If Only for Tonight

“Thank you, Ms. Neely.”

When they arrived at the conference room with tall, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Lake Michigan, seven people were already seated at a large table. Cyd placed her belongings on a counter off to the side of the room.

“Ms. Rayne,” said Mr. Vallant as he stood to shake her hand. “Allow me to introduce you to a few members of my executive team. We have Kim Lathers, chief marketing officer. Jim Pearson, senior vice president of business development. Jacob Early, chief financial officer. Brittany Higgins, senior vice president of client services. Tom Mendez, senior vice president of communications and Paul Jensen, general counsel. Everyone, this is Cydney Rayne from Elite Events, Incorporated.”

Cyd made her way around the table as she shook hands with each member before taking a seat in one of two vacancies. “Nice to meet you all.”

“Throughout the next month members of the executive team will be present at a few of the appreciation events. I felt it best that we all attend this meeting to ensure that everyone understands the schedule. Team, I trust that you will make Ms. Rayne feel welcome during the tour.”

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement and exchanged a few warm words. Adjusting herself in her seat, she tried to place the reason behind her suddenly quickened heartbeat. Her heart only beat this fast when she was nervous, but she usually never got nervous on the job. She momentarily stopped observing her behavior when she heard the conference door open. No way.... No freaking way. Now it all made sense. There was one new development in her life that seemed to be wreaking havoc on her nerves since the day she’d laid eyes on him.

“Ms. Rayne. This is the newest member of our team, Shawn Miles, chief information security officer,” Mr. Vallant said, rising once again from his chair to make the introduction. “Shawn, please meet Cydney Rayne from Elite Events, Incorporated.”

“Nice to meet you, Ms. Rayne,” Shawn said with ease, once again giving himself away and proving that he wasn’t surprised to see her at all. Of course Shawn works for the Peter Vallant Company, she thought sarcastically. What was it with this man! How did he manage to pop up in her life not once, not twice, but three times!

“Nice to meet you, too, Mr. Miles,” Cyd replied, accepting his handshake and ignoring the electric surge that shot through her arm. He looked great in his navy blue suit, but she refused to give him a compliment. He never told her what he did for a living, but he’d admitted to researching her online. She guessed it was partially her fault for not researching him online, too. She’d much preferred to keep him a mystery, but had she just searched his name on the internet, she could have saved herself some embarrassment.

She was so sick and tired of Shawn getting the upper hand. Even if he was new to the company, he’d probably been told that she would be the lead planner for the appreciation tour. Cyd nervously glanced around the table before her eyes settled back on Shawn. She wished he’d wipe that smirk off his face. Better yet, she wished she could punch it off him. But Cyd had way more class than that.

“Let’s all take a seat,” Mr. Vallant said as he returned to his chair. As Cyd sat back down, she twisted in her seat so that her back was slightly to Shawn, directing her full attention to Mr. Vallant at the head of the table.

“I’ll begin our discussion with the rotation schedule for the events. As lead event planner, Ms. Rayne will be attending every event. Here is the schedule for the rest of the events,” Mr. Vallant said as he directed his attention at the material that had been placed in front of each attendee’s seat.

Cyd didn’t hear Mr. Vallant announce that as CISO, Shawn would also be present at every event, though a quick scan of the document made that fact evident, anyway. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on high awareness as Shawn leaned forward to pick up something he’d dropped on the floor. She sighed a little deeper than necessary as she gripped the mahogany table while uncrossing her legs just to cross them back again.

There it was again. The butterflies she couldn’t stop from swarming in the pit of her stomach. Yet she managed to answer every question that was directed at her during the course of the meeting. Though she wasn’t sure how she answered anything at all, given all her attention was secretly fixed on the man to the right.

She glanced at the clock on the wall and prayed that the already forty-minutes-long meeting would conclude in the next twenty minutes. She looked through a folder that Mr. Vallant had handed her a few minutes prior to see the list of hotels she would be staying at during the appreciation tour. Over the next month, there would be four stops. Cyd lived in downtown Chicago, but tonight she would be staying at the JW Marriott, host hotel for the Peter Vallant reception for the employees to thank them for all their hard work. On Friday, they left for their first stop, Springfield, Illinois.

