Primal Obsession

by D. M. Mortier

  “Did you just say sexy as hell?”

  “Eh, well, I was just…”

  “I’m feeling invincible already.” He grinned at her embarrassment.

  Nakia couldn’t believe that she’d slipped and made such a comment. If the pigment in her skin were lighter, he would have seen the blush that flooded her face. God, can you be any more obvious? She cleared her throat. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

  He raised an eyebrow and moved closer to her, crowding her personal space. “Which part didn’t you mean? I’m hanging on to the sexy-as-hell part, so you can do whatever you want with the rest of it.”

  Her awareness of him ratcheted up several notches with his scent and the masculine heat invading her senses. He smelled like a mix of expensive cologne and Justin’s unique male scent, which was already hardwired to send her hormones in a frenzy. She swayed closer toward him without consciously deciding to do so. They were as close as two people could be without touching. “Clearly, you don’t need any help with that swollen head of yours,” she grumbled. She would have done anything right then to feel his lips on hers. And he was so close too. He only had to bend his head.

  Justin grinned and whispered in a gravelly voice, “Will it help if I tell you that I think you’re stunning?”

  “I thought we agreed on no personal comments. And I already know what you think about my body. You tell me in very visual terms almost daily.” This flirting between was getting bolder. Feeling slightly off balance, she placed her palm on his broad chest, which was covered by his crisp white dress shirt.

  “I don’t recall any such agreement. And you do some visual declarations yourself.” His voice had lowered even further, and the deep baritone had her curling her fingers into the material of his shirt to pull him closer.

  “Well, if you don’t remember the rules you insisted on…”

  He bent his head but then stopped short of touching his lips to hers. “As badly as I want this, as we want this, you know that we can’t, right?”

  Nakia helplessly whimpered, drowning in a sea of sensations and need so intense that she was tempted to ignore his honor code and break it for him. “This can’t be healthy for either of us.” She could barely get the words past her lips. Her nerves were frayed from trying to respect his wishes and his marriage. She’d seen his wife when she visited Justin a few weeks back, and Melissa was just as beautiful as she remembered. It was perfectly understandable why Justin wasn’t willing to give her up.

  “It’s killin’ me, Nakia.” He tightened his grip at her waist, and she tried to get as close to him as possible.

  They stood close enough that she felt every hard line of his body against hers and every breath that he took. Her body pulsed in rhythm to his. Fuck it! She gave in. Gripping his shirt for leverage, she reached up on the tips of her toes and kissed him.

  At first his lips were still against hers, but when she dipped her tongue in, she moaned with euphoric bliss at the taste of him. He curled his tongue around hers, causing her eyes to roll back in her head at the rush of butterflies in her belly and the fierce throbbing of her clit.

  Deepening the kiss, he growled and crushed her against him.

  Nakia writhed eagerly against the impressive steel and length pulsing against her stomach. She wound her arms around his neck and cursed the tightness of her skirt, which prevented her climbing him.

  He placed a large palm on her ass and the other on her breast. His strong grip held her captive for a slow, sensual kiss, triggering emotions she’d never felt. When he released her lips and latched onto her neck, she was dizzy with lust and reached frantically for the buttons of his shirt.

  “What’re you doing to me, Nakia?” His voice was hoarse with desire as he pushed the hem of her skirt up over her thighs and hips with desperate urgency.

  She keened with approval as he pulled her hip hard against his granite length.

  Pushing her silk blouse out of the way and lowering the bra-cup from her breast, he sucked a pebbled nipple into his mouth as he thrust against her panty-clad center, riding her hard.

  A blistering climax ripped through her, and she couldn’t help the stunned scream that echoed throughout the room.

  “Ah fuck,” Justin muttered as a set of clipped footsteps could be heard walking briskly toward his office. He quickly released her and helped straighten her clothes. He stepped away from her just as a loud knock sounded at the door.

  As if from a disembodied world, Nakia watched as the cracked door opened far enough for Justin and Colt’s secretary, Janice, to poke her head into the room.

  “All okay?” She looked at them with the same cool façade that she always wore.

  “Yeah, all good.” Justin chuckled to make light of the situation. “Nakia sometimes doesn’t like my methods and has to raise her voice to get my attention.” He shrugged.

  Janice nodded and left them with the soft click of the door as she closed them in again.

  Nakia was still too buzzed from her orgasm to get her legs to move. She tried to force her sluggish brain to cooperate and regain some mobility. Her knees gave out, and she leaned on his desk, suddenly to weary to continue standing under her own strength.

  He moved to stand next to her, not daring to touch her again. “You’re amazing, and I’ve no idea how I’m going to resist you after that.”

  “Uh-huh,” was as much as she could manage. Her senses were even more attuned to his masculinity after kissing him, touching him. And she was once again transported back to the lust-filled sensual vortex. It was pure torture being near him and not having his arms around her or being able to kiss him as she desperately craved.

  “That can’t happen again,” he told her softly.

  “Jay?”

  He pulled her into his arms and hugged her. “I want you, but not like this. You deserve better and should be no man’s dirty little secret. This isn’t happening again.”

