IT COULDN’T BE HIM. I STEPPED AROUND A TALL shelving unit stacked with every color of dress shirt known to man. I nearly sent toppling a freestanding rack of specially priced clearance polo shirts.
I kept my sunglasses on, and fortunately, my wide-brimmed hat shielded me from being recognized. I knew I should leave, but my feet felt glued in place. I turned and stared at an array of ties, fumbling through them without an ounce of thought to color, design, or anything past the sweat of my palms.
I quickly slid my hand over my shift and swallowed hard. I couldn’t remember the last time a man had made me so visibly nervous, and I’d been naked with this one. If indeed, I was correct and it was—
I turned to sneak a peek and my heart stopped as I met his radiating smile.
“How can I help you today?”
My Lord, he smelled so good. The scent made the back of my knees weak with the memories it produced. He hadn’t yet recognized me, apparently. I toyed with the idea of turning around and leaving and just letting him wonder the rest of his life what he’d done to offend me as a customer.
But I couldn’t be so rude. And yes, I knew it was just an excuse.
I removed my glasses and tipped my gaze to meet his.
“Charlie?” he whispered, as though I’d been a dream of his long ago set aside.
“Funny how life happens, isn’t it? I pictured this might be what you did for a living. You have impeccable taste in clothes.” I smiled, though my gut churned like a schoolgirl braving that pivotal chat with the untouchable best-looking boy at school.
“How did you find me?” He glanced around to make sure no customers were within earshot.
I could see clearly how he would feel so awkward. I’m sure it wasn’t every day that the lover who paid for your services walked into your store.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t track you down. I happened to be having lunch across the street and decided to come in and find a gift for my husband. It’s his birthday next week. I was thinking of a tie.”
My hand ran down the edge of the ties hanging on display. He reached up, checking the store once more, before his fingers lightly hovered over mine.
“Did you have a particular color in mind?”
He eased closer in the narrow aisle, his focus on the ties and not me, but my body sensed his interest as a metal rod senses lightning.
“Nothing in particular. He doesn’t wear them often.”
His expression was curious as his gaze dropped briefly to mine. “So it’s whatever color you like?” He licked his lips and boldly held my gaze.
“Pretty much, I guess.” I offered him a smile, though I fought the idea that it was like Misty to flirt with him. At least he and I shared a past, and I had missed him, almost to a desperate state. There’d been a few impromptu times when Paul had demanded I use my toys, so he could watch. Nevertheless, when I closed my eyes, I saw the face of the man standing before me, and it aroused me as much then as it did now.
I knew Jenkins was outside in the limo and would be expecting me. “Which would hold up the best…with time?”
A sexy grin appeared and quickly disappeared. He cleared his throat. And scanned the area around us before he spoke. “That, too, depends on the frequency of the use.”
“Really?” I wrapped the end of a cobalt-blue plaid tie around my wrist and looked up at him. “What do you think? Does this color look good against my skin?”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Maybe you’d like to look at a few in the mirror against a dress shirt?”
“Yours?” I slid him a smile. I’d never been more thrilled for warm weather, no stockings and sandal dressing.
“Step this way. The mirrors are here, way in the back near the dressing rooms.”
He did not touch me, but led the way to the back of the store where there were no customers milling about the rows and rows of suits.
“I’m going to be busy modeling a few suits for this customer, Stan. Can you watch things up front for a few moments?”
I raised my brow and caught his eye in the mirror. Fortunately, Stan didn’t. Odd that I still didn’t know this man’s name.
“Sure thing, Cade. I’ll get started marking down those shirts.”
Cade. The name fit him well, almost as exceptionally as did his suit, a deep charcoal-gray with a perfectly matched blue shirt. His hand yanked off the tie he was wearing, and his gaze bounced to mine before he tossed it on a nearby chair.
He ushered me to a set of doors hidden by a bay of mirrors, took a quick look over his shoulder and grabbed my hand, pulling me into the dressing room. He locked the door as he faced me, wasting no time as he cupped my face in his hands, capturing my mouth in a kiss that left no question what was to come.
My hat and purse thudded to the floor as my fingers threaded through the hair at the base of his neck. It was a desperate kiss, primal, needy at first, turning slow and seductive after a moment or two. I celebrated the taste of his lips, the way he sampled my mouth like a man dying of thirst.
