Love Me (Irresistible Husband) Read online

  So was it any surprise that he was a bit…cautious when it came to relationships?

  The three of them continued talking, but the tone of their conversation had changed. Dani had gotten inside their heads—at least, inside his, and her comments made him think about the one woman he hadn’t been able to forget since he met her. The one woman whose beauty and personality eclipsed everyone else. With whom he hadn’t been withdrawn or aloof. Andrea, the woman he met in Belize sixteen months ago.

  Where was she now? The desire to see her again hadn’t extinguished, and Dani’s words made them flare to life again. Maybe he should take another trip to Belize and see if he could dig up some information on her, because despite his reluctance to agree with Dani, her suggestion had been right. He had become emotionally unavailable to other women since his engagement ended.

  But with Andrea, he’d been wide open. He let his guard down and enjoyed himself immensely. She made him laugh, their teasing and playfulness completely natural though they’d only known each other a short time. He wanted that feeling again.

  Once, in his twenties, he’d looked at his parents joking around in the kitchen and wondered what it would be like to find someone he connected with on the same level. Someone who not only made him laugh, but someone he could sit quietly in a room with—not saying a word to each other for an hour stretch at a time—and still be content.

  Later that evening, after his mother had retired to bed and he and his father were smoking Cubans on the back porch, he watched the smoke curl upward into the night and asked his father the same question men had been asking their fathers for centuries.

  “How did you know Mom was the one?”

  His father idly examined his cigar and puffed smoke through his lips. Finally, he looked at Axel with a smile and said, “When you find her, you’ll know. Trust me. And no one else will do.”

  He hadn’t fully understood the answer and had been mildly annoyed because he’d wanted concrete advice. Something tangible he could lock away and pull out to examine as the need arose.

  Then he went to Belize, and his father’s words finally made sense.

  No doubt about it. He had to find Andrea. Because no one else would do.

  2

  After two brief knocks, Naphressa’s door popped open. Standing at her bookcase with building plans in hand, she watched as Loretta, the administrative assistant she shared with two other project managers, waltzed in with papers and Naphressa’s breakfast.

  “One coffee. One toasted everything-bagel with extra cream cheese. Two sets of contracts.” The buxom redhead underlined the words by plopping the items one by one on her overcrowded desk.

  With a grateful moan, Naphressa abandoned the project plans she’d been studying and rushed over to the desk. “I’m starving. Thank you, you’re a godsend.”

  She opened the paper sack, sniffed the contents, and sighed with happiness as the scent of bread and coffee filled her nostrils.

  Loretta placed a hand on one expansive hip. “Skinny as you are, darlin’, you need more than a bagel and coffee. You need some protein, too, like eggs and bacon for sustenance and to put some meat on your bones.”

  Naphressa hid a smile as she sank onto her leather chair and started removing the items from the bag. She’d gotten used to Loretta’s mothering since she started working in project management for Hayes Realty Management a few years ago. Loretta was always performing some selfless task for a member of the staff. This week alone, she’d seen her organize a surprise birthday party, bake a five-year work anniversary cake for one of the appraisers, collect clothes for an auditor who lost his house in a fire, and bring in a large container of homemade chicken soup for a property manager whose wife was sick with a cold.

  It’s not as if she didn’t have a family of her own. Her husband had recently retired and was “underfoot,” as she called it, and on the weekends she took care of her widower son’s three kids so he could work a part-time job. Overall, Loretta was the kind of woman who had your back, and if she seemed a bit pushy because of it—well, you just had to deal.

  “I’ve told you before, I have a high metabolism,” Naphressa said.

  “I don’t know nothing ’bout that. Been a big girl all my life. Never lost my baby fat.” Loretta slapped her hip.

  “I bet Earl doesn’t mind,” Naphressa said with a smile.

  “Oh, honey, he sure don’t. From day one he told me, ‘I love you the way you are,’ and that ain’t never changed. After thirty-one years, he still says the same thing. Reckon I’ll keep him.” Loretta laughed and headed toward the door. She paused on her way out. “I’m gonna need those contracts signed before you leave for the day.”

  “I’ll have them to you in an hour.”

  After Loretta left, Naphressa smothered cream cheese onto her bagel. She took a bite, eyes going to the pictures of her nephews and niece on the desk. Her sister and her husband had four kids, but the picture that drew her eyes was the one of Regina, the ten-month-old. After three boys, they’d been desperate for a little girl and finally got her.

  In the photo, she was only two months out of the hospital and looked adorable lying on her back in a yellow onesie with green turtles all over it. The photographer had captured her joy, her eyes shiny, mouth wide with laughter.

  Naphressa picked up the photo and examined her niece’s features. She adored this little girl. She might be the closest she ever came to having a daughter of her own for a while.

  She gave her head a brisk shake, refusing to give in to the longing today. She intended to stay happy. She’d orchestrated the biggest project of her career only weeks before and was grateful. She would celebrate the little victories.

  Naphressa sipped her coffee and picked up the stack of contracts to start her review so she could have them signed and back to Loretta within the timeframe she promised.

