Crossing the Line

by Maggie Cole

  “Don’t care. Next.”

  “I don’t believe you. You’re lying.”

  I remove the pillow from under her knee, pick up both her legs, keep them cradled in one arm, and slide under them. I lean closer to her. “Now, why would I be lying?”

  She doesn’t back down. “You are. I can tell.”

  I lean even closer to her and lick my lips as she bites down on her bottom one. “How can you tell that?”

  “You’re not that big an asshole,” she quietly states.

  I raise my brows at her as my nostrils flare with the scent of her skin, and it’s suddenly harder to breathe. “No?”

  “No.” Her breath is laboring, too, as her chest heaves.

  Running my index finger from the top of her neck down into her cleavage, so her shirt is pulled down, then brushing across the softness of her breasts, I quietly say, “I think you’ve suddenly got me pegged wrong. I’m still the same asshole you thought I was, and I think that’s who you want me to be.” My other hand is inching its way from her knees to the inside of her thighs.

  She takes a big shaky breath, and it’s very clear to me what she wants. One hundred percent, she wants me to be the asshole. So that’s who I decide to be.

  Because I want Piper Cadence and, as wrong as it is, as bad as the consequences could be for me, I have to have her. So if she wants me to be that guy, I will.

  She has preconceived notions, and it doesn’t matter who I really am or what my truth is. No, what she wants is the asshole, and he’s in me, so that’s who I pull out. As much as I want to be nice to her, she doesn’t want me that way.

  And because I am an asshole, I’m going to make her beg to fuck me, and not before she orgasms, but before I do anything real to her. Because once I do something real to her, she’ll be begging, and that’s a given.

  I pull her shirt down with my finger. I was right, she’s wearing a barely there white bra. I trace over the pink of her nipple, which is on display through the flimsy bra, and she moans as I tease it, and it tightens against my touch.

  “Tell me you don’t want me to be the asshole, that you want the nice guy.” I lean into her ear, “The asshole will fuck you hard. The nice guy will buy you dinner. Which one do you want, Piper?”

  She inhales sharply and swallows hard.

  And because I know it’s between us, and I almost have to punish myself for what I’m doing, I throw the big one out there. “The asshole is going to own you the entire fucking night. He’s the one you’ll report to HR about and destroy if you decide to do that. The nice guy will stop now and send you off to wherever it is you’re supposed to be meeting your friends tonight, and on Monday, he’ll go to HR with you and report this event.”

  My fingers are right near her sex, but they stroke around her, outlining her barely there panties and bend once over her wet, hot slit.

  Piper whimpers, breathing heavily, biting her shaking lip that’s less than an inch away from mine.

  She’s too beautiful, and there’s a pressure cooker in my pants right now, trying to escape, but until she tells me, my dick is on lockdown.

  “Time’s running out. If you leave it up to me, I’m picking the nice guy. So pick or I will,” I growl at her.

  She stares at me but won’t talk. So I pull my hands off her. In one last-ditch effort, I use the last card I have. And I know I’m putting myself in the shittiest position because if she doesn’t cave, I’m toast.

  I sit back, pull her legs off me, and stand. “Let’s go.”

  Her head snaps at me. “Go where?”

  “I’m taking you home.”

  “Home?” she whispers.

  “Yes. You made your choice, let’s go.” I shut her laptop and put it in her bag.

  I snatch the ice packs I left on the kitchen table and carry them back to her. She still hasn’t moved from the couch. I stuff them in her laptop bag. “Fold these in half and break them up and give them a good twist, and they’ll get cold.”

  She doesn’t move.

  “Come on.” I hold my hand out to help her up.

  Piper’s eyes drill into mine and she whispers, “No. Be the asshole.”

  5

  Piper

  Noah steps toward me then kneels next to the couch I’m too paralyzed to move from and hovers over me.

  “Tell me again, Piper,” he growls.

  He’s so close, I can feel his breath as my heart beats in my neck.

