Boss Rules

by Victoria Quinn

  And believe me, you didn’t want to fuck with me.

  When I pulled away, I saw the affection in her eyes. The rest of her face was a professional mask, but that was one aspect she couldn’t hide—at least, from me. She reacted to my touch no matter how many pairs of eyes stared at her. She was mine, and she knew I would claim her in front of anyone. “How’s it going?”

  “Good.” Tatum tucked a loose strand behind her ear, acting innocent despite the way I fucked her when I came home yesterday. “We were just working on the first product line we’re releasing as a company. We’re attending the trade show in Chicago this weekend.”

  “The week before our wedding?” I asked incredulously.

  Tatum shrugged. “I’m taking two weeks off for the honeymoon, so it’s now or never. It’ll be a great opportunity to showcase it, get people talking about it, have our PR team publicize it, and build up buzz before we drop it next month.” She was back to business as usual, juggling a million things at once. As if she’d never been shot at all, she was back to full capacity.

  “I’m coming along.” I took a seat in the chair to the right of her, getting in position between her and Thorn. I wasn’t part of this project and didn’t know a lot of details, but I knew enough. “When are we leaving?”

  Tatum didn’t make an argument. “Friday night. We’ll take my jet.”

  “Alright.”

  Tatum gave me a look before she turned away. She probably wanted to tell me to stay in Manhattan to catch up on all the work I missed out on, but she wouldn’t say anything in front of her partners.

  She turned back to her computer and addressed Ms. Alexander. “Do you think there are any improvements to be made? What is the likelihood someone else can reproduce this?”

  Ms. Alexander was a lot more professional than I was even though she was sitting across from Thorn. “There will always be someone out there who can copy it. They can dissect my work and figure it out. But by then, there will be a new and better line out. It’s the same thing with iPhones. By the time the competition catches up, a new one is out.”

  I glanced at Thorn and saw him stare so hard at Ms. Alexander that he looked pissed.

  “Any chance of a patent?” Titan asked.

  “On certain aspects, yes,” Ms. Alexander said. “But not everything can be protected. That’s just how it goes.”

  They spoke for a few more minutes, tying up their meetings so they could break for lunch. When they were finally finished, they left their laptops and notes on the table.

  “What are you guys in the mood for?” Tatum asked.

  I knew what I was in the mood for.

  “Salad,” Ms. Alexander said.

  “Me too,” Thorn said. But he probably would agree with anything Ms. Alexander said.

  “Is that alright with you, Diesel?” Tatum turned to me, doing her best to regard me with indifference.

  She failed miserably. “Anything you want, baby.”

  We went across the street to a café and sat at a small table against the window. We immediately got service and ordered our drinks and lunches before we were left to our own conversation.

  My hand rested on Tatum’s slender thigh, my fingers digging into the fabric that covered her skin. I wanted to pull it up a bit and touch her bare skin, but I also didn’t want any of the men to stare at her.

  Even though they were already staring.

  It didn’t feel like just Tatum and I were together, but it felt like we were on a double date. It was not public information that Thorn and Ms. Alexander were hooking up off the clock. It wasn’t my business to know that, but of course, Tatum told me. She was angry in the beginning but quickly got over it. She said she thought there could be more between Thorn and Ms. Alexander than good sex.

  That Thorn might actually like this woman.

  Thorn didn’t look at her once as he sat beside her on their side of the table. He didn’t make small talk with her either. His deliberate indifference only made their connection stronger. I could feel it in the air around us.

  Ms. Alexander didn’t look at him either, choosing to stare out the window or look at Tatum. Her legs were crossed and so were her arms. She possessed the same poise Tatum did, and she also dressed in the same elegant way.

  I suspected the two of them would be close friends very soon.

  “Are you going to see your parents while you’re in Chicago?” Tatum broke the silence with a simple question.

  “I have to,” Thorn said. “My mom will scratch my eyes out if I don’t stop by.”

  Ms. Alexander smiled, her eyes shining slightly.

