by Anna Durand
Chance settles his hand on my knee again, but he's not copping a feel this time. "I'm so sorry, Elena."
I shrug one shoulder. "I'd already gone into debt to pay for my bachelor's degree. Mom had life insurance, but not a lot of it. Racking up even more debt to pay for law school seemed like a huge extravagance, and besides, I had to take care of Kyle. He was fifteen at the time. So, I gave up on law school, got a crappy job as a legal secretary, and signed up for a paralegal certification course. Took me eighteen months to finish it. Working for Raisa is the second paralegal position I've had." I laugh a little, with no humor whatsoever. "It was my dream job."
"You excel at your job. Don't let Raisa ruin it for you. She'll calm down once she gets over the divorce and accepts that I am never going to be with her again."
I wince, unable to disguise my discomfort. How can I not tell him what Raisa ordered me to do? He deserves to know, but I can't tell him. Raisa ordered me to keep it secret. I don't know how long she'll wait for me to bring him to her on a silver platter.
How on earth does she expect me to do that, anyway? Even if I wanted to, which I absolutely do not, I have no clue where to start.
"What's wrong?" Chance asks.
"Can't tell you. Raisa swore me to secrecy."
He drums his fingers on the tabletop. "Does this secret have something to do with me? Is that the real reason you've been reluctant to get involved with me?"
"I can't say."
Chance scoots his chair a little closer to mine. "Look at me."
"Please let this go. I could lose my job."
"If this involves me, then I have a right to know. Raisa won't fire you, because I won't tell her I know the secret. All right?"
Chewing my lip, I think about what I should do. Not telling him has been eating a hole in my stomach, but telling him might make things worse. I like Chance, a lot. He's such a nice man, and he's been so sweet to me. But he's my boss's ex-husband, and she wants him back.
I groan miserably. "Raisa ordered me to help her win you back."
"She what?" he says sharply, his gaze narrowing. "What exactly did she tell you to do?"
"Whatever it takes to find out if you're sleeping with someone, and if so, who it is. I'm also supposed to say stuff about how wonderful she is and how you two belong together."
He grunts with what sounds like disgust, leaning back in his chair. "The woman's gone off her rocker. I'm sorry, Elena, you should never have been put in the middle of this."
"Not your fault my dream job turned into pimping for my boss."
His lips flatten. "I'll have a talk with Raisa. Your pimping days are over."
"No, you can't," I say too quickly, with too much panic in my voice. "I mean, she'll fire me. I need this job."
I clasp my hands on my lap, my fingers twitching restlessly.
"All right," he says. "I won't let on that I know about her ridiculous plot, but I will make sure she understands I will never go back to her. I've told her before, but this time I will leave no doubts about my feelings for her." He lays a hand over mine, stilling my restless fingers. "At least now I understand why you've been so anxious about getting involved with me."
"You're my boss's ex-husband. Of course I'm anxious."
"But you might've gone to dinner with me in spite of that. Am I right?"
I consider my answer for a moment before I say, "Yes."
He gives my hand a quick squeeze. "Knowing Raisa thinks she can get her claws into me again makes you even more anxious, because you worry she'll fire you if she finds out you and I are seeing each other."
"That's right. Now will you give up on the idea of dating me?"
"No. I will not let Raisa bollocks up my life any more than she already has."
"Great." I tear my hands away from his. "I'm your revenge fuck."
"Elena, no." His gaze is so earnest it makes my throat go thick. "Being with you is not how I avenge myself on Raisa. I'm not vengeful at all. She cheated on me, repeatedly, and often with men who worked for her. I stopped loving Raisa a long time ago, because of what she'd done. When I found out about her infidelity, I walked out the door and never looked back."
"But you work for her now."
"As a favor. I may not love her anymore, but I don't want her to suffer either." He braces an elbow on the table and sets his forehead in his raised palm. "Meeting you is the best thing that's ever happened to me. I don't want to walk away from you, but I understand if you need to distance yourself from me."
