A Calculated Seduction Read online

  She padded over to her kitchen and pulled out the makings of a ham and cheese sandwich. As she assembled her meal, she thought about Ethan MacMillan. There was something about him that just wasn’t right. After years of ignoring Bill’s requests to join the business, he suddenly shows up and takes over his office. What was he after?

  Stupid question. MacMillan Boots was a multimillion-dollar business. Bill had no children to inherit and Ethan thought he would just move in, after years of neglecting a relationship with his uncle, and take everything.

  Indignation on Bill’s behalf rolled through Dulcy. He’d been the one person who’ d offered her work when her father died. Most of the people from her father’s circle of friends didn’t see the use of hiring a nineteen-year-old with only a year of college under her belt. The thought that Ethan had callously disregarded every attempt Bill had made to reach out to him, angered her.

  She took an angry bite out of her sandwich and moseyed over to her answering machine. Two hang-ups and three pleading calls from Clarice. She sat down in front of her television and flipped through the channels, finally settling on an old movie. After finishing her sandwich, she decided a good hot bath was all she needed. She retrieved her bath oil from the cabinet, drew water for a bath and lit several candles. She pulled off her nightshirt and was about to tug down her panties when her phone rang. She hesitated, listening to see who it was.

  “Dulcy, this is Barbie. I need you.”

  Knowing her stepsister would just keep calling until she got a hold of her, she grabbed a towel, covered her breasts and went to answer the call.

  As she listened to Barbie go on about her latest crisis, which involved her latest lover, her gardener, a knock sounded at the door. Thinking it was Maude with her brownies, Dulcy opened the door without looking out the peephole.

  Ethan MacMillan stood on her doorstep, larger than life. Immediately, her pulse skittered and her nipples hardened. Her brain melted and she couldn’t form a word. She froze and lost her grip on the towel.

  Chapter Two

  For a second or two, or three, Dulcy didn’t move, couldn’t move. Shock held every muscle in her body immobile. Her mind stalled of thought. Then she screeched and slammed the door in Ethan’s face and leaned up against it.

  “Dulcy? What on earth are you doing?” Barbie asked.

  Of all the people to see her naked, it had to be Ethan MacMillan. Oh, God. She had to face him Monday morning. What was she thinking? She’d have to face him now. Her whole body heated. She knew she was blushing from her forehead to her toes.

  “Dulcy?”

  “What?”

  “What the heck is going on over there?”

  “I...someone just saw me naked.”

  “So what?”

  “So? It was a male someone and he saw my breasts.”

  She sighed and closed her eyes. Mortification caused her stomach to roll. “And it was my boss.”

  “Oh, well, I guess that blows any chances of getting a date with him.”

  Irritation crept up her spine. “What does that mean?”

  “Well, Dulcy, you really aren’t...well you are lacking in that department. ”

  Her face burned hotter because she knew it was true. “Maybe I’ll date that judge and have him pay for mine, like he did for yours. ”

  She clicked off the phone, ignored the flash of guilt she felt, and waited. Hoping against hope he would leave. No footsteps sounded and she knew he was still there. Knowing him, Ethan MacMillan was standing at the door, calmly waiting for her to answer. She’d never known a man with so much control over his emotions.

  She grabbed her nightshirt and put it on. As she walked through her postage stamp sized living area, she dropped the phone back in its cradle and slowly approached the door. Embarrassment flooded through her. A man like Ethan probably had his pick of good-looking women. Seeing a woman’s breasts was probably an everyday occurrence for him. So she’d act nonchalant. Like it was an everyday occurrence for her, too.

  Except it wasn’t an everyday occurrence. The last time a man had seen her breasts was so long ago, she was embarrassed to count the years. For the second or two she’d stood there, unable to move, his eyes had widened slightly and focused on her breasts.

  Her nipples tightened against the soft cotton fabric of her nightshirt when she remembered the way his eyes had darkened. She crossed her arms, trying to hide the fact her boss staring at her breasts turned her on. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the doorknob and yanked it open.