At the sound of Shawn’s voice, Cyd turned her head to listen to what he was saying, as did everyone at the table. She wanted to comprehend his words, but she couldn’t. His lips looked too sexy today. He stuck his tongue in and out between sentences to moisten his lips, glancing at her after every lick. I’ll definitely be changing my panties after this meeting, she thought. She was a visual person and right now the only thing she could visualize was seductively bouncing on top of him and riding him like the bull she’d ridden at her sister’s bachelorette party.

“Is that okay with you, Ms. Rayne?” asked Mr. Vallant. Crap, she’d missed the question. “Yes, that’s fine with me,” she replied, hoping that her answer would suffice.

“Great. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our meeting. I’ll see you all tonight at the reception.”

Cyd quickly grabbed her belongings, politely smiling to the others as she tried to leave the room so she could seek refuge in the privacy of her hotel room, but Shawn had other plans.

“Are you ready?” Shawn asked, gently catching her arm before she dipped out into the hallway.

“For what?” she asked, trying not to notice his blatant appraisal of her outfit. He smelled of men’s soap and aftershave that complemented his natural masculine scent. The fact that she could also detect that he was wearing a brand of Kenneth Cole’s cologne to match the scent of aftershave both aggravated and aroused her at the same time. She’d never noticed those things about a man before, yet with Shawn she noticed every little detail. She nervously played with her hair, awaiting his response.

After one more look at her outfit, he finally decided to answer. “You agreed to let me take you on a tour of the building.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did,” he said, standing a little closer than before. “And you also agreed to let me escort you to your hotel to ensure that everything is well with your accommodations.”

Cyd took a step back from him. “No. I. Didn’t,” she said a little slower than before. That was probably what Mr. Vallant meant when he’d asked her if she was okay with something. She just hadn’t known what that something was until now.

“Look, Mr. Miles, I—” Cyd stopped talking when Shawn let out a hearty laugh.

“Mr. Miles? Seriously? After everything we’ve done, you want to be formal with me? Tell you what. How about you call me Mr. Miles when we’re around everyone else. But when we’re alone,” he said, stepping back into her personal space, “I want you to call me Shawn just like I plan to call you Cydney.”

Was that a request or an order? Cleary Shawn didn’t know what type of woman she was. Cyd did not take orders from any man. “Listen, Mr. Miles. Had I known you worked for the Peter Vallant Company, I would have never...” Her words trailed off when he leaned in toward her ear.

“There is no way you wouldn’t have been intimate with me, so save yourself the trouble and don’t deny something you know was bound to happen, anyway.”

Talk about cocky! He really thought he had her eating out of the palm of his hand. Although she was the first to admit that part was true, the fact that he wouldn’t let her finish her statements was nerve racking.

“Tell you what,” Cyd said, crossing her arms over her chest, not caring that his eyes followed her movement. “How about you be the good golden boy and tell Mr. Vallant that you showed me around the building and made sure my room was okay. In the meantime, I will head to my hotel without you and I’ll make sure I have Mr. Vallant’s assistant give me a tour some other time.” With that she walked away, got on the elevator and hightailed it out of the Peter Vallant Company.

Only when she had paid the cab driver, checked into her hotel and settled into the confines of her luxury room did she absorb the situation. “For the next month or so I have to work with Shawn Miles,” she said aloud.

A quick call to her sister in her cab ride to the hotel had eliminated the notion that Daman and her partners had known that Shawn worked for the Peter Vallant Company. Too bad Imani was laughing so hard that Cyd didn’t have the chance to vent to her.

“Truly comical.” She would be laughing at her situation, too, if she wasn’t too busy freaking out. Cyd walked over to the floor-length mirror positioned on the wall to give herself a pep talk. “You can do this!” she chanted a couple times, taking deep breaths in between chants. “You’re damn good at your job and you can definitely handle a man like Shawn Miles!”

But could she really? Could she handle a man who brought her to her knees with just one look? It may sound conceited but she didn’t lust after men—men lusted after her! Yet somehow, Shawn had managed to make her crave his touch...and his touch only.

