KISS AND MAKE-UP Read online

  It was probably both stupid and crazy but she was the one he most wanted to see right now. And not just because a lot of today’s success was entirely due to her quick thinking in his office earlier. Frankly, whether she’d been involved or not, he’d want to celebrate with her. To laugh and plan, to have a drink and to enjoy the thrill.

  “Why?” he wondered aloud as he pulled out of the parking garage.

  Why her? Why now? Why again?

  He didn’t have the answers. He only had the desire. So without giving it too much more thought, he turned up Lexington Street and headed toward Cassie’s hotel.

  He was in the lobby within a few minutes. The friendly clerk at the desk wouldn’t give him her room number, but did offer to connect him. She answered on the third ring. “Hello?”

  “It’s me. You want to come down and meet me for a drink?”

  He heard the audible breath she sucked in. “Did you get it?”

  Smiling, he replied, “We got it.”

  “Yes!”

  “So whaddya say? Still drink cheap Asti Spumante?”

  “I prefer expensive champagne,” she said with a dry laugh.

  “You’re on. Tonight, I can afford it. Come downstairs.”

  She hesitated for a second, then murmured, “I’ve got a better idea. This place has great room service.”

  Room service. In her room.

  Don’t do this. He heard the voice of caution whispering in his subconscious, but somehow Wyatt didn’t want to listen to it anymore. He’d known when he decided to come over here tonight that this could happen. Hell, the condom burning a hole in his pocket told him he’d known it could happen since the day she walked back into his life.

  Though he knew they might both regret it later, he said, “You’re sure, Cass?”

  She said nothing for a moment. They were both thinking about what would take place if he went up to her room. Given what they’d shared today in his office, Wyatt knew making love to Cassie again was going to be amazing.

  He also knew he should be getting out of here to save his heart.

  But tonight, his body was calling the shots. He just wondered if Cassie’s was.

  “Come up, Wyatt,” she murmured, giving him his answer.

  After getting her room number, he hung up the phone and strode to the elevator. His whole body was wound tight in pure anticipation. There were no second thoughts, no recriminations, just adrenaline and desire.

  Riding up to her floor in the elevator, he closed his eyes for a second, picturing the way she’d looked earlier in his office. He could see her beautiful mouth, open as she panted desperate little breaths. Her lids had been heavy over her eyes, her lips pink and moist. Cassie had been utterly glorious. She still aroused him in a way no other woman had.

  Maybe tonight had been inevitable. Somehow in the past several days he and Cassie had rediscovered something he’d thought was lost forever: a closeness, a friendship. So maybe the culmination of that was just meant to be in bed. They could put away the sad memories of their marriage and leave something good and honest in their place.

  That was for tomorrow, all the tomorrows. Now, though…now Wyatt was only going to live for tonight.

  Cassie had been in the hotel for a week, so she knew how long it took to get from the lobby to her room. She had only a few minutes to get ready for Wyatt’s arrival. Not just his arrival in her hotel room, but his arrival in her arms. In her body.

  Because there was no question in her mind that’s where he was going to be very soon.

  The moment she hung up the phone, she dashed into the bathroom. She’d showered an hour ago and her hair was still damp, so she quickly ran a brush through it. Without a dot of makeup on her face, and clothed only in the thick terry-cloth hotel bathrobe, she looked completely unseductive. Not at all a sexy come-and-get-me vixen.

  She’d known Wyatt would contact her tonight, though she’d figured he’d call and ask her to meet him. After what had happened in his office today, they had to talk. And have sex. Frankly, she hoped the sex would come first, because she was dying for it and had been dying for it for days.

  She’d figured she had plenty of time to get ready for him this afternoon, but then her office had called with a little problem. Her father had called and they’d had a long, tense conversation about this mysterious time-off she was taking. He didn’t like being out of the loop, but there was no way she wanted her parents to know where she was, or why.

  The call had taken a lot of time, which was why she was unprepared for the arrival of the sexiest man she’d ever known. Blowing a frustrated breath out of the side of her mouth, she thought about the mountains of luscious, sexy lingerie she had back home. “Next time,” she told her reflection, “pack more.”

