Taming His Tutor (Entangled Brazen) Read online

  Abbi could’ve sworn she heard electricity crackle in the air as his smile changed. It wasn’t one of those “I’m so sexy” half smiles, but “I know what you’re thinking about because I’m thinking it too.”

  Well duh, he knew what she was thinking about because he’d listened to the damn soundtrack less than forty minutes ago. Sex. Pure, physical, tease-me and please-me sex.

  She stared right back, crazily paralyzed like a deer in headlights. Her mind blanked. Time slipped. Everything else faded and all there was left in the world was Joe Fuller looking at her like all he wanted to do was—oh yeah.

  Think… Think… Damn, don’t think about sex.

  At least move? And no, not your hips…

  But she couldn’t think. Or move. She was rooted. And yup, wanted to be rooted. What was with this mindless immobility? She was never like this.

  Yet all she could do was stare right back at him. As the seconds slowly ticked by, her inner mercury bubbled higher, soaring toward combustion.

  But then he turned away.

  It was like storm clouds sweeping across the sun. An icy chill instantly doused the heat he’d stoked with just that one look. Abbi swallowed. He didn’t look back at her. He focused on all the trim, lithe Elle Manning clones and barking out instructions in a totally different, harsher tone of voice.

  “You know him?” Nadia muttered like she was talking out only the corner of her mouth.

  Abbi couldn’t look at her. “Vaguely.”

  “How vaguely? That didn’t look vague. That looked—”

  “Don’t.” Abbi couldn’t take it anymore. Her fledgling inner vixen wasn’t up to taking on the Joe Fullers of this world. Not yet.

  And she wasn’t Joe Fuller’s type anyway. She’d seen all those pix of him with his model/actress/celebrity socialites, and she didn’t make it into any of those categories.

  “I’ll see you back upstairs.” She glanced at her watch to avoid meeting Nadia’s all-too-seeing eyes. “I need to check the update.”

  …

  Just over an hour later Joe stood in the dressing room and shook out his jeans, relieved to be stepping back into them. Displaying a raging hard-on in his way-too-stretchy sweats was hardly the look he wanted for those promo pictures. While the monthly magazine was print, the Gloss website also had huge female readership, especially this half of the country. As he was building his personal training centers into a chain, the weekly online features were gonna be priceless publicity. He’d do whatever it took to expand his dream, even pose with models. Except he’d seen Abigail walk into the building ahead of him and as a result he’d barely been able to concentrate on the shoot. He’d just wanted to find out which floor she was on. Then she’d walked right into the studio.

  He’d had to turn away from her sultry dress and pretty blue eyes. Turn away and not look back because his reaction to her presence had been intense. And indecent. He laughed as he forced his zipper up—he still wanted Abigail Hayes after all these years.

  Now that his cock was restrained within some work-strong denim, he was going to find her. There were five floors in this building. He’d start at the top and work his way down.

  He jogged up the stairs, animal instincts on full predatory mode. Hunt and gather. Figuring out her expectations and reaching agreement might take some negotiation, but he was confident. First point, a relationship wasn’t on the menu. He had neither the time, the inclination, nor the skill set. But he’d step up for a little tutoring, his style—some carnal catch-up with his high school fantasy.

  When he got to the top floor, he saw the woman Abigail had been standing beside for that minute during the shoot. She was leaning against the closest desk, cradling a steaming coffee cup, reading a piece of paper. Only now did he notice she was wearing tiny leather shorts and a spotless, equally tiny white T-shirt. With her slim figure and her iron-straight black hair cut like a Hollywood version of Cleopatra, she was striking. But no lush, edible-looking Abigail.

  She stared at him and straightened. He met her gaze equally coolly until she set the coffee down on the desk and walked over to where he stood outside the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that separated the lobby from the inside office. Removing a security card from her back pocket, she swiped it against the inside panel. Once the buzzer sounded, she opened the door.

  “Joe Fuller?” She held out her hand.

  “Yes.” He shook it. “You work for Gloss?”

