Chapter Seven
“Did you hear what happened at the Plush launch party last night?”
I sat up straighter in my seat. I had been slumped over the one of the break room tables for the better part of a half an hour, avoiding my email inbox, Rita, and Bryce—in that order. I’d almost left when the pack of secretaries made their entrance, not in the mood to listen to their chitter-chatter. But at the new topic, my ears perked up even as I felt my stomach drop, sure I knew what would be coming next.
“No! Tell me!” another voice demanded.
“Well, Becca was there on a date, some uber rich guy. Anyways, she told Jeannie, who told me, that Cooper Brighton was there totally making out with some chick outside the bathroom.”
I stifled a laugh and settled for an eye roll instead. Sometimes, I felt like I slipped into a wormhole and ended up back in high school.
“So what? He’s always with another woman. Every event he has some new hoochie.”
“No, no, this was different.”
“How?”
“The girl he was with works here!”
They all gasped in apparent horror. I stiffened in my seat and turned my face away, feeling my cheeks heat up.
“No way! Who is she?”
“Becca said there is a new girl that has been working with him on the new campaign, so it’s probably her, but from what I’ve heard, I don’t think she’s really his type.”
“Well whoever she is, she better hope Rita doesn’t find out.”
They all broke out in a cackle. “No kidding!” one of them added.
They were still laughing and whispering to each other as they filed out of the break room, coffee cups refilled, and headed back to their posts. I gathered up my granola bar and coffee mug and surrendered to the fact that I had to talk to Bryce about what happened and get his advice on what to do next.
Conveniently, he was already waiting for me back at my cubicle. Well, more accurately, he was pacing along the wall, scouting the office. As soon as he saw me, he pounced. “Where have you been?” he hissed. “I’ve been looking for you all morning.”
“What is the matter with you?” I said, looking down at his hand that was firmly grasping my arm.
“Sorry,” he released me. “But we need to talk. Now. My office.”
“Okay.”
I followed closely behind him as we made our way to his office. Once there, he shut the door behind us and dropped the blinds so no one could see us inside.
“What the hell were you thinking?” He spun around and stared me down.
I gaped at him. “What are you talking about?”
“I thought I made it clear that you were to keep Mr. Brighton happy until all this drama blew over. I also thought I made it clear that you are under no circumstances in a position where you can get involved with him!” He raked his hands through his thinning hair before turning his fierce gaze back on me.
“Nothing happened,” I answered, struggling to hold back the frustrated scream that was bubbling up inside me.
“Don’t lie to me. I’m risking my job to help you. I deserve the truth.” Bryce sat in his chair.
I looked down at my shoes and turned over ideas in my mind, stalling for time while I tried to think of how to say what I needed to tell him.
“Did you, or did you not, kiss him at the party last night?”
My head popped up. “Yes, but it’s not what you think. I didn’t want to kiss him! He kissed me!”
“So he forced himself on you? Is that what you’re telling me? If so, we need to go to Rita right now.”
The memory of the kiss that had haunted my thoughts all night long replayed for the millionth time and a shiver of electricity tingled down my body. “No,” I admitted. “He didn’t. I don’t know what happened, things just got out of control. It was only a minute…I think.”
Bryce buried his face in his hands. “I don’t know how to fix this for you. There are strict policies in place and violation of those can and will result in your termination.”
Rita’s threats of firing Bryce rang through my mind as I helplessly watched his distress.
“Does Rita know?”
“Not yet, but she will soon.”
“Okay, hold tight. I’m going to fix this.” I stood and bolted from the room before Bryce could finish his sentence that I’m sure was an order to sit back down.
