Guilty Pleasures

By Annette Hawkins

When Luke Faulkner arrives at the offices of Faulkner Communications late one night to find Rose Trevaigne, Australia’s National Treasure, lingerie model, and his all-time sexual fantasy bent over his desk attempting to break into his computer system, he forces her into a pact which she can not refuse.

Finally, the woman he has fantasised about for years is exactly where he wants her. In his bed, in his life, under his skin. And he’ll do everything in his power to ensure she stays there. Even if it takes an adventure trip to The Kimberleys, an area in Northern Australia known for its spectacular, primitive landscapes, to persuade her, while locking horns with her vindictive sister, her cougar of an agent, and the world’s media. Contains graphic language and sizzling sex scenes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Annette Hawkins
• Release date: Mar 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310986918

Annette Hawkins

Author, living in South-West France, whose passions include reading and writing sexy romances, and sunflowers. I started writing seriously when my husband and I moved to the South West of France in 2005. We bought our “rural escape from the rat-race” - a traditional Gascogne farmhouse - in 2000 but it wasn’t until visiting the region on holiday over the following five years, and falling in love with the countryside and our French neighbours, that we decided to move here permanently. Opting for a complete career change, I started designing and selling dichroic glass jewellery, mainly at the local craft fairs and weekly French markets in the region, and was fortunate to meet an eclectic range of interesting people. To while away the time between customers, I kept an A4 notebook at hand to scribble down concepts for my stories which I set in some of my favourite exotic locations around the world. Especially those I had the chance to visit during my career pre-France. The fact that I was dreaming up erotic romance novels while working on a market stall amused my French and English clients no end, and I had the great fortune to receive support and encouragement from a couple of published authors, to whom I am eternally grateful. Since my first attempt to get published, I have written several other romances which I intend to publish soon. In my spare time, I teach English to adults at debutant and intermediate level.

Book preview

GUILTY PLEASURES

Annette Hawkins

Published by Annette Hawkins at Smashwords

Copyright 2014 Annette Hawkins

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Chapter 1

Luke Faulkner strode across the dark, deserted reception area. It was his habit to work late, when no-one else was in the office to interrupt him, but this evening he was consumed with a restlessness that gnawed at his conscience.

Too much coffee too late, he supposed. Or the fact that he had fired his personal assistant of three years, Lily Trevaigne, earlier in the day for embezzling company funds? He’d not seen that coming.

Good evening, Mr. Faulkner. Working late again, sir?

Tom Hughes, the night watchman, stood up behind the reception desk and smiled at the tall, well-built man wearing casual chinos and a white polo shirt.

At six foot three, Tom was considered tall, but Luke Faulkner easily matched his height and some.

Hi Tom. Yes. I thought I’d catch up on some emails. Luke continued straight to the lift. Is anyone else in tonight?

It’s Friday night. Everyone else has gone for the weekend except Ms. Trevaigne.

Luke stopped dead in his tracks and frowned. Apart from John Rollins, the company accountant, only he, as CEO of Faulkner Communications, knew the reason for Lily’s immediate departure. Had she come back to cover over her tracks before he contacted the police?

The expression on Luke’s face made Tom uncomfortable. I’m sorry, sir. She said she wanted to pick up her sister’s things. I presumed she had your permission. She signed in half an hour ago. Said you’d arranged to see her here.

Sister’s things? You mean it’s not Lily Trevaigne upstairs? Luke’s instincts went from orange to red alert. Lily’s sister had come to collect her personal possessions? At eleven o’clock at night?

Lily’s sister just happened to be Rose Trevaigne, a world-famous lingerie and catwalk model, and Luke’s favourite sexual fantasy woman. It put him on the back foot for a second.

No, sir. It was definitely her sister. I’d recognise her anywhere. You know, the one from that hoarding... Tom picked up his night watchman’s torch and baton from the desk. Do you want me to come up with you, sir?

Luke shrugged. No, it’s OK, Tom. I’ll deal with Ms. Trevaigne.

Pressing the button for the twenty-sixth floor, Luke entered the lift, his mind racing. He’d met Rose Trevaigne only once before, at a charity dinner yet the A list model had made a vivid impact on him.

With voluptuous curves in all the right places and an innocence in her face that belied a body built for lusting after, she was the kind of woman boys and grown men would commit dreadful deeds for, just for the pleasure of being in her company.

Her latest advertising campaign, an enormous hoarding of Rose dressed in a push-up, sheer bra and matching panties, her lip-glossed mouth pouting across the traffic intersection at Macquarie and Hunter Street, ensured that Luke made a slight detour to the office to indulge in some light-weight sexual fantasies as he waited for the traffic lights to change. Even now his body stirred at the thought of meeting Rose Trevaigne in the flesh.