  Ethan stood, her briefcase in one hand and her towel in the other, his face void of expression.

  “You left your briefcase at the office, Miss Menendez.” No inflections, just a comment. Like he was talking about the weather.

  “Thank you, Mr. MacMillan.” She took the offered briefcase and towel. “You didn’t need to bring it all the way out here. ”

  “No problem. The house I’m renting is just minutes from here. ”

  Then nothing. He didn’t say a word and just looked over her shoulder into her apartment.

  “Was there anything else you wanted...er...needed, Mr. MacMillan?”

  He swallowed and then cleared his throat. “N-no. I’ll be going.”

  But he didn’t move. His eyes quickly dipped down to her chest and back up again. Her nipples tightened further. A flash of wet heat shot to her sex. She raised an eyebrow because if she said a word, her voice would surely crack.

  “Yes.” He visibly swallowed. “I’ll be going.”

  He hesitated once more, then turned and headed down the stairs to where he’d parked his car behind hers. She watched him get into his Jag and drive away.

  She shut the door and set her briefcase down. Just when she’d convinced herself brooding good looks didn’t attract her and at least she could control the urge to jump his bones, this had to happen. Well, she had two days to forget about him seeing her breasts. And maybe, just maybe, she’d forget the delicious wave of heat bouncing through her hormones.

  * * * *

  As Ethan walked up the path to his front door, he still couldn’t get the image of Dulcy in nothing but a pair of little red panties out of his head. He licked his lips. He was amazed he even noticed the tiny scrap of material, what with those two perfectly formed breasts in the vicinity.

  He shut the door behind him and walked to the kitchen. No matter what he did on his drive from her apartment, he couldn’t get the picture of her breasts out of his mind. He’d only seen them for a second of two before she slammed the door in his face, but what he had seen, he liked. Small and pert with coral nipples, slightly puckered, probably from the cool night breeze. It took every ounce of his control not to drop down on his knees, bang on the door and beg her for another peek.

  Or a lick.

  He cursed when his cock hardened. Again. At the end of each day, he wondered how he functioned at work with all the blood drained out of his brain.

  It was going to make working with her unbearable. The woman was already driving him crazy, and now that he knew what her breasts looked like, it would be hard to carry on a conversation with her without licking his lips. He knew the next time he saw her, the memory of her sweet, luscious body would be superimposed over her clothes. He was just lucky she’d been so stunned, she hadn’t noticed his dick standing at attention. If she’d taken just a peek, he would have lost control. She would’ve been flat on her back in a matter of seconds.

  He opened the fridge and grabbed a beer. Deciding a nice cold shower was in order, he headed to the master bathroom. The phone rang and he changed his course to pick it up.

  “MacMillan. ”

  “Yeah, MacMillan, it’s Todd. Got that info you needed on the stepfamily. ”

  Todd was one of the few people in his security firm who knew why Ethan was at his uncle’s company. If Miss Menendez or her accomplice knew anyone in the biz, he didn’t want it getting back to either one of them.

  “What’cha got?”

  �
�Stepmommy and stepsisters are all up to their gills in debt. Although they each get quite a large stipend each month, it doesn’t support their lifestyle.”

  Some paper rustled, and he knew Todd was sitting at his desk in their Houston office, trying to find his notes. Not an easy task, given he used his desk as a filing cabinet.

  “They had all that money left from Menendez?”

  “Oh, no. Most of that is from her first husband, a Mr. Victor Deekes. He died of cancer about seven years before she hooked up with Menendez. According to what I found out, she allowed Menendez control over her money. He set it up as a trust for the three of them. All handled through an attorney.”

  “And Dul...Miss Menendez?”

  “Eleven more months and she’ll be loaded. And I mean loaded. Her father left her everything and she gets it when she turns twenty-five.”

  “Strange he would hold off on the money that way. Any indication why he did it?”

