The blood is pummeling at my veins, stretching them fit to bursting. I’m still in a lust-filled stupor over the dripping wet nectar coating the very ends of my fingers but my rage at Tania is fast overwhelming that.

What the fuck is she playing at with this baby crap all of a sudden? One quick fuck in the back of my Range Rover and she thinks we’re getting married? There’s no possible way she could be pregnant. And she’s definitely not cashing in because that’s clearly what this is.

She’s tripping along on her massive heels, giggling as though I’m dragging her back to my cave. She squeals and squeaks all the way, trying to attract attention from my employees who are fortunately all way too hammered now to care who’s getting off with whom. A bunch of new arrivals are trying to get through the door as I pull Tania out. The girls from the typing pool and one dude. Have I hired a male typist? Aura would love me for that.

I yank Tania into my office, thankfully the one relaxed space not decorated for this nightmare office party, kicking the door shut behind us. I drop her arm and head straight to my desk, unlocking the drawer containing my checkbook. I have to search for a pen as I’m unaccustomed to writing a check now, or even using a pen now that I have the Virtual. All my transactions are taken care of online but I’m doing this for the finality of it, to feel like I’m signing off on this - on her.

I look up and see Tania is leaning back against the door trying to rock a sexy kitten face with pouty lips and hooded eyes that only repulses me. She slides her hand up over her very full tit and starts to pull down the strap to her dress.

“Don’t do that,” I tell her. “That’s not why you’re here.” Then curse under my breath. “Where’s my fucking pen?”

I locate some Mont Blancs in another drawer, gifts from old clients, unused. Tania is making her way toward me, sashaying across the space between us, swinging her hips side to side as she slips the dress down over her mounds. Not so much as a flicker of interest from me despite the transparent strapless bra.

“Don’t you want to play with your Christmas Baby Momma, Daddy?” She purrs.

“No! And stop saying that, Tania,” I bark, writing out the check for her fee as fast as I can. “You know as well as I do that you aren’t pregnant.”

“I promise you I am,” She pouts, reaching behind to unhook her bra.

“Then the kid isn’t mine,” I announce, staring point blank at her as she drops her lingerie to the ground with dainty fingertips so she knows her tantalizing striptease is definitely not working.

“So that’s how you’re gonna play it?” She snaps, turning off the ‘charm’ in an instant. “Why? I’m not good enough to have your child? You’ve got someone better in mind?”

“Maybe,” I say, not wanting to get into this back alley without an exit. I just want her out of here and away from Aura.

“Don’t tell me it’s that girl I caught you showing your ice pole to back there,” she snarks, apparently catching onto my train of thought. “You must be kidding me. She’s a nothing.”

“Don’t you talk about her,” I bark. “Ever.”

“Oh my god, have you got a crush on an employee?” She says.

“It’s nothing to do with you, Tania. Take your payment and thank you for all your efforts on my party. I think it’s best that you leave now and no hard feelings.”

She bends down to retrieve her bra but doesn’t bother putting it on or covering herself up. Perhaps she thinks there’s still a chance I’ll be seduced again. Not in a frozen hell. I was an idiot to ever get involved with her that one time. Perhaps I needed a distraction from the heat burning through me for Aura and how she flatly refused to so much as look me in the eye back then.

My tangle with Tania in the underground parking lot only came about because of Aura. Her disdain for me asking the female workers to form a volunteer committee to organize the Christmas office party was the first step in the elevation of our fighting. And the first time I realized there was something growing inside of me for the woman who was completely unimpressed by my money and uninterested in the man.

“If I’d left it to any of the guys that work here, the party would comprise a keg of beer and some videos games,” I told her.

“And you think the mashed potato bar is a better idea?” Aura snapped. “Great ideas aren’t gender-related although I can see why you’d think so because every woman with ideas is splatted or told to get a husband.”

Now, a grin spreads across my face as I recall how vocal Aura was with me, completely unafraid of outright contradicting the boss. As she made it her mission to do just that at every brain-storming session after that, the chemistry between us became shockingly electric. If the nerds working for me weren’t so buried in code, they couldn’t have failed to notice all the veiled flirtations buried beneath our snarky remarks to each other.

Maybe I was to blame for her semi-humiliation over the secret Santa gift they presented her with in full view of the office yesterday. Some kind of sucking up to the leader ingratiation tactic that backfired, because the last thing I’d ever want is for Aura to feel like anything less than an absolute queen.

“That’s it isn’t it?” Tania demands with a smug but poisonous smile, like she’s uncovered my filthiest secret. “You’ve got the hots for your employee. What is she twelve?”

I’m done with this. I know enough about this type of woman to realize that if I continue to engage with her, she’ll only ramp up her paranoid fantasies until she’s got me screwing and impregnating half the typing pool.

I cross the room and yank the fabric of her dress up in an attempt to cover her while shoving the check at her with the other hand. With a swift jerk of her arms, she reaches for me, clawing and grappling my biceps and trying to plant her mouth on mine.

I’ve never hit a woman or used any force, so I’m slightly leery of manhandling her as hard as I’d like, to get her out of my office and the building. You never know, she could even be pregnant with some dude’s kid. I dodge her glossy lips as they scrape over my chin, leaving a nasty smear of her red lipstick.

“Time to go,” I grit out, turning my head away again.

It’s more important that I get her clothes back on and get her out. But she’s pretty ferocious when she wants something and we get into a full-fledged tussle. Tania uses every wrangle as an excuse to press her tits into my arms. She wriggles around so much I can’t get a grip on her wrists to hustle her out. She also won’t stop moaning and sighing, like she’s actually enjoying this.

Another loud cheer from the party echoes down the hall and my eyes fly instinctively to the door because that was way louder than it should be. Framed in the entrance I see Aura and some dude I almost recognize, staring in shock at me grappling with the topless woman in my arms.