Kenneth
That night together is all it takes - after that, we can’t keep our hands off each other.
All the desire I’d been trying to suppress and ignore the whole time she’s been working for me has finally been let loose, and it’s enough to swamp everything else.
The next few days at work, I can’t stop looking at her. Or wanting her. Or touching her. Every time she comes close, looking at me a certain way, I can’t help it. Neither of us can. That energy sparks between us and somehow she ends up in my arms, my hand buried in her hair and our mouths crushed together with a kind of frenzy I’ve never known.
I can’t even compare it back to when we were kids, because I’m pretty sure that frenzy was also slightly awkward and clumsy…and this is anything but. If anything, it’s almost scary in how intent and serious and real it feels.
Pure, unadulterated, grown-up desire. Whole. All-encompassing.
The sort of need that kid back then never could have imagined.
It’s stupid, too. Risky. We shouldn’t be doing this - not here, where we’re supposed to be working. We both know that. We keep reminding each other about that.
It’s just really hard to care right now.
Not with Jessica in my arms, all over me, her heavy breathing in my ear, the half-moans she bites down on…god, she drives me crazy. Everything about her. And from the look in her eyes, it’s not just me feeling that.
There are so many things unspoken between us, things we haven’t talked about, things that I know we need to.
The past. Our history. Our jobs. This whole working-and-fucking-together thing we’ve started doing, that we both know is crazy stupid.
What this is. What it could be. What we want.
I know all those things. They’re on the tip of my tongue - and I want to tell her.
It’s just hard to focus on any of that when everything we are doing feels so damn good.
The knock at my door brings me out of yet another reverie - and the object of the fantasy I was just having walks in. The slow smile she always brings out of me slides across my face as she steps inside and nudges the door behind her.
My open door policy was the first casualty of what we’ve been doing. The red-hot energy between us sometimes feels hot enough that even if we weren’t doing anything, if someone else came by, it would be impossible for them not to see the electricity jumping between us. All it takes right now is a look - a smile - a slight suggestion…
“The documents you requested from Sales came through.” She says, and though her voice starts off totally professional, by the end it’s dropped to a murmur, as if she’s talking about something far more risque than my Sales department.
She walks forward to place them on my desk and all I can see is the way her tight pencil skirt shifts against her thighs. I swear those have gotten become over the last few days - and maybe even shorter too - and she’s wearing glossy tights that make her beautiful legs shimmer as she moves.
When my eyes flick back up to her face, I catch the knowing glint in her smile there and feel my cock responding immediately.
She’s doing it deliberately.
The thought just makes it hotter.
I stand up before she can turn to go, stepping around the desk and close to her - watching her breath hitch with my nearness before I lean against the desk, running one hand over the skirt and down her ass.
“You’re a tease.” I murmur, pulling her closer into me. “How do you expect me to concentrate on sales figures if you come in like that.”
“Like what?” She arches an eyebrow at me, looking at me with a sparkle in her eyes. “I’m not the one who keeps finding ways to get me all pressed up against him, sir.”
She looks pointedly down at where she’s standing in between my legs, her body tantalizingly close now. My cock pulses as she says ‘sir’ and I groan slightly.
“God, that’s hot.” I grin at her. “I like the way you say that.”
“Pervert.” She mutters, smiling back. “Doesn’t it seem a bit cliche to you - the whole office thing? Fantasizing about having your secretary under the desk…”
“How do you know I’ve been fantasizing about—” I catch the look on her face just as heat rises across mine, and I almost growl as I stand up and pull her into my arms. “Because you’ve been fantasizing about it too.”
She laughs, flushing herself, but her eyes are wide and full of pleasure as I lean down to kiss her.
“Kenneth…” She breathes, her objection swallowed as she sinks into the kiss.
She still looks around when we break apart, at the empty hallways just visible through the half-mast blinds, the way she always does. My office is in a separate space to everyone else - the only people that come down here do so to see me.
She’s still in charge of my schedule - she knows exactly who to expect. But she looks anyway, her pulse rising in her neck, and I know it’s from a combination of the thrill and the fear. The idea someone might see us.
“I wasn’t into the office thing until you, you know.” I murmur, my mouth kissing and nipping at her ear. “I didn’t start having fantasies about my secretary until you become that secretary. But now I can’t stop. It’s all I can think about. Having you bent over my desk…under it…watching you walk around in those…damn…tight…skirts…”
I trail kisses back to her mouth, taking it firmly in mine again and parting her lips with my tongue. Exploring her. Tasting her. Feeling like it’s never going to be enough.
