Keep it Down

"Not again!"

Clarissa tossed the pen onto the long yellow legal pad and stood as the roar of a motorcycle filtered upward through the floors of her office. Her eyes narrowed and her hands clenched.

That jerk downstairs, that guy who'd somehow decided it was a great idea to put a bike shop right on the first floor of the building her office occupied, was down there making way too much noise and thoroughly crushing her concentration.

Irritated by that Clarissa stalked to the door and then went out it then down the stairs.

The shop had a separate entrance from the one her clients used to reach the second floor but even so she was mad as a hornet. How dare he crank and throttle those chrome and steel machines like that? She could die of carbon monoxide poisoning or something for all he knew!

She came out on the sidewalk, and the heat immediately pressed down, flattening her mood even further and causing her curly brown hair, which had just gotten a very expensive blow out and straightening done to it just the day before, to start to frizz.

That frizzing of her hair made her even madder and by the time she snatched open the door to the shop she was ready to fight.

The big bay doors in the back of the shop were open, letting in a tremendous amount of sunlight and heat. There went her carbon monoxide death argument, Clarissa thought as she stormed toward the back of the shop and those doors and the man bent over a motorcycle.

Her footsteps slowed.

Jesus. The jeans he wore were, as usual, indecently tight. The faded denim clung to his well-rounded ass, highlighting just how high and firm it was. The jeans also limned the length of his legs and the narrowness of his hips and the waistband of the jeans tucked around a tight waist to boot.

Unbidden heat surged through Clarissa, irritating her even more.

She stepped forward yet again, her hands curling into balls, and her nails scraping against her palms.

She yelled, "Hey! Hey goddammit!"

Blake Miller stood up and turned with a grin on his handsome face. His bright blue eyes, a striking contrast to the messy black hair that swept over his high forehead, latched right onto her face then swept downward in a cocky and arrogant way that not only ticked off the last box that held her anger in check but made Clarissa suddenly and painfully aware that the thin silk blouse and bra she wore had been no match for her nipples, which had not just stiffened but were protruding hard, chafing against that thin fabric with real force.

He purred, "Can I help you?"

Clarissa's full lips went flat. His eyes landed right on her tits when he said that too! Fuming now she said, "I'm preparing for a large case. I need you to stop being an asshole right now.'

He cut the bike off. Silence echoed through the large bays and the shop. He leaned against the bike and his sweaty tee shirt clung to the washboard abs and broad shoulders below it.

He lifted an eyebrow. "How am I being an asshole?"

"I can't hear myself think up there!"

"I see."

Clarissa's teeth ground together so hard she heard her molars squeaking. "I am sure that you do. Now how about you keep it quiet for a little while?"

Blake laughed. "You do know that I have to run these bikes in order to make sure that they run?'

Her eyes narrowed to slits. "You do know that I'm a defense attorney and so people's lives are at actual stake here?"

Blake pushed away from the bike in one long and lither motion that sent her heart crashing around her chest. Her tongue licked across her lips. Her legs went liquid as he walked toward her, his body moving with a feline grace that made her wonder if he moved like that in bed too.

Goddammit! The man had been the bane of her existence since he had moved into the shop three weeks before and now here she was, dealing with him all over again when she damn sure had too much to handle as it was that day.

Not just that, now her concentration would be shot for at least an hour even if she did get the stubborn jerk to stop making all that racket!

"I'll make you a deal."

Clarissa gaped at him. "A deal?'

"Yes, a deal. Surely an attorney understands the art of making a deal."

The man was infuriating! Sexy, and totally infuriating! "I absolutely understand deals," she said stiffly. "I try to never make them because someone always ends up on the losing end of something."

He chuckled. That chuckle was low and rumbling, it sent little streaks of fire running along her skin.

Blake pushed a lock of his dark hair off his forehead. His blue eyes swept over her again. He said, in that throaty growl of his, "Oh I doubt either of us would lose anything at all in this deal."

Her foot tapped into the concrete of the floor. Her eyes narrowed. The last thing she wanted to do was make a deal with him. Hell just coming down there and even bothering with him was a huge waste of her time and she knew it.

"What is it?" the sharpness in her voice didn't make his cocky grim diminish a single bit. He tucked a thumb into a belt loop. His finger pointed downward, and naturally her eyes had to follow that pointing finger to the barely visible but there bulge in the front of his jeans.

She jerked her eyes back up and glared at him. Blake's smile not only got wider, it held a wicked edge that made her pulse careen upward into a hard and fast rhythm.

He said, "I'll keep it down if you agree to dinner with me tonight."

Was he nuts?

He had to be!

No way was she going to agree to have dinner with him!