  Thorn still didn’t look at her. “If she found out I went to Chicago and didn’t tell her…I’d get death threats.”

  Tatum rolled her eyes. “She would not give you death threats. She’s sweet as pie.”

  “Oh, she’s sweet, alright,” Thorn said. “But not when you cross her. And when her eldest son doesn’t stop by, there’s hell to pay. One time I was in Chicago for a single night before I flew back to Manhattan, and somehow, she figured it out.” He shook his head. “The phone call I got the next day…terrifying. She doesn’t cry and make me feel guilty. She screams at me like a sergeant in the military.”

  Tatum chuckled. “I still can’t picture it…”

  “Because she likes you,” Thorn said. “She doesn’t always like me.”

  My hand moved Tatum’s dress up slightly, enjoying the soft skin of her thigh. “Ms. Alexander, are your parents like that?”

  “No,” she said with a chuckle. “But they live close by.”

  “Connecticut is a bit of a commute,” Thorn said. “About an hour.”

  I cocked an eyebrow, interested that Thorn knew anything about her parents.

  Tatum wore the same expression.

  Ms. Alexander seemed slightly unnerved by his statement. “Yeah, but they’re just a train away. I talk to my mom regularly. They’ve never really been clingy or overly affectionate. But if they lived in Chicago, they’d probably feel the same way.”

  “Are you an only child?” I asked.

  “Yep,” Ms. Alexander said. “So our family’s legacy and reproduction have fallen to me…unfortunately.”

  “But you want to have kids,” Thorn said. “It’s not like it’s a burden.”

  This time, Ms. Alexander flashed him a glare, silencing him with her ferocity.

  Thorn looked away.

  Now it was awkward again. Ms. Alexander obviously wanted to keep things professional, but Thorn didn’t want to keep up a charade now that he’d told Tatum everything about his personal life. The production they were putting on really had no meaning.

  Thorn turned back to her. “They know we’re sleeping together. So let’s just be real.”

  Ms. Alexander took a deep breath, but her eyes turned into daggers. “That’s our personal life. I don’t see why we need to talk about it…especially right in front of them.”

  “They’re my family, baby,” Thorn whispered. “I respect your desire to remain professional, but these are the people I see all the time. They know everything about my life. It just seems pointless…”

  Ms. Alexander looked away, dismissing the conversation.

  “He’s right,” Tatum said. “We’re all friends here. I don’t think there’s any need to put up a fake image when we’re all involved. We all have the maturity not to let it interfere with work.” She gave Ms. Alexander a smile. “So, relax.”

  “See?” Thorn moved his hand to her thigh under the table.

  She didn’t push it away.

  I couldn’t gauge their relationship by watching them. In public, their feelings weren’t so obvious. But judging by the way Thorn wanted to be open about what they had, their relationship did seem different from all the others.

  I never put my hand on a woman’s thigh in a restaurant.

  Except the one woman I wanted to marry.

  “Diesel.” Thorn turned to me. “When’s the bachelor party?”
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br />   I was way too fucking old for a bachelor party. “Never.”

  “Never?” Thorn asked incredulously. “You only get married once.”

  “Yes, I’m looking forward to it.” I didn’t want to slip a bill into a stripper’s thong. I didn’t want to smoke cigars with men in the middle of a strip joint to relive my days as a single man. I didn’t want to get stupid drunk with a woman under each arm. Those days were long over. “I’m thirty-five. I don’t need a bachelor party.”

  “Who cares how old you are?” Thorn countered. “We should celebrate.”

  “I’m good,” I said dismissively.

  “Please tell me you aren’t going to be lame.” Thorn turned to Tatum next.

  She smiled. “Very lame.”

  Thorn rolled his eyes. “When did the richest couple in the world become the lamest couple? Diesel, you’re supposed to watch women get naked one more time. And Tatum, you’re supposed to dance on a stage with a guy wearing nothing by a thong.”

