n it came to the right woman, Devon never had a specific list of attributes he was looking for, but always felt he’d know her when he found her.

  And tonight confirmed that notion.

  He wanted to see a lot more of this woman, which meant she wouldn’t be his one-night-stand. He’d made enough mistakes in his past to learn how to approach that one lover he wanted to keep, and now that he’d found her, he intended to learn from them.

  His every move tonight would be honorable, right down to leaving the evening with nothing more than a goodnight kiss.

  Even though it would probably kill him.

  Slamming the door, he rounded Gabe and slipped into the driver’s seat, then turned the ignition and started them on their way.

  Nicole looked behind them. “This thing’s a boat. How do you avoid hitting things?”

  “I don’t,” he teased. “The beautiful thing about cars like these is you can run them into a train and step away without a scratch.”

  She smiled. “I’ll take your word for that one.”

  “Seriously, I don’t drive it often. It sucks up gas and you can’t park it anywhere. I only pull it out of the garage once a week to keep the juices flowing. It’s a real kick on a day when the temperature’s just right. I put the top down and take it for a spin.”

  He pulled onto the street and drove her out of town, making his way toward one of his favorite vista points overlooking the city. He loved how readily they could talk, the easy comfort of her company and that west coast manner she had of speaking her mind without thought to propriety. It was refreshing, stepping away from the typical guessing games and double-speak he’d had to deal with on other dates.

  She pointed to the red tomahawk hanging from his rear view mirror. “You can’t be a Braves fan.”

  “Till the day I die.”

  She sighed and shook her head. “And here I thought you had such promise.”

  “Oh, come on. What’s wrong with the Braves?”

  She quirked her brow and crinkled her nose in a way that made him want to kiss it. “How much time do you have?”

  “So I suppose you wouldn’t be interested in going to a game with me one of these days.”

  “And suffer through that stupid tomahawk chop and that incessant chanting? There’s not enough aspirin on the planet to get me through that.”

  He deadpanned, “You’re a Giants fan.”

  She smiled. “Till the day I die.”

  “Do you think we can get past this?”

  “No, I’m afraid I’m just going to have to use you then toss you aside with the other Major League misfits.”

  Her wink said she was only kidding, but he still found himself picking up speed, interested in finding out more about how she might intend to use him.

  She glanced into the backseat. “Speaking of which, there’s sure a lot of room in here. I’ll bet a couple could do all kinds of things in the backseat of this puppy.”

  The comment nearly prompted him to pull over right there. He could think of a half dozen things he’d like to do with Nicole in the backseat of his Caddy, and her expression said she’d already considered several of them. If he’d intended to remain a gentleman tonight, this drive might have been a bad idea.

  “Like?” he asked, not entirely sure he’d be able to handle her answer.

  “Come on,” she teased. “A guy doesn’t have a car like this just for the bad gas mileage. These bench seats are roughly the size of a small bed. And you know,” she added, tugging at the belt at her waist, “they don’t make seat belts like they used to.” She flicked a brow. “I imagine these could hold a guy pretty firmly in place while a woman has her way with him.”

  Was she talking bondage? The arid wasteland that had become his mouth said she was.

  “I actually hadn’t considered that one,” he said, his voice hindered by a slight wheeze.

  Unbuckling her seat belt, she slid over the long bench seat and placed an arm around his shoulder, resting her other hand on his thigh. Every muscle in his body twitched with electricity, and when he turned onto the access road to the vista point, he had to work hard to keep himself from barreling down the road.

  “And here I thought you were a man with a vivid imagination,” she said, her lips close to his ear.

  “You know, it’s dangerous to ride without a seat belt,” he said, his voice getting tighter by the minute.

  “Then you should probably pull over pretty soon.”

  Sliding her hand farther up his thigh, she stopped right before the junction of his legs and an erection quickly moved in to take up the space.

  His hands sweaty and his neck tight with anticipation, he made the final turn and brought the car to a stop at the turnabout where a splattering of cars had parked to enjoy the view.

  This spot offered a beautiful view of the valley and the night was exceptionally clear, but for all it mattered, they could have been parked behind a warehouse by the railroad tracks. The moment he turned off the ignition, Nicole snaked her hand up the nape of his neck and moved her body closer, the flowery scent of her perfume filling his senses, her tender touch aching his loins.

