The next thing she could think coherently about was a tiny pinging noise going off in the general vicinity of her breasts. She fluttered her eyelids open to try and focus on his gorgeously dark eyelashes when he let up his onslaught of lips, teeth, and tongue…and hands…and body… She'd have never thought that primed drywall was an optimum surface for snogging, but there was no place else she'd rather be. Tori was panting, nearly puddling in his arms, ready to do anything he wanted—as hot as he'd made her—but he checked his watch.

Huh?

She blinked from his still-pinging wristwatch to his lips. Then he spoke. "I've got to get to another jobsite or they'll know I was here for more than just paint chips."

Why did that make her feel a bit disappointed? At least his eyes said something of regret. And he had just said he wanted more from her than just sex. But did this mean they were to keep their time together secret? No matter that he was right. Right? Her fingernails dug lightly into his back in frustration. She sighed. "What time is it?"

He clenched his teeth, growled and slitted a glare at her. Diving in for another claiming nip on her neck, his fingers deftly tugged her top down into place. When did that wardrobe change happen? Wow. "Nine twenty two." She shuddered, wanting to crawl into his voice and use it as a blanket.

Then it registered what he'd said. The time wasn't important, but…wasn't that an alarm? Wasn't that an odd time for an alarm? And of course he'd be one of those who measured time exactly, instead of saying 'quarter after' or 'almost half past'. It was probably one of those things that made him one of their business' premiere foremen. Wait, they'd only been doing this for twenty minutes? Those strong hands of his tugged more of her top into place and lifted up to stroke her face, near her lips. She watched him, all the while feeling little prickles at the nerves that were apparently connected to her ears somehow. The feather-light touches had her closing her eyes, tipping up her mouth for more kisses. What had she been on the verge of asking him again?

He laughed quietly. "Sweetheart, I could stand here all day and shower you with kisses, but I think I'm gonna have to start shaving a little closer first."

Her eyes flew open and emoted her confusion, along with the desire brought forth by mentioning a shower. Slick, clingy water cascading down over all that muscle... Louder laughter met her sensitized ears, rolled over her senses and down her spine. She then remembered the stinging little red marks left from his kisses yesterday, how she'd had to be extra careful with moisturizer last night and this morning. Oh yes, and that reminded her of her earlier irritation. Her voice reflected her new expression: annoyance. "Why didn't you call me last night?"

Warm, hard arms wrapped around her, but he kept hold of her gaze, taking a deep breath and letting it out before answering her. "I wanted to give you some time to think. Leaving that change order form on your seat was an easy out for you, if you didn't want…this."

That rankled a bit, and she didn't want to admit it, but it made sense. Hot damn, a man that was strong, handsome AND sensible. Why wasn't he married? Was she even sure he wasn't married? Lots of guys didn't wear rings to work, on account of the gold just getting messed up. On the other hand, he didn't seem like the type that would cheat, though. He watched her just as closely as she was watching him. "How did you know I didn't just come here to work?"

He answered with a cocked brow. "You could have sent Gina in your place if you didn't want to see me."

Ah. She twisted her mouth in irritation. Well, there he had her. Tori wasn't the only design specialist at their firm and she and Gina often traded off jobs they didn't want. Still. She didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing that he could maneuver her so well. "And now?"

Oh, it really was too adorable that such a pillar of male confidence knitted his eyebrows in confusion. She had to refrain from grinning. "What?"

"What do we do now?" Was it wrong of her to want to knock him a bit off balance? Like he'd been doing to her?

A cowboy grin slipped across his teeth for a quick moment, then hid behind amusement. "Well, for starters we go back to work." He let her go, reminding her of how much heat he generated and how cold she was quickly becoming without him against her, and pulled open the pantry door that had swung-to, gesturing for her to precede him.

She blinked out of the dark little closet and turned back to see him ambling into the light. He was so…beautiful wasn't the word. "And not tell anyone?" Wild. Raw. Manly. Marlboro. That was more like it. It was going to be hard as hell not to grin like an idiot all day at work.