I twist us around so she’s leaning against the desk, pressing her into it with the weight of my body and letting my hands roam over the sexy blouse she’s wearing. It’s got little bees on it, sexy and adorable as I run my hands over her full chest. She’s wearing my favorite lacy white bra - I’ve never seen it, but it’s my favorite because every time I run my hands across her breasts, it’s low enough that I can feel her hard nipples straining to get out - and I groan as I kiss her.
Her hands rise around my neck, holding onto me as she hops onto the desk, her legs spreading to let me stand inside. I pull her ass closer to the edge, the hard bulge of my cock pressing against my slacks and making me long for more, the dark opening of that pencil skirt so inviting…
She catches me looking, one hand drawing my face back to hers as I kiss her again, my hand sliding along her thigh and up into that enticing space. I feel her shudder under me, scooting forward instinctively and making the pencil skirt ride up even higher. My cock pulses again as I lean in, pressing myself up against her, and I can barely believe how hot and ready I feel for her, all the time.
“Kenneth…” She moans slightly and I capture her mouth with mine again. “This is a bad idea.”
“I know.” I say, parting enough to grin at her. “I haven’t made bad decisions in a long time. I’d forgotten how fun they are.”
She laughs and it warms me all the way through, my mouth back on hers in an instant, catching the delicate, beautiful sound of her pleasure as we grind against each other, my hands on her ass pulling her up against me. I dip my head down and kiss and nibble along her neck, the gorgeous smooth skin flushing under my touch.
“This is real, Jessica.” I look back up at her suddenly, the feeling too overwhelming not to say. “I meant everything I said to you that night. This isn’t just a hot fling for me. This is…everything.”
The words tumble out of me and I can feel how intense my gaze is on her face. I need her to know how serious I am.
“This is crazy.” She whispers back, her eyes wide as she takes me in. “We shouldn’t be…”
“I know.” I say, kissing her again anyway. “There are a dozen reasons not to - but I don’t care about any of them. I need you to know that, Jessica. I never gave up on something I wanted just because it was hard - I’m not about to start now.”
I pull her closer toward me, our bodies pressed hard up against each other, unable to help how much I want - how much I need - to feel her. I can’t remember the last time I wanted anything so much.
“Kenneth…”
I can see the hesitation as she looks at me - and it’s more than just this is a bad idea or everything going on around us. I know exactly what it is.
“I know there are things we haven’t talked about, Jessie.” I say softly, my fingers stroking her chin and tilting it up towards me. “We never got to have that coffee date I wanted, you know, or talked about things.”
I can see the fear in her eyes and it’s almost physically painful. I just want to fix it - to heal things and take it all away. I know why it’s there. I know I put it there. It might be the stupidest thing I ever did.
But I’m going to fix it. Whatever it takes.
“We still need to do that.” I say, leaning in to kiss her again, just a soft brush of our lips before I murmur against them. “Let’s go somewhere tomorrow night - get a few drinks. Talk for a little while.”
“I…I don’t…”
“Please.” I say softly, still touching her. Still holding that wide, beautiful gaze. “Will you give it a chance?”
She swallows, a visible movement that I follow with my eyes as I try not to notice the thumping of my heart or the aching uncertainty there.
Please tell me I didn’t screw everything up for good.
“Okay.” She finally whispers, her eyes flicking down so I can’t read them.
I lean forward to kiss her again, everything inside me relaxing with the relief.
“Thank you.”
“But…” She looks at me, some of the shadows still in her gaze - but the desire there too, the same hope that I feel deep inside me. “What…what if…”
What if it doesn’t work.
I know what she’s thinking.
What if she can’t get over it.
I don’t want to think about that. I don’t want to believe it. I can’t.
“We’ll talk.” I repeat, leaning into her again. “We’ll talk until it’s all behind us and we can move forward the way we want to. But there’s no way we’re not going to move forward, Jessie. Whatever I have to do.”
She shudders slightly under me but I can see something in her relax a little too.
“You think?” She asks, and it sounds more vulnerable than I’ve heard her for a long time. Enough that it takes me back to all those years ago.
“I know.” I say, with the same surety that I gave her so long ago. The same reassurance. The same certainty.
For me, there’s no other outcome.
“Okay.” She says again, some of the light coming back to her eyes as she reaches forward to hug me, repeating it with far more conviction in her voice. “Okay. We’ll do that.”
I smile, leaning down to kiss her again.
That’s my girl.
I can see the mental shift in her and even though I don’t have any right to feel it anymore, I can’t help the pride that washes through me.
She’s more resilient than she was.
It’s a bittersweet thought, as I wonder whether some of that is because I made her need to be - after what I did all those years ago.