Do I want that? Is being with Chance worth the risk of losing my job? Maybe I shouldn't want to keep my job, considering what Raisa has pressured me into doing for her. Not that I've enacted her plan yet. But still...
"I need to think about all of this," I say. "Maybe we should keep our distance for the time being."
He keeps his head in his palm while I slap money on the table to cover my part of lunch, grab my purse, and hurry out the door. I don't see any taxis, so I start walking and head for the subway station I'd seen down the street. I'm crossing in front of an alley when Chance catches up to me. He grasps my arm and tows me into the alley, backing me up to a building.
And he kisses me.
It's no sweet and tender kiss, either. He takes possession of my mouth like he's starved for the taste of me, his lips mashed to mine, his tongue hungry and unyielding while his teeth nip at my lower lip. I moan and give in, devouring him as completely as he's devouring me, dissolving into the kiss, reveling in the velvety heat of his tongue and the blustering of his breaths on my skin.
He cages me against the wall with his body, all those muscles crushed against me, flexing as he whisks a hand up and down my side. I thrust my fingers into his hair and wrap my leg around his, all but begging him to take me right here, right now.
A car horn honks, and still I want him.
Chance pulls his head back, breaking the kiss, but keeps his body plastered to mine. He's breathing as roughly as I am. "I want you, Elena. It's more than sex, but I swear I'll go insane if I can't have you again, soon. Why should Raisa drive a wedge between us? We can't let her have that kind of power."
"What can we do? She's my boss and---"
He silences me with his lips, peeling them away from mine so very slowly. "She's abusing her position by ordering you to help her with a personal situation. That means she has no bloody right to play the victim."
I can't speak. The look on his face, the tone of his voice, those things convince me he's not doing this for revenge. He genuinely wants to be with me.
And he feels so good pressed against me.
He feathers his lips over mine. "Have dinner with me, Elena. In my hotel suite."
"What will we do after dinner?"
One side of his mouth kicks up. "I'll leave that to your imagination."
I swallow, but my throat still feels tight. A forbidden affair with my boss's ex-husband? That's not like me at all, but I want this man. Want him like crazy. He's right about Raisa abusing her position, so maybe that gives me a great excuse to take what I want and not feel bad about it.
"Come on," he whispers, his voice so sexy it makes my tummy flutter. "Take a chance."
"You've already used that pun. Try coming up with a new one."
"How about this?" He backs up a step, depriving me of the sensation of his body against mine. "Roll the dice, because Chance will always be on your side."
I can't help smiling. "How can I say no to that?"
"Does that mean yes?"
"Mm-hm." I lunge forward to plant a firm but quick kiss on his lips. "Yes, Chance, I will have dinner with you."
He releases a gusty breath, his shoulders sagging. "Thank you."
It's so cute how relieved he is, but I'm forced to make him a little unhappy. "But we can't do it until Friday. We've got all those cases you need to catch up on, and you need to prepare for depositions and that injunction hearing and---"
Chanc
e raises a hand, nodding and sort of frowning. "Yes, you're right. All of that takes precedence, which is damn irritating. Promise me we will have dinner Friday night."
"I might have to work over the weekend too."
"But we can take one night off." He leans in again, his lips ghosting over mine. "Say you'll be mine Friday night. Please, Elena."
Suddenly, I have trouble catching my breath. With him so close, smelling so good, I can manage only one word. "Yes."
He grins. And then he kisses me again, even hotter and longer than before, leaving me as warm and soft as a caramel candy in the sun. It feels wonderful.
We go back to work, and though I get my job done like I should, my mind keeps creating images of what Friday night might be like.
Chapter Seven
Chance
For the next two days, I have a hell of a time concentrating on work. I get to see Elena even more than I'd hoped, since she's helping me prepare for depositions and all those other things that sounded so important a few days ago but now seem inconsequential. But I'll take any excuse to spend time with her. We have lunch together on Thursday at Elena's favorite spot, where we have waffles, her favorite, and I tease her about eating breakfast for lunch.
