And lastly, it was the way she had felt in his arms, how soft and cuddly her butt had felt beneath the palms of his hands. He didn’t want to touch another woman quite that way any time soon. His erection was throbbing for just one woman. If he didn’t know better he’d think Natalie had cast a spell on him.

  He was about to get up and head toward the kitchen when the phone rang. He checked the caller ID to make sure it wasn’t Jean calling him back to try and change his mind about their date tonight. He sighed in relief when he saw it was his roommate and friend from college, Uriel Lassiter. Over the years, he and Uriel had maintained a close relationship.

  He picked up the phone. “Uri, how are things going, man?”

  “I’m still tired from last weekend at the races, but I called to give you some good news.”

  “What?”

  “That publishing company in Colorado that we had our eye on last year is back on the market.”

  Donovan rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Hmm, so what do you think?”

  Uri chuckled. “I think that if you’re still interested, I’ll have an updated portfolio on your desk by Monday morning.”

  “Hey, that’ll work because I’m still interested.” His cousin Taylor was his wealth-asset manager and she was doing a fantastic job of managing his finances, but right out of college he and Uri had formed their own co-op. They’d started out flipping houses, and it became such a moneymaker that they expanded and began buying small companies and reselling them for a profit. The co-op had become so successful that they had invited a few select others to join in over the years. Uri had left his job as an insurance executive to handle the business end of things on a full-time basis.

  Donovan talked to Uri another fifteen minutes before they ended the call. Standing, he stretched his body before heading toward the kitchen to grab a bite to eat. For the first time in years, this was a Saturday night and he didn’t have anything to do.

  He gave her a slow, sexy smile as he moved toward the bed, his gaze moving over her naked body, seeing everything but zeroing in on the area between her legs. The nipples on her breasts automatically hardened and she released a deep breath. He was pretty potent if the size of his erection was anything to go by. And his muscular body was masculinity at its perfection.

  She watched as he began to move closer and closer, and without waiting for him to join her on the bed, she pulled up and willingly went into his arms. Together they tumbled back onto the covers.

  Natalie’s eyes flew open as she inhaled a long, deep breath. She’d just had another dream about Donovan. She couldn’t believe she was letting him interrupt her sleep this way. Typically, she wasn’t a hot and bothered woman, but there was something about Donovan that unleashed a sexual desire she had never encountered before. Never before had she dreamt about a man making love to her. Or almost making love to her, she corrected, since so far in none of her dreams had they finished the act. She would always wake up moments before their bodies joined as one.

  She inhaled deeply not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. In a way it was bad because she woke up curious as to how it would have been if they had. And it was a good thing because a part of her felt she really should not want to know.

  But she did.

  And that area between her legs was tingling to find out.

  She glanced over at the illuminated clock on the nightstand. It was two in the morning.

  Releasing a frustrated sigh, she pushed the covers aside and eased out of bed. She had brought her laptop with her to work on a few items for NASA while she was here. Last year she had received a national award for her work on stratospheric chemistry and ozone depletion. Her report had been embraced by the NASA Ames Research Center which had led to her working closely with the center last summer. Her findings had been put in a book that was doing quite well on the academic circuit. Now she was working again with NASA on a project to increase the rate of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere.

  These studies had been her lifeline. When most people curled up at night with a good mystery novel, she much preferred curling up with her laptop to work on chemistry formulas. Very seldom did anything else consume her mind while working—definitely not the likes of any man. But Donovan Steele had somehow managed to seep inside the very essence of her brain that had always been off-limits. He had managed to invade a space that had always been kept reserved for all her subscripts. Somehow she needed to get back in sync.

  Her aunt needed her so she didn’t have the option to leave Charlotte. And she couldn’t have her aunt drop him as a client because he headed the dependable list. He paid his bill on time and had few, if any, complaints or last-minute changes in the schedule that could cause the agency loss of revenue or manpower. In other words, he was a model client, one you didn’t drop just because he intended to sleep with the cleaning lady’s niece.

  Of course, as far as she was concerned, it was wishful thinking on his part. But still, those dreams wouldn’t go away. And to make matters worse, her conversation with Farrah last night still weighed heavily on her mind. It constantly reminded her that it had been years since she’d been intimate with someone and all because of one man.

  At least Donovan had proven that Karl’s kissing claim was wrong. Could he prove the other claims were wrong, as well? Was she as terrible in the bedroom as Karl had accused her of being?

  As she sat down at the desk in the room and booted up her laptop, she couldn’t help but inwardly call herself a fool for letting Karl mess with her confidence years ago.

  Logging in to her Internet account, she went into the project folder that stored vital information when she wasn’t on-site at the campus lab. And just in case someone tried hacking into her computer base, she had all the information coded in a way that only she could decipher. Usually when she worked on formulas she felt she was in her element. But tonight she knew deep down she was using her work as an escape.