  I brush my lips against his, but he pushes his forehead on mine. “Tell me,” he growls again.

  “Fuck me,” I whisper.

  His eyes go darker, and his mouth smashes my lips, roughly parting them with his tongue as he pulls my face to his. Teeth gnash together, lips are bitten, breath is stolen as he lets out a deep, throaty groan.

  Ferocious hands grab the neck of my shirt, and he rips it so it’s hanging only on my arms. My breath is heaving as nimble fingers cup my breasts and thumbs circle on my skin above my bra. And he doesn’t touch my nipples, but they are puckering and hardening, waiting for him, so I shove his head into them.

  Noah’s fingers slide around the bottom of my breasts before he raises them out of the bra cup. He grips me, gliding back and forth between my nipples before his tongue teases my areolas.

  And I push all thoughts of what I’m doing, how I’m allowing this, and why I’m crossing the line that I shouldn’t cross into the back of my mind.

  Gripping his hair, I press him farther in me, as his mouth moves from my nipples to the side of my breast, and he sucks me so hard he marks me.

  “Fuck, Noah!” I cry out.

  His mouth moves to my neck and then my ear. “I told you I was going to own you tonight. You sure you still want this?”

  There’s no hesitation. “Yes. Don’t ask me again.” Stop pulling my thoughts that we shouldn’t be doing this to the surface. I should stop, I know I should, but I can’t. I grasp his head, desperately yanking his mouth back into mine.

  “Don’t tell me what to do. I’m your boss,” he orders between kisses.

  “You’re an asshole.” I bite his lip.

  Noah groans. “That’s what you want.”

  I should be more disturbed by the fact he thinks I want an asshole, but that’s what I told him. My thoughts are confused about whether he is or not, but he made me choose, and this is what I’m going to get. In this moment, my body is burning so hot for him I don’t care which version of him I get, as long as I get him.

  His arms go around my back and legs, and he picks me up and carries me into the bedroom as I suck on his neck and shimmy the shirt off my arms. While walking, he releases my bra from me.

  We get into his bedroom, and as soon as he lays me on the bed, he yanks my skirt off. For a brief moment, he stands over me, assessing me, and swallows hard. But it doesn’t last long, and he dips to my lower body.

  Warm breath lingers, and he grazes the outside of my panties. Then, with one quick move, he jerks them off me, ripping the thin material effortlessly.

  “Oh shit!” I cry out, as the back of my thong gives me a painful but pleasurable jolt.

  He softly laughs then his lips flutter across my mound.

  I moan, open my legs up to him, and reach for his head.

  “Fuck, you’re smooth,” he mumbles.

  Throbbing heat and butterflies flood me, and his mouth moves an inch farther, teasing me, taunting me, tempting me as his tongue slides through me.

  “Noah,” I cry out as my body shudders, and he yanks my hips and pulls me into his mouth, stroking me with his tongue, massaging me with his lips, and sending me higher and higher.

  He grabs my hands from the top of his head and shoves them on my hips then places his hands over mine, locking them against my body.

  I bring them up and wrap them around his shoulders. He turns his head and flutters his lips on the inside of my thighs, and I buck into his face as he pushes against my hands harder.

  “Oh God,” I whimper as his mouth latches
onto my pussy and drives me into my paradise.

  I try to move my hands, but I can’t as he holds them tight on my hips. I squeeze my thighs tighter on his neck and buck harder into him, erupting against his mouth, shattering into his face, calling out his name as my eyes roll.

  In my aftermath, he releases my hands and gently moves my legs back to the bed before removing his clothes and making his way up my body.

  I urgently grasp his head, wanting and needing his mouth, tongue, and body.

  “Knee, okay?” he whispers between kisses as I grasp his back full of muscle and press his torso on mine.

  “Mm-hmm.” I think of all the ways I want to experience him, and I realize my knee should limit me, but I don’t care. I’m willing to wreck it further to feel more of what he just gave me.