He stepped out of the lift. The offices on the twenty-sixth floor were in total darkness, which was strange. Motion detectors automatically flicked on the lights as he walked down the corridor. He paused on the threshold of Lily’s office. All of his ex-PA’s personal things were neatly packed into a box on her desk. But where was Rose Trevaigne?

The answer confronted him in his private office overlooking Sydney Harbour. Dressed in fuck-me heels, a sleeve-less blouse, and a pencil-slim skirt, which clung to her perfectly-formed derriere, Rose Trevaigne was bent over his personal computer, with her back to the door. She was so engrossed in what she was doing she did not hear him arrive.

Luke’s eyes lingered on the curves of her ass. He could just make out the vague outline of a thong across the top of her hips, but her ass cheeks were thrown in stunning relief by the overhead lights.

Fuck, if she was every man’s wet-dream on the posters, bent over his desk in real-life, with her ass wiggling so invitingly, she was the most fuckable sight he’d seen in a long, long time. The thought of slipping his cock between her long, slender legs and taking her from behind as he wound her waist-length silky hair around his fist, sent the blood rushing to his groin. Shit, he was as hard as a rock. He shut the door quietly to prevent her escape, anticipation and lust making his body tense.

What are you doing in my office, Ms. Trevaigne?

Guilt infused the soft angles of her face with high colour. Her hair was longer and blonder than in the underwear poster that graced the intersection. It hung down her back like a lush waterfall. And her eyes were something else; a piercing blue with dark rings that framed her irises.

As she spun round to face him, he watched her tongue dart nervously over her lips. He should have called the police from reception to have her arrested for trespassing but his curiosity, not to mention his libido, was fully aroused.

Luke Faulkner, CEO of Faulkner Communications, and your sister’s former boss. You have thirty seconds to explain what you are doing in my private office before I pick up the phone to call the police.

He wrested his gaze from her body to glance at the computer screen she was trying hard to conceal behind the curve of her hips. He smiled at her gall, displaying a row of perfect white teeth. Ah, don’t tell me. A spot of industrial espionage.

He took a step forward, causing her to recoil backwards against the desk. It was impossible not to notice how the action caused the buttons of her blouse to pull tight across her breasts. The same lush mounds he’d fantasised about coming between more than a few times. And he was imagining it again.

Lust made him antsy. I’ll ask you again. What are you doing here, Ms. Trevaigne? Your sister’s desk is outside.

The rich timbre of his voice hit her in the solar plexus. Caught red-handed in the act of breaking into Faulkner Communications’ personnel database, Rose Trevaigne asked herself the same question. How the hell was she going to persuade the hulk of a man standing before her that the only reason she was in his office, accessing his computer, was to protect her sister?

Lily had mentioned he was good-looking but she’d done him a disservice. He was drop-dead gorgeous; from the sun-bleached wave of his slightly long hair, to the smooth, defined contours of his handsome face.

Casually dressed in clothes that hugged every single one of his powerful muscles, he exuded enough raw sex appeal to light up the national grid. And he was waiting for an explanation.

A look of defiance flashed across her face. I’m here to find out why you fired my sister?

Luke raised a quizzical eyebrow. Sexy and feisty. An irresistible combination, especially when made to submit. Adrenaline charged through his veins. He was so close to her now, their thighs almost touched.

He placed his hands on the desk, either side of her hips and leant over her so that she had to lean backwards to avoid touching him. The delicate floral notes of her perfume filled his lungs, or was it the musky scent of her hair? Did he actually care? She smelt one hundred per cent woman.

She didn’t tell you, did she?

There it was again. Something in his grey-green eyes, a light, a glint of potent masculinity that sent a warm tingly sensation from her breasts to her sex.

Why don’t you tell me? Why did you fire my sister, Mr Faulkner? Please, I’d like to know.

Her voice was breathy, sounding husky and low. Not at all how she intended, considering she was facing arrest. She had to persuade the stranger who had managed to invade not only her personal space, but also her startled thoughts, to let her go.

The only word Luke heard was please. Did he want to fuck her so much he was imagining it or could he see a strong mutual attraction reflected right back at him from those piercing blue eyes?

For a brief moment, he forgot the reason why he had her pinned against the desk. Her lips were fuller than he expected. Just right for kissing or for moulding around his... The phone on his desk rang. He picked up the receiver with his left hand, still pinning her in place.

Her hips were wedged between his and the edge of the desk and he could feel her body heat searing into him. If it hadn’t been for the voice in his ear asking if everything was alright, he could have easily forgotten the phone in his hand.

Hi Tom. No, it’s OK. I’ve found her.

He put the phone down and turned his attention back to the woman who had graced so many of his late night and day time sexual fantasies. Her eyes were wide and the pulse in her neck was throbbing wildly, just like the pulse in his cock.