She cracked her neck as she placed her arms on each side of the mirror. “What I need to do is take control of the situation,” she said, getting closer to her reflection.

“Why can’t I enjoy Shawn while I’m on the tour? Participate in a little sweet seduction in between planning?” She was an adult after all, one who could enjoy sex with Shawn if she wanted to. Cyd always did as she pleased, but she was beginning to realize that there were some things she should have thought about before taking action. This definitely wasn’t one of those times.

She sprinted to her suitcase and pulled out one of her grandmother’s old diaries. When Faith “Gamine” Burrstone had passed away years ago, Cyd had been devastated. Her mother, Hope Burrstone-Rayne, could barely function after the loss. The entire family was shocked by Gamine’s death, but luckily, Imani had stepped in and helped the family through the tragic time. While the death had affected Imani in ways she’d never admit, Cyd admired the strength that her sister had. The Burrstone clan was a loving, yet overwhelming, bunch at times. There were many reasons why Cyd was glad that her sister had found a man like Daman, the main reason being the fact that he helped Imani realize that she wasn’t responsible for everyone’s life.

Although they were sisters, she never did have the type of responsibility to the family that Imani did. But that didn’t make things any less complicated for Cyd. Her role in the family was always a little more rebellious. She was the go-getter and adventure seeker. The one you ran to if you didn’t need someone to bail you out of jail, but rather needed someone to sit in the jail cell beside you. Cyd had long ago decided to dance to the beat of her own drum rather than follow directions or fulfill obligations. As her mother affectionately told her, Cyd’s antics oftentimes brought her parents to the brink of heart attacks. She had it all, brains and beauty. Class valedictorian, prom queen, and she was voted in high school most likely to run the world one day. She had a big heart and wasn’t at all selfish, but she also didn’t really care what people thought about her decisions. Men sometimes feared her confidence, falling into the friend category and staying there. And with each and every romantic downfall, she told each man the same thing: “I’m not the relationship type. I enjoy being single and free entirely too much to spend my days engrossed in a man. Trust me, you don’t want to go there. But we can still be friends.” To this day, her friends and family didn’t understand how she convinced so many guys to actually agree to be friends with her. “What can I say... I have a gift,” she’d often respond. But having that gift made the fact that she secretly longed for a storybook romance so out of character.

Lying on the bed, she propped herself up on her elbows and began flipping through pages of the diary. Gamine had left her a few things in her will, but the most important had been her diary collection. As soon as Cyd had dived into the pages, she became engrossed in the life of a woman she realized she hadn’t really known. She knew Gamine the mother and grandmother, Gamine the community activist, Gamine the best friend to all who graced her presence. She even knew Gamine the romantic since her relationship with her grandfather, Edward Burrstone, had been one that everyone in the family had admired. What she hadn’t expected to find in the diaries was a woman who understood her more than she thought. A woman who used to be just like Cyd when she was her age and a woman who’d dared to dream big and live on the edge.

Cyd’s fingers graced the page of her favorite entry, written during a time in Gamine’s life when she had first discovered true love. Cyd was never much of a reader, but she’d read Gamine’s diaries so much that every crème page was curled at the corners and tea stains were evident on more than a few places.

“So romantic,” she said aloud as she reread one of her favorite lines. She wanted to find her Mr. Right, which was the reasoning behind her creating her love-versus-lust lists. Gamine’s diaries had opened up a side of Cyd that she’d often kept concealed...even from herself. Hidden in the pages of Gamine’s deepest thoughts were feelings Cyd longed to experience. An escape into a world that showed her, although she was one of a kind, many women shared her thoughts and feelings of finding the perfect man. It may not fit the persona that people were used to when they thought of the infamous Cydney Rayne. But it was how she felt, nonetheless.

She turned on her back and closed the diary, holding it close to her chest. Once again, the pages had given her the answer she desired. Shawn may have more “I don’t” traits from her list than “I do,” but a girl had a right to have fun. Who knew what things she could learn about herself through a man like that. Even though he’d caught her off guard and put her in her place a couple times, she liked that he was aggressive and not afraid to take her head-on.

