Chapter Twenty-One
Cierra
Okay. Focus. I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror, staring intently at my reflection and taking long, deep breaths over and over again. It’d been four days since I’d seen Trace. I’d waited to hear from him, but he hadn’t made any effort to contact or see me. I refused to go to his office, so I figured we were at a standstill.
I was just his weekend fun. My heart dropped when I realized it. But what had I expected? He was a player, so why would he change his lifestyle just because we fucked? As much as I hated it, my brain and body were still pulsing with desire for him, confusion overwhelming me even though I knew I couldn’t let it get the better of me.
Lindsey had asked me to go up to Trace’s office to pick up some of the reports on the launch and bring them back down to the advertising department. I didn’t know why the hell someone else couldn’t have gone, but Velocity had a few new investors and a couple of suppliers showing interest after the launch, and apparently that was top-secret information that we couldn’t risk falling into the hands of anyone else around us. I didn’t see why an encrypted e-mail wouldn’t do the job, but apparently my opinions on the matter weren’t really being taken into account.
I turned out of the bathroom and went to the elevator, feeling as though I was headed toward a prize fight, preparing myself to deal with a battle I had never thought I would face the likes of. I bounced from foot to foot in the elevator, eyes cast down, like I was moments away from stepping out into the ring.
Okay. I can do this. I’ll just pick up the papers and get the hell out of there before he pulls me in once more.
The elevator pinged open on his floor and I strode along to his office, head held high, heart thumping hard as I prayed that no one would notice the fact that my hands were trembling a little. Because I hadn’t spoken to Trace since the previous weekend we’d spent together, I’d assumed he was just trying to avoid me. What if all he’d ever wanted or needed from me was that wild weekend? What if he’d already lost interest in me?
I arrived outside his door and before I had the chance to overthink things any further, the door swung open.
“Oh, hey,” I said, looking at Trace. He nodded at me while his eyes traveled up and down my body briefly, and I felt my face heat under his gaze. Fuck. Okay. I can manage this.
“I thought I heard someone coming,” he said, offering me a smile and stepping aside so I could come in before he closed the door behind me. “You’re here to pick up the files, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right.” I nodded, wondering if it would be wiser to leave the door open so we wouldn’t be tempted to indulge ourselves, but I swiftly dismissed the thought. Nothing was going to happen. I just had to keep reminding myself of that. He was a professional and so was I, and that meant both of us just had to not pay attention to the crackling tension that filled the space around us.
“Here, give me a minute.” He pulled open a drawer and rummaged through it for a moment. “I crammed the stuff in here when I was tidying up for a meeting earlier today….”
“No rush.” And I meant it. Being in his presence again was weirdly comforting, oddly satisfying, and I didn’t want to leave too soon. He glanced up at me, his gaze flicking down briefly to my lips and then up to my eyes. Straightening up without any files in his hands, he took a step toward me, closing the distance between us, and I fought the urge to lift my hands and rest them on his chest, to feel his heartbeat beneath my fingers.
With a bit of stubble on his jaw, he looked more handsome than ever. I desperately wanted to feel the roughness against my skin as his mouth touched and nipped every inch of me. Focus! He just stood there for a moment, looking down at me, and then let out a long sigh. He lifted his hand to my face and rested his thumb, lightly and briefly, on my mouth; I closed my eyes and focused on the feel of his skin next to mine. And then he spoke, breaking the spell.
“We need to talk about this past weekend,” he said in a low voice.
My shoulders sagged. “Do we?” I replied weakly, leaning my face into his hand. His eyes filled with doubt for a moment, as though he didn’t trust himself to follow through, but with a deep breath, he nodded.
“We do.” His eyes scanned mine as though trying to commit me to memory, just like he had with his touch over the weekend.
“It was amazing but it can’t happen again,” I blurted out, even though that was the last thing I actually wanted to say. I wanted him to shake his head, grab me and throw me down over the table, tell me he was going to have his way with me at least once more before we called this off for good. But he didn’t.
“You’re right,” he breathed, but his hand didn’t move from my face. “I don’t want to jeopardize your career with Velocity, and I’m still new in the company. If people found out, this could turn out to be a real mess.”
“You’re the boss, aren’t you?” I pointed out playfully, managing a smile as I arched my body toward his so there was only an inch or two between us. I should’ve stepped away, but he was still touching me and I couldn’t find a good reason why I shouldn’t be touching him too.
“That’s true.”
I placed my hand on his hip, sliding it around so it was on the small of his back, and his breath hitched slightly. He closed his eyes and swallowed, as though trying to center himself.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,” he said hoarsely. I closed my eyes, enjoying the sound of it, the sound of him confirming everything I’d known.
“Me neither,” I replied, and he leaned down, just close enough that our mouths barely brushed by each other. His touch was so soft and so brief that I almost couldn’t tell if the weekend had happened, but the explosion of tingles down my spine told me otherwise. The hand resting on my face moved down my body, landing at my waist, tugging me in close. Our bodies pressed together, so close and tight it felt like we’d been made to fit together. My lips parted but before I could say anything, he leaned in and kissed me.
As soon as our mouths met, I knew any chance I’d had of walking away from this without letting it go any further was out the window. The kiss was explosive, and it came after days of fantasizing and reliving our time together. He tucked his hands beneath my ass and sank his fingers into the flesh, groaning slightly with something that sounded like relief. I knew the feeling.
Without thinking, I dropped to my knees and fumbled with his belt. He brushed a strand of hair back from my face and took over, unbuckling and unzipping his pants quickly. I pulled them down and then his boxers, his already rock-hard dick smacking against my cheek. I wrapped my fingers around his length and looked up at him. He stared back down at me, his lips parted, eyes flashing with desire. I slowly moved my mouth closer to his cock, making sure he could feel my hot breath on his flesh before I touched him with my lips. His chest heaved up and down, and when I flicked my tongue out and circled it around the head of his cock, he moaned.