“Are you going to let me go?” She asks after a moment, giving me a little smile, and I shrug the thought off, bringing my attention back to what’s right in front of me.
I smile back, feeling it become a smirk. “Do I have to?”
“Y—”
I pull her up, lifting her so she’s standing against the desk again, and kiss her deeply. She melts into me and it relaxes some of those lingering concerns, the worry about everything that happened years ago that’s been at the back of my mind for too long. When we’re like this, all that seems a world away - like it can’t possibly affect anything now.
A fantasy I very much want to indulge.
I let my hands wander down her back, tugging the skirt back over her ass and wondering whether it’s too outrageously creased from all of this.
“Kenneth…” There’s laughter in her voice as she tries to wriggle out from my arms. “We really shouldn’t be doing this here.”
“So you’ve said.” I grin at her, glad to hear the ease back in her voice again. Whatever might happen tomorrow, at least it hasn’t disrupted today too much. “But I don’t think you’re going to stop me.”
I advance on her again and she giggles as she tries to protest, looking around at the empty hallways again.
“I told you, no one—”
The sudden ringing of the phone right beside us on the desk startles me - and she jumps apart from me, looking at it guiltily, which only makes me laugh.
“Shit.” She says, despite my obvious amusement. “Your three o’clock. With your lawyer.”
“Mm.” I say, non-committal. I can think of much better things to be doing than talking to Patrick, but I step back from her anyway.
“To discuss that sexual harassment lawsuit.” She says pointedly, glaring at me.
I just laugh, leaning back against the desk as my hand hovers over the phone.
“I might be seeing sexual harassment in a whole different light now.” I wink at her.
“Kenneth!” She says, halfway between outrage and trying to suppress her own laughter. “It’s not a joke.”
I snort. “The whole damn thing has always been a joke…it just took you to make me see the funny side of it.”
“Answer the damn phone, idiot.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” I wink at her as I pick it up, totally missing Patrick’s greeting as I watch her roll her eyes and swivel on her heel, stalking out decisively. My eyes follow her legs and ass the whole time.
“Kenneth?” The voice in my ear repeats - and then the door in front of me mercifully closes.
It doesn’t quite bring my full concentration back to me, but enough that I clear my throat and answer semi-appropriately.
“The other side have finally decided to play ball - just before I was going to petition the judge, too. Looks like they’re not going to fumble as much as we hoped. It’s going all the way.”
“Huh?” I say, still distracted enough that I can’t work out exactly what he’s talking about.
“The witness list came through today.” He says, his tone grim.
I look up at that, the last wisps of fantasy clearing as my focus narrows.
“I’ll send it through now - but Kenneth, you know you can’t do anything, don’t you? That wouldn’t be good right now.”
“I know.” I say, but my voice is hard at the prospect.
Just who the hell is willing to appear in court and spread lies about me in sworn testimony?
He doesn’t say much more - which I’m grateful for, as I’m not sure I would have been in the best place for listening after that announcement - and when it finally comes through, I spend a while sitting in front of my computer looking at the list of names.
I recognize several people who we had to let go over the last couple of years - most in Sales, but not all - and then there are some others I don’t know. Not all of them related to ExVenture, so I’d guess Danielle has character witnesses from other places, though I’ve no idea how that can really be relevant.
The secretary she had here at ExVenture is listed - but since the girl transferred with Danielle to her new place of employment, that’s not too surprising. Galling, and possibly a problem at the trial, but I probably could have guessed she’d back her employer up.
There’s only one that really sticks out at me, though.
Amanda Speed.
She worked as part of Danielle’s sales team - and when Danielle left, she was promoted to co-running that same sales team. I’ve talked to her a dozen times since then. We’ve been in meetings together. We’ve discussed pitches together. We’ve presented to clients.
She’s been in exactly the same environment that Danielle was - the same environments Danielle accused me of sexual harassment within. Not alone, admittedly, because she’s co-running the team with the other lead, Dan, but still…
She’s never said anything. Never given any hint…
And I’ve never once suspected she’d do something like this.
I shake my head, my gaze fixated on that name for a long time.
I don’t understand it. I’m not sure I ever will.
I think about it for a long time, before I realize I’m not even angry.
I’d expected to be. I’d thought this list would send me into a flying rage or something.
Instead, I’m a little surprised, a little sad and a little resigned. But nothing more.
I glance at the closed door to my office, considering that, and my mind drifts toward drinks with Jessica tomorrow and what I’m going to say to her - the same things I’ve been thinking about all week.
I look at her name again - Amanda Speed, who would’ve thought it - before I realize that it doesn’t really matter that much. Not the lawsuit, and not Amanda.
There are more important things to think about.