“I have a nice, quiet den with a fireplace,” he said. “Come home with me, Holly.” A smile touched his lips. “Use me for my work space.”
She laughed despite the nerves fluttering in her stomach. She shut her computer. “No. That’s not a good idea.” It was time to go far, far away from Cole Wiley. Before she did something she would regret later. It was too late for fantasy. She couldn’t be the wild fantasy girl, free of inhibitions when she was Big Sis Holly Redding, home for the holidays.
He sat up, fixed all his attention on her so she felt couldn’t breathe. “No,” she said, answering before he could ask again. “You’ll distract me.”
“I’ll try not to.”
“It won’t work.”
He laughed. “Good. I don’t want it to. But the truth is, I have piles of paperwork waiting for me, with deadlines of my own. I’d still be working, but I was seeing double and had to take a break.” He arched a brow at her. “So you see? We both have to work. We’ll hole up by the fire and motivate each other to get our work done.”
She laughed, and slid her computer into her briefcase. “You think we’ll motivate each other to work.” It wasn’t a question. Nothing about being with this man was going to motivate her to work. More like, motivate her to get naked and scream an “Oh God! ” two or three or ten times.
Mischief and mayhem lurked in the depths of those brown eyes as he said, “I’m a firm believer in reward programs.”
Heat spiraled in her core. “Rewards,” she repeated, her tongue thick with the word.
“Rewards,” he assured her. “Would you like me to offer a few examples? Say, you complete five pages, so I—”
Holly’s heart jackknifed as Carol approached the table. “No. No!” she cut him off. “No need for examples.”
“Here you go,” Carol said, setting the bag on the table. “A big piece of pie for Jacob.” She pulled out her pad of paper. “You ready to order, Cole?”
He glanced up at Carol. “This will do it,” he said, reaching in his pocket and tossing money on the table. “Just needed a little caffeine and it’s back to work for me.”
Carol made a tsk sound. “You’re always working.” She motioned to Holly. “You should try and make him relax a little.”
Cole arched a brow, all sexy and playful, silently challenging her to do that and more.
Holly laughed nervously. “I’ll get on that,” she said. “Right after I write another three hundred pages.”
Carol rolled her eyes. “What am I going to do with you two?” she asked before she scurried away as another customer called to her.
“The real question,” Cole said, “is what are you going to do with me?”
Rip your clothes off. Lick every inch of delicious muscle. Holly shoved those naughty little thoughts away and finished packing her bag.
“Say good night is what I’m going to do,” she said, but she wanted a push, a reason to do the naughty, not the nice. “So good night.”
He studied her a moment, and she could feel him sizing her up, gauging her position. “I’ll walk you to your car,” he said finally. “You can follow me home.”
There was her push. Holly’s heart exploded in her ears, and she made one last-ditch attempt to convince herself to say no. The time for fantasy had passed. It was time to focus on the here and now. But the rewards Cole had mentioned . . . perhaps the rewards would be motivational. She would type five pages, she’d have an orgasm. Another five pages, it was his turn. Oh yes, she liked that. It might be highly productive.
“I have to get my work done,” she stated. “This isn’t negotiable.”
A smile tugged on his lips. “Work first. Rewards later.”
She inclined her head, satisfied he understood. Holly shoved her bag over her shoulder. “What are you waiting for?” she asked. “I thought you had a lot of work to do?”
One sexy dimple greeted her as he pushed to his feet. His big, delicious body towered so near her, she shivered with excitement. Because soon, that big, delicious body was going to be her reward. For the first time since arriving home, she couldn’t wait to start writing.
Chapter Five
Not ten minutes after leaving the diner, with butterflies in her stomach, Holly stood in the foyer of Cole’s home as he followed her inside. The ranch-style home sat only a few miles from her parents’ place, and from what she could tell, it was cozy in its own right. Four stairs led from the tiled walkway of the entrance to a sunken living room. Decorated in warm browns, the overstuffed chairs and an amazingly comfy-looking couch sat before a massive rock fireplace. A big masculine desk framed the corner to the right of the hearth, with a notebook computer in the center, along with an open binder and files. If this was where they were working, it certainly was inviting.
The door shut behind her, and Cole stepped down the hallway to join her. Holly eagerly returned her attention to Cole, watching as he set the bag with her computer on the ground—he’d insisted on carrying it inside for her. Without question, he was as much a gentleman as he was a sinful diversion, one that she was no longer going to deny herself. Though she barely recognized the woman she’d been in the front seat of that truck, wild and wanton, unforgiving in her demand for pleasure, she had found that freedom alluring. If any man could awaken that side of her, Cole was that man.
She would have thought she’d be scared right now, afraid she wouldn’t know how to respond to Cole or live up to his expectations. But she remembered that moment in the truck, when she’d felt embarrassed, and how amazingly wonderful he’d been. So far it seemed that, with Cole, there was no right or wrong to pleasure. There was simply pleasure. That was a trend she wholeheartedly hoped would continue.
Holly watched as Cole shrugged out of his jacket with a delicious flex of muscle and hung it on the rack beside him. Anticipation thrummed through her veins as he eased her coat from her shoulders. The coolness of the room shimmered over her skin, a contrast to the heat Cole generated within her. Her nipples tightened, her breasts grew heavy. Would Cole touch her now? Would he kiss her?
The answer came after he’d hung her coat up. His hands settled on her light blue, long-sleeved sweater, his hips framing her backside without actually touching. The urge to lean back and feel that long, hard body pressed close was almost too much for her to resist.
“Welcome to my home, Holly,” he whispered near her ear, his mouth nuzzling her neck for a moment before he stepped away. Her body vibrated with dissatisfaction at the loss of his nearness, and she turned to face him, finding him still close, so very close— he towered over her, his ruggedly male presence stealing her breath. Their eyes locked, the sexual tension between them riveting. One dark brow lifted in challenge. “Shall we get to work so we can earn those rewards?”
Work. Right. Work. Her book. “Yes. Yes, let’s do that,” she said softly, thinking about the rewards with ever-growing interest.