I brushed his jacket off his broad shoulders, reveling in the strength still so fresh in my mind. With the patience of a virgin I busied myself with carefully turning each button as he fumbled with my dress. It fell to my feet as I continued to undress him.
“I’ve thought of no one else since that day with you,” he whispered. His breath punctuated with a breath mint blew close to my face. His kiss, just as I remembered, was divine, insanely slow, as though he wanted to taste every part of me. I was clad in simple lingerie, not expecting, of course, to meet up with anyone, and never, God forbid, on my own.
“I missed you. I thought you were getting married,” I breathed between kisses. I took his fabulous hands and kissed them, running their tips over my lips, noting with delight that he wore no ring, at least not yet. I bit the end of his finger playfully.
His hands left mine and drifted over my lace-covered breasts, leaving fire in their wake. He kissed my stomach as he drew my panties to my ankles, pausing as I stepped from them. My panties were soaked with my honeyed arousal. The minute he had acknowledged the tension between us, the need for him had throbbed like a dull ache between my legs.
He knelt, lifted my leg over his shoulder and leaned forward, kissing my dark curls, rubbing his jaw, shadowed with a hint of a beard, along my thigh.
“Sweet, sweet woman,” he whispered.
I turned my face to the ceiling, holding his head like a precious gift as he made love to me with his skillful tongue. When I could no longer hold back, I came in a rush, my fingers entwined in his dark hair, gripping fiercely to keep from screaming in ecstasy.
He smiled up at me and licked his lips.
“I love the name Cade.” His name rolled from my mouth, breathless from my shuddering climax. It sounded so right, so natural. Cade and Charlie.
He stood then and peeled off his shirt, and I held my palms to the wall, enjoying the simple, masculine beauty of his body. He reached for his belt, I touched his hand, and with understanding he allowed me to kneel before him and do to him what he’d done to me.
I pressed my hand to his crotch, giving rise to his masculine hardness. He felt heavy and thick, tailor-made just for me. I already knew how we fit; I already knew he’d adjust to the right to gain deeper penetration. It was as though we’d had sex for years together.
His hands smoothed over my hair as I took him into my mouth, drawing my lips slowly over his silky tip, delighted to lick the dew from his head. He stood, legs apart in front of me, not masking the sighs evoked by my ministrations with teeth and tongue.
“You’re still on birth control?” he whispered, taking my hands and pulling me up against his chest.
I nodded once before he kissed me hard and backed me to the wall. He lifted me, easing me onto his erection, and I smiled as he shifted to the right, and felt him slide deep inside my core. We stood for a moment just like that, not moving, just relishing our joining.
He held his forehead to mine. I still wore my bra and nothing else. He wore only a pair of black dress socks. My heart tugged at our reflection in the mirror. Here we were, secret lovers in a stolen moment of passion. It was so sweet, so completely forbidden, and yet neither of us could deny our need.
“You smell so sexy,” he murmured, nuzzling his mouth under my chin. His biceps bulged as he braced me around his hips and offered languid kisses over my shoulder and face.
“I could stay this way forever, Charlie. I don’t know what I’m going to do.” His mouth closed over mine in a kiss that spoke more of commitment than fast, thoughtless sex.
“What about your fiancée?”
“There isn’t one.” He lowered his face to my shoulder and left soft kisses there. I should have been ecstatic, really, but the absence of a fiancée left him single and me still married.
“What happened?” I shifted my back against the wall and hooked my ankles around his waist, angling to draw our bodies closer. His hands held my hips as he began to move inside me.
“There never was a fiancée, Charlie. Your husband told me to tell you that.” He withdrew and pushed deep, the slick friction between us providing a sensuous treat. My body began to tighten again, my breasts to tingle. I pushed my shoulders back, shoving my aching breasts into his face.
He did not skip his rhythm as his mouth closed over the lace of my hardened nipple, teasing it between his teeth, pulling it gently until I opened my mouth with a tiny scream.
“Shhh,” he cautioned with a deep chuckle, and kissed me long and hard as he pumped into me with unbridled need, tearing a shattering climax from my body. As I released myself, squeezing my pelvis to milk his thrusts, seconds later he toppled over, his hot seed shooting into me.