  Tatum grimaced. “Honestly, that doesn’t sound fun at all.”

  “And why would I want to watch women get naked? I’ve got the hottest woman in the world right here.” I leaned into Tatum and kissed her on the cheek.

  Thorn rolled his eyes again. “Fine. Say goodbye to your youth in the most pathetic way possible.”

  “I’ve seen it all,” I said. “I’ve done it all. I said goodbye to that life the second I met Tatum. It’s not like I’m getting married young and missing out on anything. I’ve lived a life of single misery for too long.”

  Ms. Alexander’s eyes softened.

  Thorn’s did too, but he did a better job of hiding it.

  “And if Tatum really wants to go out and watch a guy dance in a thong, she can watch me.” I turned to her. “Isn’t that right, baby?”

  She chuckled. “I can’t picture you doing that.”

  “But I’m sure you can picture me doing other things.” My hand moved farther up her thigh, taking the dress with it. “I’ll be your bachelorette party. And you be my bachelor party. We’ll get stupid drunk. We’ll get naked. And we’ll do crazy shit that we won’t remember.”

  “Now, that sounds like fun,” Ms. Alexander said.

  “Well…” Thorn inched closer to her. “If you’re looking for a stripper, I’m available.”

  She grinned then pushed him away. “Good thing I’m not looking.”

  “Oh, come on.” He circled his arm around her shoulders. “I dance as well as I—”

  “Professionalism from this point onward.” She pushed his arm down. “I mean it, Thorn.”

  Thorn sighed and turned back to us, but he didn’t unleash a smartass comment like he usually would. She had some invisible power over him, a power I could see but perhaps he couldn’t. They did have an obvious chemistry, and Thorn was playful with her in a way I’d never seen him behave toward anyone else.

  Tatum was right…there was something more there.

  Chapter Eleven

  Thorn

  Come over. I stared at my phone and waited for an answer.

  No.

  Baby.

  Don’t call me that.

  Sexy baby.

  The three dots didn’t appear.

  Then I’ll come to you.

  I won’t answer the door.

  This conversation wasn’t productive, so I called her. I held the phone to my ear and listened to it ring. No answer. I hung up and texted her. We’re having this conversation. You don’t get a choice.

  You bet your ass, I get a choice.

  Alright. I’m heading over. I stayed on the couch because I knew she wouldn’t call my bluff.

  My phone started to ring.

  I grinned then answered. “Sexy baby.”

  “Don’t call me that either.”

  “Why? I like it. It’s perfect for you.”

  “Well, I don’t like it.”

  “Bullshit. You want to listen to me call you that while I come inside you.” Now I was calling her bluff. I knew exactly how she reacted to me, to every touch, to every look.

  She didn’t argue. “I’m disappointed in you right now.”

  “Why?”

  “Don’t why me,” she snapped. “You promised to stay professional.”

  “I am being professional. If I weren’t, I would fuck you on the table in front of Titan.”

  “I’m being serious, Thorn. You told her about us, and now I feel like she views me as some slut.”

  I shook my head. “I promise you she doesn’t think that.”

  “You don’t know…”

  “No, I do know. Titan would never, ever call another woman that. She’s a hardcore feminist and thinks it’s bullshit that men can sleep around and it’s almost desirable. If a woman wants a physical relationship with a man, she lacks morals and she’s a whore…she despises that. The only way we’re going to change that is if all of us stop throwing those degrading terms around. So, no, she doesn’t think that.”

  Autumn was silent.

  “Trust me, it doesn’t affect her opinion of you. She admires your brains and your success. All she cares about is the work, nothing else. Alright?”

  She sighed into the phone. “You still told me we would remain professional.”

  “That’s as professional as I can be. I’m not staying on this project forever. When Titan comes back from her honeymoon, I’ll catch her up, and then I’ll be gone. You won’t have to work with me ever again. It’ll be alright.”

  She turned quiet again.

  “Now…are you coming over here, or am I going over there.”

