DowntoBusiness Read online

  Down to Business

  Dena Garson

  Leigh and John Templeton have plans for the upcoming weekend. Unfortunately, looming deadlines may prevent John from being able to get away. In particular, one very long and dull contract review.

  When Leigh delivers dinner to John at his office, she makes him a deal to spice up the contract review process—for every page he completes, she’ll remove an item of clothing…until she’s naked and waiting for him to claim his reward.

  Ellora’s Cave Publishing

  www.ellorascave.com

  Down to Business

  ISBN 9781419938924

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Down to Business Copyright © 2012 Dena Garson

  Edited by April Chapman

  Cover design by Syneca

  Photography: Photos.com

  Electronic book publication February 2012

  The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing.

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  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

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  Down to Business

  Dena Garson

  Chapter One

  Leigh Templeton cradled the phone between her shoulder and ear while she gathered the documents she needed and dropped them into her briefcase. Her husband, John, was calling in response to her message about dinner.

  “I’m sorry, hon. I’m going to be here for a few more hours,” John sighed into the phone.

  “That’s okay. Is Sheridan up in arms again?” Mr. Sheridan, Leigh’s previous boss and also the CEO of the company John still worked for, had always been a ball-buster. Especially when his stress level was high. Leigh remembered he always acted as if he felt the need to share his stress with those who reported to him. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  “I wish.” He groaned. “It wouldn’t be nearly as boring if you still worked in our legal department. For some reason the projects we worked on together were always much more interesting.”

  Through the phone Leigh heard the sound of John’s chair squeak. She imagined him leaning back and running his hand through his sandy-blond hair. It was a gesture she was more than familiar with. Usually, by this time of the day, most of the gel he used to control his unruly hair was gone. In a husky tone she reminded him, “Yes, well, I recall you saying that there are distinct advantages to being married and having me at home rather than just rendezvousing in the office.”

  “Absolutely,” he said. “God, I still remember working on the Whitehurst deal with you.”

  Leigh flushed at the memory. “Hmm. So do I.” A pool of warmth gathered low in her belly. “You were quite…um, passionate about that deal. I’m surprised someone didn’t walk in on us while we were in the conference room.”

  “They certainly would have gotten an eyeful if they had,” he murmured.

  They both fell silent as they remembered. Leigh had always been surprised by the intensity of their attraction. She had never experienced such deep sensuality with anyone else. Through her previous mistakes, and those of her friends, she'd learned that relationships faltered if not properly cared for, so she made an effort to cherish their time together.

  “Since you can’t make it home, would it help if I brought dinner to you?”

  “Would you mind? That would save a little time if I didn’t have to stop what I’m working on and get food. But I hate for you to have to drive all the way across town.”

  “I haven’t left the office yet, so it’s not a problem to pick something up. At least we could still have dinner together and you can keep working.”

  “Have I told you today that I love you?” John asked.

  “Yes. But you can tell me again.”

  “I love you.”

  Leigh’s heart tripped over itself, just as it always did when she heard those three little words. John wasn’t one to gush sentimentality, but he did make an effort to tell her that he loved her every single day. After four years, the words still had the power to make her heart flutter. She smiled into the phone.

  “I love you too. I’ll see you in a bit.”

  After hanging up, Leigh finished the couple of things she needed to do before she could leave then called one of the nearby restaurants to place a takeout order. She might not be able to do anything about how much sleep John was getting while he was up to his ears in contracts—after all, he was a big boy and knew his limitations—but she could make sure he got more than vending-machine food at least a few times a week.

  Despite it being right in the middle of the dinner rush, Leigh was able to pick up their food quickly. She parked in the visitor parking in front of John’s building and checked her appearance in the rear-view mirror. When she got to the glass entrance the security guard on duty recognized her and, seeing her hands full of takeout containers, got up and opened the door for her.

  “Did you bring me anything?” the guard asked playfully.

  “Sorry. They were all out of your favorite,” Leigh joked back.

  “Just my luck.”

  Leigh laughed and headed toward the bank of elevators. Her high-heeled shoes clicked on the marble floor as she walked across the foyer. After hours, when people weren’t coming and going in droves, the sound echoed loudly off the glass and tile walls. It always felt strange to be back in the building where she had worked for ten years. There were lots of fond memories…particularly the last couple of years when she and John had started seeing each other.

  She sifted through memories as the elevator doors closed behind her. If people knew half the things they’d done, they would be shocked. She was still amazed that they had never gotten caught. But, then again, the possibility of getting caught had probably added to their excitement.