  One very important item she had packed, however, and she quickly took care of the birth control issue.

  Somehow, as she glanced in the mirror, seeing the excited sparkle in her eyes and the flush on her cheeks, she didn’t think Wyatt was going to care what she was wearing. Frankly, neither did she. She didn’t need to race for the cute little pajamas she’d brought with her or throw on a tight pair of jeans. Because it would take too much time to get those things back off.

  She wanted Wyatt with almost desperate hunger. She needed him to walk in the room and just take her. Her whole body was soft and ready and she could feel the dampness between her legs growing hotter just at the thought of it.

  God, she hoped he wanted her as much, so much that he wouldn’t care whether they made it to the bed or not. There was no time for words, no need for small talk. She didn’t want stilted conversation, or any discussion about whether it was a good idea.

  Just sex. Hot, raw, hungry and intense.

  Smiling as she pictured the perfect way to welcome her husband back, she quickly moved to the door of the room and unlocked it. Opening it the tiniest bit, she looked around for something she could wedge in there to keep it from closing again. She quickly found something.

  Her robe.

  Figuring he had to be on the elevator by now, she dashed to the king-size bed and pulled the covers down. Wyatt was going to walk through that door, see her lying naked on the bed and lose every bit of his control.

  Or else a maid was going to walk through that door, see her lying naked on the bed, and send Cassie scurrying into the bathroom out of sheer embarrassment.

  “Hurry up, Wyatt,” she mumbled, praying nobody else decided to investigate the propped door. She could see the news story now: “Cosmetics heiress found naked in hotel bed without even a spot of makeup on.”

  Her nerve wavered for just a second, but before it compelled her to yank the covers up, she heard his voice. “Cassie?”

  “Come in.” Her words were soft, barely making it out of her dry mouth. She cleared her throat. “Come in, Wyatt,” she repeated. “And shut the door behind you.”

  He did. Wyatt must have suspected how he’d find her, because he maneuvered through the door very carefully, keeping it angled to block the view from the hall. He was being thoughtful, considerate, as always. But once that door closed, she didn’t want the thoughtful, considerate Wyatt. She wanted the crazy-with-want lover who’d once ripped her clothes right off her back in a moment of unbridled lust.

  She heard the click of the lock and his slow footsteps across the carpet. The intensity built, the want increased as she waited for the moment he’d spot her. Cassie stretched, liking the soft friction of the sheets against her skin, knowing it would soon be replaced by the friction of his hands.

  When he saw her on the bed—naked, wanton, with one knee bent, and one hand lying on her stomach—his eyes flared. Cassie offered him a sultry smile and slid her hand up her body, until her fingers brushed the bottom curve of her breast. “Hi.”

  His jaw tightened, but he didn’t lose control. He definitely didn’t rip his clothes off and leap on her, as she’d sort of hoped he would. Instead, he gave her a seductive look of his own. “I guess it’s a goo
d thing you didn’t meet me downstairs for that drink. You’re a little underdressed.”

  “And you’re a little overdressed,” she said, her voice nearly a purr.

  He didn’t respond, merely reaching up to slowly loosen his tie. Was there a sexier sight on earth than a gorgeous man with desire in his eyes taking off his clothes? If so, Cassie had never seen it. Her mouth went dry as she watched him, his every move controlled and deliberate, building the tension and the hunger.

  “Hurry, please,” she whispered, shifting her legs impatiently on the bed. She wanted his lean hips between her thighs and his heavy chest pressed against hers. Wanted his mouth and his hands and his tongue and his…everything.

  Wyatt ignored her demand, continuing to lazily unbutton his shirt, revealing his broad chest. Cassie stared at his body, noting again the width of his shoulders and the stripes of muscle across his taut abdomen. He was even more masculine now than he’d been as a young guy, with a whorl of sexy dark hair on his chest, trailing down in a thin line until it disappeared into his trousers. Trousers that were much too slow in coming off, particularly given the powerful bulge she was dying to see freed from behind his zipper.