Her arms came up and crossed over her chest, cutting off the sight of her erect nipples. "No."

"Suit yourself but I have to warn you, I really need to get this bike finished and I'm going to need a damn good reason not to."

"You're blackmailing me?" The incredulity on her voice was real.

"I call it bargaining."

Her cheeks went scarlet as anger and a thrill she did not want to admit to feeling coursed through her. "I call it illegal."

Blake roared laughter. "I'll keep that in mind, so are you in or out?'

"You're serious? I mean, you're really serious here! You honestly think I am going to agree to go to dinner with you just because you promised to do the right thing, the thing you should be doing anyway?'

Blake dusted his long slender hands off. "Yup."

"Go to Hell."

Clarissa stormed out and back to her office, muttering the whole way.

The nerve of that man! Top think she would go out with him just because he would keep down the level of noise, which he should be doing anyway?

Her shoulders tensed as she got back into her office and sat back down at her desk. Prior to Blake's arrival the downstairs had been a showroom for classic and restored cars. No loud mufflers or banging or any of that as the cars were repaired elsewhere and just shown and test driven from that location.

Then, when that business had moved further out to the Northside she had had most of the building to herself for several months.

So, ok, she was spoiled by that. But her damn landlord was about to get an earful from her over this situation!

The files beckoned and to her relief it stayed quiet downstairs as she began going over the files yet again.

The man was impossible—but not unreasonable. Or so it seemed.

**

Clarissa was rethinking that assessment a few hours later when the door to her office opened and Blake strolled in wearing that wicked grin and holding a plastic bag from which drifted delightfully enticing odors.

She could smell roasted chicken and something spicy and her stomach let out a low growl that she tried to silence by bending forward slightly over her desk.

She asked, "What the hell are you doing?"

"I brought dinner.'

She glared at him but under that glare there was amusement. The man didn't give up easily, did he? Thrills shot through her system as he leaned across the desk until his face was just inches from hers. "I was quiet, wasn't I?"

Her breath caught and held as his eyes pierced right into her being. All the lustful thoughts she had been having about him since the first day she had seen him came flying up and she was sure he could see them written large across her brain but she still could not stifle them.

He set the bag down, untied the plastic ties, and slid his hand inside. He came up with several trays of food and set them carefully on her desk. Clarissa gave him a wide smile. "Why thank you. I was just thinking I should go down the street and grab something. What are you having?'

The words had been meant to imply a dismissal but his reply stopped her breath in her throat. "You, if I'm lucky."

Had he really just said that?

Clarissa's eyes went wide. "I beg your pardon?"

Blake chuckled, the small sound sent a pool of desire into her core and liquid trickled out of her clenching inner walls and into her silk and satin panties, dampening the crotch of them in a way that was undeniable.

"You heard me," Blake said softly. "Let's stop bullshitting each other. Every day I make a huge racket just so you will come down those stairs and yell at me and every day you wait for me to make that racket just so you can come down the stairs to yell at me.

"Now I am all for courtship, if that is what you think of courtship's it's pretty strange but I played along, and now—well now I am sick of playing games. That one, anyway, although I have a few I would much rather play with you."

Clarissa sucked in air. Her breasts swelled upward when she did and she knew it. She quickly released that breath. "I don't know what you are talking about."

His eyebrow quirked upward and his grin went wider. He didn't believe her then.

Hell she did not even believe what she had just said!

Blake spoke. "Fine. So let's eat." He dragged the chair sat across from her closer to the desk and took a seat.

Clarissa was breathless and slightly shocked but more than those things she was turned on in a way she did not even care to admit to.

She did go down there every day, and he was right—it was not always just because she was pissed off at the noise—it was to get a glimpse of this hotter-than-hot guy with the habit of wearing jeans that drew her eyes to his body and made tingles streak across her lower body.

A long flush had already started in fact, spreading heat up her thighs and into her center. Her ass cheeks clenched a little as she watched him pry the lid off a tray to release the aromas of fresh vegetables lightly steamed to perfection and some delicious-smelling sauce.

He took a slow bite and her eyes tracked that bite. More heat bloomed. Her hands went to the tray before her and she opened it.

The food was probably as delicious as it smelled. Clarissa could not taste a single thing. All of her being was focused on Blake.

He wanted her.

No use arguing that one since he had made it so very clear.

She wanted him too but there were so many reasons that sleeping with him would be the dumbest thing she could do.

Their offices and workplaces were so close. If it didn't work out they were stuck with each other—and that was never a good thing.

She was way too busy to be involved with anyone—like ever. Her career had to come first because she was the sole support of not just that office but her entire life and there was no way at all she could afford a distraction like Blake—even if he was a really tempting distraction, one as sinfully tempting as chocolate or wine or...sex.