  In fact if she was completely honest with herself she would admit to having used it as a way of escaping for a very long time. At that moment she couldn’t help but think about the vast differences between Karl and Donovan. Karl had been too brilliant for his own good and assumed because of his high IQ that everyone else was lacking. It had taken her years to realize that he hadn’t been comfortable with his own skin, which was probably why he took great pride in downgrading others.

  The complete opposite was true with Donovan. He was arrogant but he was also comfortable in his own skin. It was obvious that he was a man comfortable with who he was and what he represented. Manly, in and out.

  Sensations flowed through her stomach when she thought about just how manly he was. That was what had her in a bad way. She had five days to get herself together. On Friday she would return to his home, and she wanted to make sure that she was in and out of there before he got in from work. She had six more weeks to go, and she intended to avoid the man at all costs.

  “You’re pregnant?” Donovan asked, looking into the smiling face of his cousin Vanessa. She had come into his office first thing Monday morning and dropped the bombshell, and he wanted to make sure he’d heard her correctly.

  “Yes,” she responded, bubbling all over with joy. “Cameron and I found out this morning. I’m sure Cameron has told Morgan already, and I talked to Mom, Taylor and Cheyenne on my way to work. But since Chance and Bas haven’t arrived yet, you’re the first here to know.”

  Feeling happy for his cousin, Donovan stood up and came from behind his desk to give her a huge hug. “I can imagine how happy Cam is,” he said.

  Vanessa smiled while at the same time wiped tears from her eyes. “He’s extremely happy. I think we decided how much we both wanted a child the night we took on the role as babysitters for Little Dane,” she said of her best friend Sienna’s son. “He was such a joy, and we knew then we wanted a child of our very own.”

  “Let’s just order up one baby this go-round, please,” he said grinning. “I don’t think the family will be able to handle it if you follow in Cheyenne’s footsteps and have multiple babies.” Vanessa’s sister Cheyenne had given birth to triplets last year.

  Vanessa chuckled. “Yes, but you have to admit Chey is doing a grand job with them along with Quade’s help. I’m glad he convinced her to make North Carolina their home and use the house she owns in Jamaica as a vacation home.”

  Donovan nodded, thinking his brothers had all gotten married and now all of his girl cousins—at least the ones living here in Charlotte—were having babies. Taylor and Dominic’s son had been born the first of the year.

  “So when are you going to settle down, marry and start a family, Donovan?”

  His answer was quick. “Never. I happen to like being single.”

  “I thought I did, too until I fell in love. So beware, your time is coming,” she warned.

  He frowned. “Don’t hold your breath, sweetheart. Just glow in your own happiness and leave mine alone.”

  Vanessa studied his features. “But just think how much happier you could be curling up with the same person each night, someone who you loved.”

  “Love? I’ll pass. There’s not enough love in the world to make me fall in love with any woman.”

  He went back around his desk and sat down, thinking that he was beginning to feel smothered by all these Steeles who were either getting married or having babies.

  Chapter 8

  Humming her favorite tune, Natalie unlocked the door to Donovan’s home around nine o’clock Friday morning. She had called when she’d been a block away hoping he didn’t answer, an indication that he’d left for work already. Her plan was to get in and out before noon just in case he decided to come home for lunch.

  Placing her purse down on the sofa she moved toward the hall closet where he kept the cleaning supplies. She was in a good mood. Her aunt’s visit to the doctor yesterday had gone well, and during Natalie’s restless nights she had been able to finish the first part of the project she was working on with NASA.

  She still had her nightly dreams and figured there was no help for them. She was a woman whose needs were letting themselves known, but she was determined to ignore them like she always had, although they were more prevalent now than ever before.

  She had finished cleaning the kitchen and had started in the living room, establishing her rhythm as she dusted the furniture while the sound of Ne-Yo blared through her earbuds. She liked music and enjoyed dancing, although her moves on Friday night had been different. She had been on the dance floor with Donovan, in his arms while moving to a slow tune. It had been a long time since she’d been held by a man that way. And even now she was experiencing aftershocks from when he’d taken her outside and kissed her, practically devouring her mouth.

  Suddenly there was a tap on her shoulder. Startled, she yelped then spun around only to collide with a wide, solid chest. She jumped back, almost losing her balance in the process while placing her hand over her furiously beating heart. Donovan was standing there in bare feet and wearing a pair of jeans and a shirt that was completely unbuttoned and hung open showing a beautiful muscular chest. He looked as sexy as sin.

  She snatched the earbuds from her ears as her gaze shifted from his face and moved lower to where a path of hair trailed from beneath his navel past the waistline of his jeans. She felt the heat of embarrassment rush to her cheeks when she looked back to his face and knew he was aware what area of his body had grabbed most of her attention.

  Natalie wished he would button up his shirt and was tempted to suggest that he do so, but this was his house and he had the right to dress as he pleased. She swallowed, momentarily at a loss for words until she remembered he had just scared her out of her wits. She opened her mouth to speak, but he beat her to it.