Cyd got off the bed and put the diary back in her bag before heading to the shower. “Shawn Miles, wait till you meet the likes of Cydney Rayne.” And she was certain he wouldn’t know what hit him.

Chapter 4

At thirty-two, Shawn had finally met his match. He’d finally met a woman he couldn’t get out of his mind, although part of him refused to admit it.

There were over three hundred employees and friends present at the Peter Vallant Company appreciation tour kick-off reception but Cydney Rayne was not yet amongst the crowd. Shawn tried to will his head away from the ballroom entrance as he checked for her in a pool of new attendees who entered. Still no Cydney. He barely registered all the women openly checking him out as he greeted employees he’d recently met.

Shawn usually had no problem bedding one woman after another, but after he’d met Cydney eight months ago, he hadn’t felt compelled to have sex with any other woman. And he’d received plenty of offers. Cydney. He’d thought about calling her by her nickname, Cyd, but Cydney rolled off his tongue with such ease that he had to use her full first name. Plus, from the brief moments he’d gotten to observe her with her family at the wedding, he noticed that everyone affectionately called her Cyd and she played into the darling role. But when he was with her, he didn’t see anything darling about her. She was a unique treasure. But his definition of treasure definitely meant in the bedroom. When he was around her all he saw was fiery passion, pure lust...all woman.

You should stay away from her, he reminded himself. He shouldn’t even flirt with her. But since when did it hurt to do a little flirting? The voices in his head were not cooperating with one another and he could only assume it was a matter of time before the lower half of his body started siding with the less logical part of his brain. Shawn made his way across the room to Mr. Vallant, who was conversing with a few executives.

“Hello, Shawn,” Mr. Vallant said as Shawn approached the group.

“Hello, ladies and gentlemen,” he greeted. Curt nods from the men and polite smiles from the women were exchanged. Within two minutes he stopped a nearby waiter to ask for tequila on the rocks. He needed a shot of something to get through this night, anything to help him deal with uneventful conversations amongst an uptight executive team who had nothing better to do than kiss Mr. Vallant’s butt. He didn’t know why the men looked so tense. He didn’t want any of the women in the group. There was only one woman on his mind. Only one woman he wanted to devour...whole, if he could. A woman with a sexy smile, succulent lips and a behind that fit so perfectly in the palms of his hands you’d think her butt was created just for him.

“You okay?” asked Paul Jensen.

Deciding to forget about Cydney, he focused his attention back to the group in front of him. “I’m fine. Just wondering what’s the score of the football game.”

“Bears are winning for now,” responded Brittany Higgins, taking a sip of her drink while gaping at Shawn over her glass. When she fully lifted her head, her eyes told it all. He could sense that she’d wanted him from their initial meeting, and now had no qualms about making that fact obvious.

I really don’t need this right now. After all, he was here to do a job, and if the FBI’s suspicions were right, a man who worked for the Peter Vallant Company, more than likely an executive team member, played a significant role in the case. The team had been trying to demolish a huge drug operation for years and had recently tracked a van that was dropping off boxes of cocaine. The van traced back to the Peter Vallant Company and a lead informed them that someone who had higher ranking in the company was a key element in the operation. Peter Vallant, longtime friend of Shawn’s boss, Agent Larry Wolfe, had agreed to help find the culprit, but Shawn knew he and his team had to pay attention to details. He needed to do more than just catch the person responsible. He needed to uncover the entire operation.

Shawn had always been great at socializing and after analyzing the group and providing a few key comments, the group was warming up to him.

“Here you are, sir,” said the white-gloved waiter as he delivered his tequila on a silver platter.

“Thank you,” Shawn said, taking the glass and sipping the strong drink. The cool liquor slid down his throat and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on alert. Shawn looked at the glass, surprised by the sudden kick he felt after only one sip. He quickly took another, this time feeling a kick in the lower part of his body. He shuffled his feet, his pants suddenly feeling too tight around his groin. Maybe I shouldn’t have had tequila after all. He was seconds away from disposing of the drink when he heard the voice of seduction.

