Chapter Eleven

Chastity

“So glad you could join us today, dear,” Patrick said, a grin on his face when I stepped through the door.

“Bite me, Patrick,” I said, giving him the finger. “I was meeting with my contractors this morning.”

“Testy, testy, this morning,” he said. “Wake up on the wrong side of the bed today?”

I ignored him and walked into my office, closing the door behind me, and dropping my bag on the corner of my desk before dropping myself into my chair. I flipped on the computer and waited for it to boot up. Honestly, all I wanted in that moment was to be left alone. To sort through my emails and do a little business in silence. I loved Patrick, he’d always been a good friend to me, but I really didn’t want to be around him at that moment. I didn’t really want to be around anybody, actually.

Seeing Jordan this morning filled my head with images of being with him. As those images floated through my head, so did all of the sensations they evoked. Small jolts of electricity slithered along my skin as I reveled in the feeling of his hands on me. His mouth on me. Feeling him moving inside of me. I thought about the powerful orgasms he gave me and I felt the heat between my thighs. Felt myself growing wet.

I was so distracted by thoughts of Jordan bending me over the counter and having his way with me that I couldn’t focus on my emails. My panties were soaked and I leaned back in my seat, letting my hand trail up my thigh. I closed my eyes and ran my fingertips across my skin, slipping my hand beneath my skirt. My pulse was racing and I couldn’t believe how wet I was as I thought about Jordan fucking me.

I touch myself through my panties, a small whimper escaping my throat. But a knock sounded on my office door and I sat up in my seat and pulled my hand out from under my skirt, doing my best to straighten it out. I cleared my throat and tried to gather myself quickly.

“Come in,” I called.

Patrick stepped into my office bearing a cup of coffee. He set it down on my desk with a flourish and gave me a bow. I couldn’t help but laugh and shake my head at him. He dropped down into the chair across the desk from me and crossed his legs.

“Caramel macchiato,” he announced. “Extra caramel, extra whip.”

“Sounds extra perfect,” I said.

“Only the best for you.”

I took a sip of my coffee drink and lean back in my seat, letting out a low moan of pleasure as the sweet taste hit my tongue.

“It’s definitely extra perfect,” I say.

“But of course it is.”

I took another drink and set the cup down on the desk, letting out a long sigh. I had business to attend to, but I didn’t really want to deal with any of it.

“So, you’ve gotten a couple of calls from Mrs. Babich this morning,” Patrick said.

“Mrs. Babich?”

“She’s organizing the fundraising gala I told you about weeks ago,” he said.

“Oh, right,” I replied, nodding as if I remembered.

I honestly had no recollection of this charity gala, but I wasn’t about to tell Patrick that. I needed to pretend that I was focused and on my game. But, my head was filled with thoughts of Jordan. Not to mention the other thing that was currently taking up a lot of brain space.

Patrick looked at me expectantly. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“Are you going to RSVP?” Patrick asked. “To the gala?”

“Oh,” I said. “Ummmm... should I?”

“Yes, you should,” he said. “It’s a prestigious event and another way to get your brand out there, Chastity.”

I nodded. “Okay,” I said. “Then, we’ll RSVP. Can you send that in for me?”

“Of course.”

I looked at my assistant and opened my mouth to speak, but then closed it again. Ordinarily, I would have told Patrick everything. I would have laid it all out and bared my soul to him, as I’d done on countless other occasions. Patrick had always been a sympathetic ear and usually doled out some good advice.

But something about this – whatever it was I had going with Jordan – felt different. Was different. Something about it seemed forbidden. And I felt it best to keep Jordan a secret. At least for now.

As for the other matter, yeah, I wasn’t going to let that particular cat out of the bag anytime soon. I wasn’t even sure there was a cat to be let out. But, in case there was, I needed time to think.

“Was there anything else?” I asked, wanting nothing more than to be left alone for a little while.

Patrick’s jaw almost fell open and he looked at me like I’d lost my mind. He pointed to a stack of renderings and sketches in a file on the corner of my desk and I looked at it blankly.

“Was I supposed to do something with those?” I asked.

“Uhhh – yeah,” he said. “We were waiting for your yay or nay on these. We need to have them in ASAP if we want to make the new catalog.”

“Shit,” I muttered. “Right. It completely slipped my mind.”

I sighed and rubbed my temples, feeling a real banger of a headache starting to come on. When I looked up, I found Patrick staring at me, an expression of something between concern and curiosity on his face.

“Can I ask you something, Chastity?”

“Sure,” I said, even though the last thing I wanted was to have to answer somebody’s questions.

“Are you okay?”

“Why is everybody asking me that today?” I huffed. “Yes, I’m fine.”

“You just seem off your game,” Patrick said. “If I’m being honest, you just don’t seem all together here. Like your brain is on vacation somewhere. Your body is here, but your mind most definitely is not.”

Yeah, you could most definitely say my brain was on vacation. Just, nowhere nice. At least, outside of my thoughts about fucking Jordan, anyway. It was true. I was distracted, and it was starting to interfere with my work, which was a problem.