  “You know you’re killing me, don’t you?” she said with a groan.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “When did you get to be such a tease?”

  “When did you get to be so impatient?” he countered.

  “I’ve always been impatient for this.”

  He smiled, looking wicked. “I’ve learned that anything really worth having is worth waiting for.”

  Cassie squirmed on the covers, certain she wouldn’t be able to take it. But she couldn’t help watching him, letting the intensity build until it was thick enough to taste.

  Umm, taste. She wanted to taste him. To lick the salty sweat from his skin and drive him crazy with her mouth, as she used to when the man had had a whole lot less self-control.

  He continued his torture, unfastening his belt with that same deliberate, agonizing restraint. The slow hiss of his zipper sounded loud in the otherwise silent room and Cassie’s heart skipped a couple of beats. But before he let his trousers fall, he reached into his pocket. After grabbing something, he tossed it to the table.

  Seeing the condom packet, Cassie smiled, glad she wasn’t the only one who’d been hungering for an intimate connection. “You won’t need that,” she said. “It’s already taken care of.”

  His dark eyes glittered. “Good. Because I really didn’t want anything wrapped tight around me except you.”

  “Oh,” she said on a moan, arching her back as his words rolled over her like a caress. He hadn’t even touched her, but just watching him, listening to the promise in his words, was arousing her nearly to the breaking point. Her hips thrust up a little, and she clenched the muscles of her thighs. The need to be touched by him—filled by him—was almost overwhelming.

  Wyatt finally dropped his trousers and kicked them, along with his shoes and socks, out of the way. Clad only in a pair of white boxer briefs that did almost nothing to disguise the strength of his erection, he knelt on the bed and moved toward her.

  “You’re not done,” she said, almost choking on the words as she glanced at his briefs.

  He ignored her and came closer until he was kneeling beside her calf. She lifted her arms, reaching for him. Wyatt instead lowered his mouth to her leg and pressed a warm, openmouthed kiss to the inside of her thigh, just above her knee.

  “Wyatt,” she said on a deep moan.

  A throaty chuckle was his only response and he continued to nibble and kiss her shaking limb, his slightly stubbled cheek scraping deliciously across her skin. His warm mouth burned a trail higher, slowing as he neared her hip. A soft kiss in the hollow just inside her hipbone had her ready to howl. “Wyatt!”

  “I’ve missed this,” he said, his mouth moving into more dangerous territory, until she felt the brush of his breath on her curls.

  Unable to help it, she arched up to him, offering, demanding, knowing that she’d lose her mind if he tasted her and she’d just die if he didn’t. As if knowing that, he dipped down and delicately licked her, dead on target, stroking her clit with that tongue, sending every nerve ending she possessed into overdrive. A powerful orgasm came out of nowhere and rocked her body hard.

  When she could pull herself together enough to look at him, she saw the smile on his face and knew he was nowhere near through playing with her. The man had the patience of Job. And he expended every bit of it as he kissed and licked and nibbled his way across her belly, her midriff, to the bottom curve of her breast.

  “Beautiful,” he murmured as he drew up enough to look his fill.

  “Taste me.”

  He licked his lips. “I can still taste you on my tongue and, damn, you taste good.”

  Oh, Lord, she was dying and dancing and spinning and floating. Unable to stand it, she grabbed him by the hair, tangling her fingers in those thick, dark locks, and pulled him closer. He took mercy and allowed it, covering her sensitive nipple with his warm mouth. Cassie cried out as he sucked hard. When she felt him move his hand between her legs to begin making slow love to her with his fingers, she flew apart all over again.

  She was still shaking when she shimmied down to meet his mouth with her own, moaning with want and need. She licked hungrily at his lips. With a low groan, Wyatt kissed her back, his tongue catching hers in a deep, heady mating.

  He somehow managed to continue the kiss while pushing off his briefs. Feeling his thick, rock-hard heat against her hip, Cassie’s heart sped even faster. “Now, please, Wyatt,” she said with a whimper, tangling her legs in his and twisting restlessly beneath him. He hissed when she rubbed against him, her drenched body sliding effortlessly against his erection. His hiss was followed by a helpless groan and she knew, finally, that she had him. He would no longer be able to resist.