I circled back to my desk long enough to grab my bag and then made my way downstairs to my car. I could have sworn I heard whispering and hushed voices as I snaked through the department on my way to the elevator bank, but I kept my head down and hurried. Once in my car, I dialed Cooper on my cell phone. His secretary told me he wasn’t available but offered to put me through to his voicemail. I declined and hung up. I scanned through my email and in one of the old messages found his cell phone. I dialed and waited, but it went to voicemail as well. Unsure of what to say, I hung up instead. No one was in the parking lot but I was uneasy with paranoia as my eyes darted from one corner of the lot to the other. My fingers tapped out a nervous beat on the steering wheel while my brain plotted.
After a few minutes of stewing, I finally thought of an idea. I leaned across the passenger seat and ripped my laptop out of my bag. I booted it up, continuing my sentinel watch as it went through the loading screens.
“Finally,” I said to the empty car when the chime sounded that it was awake. I opened a few windows and let my hacker brain take over. I entered his cell phone into my program and let the computer do the rest. Within minutes, I had a real time track on his phone’s GPS signal. I plugged it into a direction app and found his location:
Sweet Treats Pastries
What the…?
So Mr. Hard Body has a sweet tooth. Interesting.
I flipped the car into reverse and sped out of the lot.
Twenty minutes later, I arrived outside a shopping center and parked in front of the bakery. I spotted the car I had fixed as I stalked to the front door. The monologue I had mentally prepared during the drive was ricocheting around my mind with each step.
I opened the door of the shop and was greeting by a young girl at the front counter but before I could answer, I was cut off by a surprised-sounding Cooper who was seated at a small table by the front window.
“What are you doing here?”
I flopped into the seat across from him. “I need to talk to you and you weren’t answering my calls.”
“How did you know I was here? Did my assistant tell you?”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter how. I need you to listen to me now.”
He bristled and sat back in his chair. Under any other circumstances, his put-out expression at me interrupting his coffee and pastry would probably have been hilarious, but in that moment it only fueled my frustration.
“You need to call Rita and tell her that the gossip is just that—gossip. We did not do anything inappropriate at the event, you like working with me, and Bryce too, and that everything is fine.”
I grabbed his cell phone that was lying on the table near his coffee cup, flipped to his contacts, pulled up Rita’s direct extension, and handed him the phone back again.
“Here.”
He snatched the phone out of my hands. “What do you think you’re doing?” he growled, his voice low and dangerous.
I’ll admit, I had gone off the script a little, and quite possibly a “please” might have helped my case, but at the end of the day, what I was asking—okay, demanding—he do, wasn’t much, considering how completely screwed up and complicated he had been making my life since entering it a week ago.
He stood from the table and shoved the phone back into his pocket. He flipped open his wallet, threw a wad of cash on the table. “Get up,” he said to me.
Before I could object, he turned away from me and I watched as his entire expression changed into a polite smile and he waved his thanks to the woman at the counter. She looked completely confused by everything she was witnessing but she returned his smile and said goodbye.
“Let’s go,” he said to me again, his face back to stone.
I stood and followed as he left the shop, stepping through the door as he held it open. Once we were outside, he grasped my elbow with one hand. He held firm but not tight, and steered me towards his car.
“Get in,” he said after opening the passenger door.
“What is with this caveman, two syllable thing?” I asked, stopping short of the car and anchoring my feet to the pavement, silently refusing to take another step. “Get up, let’s go, get in? I don’t think so. You want to talk? Great! But you can do it right here. I’m not going anywhere with you.”
A flicker of shock flashed in his eyes but he backed down. He slammed the car door and went around to the driver’s side. “If you want to talk business, it will be conducted in my office.” That said, he opened his door and got in the car. “I’ll be waiting for you there, whenever you calm down and drop the theatrics.”
“Ugh,” I groaned. “Fine!” I opened the car door and threw myself into the passenger seat. He silently waited for me to buckle myself in before he revved the engine and tore out of the parking lot. We didn’t speak during the drive. I crossed my arms and stared out the window, pressing as close to the passenger side door as possible.
I had never been to his office before, but there was no mistaking it when we pulled up to the gleaming skyscraper in the heart of the city a few minutes later. A huge sign with green letters was nestled against the building on the top: “Brighton Enterprises.” I did my best to mask my impression, wondering why I had never connected the dots before this. I’d heard of Brighton Enterprises.
