Taking Her There (2 page)

“Try me.”

Her heart pumped, echoing in her ears. “Good boys don’t tease.”

“Exactly.”

She grinned. Though the conversation caused her neglected libido to hum, Andre’s easygoing personality actually put her at ease. She’d never actually had a conversation with a driver. The trip passed quickly as he playfully flirted, and she gave back everything he dished out. He even sounded genuinely interested as he asked about the food and amenities at Redland, and she found herself answering without her usual haughtiness.

Finally, she asked, “Why did you come back, anyway?”

“I like your cars.”

She rolled her eyes. “You just liked driving me around. Admit it.”

“You think I have a penchant for abuse? No offense intended, Miss Rowe, but you’re not the easiest person to work for. Mr. Tuttlebaum had to offer me a pretty hefty salary to quit my other job and come back. No one else would take the job. You have quite the reputation down at the agency.”

Angeline snorted. “I think people are all too willing to believe all the outrageous shi…stuff they read online. I’m not as bad as they make me seem.”

“Are you trying to convince me?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I drove you around town for about nine months. You called me at three in the morning to drive you to get a milkshake two counties over. I hear your phone conversations, your intimate discussions with your musician boyfriend—”

“Ex-boyfriend.”

He chuckled. “I already know you’re an outrageous woman.”

Heat rose to her cheeks. “Then why come back to work for me?”

“It sounded like a better schedule for me. Only one client to answer to rather than several. Leaves me time to pursue my…other interests.”

“What—”

“And I never said I didn’t like outrageous.”

Angeline stared out the window as Andre took the exit off the interstate and weaved through the streets of her neighborhood. From the time she’d been voted Prom Queen as a sophomore in high school, Angeline had happily taken her place on top of the pedestal society set out for her. She liked it. Being in charge, calling the shots. Who wouldn’t?

Even with her very public downfall, she still had fans all over the world sending cards and letters. That still didn’t make the crowd currently camped out on her corner any more welcome. Several crude words bubbled through her brain, but she uttered only one.

“Fuck.”

“Yeah. Looks like we may have a problem.” Andre’s voice was steady as ever. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s going to be a long weekend.”

“You want to go through them, then?”

“That’s my house. You’re damn right we’re going through.” She’d tried driving away once. It only made the headlines worse.

The car inched through the mob, and reporters pressed so closely up against the car, she hoped the rear tire would catch a few toes. Their questions all jumbled together and were muted through the car windows, so even if she gave a damn, she wouldn’t be able to understand any one of them.

Andre pressed the button to open the huge gate door. “Is someone waiting for you?”

“No. I don’t have anyone.” Her surly words came out almost too morose. She sat up straighter as the gate closed behind them.

“Sure you do. I read about your family in Indiana. And you always have Percy.”

“Psh. I’m sure he’s e-mailing all his colleagues right now, trying to unload me.”

“You have me.”

Angeline let her mouth hang open while he pulled to a stop, then closed it as he got out and walked to the back door to open it for her. This guy was something else.

With the door open, she slid both bare feet out first, then emerged from the backseat as if she were arriving on the red carpet, to get her first clear look at the man she’d been casually chatting with over the past ninety minutes.

Nothing unusual about his black suit pants and jacket, black tie and crisp white shirt. Though she noticed for the first time how well the pants fit his long legs. When she looked into his face, she caught her breath.

She’d been starved of eye candy for way too long, because she didn’t remember him looking this damn good. Of course she’d probably never looked him in the eye until now. Long, angular features put together into a very appealing shape. Full lips that made her lick her own. Brooding eyes shadowed by the brim of his hat. He looked more like a college frat boy than a limo driver. The ponytail at his nape only added to his European appeal.

“Have a great day. Enjoy your new freedom.” He touched the brim of his cap in an old-fashioned gesture.

“You can’t leave.”

“Why not?”

Why not, Angeline?
“Well…aren’t you going to carry in my things?”

He glanced into the limo beyond her, then raised one eyebrow. “You want me to carry your purse and shoes?”

She cocked her head. “I told you I don’t have any other staff. And you told me yourself I’m paying you extremely well. I think it’s the least you can do.”

With her chin high, she brushed past him and walked toward her house, ignoring the fact that her bare feet sounded anything but proud, and her house keys were inside the purse good old Andre would be carrying. To maintain control, she crossed her arms and waited on the veranda.

Turning to watch his progress, she got a great view of his backside as he bent over to lean into the car.
Percy, I owe you big.
Angeline bit her lower lip and groaned quietly, her hands itching to run through that long, black hair.

Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome looked a bit ridiculous with her glittery handbag in one hand and her strappy heels dangling from the other. Though it did add a little bit of attractiveness when his purely masculine swagger sent them swinging. As he neared, she stuck out one hand, and he passed her the purse.

She reached into the pocket, which was pitifully empty besides her now-expired driver’s license and a six-month-old pack of gum, and pulled out her keys.

Andre said nothing as she opened the door and stormed through. Percy must have hired someone else to air out her house, because it didn’t have the stale scent of abandonment.
Home at last.

She dropped her purse onto a table, then turned again to face him. “Well?”

He held out her shoes but didn’t cross the threshold.

“Just set them anywhere. Then you may return to your other duties.”

His eyes narrowed. A sultry look if ever there was one. He took three slow steps into the room, his focus on her the entire way. Even when he let her shoes drop to the floor, he didn’t look away. Or even blink.

Angeline’s heart thumped, and just as her vision seemed to blur, Andre Salidas showed up in hyper clarity. One more step and he was in her personal space. The twenty-four-inch radius that she rarely allowed anyone into. Alarms didn’t sound, and her ass-kicking instincts lay dormant.

