Heat Exchange(25)

She would be his friend and matchmaker.

It made sense. Janey was good at being both a friend and a matchmaker. Going by what his women had said, Nyall was good at switching mistresses over to friendship with no hard feelings.

Meeting Amy tonight had brought it all into focus. Amy didn't seem to be so much a sex partner anymore as Nyall's friend. That was very encouraging. That's what Janey wanted to be after the week of his teaching her how to have sex was over.

After all, friendships could cross money lines without too many issues.

Janey chewed her lip. One of her good friends had a cousin who knew the mother of a Pilates instructor for a prominent female celebrity lawyer who hosted a talk show. If she wasn't mistaken, that lawyer was single…

"Janey."

Janey looked up and blinked. Nyall was standing over her, so tall it was almost intimidating, his expression impatient. She gave him a beaming smile.

"Hi, Nyall. I have twelve candidates so far—no, thirteen now. I don't think you'll need to worry at all. These are all nice ladies. You're going to have so many choices at the Charming Cinderella Ball."

"Terrific. We're done in here. Let's go."

"Done? Go?" Janey said confusedly. She was still in the universe of débutante names, party planners, and fundraisers. There was so little time to plan an event of this magnitude. It was overwhelming. She was glad Nyall had agreed to let her hire anyone she wished. She might even need to hire another caterer. Her small staff wasn't equipped to handle this scale of event if Janey was also going to be involved in the planning of it.

Nyall gestured to the dirty dishes on the table, the food containers on the counter and the nearly half-gone cheesecake dripping with pink sauce. "We're done eating and socializing. You've had your hour."

"Oh," she said. It hit her that the kitchen was a disaster. She couldn't believe she'd forgotten it. "We need to clean up and put everything away."

"I'll do it later," Nyall said tersely.

"You?"

"I canceled maid service for this week, so yes, me."

"Let's do it together," Janey said and stood up. That brought her a little too close to Nyall, so she stepped back hastily.

She felt him watching her while she covered the cheesecake and stuck it in the fridge. When she started moving dishes, though, he stopped her. "Later, Janey. Bed now."

Janey's eyes widened. "Bed? Is it that late? I'm not sleepy."

"Not to sleep."

"Um. I see. By the way, thanks for ordering the dinner. It was delicious. I can't remember the last time I've had real French onion soup baked by somebody else. And the cilantro lamb was perfect. I think Amy and Oliver liked it, too. What did you think of the cheesecake? Was the strawberry sauce too much? Maybe raspberry would have been a better choice after—"

"It was fine, Janey. Are you nervous?"

"Well, I'm not really in sex mode right now," she said, staring at his hand, which was dexterously popping out the top buttons of her blouse. "I'm thinking about what we talked about tonight."

"I can tell." Now he was grasping the hem of her blouse.

"Uh…hold on a sec, Nyall. What are you doing?"

"Undressing you. Remember? Naked when we're alone. You had your gratis time. It's up."

She wiggled away. "But…let's talk about this."

He sighed. "What else have we been doing? We've settled this. You're staying with me. Nothing has changed from our original plan. Except for a party at the end of the month."

She licked her lips. "Right. But I think we should talk about it anyway. I mean, we haven't talked about it while we're alone. It's an intimate topic."

He cupped her cheeks. "Janey, I'm sorry for jumping on you when you caressed me while I was on the phone. I'm begging you to do it again in fact. You can do any the fuck thing to my body you want any time you fucking want. Have I made myself clear?"

Her jaw fell. "Uh-huh."

His voice gentled. "I'm also sorry about the rule that work always has priority. I don't know what to do about it now, but we'll work on it, all right? Now forgive me for all that crap and let's get to bed."

Her arms flew up as he pulled off the blouse. "I do forgive you," she said in a muffled voice. Then the shirt was gone and now Nyall was disposing of her bra. Janey's hands went to the cups to keep the undergarment from falling down. "Nyall, wait. Please slow down."

He muttered something under his breath. "You're not backing out of this again."

"I don't want to back out of this anymore," she admitted. "I still want you…I still want you to show me all about it. Sex, I mean."