  He reaches over to his drawer, pulls out a strip of condoms, and rips one open with his teeth. I pull it out of the wrapper and roll it over his enormous erection, and he groans in my ear as I wonder if he will fit entirely inside me.

  Like a greedy girl, I try to shove him into me, but he laughs softly, moves his hips away, and finger fucks me, plunging in me, first one, then two, then three, going deeper and deeper while twisting and turning.

  “You’re so tight, I can’t wait to put my cock in you,” he growls as I tremble from his fingers, and he grows harder against my thigh, which I didn’t think was possible.

  I’m whimpering, grinding faster onto him, and burying my face into his neck as he unleashes mayhem on me.

  Chaos. My body is a sea of chaos, vibrating into his warm skin, and he pulls out his fingers and slides them into my mouth then enters me.

  I suck on his fingers, and we both groan as my insides clutch his girth.

  “Relax,” he whispers, removing his fingers from my mouth. I take a few breaths as he sinks further into me and closes his eyes then opens them. “You’re going to take all of me tonight.”

  I’m still shaking. I pulse around him as I bend my legs and dig into his shoulders, driving him deeper, already full but knowing he has more to give.

  “That’s it, Piper,” he encourages.

  I moan into his mouth and his shaft glides against my already pulsating walls. My nails burrow into his flesh, marking him as mine, if only for this one night.

  Stubble scratches my jawline as he nibbles with his lips and teeth, working his way to my ear.

  Our bodies begin to sweat and I lick his neck, tasting the salt of his skin.

  “Oh God!” I cry out as he sucks my neck hard and thrusts into me with more force.

  “You want the asshole, right?” he asks again.

  “Noah!” I burst out. My mouth forms an O and I blink trying to find my focus.

  But I can’t. I spin as he shoves his arms under me and tightens them around me, owning me, worshiping me, destroying me.

  No one will ever do again. I know this, and I am doomed, as I unravel completely in his arms, with his eyes blazing into mine, soaring into his own high, forcing me into a higher state of ecstasy.

  When it’s over, I lie limp and exhausted under him. He shoves his tongue into my mouth once more before pulling back, then releases my legs that are clutched around him.

  Noah gets off me, disappears into his closet, then comes out crushing up an ice pack. After placing it on my knee, he turns toward me, surveys my naked body, and growls, “Ice up. Your night is just getting started,” before turning and leaving the room.

  6

  Noah

  Flashbacks of our night fill my head, and I can still smell her scent on me. The ways and number of times I made Piper beg and plead were too many to count.

  But she didn’t just beg for her own high.

  I iced her knee all night—twenty minutes for each bag, and when the alarm would ring, I would come back in and manipulate her body all over again. And while she iced, I left her, as I reminded myself she told me to be an asshole.

  After the third bag, still exhausted from our last encounter, she fancied my cock in her mouth. She sat up in bed, and while I desired nothing more than her pretty mouth around my dick, I made her beg for it.

  Memories of me convulsing against the wall, my knees touching the headboard and thrusting inside her mouth as she deep throated me while she moaned, makes me get hard again. And just because she liked me better as a dickhead, I didn’t warn her I was cumming and made her suck me dry. But she loved it, and I saw it.

  Yep, she wanted me to be an asshole, and I made sure I was one.

  I made her beg for her orgasms.

  I tormented her until she was so hot and bothered she was willing to do anything just to have me touch her.

  I stayed away from her unless I was fucking her.

  When she fell asleep in my bed, and the alarm rang for her ice bag to be removed, I woke her up and made her beg me some more.

  The fifth time she fell asleep, the morning crept into the night, and I went into the guest bedroom and fell asleep.

  I wanted to stay with her, wrap her in my arms, and wake up next to her, but she chose the asshole, so that is what she got.

  Sitting up in bed, I glance at my phone. It’s after ten. I debate whether to be a complete jerk and tell her to go or feed her breakfast, especially since she didn’t eat her dinner.

  It’s a new day. Make her some breakfast. You can stop being an asshole now. She has to be starving.

