"When will you be returning to Oklahoma, Sam?" Ashton asked.
"Tomorrow."
"What about protection for her until I find out something?" Alex asked, turning to Blade.
Blade smiled. "She"s with me, and I don"t plan on letting anything happen to her. Trust me."
Blade opened the door to his condo and stood back and let Sam enter first. She glanced at him when he followed her inside and shut the door behind them. "I"m glad that"s over," she said, tossing her purse on a table.
"It wouldn"t surprise me if he contacts us sooner," Blade said, removing his tie. "Alex is good at what he does. And like he said, he has good contacts."
Sam sat down on the sofa, kicked off her shoes and crossed her legs. Blade watched her every move as he went behind the bar. "Would you like something to drink?"
"Yes, please. A gla.s.s of wine would be nice."
"A gla.s.s of wine coming up. It"s a beautiful night. Would you like to sit outside on the balcony?"
"Yes."
"Why don"t you go ahead and I"ll follow shortly with the wine."
"Thanks."
He tracked her with his eyes as she walked barefoot toward the French doors. The dress she was wearing, a yellow, tiered silk number, looked good on her. It wasn"t too short, but showed off her beautiful legs. He had noticed a number of men at the party admiring them. He had told her before leaving for the party and again on the drive back home just how good she looked in that dress.
He finished pouring their drinks and moved to join her outside. When he opened the French door she was standing at the rail looking out. She turned to him and smiled. "You"re right. It is a beautiful night," she said, accepting the gla.s.s of wine he offered. "Thanks."
"You"re welcome."
She swung back around and looked at the view. "Your company did a wonderful job on the Madaris Building. I love the way it"s all lit up at night-all fifteen stories."
He stood next to her and followed her gaze. "That was Slade"s idea. He figured the lights would reflect on Laverne Park."
She turned back to him. "Which is named after your great-grandmother," she said.
He took a sip of his wine. "Yes. Although we all might joke about her trying to keep up with all of us, there"s no doubt in our minds how we feel about her. We wouldn"t trade her for the world. She raised seven sons after my great-grandfather died. They all got a good education and they"re out on their own. She was also there for her grands."
He chuckled. "My dad, Justin, Dex, Clayton and Felicia had some stories to tell about her. Like the time she caught my dad and Cousin Nolan skipping school. I heard she drove them back to school and sat in the back of their cla.s.s that day to make sure they stayed there."
Sam laughed. "After talking to her tonight I can tell she"s made of st.u.r.dy stuff. I was close to my grandmother and felt a great loss when she died while I was in high school. I never knew my great-grandmother, but I"m told she was a strong woman just like your great-grandmother."
She took a sip of her wine, looked over at him. "You know your family thinks something is going on between us, don"t you."
He grinned. "Something is is going on between us." going on between us."
"No, I think they believe we"re more than bed partners."
We are more than bed partners, sweetheart. Instead he said, "You do understand why they would think that."
"Yes. You"ve never brought a woman to a family function before. But they don"t know why you brought me."
Oh, they know, trust me. "It doesn"t matter," he said.
"In a way it does, because I like them, Blade."
And they like you.
"I don"t want them getting the wrong idea," she said.
Too late. It"s a done deal.
Sam turned back to look at the view of the impressive building. "So, what floor is your office on in the Madaris Building?"
"The Madaris Construction Company is on the fifteenth floor."
"Wow, all the way at the top."
"Yes."
"And will I get to tour the Madaris Building tomorrow?" she asked.
He smiled. "Of course, I"ll give you a personal tour before we return to Oklahoma."
She turned back to him, surprised to see he had moved closer, and looked up at him. "Promise?"
His smile widened. "I promise."
Blade couldn"t remember the last time he"d enjoyed talking to a woman this much. Usually when he was with a woman they didn"t talk at all. Their only communication was in the bedroom. But Sam was different. He wanted her. He loved her and could actually feel that love all the way to the bone.