"Not yet." There was a twinkle in his eyes that spoke of something more.

She arched her own eyebrow back at him. "Yet?"

"Yet." And enter the cowboy grin again. That looked like it could be trouble, if he could sidestep an issue with just a grin.

She pressed onward, forcing her focus. Was he always this oblique? She bent down to pick up her paint box. "Meaning?"

"Meaning, Not yet." He smacked her on the behind and she yelped, straightening up with an injured look aimed well. It steamed her a bit that he was so familiar with her body so quickly. And yet…the fact that he WOULD touch her in so many different ways…soft, hard, quick, slow… Fiddling with her hold on the paint box, her irritation faded to curiosity…he'd said… "You've really wanted me this whole time?" She'd tossed the uncertain question over her shoulder, trying to be nonchalant, but she heard him stride up hard behind her. She tried to turn to face him, but he was quick to grab her hips with his fingers, keeping her face-forward, pulling her up tight against his jeans…and the telltale bulge awaiting her bottom. Oh did she ever want to get to know that much about him…

He leaned down and rumbled into her ear. "It took me nearly six months to not just get a hard-on at the sight of you. Rumor had it you were taken, so I ignored it." Those fingers gripped a bit tighter, spread their span across her pelvis.

She moaned. His words… his actions… just the thought that someone wanted her that long, that much, this intense… was this all a dream? Was she still in bed and it was yesterday morning? Likely. She pressed back into him, tilting her bottom to feel more of him. If this was a dream, she didn't want to wake up.

"Christ!" He surprised her by pushing her away, as much that she almost stumbled. She looked back at him, uncertain of the reasoning behind the expletive. "Back to work right now, or we'll never get out of here."

Oh. She almost asked if they really had to, but remembered her client meeting this afternoon. Come to think of it, they were HIS clients. Fine, if he wanted business, she'd talk business. "The Moore's are coming in at three to go over their hard-selections." She batted her lashes at him coquettishly. "Would you have any reason to hang around for the meeting?" As far as she knew, he came in around six or seven and left around four. Not that she'd ever paid attention to his schedule…over the last few weeks…watching him as much as she'd seen him watch her.

He swept past her to get the front door, but turned back with a speculative look. "I don't have a reason to be in the meeting. You've always done fine without my input." As she opened her mouth to respond, he continued with a grin, "So I'll just hang out until you're through. There's a new guy I've gotta work with anyway and I can go over things with him until you're done." His look implied that they might then continue what they'd started in the pantry.

She nearly melted, itching for her three o'clock to come and go. She sighed. Poor choice of words.

.o.o.o

If Mr. Moore blathered on one more time about the effectiveness of a proper lube job, Tori would scream. They'd been up to their elbows in indecisions for the past two and a half hours and spending the previous five hours squirming in her seat left her in no frame of mind to be patient. He was apparently an auto-mechanic way too in love with his job and his constant, unintended double entendres were driving her crazy.

A shadow fell across one of the nearby frosted panels letting light in from the atrium. It had to be Brig. No one else here was that big. It wasn't really his size, he just had a way of filling up the air around him where no one stood too close. Well, that could also be because they didn't want to break their neck looking up at him, but still. It—he was impressive.

Something the wife said snagged Tori's attention back to the unusually and agonizingly slow process of selecting roof tiles. Oh, thank Heaven, they had somewhere else to be in a few minutes! Praise…well, she didn't really think Jesus had anything to do with speeding up her eminent make-out session, but maybe it wouldn't hurt? She smiled and made platitudes that they'd really done well and they'd just have to have another meeting.

Mr. Moore looked awry at her. Oh right, like it was her fault that they couldn't decide between red-flashed or red common brick for the exterior quoins. They had beige everything-else. It made no difference to her if they chose green brick, as long as they decided and paid up. Well, okay. Bill would never let her get by with green brick on one of their houses, but still. The point.