We pulled up and a doorman raced out to open the door for me. Cooper let himself out and crossed in front of the car to meet the young man, his friendly smile back in place.
“Thank you, Jackson. Would you mind?” He held up the keys.
Jackson smiled and gave a nod. “Of course, Mr. Brighton.”
“Thank you.” He turned back to me. “Shall we?”
I snarled to myself but allowed him to usher me up the walk to the front of the enormous building, waiting only long enough for another man to open the door for us when we got within a few feet.
“Thank you, Tom,” he said with a nod.
As soon as we entered the building, he took the lead and I followed a few steps behind, watching as he interacted with the people who crossed our path. I was surprised to see him greet everyone by name. We got to the elevators and he ensured that the car we took was empty. He entered the floor, number 62, and we stood in an awkward silence as we ascended. The only sound was the quiet whooshing of the elevator and the dinging as we stopped at different floors to let others rotate in and out. All of them going about their daily business, completely oblivious to the volcano of tension between Cooper and me—the frustrated tension that seemed to build with each floor. Cooper was quiet and by looking at him, he seemed normal—or at least what I imagined his normal to be—but the energy radiating from him was like a tightly wound spring, ready to pop.
After what seemed like the longest elevator ride of my life, we were alone when the bell for floor 62 rang out. Cooper ushered me forward again and placed his hand on my lower back for just the blink of an eye to signal me to turn left. I walked forward and stopped a few feet later in front of a large desk where his—I’m assuming—assistant sat, pecking away at a keyboard.
No surprise…she was a willowy blonde, dressed all in black, with yellow gold jewelry setting off her tan and her green eyes.
“Mr. Brighton!” she said as he stepped into view alongside me. The gleam of adoration in her eyes as she greeted him both revolted me and also sent a spike of jealousy through me.
I shook that off and plastered an equally as fawning look on my face when she turned to give me a once-over.
“Good afternoon, Kimberly. Please hold all my calls.”
She nodded and though her smile held, I could see a flicker of disgust flash my way as I passed her and followed Cooper into his office.
He shut the door behind me and I stepped forward into the large room. There were floor to ceiling windows instead of walls that offered a spectacular view of the city. Like a moth to a flame, I stepped closer and couldn’t hide my amazement any longer. This whole thing was starting to seem really surreal. I guess I should have expected nothing less for a millionaire’s, or maybe even a billionaire’s office, but then again, I hadn’t really given it much thought or imagination before now.
“You have my attention,” Cooper’s voice called to me from across the room.
I turned away from the window and found him leaned up against his desk, his arms folded across his chest. His expression was neutral, unreadable.
“I already told you what I want. I don’t even know why you had to bring me here. Just to show off your fancy office and your view, I guess.” I tried to keep my voice sharp, demanding his attention and respect, but his exterior calmness wasn’t leaving me much to work with. I was starting to feel like an impatient toddler, stomping my feet and throwing a tantrum.
He grunted. “Do you ever let your guard down and turn off the attack mode thing you have going on?”
His question surprised me and I fumbled for a response. My fingers started fidgeting with the edge of my jacket sleeves. Cooper stepped away from his desk and crossed the room to me. In an instant, I knew what was going to happen next, but I couldn’t—or wouldn’t—stop it.
“You’re too beautiful to be this jaded,” he said.
I couldn’t stop what happened next. In the blink of an eye, his hands were on my waist, sliding down my hips. His cologne was filling my nose, clouding my senses, his touch warm and hypnotic as his fingertips roamed around to my ass and then up my spine.
“I must have you.”
My voice caught in my throat at his words and I couldn’t speak. My eyes flashed towards the door, suddenly keenly aware of my surroundings, a whole horde of people waiting outside the door probably waiting to speak with him.
