“You still have a land line?” she said, sounding out of breath.
“Just for emergencies,” he said.
“Then… you should answer it?” She sounded confused.
“I mean, it’s for if I have an emergency and I can’t use my cell phone.” He turned back to her. “Just ignore it. I turned my cell off. I want to focus on you tonight.”
“If you’re sure…”
To show her how sure he was, he leaned down, licking her clit, circling it with his tongue. She gasped, arching. He waited until the small nub was hard and erect, then he sucked it, varying the pressure, enjoying how she was clutching the covers beneath her.
The phone stopped.
“Ren,” she breathed, her hips rolling against his mouth, picking up tempo. He sucked harder, his finger plunging inside her. He could feel the flesh clenching around him, and thought about how good it would feel when it was his cock there inside her…
The phone rang again.
You have got to be kidding me.
“Ren…?”
He worked her over until she was panting hard, her breathing uneven. Then with a quick nip and several long sucks, he felt her orgasm catch. She cried out, her hands woven in his hair, pressing him hard against her wet heat. He was pumping slightly against the bed in response. He waited until she came down, then sat up, wiping his mouth.
The phone rang again.
“What. The actual. Fuck.” He glared at the bedroom door. “I’m sorry. I have to see what this is.”
“Yeah. Okay,” Rachel said, catching her breath.
He stalked to the office and the landline, answering the phone on the fourth ring. “Hello?” he barked out.
“Are you dead?” Jian asked. “Because your fucking phone’s been off all afternoon, and nobody’s been able to get a hold of you.”
“I was plowing through emails. I can’t get stuff done with all the interruptions. And then I had a date tonight.”
“The lead engineer at the Zhuhai factory quit today,” Jian informed him. “Peter’s having apoplexy. Is that still a thing? He looks like he’s going to have an aneurysm. He also thinks that it’s your problem, which makes it my problem. And Mom and Dad are none too happy that you’re AWOL when the shit comes down, especially after our little talk this morning.”
Fuck. Of all the times for a work crisis to come up…
But aren’t work crises always coming up?
He grimaced. “Well, what am I supposed to do about it now? Why are you calling my house continually?”
“They set up a conference call with the Zhuhai brass. It’s still going on,” Jian said. “You’ve got time to get over here. Mom and Dad are already here.”
“Now?” He thought of Rachel in the other room, her warm taste still on his tongue.
“You’re already in the shit,” Jian said. “You’re only going to make it worse if you don’t come.”
Ren felt anger and resentment start to well up in him, then shift over to brittle acceptance. “I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he said sharply, then hung up.
How the hell am I going to explain this to Rachel?
He walked back to the bedroom. Rachel had stripped off the rest of her clothes, he noticed immediately, and was stretched out invitingly on his bedspread.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
He swallowed hard as his cock tightened like a bowstring. He would give up anything to stay in bed, here, with this woman.
But he had responsibilities. And he couldn’t walk away.
“I have to go into the office,” he heard himself say.
Her mouth dropped open. “Seriously? Now?”
“There’s a sort of work emergency at Zhuhai,” he said. “That’s our factory near Macau, the one I was telling you about. Anyway, they’re having a conference call, and I need to be on it.”
She turned pink, and he realized – she was embarrassed. She quickly moved to grab her clothes.
“No! No,” he said. Begged, really. “Please stay. I doubt it’ll be longer than an hour. And then I’ll pick up where I left off, all right?”
She glared at him.
“I know, this sucks. It’s awkward, and the timing’s terrible. Make yourself at home: watch whatever you want, eat whatever you want. I promise, I’ll come back as soon as I can.”
She looked at him. “Is it always going to be like this, Ren?”
He blinked at her. “I seriously doubt it.”
“But you’re not sure?”
He frowned. He’d had girlfriends – okay, more fuck buddies – that had commented on his work hours before.
Was this going to be the state of his relationships… always taking a backseat to his work?
“I’ll be back soon,” he said instead, kissing her. The feel of her was almost enough to make his will buckle, to the point where he thought about calling Jian back and telling him fuck the conference call. He was staying with Rachel.
He pulled away, sighing. Then he got his coat and bag and headed to the office.
#
I can’t believe he left.
Rachel was wearing one of Ren’s T-shirts and sweatpants, curled up on his bed, watching TV. He had a nice flat screen mounted against the wall, and it had taken her a little bit to figure out the controls, but eventually she’d been able to crack into the vast number of cable channels he had. She was flipping back and forth between a cooking competition and John Wick. Watching Keanu kick ass and look awesome fit her mood completely.
She wanted to kick some ass. Specifically, Ren’s.
Part of her was still embarrassed that, despite her being there naked and laid out like a buffet for him, he’d still grabbed his stuff and headed in to work. It was too close to the old pain. She felt like she wasn’t good enough, wasn’t a high enough priority to stay with.
At least he’d gotten her off. He’d left her on the edge without an orgasm, she’d have called an Uber and headed back to Snoqualmie by now. Possibly trashing his room first before she left.
No, you wouldn’t.
Well, she wouldn’t have trashed his room, she thought as Keanu spoke in Russian on the TV. But she would’ve considered it.
It was now one in the morning. She had work. She needed to get some sleep.
She shut off the TV and was about to turn off the light when she heard the key jostling in the lock. She held the covers up tight against her chest. “Ren?”
“Yeah, it’s me.” She heard him drop keys in a bowl by the door, then rummage around in the office. “Sorry I’m so late.”
She pulled her lips together in a tight line. Oh, he hadn’t even begun to be sorry.
Then she got a good look at him.
He looked exhausted. “We had to hash out a replacement for our lead engineer, and there were… well, tempers got involved,” he said. “And my parents wanted to chew me out for not being available when there was a work emergency, so there’s that.”
“What, are you supposed to be on call twenty-four-seven?” Rachel asked.
“In a nutshell: yes.” Ren shook his head.
“That’s bullshit. You’re not a brain surgeon.”
Ren blinked, then laughed softly. “Thank you.”
“I’m not saying what you do isn’t hard. I’m sure it is,” Rachel said. “It’s just not an on-call position. The world wasn’t going to end if you guys were without a – what was it? Lead engineer? – for a day, right?”
“That’s been my assertion,” Ren said.
“So you’re not drawing boundaries,” Rachel said staunchly, her irritation with him shifting to his job a little. Just a little. “You need to say that what they’re doing isn’t healthy.”
He smiled at her. “It’s not that easy,” he said.
“Actually, it can be that easy.”
“Remember how Hailey used to get all up in your business, and I told you to tell her to knock it off? And you told me it was complicated because it was family?” Ren asked.
“If it weren’t my family, maybe it’d be different. But they are my family,” he said slowly. “I love them. I want to live up to their expectations of me. It’s hard, and yeah, there’s definitely dysfunction. But it’s what I’ve got.”
Rachel hugged her knees to her chest. “I almost left,” she blurted out. “I couldn’t believe you just turned me away.”
“I didn’t want to.” He was at her side in a blink, it seemed. “God, you have no idea how badly I wanted to stay. I just… couldn’t.”
She sighed. And that was the problem, wasn’t it?
“Let me make it up to you.”
“You’re tired, and we both have work in the morning,” she said.
He leaned forward, brushing a kiss across her lips. “Let me at least try?”
She’d stayed in his bed, hadn’t she? Some part of her wanted this. She’d been waiting for this. “I suppose it’s the least I can do,” she said wryly.
He grinned at her, and some of the exhaustion melted away.
She let him tug off the T-shirt she was wearing, and she shimmied out of the sweats. Then she watched as he took off his shirt and slipped out of his shoes, slacks, boxers and socks. In no time at all, he was standing there, naked and sculpted. She didn’t know where to look first: at the slopes of his pecs or the ripple of his abs, the thickness of his thighs or the proud jut of his erection.
He looked delicious. She just wanted to reach out and take a bite.
He reached for her first, stroking her face with both hands, then sliding down, cupping her breasts. She sighed with pleasure as he coaxed her nipples to life, hardening the rosy peaks beneath his palms. He leaned down, kissing her throat, nipping at the sensitive skin. Then he turned her around.
“Your back,” he said. “Still an erogenous zone?”
She shivered. “You tell me,” she breathed.
So few of her lovers had figured that out. Her back, her spine, was one of the most sensitive parts on her… and received the least attention. He pressed hot kisses against each vertebra, it seemed, blowing heat and dampness against her flesh and making her shiver against him. She could feel his erection pressing against her ass as he molded himself to her, stroking her sides, then down to her hips. He reached in front of her, slicking his finger down her slit, then back up, brushing against her clit, then swirling around it. She gasped. So many sensations. She was in sensory overload.
He pressed her forward gently, and she rested her head against the pillow as he tugged her hips, her ass high in the air. She heard the tearing of a foil packet and knew he was rolling on a condom. Then she felt him enter her from behind, slowly and firmly, and she wanted to scream with the slow, drowning pleasure of it.
“God, Rachel,” Ren rasped as he withdrew, making her whimper at the loss. Then he pushed forward again, his cock filling her. She found herself pushing back against him, wanting to take him as deep as she could. He reached around, rubbing her clit as his hips slowly picked up the pace.
“Ren,” she breathed, her hips wiggling, her thighs clenched together. His legs were outside of hers, holding her steady, keeping her channel tight. Soon, he was starting to lose some of his finesse, the pressure increasing as his body pounded into hers, his fingers working frantically against her.
She felt the orgasm starting to build. She was breathing like a marathon runner, slamming back against him, meeting him thrust for thrust, wriggling uncontrollably. When it finally hit, it detonated like a bomb.
“Ren!” she cried out, convulsing around him.
He released her clit, which could take no more sensation at that point. He grabbed her hips and kept pulling her to him, ramming her relentlessly, pulling almost all the way out and then driving home. She tightened herself around him and was rewarded with his groan and a resulting clumsiness. He was too far gone to notice or care.
They were like animals, mating mindlessly, raging against each other. When he pounded into her with one final thrust, she felt another orgasm pop through her, surprising her. She yelled when he did, and she felt him shudder inside her, his cock thrashing even as her walls clenched around him madly.
They both collapsed onto the bed. She hadn’t felt like that since… well. She hadn’t felt like that ever. Not even with Ren, before.
He rolled off to the side, taking her with him. He kissed her neck, making her shiver. “Let me go take care of this,” he breathed, then withdrew. She let out a small disappointed sigh. She liked the feel of him inside her.
He went to the bathroom and took care of the condom, then came back to bed. “Stay here tonight,” he said.
“I’m certainly not going home,” she said, with a yawn, feeling deliciously worn out. “You’ve definitely made it up to me. I’m glad I waited.”
“I mean stay here,” he emphasized slowly. “In my bedroom. Spend the night in here with me.”
She froze. She didn’t want to make him feel cheap, or used. But she was getting too close to him. She knew the pitfalls of Ren: that he was great, until he had other priorities. And if tonight had been any indication, there would always be the family business as a huge “other priority.”
Staying with him would be even stupider than having sex with him, she realized.
He put his arms around her. “Please,” he murmured.
She took a deep breath.
“All right,” she said, and wondered just how badly this was going to hurt before it was all through.
#
Ren knew he’d fucked up when his parents called him to their house the next morning. He’d already gotten an earful the previous night, but that had been at the office, and it was the middle of the night. Now, they were calling for a command performance. They wanted him to show up for lunch at their house. It was in the same community as Bill Gates, a rich, high-toned area. It took a while in Seattle traffic to get there, time he could’ve been working on the Zhuhai problems, but he knew better than to ignore it.
When he arrived, his parents’ housekeeper took his coat and directed him to the dining room. His parents were there. He wondered if they decided to stay home from the office because they were up so late the night before, or because they didn’t want anyone else to be privy to their conversation.
If they were going to dress down their recalcitrant son, they wouldn’t want people from outside the family to hear, he guessed.
His parents were already sitting at one end of the long table, his father at the end, his mother at his father’s right hand. They looked at him expectantly.
“Ren.” His mother’s voice was… ugh. The “I’m not angry, I’m disappointed” tone was woven through it like thread. She gestured to a seat. “Sit down.”
He glanced at the plate in front of him. It looked like some kind of salad. “Thanks.” He sat.
His father was simply glaring at him. He stabbed at some lettuce. “You turned your phone off.” The words were laced with disbelief. “All this… this chaos going on, and you turned your phone off.”
“I was still available via email yesterday afternoon,” Ren said.
“You had your phone turned off during the day, too?” his father barked.
Ren sighed. Obviously, he wasn’t winning this one.
“Your doorman says that you brought a young woman home last night,” his father said.
Ren blinked. First Stephen, now his doorman? “Dad, that’s none of your business.”
His parents goggled. His mother’s eyes widened. “How could it not be our business?” she asked. “You ignored our phone calls all evening. What if it had been a medical emergency? Would you have said you were with a woman, and that made missing one of us dying all right?”
He winced as that guilt trip stabbed him. “It wasn’t a medical emergency, though, was it?” he tried.
“Next time it might be,” she shot back. “But what we’re saying is, you thought a woman was more important than your family. You shut
us out, presumably so you could…”
“Have sex,” his father said bluntly.
“This is really not your business,” Ren snapped.
“No one is saying you’re not going to sleep with women,” his father said, and Ren felt like dying of embarrassment for a second. “But there are more important things.”
“I’m not just sleeping with Rachel,” Ren said sharply. “I want to be in a relationship with her!”
That bomb dropped with just about the response he would’ve expected. His parents traded looks of concern, then turned back to him.
“How long has this been going on?” his mother asked quietly. “I thought you said you had just gone out on a few dates.”
It was like high school all over again. Ren sighed. “Just a week,” he said.
His father scoffed. “You don’t know what you want, then,” he pronounced easily. “And it’s not a relationship. You’ve barely seen the woman.”
“We were together for three years in high school.”
“You were children,” his mother pointed out.
“We’re not anymore.”
His mother’s lips pursed tightly. “It’s a bit difficult to tell from your actions,” she rebuked. “You ignore meetings, prompting the chief operating officer to call us in. Then you tell your assistant to clear your week, simply for her. You shut your phone off, prompting your brother to hunt you down, because you ignore a work crisis.” Her nostrils flared slightly. “We would not find this acceptable in anyone working for our company. Do you think you’re going to get preferential treatment because you’re our son? We didn’t raise you to be so spoiled!”
Ren winced. He could get into the minutiae, but he knew it was a losing battle. “I’m not going to stop seeing her,” he said instead. “I’m sorry if you’re not happy about that.”
“I wouldn’t give a damn, if your work wasn’t suffering for it,” his father said.
“Is it really suffering, though?” Ren asked, thinking of Rachel’s words the previous night. There needed to be some healthier boundaries. “Did we really need to have an emergency meeting last night?”
Now his parents looked at him aghast. “What is wrong with you?” his father asked, sounding shocked.
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