This was a one-night stand and nothing more would ever come of it.

I start to roll out of the bed, intent on finding my purse and my clothes, when he stops me dead. “Want to join me?”

Looking over my shoulder at him, I raise an eyebrow. “In the shower?”

“Well, yeah,” he says with a smirk. “We’ll shower, we’ll fuck…then I’ll even take you to breakfast.”

I blink at him slowly, wondering what the hell is going on here. He’s looking at me as if he doesn’t want to let me go.

And for the first time since I left the party with Beck last night, I have an attack of conscience. From what I’ve read and observed so far, he’s seemingly a good guy, and here I am using him. He showed me unbelievable pleasure last night, made me feel semi-normal as a woman, and apparently wants to take me out for pancakes.

It’s not computing.

“Um…I need to check the messages on my phone, but I’ll be there in a moment,” I tell him, needing a few minutes to collect myself. I’ve got too many emotions swirling and competing for supremacy. I have got to get my head back on straight and remember why in the hell I’m even here.

I turn away from Beck and swing my legs out of the bed. I’m not even self-conscious in my nakedness, merely walking out of the bedroom and into the main living area of the suite. Beck calls after me, “Will you grab me a bottle of water from the fridge?”

“Sure,” I say over my shoulder, and I can hear him turn on the shower.

I walk to the mini-refrigerator that’s part of a built-in liquor cabinet and pull out a bottle of water. What in the hell should I do?

Beck North wasn’t on my radar yesterday. Now I’ve spent an unbelievable night with him, and he still has apparent interest in me. While I don’t presume to think he’s going to enter into a sugarship with me, I’m definitely not getting kicked out onto the street. Now I just have to figure out how to play this.

Walk out that door right now and be done with this? Figure some other way to get at JT, which will take longer, though?

Or do I try to hook Beck even further, draw him closer into my web, and use him to get in close enough to strike? No guarantee that will work. I mean, for all I know, he’s going to fuck me again, buy me breakfast, and then cut me loose forever.

My fingers fiddle with the label of the bottle in my hands, contemplating which route I should take. Either one will still put me on a path to my goal. One will be easier, although I’ll be sacrificing some of what few principles I have left to use Beck in that fashion.

The upside is more time with Beck. A little bit more time with a man who makes me feel like a real woman…whole, undamaged, and full of potential. That’s a benefit I never would have expected, and I’m a little ashamed that it’s something that I’m even considering as important.

But fuck it…I like how he made me feel last night.

Decision made, I ignore my pile of clothes on the floor and head back into the bedroom. I lay the bottle of water on the edge of the mattress and pad silently toward the bathroom. A billow of steam wafts out the door, and in the mirror over the large vanity I can see the naked form of Beck as he tilts his head back under the stream of water while one of his hands rubs a bar of soap over his chest. Then down his stomach and right in between his legs, where he glides it around the base of his cock, over his balls, and back up his stomach again.

God, that’s so hot.

Then he turns around and I realize I’m going to get to look at his ass, something I haven’t had the pleasure of yet. The minute he turns, I get just a peek of those tight twin globes paler than the rest of his tan skin, but then my breath catches as I look at his back. My hand reaches out, grabs hold of the doorjamb for balance, and I look at Beck with narrowed eyes.

On his right shoulder blade, taking up no more than five inches or so, a tattoo.

A red phoenix taking flight with wings and tail of flame.

Oh holy fuck.

Red bird on a rib cage.

Red bird on a wrist.

Red bird on a shoulder.

Red birds fucking everywhere, closing in on me.

A surge of terror mixed with adrenaline punches into my stomach and I spin from the doorway, stumble but catch myself, before running through the bedroom and out into the living area. I hastily put my dress on, abandoning my thong and heels, which are back in the bedroom. I can’t even imagine how ludicrous I’ll look walking through the lobby to hail a cab in early November with no shoes, but I can’t give that another thought.

I have to get the fuck out of here.

With my heart pounding so hard I can hear it in my ears, I grab my purse from the table by the front door of the suite where I had left it last night and I leave, quietly shutting the door behind me.

I have no clue what that phoenix tattoo means, but I know one thing:

Right now, it scares the piss out of me.

Chapter 8

Beck

I hang up the phone with my attorney and lean back in my desk chair. His news is not good, but it’s also not unexpected. I cannot force a buyout with JT unless he basically does something illegal regarding the business. And no…snorting coke in your office doesn’t count. The language is clear and it means criminal acts specifically related to the operations of the business and that are detrimental to said business.

But as much as I am bothered by JT’s behavior over the last several months, and it makes me extremely worried going forward, I certainly don’t want to find that he’s done something illegal. That just puts too much liability and risk on me, and I’d rather walk than face the potential of a criminal investigation brought on by a moronic and out-of-control partner.

So I need to either suck it up or break free.

The choice is easy right now…I’m going to have to suck it up and just ride his ass to stay focused. With us preparing to roll out the new Web platform that’s in development, this could mean a 40 percent increase in revenue with virtually no increased overhead, which means a huge chunk of change. I don’t own the proprietary rights to the coding—according to my lawyer—so if I walk right now, I’d be losing out on all of the gains when it launches next year.

So I’ll hold tight and keep a careful eye on my partner.

I have to say, while the news from my lawyer wasn’t good, it was a welcome relief from the multitude of insane thoughts that have been running through my head all day regarding my lovely and apparently skittish companion from the night before last. I’d been in the shower the following morning, soaping myself up, thinking of the way she worked my cock with her mouth. I got hard again and called out to her to hurry up. I got no response.