  She scoffed into the phone. “Right to the point, huh?”

  “Are you saying you don’t want me tonight?”

  Silence.

  “That’s what I thought. So, what’s going to be?”

  She stayed on the phone, considering her answer. Then she said, “I have to be up early tomorrow for my spin class.”

  “Then I’ll go over there. See you in a bit, sexy baby.”

  The clothes were gone the second I stepped inside her townhouse. I sat in the center of her sofa with the bottoms of my feet pressed against the floor. I pushed against the ground to lift my hips upward, to meet her thrusts. I rested against the cushioned back of the couch, her tits in my face and my hands on her hips.

  Fuck.

  Me.

  I slipped a beautiful pink nipple into my mouth and felt her pussy spasm around my dick as she came for the second time. She rode me harder, getting herself off with my huge dick wedged deep inside her. Her nails started at my shoulders then pulled all the way down, scratching into the sweat and skin. “Thorn…god.” Her head rolled back, and she ran her hand through her hair.

  Jesus.

  I gripped her ass cheeks and squeezed them hard, feeling my dick start to beg. He was swallowed in her tight goodness, in a place more beautiful than anywhere else he’d been. Every time I moved inside her, my resistance waned. My fingers dug into her harder to hold on, but I was slipping.

  My hand anchored in her hair, and I pulled her down on my crotch, shoving my dick far inside her. I released with a grunt, filling her pussy with so much come it pushed past my cock and smeared to my base, mixed with her own cream. I gripped her tits and rested my neck against the back of the couch, letting the orgasm stretch on until it slowly faded away.

  She still rode me, her movements slowing down as my cock began to soften. She was stuffed with come and cream, her pussy my favorite place in the world. Her arms wrapped around my neck, and she rested against me, her face just inches from mine.

  “Sexy baby…” I kissed her top lip, tasting the sweat that formed there. I was sweaty too, but she was the one who did all the work. I just got to sit there and enjoy. “You love that name, right?”

  “Only when I’m full of you.”

  I smiled against her mouth before I kissed her again. “You have the most incredible pussy…”

  She smiled back. “I know.”

 
“You know?” I asked with a chuckle.

  “Well, your dick already told me that.”

  “Yeah…he makes it pretty obvious.” My fingertips fell down her shoulder blades and her back, slowly moving down to her ass. I lightly caressed her everywhere, feeling the soft skin mixed with sweat. She had the most beautiful figure, an hourglass shape with phenomenal tits.

  She leaned back slightly, still full of my softening cock. “I think I’m going to shower.”

  “Nope.” I stood up and lifted her with me, keeping my cock inside her as I carried her into the hallway. I hadn’t been in her bedroom yet, and I walked into the first room I saw. It was feminine, with lots of light colors and fluffy pillows. I set her on the bed then moved underneath the covers. “Wow, your bed is comfy.”

  “That’s why I only lie in it when I’m going to sleep…otherwise, I’ll never get anything done.” She pulled the covers back and got comfortable beside me, her makeup smeared slightly and her hair a mess.

  I thought she’d never looked hotter. “I’m sleeping here tonight.”

  “Really?” she asked. “I thought we didn’t do that.”

  “Well, now we do.” My arms cradled her smooth body, and I pulled her tighter against me. We were both warm and sweaty, but I wanted her right beside me. I’d spent the day keeping my hands to myself, and now that we were alone together, I wanted to be all over her—all the time. “Don’t pretend that you want me to leave.”

  When she didn’t answer, I assumed it was a silent admission. “What exactly did you tell Titan?”

  “About us?”

  “Yeah.” She watched me through her thick lashes, her eyes glowing with their own light.

  “The truth.”

  “But how much of the truth?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Tell me what you said.”

  “Pretty much everything.”

  Her eyes narrowed further. “Everything?”

  “You have to remember…she’s my best friend. Shit, she’s my only friend. I had to tell her about you because I told you the truth about my relationship with her. So she wanted to know the extent of ours…so I told her.”