His face lowered to mine and his lips found their way to my neck. He groaned as he breathed in deeply, kissing the spot below my ear before his tongue flicked up and across my earlobe, sending a jolt of pleasure through my entire body. My legs felt like they were about to give out and I relaxed my body into his. He wrapped his arms around me and brought his mouth up to mine, backing me up against the wall.
I felt his hands wander up down my back and rested on the top part of my ass, a light pressure grabbing me and pulling my hips toward his.
Our lips melted together and I felt a desperation wake up inside me as I matched his intensity, growing fiercer with each connection. I wrapped my arms up between us and starting exploring his body. My fingertips grazed his stomach, enjoying the tight, firm, smoothness of his flat abs. I frantically started pulling at the fabric of his shirt that was tucked into his black pants. I finally freed it and ran my hands under the edge to touch his skin.
Oh.
Fuck.
He inhaled as my hands worked across his stomach and then slid lower, into the waist of his pants, begging to go lower, my hands promised pleasure to him with each stroke. He broke away from my lips just long enough to furiously throw off his jacket. Instinctively, my fingers went to the buttons on his shirt and started freeing each one, while he worked to slide my jacket down and off my shoulders. Once removed, he tossed it to join his on the floor and he worked at the buttons of my blouse with his fingers, while his mouth continued to kiss and lick at my neck and lower to my collarbone. When I finished the last of his shirt buttons I pushed the shirt away, my hands sliding down his muscled shoulders and arms, practically purring in anticipation.
His lips were back on mine, nipping at my lower lip before he backed away to slide my shirt off. I was wearing a black camisole underneath but once the shirt was slid off my shoulders and down my arms, my entire tattoo sleeve was revealed in the sunlight flooding the room from the huge windows. Cooper backed up briefly and my stomach sank. A flutter of panic jolted through me at the look on his face as his eyes took in the colorful design, inked to my body.
“Wow,” was all he said.
I pulled away, suddenly embarrassed. I started to stoop down to grab my shirt off the floor but he stopped me, setting one of his hands back on my waist.
“No, let me see you.”
I followed his eyes as they traveled over my body and although I was still mostly covered with clothes, I had never felt more exposed. Not knowing his thoughts as he stared at me was filling me with anxiety as I watched him.
“Say something,” I whispered.
“You’re fucking gorgeous.” His fingers reached for the hem of my camisole and pulled it up, slowly, over my head and he held it for a split second before dropping it to the floor to the rest of the clothes at our feet. Without another word, he reached around and found the zipper of my skirt and the only sound was the zipper being lowered as he stared into my eyes, his own eyes darker than I had ever seen. He slid the skirt down to reveal my black lace panties and the garter belt that was holding up my black, thigh-high stockings.
“Fuck,” he breathed out. His fingers traced the large tattoos that started on my left side, on my ribs, and ran down along my side and over my hip, ending on my upper thigh. I held my breath as he took it all in, not sure what he was thinking.
His eyes met mine and they were still filled with desire and longing. In a flash, his lips were back on mine and he pushed me back up against the wall with a renewed passion. His hands slid up my ribs and his fingertips slid under the curves of my breasts. I shivered with anticipation. My own fingers were running along his skin, feeling every muscle as they flexed and moved.
He released the hooks on my bra and I felt my breasts released as he dropped that to the floor. For a moment I wondered what he thought of them, without a push up bra. He placed a palm on each and caressed the skin, sending shivers down my spine and I pressed back against the wall to steady myself. My body was begging for release as he touched and teased me. I wanted him to take me. My mind was reeling, not able to keep up with everything that was happening.
As if reading my thoughts—or maybe he was just reading my body—Cooper reached down and lifted me up off the ground. I hooked my legs around his hips and he carried me across the room back to his desk. He sat me on the edge of it and immediately hooked his thumbs into the edge of my panties. His eyes met mine, pausing for only a moment, before he started to slide the delicate fabric down. I lifted up and he slid them off my hips and then down my thighs. Once removed, he kneeled down in front of me and gently pushed my legs apart.
