Page 3 of Embrace Me

“Close your eyes, baby,” he says as his fingers tease my clit over the cotton panties and he works magic on my back.

“Damien,” I murmur, but this time it’s not a protest. I have never not been aroused by Damien’s touch, but the pregnancy has my hormones on overdrive and one look from him can practically send me spiraling off into an orgasm.

But it’s so much better if there’s a touch to go with the look, and I let myself fall back against him, my eyes closed as he takes control of my body, my senses. As he harnesses that pressure he’s building inside me. That craving for release, for an explosion.

“That’s right, baby,” he murmurs. “Just let me take you there.”

I reach up and cup my breasts, spreading my legs wider as I do, and I’m rewarded by Damien’s low growl.

“Christ, Nikki, do you know what you do to me? Do you have any idea how much I love you?”

“At least as much as I love you,” I whisper, the words forced out ahead of a low gasp and then a cry of pure pleasure as I draw my legs together to stop the sweet torment, trapping Damien’s hand between my thighs. “Yes,” I gasp, my breath shallow. “Oh, God, yes.”

For a moment, he just holds me, both of us breathing hard. Then I force my eyes open and tilt my head back and around so I can see his face. “You’re a keeper, Mr. Stark.”

He brushes a kiss over my lips. “I’m very glad to hear it.”

He eases off the bench, then helps me back into the robe before holding a hand out to ease me to my feet. “And now I have to run.”

My eyes dip to his erection, and he flashes a sideways grin. “I need to think about spreadsheets anyway.”

I laugh, and he pulls me close for a deeper kiss. “I’ll see you tonight.”

“Have fun buying the universe, Mr. Stark.”

“I always do,” he says, and I stand still for a moment, enjoying the view of his ass disappearing into the bedroom.

I start to sit, then realize that I’m buzzing. Or, rather, that the phone I’d dropped into the robe’s pocket is buzzing. I know it’s not from Damien, and I almost ignore it. But it could be from my partner, Abby, and so I fish it out and glance at the screen.

Immediately, I wish I hadn’t.

Because the caller ID on my phone shows the caller as Elizabeth Fairchild.

My mother.

I frown as I decline the call. I haven’t spoken to that woman in years. But apparently she still has a knack for destroying an otherwise excellent mood.

Chapter Two

“I’m drowning in resumes,” Eric says, then makes a show of banging his blond head on a stack of print-outs representing the fifty candidates we’ve moved into the second round.

Eric and I have spent the last forty minutes discussing the various potentials, and I laugh at his show of frustration because the truth is we still have a long way to go.

He lifts his head and grins at me. “Onward?”

“Onward,” I say. “But with coffee. Loaded for you. Decaf for me. See? You should consider yourself lucky.”

I start to push back from the table to go get fresh cups for both of us, but he waves me down. “I’ll do that,” he says, then smirks. “I can get there and back in the time it takes you to get out of that chair.”

“You are not nearly as funny as you think you are,” I chide, tossing a balled up sheet of paper at him.

He dances out of the way with a grin. “Um, yes I am,” he says, then slips into the hallway, taking the last word with him.

I shake my head, amused, as I continue skimming the resumes in my own stack. Eric is not only my newest hire, he was also one of my first. He and my partner, Abby, had joined Fairchild Development not long after I started it. I’d been overwhelmed with the amount of work I’d taken on—a good thing in terms of building my business, but a bad thing if I wasn’t able to make my deadlines.

I ended up hiring help earlier than I’d intended to, and Abby and Eric were the happy result, and the three of us got along great. Abby has since become my partner, but Eric had his mind set on bigger things. He quit to go to New York, something that had saddened me, not only because he really is great at what he does, but because I genuinely enjoy his company.

Not that long ago, though, he’d come back. In New York, he’d been a little fish in a very big pond, whereas with me, he gets to be very hands-on with both coding and clients.