  Axel packed up his desk, ready for lunch. Grabbing his jacket, he exited the door and almost ran into one of the younger attorneys, Anton.

  “Whoa,” he said, taking a step back.

  Anton had a fork and a plate of cake in his hands. “You’re leaving?” he asked.

  “Hell yeah, I’m leaving. It’s past lunchtime and I’m starving.” Axel started down the hall and Anton fell into step beside him.

  “Got a question for you.”

  “Shoot,” Axel said, not breaking stride.

  “I have an issue with a new client. I—”

  “Where’d you get that from?” Axel asked, nodding toward the cake.

  Anton looked at the dessert as if he suddenly realized it was in his hands. “This? At the welcome-to-the-office luncheon for the new associates.”

  “That was today?”

  He hardly paid attention to emails for those types of office events. The only ones he paid attention to were the compulsory ones. Since attendance had been voluntary, he’d deleted the invite as soon as it arrived in his box, not bothering to read the details because he had no intention of going. In a firm with hundreds of attorneys, he was certain he hadn’t been missed.

  His mind flashed back to the adjectives Dani used to describe him Friday night. Withdrawn. Emotionally unavailable. He grimaced.

  “Yes, that was today,” Anton replied.

  “Any cake left?”

  Anton shook his head as he chewed. “I had this hidden away in my office. So, about that question…”

  Tall, with brown skin and light eyes, he was thirty, seven years younger than Axel, but had only been with the firm for a few years. He also worked in corporate law. In a lot of ways, he reminded Axel of himself when he first started practicing—focused, driven. He expected Anton to go far and had taken him under his wing to offer advice whenever he could.

  “Go ahead, but you’ll have to follow me.” Axel hit the down button on the elevator.

  Anton explained about the problems his client was having renegotiating employee benefits and salary ever since they decided to restructure the company because it had b
een losing money for years. The owners couldn’t agree on what to offer the employees.

  Axel listened, interjecting an occasional question, and at the end told Anton, “Some of the employees might be ready to walk, and that’s something they should find out sooner rather than later. If so, they could work out a severance package and then negotiate with the ones who remain. Talk to Stevens over in employment law. He had a similar problem about a year ago and could help with some of those details.”

  Anton nodded. “Makes sense. Thanks, man.”

  “How are things going with that Hayes Realty deal?” Axel asked.

  “So far so good.”

  The elevator doors opened. Jason Thurman, one of the partners, said, “Axel, just the man I wanted to see. Anton, I need to talk to you, too. Got a minute?” Jason stepped out of the cabin.

  Axel groaned inwardly. He needed food. No telling how long this impromptu meeting would last, but when a partner wanted to meet with you, you couldn’t exactly say no.

  “Sure, I’ve got a few minutes,” he replied.

  “Excellent. We’ve run into a bit of a problem on the Hayes Realty deal. Originally, I had Simons overseeing the case, but I had to pull her onto another case. Axel, I want you to take over.”

  “Simons is off completely?” Anton asked, sounding worried.

  Jason nodded. “Axel, you can get up to speed, can’t you? Anton, give him a quick rundown of what’s going on.”

  “We’re meeting with the team from Hayes Realty in…” Anton glanced at his watch. “Less than an hour.”

  “All the more reason to get started right away, wouldn’t you say?” Jason shot them a smile that indicated he knew they’d do exactly that.

  “Not a problem,” Axel said.

  “Good, good.” Jason went down the hall.

  “Shit,” Anton muttered.

  “Should I be offended that you don’t want me on this case?” Axel asked.

  “It’s not that I don’t want you, it’s that now you have to catch up. It’s early yet, but we’ve done a lot of groundwork and we’re ready to go.”

  “I have every confidence in you. Tell you what, put together a summary page for me. Bullet points for now to get me through the meeting. I’ll be back from lunch in about thirty and that’ll give me enough time to review the details and ask questions, if I have any. I’ll do a more thorough review later.”

  “Sounds like a plan. We’re meeting in conference room B on the fourth floor at two.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  Anton went left down the hallway, and Axel took the elevator to the first floor. He escaped into the parking lot with a few head nods to other staff and the security guards at the front.

  Since he couldn’t take a leisurely lunch elsewhere as planned, he settled for a sandwich and drink at the café across the street. By the time he returned to the office, Anton had sent the bullet-point summary with the names of the project manager and other contacts at Hayes Realty Management.

  The real estate firm specialized in commercial real estate, and though Axel didn’t know much about them, he knew enough to know they had built a solid reputation in Atlanta. The current deal saw them in a unique position. After finding out that The Brixton Group was going bankrupt because they’d overextended themselves on a real estate development project, Hayes Realty had swooped in and made an offer to take over the cash-strapped company and all their assets for ridiculously low prices.

  The deal was currently hush-hush so that The Brixton Group could save face. The purchase would be spun as a merger, and the dozens of employees who would have lost their jobs if the company was dissolved, could keep their jobs or find new positions within Hayes Realty.

  They intended to hire Abraham, MacKenzie & Wong to aid in working out the details. Axel only had a few questions and was ready for the meeting by the time two o’clock rolled around.