  “Nadia Dixon, sex columnist.” She nodded.

  Okay. He smiled his most charming smile. “The woman in the blue dress you were with earlier, she works here too?”

  “Blue dress?” Nadia’s eyebrows lifted infinitesimally.

  “Yeah, hair tied up.” He was itching to let it loose. “She was watching downstairs, about an hour ago.”

  “You mean Abbi.” Nadia finally offered a smile. “Our IT queen.”

  “Yeah, I think I do.” Abbi—he liked it. She’d only ever been Abigail back in school. “Is she still here?”

  Nadia’s thickly mascaraed lashes lowered as she quickly looked down his form, then she suddenly turned. “Follow me.” She didn’t wait for him to answer.

  He glanced about the office as he walked. Low-level partitions, computers everywhere, a couple of big screens on the wall—one playing the E! network, the other on a cooking show where they were doing something unspeakable to a chicken carcass.

  Nadia paused in her tracks and nodded to the glossy head just visible above a partition in the corner. “You need me to introduce you?”

  “Thanks, but I can take it from here.”

  He walked on toward Abbi, taking in what he could before she noticed him. Focused on the computer screen, she typed quickly. Busy work for a Saturday. Her desk was laden with piles of paper and general junk. A couple of feet away he stopped and read the title on the piece of paper on top of the nearest pile.

  Five Ways to Get a Guy’s Attention.

  Hmmm. He took another step closer, craning his head to read something from the next pile. Aural Sex—Talking Dirty to Amp Up Your Sex Life.

  A couple of rubber items sent his eyebrows skyward and made him give thanks for the denim again. What was with all the “catch your man” and sex tip stuff? ’Cause while those kinds of articles were always in a woman’s glossy, did the IT queen need to read them for work? Or was her research personal?

  Suddenly she turned, a startled expression in her eyes. “Joe?”

  He did like his name on her lips. He also liked the way her blue eyes widened as she looked at him.

  “Hey, Abigail,” he replied, watching her closely to read her reaction to him. “What’s with all the man-eating info?”

  The color in her cheeks deepened, but her chin lifted. “I’m building an app for the magazine.”

  “An app?” Amusement washed through him. This really was all for work?

  Somehow, given her pole-dancing banter from this morning, he didn’t quite think so. He sure as hell didn’t want to think it was only for her boss. He wanted her to be as hungry as he’d suspected earlier. Specifically, he wanted her to be hungry for him.

  “A value-added extra, you know,” she said primly.

  “On being a man-eater?”

  “I wouldn’t say a man-eater but…”

  “This is all just for your job?” He lifted his eyebrows.

  Please don’t let it just be for work.

  That telltale color deepened in her cheeks and she didn’t speak.

  Thanks be.

  The once-shy Abbi Hayes wanted more from her sex life.

  He could be a temporary fix. Help her over whatever sexual slump she was in. Hell, it was kind of a civil duty, because no one as beautiful as Abigail should ever doubt herself. And he had a feeling some moron had made her feel that way.

  Yep. She needed him.

  He just had to get her to say yes.

  He smiled at her, preparing to set the game in motion. “Your colleague said you’re the IT queen.�
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  …

  Abbi nodded jerkily, stunned he was here—she’d caught sight of his reflection in her computer screen and thought she was dreaming. “I’m the IT systems manager for the magazine, yes.” She wished her legs had the strength to let her stand, because looking all the way up at Joe Fuller was making her neck ache. But they’d lost all power the second she saw him standing there. “The app is my pet project.”

  “It’s really important to you?” His smile had that wicked edge that she didn’t quite trust, but that made her melt in private places. “Helping women understand how to attract a guy?”

  And how to keep him happy. Yes.

  But she wasn’t about to tell Joe Fuller she’d been accused of being boring in bed. “There’s a market for it. I think it’ll have multiple benefits.”

  “Multiple.” He echoed softly and nudged one of her towering research piles with his finger. “This is real duty for the cause.”

  “I like to do a good job.” She glared at him defiantly, refusing to be bewitched into brainlessness again. “I like to be the best in everything I do.”