  Giving himself over to her, he began to ease into her body, as if coming home after a long time away. But Cassie was done with the slow torture. She thrust up, taking him in one deep, hard stroke, crying out as he filled her to her core.

  Nobody had ever filled her this way. Her body. Her heart. Her soul. Nobody.

  “How can you still feel so perfect, like you were made for me?” he asked throatily as he rocked into her, delighting her with deep, steady strokes.

  “Maybe because I was.”

  He stilled, looking down at her, his dark eyes questioning.

  Cassie didn’t question it anymore. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him toward her mouth, whispering, “I love you, Wyatt,” just before their lips met.

  He kissed her sweetly, hungrily, forcing her to let him slow down and taunt her with short, teasing thrusts, followed by deep, mind-blowing ones. Until even Wyatt couldn’t resist it anymore and gave over to raw passion.

  The tempo increased, frenzy took over, and soon they were both breathless and slick with sweat. As yet another orgasm rolled over Cassie’s body, she finally heard Wyatt cry out his own release.

  And in those last moments of coherence, she also heard something else. Wyatt whispered faintly, as if he wasn’t even aware he was speaking, “I love you, too, Cassandra.”

  Wyatt woke up the next morning to the sound of the shower. Glancing at the clock beside the bed, he realized it was after ten. He hadn’t slept this late in years.

  Rolling onto his back, he looked up at the ceiling and slowly smiled. Because oh, wow, did he have good reason for sleeping so late. So many good reasons, he honestly didn’t know if he was gonna be able to walk this morning.

  He and Cassie certainly couldn’t make up for eight years of lost time in one night, but they’d sure as hell given it a shot. And he knew, without a doubt, that he loved her. Still. Always had, always would.

  He just wondered if he had been wise to admit it to her. But she feels it, too, he acknowledged. Cassie had revealed her feelings and the emotion shining in her blue eyes had shown without a doubt that she spoke
the truth.

  So, he loved her and she loved him. But what would happen now, he had absolutely no idea. Because love hadn’t been enough the last time, not when real life had set in.

  Rolling to the side of the bed, he decided to put off thinking about anything outside this hotel room and just go climb into the shower with the woman he loved. The thought of getting wet and soapy with her suddenly made him feel a lot more wide awake. But before he’d taken a step, someone knocked on the door to the room.

  He considered ignoring it, since he was certain he’d put the Do Not Disturb sign on the knob last night. But whoever was knocking wasn’t giving up. The intrusive sound grew louder, more insistent.

  “Dammit,” he muttered, looking around the room for something to put on. When he spied his trousers on the floor, he grabbed them and yanked them up, zipping them as he stalked to the door.

  Figuring he was about to see a maid who wanted to get the room done, Wyatt yanked the door open. Instead of a maid, he saw a sixtyish, gray-haired man, with an attractive middle-aged blond woman by his side.

  The woman’s eyes widened and the man’s jaw dropped.

  “Yes?” Wyatt said, wishing he’d grabbed his shirt, too.

  “Is this Cassandra Devane’s room?” the man asked.

  He nodded, wondering who these people were. But his question was quickly answered. Because from behind him, he heard Cassie’s voice. “Dad? Mother?”

  Her parents? Holy shit, her parents were at the door and he was standing here in only an unbuttoned pair of pants! And right behind him was a hotel bed that looked like a herd of kindergarteners had been jumping on it all night.

  The older man—Cassie’s father—pushed into the room. “So this is what you’ve been up to? Why you’ve been missing work?” he said to Cassie, his jaw as stiff as stone.

  Cassie’s mother remained in the hallway, her face coloring. “Larry, maybe we should come back later.”

  Mr. Devane was, by now, glaring at Wyatt. Wyatt merely crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, raising an expectant brow. If Cassie’s father was going to berate him, Wyatt was going to come back at the man with exactly what he thought of his parenting skills.