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However, she was feeling anything but practical or logical at that moment.

  The stroke of his tongue, the feel of his sure touch along her shoulders, down her back, brought her senses alive. Everything became more vibrant. The rasp of his beard-stubbled face. The coarse texture of his hair that she’d thought needed a cut and now found perfect. The smoky scent from the fireplace mingling with the musk of man.

  His kiss was intoxicating.

  Although, worry still niggled. What if sleeping with him compromised her goal of cajoling him into taking a job with Alaska Oil Barons, Incorporated? She certainly hadn’t been able to snag so much as a peek at his work, which actually made her feel less guilty now. However, if they followed the attraction through, sex would complicate things. He might well believe she’d used sex as a means to persuade him.

  Except damn, the draw between them was so tangible, undeniable. Hopefully he would know the truth of that.

  If she revealed the truth of why she was there, this sexual exploration would end. She wanted to experience him first, no matter the consequences.

  And she’d done so little real living with all those years devoted to recovering from cancer. Her future would be filled with putting her own needs aside for her child’s welfare... This was a window of time for her to indulge in what she sensed would be a most memorable, delicious experience.

  She was going to sleep with Royce Miller.

  It was crazy on the one hand.

  And totally logical on the other.

  The attraction to Royce reached deep within her, and this could well be her only chance to pursue it. Once business officially intruded...

  She had to seize this moment now.

  Thankfully, he seemed to agree. Even Tessie somehow knew to grant them privacy and trotted off to curl up in her dog bed in the closet area.

  Naomi gripped his fleecy sweatshirt in her hands. “This is insane.”

  “I know.” He rested his forehead against hers, his breath ragged. “I apologize if I overstepped in moving so fast.”

  She laughed hoarsely. “I’m the one who mentioned strip poker.”

  He smiled, his fingers playing down her spine. “I’m the one who brought up condoms.”

  “You sure did.” Her fists unfurled from his fleece and she palmed his chest. Oh my, his chest.

  The desire in his eyes echoed the flame inside her. She wasn’t sure who initiated what, who moved first. It was all a blur of motion and want. Her arms looped around his neck as he scooped her up, carrying her to the bed, lowering her with gentle strength. As he released her, his hand skimmed around her hips, grazing her stomach.

  Her heart lurched to her throat for an instant as she thought of her pregnancy. The other layer of withheld information...

  If she managed to persuade him to join the company, he would eventually learn about her baby. Although it wasn’t like she expected them to be a long-term couple. She wasn’t looking for that. She had plans. Goals for her career, goals for her family and, more important, goals for her life with her child. Royce didn’t fit into those plans. He wasn’t her type, when it came to relationships, and she was fairly certain she wasn’t his type, either.

  But they were attracted to each other. That was clear in the deep eye contact, the way his hand grazed her skin. And her days for having a no-strings fling were numbered. Casual would take on a different meaning once she had her child. On a practical level, having a wild, torrid affair with him—right now—made complete sense.

  No question about it, she did want him, so much.

  She wriggled against him. “I assume this means you’re sure?”

  Royce angled back to look into her eyes, stroking her hair in a long sweep of his hands. “Aren’t I supposed to be the responsible, honorable man asking you that question, if this is what you want?”

  Her hair tingled all the way to the roots from the rasp of his callused touch. “Then ask me.”

  “Are you sure this is what you want?”

  “Are you kidding me? I very much want this. And all the evidence points to you wanting me just as much,” she said. “You’re quite the scientist.” Eyeing him, she took in the hard panes of his chest, the way his chin raised in confidence.

  “It’s biology.” He eyed her right back with a gaze that drank her in, launching another wave of excitement through her veins.

  Anticipation swirled through her until her face heated with a flush. “Biology? I would call it chemistry.”

  “Ah, how right you are. Good distinction.” A lopsided grin graced his lips. He reached into the bedside table and pulled out an unopened box of condoms.

  Morning sunshine pushed through the snow on the glass roof, dappling them with light as she tugged at his shirt and sweatpants. His skin was impossibly warm, the hard muscle shifting under her touch while she skimmed away his clothes. The expanse of his muscled chest sprinkled with hair wasn’t that of a sedentary man. His sinewy planes spoke of activity, of a love of the outdoors.

  She wanted to feel him, all of him, against her. Inside her. She’d never been so hot, so hungry, for any man. She reveled in the graze of his fingers as he bunched and swept aside her silk thermal shirt, sliding around the strap of the simple cotton bra she’d never planned on anyone else seeing. His avid gaze practically sizzled the fabric away. Her breasts beaded to aching points by the time he freed her. She shivered as he scraped down the thermal and underwear, until at last they were skin to skin.

  The warmth of him, pressing flesh to flesh as he kissed her, ramped up her need—higher, hotter. He skimmed his mouth to the curve of her neck and she caught a glimpse of the heat in his eyes as he stroked her with his gaze. She felt it as tangibly as his caress along her breasts. Then he moved lower, kissing the inside of her thigh, then the core of her. Circling, plucking. Teasing a tingling flame higher and hotter until her hands gripped into fists.

