big-time.
But he could fix it before his slip endangered the arrangement. The last thing he wanted was for Nina to think he was taking advantage of their business deal, using it as an opportunity to have sex with her. So, he sat straighter in the chair and put his fingers on the keyboard. Nina’s email address was already typed and now he added the subject line: GUIDELINES.
He shook his head and pressed the backspace button. Then he typed again: RULES.
No, that wasn’t going to work, so he deleted that, too.
In all his years, he’d never had to type an email like this. He’d also never left a woman almost immediately after having sex with her.
“I’ll see you in the office at ten,” he’d said after coming out of the bathroom.
She’d been sitting on the couch. While he’d been in the bathroom, she must have gone into the bedroom to grab her robe because it was belted tightly at her waist as she sat with her hands in her lap.
“Right,” she’d replied. “I received the email adding that to the itinerary.”
“Good. Okay. Well then, good night.” The words had come in a clipped tone and he’d walked out of her hotel room, closing the door soundly behind him.
Now he was at his desk, preparing to tell her that what had happened would never happen again. Via email. It struck him then that this might be a tad immature, or perhaps even unnecessary. What if she was having the same never-again conversation with herself right at this moment? What if...he’d really messed up. It never occurred to him that sex with her would be so...so fantastic and intense and, damn, he’d messed up bad. Yeah, he was definitely sending her an email because in person this might turn into a discussion and the boundaries he needed to set for his own sanity weren’t up for negotiation.
FOLLOW-UP.
He stared at the letters for a moment before deleting them, too.
This was ridiculous. Was he really going to tell this grown and exceptionally attractive woman that they couldn’t touch each other again? Because that’s what it was going to take. He’d decided on the ride back to his penthouse that touching her—in any capacity—was only going to make him want her more. There were plenty of couples who didn’t engage in PDA, so that wasn’t out of the ordinary.
But he and Nina weren’t a real couple. They never would be after Stacia’s conniving ways. Major had learned his lesson about being a Gold and trying to have a real relationship.
With that thought, Riley and Chaz immediately sprang to mind. His sister and her boyfriend were always touching—holding hands, Chaz touching her arm, Riley leaning in to him as he said something. All acts that, as Riley’s big brother, made Major uncomfortable to see. But his parents were no different. How many times had he seen his father squeeze his mother’s ass while growing up? He closed his eyes tightly and groaned. The answer was too many for his comfort. But Ron Gold loved his wife Marva without reservation. They were a partnership in love and in business and still going strong after thirty-seven years of marriage.
ADDENDUM.
Major typed the letters and this time didn’t stop typing until a five-item list and two paragraphs were complete.
He hit Send and closed his computer before he could think better of the action. Sex with Nina had been great—if he were inclined to be specific, it was jolting, surprising, tantalizing—but it wasn’t part of the plan. The plan that Major had worked on for far too long to be curtailed by a beautiful woman wearing colorful and sexy-as-hell waist beads that he knew would forever stay on his mind.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“I RECEIVED YOUR EMAIL” was the first thing Nina said when she walked into Major’s office the next morning.
He was sitting behind his desk and had looked up the moment he heard her voice.
“Landra told me to come right in since you were expecting me.” She set her bag on the floor next to one of the guest chairs across from his desk but didn’t take a seat.
Before getting started with business, she had to say what she’d rehearsed since reading his message at two this morning.
“What happened last night was consensual, just in case you may be thinking you used your Fashion House Playboy vibes to seduce me. You didn’t. I do what I want when I want.”
That came out much better than the dozen or so times she’d said it