  Well, that was the plan going forward. She hadn’t known she was bad at it until Scott had been so scathing the night they’d broken up. She’d tried to please him, had thought he was happy, but apparently not.

  “Of course.” He nodded. “You always did. But do you really have to be so au fait with the app content?” he asked. “Aren’t you just supposed to create the digital framework and information delivery system?”

  Her eyes widened at his ease with the techno-patter. But she shouldn’t be surprised he knew the lingo. He was a smart man. “Of course I’m interested in the content,” she said, drumming up a quick defense. “I want what’s best for our customers.” She offered a bright smile. “I want it to be accurate, exciting, and entertaining. We’re not just competing against other women’s magazines for customer attention, but all forms of female entertainment—TV, books, blogs, movies, music—”

  “But how can you be sure it’s accurate?” he shot back with lethal precision.

  For a split second her smile died. He doubted her knowledge? Of course he did. But Abbi squared her shoulders and lifted her chin another notch higher. She wasn’t going to crumble in front of him again in some hot mess of mortification. Couldn’t she answer back with some kind of wit? What would Sasha Fox say?

  In a flash it came to her.

  She felt the smile of smug success spread over her face even as she slowly cooed her “Foxy” reply. “I know firsthand.”

  Innuendo? Not too much—it was all in the inflection, the smile… And for once in her life she’d nailed it.

  His eyes narrowed on her. “You do?”

  She didn’t like the grin quirking his lips—it looked a little too amused. “Sure.”

  “Because that’s yours?” He glanced at the vibrator. “That’s your ‘firsthand’?”

  Ugh. Abbi turned on her seat and quickly covered the big pink superstar with yet another article. Too late, she noticed the headline read “Bondage: A Beginner’s Guide.”

  She cleared her throat and spun her chair back to face him. “I have lots of products to test.”

  “You always were big on research, backing up your facts, using lots of strategies to work things out,” he said softly. “People sometimes don’t realize how creative a math genius can be.”

  Oh God, she was blushing even more. Creative? She so wasn’t creative. Scott had insisted she was duller than an inflatable doll as he walked out the door.

  “So you’re confident in the advice you’re giving them?” Joe asked.

  “Absolutely,” she lied, her last remnants of pride helping her.

  “Absolutely,” he echoed. Then he flashed his so-sexy broad smile full-beam at her. “I’d love to see that in action.” He turned and rested his hip on the edge of her desk. “You know there’s a game tonight. Why don’t you come along?”

  She frowned. Come along to what game? Then it dawned on her. “The baseball game?” Baseball freak she wasn’t, but even she knew the San Francisco Giants were playing for the pennant. There wasn’t a ticket left in town.

  “That’s the one.” He grinned. “I’ve got tickets to a corporate box—you know, drinks, snacks, and a great view.” He winked.

  She had the great view in front of her already, and given that wink, he knew it. She tried to process his words: ticket, drinks…more view? Did he mean he wanted her to go with him? Like on a date or something?

  No way. Surely not. Hell no…

  But how was a girl supposed to think when Joe Fuller was looking that hotly at her?

  “It would be the perfect venue to test your data, don’t you think?” He studied her. “You’re going to need quite some moves to distract a man from his ball game.”

  Abbi blinked at his words, the way his voice had lowered. And the penny finally dropped.

  This was a dare. This was Joe “Always Gotta Win” Fuller daring her. And she was melting quicker than a snowflake in the sun.

  “I can pick you up,” Joe invited in an easy tone. “Or you can meet me at the corporate entrance, an hour before the game.”

  She might have managed five seconds of flirt, but a whole evening? And somehow prove her “man-eating” abilities to this ultimate playboy?

  Never gonna happen.

  “Unless you’re afraid,” he taunted.

  How did his words have such an effect on her? She was searing like a steak on a grill and she couldn’t turn down the strength.

  “Abbi.” Joe bent down so his eyes were level with hers and spoke slowly, each word branded onto her sizzling skin. “I want you to come.”