Desire surged through me, and then a pulsing need settled between my thighs. I twirled my tongue around the head of his dick for a few moments longer before pushing my mouth down to take as much of him as I could manage. He felt thick and full in my mouth, his dick pulsing as I moved my mouth up and down his length. He let out something between a groan and a growl above me, then reached down and grabbed a fistful of my hair, yanking it. Hard. My scalp tingled as I kept moving up and down, my tongue swirling around his thickness.
The darkness in his eyes as he focused them on mine, the sound of his soft groans of pleasure as I worked my mouth around him, the knowledge that at any minute someone could walk into the office and bust me on my knees with the boss’s cock in my mouth drove me wild with desire. But before I could act on it, he shuddered with pleasure above me.
“Fuck, Cierra,” he growled.
Suddenly he pulled out of my mouth, reaching down and pulling me up. I barely had time to blink before he kissed me hard, his tongue meeting mine as he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me in close. His hands strayed down to my butt, and that time he used it as leverage to hoist me up and place me down on the desk behind him. It clattered as pens and notebooks scattered across it, but I didn’t pay any attention to it; I couldn’t keep my eyes off him.
He reached around me and pulled out a drawer, where he fumbled for a moment before he returned with a condom. I parted my legs and he stepped between them, taking the invitation. Reaching down, he hooked his fingers around my panties and yanked them just far enough off me to expose my glistening sex. I tipped my head back, already desperate with desire. I just needed him inside me again. As he tore open the condom and sheathed himself, he dipped his head down and planted a soft kiss against my throbbing clit. I squirmed and groaned, and he pulled away and grinned wickedly at me as he grabbed my leg and draped it over his shoulder.
“You’re so fucking hot,” he whispered, leaning in to brush his lips along my ear while he teasingly pressed his dick against my opening.
Whimpering, I was unable to find any leverage to grind back against him and take him all the way in; I was completely at his mercy, and he seemed to like it that way. He slowly pushed himself inside me, moving at a pace that was both infuriating and satiating at the same time, as though he knew how badly I wanted this and was making sure that I could feel him filling every inch of me. I let my head tip back, slipped my hands around his shoulders to hold on, and decided the best thing was to let him take control. It was his office, after all, and he was the boss.
Once he was all the way inside me, he paused for a moment, and then he began to fuck me hard, wrapping his arms around me and holding me tight as he shoved in and out with the kind of relentless pace that told me he’d been thinking about this as much as I had. I bit down on the shoulder of his expensive blazer to keep myself quiet, but I couldn’t silence all the noises that came out of me; a few moans escaped here and there, but at that point, I didn’t care if the entire company heard us.
He grabbed my chin, turning my head toward his, and kissed me once more, deeply. For a moment, he slowed his pace, and it was almost romantic. In that split second, I could’ve mistaken the encounter for something sweet and wholesome, something shared between two people who loved each other. But moments later, he moved his mouth down to my neck, bared his teeth against my skin, and picked up the pace once more, fucking me hard and holding me close. I clung to him for dear life, the only sound in the room that of our mutual gasping breaths as we both hurtled toward the inevitable end point. My toes curled in my shoes, one of them dropping off and landing on the floor with a thud. I was close. So close. Every muscle tensed and coiled like a spring.
“Holy shit!” I cried out, forgetting we were in a place where orgasmic yelling was likely looked down upon. My climax shattered through my body like someone had launched a bullet at me; my skin prickled and my muscles released as my lower body throbbed and shivered. Trace thrust a few more times and found his own release inside me, bottoming out with a gritted-teeth groan as he collapsed against me, my leg slipping from his shoulder.
He left himself inside of me for a moment, not pulling out, and I knew exactly how he felt: I didn’t want this to be over either, even though I knew we’d already pushed things way further than we should’ve ever let them go at the workplace. But slowly, almost reluctantly, he slid out of me. Our bodies slowly unwrapped from each other, and I found myself inhaling his familiar scent, wondering if we’d get to do this again. I couldn’t get caught up in Trace Prescott’s world where women were there for fun but nothing more. I knew if I let myself get pulled in, I’d end up broken.
“This has to be the last time this happens,” Trace said in a low voice as he straightened up.
Sweeping strands of hair from my face, I nodded. “We can’t do this at work anymore.”
“Out of work?” he asked as he gazed at me.
I stared back at him. Is he being serious right now? “I don’t think it’s allowed. I mean, the whole no-fraternization policy and all.” Yeah, like I’m really worried about that.
He shrugged and took a step toward me as he quickly disposed of the condom and adjusted his pants. I reached down to grab my panties and searched for my shoe.
“I’m the boss, remember?” A smile curled on his lips.
“So you’re proposing a boss-with-benefits situation?”
He shook his head. “No. I wouldn’t want that with you. I don’t know what I’m proposing. All I know is I missed you, and it was hell not being with you these past few days.”
“Then why didn’t you call me? You can’t just keep me at bay, then jump back in when you have an itch, and then forget about me until the itch comes back. I deserve better.”
He nodded. “You do.” He went to the file cabinet next to his desk, pulled out several files, and handed them to me. “This is what you came up here for.”
I took them and walked to the door. Before opening it, I looked behind my shoulder at him. “You’re the worst asshole there is because you pretend not to be one.”
“I never pretended with you. That was all real.”
“Whatever.” I dragged my gaze away from his and turned to the door, gripping the files tightly. I had to get the hell out of there before I let something else happen. Heading for the elevator, I practically jumped in and let the doors slide shut in front of me, then let out a deep breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding.