She stared at him, her soft mouth pressed flat. Norma stared, too, from behind the counter, her large, chubby arms crossed across her voluminous bosom. Seconds ticked by.

It irritated him, being jerked around, but this was not about pie. This was some sort of subtle test that he could not afford to fail.

Ah, what the fuck. It was only pie, after all. He forked up a bite.

“It’s good,” he said, automatically. Then he took another bite, and realized that it was true. It really was good. In fact, it was damn good.

Nell’s face relaxed. Norma raised an eyebrow, harrumphed, and stumped away to serve a customer at the other end of the counter.

Nell leaned down. “What did they say?” she hissed in his ear.

Duncan felt an unexpected smile tug at his mouth, swiftly followed by a desire to laugh. “I was just informed that I should declare my intentions. And if I don’t treat you like a goddess, I’ll be sliced wide open, and my steaming viscera tossed out into the street.”

“Oh, my God.” Nell turned a delicate pink. “I’m going to kill them.”

“No need.” Suddenly, with no warning, he was laughing. Out loud. In public. People were looking. He didn’t care.

It felt great.

Chapter

8

He kept catching her eye, giving her that wicked grin that scrambled her brain. The grin with the dimples that carved sexy lines into his cheeks. He’d done it in the restaurant and made her screw up the orders. He’d done it on the drive to his building. He was doing it now, from behind his desk in his office. She crossed her legs and tried to catch her breath. Bastard. It wasn’t fair. It really wasn’t.

“Nell? Earth to Nell? Do you have any of those finished?”

She jerked her gaze back to Bruce. “Uh, do I have what finished?”

Bruce rolled his eyes. “The manuscripts for the goblin caves! Did you get those done? I need to submit them to the graphic artists.”

“Ah…um…” She winced. What with attackers and protracted bouts of incredible sex, she hadn’t had a second to work on the game. In fact, she’d forgotten about its existence. “I’m so sorry, Bruce, but I—”

“She’s been busy,” Duncan said curtly, from behind his desk.

Bruce’s eyes narrowed. He looked from Duncan to Nell. “Busy?”

Nell began to blush. “My life’s been kind of crazy. If you want, I’ll try to whip something up right now.”

“Okay, fine, but I was hoping to brainstorm about the octagonal tower and the magic mirrors tonight. And how about the prophesies for the cursed tomb of the lost kings? Haven’t done those, either, huh?”

She resisted the urge to excuse herself for slacking off. “Not yet, but I have some ideas,” she said. “They’ll need to be encrypted.”

“I roughed out a Rosetta stone last night. Looks like we’re going to be here till midnight if we want to have a chance in hell of finishing—”

“No,” Duncan said. “She’s been waitressing all day. She needs dinner, and a rest. Plus she has an appointment, in Queens, at nine.”

Bruce stared at them, and started to grin. “Ah. I see. Does she need her beauty rest, then? So that’s the way the wind blows.”

“Shut up, Bruce,” Duncan growled.

“Tired or not, we gotta get that material churned out by Monday,” Bruce fretted. “I don’t know how you expect us to—”

“Do it tomorrow,” Duncan said.

Bruce slanted him a glance. “Tomorrow’s Sunday, Dunc.”

“So? Work doesn’t care what day it gets done.”

“I’m free tomorrow,” Nell said quickly.

Duncan looked at his brother. “See? Problem solved. Get lost.”

Bruce got up and backed toward the door. “I’ll just go on home and slave away on my Rosetta stone while you two lovebirds—”

“Out, Bruce!” Duncan’s voice was like the lash of a whip.

“I’ll just, ah, engage this lock for you.” Bruce flicked the lever, grinning, and ducked out the door. It snicked shut behind him.

“That was unnecessary!” Nell hissed. “I promised him that I’d get those goblin cave manuscripts—oh!” She squeaked as he pulled her up to her feet and dragged her around his desk. He yanked her onto his lap, so that she was straddling him. “Are you nuts?”

He stifled her protest with a hot, persuasive kiss. She grasped his wrists for balance. Wow. But this was his office, for God’s sake.

“Just a kiss,” he said, nuzzling her throat. “Every time I passed the conference room, my dick got hard. Don’t worry. Door’s locked.”

“That makes it worse!” she protested. “Everyone is speculating!”

“What everyone? Everybody’s gone home but Bruce, and he’s already drawn his conclusions.” He gripped her hips, dragging her closer. “I did a crazy thing today,” he said, between ravenous kisses.

“Oh, really?” She laughed, breathlessly. “Crazier than usual?”

“Yeah. I was supposed to convince my sister Ellie to change her major from theater back to economics.” His arms tightened, grinding his erection against the melting sweet spot. She could hardly breathe.

“So I called her,” he continued, his voice silky. “I was about to do my spiel. And then I found your petals.”

“Really?” Nell said. Her panties were a whisper-thin barrier between the scorching heat and hardness of his erection. “And?”

“And I told her to go for it.” He sounded astonished at himself.

Nell was startled into lucidity. “Just like that?”

“There I was, rose petals all over me. I couldn’t bring her down.”

Nell’s heart swelled. She cradled his face in her hands and kissed him. “Congratulations,” she whispered. “You did a great thing.”

He cupped his hand behind her head and deepened the kiss.

Her long sweater skirt was rucked up high on her thighs, over the same beige gartered stockings she’d worn the day before, and his erection pressed against the gusset of her panties, behind which was a melting, throbbing ache of rising desire. She pulled away, gasping for breath. “I’m going to give you a great big wet spot,” she warned him.

“Only one thing to do about that.” He lifted her up so she stood on her feet, cupping her bottom so she couldn’t wiggle away. He wrenched his belt loose and his pants open. His cock sprang up, empurpled and huge. He slid his finger inside the crotch of her panties and into that hot, liquid well, swirling and stroking. A tug against her hip, fabric ripped, and he pulled her back down, fitting her over himself.

Forcing the thick club of his penis slowly, insistently inside her.

She braced herself against his chest. “Hey! Hold on! I spoiled you this morning, but don’t you dare start to think you can play dangerous games with me without protection whenever you feel like it!”

He slid relentlessly deeper. “I always feel like it with you.”

“You’re not the one who pays the price if there is a mishap!”

He stopped moving, and cupped her cheek, stared into her eyes with fierce intensity. “That’s not true. I always take responsibility for what I do. I would never bail out on you, Nell.”

Um. Nice sentiment, but Nell wasn’t precisely sure of its practical applications, and she was afraid to ask. And her body was betraying her. She could barely speak, swaying on top of him, quivering around his cock, squeezing him convulsively inside herself. She coordinated her shaky voice. “How do you take responsibility for an irresponsible thing? It’s contradictory!”

His fingers bit into her hips, dragging her against him. “That’s way too deep for a guy like me,” he said. “Especially when all the blood in my body’s been diverted to my dick.”

“That’s a cheap excuse,” she shot back, writhing helplessly.