  “No. But the late Mr. Menendez was a self-made man. Started out with nothing and built his interests, a lot of it in real estate. And the stipulation was added to his will when Dulcy turned eighteen, apparently with her agreement. The heart embolism was, of course, a surprise. He’d just had a check up and no indication of any other heart problems. So it hadn’t been planned she’d drop out of school like that. She apparently landed on her feet.”

  “Yeah. Efficient, smart.”

  He tried to think about the investigation, but all he could think of was Dulcy at nineteen, innocent and alone. So very alone. He rubbed his chest and willed away the emotion. It didn’t give the woman the right to steal from his uncle. Irritation followed and he took it out on Todd.

  “Why did it take you so long to find all of this out?” he demanded.

  “Hey, give me a break here. I think I came up with the info pretty quick, boss. What about you? You should have been checking her out to begin with.”

  He’d been checking her out. Just the wrong kind of checking out. He really hadn’t seriously thought she could be a suspect.

  “Okay, is she overextended? What kind of debts does she have?”

  “None. ”

  “None? What do you mean none? Everyone has some debt.”

  “Boss, this is one tight woman. She pays all her bills on time, carries no balances on her credit cards and has a tidy little savings.”

  “Then, why?”

  “Why, what?”

  “Why help someone help embezzle? She has no outstanding debts, is about to inherit a load of money, why steal?”

  “Maybe you’re wrong.”

  “No, Uncle Bill is positive.” He thought about the phone call he overheard. “Tonight I heard her talking to someone she owes money to. Maybe someone off the record.”

  “Could be. I could send out some feelers to some of my contacts in the area.” Todd was silent for a moment and Ethan knew he was mulling the idea over. “You sure this is your culprit? You know most people go off the record when they have nowhere else to turn. Usually in debt up to their eyeballs. With all of the transactions operated under different users, it’s hard to tell. Of course, she’s privy to all of that.”

  “Uncle Bill said he thinks she’s helping someone. She knows a lot, but not everything. Bill’s the only one who would know that much. She needs someone who could give her information from the accounting area. She has to have someone in that division and that’s probably the person she’s helping. I’ll go through the list to try to figure out who she might be involved with.”

  “Yeah, well be careful of women doing anything in the name of love. My last ex damn near castrated me in the name of love.”

  “You shouldn’t have been cheating on her with her hairdresser. ”

  After giving Todd a few more instructions, he hung up the phone with his stomach in knots. From the outside, Dulcy Menendez was a dedicated worker, someone who walked the straight and narrow. He rubbed his hand over his stomach. There had to be a man involved. It was the only reason a woman like her would do something so stupid. Envy crawled through his system. How would it feel to have a woman like that risk everything in her life because she loved him?

  Having the scrumptious Dulcy Menendez doing what he wanted... He definitely wouldn’t have her embezzling money. He’ d have her down on her knees in front of him, her mouth on his cock.

  He took a final swig of beer and decided wishful thinking wasn’t getting him anywhere.

  * * * *

  Ethan’ s tongue encircled her nipple. Then he grazed the tip of it with his teeth. She shuddered as her sex dampened and her whole body vibrated with sexual frustration. His fingers tweaked her other nipple. His callused fingers heightened her arousal. He moved from her breasts and kissed a path down her stomach, dipping his tongue in her belly button. Her pulse beat out of control. He settled himself between her legs and smiled up at her as she watched him lower his head to her pussy.

  Bang, bang, bang.

  Dulcy rolled over and tried to ignore the noise. It was Saturday morning and she was sleeping in. She didn’t care if a five hundred-piece band walked through her apartment. She was not getting out of bed. She burrowed her head beneath her pillow and willed her dream lover to return.

  Unfortunately, the noise increased and was accompanied by Maude’s voice.

  “Dulcy! Don’t think you can get out of this! You promised,” Maude yelled through the door.

  She opened her eyes and closed them with a moan. If she ignored Maude, maybe she’d leave. The door was silent for a moment and Dulcy snuggled under her covers.

  Bang, bang, bang. “Open up or I’ll get that weekend manager who likes to catch women half dressed.”