  The elevator dinged, dragging her out of her reverie. When the doors opened, she stepped out into the foyer and checked in both directions. The main lights on the floor were off and she guessed that everyone except John had gone for the day. She turned to the right and followed the hallway through the cubicles toward John’s office in the far corner. Light spilled from his doorway onto the path like a beacon.

  She stood in the doorway and took in the sight of John at work. As usual there were neat stacks of paper covering most of his desk. His jacket was off and the sleeves of his dress shirt were rolled up at the cuffs. He was partially turned away from the door and engrossed in whatever he was typing. Her heart tripped around in her chest knowing how important his work was to him. Long ago she’d f
igured out he felt driven to do more than was probably necessary.

  Leigh rattled the bags as she stepped into his office. “Dinner’s here.”

  He looked up from his computer and his face relaxed into a smile.

  “Hey.” He crossed the room and greeted her with a kiss. “I was expecting you to call when you got to the lobby. How’d you get in?”

  “Ronnie was on duty. He let me in.”

  “I think he always had a crush on you,” John said with a twinkle in his eye.

  “Yeah, right.” Leigh set the takeout packages on the conference table on the far side of John’s office.

  John came up behind Leigh and wrapped his arms around her. He kissed her on the cheek and whispered, “Not that I blame him. I’ve had a crush on you for a while now.”

  The scrape of his five o’clock shadow against her neck sent goose bumps down her entire body. “Have you now?”

  “Mmhmm.” He nuzzled the side of her neck, making her legs turn to jelly.

  “You know I love it when you do that.”

  “Yeah, I do.” He chuckled in her ear then kissed her exposed collarbone. “What did you bring me for sustenance, woman?” He reached around her for one of the containers. The movement brought his crotch in closer contact with her derriere.

  In response, Leigh pressed back and slid against his growing erection. John’s swift intake of breath was satisfying. She loved that she still had the ability to affect him with a simple touch.

  “I got the grilled chicken salad and homemade stroganoff. I figured we could share them both.”

  “Sounds good to me.” John placed another kiss on the side of her neck. “I’ll go grab a couple of bottles of water while you finish unpacking everything.”

  Leigh divided the food between the containers while John ran to the break room down the hall. When he returned, they sat at John’s conference table to eat.

  “So what’s Sheridan in a lather over these days?” Leigh asked.

  “This week it’s one of the real estate deals we’ve been working on. Last week it was one of our service agreements. The week before that it was a personnel issue.”

  “And he wants to know why none of them are finished, doesn’t he? Because he’s sure that he told you they were all a top priority,” Leigh said, confident she was right without asking.

  Because his mouth was too full to respond, John simply nodded.

  “I remember him doing that a lot.” Leigh stabbed a piece of lettuce with her fork then continued, “I used to want to choke him.”

  John wiped his mouth with a napkin and swallowed the bite he’d been chewing. “I’m about ready to tell him what he can do with his changing priorities. I’d like to knock him on his ass as I walk out the door too.”

  Needing to reassure John of her support, Leigh patted his arm. “You can always find another job if he’s getting to you.”

  “I know. I’ve been thinking about it.”

  Leigh nodded and went back to eating. Whether or not to quit the job was something John would have to decide for himself. “So, what do you need to get done tonight?”

  “I have to get through that real estate contract so I can send it to Legal for their review. If I don’t, I’m afraid I’m going to have to work on it this weekend.” John finished the last of his food. “I just haven’t been motivated to even start it. There’ve been a hundred little things popping up over the last couple of weeks that I let myself get distracted with. Not sure what my hang-up is with this contract.”

  “Anything I can do to help?”

  “Whip my ass or find some kind of motivation to make me just do it.”

  Leigh stared at John with her fork raised halfway to her mouth. She imagined herself wearing black leather and whipping John’s bare butt. Nah. She shook her head to clear the image. That was never a path either of them had been interested in exploring. However, she felt certain she could motivate him another way.

  “What?” John asked, startling Leigh out of her wayward thoughts.

  “Sorry. Had a thought.” Leigh’s cheeks felt warm.

  “About what?”

  “Nothing I’m going to share.”

  “It must have been a doozy to make you turn as red as that vase over there.” John pointed toward the bookshelf behind her. “C’mon, tell me.”

  “Not a chance.” She tapped the empty food container in front of John, hoping to distract him. “Are you finished with yours?”

  “Yeah. But I’ll take your roll if you’re not going to eat it.”

  She was surprised she was able to distract him so easily. He must really be busy.

