Reckless Seduction. Gwynne Forster
taken her right there in her foyer, she would probably have let him.
Thank God he hadn’t pushed it further. She had thought only about his arms tight around her, his velvet tongue in her mouth and his hard penis pressed against her belly. And when he’d gazed down at her face as she lay on her back in Central Park, letting her see how deeply he felt for her, she had wanted to wrap her arms and legs around him and make love with him.
Later that morning, as she entered her outer office, where Amy sat, she stopped. What on earth was Jon doing here at nine o’clock in the morning?
“Hi.” She was disconcerted at seeing him when her mind had been full of him since long before daylight.
“Morning, Haley.” He never said good morning or good evening. She loved his low, sonorous baritone, the slow lilting cadence of his speech.
“Come on in,” she said, haltingly, not knowing the purpose of his visit and instinctively sensing some kind of a confrontation. Amy brought two mugs of coffee with sugar and cream on the side.
“Mrs. Birch, this is Jon Ecklund. Mr. Ecklund is president and cochairman of Ecklund International Syndicate.”
“I’m pleased to meet you in person, Mr. Ecklund. I watch your news channel all the time.”
“How do you do, Mrs. Birch?”
Amazed, Haley watched as Jon winked at her secretary.
“I’m delighted that you use our news service. We strive for accurate and comprehensive reporting,” he said with a grin.
“That’s the impression we all get, too,” Amy replied as she left the room smiling. Haley knew that Amy wanted more than anything for her to find a man who would fill the void in her life.
She and Jon gazed at each other quietly, as if words were unnecessary, as if it were enough that they were together. He smiled again, and she felt as if her heart were in her throat. She wondered if he had ever seen himself smile.
“You’re ruining my life,” he teased. “I can get along without sleep and without food, but it seems I can’t go one day without seeing you.”
She stared at him.
“And if you don’t close your mouth,” he went on, “I may have to kiss you.”
Was he teasing her?
Rising to the bait, she opened her mouth wider but, filled with mirth, couldn’t keep the pose, and a grin broke out over her face. He didn’t hesitate—just pulled her out of the chair and hugged her. She looked up at him in wonder, her gaze settling upon his sensuous lips. Then she looked into his eyes and gasped. In that split second, he’d unclothed his soul, and all that he felt, all that he longed for, all that he feared was mirrored in the light of his eyes. She stared, mesmerized, until he bent his head and brushed her lips with his own, ever so lightly, before crushing her mouth with all the longing that she had seen in his eyes. She wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed his cheek.
“I’m going home for six months. Will you be here for me when I get back?”
She pulled away a bit. “When did you decide that?”
“Last night. I have to sort out a lot of things before I can carry this relationship further. No, there is no other woman and there won’t be, but I need to figure some things out.”
He needed answers, and he had decided that after all the years of pain and hurt he wanted to be whole. He wasn’t giving up this woman without an honest effort to deal with his problem. He would begin with his parents. It had occurred to him that they might have answers. He had always been able to discuss anything with his parents, but he wasn’t sure about this.
“Tell me, Haley, do you feel that you can wait for me?”
“I told you that there is no one else. I care for you. Is that enough?”
“It will have to be. Knowing that you care for me means everything.” He folded her close to his body. “I’m going to leave tomorrow night. Will you have dinner with me this evening?”
“Yes, I will. How shall I dress? Are you going ‘black tie?’”
“Yep.” She lifted an eyebrow and nodded assent. She’d been joking, but he clearly had not.
Back at his office, Jon spoke to Maxine through the intercom. “Tell DuPree I want to see him right now.”
“Right.”
“And, Maxine, I’m transferring you to HR as of this morning. Tell Catherine to send the senior pool secretary to see me in about an hour.”
“But, Jon—”
“That will be all, Maxine.” He didn’t have time for Maxine’s brand of male mind bending. She could pout and raise her skirt for the next decade, but he didn’t want to put up with it any longer.
“Morning, Jason. I hope I didn’t drag you away from something urgent. This is the situation. I’m going to Oslo tomorrow night, possibly for as long as six months, and you’ll be in charge here. If there’s anything that you need, you know where to call. Any questions?”
Jason DuPree had been with EIS for five years and knew every aspect of its operations. He was also a widely respected journalist and had earned his credentials on the battlefields of Vietnam, as well as AU’s School of Journalism. He was a big man physically and wasn’t known for tolerating nonsense or disloyalty on the job. He was also a compassionate man who knew how to be a friend.
“Morning, Jon. Yes, you interrupted something. And yes, I have a question.”
Jon narrowed his eyes and leaned forward.
“What have you decided to do about Hyfelt?” Dupree asked.
“I’m going to postpone his retirement by sending him over to broadcasting. His scripts will be written for him, as they are for everyone else. He’ll have no need to feel as if he’s being discriminated against because of his age.”
“Couldn’t agree with you more. What about Maxine?”
“She’s being transferred to human resources after lunch today.”
“Excellent idea. I don’t like working with her. What about you? Is everything alright with you? I don’t mean to pry.”
“I’m okay. I’ll be working out of the head office during this period. It’s just that I need to straighten out a few things back there. I’m glad you’re on my team, Jason.”
“Me, too. All the best. And keep in touch.”
“Will do.” Feeling better about his life and his future than he had in years, he cleaned out his desk, left the office and walked out of the building and into the morning sun.
Haley arrived at her Riverside Drive apartment at half past five and wasted no time getting ready for her last evening with Jon. Six months. She wouldn’t see him for six months. She knew that she would miss him, and she also knew that the time was not yet right for their joining as man and woman. He had intimated as much, and she had her own demons to lay to rest. But she refused to allow such thoughts to spoil her time with him that night.
She filled the tub with warm water, dropped in half a cup of French perfumed liquid soap, got her worn copy of Barrett Browning’s poems and stepped in for an hour of luxurious self-indulgence.
After her bath, she toweled dry and sprayed her body with perfume. Then she put a pair of red silk bikini panties beneath a red silk chiffon strapless evening gown that hugged her tightly from her bosom to her hip line and then fell straight to her ankles. A slit from the hem to her right thigh completed the daring image. She wore sapphire earrings and placed her maternal grandmother’s sapphire brooch just at her cleavage. Then she donned black satin elbow-length gloves and black satin sandals, picked up a matching evening bag, threw her sable capelet on her arm and headed for her