  I saunter out to the kitchen and open the fridge. I have eggs, bacon, and some fruit. I wonder if she eats that?

  I’m about to go wake Piper up and ask her when I realize her purse and laptop bag are gone.

  Panic creeps through me, and I move a little too quickly into the bedroom.

  Sure enough, she’s left. The bed is made, and her ripped panties and shirt are sitting neatly on the pillow, a souvenir of our night together. What did she wear home?

  I survey the room. She folded my pants and underwear and put them on the chair.

  She wore my shirt home, and I realize I’m grinning, thinking about her wearing it. I almost text her but decide not to. I have a lot of work to do, and I need to get her off my mind, so I jump in the shower instead.

  Freshly showered and dressed, I grab my laptop and head out to the coffee shop around the block.

  I get set up at a quiet table in the back with a cup of coffee beside me. I work for hours, analyzing information, assessing risks, and adding information to my spreadsheet.

  Suddenly, the Google spreadsheet has a five pop up, but then it’s deleted. I freeze and watch the screen, panicky at first, but then I realize I gave Piper access. The upper right-hand corner has a circle with her initials in pink.

  What’s she doing?

  Numbers appear on the screen quicker than I can calculate and input myself. Within minutes, the analysis becomes clearer.

  I click onto an empty cell and write, “How’s your knee?”

  The screen stays blank for several minutes, and my heart races as I wonder if she already left, but the pink circle with her initials is still up in the corner.

  “Fine.”

  Hmm. Not much going for me in that answer. I decide to change tactics.

  “How did you get that done so quickly?”

  She quickly fires back, “I’m smart.”

  Chuckling, I write, “I can see that.”

  “What, no asshole today?”

  I cringe. “Is that what you always want me to be?”

  She doesn’t reply, and I tap my fingers on the table, waiting.

  “No.”

  I let out a breath and, “Do you want another coffee?” pops up on the screen.

  Quickly, I turn. She is seated a few tables behind me with her laptop open. “Hey.” I try not to sound too excited she’s here but I am.

  “Hey,” she softly replies then picks up her laptop and sits down across from me.

  She’s had hardly any sleep and could still grace the cover of Vogue.

  Piper is in a bright-blue tunic sweater and doesn�
��t have any makeup on. I have to hold myself back from reaching over and kissing her.

  “How long have you been here?” I ask her.

  “About an hour.”

  “You’ve been trying to figure out how to screw with me for an hour, huh?”

  The corners of her mouth turn up. “Yep.”

  I laugh then admit. “I was going to make you breakfast this morning, but you were gone.”

  She shifts in her seat. “I didn’t know where you went so...”

  “I was in the other bedroom.”

  Hurt. It passes over her face but doesn’t stay long.

  I quickly blurt out, “You wanted me to be an asshole.”

  She bites her lip and takes a deep breath, and I’m not sure how to interpret what she’s thinking.

  My stomach drops. “What’s wrong?”

  Piper nervously shifts in her seat . “I don’t know the best way to say this—”

  “But?”

  “My job is really important to me. I’ve worked hard to get where I’m at.”

  “I know.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  She shrugs.

  I press her and repeat, “Why do you think that?”

  Avoiding my question, she takes a deep breath. “You’re my boss, and I know we crossed the line last night, but I don’t want this to affect my career.”

  “You think I would harm your position in the company because of last night?”

  “I don’t know, would you?” she quietly asks.

  I shake my head at her in disgust. “No, I would not.”

  Piper peers at me like she isn’t sure I’m telling the truth.

  “You honestly think I’m that guy?”

  Her bottom lip shakes, and I hate myself because I want to pull it between my teeth. “I want to believe you aren’t, but you’ve got the power, I don’t.” Piper’s face reddens, and her head tilts down.

  I curse myself because she’s right, but she’s also wrong. And I know the situation. I raise her chin and sternly reply. “No, I don’t. I told you last night if you want to go to HR and destroy me, you can.”