They left and she made her rounds about the room, gathering up samples and stacking them neatly back into the conference room cabinetry opposite the wall of glass paneling. Her hearing leveled out to where she could make out mumbled speech in the hallway leading to the entry. Brig. And Mr. Moore. Aha! Served him right, leaving her all hot and bothered and then not coming to the meeting. He was right that she didn't really need him there, but…

The air in the room all of a sudden got a lot…tighter.

She turned around at the sound of the frosted glass door closing.

He was leaning back against the door, staring at her. His smirk was almost hungry, almost wistful. It made her wonder what he saw when he looked at her from across the room, as they were situated now. She fought down a blush and grabbed a brick sample board to stack by the others at the end of the room.

That whiskey voice filtered from behind, pouring over her in delicious little rivulets. "I'll have you know, I've not been able to get a damned thing done all day." She straightened and faced Brig, who had crossed his arms over his chest, showing off just how lovely forearm muscles could be. Why did he have to be so damned good-looking? All he had to do was stand there, with his muscles and jeans, and she wanted to fantasize what he'd look like in slacks. In a silk robe. In nothing at all. She'd bet his butt was hard enough to bounce quarters off of. And his shoulders and pects…not to mention abs, hips, thighs, calves… She just bet he had nice calves swelling out of those work boots. Shaped, but not overly built.

It took her a moment to break out of her reverie and register what he'd said. She lilted back without the least contrition, "Oh, I'm sorry, is that my fault?"

He pushed away from the door and stalked down the length of the room towards her, passing the length of eight chairs to close the distance, grinning as she skirted around and kept the table between them. "Yes. It is."

She knew he was teasing, but she wanted to wipe that smirk off his too-confident face. "I don't see how your incapability is my problem." A pause where she watched his face fight amusement made her realize too late what she'd implied. Oh shit. Open mouth, insert foot. Rolling her eyes, she took another step away.

His grin just grew and that devilish light flickered in those dark eyes as he took another step forward. This was getting to be a pattern with him. "I'd rather think that was the…point…of the matter."

She grabbed a chair and rolled it out in front of her. "Oh, I don't know. Incapable 'points' don't really have one, if you ask me."

"Yeah, but my point isn't incapable. Just unresolved." He pulled the chair away from her.

She peeked at his groin. "I don't think your point has a problem with resolution."

"Perhaps the point needs closer consideration."

She stared up at him, nearly slack-jawed. Dammit. He was Witty. She was always a sucker for Witty. Tori felt the blush creep up her neck as a thought occurred to her, watching him take that last step towards her, catch her and bracket her shoulders with his hands against the frosted glass wall. Glass. Frosted or not, people could still see something pressed against it. "Brig!"

She'd have to look up measuring heat in Kelvin because Fahrenheit couldn't cover the look he was giving her. "What." He chuckled and kissed her temple, nuzzling her hairline.

Breathe, Tori, Breathe. She tried to listen for other people. There was always someone else in the office. "Don't you…" He licked the corner of her mouth with the tip of his tongue, "think we should be a bit more circumspect?"

Lightly kissing against her words, he finally leaned his head back when he knew she was ready to let the question go unanswered. She focused on a grin that could melt rock. "There's no one else here, darlin'. Friday night, five thirty, it's just us and the disconnected security camera."

"D-disconnected?" Oh good gravy what was she in for now? He didn't mean here, did he?

His answer was another hot kiss and a hand cradling her head, keeping it from banging against the glass. At this rate she'd be a raving, lustful idiot within a week. Just think, a few days ago, she was grumbling about how men were unfeeling bastards that left a woman cold. There had been a serious discussion involving ice cream, her friend Charlotte, and the reliability of personal devices in comparison to a real thing that never seemed to stack up.

And now, well… The one man she'd never pegged to be so completely and perfectly HOT…WAS. And he was using that heat on HER. Abso-fucking-lutely amazing. He really was the last man she'd ever…okay, well, not the last, but certainly the least expected. She felt…flattered. He made her feel desirable, something she hadn't felt in years. It was enough to make her crack. Honestly, she felt something tear open inside her and years of pent desire flooded her body, making her want to climb Brig, wrap herself around him until there was no more space left between them.