“Do you know what I think?” His voice. God, his voice. Low and rumbly, it washed over her skin to tease each nerve ending with a gentle lick.

She swallowed. “What?”

“I think you do a lot of hiding behind that dominatrix façade you’ve built.” His coffee-tinged breath was warm on her cheek. “I think that’s probably how you get through your time isolated in your glass palace. Probably how you get through your day-to-day life being ordered around by directors and agents and”—he dropped his focus to her mouth when she licked her lips—“boyfriends.”

“You don’t know a damn thing about—”

“I know everything there is to know about you. Your whole life is an open book. You never used that mute button in all the time I’ve been driving you around. If I were anyone else, I’d blush.”

She took a step back “Then you know I don’t—I never hide.”

He took a step toward her, one side of his mouth curled in a knowing grin. “Sure you do. You hide behind your superstar status. Every time you stick your nose in the air, you’re trying to take attention off the lonely woman you really are. You showed the slightest hint of vulnerability in the car when Percy told you he trusted you. Even through that tinted glass, I saw the hardness in your face and body just melt away. It revealed the real you. Human. Feminine. That’s what you hide.”

Before she knew it, her back hit the wall. Andre hadn’t touched her, but rode her chest with barely three inches between them, and she had to curl her fingers into fists to refrain from reaching out to that heat.

“You get home, and that’s when you build your guard back up. You put on your ridiculous mask and put yourself back in charge. I can’t believe you ordered me to carry your fuck-me heels.”

She spared one glance at her shoes, then snapped her attention back on the man she had to crane her neck to see. “You…work for me.”

God, her voice sounded so damn weak. She stuck her chin out but refused to repeat herself.

“I’m your driver. When I’m behind that wheel, and when you’re in the backseat, you can send me in whatever direction you want, and I’ll take you there. But if you think about it…” He reached up to remove his cap, revealing a headful of shiny black hair, a halo of blue enticing her again to release the band at his nape and let the silky-looking strands flow free. “That still puts me in charge.”

A shiver tickled her spine. “What do you want?”

His mouth moved closer to her ear, and she let her eyes slide closed. “I want what you want. I want you to relax. Let me take over.”

If she relaxed any further, she’d melt into a puddle on the floor. “What are you doing?”

“If I tell you I’m going to kiss you, will you fire me before…or after?”

She should fire him now. No one dominated Angeline Rowe. If she could open her eyes and get the strength to shove him away, she’d do it.

Maybe not.

“Depends on the kiss.”

She half expected a laugh. Maybe as he high-tailed it out the door. So when his lips brushed hers, she couldn’t stop the gasp that sent air rushing between them. Warm, soft and firm.

“After, it is.” His mouth moved. Softly, almost like a dream, his lips enticed hers to open. Only their lips met; he held himself a hair’s breadth away from her everywhere else. His breath stirred the peach fuzz on her earlobes. His chin rasped against hers with the hint of stubble. Any other day, she’d be all over this guy, knocking him to the ground and taking charge of the encounter herself. But the mere act of restraint—not physical but pure power of will—kept her hands plastered to the wall behind her.

Oh God.
It had been way too long since she’d been kissed like this. Scratch that—she’d never been kissed like this. Not even in
The Rogue’s Bounty
, where critics proclaimed she’d performed her best love scene yet. That Hollywood leading man had nothing on Andre Salidas.
My driver
.

His tongue, warm and soft, ventured into her mouth. She met the intrusion with her own, licking the tip, drawing it farther into her mouth to apply a hint of suction. When she angled her head for more, he growled—a purely sexy, masculine sound—then pulled back just slightly.

She opened her eyes to find herself up close and personal with a young Antonio Banderas look-alike. His arms had her caged against the wall, his elbows braced by her ears.

“Now,” he said, his voice low enough to send vibrations through her skin. “I realize you’re the type of woman who likes to be in control. I also see that you’re dying to rub that beautiful body up against me, yet you haven’t moved a muscle to do so.”

She took a deep breath. God, he smelled good.

“Now I wonder why that is?” He pressed a hot kiss on the corner of her mouth. “Either you really don’t want me to do this…” More kisses, this time along her jawline and up to the sensitive patch of skin behind her ear. “Or you’re waiting for me to tell you exactly what to do.”

Angeline tilted her chin to give him more room but didn’t move away from the wall, her palms now damp and her lady parts hot and throbbing. Why wouldn’t he take just one step closer? She whimpered.

She was being seduced. Pure and simple. Way back in the deepest part of her brain, she knew this. As a regular seductress, she knew the signs. Ply him with glimpses of skin and promises of ultimate pleasure and a man would stand in a boneless pile of drool, just like she was doing right now.

Oblivious, mute and completely focused on one damn thing. Only she’d met her match. In fact, Andre Salidas was her superior, because where she’d flash bits of tits and ass, Andre had her up against the wall, a throbbing mess of desire, without even touching her, let alone shedding a single piece of clothing.

“Please.”

“Okay, Angel. I’ll take the driver’s seat.”

Angel?
Angeline wasn’t into cutsie nicknames, especially when she was anything but angelic. She’d even stormed off a movie set the last time a man dared call her Angel. Now it just sounded…

Sexy.

“Touch me. Right hand around my waist, left on my chest.” His voice had sharpened, and she responded without thinking. She ran her hands across his back and down his chest, reveling in the heat radiating from beneath his clothes.

“Pull me closer. I want you to feel what you do to me.”