“Seriously,” Patrick said. “If there’s anything you want or need to talk about, you know I’m always here for you. Right?”

A grateful little smile crossed my lips. “Of course I do,” I said. “And I really appreciate it, Patrick.”

“We’re not besties for nothing,” he said.

I desperately wanted to tell Patrick everything. Wanted to tell him about Jordan. Wanted to tell him I was having the most mind-blowing, amazing sex of my entire life. Wanted to talk about all of the feelings I had running around inside of me and get his opinion on them.

Every time I opened my mouth to tell him, warning bells sounded in my head and I forced myself to pull back. I figured that if my instincts were telling me to hold off, there was a reason for it. At least, for the moment, anyway. They rarely, if ever, steered me wrong.

“So?” Patrick asked. “Anything you want to get off your chest?”

Everything. I desperately wanted to tell him everything. But, knew I couldn’t.

“No, not right now,” I said. “There’s a lot going on, but I think I just need to sit with it for a little while. Kind of wrap my head around it all.”

“Yikes,” he said. “That doesn’t sound very good.”

I shrugged. “Not sure what it is just yet.”

“Fair enough,” he said. “Just know that I’m always around when you need me.”

“I know you are,” I said. “And I’m lucky to have you.”

“Yes,” he said. “Yes, you are indeed.”

We laughed as he stood up and tapped the file folder on the corner of my desk, reminding me that I needed to go through them.

“We have until five this afternoon to submit these,” he said. “Otherwise, we’ll have to wait another quarter to get into the next catalog.”

I snapped him a quick salute. “Aye, aye, captain,” I said.

“Captain,” he replied. “I rather like the sound of that.”

“Yeah well, don’t get used to it,” I said and laughed. “I’m still the captain of this ship.”

“But, I’m a dashing first mate, aren’t I?”

“That you are.”

“Well, at least we have that sorted then,” he said and headed for the door, calling to me over his shoulder. “Five o’clock, Captain. At the latest.”

He closed the door behind him, leaving me to my own devices. Sighing, I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes, focusing on my breath as I tried to get my head together. I couldn’t believe I’d almost been caught masturbating in my office.

But then, that was the effect Jordan had on me. When it came to him, I was insatiable. I wanted more. Just seeing him made my heart race and inevitably got my panties wet. Sex with him was utterly amazing and every time we parted, I found myself looking forward to the next time.

That, of course, led to another sort of problem. I hadn’t been short and sharp with him that morning because I was tired. I was tired, but no more so than usual, really. Stress had been keeping me up at night though. But, what was stressing me out was something I couldn’t talk to anybody about just yet. Not Patrick. Certainly not Jordan. I needed to process it and figure out if what was going on was actually what I feared.

I was late.

Which, obviously, was stressing me the hell out.

The very last thing I could afford in my life right now was to turn up pregnant. There was just so much going on and so many balls in the air that I couldn’t afford to take the time off that I’d need if I were pregnant. And I feared that as a single mother, I’d have to take off even more time than usual.

There were so many demands on my time as it was. Store openings. Endless meetings with my production staff and clients. I was in negotiations with a dozen different stores to start stocking my brand. My business was really starting to take off and I couldn’t afford to kill that momentum by having a kid.

I’d always thought that one day, after my business was on solid footing and running along smoothly on its own – or at least, when it was big enough that I could hire the right people to run the day to day operations – I’d be able to take a little bit of a step back. I could maybe, provided I ever met the right man, even think about settling down. Maybe even start a family.

Now was not that time. No, now was the time to put my nose to the grindstone and work my ass off to build this company. I wanted my brand to be big. To be national. Hell, I wanted it to go international. The only way to do that was to keep building the momentum. Keep getting my name and my designs out there in the public eye.

I couldn’t afford to be pregnant right now. I just couldn’t.

I knew if I kept dwelling on it, that I would be useless for the rest of the day. I needed to push it aside and deal with it later. I had a lot to do.

I took a deep breath, let it out and tried to focus. Which, of course, was the exact moment my phone chimed, letting me know I had a text message. I picked up my phone with a sigh and felt a momentary rush of adrenaline, seeing the message was from Jordan.

Dinner tonight. My place. Seven. Prepare to be amazed.

While some women might be put off by his take-charge sort of attitude, and the fact that he told me we were having dinner, rather than ask me, I couldn’t deny that I found his assertiveness a little sexy.

I pondered my reply for a moment, debating with myself about whether I had the time to have dinner with him or not. Especially since, I had a feeling that dinner would lead to dessert, which would lead to an all-night affair.

I looked at my phone a moment longer, and decided that I was going to run away from responsibility. At least, for one night. I was going to push everything out of my mind and enjoy an evening with Jordan. I worked hard. I deserved it. Right?

I keyed in a quick message and sent it before I had a chance to think it over. “Better be good,” was what I sent. A moment later, my phone chimed with a reply.

Aren’t I always?

I laughed and sent him a reply, telling him that I’d see him later. After that, I pulled the folder over to me and started going through the designs for the catalog. I was going to ditch my responsibilities for the night – after getting a little productivity in first.