"Good. Because if you'd decided to leave after I've waited all this time to be with you, I'd have come after you."

She swallowed. "You want me that much?" Her brain still had a hard time wrapping around that fact.

"I'm crazy for you, Janey," he said on a laugh-groan.

"But why?"

"I don't know—ask my cock. It's been hard for you since that day in the elevator. I can't stop thinking about doing this." Her blouse was gone, her shoes were gone, and now he was sliding down her pants and underwear. She clutched the bra over her breasts like a lifeline.

"Is that normal for men to fixate sexually on a woman like that? Because nobody's ever done that with me."

"I wonder," he said absently. "I have the feeling you're wrong about that, but I don't want to talk about it now, Janey. I have no idea what's normal or not. I just know it's not normal for me to want a woman like I want you. Man, I like you naked. Let go of the bra, sweetheart."

Janey did, amazed she didn't feel shy right now to have a dressed Nyall examining her unclothed body in the middle of the kitchen. She accepted that he really did want her in particular and was even a little proud that he liked her body.

"You're smiling," he said huskily, wrapping his hands around her waist. "I like that, too."

"I feel so much better for having met Amy and her friend Oliver," she confessed. "I'm going to be a wonderful friend for you, Nyall, after the sex part is over."

His hands tightened around her waist. "Oh?"

She nodded. "I understand now that I'm not really your sex partner or mistress or whatever. I don't think I got it before even though you kept saying it. But now after doing Oliver's resynthesis it's all clear. We're friends just like you and Amy are friends, and we happen to have healthy sexual chemistry and we're doing each other favors, too. It doesn't really matter that we're in different social circles. I can help you find a wife, and you can help me find a boyfriend by teaching me how to be a sexually mature woman. Once this week is over and the ball is over, maybe we'll still be friends. That would be great because I really like you."

His jaw tightened and a muscle nearby twitched. "Right. Janey, I have more advice for you. Focus on this. You're here with me. We're going to fuck. I'm going to give you so much pleasure you're not going to be able to think of anything else."

"Well, that's nice, but—"

"No buts. We're on fire for each other. Think about that."

"It's kind of weird." She sighed. "I wonder how long it lasts. Do you think it will last all week?"

"Uh, yeah."

"You should know," she said. Brashly she took hold of his t-shirt and started to lift it up. He raised his arms to make it easy for her to pull his shirt off. He met her elated glance with a look of amusement.

"It's not like undressing my three-year-old nephews," she said. "It's much more fun to undress you."

"I see that."

To make it more enjoyable for herself, she slowed down, skimming her thumb over his torso as the shirt went up, brushing his flat nipples on the way. She liked the way that tiny contact got his body to jerk.

Nyall expelled a loud breath and shoved her hand away. In the next instant, his shirt was out of her grip and on the floor, followed swiftly by his jeans, underwear, socks, and shoes.

Janey was disappointed she hadn't gotten to finish the job. She took a step back to view his form. His body was solid, his legs long, lean and toned, his arms, oh, joy, those wavy tan arms, and his chest, every muscle defined, his cock huge, curved, dark…and all gloriously bare for her. For her. It was like a gift.

"You're beautiful," she gasped. "But Nyall, I was undressing you."

"You were unwrapping me," he corrected. "Slowly. Another time you can do it, Janey." Suddenly Janey was in his arms and he was headed for the bedroom.

"You carry me a lot of places," she said. "I can't help noticing that."

He quirked a brow. "Apparently I'm a caveman around you."

Janey remembered Amy calling him that. The bedroom light flooded on and then she felt herself set lightly down on the bed. Its comfortable resilience was luxurious. "Nyall? Am I going to lose my virginity tonight?"

He didn't answer, just came down beside her on the bed and gathered her flush against him, using his arm to cushion their heads and his leg to hook around her. He made a soft, throaty sound, then started to kiss her.

There was so much to feel. His naked body lying along her length, his arm holding her pressed to him, his cock squeezed between them, their legs intertwined while his lips and tongue leisurely swiped over hers…it was the most intimate thing Janey had ever known.