  “Was this fast enough?” he asked, knowing the question would pull him far off the track of remaining a gentleman this evening. Nicole had all but nixed that idea the moment she placed her hand on his thigh, and though he’d still like to end the evening with his honor intact, that idea was becoming more doubtful by the moment.

  She repositioned herself, moving up onto her knees, then straddling his lap, placing her body between him and the steering wheel then lacing her hands around his neck.

  “Yeah,” she said, her voice breathy with sex and her lips a mere inch from his. She brushed the tip of her nose against his and teased him with a look filled with intent.

  He raised his hands to her waist and squeezed, and her resulting shiver raised his temperature another notch.

  The woman was insanely gorgeous and delightfully bold. In the darkness of the night, her sun-kissed features took on an erotic shade of gold, and the shadows shrouded her in a new kind of mystery.

  She nudged her nose against his ear and sucked in a breath when he slid his hands up her waist and caressed his thumbs against her breasts.

  “You can touch them, you know,” she whispered, then guided one hand down to her thigh. “Or are you a leg man?”

  His dick hardened to steel while his will dissolved into space, and unable to answer the question, he simply nudged his lips to hers and crushed them with a kiss.

  Her muscles tensed with heat then softened as if her whole body sucked in a breath then relaxed in his embrace, and he responded by groaning out a statement of unadulterated pleasure. The woman tasted of cream and felt like spun satin, and as he ran his hands over her, her moans of need urged him on.

  She was going to kill him. Hot, ripe and ready, she claimed him with every brush of her tongue against his. She cupped his chin with her hands, driving the kiss deeper, sucking his gentlemanly intentions and chivalrous honor right out of him. Her body pulsed against his, her legs tightened at his waist, and when he slid his fingers up to the junction at her thighs, the liquid heat had him nearly bursting in his pants.

  “Oh, God,” he groaned, but the words drowned in her mouth, lost in the passion between them. He slipped his thumbs up under her panties and brushed them against her folds, and when she sucked in a sharp breath, he knew he was a goner.

  Condoms. There were condoms in the glove compartment. He was almost certain.

  Sliding her hands down between them, she yanked against the seat belt and snapped open the lock, never once moving her lips from his. His mouth had become her mouth, his breath her breath, and if she was doing what he thought she was doing, the rest of their bodies were about to join as well.

  He could feel her pulse in his hands, light moisture over her skin, and when she finally pulled away, he saw a fiery look in eyes filled with need.

  “Tell me you’ve got condoms,” she sa
id, the tone closer to a beg than a question.

  He nodded, the affirmation bringing a smile of intention to her face. She unfastened his slacks and pulled the waistband down to his thighs, his hands never leaving the soft mounds of her ass. With the clothing pushed aside, his cock sprung between them, firm, hard and ready for whatever she had in mind.

  “Ooh,” she groaned in a tone that spoke of pleasant surprise.

  “You like what you see?”

  “Oh, yeah,” she said, then pressed her lips close to his ear and added, “I’m just trying to decide whether I want to ride it or taste it.”

  His cock jerked, his heart pounding heavy as more blood rushed to his loins. Did she have any clue what she was doing to him?

  Sliding her hand between them, she palmed his erection and whispered in his ear. “Mmm, so many choices.”

  Given the way she worked him, Devon feared her choices were about to blow. Gently, she slid her fingers over his shaft, caressing the soft tip with her thumb then gliding her hand down lower and tickling his balls. He swallowed, trying to hold on to his composure by concentrating on the heat between her thighs. Brushing his thumbs against her folds, the wet need greeted him, prodding him to go farther, and he responded by slipping a thumb inside.

  She gasped and answered, “Yes,” as he began pumping his thumb in and out, matching the rhythm of her hand around his shaft. She began rocking against him, the two of them falling into a motion that would soon bring them to completion if one of them wasn’t careful. And Devon feared it would be him. She’d soaked his hand with her sex, the sweet scent permeating the space around them and driving him further toward the edge while her fingers touched just lightly enough to keep him aching for more.

  The woman was good. Real good. Holding him right where she wanted him, on that searing edge where his climax threatened yet remained unfulfilled.

  For the moment.

  A bead of moisture leaked from his tip and she dabbed it then licked it off her finger, the sexy look in her eyes nearly sealing the deal right there.

  “You’re driving me crazy,” he groaned, thrusting his thumb deeper inside while he braced her hip with his other hand. Her eyes grew heavy, as if her own orgasm was near, and Devon decided if he didn’t get inside her right now, this evening would end on a humiliating note.