  Dulcy jumped out of bed, grabbed her glasses and almost tripped as her feet were tangled in the sheets. She stomped over to the front door and yanked it open. Sunlight seared Dulcy’s eyes and she snapped them shut.

  Maude chuckled and Dulcy opened her eyes to give the woman a dirty look. She wore one of her old powder blue beautician’s jackets, her hair and make up were perfect, and she held a bag filled with God only knew what.

  “Well, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you’d had a hot date who kept you up last night.”

  Her voice held her usual cheerful tone. God, it should be against the law to be that happy in the morning.

  She grumbled and stepped back to let Maude in. She shut the door and then went in search of the coffee she smelled. After getting a cup of it, she slowly walked to the living area and collapsed on her sofa.

  “I’d like a cup of coffee too, but don’t worry yourself, I’ll get it,” Maude said sarcastically.

  Dulcy didn’t care. If she had to put up with the torture of having her hair cut and colored, she didn’t have to be nice. Besides, she thought squinting at the VCR clock, it was eight in the morning.

  “Maude! It’s eight in the morning. I do not do eight on Saturdays. ”

  Maude didn’t say a word as she settled herself next to Dulcy. She took a sip of coffee before saying anything.

  “Dulcy, we have a lot to do and if you’re getting Richy tonight, we need to get to work.”

  “ You said just a haircut. ” There was no way she was pouring hot wax on her.

  “And highlights and a few other little things.” She shot Maude another dirty look.

  “Why me? Why do you want to bug me?”

  “Well,” Maude said, and looked out the window. “I’m just sort of at loose ends today. With Bill busy with his nephew...” She shrugged.

  Great, guilt. And she did feel guilty. Maude had always been there to talk to, to laugh with. They did all the things she figured a young woman might do with her mother.

  “Okay, but no wax.”

  “You’d look so much better with your eyebrows—”

  “No, no way. I do not do wax.”

  Maude finally looked at her and smiled. Her eyes twinkled with excitement. “Okay, but we need to get to work.”

  She grabbed her bag and marched
to the small dining table. Dulcy followed and then stood by while Maude retrieved an assortment of items from her bag of torture.

  She pulled out a plastic hat covered with holes. “What are you going to do with all of that?”

  “Don’t you never mind.” She placed that on the table and continued to empty the bag. After she finished, Dulcy was amazed there was any room left on the table. An assortment of bottles, boxes, scissors and combs littered the surface.

  “If it takes this much to make me beautiful, why don’t I just give in and go to the plastic surgeon?”

  “Very funny.” She grabbed the chair and pulled it to the sink. “Sit down and let’s get started.”

  The first argument stared over the length of her hair. But after ten minutes, Dulcy gave in and Maude whacked a good twelve inches off. Snipping the extra inches away added body and lightened the weight of her thick hair.

  Then Maude placed a strange looking cap on her head and tortured her with a plastic hook. Sticking the hook into each hole, she yanked strands of Dulcy’s hair through. Once done with that, she lathered her hair with foul smelling goop. After that, Dulcy stopped resisting and decided she’d gone so far, why complain. Maude even had her talked into waxing.

  “I have to say,” Maude said three hours later, “with those blonde highlights in your hair and your eyebrows shaped, your eyes are more noticeable.”

  Dulcy studied herself in the mirror, moving her head from side to side, marveling at the body added to her hair.

  “Yeah.” Her eyes did indeed look like they had changed color from ordinary brown to topaz. Without the extra weight holding it down, her hair bounced.

  * * * *

  “Ethan will definitely be amazed.”

  “Ethan?” Then everything connected. She turned around and looked at Maude. “Maude, did you and Bill cook this up together? Because I have to tell you, you two picked the last two people who should be thrown together.”

  “Why not?”

  “Why not?”

  Why not indeed? Because he was tall and handsome and sometimes, when he looked at her with those gray eyes of his, her heart jumped into her throat and she forgot her last name.