Stop thinking about her naked. Stop thinking about her naked. Stop thinking about her naked.

I thought about Addie’s lips instead, how they would feel as I licked, sucked, and tasted them, all while peeling off her clothes so I could see her naked. My dick, already saluting for attention after our flirty exchange in the courtyard, pressed painfully against my pants.

I was a masochist for seating her so close to me, both of us on opposites sides of my desk back in the office, but the way the setting sun colored her hair a golden brown became my reward system, as she’d put it.

After finishing the Kansas City branch’s growth chart for the investors on Monday, I allowed myself to look up at her for a few seconds, taking in the speed her eyes tracked across the screen on the laptop, the frown puckering those full lips, how effortlessly gorgeous she was. A few seconds was all the reward I needed, or at least that was what I tried telling myself.

Most everyone had gone home about an hour ago, leaving us all alone. It was wrong that this should excite me. She was my employee, just hired, for fuck’s sake, and the last thing I wanted to do was scare her off. Yet the lower the sun sank behind me, the harder my dick became.

She sat back and tipped the last drops in her water bottle into her mouth. Her throat moved gracefully as she swallowed, tucked behind the collar of her shirt and jacket. She was wearing entirely too many clothes.

“You’ve just run out of your reward,” I said, forcing myself to snap out of it. “If that’s your sign to leave, it’s no problem.”

She swiped her tongue across her lower lip, the simple movement like a summons to my cock. I needed to get control of myself. I half wanted her to say she was leaving, and half of me didn’t.

“I’m moving along at a good clip, I think,” she said. “After a few more hours, we should be all caught up.”

“Don’t feel you have to do it all tonight. The last thing I want to do is wear you out on your first day.” That was a lie. I did want to wear her out by fucking her senseless. No, not until she knew the truth about my role in her running away when she was seventeen. No, Jesus, no. Not even then. She was my employee. There would be no fucking.

“I’ll stay as long as you do,” she said.

Damn it. My dick jumped up for a high-five, but I ignored it. “Well, then. We’ll need more rewards. How about some food?”

She smiled. “For starters, sure.”

For starters? What did she have in mind afterward? Probably not the exact same thing I did, no matter how hard I tried not to. I glanced at the bottom drawer of my desk, my fingers curling over the armrests of the chair. If the evening progressed to what was inside, that would be the greatest reward, indeed.

Except the evening would progress with work. That was it. Work relationships of any kind could lead to drama and lawyers, and even if they started out mutually, they could end with one or both people out of a job. I didn’t want that for Addie. The only time kink.club allowed dating in the workplace was if the couple was matched by them.

Addie wasn’t my match. I didn’t have one.

I ordered Thai food from a place down the street, and we ate at the coffee table, without our laptops, since Thai was hard enough to eat with two hands.

“Do employees usually sign up for kink.club?” she asked, wiping her mouth with a napkin.

“Employees can, but it doesn’t mean they get special perks like being officially picked or being moved to the front of the waiting list or a discount or anything like that. I guess you could say we’re pretty stingy about that particular benefit.”

She grinned. “But you do have a nice courtyard which makes up for it.”

“That we do.” I frowned down at my shrimp and noodles. “Addie, I—Ms. Blevins...”

“Ah,” she said, pointing with her chopsticks. Her whole face lit up. “I’m not the only one who slipped.”

I chuckled.

“You can call me Addie or Addison. Really, it’s okay.”

Was it, though? That formality put up a wall between us, but now was the time to tear another one down. I supposed the easiest way to do it was to just decimate it.

“Addie, I was the one who ratted out your dad to my dad about being late for the closing. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

She blinked. “What?”

“I was the one who got your dad fired from the law firm.”

She tilted her head, studying me, her face unreadable. “I don’t think so, Cyrus. He had a hangover. He was sleeping it off. That’s why he was late for that closing argument. But if that hadn’t gotten him fired, it would’ve been being late for the opening statement of the next trial.” She shook her head. “By that point, he was already on a downward spiral.”

It was a weight off my shoulders, but learning that didn’t make me feel any less horrible about the situation. “I didn’t realize he had already started drinking at that point. He kept it hidden.”

“Well...” She set her chicken fried rice on the coffee table. “Not from me, he didn’t.”

Word had it that he’d started using Addie as a punching bag, and that was why she’d left. The thought of him hurting her, someone so innocent, made me see red, when all I wanted to see was her safe and protected. I couldn’t blame her for wanting to escape him, but I’d always blamed myself for her running away. I thought I had caused her dad’s “downward spiral,” as she’d put it, when I got him fired.

I cleared my throat and reached for my shrimp and noodles again. “I’m sorry I brought it up.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s good to talk about all the things on our minds.” She smiled, a soft, thoughtful one that I couldn’t look away from. “Which reminds me, if I did sign up for kink.club.com, I’m not sure what my kinks would be. Do you have any favorites?”

I choked into my fist but quickly collected myself. Well, I had told her to not be afraid to ask questions. I just hadn’t expected that one, especially with my mouth full.

“Uh, well...ever heard of Shibari?” I asked.

She nodded. “I’m sure I read that one in the match reports, but I don’t know what it is.”

“For some, it’s rope bondage. For others, it’s art.”

“What is it for you?” She sat back in her chair, casually unbuttoning the buttons on her jacket. It wasn’t a sexual movement, but it sure hit me as one.

I shifted in my seat, hardly able to hear anything over the rush of blood between my ears. “Who I bind to me is a blank canvas, and I hold the rope almost like a paintbrush. It’s a beautiful thing.”

“And the person who...” She tugged at her collar, revealing flushed, perfect skin underneath. “The canvas. What is it like for them?”

“From what I’m told, they often get what’s called rope drunk. The rough fibers on the rope rubbing against skin creates a sort of high from the sensations. So I’m told.” I shrugged. “I’ve never been tied up myself.”

“Interesting.” She grinned, and there was something so devilish about it that it put an urgent strain in my pants.

“It is interesting.” I held her gaze as the perfect rope technique for her body formed inside my head. Rope bra down over her nipples then weaved into a crotch rope, and a frog tie to make her kneel. A technique that would never happen. “Ready to get back to work?”

“I am. It got kind of warm in here, didn’t it?” She took off her jacket, and the air conditioner chose that moment to come back on again. As soon as the cool air hit her chest, her nipples tightened and pressed through the fabric of both her bra and her white shirt.

I bit down on a groan, unable to look away from her round tits that begged to be fondled. If I kissed her flushed neck, I bet her skin would be scorching hot, ready to be made hotter by just a little rope burn.

Calm down. What was she doing to me? She seemed hot and bothered by all the talk of Shibari, so if her removing her jacket was an act of seduction, I was totally fooled. Or totally a fool.

“Some water will cool you down.” I rose from the chair and crossed to the mini-refrigerator so she wouldn’t see me adjust my rigid cock. Just a stroke to ease some of the pressure. Fuck, I might have to go to the bathroom just to jerk myself off.

I came back with two waters in hand, strategically placed so she couldn’t see the tent in my pants. She took one, a grateful smile on her lips, and pressed it to the side of her neck, pushing the collar of her shirt aside. Moisture dripped down her front, clinging her white shirt to her chest.

A sound like a growl came from inside me. My water bottle swung to my side, forgotten, until I remembered what it had been hiding.

Her gaze skimmed downward and her blush deepened. “I think you just leveled up our reward system.”