Nine Months

“Then what’s the problem?” Watching her face turn crimson and her brown eyes sparkle with dark fire, he grinned. “You must be afraid you’ll get your beige suit dirty. Is that it?”

“Despite the fact I’m a little upset right now, I am not some silly female who would worry about getting her suit dirty.”

“Oh, then you must have another reason for wanting to stay here with me. Could it be that you think if you play the helpless female, I’ll play your hero? Honey, if you want me, you don’t have to be coy. All you have to do is come and get me.”

“Oh!” Paige huffed loudly. “Of all the nerve. You must have a monumental ego to think—”

“My ego isn’t the only thing about me that’s monumental,” he announced. Paige gritted her teeth and Jared could tell that she was too mad to give a thought to being slightly claustrophobic. He’d rather have an angry woman on his hands than a hysterical one.

“Why, you egotistical, macho jerk!” Without giving a thought to what she was doing, Paige balled her hand into a tight fist and punched Jared in the stomach.

The blow was totally unexpected, and Jared doubled over from the instant pain.

“Why the hell did you do that?” He straightened up to his full six-foot height, poked his hand through the opening where two of his shirt buttons were missing and rubbed his stomach. His movements loosened his shirt from his jeans, revealing several inches of his washboard-lean belly covered with swirls of dark brown hair.

“You were being hateful and insulting,” Paige said, forcing her gaze away from his body and up to his face.

“I was trying to keep your mind off being trapped in this elevator,” he admitted. “But I had no idea you had such violent tendencies.”

“I do not have violent tendencies.” Her voice quivered ever so slightly. Then as the anger, frustration and sense of helplessness overwhelmed her, her eyes filled with tears that overflowed down her cheeks and ran into the corners of her mouth.

“Oh, hell, honey. Don’t do that!” Dammit, this was what Jared had been trying so desperately to avoid. Under normal circumstances, he would walk off and leave her. He didn’t tolerate any woman’s silly, emotional spells. But he was as trapped as she was. “There’s no cause for your acting this way.”

Paige glared at him through misty eyes. She hated him! Jared Whoever-he-was. She hated him! Why couldn’t he be more like her father and act like a gentleman?

Hugging herself as she continued breathing deeply, Paige closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall. She would stop crying. She would regain control. And she wouldn’t say another word to Jared Whoever-he-was. No matter how long they were stuck in this hellhole together.

Jared didn’t know whether two minutes, twenty minutes or two hours had passed, but it seemed like two days to him. Paige stood on one side of the elevator, he on the other. Neither of them had spoken a word. But he could hear her ragged, sobbing little gulps for air. He glanced over at her and cursed himself for a fool.

What the hell! he told himself. What would it hurt to comfort her a little? Maybe if he put his arm around her and soothed her, she’d stop that noise. If necessary, he might even apologize. Anything to quiet her.

“Paige?” He took a few steps forward, stopping just short of touching her. When she looked at him with her dark chocolate eyes and bit down on her bottom lip, all soft and pink, he felt as if he’d been poleaxed again. He wanted this woman!

Paige sucked in a deep breath. Jared was looking at her as if… No, surely not, she thought. He couldn’t possibly want her. She was letting her imagination run wild. She tried to break visual contact, but it was as if she were hypnotized by his seductive stare.

Reaching out with both hands, he used his index fingers to wipe away the tears from her cheeks. Paige’s breath caught in her throat as Jared traced the planes of her face with his fingertips.

“Don’t cry anymore, honey.” He took her face in his hands, cupping her cheeks tenderly.

“Please…don’t.” She couldn’t bear the way he made her feel. Hot and cold at the same time, her stomach tightening into knots and her breathing quickening.

“Don’t what?” Jared whispered the question, his voice compellingly sensual. Touching her had been a big mistake. If she didn’t push him away, if she didn’t tell him no, he was going to make love to this woman. Here. Now. In the elevator.

“Don’t confuse me this way. I don’t know how to deal with a man like you,” she reluctantly admitted.

“What sort of man do you think I am?” He lowered his head and brushed his lips across hers.

She gasped. “You—you’re a master game player and I don’t know how to play games.”

“Then I’ll teach you.”