  Nakia enjoyed one last moment of her body being dominated by his large frame before stepping back from him. “I’m sorry, Jay. I wish…” She swallowed and closed her eyes to stop herself from saying what she knew they were both feeling. She opened her eyes to find his gaze burning into hers. “I’d better get started compiling information for Linda’s case.” She put some more distance between them and fixed her clothes.

  “I’m sorry too. You know I’ll never take advantage of you, right? I’d never take advantage of our position.”

  “Yeah, I know. I trust you. And it’s not as though I would complain if you did. I want you, and you want me. I can’t promise that I won’t take advantage of you by reminding you of that every chance I get.” She gave him a playful smile as she left his office, trying to make light of their predicament. Working with him, getting to know more about him had only served to make her love him more. The attraction between them was unlike anything she’d ever felt before, and she knew he felt it too. So, she understood what it cost him to pull back and not follow through on what they both wanted. His strength of character, his honor was formidable. She admired that about him.

  To take her mind off the situation with Justin, she focused on learning as much as she could about the appellate court judge. Nakia left the office after advising Justine’s secretary that she was spending the rest of the afternoon in the library. She knew that the secretary assumed that she meant the extensive law library at the firm, but Nakia didn’t correct her assumption. She grabbed her gym bag from her desk, slipped into the lady’s room, and came back out a few moments later unrecognizable to her coworkers. Her disguises were always appropriate to the task at hand, and today she needed the judge and his people to think that she was a vagrant. It was amazing the things that people did and said around a homeless person.

  Chapter Six

  Almost a week later, Nakia had an extensive dossier on the judge, and she knew this was about to get ugly, real fast.

  “Where did you get this?”

  “Doe
s it matter?” Nakia hesitated because she’d never gotten that question from Justin before.

  He continued reading the file. “I wouldn’t ask if it didn’t. Our investigative team would’ve warned us that they were going into mob territory.”

  “Mob?” Nakia squeaked.

  “Yeah, mob. Who did you think Baldacci was?” He looked up at her then. “Tell me that you didn’t go into these places.”

  “I didn’t go into those places,” she repeated obediently.

  He was quiet for a long time before muttering under his breath.

  “No one saw me! I don’t understand why you’re not happy about the information I found. The judge will be finished if this information gets out there.”

  “I don’t ever want you to put herself in danger like this again. I can’t put you in danger again.”

  His voice was low and urgent. If she weren’t sitting so close to him, she wouldn’t have heard him.

  “This isn’t your fault.”

  “Colt and I will deal with this going forward.” He ignored her statement. “No one else in the firm needs to risk their lives.”

  “What about Linda and her children?”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll get Linda and the kids secured before moving on the judge. You’ll be working on the acquisitions with Sandra for the next few weeks.”

  “But—”

  “Nakia, this is not up for debate.”

  “Jay, don’t do this to me. I can take care of myself. Please don’t exclude me on this.”

  “Do you understand how much danger you’d be in if Baldacci or this judge find you snooping around their little project? This isn’t fun and games. These guys are fuckin’ dangerous.”

  “I know how to be careful, and I never go into those places as myself.”

  “Don’t say another word! My God, you’re scaring the crap out of me right now. I don’t know whether to lock your ass up or spank you!”

  “Well, since you’re my boss and not my man, the worse you can do is fire me.”

  “So, you think I need a label in order to keep you safe? Or to care about you?”

  “No, but I need a label. I don’t know where I stand with you. One minute you’re my overbearing boss, and then the next, you’re acting like my man. Make up your damn mind, Jay.”

  “Nakia—”

  “No, Jay, I get it. And I’m sorry, but I must be difficult about this. I want to help bring these guys down.”

  “Don’t. You want a fuckin’ label? As your boss, I’m telling you to work with Sandra.”

  “What if I want to work with Robert?” Nakia knew she was playing with fire now. Robert made no secret that he was into her. In fact, he made it a point to come to the gym whenever Nakia was there. And because everyone thought that Justin was simply being an overprotective boss, he ignored Justin’s presence and flirted outrageously with her.

  “I’m not fuckin’ around, Nakia. Don’t mess with the mob, and for damn sure stay the fuck away from Robert.”

  “Anything else you’d like to dictate in my life?” She didn’t try to hide her irritation.

  “As long as you’re alive and safe, I’m good. Colt and I will bring them down, I assure you.”

  She tried to retrieve her file from his desk, but he picked it up and held it away from her.

  “I’m going to hold on to this because you won’t be needing it anymore.”

  “That’s mine, give it back.” She moved around his desk and advanced on him.

  He held the file in one hand behind his chair and held his other palm out to keep her at a distance.

  “I don’t see why you need my file.” She was getting more pissed by the second. Knowing that he wouldn’t want to touch her, she threw herself on him and tried reaching for the file.

  Justin laughed, and then he groaned as she was practically draped over his lap and chest. “Are you serious? You’re not getting this file, so behave.”

  To his credit, Justin still didn’t touch her, not even to push her away.

  Nakia ignored him and kept trying to reach for the file. Unfortunately, her fitted pencil skirt rode up her thighs as she straddled him, and her breasts were crusted against his chest. She refused to give up and, instead, wiggled and twisted trying to get the file from his hand. Despite his throaty, “For God’s sake, Nakia,” she didn’t stop until his large palm gripped her ass tightly and he muttered harshly, “Stop!”

  Only then did she realize that her hips were provocatively aligned to his steely, pulsing shaft. Her breath hitched with a need she hadn’t realized she’d been stoking. Already she was throbbing and wet. Her nipples were beading, stabbing into his broad chest.

  “Shit,” she hissed. “I’m sorry.” She was saying it, but she didn’t stop slowly rolling her hips to abrade against the hardness wedged between her thighs. He felt too damn good against her sensitive flesh for her to resist. “I know I should move, but I don’t seem to have the energy in my legs to stand.”

  “You’re killing me, Nakia.”

  “I’m still pissed with you, Jay,” she murmured throatily, trying her best not to melt against him with his palm on her ass. “You’re so damn frustrating.” She didn’t want him to know that she was frustrated with more than his taking her off the judge’s case.

  He tightened his palm on her, and they both moaned at the more explicit contact.

  “This can’t…” he started and then hissed as she reached up and melded her lips with his.

  A kiss, which, though started with a simple meeting of the lips, quickly eviscerated every thought in her head and detonated every nerve ending in her body. She curled her fingers in the short strands of his hair and angled her head to deepen the kiss.

  Justin pulled her tighter against him and kissed her as though starved. And just as fast as the kiss started, he ended it by wrenching his lips from hers. “Don’t,” he whispered hoarsely when she tried reaching for him again. Clasping her at the waist, he lifted her off his lap.

  She immediately felt deprived and missed him already. It was depressing how vital he’d started to become to her very existence. The pain of being denied made her eyes glisten with teary disappointment. She didn’t know what to say to him, what to do, where to look. Her only thought was to get out of there as fast as possible. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. Damn, you’re making me feel like a perv.” She started backing out of his office, but he moved swiftly around her and blocked her path.

  “No, don’t leave like this. You know how I feel and how things have to be between us.”

  “I have work to do, Mr. Ragnarson. Is there anything else you need from me?”

  “I need you to understand.”

  “I do understand. I will talk to Susan about acquisitions, and I’ll talk to Colt about taking over my divorce case. We need to stop torturing each other like this. Now do us both a damn favor and stay away from me.” Nakia hurried around him, and this time he didn’t try to stop her.

  Two weeks later, Justin was still no closer to deciding what to do to repair his relationship with Nakia. He missed her like crazy, which made it almost impossible to stay away from her. What she didn’t realize was how hard he’d fought to not take what she was offering, to not give in to their desire. Wanting, needing her had become an obsession. His heart ached to be with her, to see her, to hear her voice, to touch her. While he was awake, he had a fighting chance, but as soon as he closed his eyes, his subconscious took over and he got to experience the things his conscious self wouldn’t allow. Not even Melissa’s presence beside him muted his thoughts.

  His dream always started innocent enough. The night before, his dream had seemed too real. They had been having a heated debate about a child custody case. They were not alone however; they had been joined by two other lawyers in the firm, lawyers more senior than Nakia because the children in question were worth billions. Their parents had died, leaving them a fortune but without a clear-cut
guardian. Nakia had been arguing for the children to be given over to the maternal elderly grandparents. The other two senior lawyers had disagreed and wanted the children to be raised by their father’s sister and her husband.

  He had sat back in his leather chair and watched her every move and was enthralled with every word out of her mouth. It wasn’t so much that what she was saying was turning him on, but it was her no-holds-barred fight for what she believed in. She was animated, articulate, smart, and sexy as hell in a dark magenta fitted dress, cinched at the waist with a gold-plated narrow belt. That dress always had a devastating impact on him. And as soon as the other two lawyers had left the boardroom, he’d been on her. No hesitation, no question. She was his, and her body in that dress was like waving a red flag in front of an angry bull.

  He devoured her lips, and she returned his kiss with equal fervor. Never mind that an entire wall of the room was comprised of glass windows and that anyone could see what they were doing. That still did not deter him from pushing her onto her stomach to the large gleaming surface of the boardroom table. The papers they’d been working on went flying to the floor in frenzied disarray. He’d impatiently pulled the hem of her skirt over her ass and to her waist. At the sight of her lacy pink thong in the cleft of her sexy round ass, which perfectly accentuated the creamy softness of her brown skin, he’d stilled. He got painfully hard in seconds. Any functioning brain cells in his head lost the fight, and he plunged into her heat.

  Hours later, he was still cursing the fact that his phone had gone off at that moment. He’d woken up aching and pissed.

  The telephone call was a summons that he couldn’t ignore. He and a few other members of Special Forces were called in for a special assignment. Their group wasn’t used for the run-of-the-mill assignments. If they were called in, it was a matter of urgent national security. No, it wasn’t a call he could sleep through.

  Unfortunately, he had to buy a new phone because he smashed his cellphone against the wall in his bedroom as soon as he disconnected from his superiors, waking Melissa in the process. She hadn’t been amused by his temper. Thankfully, she was more interested in getting more sleep than what was troubling him.