I hesitated briefly, the vulnerability stalling me, but the urgency, the need to be touched overpowered my shyness. He kissed a trail along the inside of my thigh, both hands resting on my bare hips.
I lifted up, silently begging for him. He traced a finger over my slick, wet skin. His touch was agonizingly light and I moaned. His finger entered me slowly and deeply and I felt myself tighten, craving his mouth. Finally, he brought his lips to me and I exhaled sharply at the sensation. He used his fingers to gently spread my lips and used his tongue to lick at the wetness.
“Ahhh shit,” I groaned out, arching my back and laying my head back.
“Say my name,” he directed.
He lowered his lips back to me and then slid two fingers deep inside me.
“Cooper!” I called out.
“You like that?”
I inhaled sharply and nodded frantically. “More, please keep going.”
He continued, each flick of his tongue sending me higher and higher, closer to the breaking point. I couldn’t stop myself from moaning and panting loudly. My hands rested on his back, my nails digging into the bare skin of his shoulders as I got closer and closer to release. He responded by sucking just a little harder on my clit and I buckled as I crashed over the edge, releasing my nails and starting to shudder as I came hard.
I was still shuddering with each wave of pleasure when he stood and pulled down his pants and boxer briefs, I heard him slide on protection and then without further hesitation, he entered me hard.
“Fuck!” I screamed out. I wrapped my legs around him and pulled him closer. He thrust in and out, harder and harder, as I gripped onto his hips tightly. He groaned, gritting his teeth together, his fingertips digging into my fleshy hips as he finished.
I rested my head against his bare chest and neither of us said a word for a minute as we waited for our breathing to return to normal.
Suddenly, I felt uneasy and not sure what to do or say, next. I wanted for him to make the next move, although, I was unsure what move I wanted him to make exactly—anything to break the awkward tension that had settled between us in the aftermath of what had just happened.
After a few more minutes of silence, Cooper backed away and pulled his pants back up. He gave me a long look and I tried to cover my body as best as I could but it was kind of hopeless. No matter which way I sat or what I covered with my hands, I was exposed.
As if sensing my discomfort, Cooper excused himself to the en suite bathroom. Once alone, I frantically dressed myself, shoving my soaking wet panties into my purse. I heard the water turn on in the attached bathroom and wondered if I should leave before he came back out. Wondering if maybe he was taking his time on purpose, in hopes that I wouldn’t be here when he got back.
I gave myself one last pat down to make sure I was as put together as I could possibly get, all things considered, and then reached for the door handle. As soon as my fingers wrapped around it, the bathroom door opened and Cooper stepped out.
“Leaving so soon?” he asked.
I pressed my eyelids closed, wishing I had been just a little faster in my escape. This was so beyond awkward. I mean, the sex had been incredible. I could barely stand without my legs feeling like Jello, but that wasn’t the point.
The point was…I had originally come over to his office to un-complicate things, to make sure that everyone knew nothing untoward was going on. And then….this happened. Ugh.
What the hell is wrong with me? I wondered silently.
My only defense seemed to be to put my guard back up and hide behind my normal mask, sarcasm, sass, and feistiness.
“Is there normally a gift basket? Or some other type of parting gift for your special visitors?” I asked, turning back to him, doing my best to make my expression as blank as possible.
He looked at me like I had just slapped him across the face. “Wow…so that’s how you want to play this?”
“Play what?” I asked, not knowing if I wanted an answer.
“Nothing, Allison. You just said—”
“—I need to get back to work,” I said, my voice breaking slightly. I squared my shoulders and pursed my lips to try and make up for the falter.
He shook his head. “All right.”
For a moment, I wanted to stop myself, to tell myself that I was being a bitch and that I should give him a chance, but I couldn’t. All I could do was run.
So I pushed out of the office, sped past his uppity secretary and hurried to the elevators, not daring to look back to see if he was watching me leave.