I love teasing Elena. And I love that she teases me too.
When Friday finally arrives, I find myself checking the clock---any clock, wherever I am, from the one on my mobile to the one in Times Square---to see if it's time for my date with Elena yet. Tonight, I'll have her in my bed. Finally. I've had her in an elevator, but this will be our first real date and our first time making love in a soft bed with silk sheets.
I know she'll look stunning with her naked body stretched out on that bed.
We don't get to have lunch together. Elena is at the law library again, and she took a lunch with her, in another of those depressingly brown paper bags. I have pizzas delivered to the office for the paralegals and interns, and some of the other attorneys join me in eating with them. Raisa does not.
Twenty minutes after we finish lunch, Elena returns to the office. I hear her lovely voice, though I can't tell what she's saying to her coworkers. I wait a few minutes, to let her settle in at her desk, then I call Elena into my office. While I wait for her, I darken the glass wall between my office and the cubicle farm until it's opaque. No one will think that's odd, since I often darken the glass for privacy. And I need privacy for what I have in mind.
I'm leaning against the window frame when she walks in.
She lowers her sweet arse onto the chair across the desk from me. "What can I help you with? More research?"
"Yes. Very important research." I crook a finger at her. "Come here, Elena."
"Why?"
"Because I asked you to."
Her lips curve into a teasing little smile. "No, you ordered me to. Bossy much?"
"Yes." I wave my arm this time. "Get your edible little arse over here this instant. Is that bossy enough for you?"
Elena sets her notepad on the desk and stands.
"Shut the door," I say.
"Why?"
"I'm sure you can guess why."
She closes the door and comes up to me. "Not at work."
"Then why did you shut the door?" I loop an arm around her waist and pull her closer. "You know what I'm after."
"I have to say we shouldn't, even though I want what you want." She takes my tie between her thumb and forefinger, sliding them up until her fingers meet the knot. "But I thought you wanted to wait until tonight."
"For the main course, yes. But we can have an appetizer right now."
"Appetizer? Mm, I like the sound of that." She drops to her knees in front of me, her face inches from my cock. "I am famished."
This isn't quite what I'd had in mind, but who am I to deny a woman what she wants? "Go on, then."
She unbuttons my trousers and finds the pull on the zipper, takes it between her teeth, and drags the zipper down. Her gaze stays locked on mine, and I can't look away from the sight of her lips peeled back, the little metal pull trapped between her teeth while she tugs it down, down, down. By the time she's done, I'm breathing hard.
And she hasn't even touched me yet.
Elena slips her hand inside my trousers and eases my cock out. It's already hard for her, and the sensation of her soft hands on me steals any breath I might've been trying to suck into my lungs. While she glides her hands up and down my length, I force myself to take slow and steady breaths while I brush hair away from her face and cup her chin.
"You're wonderful, Elena."
"I haven't done anything yet."
"No, I don't mean you're wonderful for this. You are wonderful all the time."
"Thank you." She puckers her lips and gently blows air across the head of my erection. When I shudder, she smiles. "Let me show you how wonderful I can be."
She opens her mouth, as if she's about to take me inside, but instead shoves my trousers and boxer shorts down to my ankles and presses her lips to my inner thigh. With her mouth open, the liquid warmth of her tongue moistens my skin. I brace my hip on the window frame, watching her face while she glides her tongue up my leg, swirling it while she travels higher and higher. Her hair brushes my cock, and I suck in a sharp breath at the sensation of her silky locks on my skin. Just when her mouth comes within millimeters of where I want it, badly, she moves to the other thigh and starts again, lovingly kissing and licking her way up toward my groin.
The vixen darts her tongue out to within a hair's breadth of my cock, then curls it back into her mouth.
"Are you trying to drive me insane?" I ask.