Savoring the moment, I kept my arms around his neck and buried my face in his shoulder. It was a stupid thing to do, and if Paul ever found out, this man might lose more than his job.
“Why would he do that?” I leaned back and held Cade’s gaze even as our bodies parted from one another.
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I thought maybe you could tell me.” He slipped on his boxer briefs, and it was hard not to stare at his magnificent body and remember where we were.
Of course, Cade didn’t know of the many lovers my husband had hired as a guise to pleasure me, but really for his own amusement. “He can be very controlling at times.” If I left it at that, perhaps he wouldn’t ask any more. Perhaps we could move on and let this be the last time we saw each other. My stomach churned with the idea of telling him that he wasn’t the only man my husband paid to have sex with me.
He held up my dress as I slipped into it. His hands ran down my bare arms.
“I want to see you again, but I have to tell you something and I hope it makes more sense to you than it does to me.”
Cade’s warm brown eyes searched my face. Nothing much made sense to me at the moment, except that I was beginning to regret what I’d just done. And regret was not part of who Charlie was.
“He called me about a week ago and hired me to keep an eye on you.”
I stared at him. What in the world was Paul up to? “Keep an eye on me? Why? Why would he call you?”
The flashback of my expression the day Cade left me at the hotel sprang like a nightmare into my mind. Had Paul seen it?
Cade shrugged. “I have no clue. He just said that he felt he could trust me. He thought maybe you might be seeing another man.”
I laughed and quickly covered my mouth, realizing we were still locked in the men’s dressing room together. The statement was so absurd that at first I could only stare at him. It was clear now that Paul had me where he wanted me. He’d seen the look in my eye, known what I felt with Cade.
I had to get out of there. I pulled on my panties and stuck my feet in my sandals. For all I knew these mirrors were part of his voyeuristic web. I hoped I hadn’t already endangered Cade by this chance encounter. “I need a tie.” I spoke hurriedly, gathering my purse and hat. I fumbled with the doorknob, frantic to open it, to get away from the mirror and the small room. Cade gripped my shoulders.
“Charlie, wait, what’s going on? My God, you’re trembling. What is it? You can tell me.” He tried to turn me toward him, but I held tight to the door.
I couldn’t face him. The darkness of my agreement with my husband, of whoring myself to other men for his pleasure in the name of love, made me want to vomit. “I can’t. Just leave it at that, okay? I can’t.”
“Charlie, has he hurt you? Has he threatened you in some way? There are people…agencies who can help with this kind of thing. Let me help you.”
His comfort scared me, made me wish for things that could never be mine. I forced myself to think he couldn’t afford to keep a woman like me, not on a clothier’s paycheck.
I forced my sunglasses onto my face and straightened my shoulders. “Don’t try to contact me, and if my husband asks, you must tell him that I came in, but be sure to say that I only talked about him. Tell him I behaved as coldly toward you as if we were strangers.”
“We aren’t strangers, Charlie. You know that,” Cade whispered softly against the back of my head.
“Leave me alone. Forget this ever happened—forget we ever met.” I jerked open the door and scanned the area before stepping out into the open space in front of the bay of mirrors. I caught my reflection, seeing the fear on my face.
Don’t you cry. I gave my image a stern, silent warning. Make it clean. Make it believable.
“Thank you for your help. I’ll be sure to put in a good word for you to your boss.”
Cade stared at me from the door to the dressing room. His shirt, disheveled, hung loose over his dress pants. He was still barefoot.
I left him, made my purchase and climbed into the limo without looking back.
“Everything satisfactory, Ms. Charlie?” Jenkins glanced up at me through the rearview mirror.
I couldn’t trust him. At the moment I couldn’t trust anyone. I had to figure out what I was going to do. If I divorced Paul, would he use the tapes to prove I was cheating on him? By the time I was able to get proof of his myriad of technical equipment, he’d have it all torn down. Whatever I chose to do or not do, it needed to be carefully thought out.
“I found a nice tie for Paul’s birthday, but I think the mimosas I had at lunch have given me an unbearable headache. Please drop me at the suite. I’ll stay in town this evening.”
“Shall I notify Mr. Paul, then?”
“No, I’ll contact him when I get there.”
“Very good, Ms. Charlie.”