Chapter Sixteen
In a few short hours, Lauren had negotiated plea bargains on four cases. She was zapped and she still had hours of work to do. It was taking every ounce of concentration she had to keep focused on the words she was reading as she clicked through her e-mail. She had forty new items in her inbox since she cleared it two hours before.
“Lauren.”
Lauren jumped at the unexpected, familiar voice of her ex-fiancée, Roger. “You scared the heck out of me. How did you get past the front desk?”
He leaned against the door frame, looking every bit like Tom Cruise in ‘The Firm’, one leg crossed over the other, his thousand dollar suit fitted, his hair and nails perfectly groomed. “She was on the phone and I waved and walked by.”
So easily. Too easily. She was fooling herself to think she was safely nestled in her office. “What are you doing here, Roger?”
“What kind of way is that to greet your ex-fiancé? I am, after all, the man you almost pleaded never ending love to.”
“I’m tired. I have a big trial starting, and I don’t have time for this.” She refocused on her computer screen intent on dismissing him.
“I worry about you.”
The sincerity in his voice surprised her. She gave him a curious look. Suddenly, the past came back in a rush of memories, but none of them were good. She couldn’t remember why she’d ever said ‘yes’ to marrying him.
“We weren’t meant to be, Roger. We were a business arrangement and neither of us would have been happy long term.”
Lauren’s buzzer went off. She punched the button. “Yes.”
“Pick up.”
Lauren frowned, but reached for the receiver. “Yes?”
Alice whispered urgently, “There is a very large, very grouchy man here who insists on seeing you.”
Lauren couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s Royce. Tell him I’ll be right out.” Lauren pushed to her feet. “I have a visitor I need to attend.”
Abruptly Roger closed the distance between them, and was behind her desk, his hands on her shoulders, right over the bandage and her burn. “I made a mistake. I had cold feet. We can make it work. I’ll make it up to you.”
Lauren grabbed his hand. “You're hurting me.”
“And you’re destroying me. I miss you. I”
“Let her go.”
Roger released her and turned to the door, where Royce stood, tall and broad, in jeans and a T-shirt, that might as well have been leather and knives, for the look on his face.
“Who are you?” Roger demanded.
“The only man who gets to touch her.”
Lauren gaped at the caveman-like statement. “Royce,” she ground out between her teeth.
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“I was just leaving,” Roger said, but Royce still blocked the doorway and made no effort to move.
“Don’t leave on my account,” Royce said in a hard voice Lauren was starting to worry about.
Roger, who was used to being under fire in the courtroom appeared to recover from his initial shock. Offering a cool glare, he said, “I’m not. I simply came by to check on Lauren.” He glanced at Lauren, “I’ll call you,” and then stepped forward as if daring Royce to block his way.
For several tense seconds, Lauren thought Royce wasn’t going to move, but finally he backed up to let Roger pass. She was at the door when Royce stepped inside her office, shutting the door. “You’re the only man who gets to touch me? I’m not your property, Royce.”
“No. But we’re either exclusive or we aren’t anything.”
At any other time, she’d have reveled in what he was saying, what he was offering, but not now, not like this. “You don’t get to tell me we’re exclusive. You don’t get to demand it. That’s not how this works.”
He grabbed her and picked her up, setting her on the desk, shoving her skirt up and pressing her legs apart to stand between them. His hands framed her body, pressed to the wooden surface beside her hips. “Do you want Roger?”
Heat sizzled down her spine. This damnable alpha side of him pissed her off, but it turned her on too, and she didn’t understand why. She pressed on his hard, unmoving chest. “Don’t bully me or push me around. Let me up.”
“Do you want Roger?”
“You know I don’t.”
“Apparently you want to keep you options open,” he said, his hands skimming up her thighs. “You don’t want to say we’re exclusive. So maybe this is just a good time ride for you?”
“You’re being an asshole,” she said. “Demanding and demanding. You don’t get to demand. You ask, Royce.”
His eyes darkened, glinting dangerously. “You want me to ask?” He skimmed his thumb over her panties. “How about this? Will you come for me, Lauren? Right here, in your office?” He slid his fingers under her panties and she gasped at the pleasure. “Does he make you wet like this?”
“Stop it, Royce,” she gasped as his fingers pushed inside her. “Stop.”
He reached up and tugged down her blouse, exposing her bra and then her nipple, before leaning down and licking it. “Not until you say you’re mine.”
“I’m not saying that. I won’t ever be yours if you’re this big of an asshole.”
“I’m just making sure you know who is supposed to be fucking you.”
She arched against his fingers, unable to stop herself. “I hate how you’re acting.” She buried her face in his shoulder. “I hate that you’re doing... this.” Her body clenched around his fingers, pleasure rushing through her, defying her words.
The fingers of his other hand tangled into her hair, forcing her gaze to his, her mouth a breath from his. He stroked her clit with his thumb, pumping inside her. “I hate the idea of him doing this to you.”
“He can’t do this to me.”
“Why?” he all but growled.
There was something in his voice, in his words, a vulnerability that defied his demands, that reached into her and drew a response. “Because he’s not you, Royce.”
He kissed her, hard and demanding, a fierce claiming that had her moaning and giving into her need for him. Everything blurred then turning to shades of pleasure. She couldn’t get enough of him, she couldn’t even remember where she was. Only that she helped him shove his pants down, welcomed him ripping away her panties, and whimpered when his cock pressed into her.
He thrust into her, lifted her off the desk, and pulled her down on him. She clung to him, hungered for him like she had never another man, and yes, she came for him, just like he wanted her to.
He shook with his release and then set her on the desk, burying his face in her neck. Emotions rolled over Lauren and she didn’t know what she was feeling. “Let me up,” she said, shoving on his shoulders. “I need up. Someone could walk in.”
He lifted his head and looked like he would refuse, a moment before he pulled a tissue from the box on her desk, handed it to her, and pulled out of her.
Lauren quickly gave him her back to clean up. She snatched her panties, shoved them in her desk drawer and fixed her shirt. She turned to find him standing close, hands pressed in his pockets.
“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I don’t know what the hell came over me. I don’t want anyone else to touch you and I’m pretty sure I just screwed this up in every possible way.”
The raw vulnerability in him she’d sensed minutes before reached out to her, “I don’t want Roger. I don’t want anyone else, but if you act like that again,” she hesitated, “I might come but I won’t like it.”
His lips turned up slowly. ”You won’t like it?”
“Okay, I might like it, but I won’t be happy I liked it.”
He bit back a broader smile. “Do I dare believe that comment means you forgive me?”
“Yes but”
He was holding her before she could add “Don’t go caveman on me again.”
“Never?” he teased.
She brushed her fingers over his. “Maybe later tonight, but not after that.”
He chuckled. “I can’t wait.”
And neither could she. It was time to face the very real possibility that she’d gone and exposed herself to more than a dangerous monster trying to kill her. She’d exposed her heart. Lauren was falling in love with Royce.