Besides loving her, he desired her. His gaze roamed up and down her body, remembering the times he"d been inside of her and wanting to get back inside her again. "Did I tell you how good you look tonight?"
"Yes, about three times, I think," she said, grinning.
"Now I"ve made it four." He reached out and traced his fingers along the spaghetti straps of her dress.
The strong, lean fingers that were lightly touching Sam, caressing her shoulders, were sending delicious shudders through her body.
"Do you know what I want to do? What I"ve fantasized about doing?" he said, in a deep, husky tone.
"No, what have you fantasized about, Blade?"
He eased closer to her, so close that his chest was pressed against her, and he subtly pried her thighs apart with his knee to get closer to the opening between her legs. Not surprisingly, she felt his arousal.
He leaned in closer and whispered in her ear. "Bending you over this railing and taking you right here...from behind."
Sam"s heart began beating wildly when the image of Blade"s fantasy flashed in her mind. She imagined herself with her dress hiked up and her backside tilted to him and Blade standing behind her with his pants down past his knees, his erection hard and ready to go deep inside of her.
She swallowed and glanced around. "What would your neighbors think?"
"They won"t be able to see a thing," he a.s.sured her, using his tongue to lick her earlobe. "This balcony is private, secluded, flanked by solid brick walls. It"s dark, and as you can see, no one is in the Madaris Building tonight."
She looked across the park at the building.
"I want you," he said, as he began tracing kisses around the side of her neck. "I want to get inside your body and ride you hard, Sam."
He lifted his head and her eyes stared into his. She felt the heat coming from his lips and saw the way his nostrils flared. As if they had a mind of their own, her arms reached out and encircled his neck and she pulled his mouth to hers.
The kiss was long, deep and intoxicating, and had her groaning in the deepest part of her throat. She knew he was lifting the hem of her skirt when she felt the cool night air caressing her thighs. And her heart began thumping harder against her chest as his hands slid off her panties.
"Oh."
His fingers trailed over her Brazilian wax job, caressed the clean smoothness of the skin before easing a finger into her wetness. She groaned again from the probing, and when his finger began making circular motions inside of her, she pulled her mouth from his and threw her head back.
In an effortless move, he turned her to face the railing and stepped up behind her, letting his erection press hard against her b.u.t.tocks. "Feel me?" He leaned forward, licking the side of her face with his tongue.
"I feel you," she responded, barely able to get the words out. "You"re hungry?"
A smile touched his lips. "Starving, sweetheart. Can I make a sensual confession?"
She moaned deep in her throat. His finger was still inside of her, making her clutch him fiercely with every stroke. "Yes." Her response was followed by another moan.
"I like shooting off inside of you, combining our juices while I thrust in and out."
His words were killing her softly, arousing her even more. "I heard you have cases of condoms," she panted.
He smiled again. "I do. Make sure I show them to you sometime. But I like being skin to skin with you without anything between us. I like giving you a part of me that no other woman can ever claim. I hope you don"t mind."
"If I did mind, it wouldn"t have happened the first time or all those other times after that. Now stop talking and take me, Blade, like in your fantasy."
"Hmm, not yet. I need to cop a taste first. Hold this position and don"t move until I tell you to do so."
She was tempted to turn around when she heard him pulling a couple of pillows off the patio furniture, and then she glanced down and saw that he had nestled his body flat on his back between her open legs. His hands grabbed a hold of her knees. "Come on, baby. Lower yourself, down to my mouth." He licked his lips. "I"m waiting. I"m starving."
"Blade." His name came out as a sensuous sigh as she lowered her body. When her womanly center was directly over his face, he raised up to settle his mouth between her legs.
She swallowed a scream when his tongue entered her, and her hands tightened on the railing. With intense thrusts of his tongue inside of her, her body began to quiver-shuddering as it had never done before. She took in deep breaths and when she thought there was no way she could handle any more, her body exploded.
"Blade!"
How could he do such things to her? And why did she let him? She knew the answer before the last shudder left her body. She loved him. The man who"d told her that he would never love a woman, would never marry-against all odds-had captured her heart.
