“I wanted to ask if you’d attend the partner dinner with me,” Greg said, taking a seat opposite her on the two-seater.
Maggie stared at him in shock. “But we’re not going out together.” She stood. “I think you’d better leave.”
“But we haven’t talked,” Greg said. “What do you mean we’re not going out together? I didn’t agree. I left to give you time to think.”
“I don’t want to go out with you again. We’re finished. Give me your key and leave.”
“I don’t—you’re making a big mistake.” He set his glass down hard on the wooden coffee table and stalked to the doorway.
“My key?”
With a glare, he retrieved it from his pocket and threw it at her. The slam of her apartment door told her he’d left.
Reaction set in and her legs trembled so much she had to sit on the nearest chair. He hadn’t mentioned the spanking part of their previous conversation, which worried her. What would happen if he told everyone at work? She’d hoped he’d keep quiet because the subject had been distasteful to him. Damn, when had her life become so complicated with lies and half-truths?
Taking her wine with her, she returned to her computer. She waited while the computer started and loaded the Internet. There were no comments and she did research. She couldn’t be the only novice interested in spanking?
The doorbell went again. Maggie huffed out an impatient breath. The melodious sound repeated, and she realized she’d have to answer. She peered through the peep hole, suspecting it would be Greg again.
“Connor.”
Maggie opened the door and stood aside for him to enter. “I shouldn’t talk to you.”
He grinned. “Maybe I don’t want to talk.”
“What if Julia or one of the others pop in for a visit?” A shudder of horror sent an icy chill speeding down her spine. This was a dangerous game they were playing. She shut the door and retreated to the kitchen, automatically pulling out a beer for him.
“Don’t worry.” Connor closed the distance between, took the beer and put it on the bench. Then he grasped her hands. “I wouldn’t do anything to upset you.” He tugged her closer and wrapped his arms around her.
With a soft sigh of surrender, she leaned into him, shuddering when his hands slipped down her back to rest on her butt. Her mind slid into a quick, dirty daydream. A bared bottom. A wooden hairbrush.
A hand cupped her butt cheek, squeezing, building the anticipation simmering through her. Heat suffused her entire body and her folds moistened, the thoughts of spanking an erotic assault on her mind. The tension inside her amplified and a soft, needy sound emerged from deep in her throat.
The hand caressing her bottom stilled.
“Are you okay? Am I hurting you?”
Oh, heck.How embarrassing. How did she fix this? Admit her desires? Even as she opened her mouth she knew she decided to take the coward’s way and say nothing. “I was thinking about the weekend,” she whispered, words tumbling over each other. Anything to fill the pause. If the silence lasted any longer it would become uncomfortable. It would sound as if she was hiding something. She was but that was beside the point. “It was…amazing.” An understatement. Amazing didn’t come close to describing how great it had been between them, not only the lovemaking but the way she and Connor talked. They’d missed the awkward getting-to-know each other phase because they’d already done that.
“It was great,” Connor said, his blue eyes sparkling.
She liked to think it was with remembered pleasure, but it could have been the angle of the light.
“That’s part of the reason I came around. I wanted to be with you again.” He lifted one hand off her ass and caressed her cheek. Their gazes met and looking at him made her knees wobble. He was with her. The weekend hadn’t been a once off as part of her feared. He wanted to repeat their lovemaking and really meant the friends with benefits thing. The thought hit her with the strength of a sucker punch.
“It can’t be here,” Maggie said. “The girls drop in all the time, usually unannounced.”
“We can meet at my apartment. You’re the only one who has ever visited me there. I can’t see that changing. What do you say?” He interspersed each word with a kiss to a different part of her face.
Her lips parted in silent invitation. They were alone. There was no reason they couldn’t kiss and touch. They were adults. Things wouldn’t get out of hand.
Connor tugged her blouse from the plain black skirt she still wore—her work clothes. Simple. No-nonsense. Conservative. His hand wandered over her warm skin, his fingers callused, although the sensation wasn’t unpleasant. The faint drag stirred desire and awakened her hunger even further.
“Are you ticklish?” His words were muffled against her throat.
“No, not really.”
“So I can’t tease or torture you that way.”