  “You’re absolutely...gorgeous. But you have to already know that.”

  His intuitive touch made her feel like a schoolgirl. Carefree. The reality of who they were and why she had concocted a scheme to meet him seemed to fade away, melt like sun-soaked snow.

  They were just man and woman, caught up in a feverish attraction. She’d had no idea how powerful that could be.

  “You’re making me blush.”

  Royce planted slow, deliberate kisses on her collarbone. “That sounds like an invitation to make you blush all over.”

  Oh. My.

  Breath seemed impossible as he pressed against her. Still, somehow she managed to whisper, “As long as turnabout is fair play.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” His confident chuckle heated her flesh and he angled up to graze his mouth along her ear, her jaw.

  “And by the way?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’re too chatty.” She nipped his bottom lip.

  His slow, sexy smile gave her an instant’s warning before his mouth closed over her breast, one then the other until the tingles gathered force within her to a tight urgency.

  She grabbed for the box of condoms and wrenched it open, fumbling to tear into a packet. He reached for her hand but she nudged him aside. Wanting, needing to explore him. She sheathed him and his groan of pleasure brought an answering groan from her.

  “Naomi, there are so many more ways I want to touch you, to—”

  She pressed her finger to his lips. “And you can. We will. Right now, though—”

  She didn’t have to finish the thought. He slid inside her, filling her as her legs glided up and around his hips, her ankles locking. In synch, they moved. She didn’t know how to explain the strength of sensations already swelling inside her, the way his caresses ignited her, knew her so instinctively. Being with him was insane and somehow so damn right all at the same time.

  Passion built and she felt that flush inching over her, all over, the r
ise of impending completion. So soon. And as much as she wanted to hold it back, she also thought of the next time, and there would be one. How much more they would share here. Together. For however long the storm lasted.

  Just when she thought she couldn’t bear the wait any longer, his hand slid between them and teased her the rest of the way over the edge. The stars sparked behind her eyelids like the northern lights splashing streaks of color across the sky’s palette in a van Gogh–esque magnificence.

  She savored the moment and sensations in a slow return to reality. Flames crackled in the fireplace, adding a hazy glow and the scent of wood smoke to the one-room space.

  One room.

  In the middle of nowhere.

  Total escape.

  And as she looked into his eyes, she saw he was every bit as close and, yes, as flushed with need. Her release rippled through her in rays of heat and bliss just as his ragged shout of completion mingled with hers.

  His arms wrapped around her as he rolled to his side, cradling her to him. She buried her face against his chest, breathing in the salty scent of him, listening to his racing heart. Trying to take in the intensity of what had just happened, so much so soon.

  Her family was depending on her to persuade Royce to join their company or at least share his research. Most important, they absolutely did not want to alienate him and risk his going to the competition, especially now when they were trying so hard to woo major investors like Birch Montoya.

  And yet, she was here indulging in a reckless passion, living up to the party girl reputation she’d never earned when she should be focused on her family’s business and her baby’s future.

  Rolling to her back, she stared up at the snow piling on the roof, listening to Royce’s even breathing beside her. He was awake though, like her, which gave her a little while longer to relish this moment.

  But soon, too soon, she would have to check in with her sister again and, even more daunting, return to reality.

  * * *

  Delaney wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep her affair a secret. She’d built her career—her entire values system—on improving the environment for generations to come. Her sister Naomi had nearly died of cancer, and watching helplessly as she’d suffered had left its mark on Delaney. Her crusade for a cleaner environment was personal. Deeply so.

  Being part of an oil family dynasty made her stance tough enough, but she liked to think she brought balance to the business. Besides, the oil tycoons she knew were relatives. She loved them. When it came to friendships and romance, she opted to spend time with people who shared her common interests and causes.

  Until now.

  Until Birch Montoya—a man with his eye on profits more than on the survival of an ecosystem.

  Although, right now, he had his eyes firmly on her, and Delaney didn’t want to resist.

  She leaned across the desk, her breasts sensitive with arousal along the lace of her bra as she stared at her secret lover in his fitted boxers. She’d given up trying to understand how they could argue—how they could be such total opposites—and be so turned on at the same time.

  But that’s how it had been between them since they’d sparred in a board meeting and ended up in a broom closet. Tearing each other’s clothes off.

  Like they’d done the second he’d arrived tonight. As if she hadn’t known that delivering paperwork was just an excuse. An excuse that had barely held until she locked the library door behind them. An hour later they’d finally turned their attention to work in the book-lined room, fire blazing in the large stone hearth.

  Work was always better in their underwear. The view made them less likely to fight about how he wanted to chew up the environment to add to the bottom line. If she thought about his ecological stance, her head would explode and their evening alone would be wrecked.

  How could she want him so much and disagree with him on everything at the same time?

  Her eyes were drawn to his thick dark hair falling over his forehead, his high cheekbones from his Native American heritage. All of him handsome and brilliant and, yes, infuriating.

  Birch pushed aside an architectural schematic and clasped her hand. “If the company goes bankrupt from your requests—” he kissed her wrist, punctuating each word “—then you’ll have nothing left to win at all.”