  “I tried to get your attention to let you know I was here, but you were too busy dusting and dancing around.” He smiled. “And those were some pretty good moves, by the way.”

  She frowned, not in the mood for any of his humor. “What are you doing here, Donovan?”

  A slow, deliberate smile touched his lips. “I live here.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Why aren’t you at work?”

  “I’m working at home today.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I felt like it.”

  She wished she could throw her feather duster at him.

  “I have a lot of work to do, and I promise to stay out of your way. The only reason I came downstairs was to grab a piece of fruit.”

  “So you won’t be leaving for work today?” she asked.

  “No.”

  “I wish you would have contacted the agency to let us know. We could have changed your cleaning to another day,” she said.

  “Why would you want to do that?”

  She gave what she thought was an obvious answer. “You’re here.”

  He lifted a brow. “Is that supposed to be a problem?”

  She tilted her head while crossing her arms over her chest, leveling him with her gaze before asking smartly, “What do you think?”

  A rumble of a chuckle erupted from his throat. “I think you’re making too much of it. I’m upstairs in my office out of your way, so you can skip that room today. I have work to do and I’m sure you do, as well.”

  Her eyes narrowed as she watched him turn and sprint up the stairs.

  Donovan closed his office door behind him, leaned against it and let out a deep sigh. He was not accustomed to retreating from a woman that he wanted, a woman he intended to have. But Natalie had him rethinking his strategy, polishing his approach and modifying his tactics—and all with one final goal in mind. Seduction. He intended to get her back in his bed and make love to her, all day and all night. Only then would he effectively get her out of his system and move on.

  With the Product Trade Show in a few months, he had too much work to do to let any one woman tie up his time with her continued rejections. He should be seducing her to his will, making love to her until he got enough, and once he got his fill he would walk away.

  And not look back.

  In the meantime, he would do whatever he had to do. If she thought she would eventually wear out his patience, then she was wrong. The woman had definitely underestimated his determination.

  He drew in a deep breath. How could any one woman look so desirable? Those shorts and tank top she was wearing definitely weren’t helping his libido. It was a different outfit from last week but it was hard for him to ignore just how good she looked in it. When he had come down the stairs and seen her move her body in a provocative dance while dusting, he had immediately gotten turned on. Hell, if he was totally honest with himself, he would admit that he had been turned on since waking up that morning and knowing that she would be coming today.

  Now that she was here, the first thing he planned to do was break through her defenses. That was something he’d done Saturday night when they had shared a very intense kiss, a kiss that had blood rushing through his veins. A kiss that had kept him awake that night, fueling his lust.

  Almost a week later and his lust was still getting fueled. Sighing again he went to sit behind his desk. He had brought work home. He had reports to read, and he had a conference call with Morgan and his research and development team in a half hour regarding Gleeve-Ware.

  Donovan checked his watch. He would concentrate on work for a while, and then his full focus and attention would shift to Natalie.

  Natalie was on her knees in the master bathroom, scrubbing the tile around the shower when she heard the door open to the office where Donovan had been sequestered for the past two hours.

  She hoped if he was headed downstairs he wouldn’t enter his bedroom but would keep moving down the stairs. She only had his bedroom left to clean and much preferred that he wasn’t around while she did so, considering he’d found her asleep in his bed the last time she cleaned in here.

  She listened to the steady footsteps and knew the moment he had entered the room and was standing there, in the open doorway, staring down at her. She might be imagining things, but she could feel the intensity of his gaze on her backside. So, let him look if that’s what he wanted to do. She would just ignore him.

  She tried. However, when seconds ticked into minutes and he didn’t say anything, she shifted around, leaned back on her haunches and looked up at him. “Did you want something?”

  She realized her mistake too late. The darkening of his eyes told her she was asking the one question better left unanswered. He evidently didn’t agree and responded, “Yes.”

  Natalie swallowed deeply. She could just imagine what he wanted. The way he was looking at her said it all, but she knew the polite thing to do was to ask anyway, just in case she was wrong. After all, he was the client. “And how can I help you?” She grimaced thinking that question didn’t sound much better.

  “You can start off by getting off the floor. Does it really take all of that?” he asked.

  His response wasn’t what she expected, and she rolled her eyes, while at the same time trying to ignore how sexy he looked leaning in the doorway. “You’re paying for cleaning services,” she stated.

  Donovan frowned. She didn’t have to remind him, yet he still thought it didn’t take all of that. He thought of how she’d looked on her knees with her backside tooted up in a cute way toward him. A tingle of desire had oozed through his stomach as if he hadn’t been filled with wanting her already. It had been like adding kerosene to a flame already out of control when he thought about all the things he would like to do to that behind.

  “Mr. Steele?”

  His thoughts were pulled back at the sound of her voice. Then he concentrated on what she’d just called him. “You’re starting that back up?”

  “Starting what back up?”

  “Calling me Mr. Steele.”

  “That’s your name,” she said, getting to her feet and pulling off the plastic gloves and tossing them into the trash can before washing her hands.