He gave even more when she opened up to him, her hands running everywhere they could reach, pressing, scratching, digging, pulling. His hands followed suit, and when they cupped and squeezed her buttocks, it was with the extra surprise of pulling her up off the ground. A little mewl escaped into their kiss and she took cue to wrap her legs around his waist, locking her ankles behind him and compressing her thighs to hold on tightly. Was the man psychic? Or just that good?

She settled for just that good and sucked his tongue into her mouth. He laughed a bit, she smiled and let go; he kissed her hard and fast, slipping his mouth down to her neck and using his hands to grind her against the ridge of his jeans. Or maybe it was the ridge beneath his jeans. It was a bit big to be a zipper. She pulled tighter with her legs and returned his growl with a groan as he pressed her up against the glass again.

Oh, nice, he could use his hands again. Angling her against the glass—thank God it was tempered three-eighths inch and anchored well—he started pulling up her sweater, slipping his hot hands over her stomach, up to encompass a breast in each one. Her arms were wrapped around his neck, so she arched her back and pulled his head down for another scorching kiss. With a setup like this, it was almost a shame that she wore pants today instead of a skirt.

Oh, God, what was she thinking? She'd only been kissing him for twenty four hours and she was ready to have sex with him. Part of her felt a bit ashamed about that, but another part of her just wanted to go where ever this was taking her. Brig was like a one-man adventure and she was ready to see the sights…conscience or no. So she let that last little bit of herself go, that tiny little bit that still thought in the middle of this maelstrom of man surrounding her.

He must have sensed it because he just about ripped her off the wall, held tight and turned around to face the conference table. One good step forward and he eased her down to sit on the table, gently pushing her back to lie down on the cold, shellacked wood. They just stared at each other, him breathing a bit fast, standing with her legs still wrapped around him, a hand on each of her thighs. The ventilation system kicked on and blew warm air across her bare skin. She shivered. His hands contoured her legs, hips, up her abdomen, as he leaned over and kissed her again, working her just that much hotter to where she barely noticed when he started kissing her throat, jumped his kisses over her bunched up sweater. Those wonderful hands then stopped their undulating massage over her bra and slipped underneath her while his mouth took place and bit her cup down, exposing the sensitive tip to the open air and his gaze.

And boy, did he ever look. He looked, then kissed, looked, then laved, suckled, looked again, nipped…and she felt the constraining fabric loosen. Oh, he was THAT good to get four hooks that fast. Another mewl made its way out of her throat as he pushed her bra up to reside with her sweater and then cupped both of her breasts together, actually licking the two nipples at the same time.

"Unnngh…" THAT was new. She could feel herself grow hungry for that wet friction in another place and her hands tried to convey that by frantically pushing down on his shoulders as she gasped for air. He must have been just as interested in continuing because he didn't even chuckle at her, just started kissing his way down, open-mouthed, down to the waistline of her pants. Her legs had to loosen their clasp on him to let him slide down that far, but she kept hold onto each side and watched with fascination as he actually undid her pants with his mouth. All while staring directly into her eyes. Oh, God, what were the signs of a heart-attack again?

Racing pulse, hot flashes, hard time breathing…tingling sensations… if she hadn't had a perfectly good reason standing between her legs, she'd have fit the bill for one, surely. He surprised her by not just pulling off her pants like she thought he would. Instead, he stepped back, pulling her hands and standing her up, then turned her around and lit the fire from behind. He pushed her hair aside, licked and bit her neck as he cupped her breasts in his hands. She reached behind her, searching to touch him… somewhere… anywhere. Her hands found hard muscle underneath his jeans at his butt and haunches and her fingernails scratched at the denim, reveling in the give beneath and his answering moan.

He traced down her stomach to her hips again and held tight as he mouthed the nape of her neck, sending little trills of sensation down her spine and pushing forward to bend her over the table, face-down. "Aah!" The table was COLD against her nipples, but that was soon forgotten when he bit her shoulder like some kind of wild cat. That somehow sent hot lava through her bones, making her flatten her hands against the table and press hard back into him. That cold beneath her added another flavor to their fun, causing her nipples to harden almost painfully…and then she heard a galvanizing sound.