Your sister was fired for transferring 500,000 dollars of company funds to her personal account.

He watched the shock and disbelief register in her face.

It was true. Lily Trevaigne had worked for Faulkner Communications for three years, starting off as an executive assistant and ending up as his PA when the previous woman left to have a baby.

She’d never once given him reason to criticise her work, let alone suspect her of stealing from him, yet it had come to light, more by accident than by deliberate scrutiny, that during the last six months 500,000 AUS dollars had disappeared from the company coffers. And the paper trail led directly to Lily Trevaigne’s personal account.

He shrugged his shoulders to ease the feeling of disquiet.

I don’t believe you. Lily’s no thief.

A sardonic expression settled on his mouth. You don’t know your sister very well, Ms. Trevaigne. She’s been systematically embezzling my company for the last six months. But that doesn’t explain what you are doing breaking into my office, hacking into my computer.

I…

He felt her fumble behind her back in an attempt to reach the keyboard.

Well?

I thought I might find something that would explain why you fired Lily.

Luke’s attention flicked from her face to the computer screen. The image that stared back at him revealed she had managed to get no further than the login to boot up the system. He gave her a wolfish grin.

You’ll have to try better than that, Ms Trevaigne.

If you let me go, I can explain. She tried to wriggle out from underneath him but the more she wriggled, the more she became aware of his hard masculinity in more ways than one. The recognition that he was heavily aroused - heavily, hell, he was as hard as a rock and huge - made her recipient parts wet and tingly.

Luke watched her flick a tongue over her full, luscious lips. She was sexier in real life than she was on the poster. What would she do if he kissed her or fondled her ass? Would she moan with pleasure, just as he had daydreamed about while stuck in traffic opposite her hoarding, or would she slap his face? What did she just ask? She wanted him to let her go?

Sorry, no can do. You’re staying here, right where I can control you.

The predatory gleam in his vivid green eyes told her that his idea of control was totally sexual; a fact that provoked her nipples to swell and stiffen and make indentations in her blouse. Bent over the desk with his hard, uncompromising body almost flat against hers, he had to feel them. They were pressing into his chest, for god sake.

She squirmed again, but it didn’t help. The light in his eyes darkened as his pupils dilated in response.

If what you say is true, why haven’t you had Lily arrested? Rose challenged. She had to concentrate; focus on the reason why she was here. Yet she felt light-headed, sick, and angry, all at the same time.

Despite the lightening-bolt, physical attraction to the man leaning over her, she had the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that Luke Faulkner was telling the truth. Why the hell had she accepted Lily’s story about needing her to download some personal files from her boss’s computer? She’d known Lily’s request was illegal right from the start, but she’d had no choice. She’d do anything to protect her headstrong little sister. It’s what she always did, since their parents had died while Lily was still at school.

Luke drew back, just enough that the pulse in his thighs maintained the merest contact with her pelvis. He imagined cupping her luscious butt, her legs wrapped around his waist; her sex rubbing against his cock with just enough pressure to get them both off, while he kissed those full, pouty lips that had beckoned him from the billboard so many times during the last month.

Contrary to what Lily may have told you, Ms. Trevaigne, I am not a hard man.

He grinned again as the physical evidence of his attraction to her made a mockery of his words. Damn it, he had to concentrate.

Now he had her pinned beneath him, his biggest problem was what he was going to do with her. Or rather, he knew what he wanted to do with her, but it wasn’t exactly ethical, nor the right time or place. Or was it?

Your sister told me she needed the money for a medical operation for your father. She said you refused to help her pay for his treatment. That you’d fallen out with your father a long time ago.

He saw the shock build in her beautiful, blue eyes You look surprised, Ms. Trevaigne. Do I take it that your father is in excellent health?

Tears filled her eyes, making them large and luminous, and her so much more desirable.

My father is dead. And my mother too. They were killed in a freeway pile-up several years ago.

Luke hardened his resolve as he drew in a sharp breath. Lily had lied again. To both of them. At least it cleared Rose of being a black-hearted bitch like her sister.

That puts this whole affair into a different light. I didn’t call in the police because I didn’t want the papers to get hold of the story. It would hardly paint me, my company or you in a good light. However, your sister’s lies, plus your actions tonight, have forced me to reconsider.

Rose flushed a deep red and her breathing hiked, causing her blouse to strain even more over her breasts. Hip to hip, pelvis to pelvis, with a man who wanted revenge, she felt every pent-up emotion in his body.

What do you mean?

I mean, an internationally famous model turned corporate spy, with a sister who is a thief. The papers would have a field day.

Her vivid blue eyes grew wide again. She knew exactly what that kind of publicity could do to her career. He was right. The