So this is what it feels like to have a job you love.

Okay, maybe it’s not technically the job I love, so much as the experience of being at work and having sex on Damon’s desk, but there’s no need to get bogged down in technicalities.

The only downside is that I’m more tired than usual. I’ve never been the exercising type, and the sex Damon and I are having is coming dangerously close to exercise. I fight a yawn back as I shove a granola bar into my mouth.

“I’m going to see Mom tonight,” Samantha says, appearing behind me out of nowhere. How does she do that? “Are you coming?”

I did promise Damon I’d ‘work late’ tonight, but Mom comes first. Besides, we can just fuck in the afternoon.

“Sure,” I reply. “I’ll be there.”

“And will you be coming alone?”

“Of course. I’m hardly going to bring Damon to see Mom in hospital.”

“They’ve already met.”

“Yes, thanks to you.” I still haven’t forgiven Samantha for that indiscretion, but I’m not as angry about it as I thought I would be. Mom doesn’t talk much these days, so she just sat and listened as Damon talked about his job and how much I help him out. He kept it professional so Mom doesn’t have any idea what we’re doing.

“Mom knows you two are fucking,” Samantha says.

Oh. “How?” I ask, raising my eyebrows in my best ‘I know you said something to her’ way.

“Nothing to do with me.” Samantha holds her hands up defensively. “Well, apart from the bit where I invited him in to meet her. She figured out the rest. Mom might be ill, but she’s still sharp where it counts.”

“What does she ‘know’ exactly? Does she think Damon and I are in a serious relationship?”

“No, I subtly explained the concept of ‘friends with benefits’ to her.”

“Oh God.”

“She’s fine with it. Mom was young once too.”

“I’m not going to be able to look her in the eyes tonight.”

“She’ll be asleep most of the time anyway I expect. Look, you don’t need to feel guilty. You’re having fun. What’s wrong with that?”

“Well, for one thing, he’s my boss.”

“Yeah,” Samantha says slowly. “That’s not ideal I must admit. Still, I’d kill to be in your position.”

So would most of the women at work, which is why none of them are speaking to me.

“You don’t think I’m a slut who’s sleeping her way to the top?”

“Of course not. You are a slut, but you’ll never make it to the top without a law degree.”

“I do love these sisterly conversations.”

“You worry too much. Look, you’re having fun. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“I could lose my job,” I reply. And get my heart broken. That’s becoming a real concern, but there’s no way I’m voicing it out loud.

“You’ll get another job.”

“Not one that pays this well. You know we need the money.”

“If Mom knew you were living your life just trying to earn enough to support her, she’d give up and die out of spite.”

“Don’t say things like that.”

“Okay, okay. Just don’t mess this up. You have a good thing going and occasionally you look happy. Mom noticed that herself.”

I am happy. Well, happier anyway. I’ll never be truly happy while Mom’s still sick, but this is the closest I’ve been in a long time.

I don’t want what Damon and I have to end, but I can’t lose this job. Something has to give, and Mom is more important than my sex life.

* * *

If there were any doubt in my mind that people in the office knew what Damon and I were getting up to after hours, it disappeared the minute I bumped into Cheryl, one the junior attorneys, in the kitchen.

Cheryl always struck me as a bit of a bitch, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt. She’s only been a lawyer for a couple of years and the partners keep her busy. She isn’t the first attorney to snap orders at me. She is the first to call me a whore though.

“I’ll probably be making drinks for you soon,” Cheryl says, as I pour Damon a cup of coffee.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard. Good luck on the promotion.”

“I haven’t been promoted.”

“I’m sure you will soon.” She heads towards the door and the word escapes her lips. “Whore.” It’s not loud or angry, but it’s unmistakable. She thinks I’m a whore and so does everyone else in the office I expect.

This can’t go on. If I lose this job… I don’t even want to think about what might happen to Mom.

I take Damon’s drink to his office and place it down on the desk. He’s wrapped up in yet another memo. He works too hard. Even with all the breaks he takes to spank me on his desk, he still puts in fourteen hour days judging by the timecards he has me fill out each week. There’s a big deal going down, but there’s always a big deal going down. It’s part of the job. This isn’t a good time to deliver bad news, but there’ll never be a good time.

“Damon?”

He looks up from his memo. I don’t usually talk to him unless summoned, so there’s a confused look on his face.

“What is it?”

Am I really going to say this? Am I really going to mess up the best thing that’s happened to me in years?

I clear my throat. “We need to be more professional in the office.”

Damon frowns and keeps staring at me. “You want to stop having sex?”

“Only in the office. And not just the sex. We shouldn’t do anything that a normal boss and employee wouldn’t do.”

“What’s brought this on?”

“I don’t know, I just… we should never have started in the first place. It’s inappropriate behavior in a workplace.”

“You sound like an HR manager. Anyway, I’m the boss, I decide what’s inappropriate. In your case, you keep misbehaving and therefore a spanking is the appropriate punishment.”

“Damon, I’m being serious.”

“So am I. We’re not stopping.”

“You don’t get to make that decision.”

I’ve never once used the safe word. Bluebook. I hope I never have to.

Damon sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. “Sit down, Kara.”

I take a seat opposite his desk and try to look professional like I did when he called me in here to give me the job.

“You don’t need to worry about losing your job. That’s not going to happen.”

“I can’t risk it,” I reply. I want to tell him. He deserves to know the truth. Hell, he’s even met Mom so it’s not going to come as a huge surprise. Screw it, I’m telling him. “I need the money. For Mom. She’s—”

“Your mom’s ill so you dropped out of law school to get a job and pay her medical bills. Yeah, I know.”

I let out a sigh of relief. I don’t care how he knows, but I ask anyway.

“You’re far too clever to have dropped out of law school,” Damon says. “That much is obvious. I noticed that your mom has been in hospital lately, so I put two and two together. I’m not great at math, but I managed to arrive at four.”

“I didn’t want to lie to you.”

Damon raises his hand. “It’s fine, honestly. You don’t have to explain yourself. But you need to know that your job here is safe. You’re not going anywhere. I would quit myself before firing you.”

He means it. That look is his eyes—he’s deadly serious.

“Why?” I ask. “Why would you do that for me?”

He stares back at me and I immediately regret asking the question. Eventually he gives me a smile that warms my core.

“You’d be difficult to replace. In more ways than one.”

“Thanks.”

I don’t care what anyone else thinks or says about us. What we have might be a bit unusual, but it’s real and I’d have to be crazy to end it. I’m a little weird sometimes, but I’m not crazy.