Sam held tight to the railing as all her strength left her, making her weak in the knees, even as he held them. Moments later he released her and slid from under her. And then he was there, behind her. She heard his zipper open and his pants drop. The erection pressing against her was large, hot and ready-just like she"d imagined.
Before she could utter a sigh, he had tilted her up and entered her from the back. He began moving into her wetness in firm, easy strokes, holding tight. She could hear his thighs beating against her b.u.t.tocks in repet.i.tive thrusts.
And then he leaned over her, lowered the zipper on her dress and placed a wet kiss at the center of her neck, followed by a nip to her skin. "Now I"ve branded you," he whispered, just seconds before he exploded inside of her.
Sam could feel his hot release shoot all the way to her womb. She shivered at the very essence of his virile s.e.m.e.n as it mixed with her own juices, and her body shuddered in intense pleasure again.
She heard him let out another guttural groan and gasped when another release shot from him, heading straight for her womb a second time.
"You are mine," he breathed against her ear, at the same time she felt his hot tongue trailing a path from her neck to the side of her face. Moments later, while their bodies were still intimately connected, he eased them down to the cushions he had placed on the balcony floor. And there he continued to hold her in his arms, with his erection still locked deep inside of her.
As she closed her eyes, drained and sated, she knew it wouldn"t matter to her if he never took it out.
The woman opened the door and smiled brightly when she saw the man she had been thinking about. "You should have called. I would have come to the airport to get you."
He smiled down at her. "I know, but it was no bother. Got any news to tell me?"
"Yes," she said, leading him over to her sofa. "Ms. Di Meglio is out of town. She went to Houston with that man, Blade Madaris. I think he"s appointed himself her bodyguard."
The man laughed as he pulled her down to the sofa with him. "That doesn"t matter. When I"m ready to make my presence known and remind her of the reason I hate her, neither Madaris nor anyone else will be able to stop me from doing what I want to do."
Chapter 22.
Sam stood at the window in her office and looked out. Blade was pulling up in the parking lot, and in no time at all Rita was racing over to the car, no doubt to squeal on her.
Rita was probably telling Blade that earlier that day Sam had tried defying security to go out and grab lunch at the restaurant on the corner. Mac had come back to the office just in time to talk her out of leaving.
She ran her fingers through her hair, feeling a moment of frustration. She had been back from Houston for over a week and her secret admirer had not once tried contacting her. She was beginning to think it had all been a sick joke played by one of her former clients, or someone she had opposed in a court case. Some people took a loss in the courtroom personally.
She moved away from the window when she saw Blade heading toward the building with an unhappy look on his face. A fierce frown tightened his features. Evidently Rita had told him-the traitor. The woman needed to stick to reading her romance novels.
Sam rolled her eyes. Maybe it was time to make Blade see reason and let up a little. She had no complaints about the amount of time they spent together, especially since he stayed at her place every night. But she thought he was overdoing it a little with this protection thing.
She couldn"t go to her front door unless he was dead on her heels. And when he took her home in the afternoons, they stayed there. They either stopped for takeout on the way home or had food delivered to them once they got there. More than once she"d suggested they go out someplace, and he wouldn"t hear of it. Well, she was determined that he would listen to her today. Somehow and someway she was determined to get his attention.
She looked up when he flung open her office door. She swallowed the knot caught in her throat and smiled sweetly at him. "Is something wrong, Blade?"
He closed the door with just about as much force as he"d opened it, and crossed his arms over his chest. They were about to have an argument and it was bound to be a doozy. It was a good thing that Priscilla and most of the staff had already left. Peyton had been in court all day and Mac"s office was at the other end of the long hallway. Even if Mac heard Blade scolding Sam, she wouldn"t have lifted a finger to help, since she believed the tongue-lashing was much deserved.
"Are you out of your mind? I can"t believe you planned to go out for lunch by yourself."
"It was to the restaurant on the corner to grab a burger," she said defensively.