Irresistibly Untamed

"Oh my god , Amelia , PLEASE tell me you're at the gym?"

Katie had left the gym no less than fifteen minutes ago and headed straight for work , so as she gushed down the receiver the minute I answered it, I wondered why she was phoning me instead of working.

"Wherever else would I be?"

"Well I need a favor. Please. It seems when we were playing tug–of-war with my handbag earlier, my damned thumb-drive fell out. And that thumb-drive has the freakin' presentation I've been working on all month, and the meeting for that presentation , Amelia, is now!" she intoned.

"Please , can you find it and get here in , like, five minutes? Do that crazy driving thing that you always do to get to places fast."

"'Sakes , Katie , you're so messy. You're always losing something. And don't you know you should always have more than one storage for important docs? How uncoordinated you can be! I just stepped off the treadmill and I'm half-dressed and icky an-"

"Goddammit, Amelia! Will you just shut your ever-berating pie-hole and find the damned drive? I don't care how sweaty or busy you are. If you're not here in ten minutes, then our friendship is terminated!" The line went dead.

I scowled at the Blackberry in my hand. Only Katie could get away with addressing me in such a manner. She was my best friend and I didn't feel the compulsion to control her.

True, I might have gotten carried away with the berating, and was maybe just a weeny bit inconsiderate at her desperation for my aid. But Katie knew me well , so she no doubt had expected some shit-slapped answer from me.

Sweat dripped from my face, and my skin glistened from its sheen; the results of a one-hour mountain climbing on the treadmill. Using my towel to dry the sweat from my face , I went in search of the thumb-drive to help my damsel in distress.

The bright orange thing was found sitting in solitude on a workout mat. Katie and I had engaged in a tug-of-war over her handbag in this vicinity when I'd caught her nibbling on Snickers, which she was prohibited from eating. She'd quickly tried to hide it in her bag and that's when the tugging began.

Wrapping my fingers around the thumb-drive , I rushed out of the gym. When Katie called me , the treadmill had barely come to a halt , so breathing was irregular and I was entirely soaked with sweat and in need of a shower and proper attire , but I had to get this cursed thing to Katie without delay.

I'd watched her labor with the preparation of this presentation for over a month. But the presentation was the least of the matter. She'd tried for night five months to get her boss's ear to perk in interest of a new idea she wanted to pitch.

And I was pretty sure that with a company like that, this was a you-only-got-one-chance-to-prove-yourself-to-me opportunity for Katie. If her boss liked her idea , well, Katie could become a wealthy wench. She had brilliant ideas , but in a city like San Francisco that's teeming with geniuses, the opportunity wall was rather difficult to break through.

Wearing only a pink tube top and a black workout capris with my pink and white Shape-up sneakers , I hopped into my jeep and pressed it to Coded Solutions. It was an eight-minute drive , but being an aggressive driver, I had the gift of getting to my destinations in record time.Patience and I were vicious enemies.

In five and half minutes I was in the parking lot of the building. My body lunged from the jeep, leaving the engine on and car door open-no, I wasn't worried about theft: ghosts knew who to shout "boo!" at-and rushed through the revolving doors of the intimidating building.

Before the receptionist could look up, I spoke through labored breathing , "Katie Skye. It's urgent. What floor is her meeting with Mr. Black?"

The brunette receptionist scanned my attire with a scowl, but then she blinked at me as if realizing somehow that I was of no harm, and gave me the information I needed with an added

"Nice bod."

The elevator ride to floor 44 took forever , but it granted me enough time to restore my regular breathing pattern.

When the doors opened , I instantly became conscious of my sparse attire when the air-conditioner whispered across my bare flesh , turning my nipples to hardened nubs under my tube top.

Oh dear , I didn't think this through. I was about to walk into a building filled with smartly attired , starched-collar whizzes in their three-piece suits and sharp seams , and I was dressed-if 'dressed' was the operative word-in a tube top, vagina-printing workout capris , sneakers and dry sweat.

But if I stepped off the elevator, this could be a detriment to Katie. So , I ate self-conscious for lunch and entered the arctic building.

Why on earth was the air-conditioner on full blast in here? Weren't these people freezing?

The receptionist for this floor apprised me of Katie's whereabouts as she made a sloppy attempt to conceal her disapproval of my attire.

As I wove around rows of cubicles , ignoring the raised eyebrows and curious stares of the employees , I saw Katie pacing outside the door I was searching for marked 'MR 44', while dialing on her cell with a worried frown marring her cute oval face.

"Psst ," I hissed.

Katie glanced up and saw me and her shoulders visible relaxed, relief replacing her frown. She gestured for me to hurry while she grabbed the doorknob and opened it halfway. Wasting not another second , I ran to her and pressed the drive in her hand.

"Go ahead and kick asses , best-"

My words tripped over a lust-pebble when the door jerked back from Katie's grasp and revealed a tall , dark-haired figure whose attention was partly directed to a tablet in his hand while his full , sculpted lips moved to form words.

"Skye , I've waited long enough. If I didn't think your three-line pitch had potential , I wouldn't have considered your proposal and arrange this meeting. I'm giving my blessed time and you're wasting it. I think it is rather negligent of you to have the board convened here , on time , and yo-"

His words tumbled over a cliff when he glanced up and saw me there , half-dressed with sweat that was now fine grains of salt , and I was ninety percent sure my nipples were pressing against the fabric of my tube top due to the high-blasting air-conditioner.

Had he been some other powerful figure , I would've been mortified , but never with this Lothario would I cower. Actually , it was the first opportunity I'd been given to see him in person. I'd only ever heard of him , or seen his face constantly popping up on Internet news sites.

His reputation in the women department was not of a squeaky clean nature , despite his billions. The man was too wealthy for his age , too crude for his status , and cocky enough to make you detest him-well, at least that's what I heard.

But he had a brain that was worth more than his billions. He was known as the 'wise-guy', with his never-failing ideas in the world of social networking and software creation.

There stood San Fran's hottest , sexiest , wealthiest Internet billionaire , Ethan Black.