His zipper.

There was no mistaking the tensing of her back when the sound virtually echoed through the room. She didn't want to stop, but somehow it was still so fast. He kissed her ear. "I don't want to wait. This feels too right."

He was right. Waiting was silly, they were both adults... a last little flash of conscience poked the speech section of her brain, "C-condom?"

She could feel him relax against her back. So he'd been nervous, too. "Don't worry, beautiful, I've got it covered."

And he did. She smiled at the pun as she heard him roll it on while licking down her spine, she even heard the tell-tale snap of latex when he adjusted it. Once he accomplished that feat, he hooked his fingers into her waistline and pulled everything from her waist, down. She rather thought with his haste, he'd go ahead and plunge in, and she really wouldn't have minded, but instead he ran his hands over her bottom for a moment. And then he surprised her yet again and her eyes flared open when she felt the shock of his teeth…BITING her left cheek. She arched back and looked over her shoulder with incredulity, waiting for his eyes to meet hers and when they did, she was lost. He held her gaze and rammed forward to lock her mouth with his, slipping his cock between her cheeks. A moan caught in her throat at the strange angle, but with his hands intertwining with hers against the table, he centered himself and eased in just a little. And stopped. She pressed back onto him a bit more, but he growled a negative and kept kissing her.

She moaned her need as best she could, the sound coming out hoarse and desperate. His response was to move an inch more, then back out. She whined and pressed back, but he just backed up even more. He crooned into their kiss, "Easy, easy. Let me do this right, sweetheart."

Right? He was teasing her and he thought that was right? Hmph. He opened up a Pandora's Box when he cornered her yesterday, peeked inside this morning, and flung it wide open this evening. He had no idea how right it would be for him to just drive home as fast and hard as he could, right then. She broke the kiss, turned her head away when he tried to get her back, and bent to bite his rock-solid forearm, scraping her teeth over the hair. At his sharp intake of breath, she bit harder, using her eye-teeth to dimple his skin…and got exactly what she wanted.

The force of it knocked her teeth loose of their hold on his arm, but she just went with it and rubbed her face against that rigid limb. He was just holding still, but it felt so good, she could feel him flex within her, adjusting their fit. His other hand let go and wrapped underneath her, scraping under her bunched up sweater to hook his fingers over her opposite shoulder. It was an awkward hug until he reared back and started fucking her. There was just no other word for it, so pure and simple and HOT and HARD were his actions. The hand holding her shoulder kept her from moving against him, so she was held at his mercy, taking the mindless pleasure building within in quick, spiraling waves.

Her orgasm hit quick, nearly painful, and she cried out, biting his arm again, wanting him to come with her. He was still going…Oh, God, how was he still going? She groaned as another little orgasm pulsed up her spine and she felt her little vaginal muscles tighten around him. Still…going… She dropped her head, whining and mewling at his mind-numbing continuance, to lick between his fingers, kiss the back of his hand.

Oooh. At this angle, she could see an interesting view, his balls slapping lightly towards her. Mmmm, she wanted to touch them, let them rasp against her palm in that hell-bent rhythm. Reaching her arm around his, still holding her, she arced up a bit and slipped her hand farther down. His rhythm slowed a bit and she assumed he was trying to figure out what she was doing. She grinned as she reached him and he literally shook against her back.

Her fingers lightly cupped him, fondled that delicate sac and the most wonderful thing happened as a result.

He came.

She purred her triumph as he hollered into her back, between her shoulder blades, over and over as he pumped and convulsed into her. She gave him the respite he hadn't given her quite so easily and traced her fingers along the line of his inner thigh. He pulsed and groaned and she felt the lovely muscles there tremble in response.

He pulled his hand out from around her, pulled her hand away from under them both and flattened them out, cradling her arms in his as he collapsed against her, huffing into her hair. She smiled and settled beneath the comfortable weight, satisfied in ways she'd never thought possible. Even with a not-so-cold-now table underneath her in a room with glass walls.

Wow.