Before she could respond, he engulfed her in a passionately gentle kiss. Paige discovered herself succumbing totally to his tenderness. She dropped her purse to the floor and swayed toward him, her breasts pressing against his hard chest.

Oh, dear God, she felt as if she were drowning in the dark, swirling depths of her own desire. She opened her mouth, allowing his tongue entrance, then moaned when he threaded his fingers through her hair. The neat French twist fell apart under his marauding hand and her mahogany red hair tumbled down her back.

He eased his other hand down her waist and across her hips, pulling her close to him. She wrapped herself around him. Clinging to him. Wanting him. Lost to everything except the all-consuming longing coursing through her.

What was happening to her? Why couldn’t she stop…or ask him to stop? In the swirling confusion of her mind, one coherent thought made its way through—she didn’t want the incredible experience to end and she’d never felt like this. But how could she feel like this with a stranger—a stranger she didn’t even like?

Jared was fast losing control, and if he didn’t stop now, he was going to take Paige with all the wild desire raging inside him. He ran his fingers down her throat and deepened the kiss. Then he slipped his hand inside her suit jacket and covered her breast, his fingers seeking and finding her nipple. Opening her jacket fully to reveal her beige satin bra, he lowered his head and took her nipple into his mouth, suckling her through the soft material. Paige grabbed at his shirt, quickly undoing the remaining buttons, then spread his shirt apart.

Lifting her up against the wall, he pressed her moist, warm body between him and the mirror behind her. While she clutched his shoulders and succumbed to the desire to place her mouth on his chest, he shoved her skirt upward, bunching it around her hips. She lifted her leg, fitting her calf around his thigh.

“I want you, honey,” Jared said, his voice deep and soft and dripping with desire. “Right here. Right now.”

“I—I—” She couldn’t seem to form her thoughts into words.

“If you don’t want this, too, Paige, stop me now.”

“No,” she whimpered. “No, don’t stop.”

Her words seemed to end any doubts on his part, sending him into a sexual frenzy. Within minutes, he’d divested her of her shoes and bikini panties, then unzipped his jeans and lifted her to straddle his hips. She clung to him as he braced her against the mirrored wall. While she returned his wild, wet kisses, he thrust into her.

Paige threw back her head and cried out from the sheer joy of having him inside her. The tension spiraled upward and outward, a hotter, wilder passion than any she’d ever known.

Jared whispered dark, erotic, almost incoherent words to her as he claimed her. He was lost in the moment, not thinking, only feeling. Paige cried out as fulfillment spread through her and her release triggered his. They clung to each other, straining to hold on to the ecstasy, shuddering as the last quivers shot through their bodies.

When Jared lifted her face to kiss her, he saw tears in her eyes. “Did I hurt you, honey?”

“No. It’s…it’s just that I’ve never…I mean it was never like that before.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” He kissed her, softly, sweetly. “I haven’t been that wild for a woman since I was eighteen.”

Her cheeks flushed. Bending her head, she looked down at where their bodies were still pressed together. She eased her legs down his and tried to stand. When she wobbled, he grabbed her by the waist, then he drew in a deep breath and stepped away from her. She looked like a woman who had been thoroughly loved, and the very sight of her aroused him anew.

Seeing her reflection in the mirror, Paige sucked in a deep breath. Suddenly embarrassed, she tugged down her skirt and buttoned her jacket.

“Are you on the Pill?” Jared asked as he reached down and picked up her panties.

“What?” She grabbed the lace bikinis out of his hand and stuffed them into her beige leather purse, which she picked up off the floor.

“I didn’t use anything,” he said. “I got so carried away, I didn’t even think about protection. I’m sorry, Paige, I don’t usually do something that stupid.”

“Oh. I…”

“If you’re protected against pregnancy, then everything else should be all right, shouldn’t it?” Hell, how could he have forgotten to use a condom? He never forgot. “What I mean is that I’m always careful.” Until tonight. “You are, too, aren’t you?”

“Yes. There’s nothing to worry about at all.” Oh, dear God, Paige thought, she had just had sex with a man—a stranger—and hadn’t given a thought to protecting herself. She was twenty-five years old and she should have known better.