Chapter 39 39
They fell into the whole relationship routine quite easily. He took her out on dates whenever he could and when Diana was available to watch Juliana. Sometimes he cooked or brought dinner with him. Then they sat and watched TV together, and after Juliana fell asleep he'd kiss them both goodnight and return to his hotel room.
“How's the house hunt going?” Alana asked him one evening before he left.
“Still looking” he told her, “Haven't seen a place I like yet,”
He figured it wouldn't be a good idea to tell her that he was waiting for her to make up her mind about them first because he didn't want to make her feel like he was putting any pressure on her. If she eventually agreed to marry him, he wanted to pick out a house with her. After all if she married him it was going to be her house too and he wanted her to love it. It seemed like a waste of time and effort to do it alone now.
“I'm pretty sure there's enough space at your dad's if you'd just go there while you search,” she told him, but Stefan shook his head.
“My father and I seem to be getting along quite well lately, and I have a feeling that that's only been possible because we're not too close or apart from each other anymore, and I'd like to keep it that way. One of these days we'll have to take Juliana to go see him,”
Alana agreed. Maybe it was time for the grandparents to get more involved in their granddaughter's life.
It'd been weeks now, and Alana wondered when they'd crack and finally break this unspoken no sex pact between them. It finally happened one afternoon.
They were always so professional whenever they were at the office. They didn't see a lot of each other when they were there, and all she got when they did was lingering looks and him subtlety grazing a part of her body with his fingers when no one was looking.
It drove her crazy whenever he did it, because he never really looked at her when he did, and the first few times she wondered if it happened by mistake, but then she caught his eyes one time and his naughty smile told her all she needed to know.
Today he'd called for a meeting in his office with her and one other department head, and after the meeting he said, “Would you stay back for a moment, Ms Jackson. I'd like to have a word with you,”
“Sure,” she'd replied, and only when the other man left the office did she say, “Something you need from me, Mr Maynard?”
“Oh yes, there is,” he said as he left his chair, closing the gap between them.
By the time he was standing in front of her and gazing down into her upturned face, her eyes were wide and her breathing was ragged. He could even see the erratic pulse beating at the base of her throat.
They were so very close. If he drew a deep enough breath his chest would touch hers. If he shifted, his knee would find her thighs. He’d be there between her thighs. It had been three long weeks since the night of the party, and he very much wanted to be between her thighs.
“I thought keeping to ourselves was the new rule,” she said with a purr.
“And who made such a ridiculous rule?”
She laughed, even as her hands went to her hips, drawing his eye to her waist, her breasts, her legs. “I don’t know. I was just following your lead,”
“I was trying to do the whole dating thing right,” he told her, “Wanted to take things slow. Connect on a deeper level. Build tension. But it's been torture because this hunger. Need. Want. Desire that I feel for you never goes away.”
Two bright spots of color flamed in her cheeks. “I suppose I should be flattered.” She murmured.
His head dropped, his lips brushing the curve of her warm cheek. She smelled like coconut cream, reminding him of summer and sunny beaches and icy blended cocktails.
“I want you to sit,” he said quietly, gently, his blood humming in his veins, his body taut, hard. “Because I’m very, very close to stretching you across my desk and having my way with you.” He stared into her eyes, the faintest of smiles creasing the corners of his eyes, even as he let her see the challenge in his eyes, and allowed her to feel his leashed tension. “But when you start a relationship, I feel like your first time together should be more romantic than a quickie on an office desk,”
It was on the tip of Alana's tongue to tell him that she didn't mind one bit, but she didn't need to. Didn't get to. There was something about her that made Stefan throw caution to the wind and he was done with restraint. Clasping her face in his hands, he captured her mouth and kissed her deeply, kissing her with that heat and hunger he knew she responded to, and she did.
Her lips trembled beneath his and her mouth opened to him. His tongue stroked the inside of her lip and then in, finding her tongue and teasing her until he felt her hands on his arms, her grip tight. She leaned in, leaning against him, and she was so warm and soft and...his.
“I could make you come right now,” he murmured against her mouth, as aware of his erection straining against the fabric of his trousers as he was of the hot, honey taste of her on his tongue, “and you’d love it.”
She stiffened but didn’t pull away, her chest rising and falling against his own. “Your door is not locked,” she said.
“That sounds like an invitation, Alana,” he said.
He felt the tremor course through her, her frame swaying, her breasts brushing his chest even as her gaze searched his, the tip of her tongue darting out to touch her upper lip. “It was,” she said as heat flared in her eyes, and she swayed against him again.