“Good evening,” Cydney said as she sashayed her way to the group. He should have known she had entered the room. His body never reacted that way to a few sips of his favorite drink. Why did she have to dress so sexy? Her deep magenta dress clung to her curves while her jet-black hair was pinned back on one side and played over her shoulders. She didn’t need much makeup but the slight makeup she had worn looked flawless on her smooth, buttery complexion and accentuated her natural beauty.

She found a place in the group standing right across from him with a glass of wine in her hand. Why did she do that? Why had she chosen to stand right across from him? He now had nothing better to do than imagine her sprawled across his bed, waiting to be enraptured by his body. Who told her to come down in a dress so tantalizing he swore he could see every crevice of her body?

But he wasn’t the only one who’d noticed Cydney. The other men in the circle were on full alert, cracking imprudent jokes that caused her to giggle in delight. And Jim Pearson was the worst. Everything he told her made her slightly throw her head back in laughter and place her arm on his shoulder. But make no mistake, Shawn saw her glance at him every time she opened her sweet pink lips to let the cool wine enter her mouth. He watched her tongue slip in and out as if savoring the flavor before taking another sip, her long eyelashes fluttering with each taste. She was baiting him. He knew it. An unfortunately, the lower part of his body knew it, too.

Down boy, he inwardly cautioned to his piece, knowing he could spring out at any second if he continued to watch Cydney drink her wine. She wasn’t going to make his undercover job easy, and now that he knew what he was dealing with, he would spend the night regrouping and reminding himself how important this case was. But right now, he needed to escape from the ballroom and away from temptation.

“Excuse me for a moment,” he said to the group as he walked toward the exit and glanced over at Micah Madden, his lead security officer, to signal that he was leaving the premises.

Once Shawn was in the hallway, he unbuttoned his suit jacket and breathed in a sigh of relief. He quickly walked down the hall and found a conference room. He tried the handle and was relieved to find the door open. He kept the lights off and escaped to a nearby window overlooking the nicely lit city. Shawn loved nighttime and he appreciated the solace of the unoccupied room with the only sounds coming from nearby traffic and trains. Dropping his head and closing his eyes, he placed his hands on each side of the counter, taking a moment to calm his body. Cydney had him on edge. Wasn’t it less than a week ago that he’d had her pinned to the wall of a walk-in closet?

“Reminiscing about great sex is not helping,” Shawn said aloud to himself just as he heard the conference door creak open.

He stepped back from the window and placed his hand in the back of his pants, clutching a small pistol he always kept on him. As the intruder peeked their head through the crack, he quickly released his hold.

“Shawn, are you in here?” Cydney’s sugary voice filled the empty room. She couldn’t see him in the dark corner, but he could see her from the light in the hallway. For a few seconds, he thought about remaining quiet so she could leave, but decided to make his presence known.

“Yes, I’m here,” he said, stepping back toward the window so the moonlight could shine on his face. As soon as Cydney entered the room and shut the door, Shawn knew he was in trouble. Even in the darkness he felt her get closer to him with each step she took. When she finally reached him, she stood there in observation, the moonlight caressing every part of her face.

“Why’d you leave?” she asked, her beauty catching him off guard even though he’d just seen her. Up close, he noticed all the little details about her that he hadn’t noticed in the ballroom. Right then and there, Shawn knew hands down she was the most attractive woman he’d ever seen.

“Shawn? Why did you leave?” she asked again after several moments of silence. Shawn crossed his arms over his chest and raised his eyebrows at her question. There was no way she hadn’t known why he left the ballroom.

“Really, Cydney,” he finally replied. “By the way you were sipping that wine, you’d think you were purposely trying to seduce me.”

She fringed a look of innocence as she shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know what you mean, Mr. Miles.”

Unlike the terse way she’d said his name earlier that day, this time she said it in an alluring way that solidified his worries. I should have kept silent, he thought, referring to moments earlier when she’d asked if he was in the room. She took a step closer to him, her bold chestnut-brown eyes trapping his sea-blue ones in her sole captivity.