She slides her tongue across her bottom lip, little by little, the movement so slow and sensuous it makes my entire groin tighten. "Wouldn't you just love to die from pleasure? After all, the French call it la petite mort, the little death."
Christ, I would love to die that way---but with Elena's body wrapped around me, her silken flesh gripping me over and over in the most decadent massage. The fantasy of it makes my cock jump, and a delicate laugh tumbles from her lips. I love the sound of her laughter. It makes me want to hold her in my arms forever.
She folds her hand around my length and slides it up and down. "Can't wait till I get to see the rest of you. Just seeing this"---She plants a firm, quick kiss on the head of my erection---"makes me want you like crazy. You have the most beautiful dick in the world."
I know it's bollocks, but I don't care. Maybe I don't have the most beautiful cock on earth, but she gave the compliment with total sincerity. And hunger. Lots of hunger. Hearing her speak those words in her hushed, sultry voice... I might die before she finishes and still be the happiest soul in the afterlife. "As much as I'd love to listen to you praise my cock, better get on with it before the phone rings or someone knocks on the door."
"Yes, sir," she purrs, while she reaches behind my balls to run her fingers along the skin there.
No woman has ever touched me in this way, and it feels incredible.
She keeps stroking my length while she laves the head with her tongue, then flicks it over the very center. And she does it again. And again.
I choke on the breath I'd been trying to inhale.
This time, her laughter is throaty and so erotic it makes me throb for her. "Maybe I should stop torturing you."
Her torture is heaven, but even bliss can be too much. I don't need to tell her that---good thing, since I can't speak---because somehow, she senses exactly how much I can take.
Elena opens her mouth and slides those luscious lips over my cock, taking it deep inside.
I groan at the slick heat of her mouth on my skin. But when she laps at my flesh, I sag against the window and let out a long, guttural noise somewhere between a groan and a growl. She makes soft little grunting sounds while she works me with her mouth and her hand, sounding for all the world like she can't get enough of doing this. I thrust a hand into her hair, gripping the windowsill with
the other one, and I swear to God my eyes roll back in my head.
"Fuck, Elena," I say, while her ravenous noises grow louder. I can hardly breathe, my chest heavy with the weight of pleasure.
She closes her free hand around one of my balls and massages it with her fingers.
My every muscle goes rigid, the breath is trapped in my lungs, and I can't stop my body from giving in to Elena's demands. I come so hard and fast I swear I see stars and hear the angels singing to welcome me into heaven. I don't die, though. Elena keeps working me until I'm done, and somehow, I find the strength to breathe again. My heart is pounding, and I can't swear I didn't shout or make some sort of loud noise that's unmistakably the sound of a man coming inside the mouth of the most perfect woman on earth.
I stare at Elena, dumbstruck by her. Isn't she the woman who kept telling me not to flirt with her at the office? And now she's done something far more intimate, and she's done it with tenderness and enthusiasm.
She licks her lips so slowly, and with such satisfaction, that I know I'll go hard again any minute if she keeps that up.
I run my thumb over her lips. "You are... I can't think of a word that's good enough to describe you. Passionate, for sure. And surprisingly brazen. You, Elena, are amazing."
"Well, I did keep saying no to you, and you've been so patient. I figured you'd earned a little blow job."
"A little blow job?" I grasp her arms, urging her to stand. Then I cradle her face in my hands and kiss her softly. "That was the Mount Everest of blow jobs. The lovers you had before me must've been very happy blokes."
"Sure, they liked it. But they didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as you do."
"What a crowd of idiots. Any man who doesn't feel like he's halfway to the stars when he's got your mouth on him must be barmy."
"I don't care what other guys think. But I love that you loved it."
"One good turn deserves another." I turn to face the window, with Elena in front of me. "Sit back, relax, and let me send you to the gates of heaven."
"Do you usually get all poetic after an orgasm? I didn't notice it in the elevator that night."