Her panties were flooded by a fresh spurt of her heated oils as she conjured up an image of them having sex. Jesus he was hot, and he would undoubtedly be good in bed too.

The food was gone. Clarissa stared at the empty tray and then at Blake. She stood suddenly, her musings—all of them about sex—were far too dangerous and the tension between them was sparking off electrical currents that tugged at her pussy, at her nipples, and threatened to overwhelm all of her common sense and all the arguments against having a steamy little tryst with him.

Thanks for dinner,' she said in a high and thin voice.

Now that she was standing he stood as well. He was taller than her five foot nine inches, which was rare to find. His body, powerful and lean and so very seductive, leaned closer to hers.

His eyes bored into hers again, chiseling away at her defenses and all the things she knew that she should say died in her throat.

A breathless little gasp escaped her lips as Blake leaned closer yet, so close that she could smell the faded cologne mixed with just a tang of bike oil and chrome polish.

He smelled dangerous, and wild. He smelled and looked like some bad ass that would ride right out of town with her heart in his back pocket and her panties flying off his handlebar.

He said, softly, "I want to kiss you."

Oh Jesus. Jesus Christ.

She wanted him to kiss her, badly. She also wished he was not her neighbor or that she had not yelled at him so much and that her body was not betraying her with every fast pant of breath and rise of her nipples.

She meant to say something but instead, when she leaned closer, their mouths met and held. His hand went up and cupped the back of her skull then his fingers dug into her thick hair, fisting it tightly.

Well there goes my blowout, she had time to think just before his tongue slid into her mouth and stole all of her senses with a searing, soulful kiss that left her shaken and sagging against his strong and muscular body.

Her tongue met his and twisted around it. His free hand wandered down her back and then he clasped her ass, bringing her pelvis closer to his.

The press of his hard and hot cock against her lower belly erased any and all of her remaining inhibitions. A low moan broke from her lips and her ass curved inward as she ground her hips against his, first in a lazy circle and then more purposefully as she felt his already stiffened prick begin to twitch and then grow yet again.

Blake's fingers left her hair and found her blouse. The buttons gave way, one of them tearing away and falling off and then to the floor. His mouth went to her breasts, still tightly concealed behind her bra. His teeth worked on her nipples through the material as his clever fingers found the clasp and opened the bra, releasing her tits into his waiting hands. His mouth continued to play with her nipples, his tongue licking across them now.

Her skirt went up around her waist, her panties came down. Cool air met her pussy, and she panted as Blake lifted her into the air and then set her down on the desk, sweeping the food trays aside with one hand as he did so.

It was wild and so taboo. It was her office and she was never supposed to mix business with pleasure but pleasure was all that was on her mind at that moment.

His mouth left her breasts and went to her pussy. His tongue stroked her clit while his fingers dipped inside her body, thrusting in a fast and hard rhythm that made her hands bear down on the desk as she sought to get herself into a better position for him as he continued to bend himself so that his face was planted solidly in her pussy.

His tongue played with her clit, moving around it in slow circles that he alternated with long back and forth sweeps that caused her to groan and shudder. The desk met her back and her legs hiked up higher into the air.

Blake blew air across her wet flesh. Clarissa's inner walls clenched and opened as sensation spiked and washed through her body.

He was driving her crazy with his tongue and his fingers but she wanted more. She knew just how large his cock was because she had felt it and she wanted it, wanted it inside her body so very much.

Pleasure crested and rolled through her, making her inner thighs shake and her toes curl. Her fingers went from the edge fo the desk to his hair as her ass shot off the desk and her back arched while she sought to get even closer to the source of her exquisite torment.

"I'm going to come," she panted out. She was. Juices spilled down her inner folds, wetting her lips and his face. The smell of her body, fragrant and sensual, rode the air. The sound of his fingers thrusting into her and the slurping sound he occasionally made all added heat to that moment.

Clarissa gasped and cried out, lustily and loudly, as that heat and friction combined to send her flying into climax, one so strong that her walls clamped shut on his fingers and heated liquid splashed out of her body in a long squirting wave that soaked the desk as well as his face.

Blake stood and grinned at her, one hand wiping at his chin. His eyes twinkled as he said, "I'm going to have to ask you to keep the noise down, ok?"

She sat up, heels banging against the desk. She watched with some disbelief as he sauntered to the door and then turned around long enough to say, "I have to head home now. I sure hope you are going to keep it quiet up. I would hate to come up here tomorrow."

He gave her a wink that made her whole body light up, and then he was gone, closing the door tightly behind him.

Clarissa slid off the desk and stood there on her shaking legs. A grin crossed her lips as she considered all the ways she could make as much noise as possible the next day.