  “Go ahead, you can have it,” she told him. John had a weakness for bread so she usually let him have hers. It was a mutual understanding. “If you need to get back to what you were working on, I’ll clean this up when I finish.”

  “You’re wonderful, you know that?” He leaned over to kiss her lightly on the lips.

  Leigh soaked up the scent of him as he lingered, his tongue teasing the edge of her lips. When he stopped, she knew she was grinning like a love-struck fool. Which she pretty much was.

  John got up and went back to his desk as Leigh finished nibbling on her salad. Her head was spinning from the kiss and she tried to think of a way to help motivate him to get the contract done. They had plans to go to the lake that weekend. She could tell he needed some downtime and she didn’t want him worrying about a looming deadline while they were away. If he finished the contract today or tomorrow, he might be able to get a couple of days’ rest and escape for a bit.

  There was one thing she could think of that she had at her disposal to motivate him—sex. But how could she apply that to the contract he needed to finish? It wasn’t as if she was going to cut him off from sex if he didn’t get his work done. That would be stupid on her part and not positively motivating for him.

  Thinking back on some of their interludes in the office when they’d first started dating gave her an idea. She gathered up their dinner containers and told John, “I’m going to take these down to the break room, then wash up.”

  He glanced up at her from where he sat at his desk. “Okay.”

  On the way back from the break room, she stopped in the ladies room. She quickly took care of necessary business then slipped out of her hose. On her way out, she dropped them in the trash. John preferred bare skin anyway.

  When she returned to his office, she discreetly turned the lock so it would be secure when she closed the door.

  “So, I was thinking about what you said earlier, John.”

  “About what?” he asked without looking up from the documents he was sorting through.

  Leigh walked over to the window farthest from John’s desk. “About you needing some inspiration to finish working on that contract.”

  The shuffling of paper stopped. “Yeah?” He drew out the word.

  She reached up and twisted the handle of the blinds to close them. When she turned around she found that he was watching her from over the top of his glasses. “I had an idea about that.”

  “Okay.” John glanced at the now-closed blinds, then back to her, but didn’t move a muscle otherwise. “Let’s hear it.”

  “I thought I might make you a deal of sorts.” He continued to hold her gaze. She moved to the next set of blinds and turned the handle to close those as well. “Would it motivate you to finish your contract tonight, so that you’d be free to relax and play at the lake this weekend, if I agreed to stay while you read?” He opened his mouth to say something but she held up one finger to still his question. “The motivating part being that for each page of your contract that you get through—and it has to be a complete review, not a skim that you’ll have to come back to later and fix. For each page you finish, I’ll remove one article of clothing.”

  John’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. He quickly scanned her from head to toe then looked at the pile of paper in front of him, probably trying to judge the ratio of pages in the contrac
t to the number of pieces of clothing.

  A slow grin spread across his face. “What if there are more pages in the contract than clothes you have on?”

  Leigh moved to the third set of blinds and replied saucily over her shoulder, “Then I’ll have to think of alternate compensation for you.” With a flick of her wrist, she closed the blinds.

  He leaned back in his chair and watched her make her way around the corner of his desk. “Are you going to count each piece of jewelry as an article of clothing?”

  Leigh looked at the stack of papers in front of him. “Only if the page you finish has less than…” She tapped the side of her mouth with one finger. “Let’s just say…five lines on it.”

  It took John very little time to decide. “Deal.”

  Leigh leaned over so they were eye level and whispered, “Shall we kiss on it then?”

  “Absolutely.”

  He captured her lips with his then slipped his hand around her waist. As he deepened their kiss he sat back in his chair, pulling her on top of him. Leigh grinned as they continued their kiss. She loved the feel of his body against hers. Even with clothes on.

  She knew from previous experience that John wouldn’t let them tip backward in the chair, so she relaxed even further, letting her body melt against his. When they came up for air, she murmured against his lips, “If you don’t let me up, you’re never going to get that contract done.”

  “Yep. You’re right.” He swatted her on the backside. “Vixen. The image of you standing in my office buck naked is distracting.”

  Leigh laughed, then kissed him once more, quickly, on the lips and backed off his lap so she could stand. He watched as she straightened her skirt. “You better get started on that contract or we’ll be here all night.”

  He mumbled, “Not if I can help it, we won’t.”

  She grinned then leaned over to close the last set of blinds behind his desk. After making sure no one could see into his office, Leigh settled herself in one of the conference chairs. Before she could even pull her phone out of her purse to check messages, he slapped the first page down on the desk and announced, “Done.”