  As he opened the conference room door, Axel’s eyes swept the interior. Anton and the other attorney on the case—a tall blonde named Jen, were already inside. His eyes landed on the third person in the room, and he froze.

  Everything froze. Time. His body. His breathing. His heart.

  He blinked, but what he thought was a mirage was very real. It was her. Andrea, in the flesh.

  All he could see was the back of her head as she chatted with his co-workers, but there was no doubt in his mind that the person he saw was Andrea, the woman he met in Belize.

  Heart racing, he set his pen and notepad on the table. Eyes pinned in disbelief on the figure before him, he ate up the distance between them.

  Anton saw him first. “Hi, Axel.”

  Andrea then faced him, and his mouth went dry. Same dusky-dark skin and raven hair that spiraled to her shoulders in wide, lustrous curls that framed her face. Her black skirt and black jacket came in at the waist and showed off slim curves that he’d traced with his tongue and fingertips over and over again.

  “It is you,” he whispered.

  Her pretty eyes widened.

  “Andrea, what are you doing here?” Axel asked.

  Anton and the other attorney frowned.

  “Andrea? No, this is Naphressa St. James, the project manager from Hayes Realty Management,” Anton said.

  “You’re with Hayes,” Axel murmured, barely registering what his co-worker said.

  He was on autopilot, entranced by the woman who’d haunted his nights for over a year. No one had compared to her before or since.

  “How have you been?” he asked.

  “I…” She shifted from one foot to the next and darted a quick glance at Anton and Jen.

  Anton nudged the blonde. “We have to get some paperwork that I forgot to bring in. Be back in a few minutes.”

  The two of them disappeared, but Axel barely noticed. He hadn’t lifted his gaze from Naphressa. The name fit much better than Andrea.

  “Damn, I can’t believe it’s you.”

  “It’s me,” she said, looking twitchy, as if she were nervous.

  “This is a shock.”

  “For me, too.”

  He lowered his voice. “This isn’t the time or place, but maybe you and I could—”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “You haven’t heard what I was about to say.”

  Her eyes pleaded with him for understanding. “I don’t have to hear what you’re about to say. I know what you’re going to say. It’s about the challenge that I made to you before we left Belize.”

  “You told me to find you, and I’ve been looking.”

  “I should have never told you to do that.”

  “You said there would be a chance for us.”

  “Maybe,” she corrected.

  “Okay, look, I know this is all very sudden and my firm is working on a case for you, and I understand the ethical implications, but we met before this deal. If you prefer, I could ask to be taken off the project.”

  “You do whatever you feel is best. I, however, have no intention of getting involved with you. I said maybe there was a chance for us, and I shouldn’t have said that. Shouldn’t have implied there was a possibility we could get together if we met again.”

  Axel gave a shallow, pain-filled laugh. “My ego is taking quite a bruising right now. Care to explain why there’s no possibility of us getting together again?”

  “I… It’s…” She licked her lips, clearly unable to come up with a reasonable explanation.

  “Look—” Axel stopped abruptly and stared at the gold ring on her finger as shock reverberated through his chest. “Are you married?”

  3

  Outwardly calm, Naphressa quaked inside from shock.

  Axel looked every bit as handsome as he did in Belize. Only now, he was polished, too, in a navy suit and navy and burgundy tie. Suave and smooth with a low-cut beard and sharp, assessing eyes, he made her want to squirm to hide her immediate elation at seeing him again.

  “I’m no longer married.”

  “But you’re weari
ng a wedding ring.”

  Sometimes she forgot she still wore her wedding ring. It was just a piece of jewelry now, like the gold bracelet on her wrist and the matching necklace around her neck. She took it off every night along with the other pieces, hating that she had to wear it all. It was like a chain, binding her to a dead man.

  Nodding, she twisted the ring on her finger. “It’s complicated. My husband is…dead. I was married to Victor Hayes’ son—Byron Hayes. He was a good man, a hero.” She was embarrassed by how stilted and stale the words sounded, as if they’d been rehearsed and repeated numerous times. Which they had been. She needed to do better. Sound more convincing.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Axel’s voice reminded her that she wasn’t alone and forced her focus on the conversation, which meant she paid closer attention to him. That was a mistake. She’d thought about him often, and seeing him again made her heart and body ache.

  Axel had a solid, athletic build. His tailored suit fit snug over his body, showing off broad shoulders, lean hips, and long legs. From the top of his head to his feet, he looked well put together. His black, curly hair was neatly trimmed, his beard and mustache cut low and framing lips that had wreaked havoc on her body, making her loathe leaving his bed to eat or even sightsee. She would have been quite content to spend the entire trip wrapped in his arms.

  Then, of course, there was his obsession. His fixation. He liked going down on her. Not every man enjoyed doing that to a woman, but Axel—good heavens—he clearly did. Almost every time they made love, he rewarded her with his head between her legs. If practice made perfect, he’d certainly perfected his technique. The man was an absolute beast with his tongue—an aficionado, one who could teach a master class in the art of cunnilingus.

  “Life isn’t perfect.” She took a deep breath. “You work here?”

  “I’m a senior associate in corporate law,” Axel answered. “What do you do for Hayes Realty?”