  Her head lolled back at the sensations spiraling through her as he kissed and nipped. “And don’t you want to be on the cutting edge of innovation in the oil world?”

  “We have Royce Miller for that.” Birch glanced up at her, his dark eyes meeting hers, smoldering.

  “He’s a scientist.” Delaney tried to find her logical side, but each word came out breathy, her blood turning to liquid fire in her veins. “I’m an activist. It’s different.”

  Birch muttered, “Tell him that.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing.” He stepped around to her side of the desk, scooped her up in his arms and sat in the massive office chair, settling her into his lap. “My point is, with Royce on board, we’re already ahead of the race with other companies in being eco-friendly. Good luck getting Johnson Oil on your side if Alaska Oil Barons goes under.”

  “Dad’s company is not going under,” she retorted automatically, her legs tingling from the bristle of Birch’s bare thighs.

  “It’s not solely your father’s company anymore.”

  “Thanks for the reminder.” She tapped the platinum wolf charm Birch had given her. She’d been touched that he seemed to know her preferences and how she avoided diamonds unless she knew exactly how they had been mined.

  He’d been a welcome distraction.

  The past few months had been stressful as hell since her brother Broderick and his fiancée, Glenna, had walked in on their business rival parents in the shower together, in Jeannie’s office bathroom, no less. Their whole world had been upended with the Steele patriarch and Mikkelson matriarch laying down the law. They were merging their two companies and their offspring needed to get on board or move on.

  So much change. So fast.

  But now, Birch leaned forward, his mouth covering hers, scattering her thoughts and sending her body into motion. She swung her legs around to straddle his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck, scooting forward, which brought the core of her deliciously against the hot length of him.

  Yes, she needed this diversion in her life. She needed him.

  A growl rumbled in his chest. “I want you so damn much I could barely keep my hands off you in there.”

  “I wanted to tear your clothes off with my teeth.” She nibbled at his bottom lip for emphasis, then flicked her tongue along it to trace away any sting.

  “Your teeth?” He narrowed his eyes, envisioning. Fantasizing. Liking.

  Just the feel of his dark eyes on her body made her breathless. Needy.

  She laughed, kissing her way down his chest. “I’ll be happy to show you.”

  “Save the thought for when we can linger.” He tucked a knuckle under her chin and guided her face back up and tasted her, once, twice. “Next time you’re at my place, we can play that out. In detail.” He cupped her breasts, his thumbs stroking over each pebbling peak.

  Desire sizzled over her skin, driving her need higher. Had she ever wanted anyone the way she wanted Birch? The way she craved him?

  “Fair enough,” she purred. “Can you hurry up though, so I don’t finish before you’re even inside me?”

  “Why do you have to be so hot?” he asked, his mouth skimming along her jawline.

  “Why do you have to be so insatiable?” she teased back, even as she knew their differences would one day drive them apart.

  “I definitely don’t want to fight with you.” A smile creased his handsome face, his mouth brushing hers.

  She forced aside worries to focus on the heat. The want. The und
eniable need. “I agree one hundred percent with you on that.”

  * * *

  In all the ways Royce had calculated and planned this solitary research excursion into the remote wilderness of Alaska, he had never accounted for this variable.

  How could he have ever anticipated a research distraction like Naomi?

  It was one thing to be led astray with faulty formulas—quite another to be distracted by a dark-haired beautiful woman with chocolate-brown eyes.

  Royce sprawled beside her, his sweatpants a minimal barrier between his knee and her leg as she settled back into bed. She’d made a phone call in the bathroom to reassure the outside world she was here safe and sound. He gave a brief thought to her insistence on making the call privately, but then who was he to cast stones? A recluse by nature, he enjoyed his privacy too.

  Although right now, he had his sights set on enjoying Naomi. The bed captured enough warmth to justify his half-clothed state. He thumbed the edge of the square plate settled on his lap and took a moment to soak in the vision of her again.

  Her damp hair was piled on top of her head in a ponytail tied into a loose knot. His sweatshirt hung off her slender body, allowing a glimpse of her bare shoulder. She too sat cross-legged on the bed, plate balanced on her bare knees and thighs. They’d puttered around the kitchen for food, him piling on cold cuts while she surprised him by choosing a peanut butter and jam sandwich for herself.

  For a moment, as he bit into his sub, the last few hours replayed in his head. How they had made love not once, but twice in the bed. And then another time in the shower. How in tune their lovemaking had been.

  Tessie let out a hefty sigh. The giant Saint Bernard was a terribly vocal sleeper. The dog had wandered back to join them after Royce had brought the sandwiches from the kitchen area. The intensity of his and Naomi’s passion had left them both hungry and tired.

  The power of what they had shared rocked Royce’s carefully calculated world. That level of connection was something he hadn’t felt in years. But as intrigued as he was by what they’d shared, he knew he needed more information about her. Hell, he didn’t even know his mystery woman’s last name. He was missing something. And as much as he wanted to continue in this sexual bliss, he needed some answers.