  Chapter Four

  “Body language, and most of all eye contact, makes all the difference.”

  He wanted. Her. To come.

  And she? She wanted to obey. She wanted exactly that. Yeah, she really wanted. But all she could do was stare up at him—like she was some mindless puppet.

  “I’ll meet you at the gate an hour before. Don’t be late.”

  It was a full thirty seconds after he’d disappeared down the stairs before Abbi swiveled her chair 180 degrees and found Nadia peeking over her partition, her expression rapt.

  “Vixen Abbi,” Nadia murmured in a temptress whisper. “He couldn’t take his eyes off you. He wants you. To come.”

  At this rate, that wasn’t going to be a problem. She only had to think of his face to almost get off. Hell—could the fates finally be on her side? Give her a night to remember?

  “I didn’t even answer him.” She was that useless.

  “Words weren’t necessary.” Nadia fanned her cheeks with a wink.

  Abbi giggled and then clapped her hand over her mouth as her fantasy bubble burst. Now she had a bigger problem to solve. “What do I wear to a baseball game?”

  “I don’t think it matters,” Nadia said bluntly. “I think that’s a done deal.”

  Oh no, it wasn’t. This was Joe Fuller; the guy would have expectations. And she had no idea. “Please, I’m serious. I need help. What to wear, what to do…”

  “Don’t overthink it already.” Nadia reached over and mock-cuffed her ear. “That guy is hot for you.”

  “I’ve never been to a baseball game before. Trust me, I have no idea what to wear, or do, or say…”

  “Never been to a baseball game? Ever?”

  Abbi shook her head.

  Nadia laughed. “You are such a nerd.”

  Yeah, more nerd than vixen. She needed to rebalance. If she was going after Joe Fuller—and she was—then it had to be vixen all the way. Not boring. This was her one chance and she wasn’t going to blow it. “You have to help me.”

  Nadia thought about it. “You’re going to owe me.” She glanced down at Abbi’s desk and a calculating look entered her eyes. “I want user reviews on at least three of those personal lifestyle products by next Friday.”

  Abbi would sell her soul to get the help she needed.


  “Absolutely. I’ll do the lot.” She paused. “Except the clit clamp.”

  …

  Six hours later, Abbi nervously exited the taxi she’d taken to the park, Nadia’s condom collection burning a hole in the back pocket of the skinny black pants she had talked her into. Wet-look, butt-lifting, but with the bulk of her curves covered by a loose shirt that had the first couple of buttons undone, for that hint of what lay beneath, Nadia had reckoned the effect was casual but sexy. Most importantly, Abbi felt comfortable.

  Or as comfortable as she was ever going to get in a mission this crazy. But she wasn’t crazy enough to run from it, as much as part of her wanted to. This was Joe Fuller. Her high school crush, all-out hottie.

  And he was waiting for her.

  So freaking fantastic, she had to roll with it.

  She spotted him before she even opened the taxi door. It wasn’t just his height that made him stand out. It was his everything.

  He stepped forward and took her hand as she straightened from the car, drawing her closer. Abbi’s lungs froze as she read his intent expression. Was he going to kiss her?

  Heat unfurled as his lips lightly brushed her upper cheek. She inhaled in surprise and got a tantalizing whiff of citrus and soap. Too stunned, she didn’t think to turn her head, to meet his mouth with hers.

  Damn. She wanted to.

  “I’m so pleased you came,” he said.

  Uh. If those lips had landed somewhere farther south, she really would have. That carnal ache that had been slowly building inside became indecent.

  As he released her hand, he smiled—wiping Abbi’s mind cleaner than a brand-new whiteboard.

  “I’ll admit you had me wondering…” he drawled.

  Really? She bet he’d never been stood up in his life.

  But just the mere fact that Joe Fuller wanted her here gave her a boost. He could have any woman he wanted. And right now it seemed he wanted her. Sure, he probably wasn’t going to want her for long…but she was going to play the advantage and learn something while he did.

  “Come on, let’s go inside and grab a bite before the game.” He winked.