“Talk to me, Celeste. Tell me…” He moaned as I impaled myself on him again.
“I love having your cock inside me.” I’d said it for him, but the sound of those words coming out of my mouth aroused me even more. “I love fucking you, Ryan. I like belonging to you. I like having your cock in my mouth…in my pussy…in my ass…”
Just after I said the last words, I felt his finger press against my ass hole. It was like a come button. I immediately started to spasm. Ryan made a guttural sound and began to shudder. I lost control and collapsed onto him as he continued to thrust into me until we were both spent.
Chapter Five
I was lying half atop Ryan, basking in the afterglow. He’d done what he’d promised. My body had never been so satisfied. And relaxed. I wished I could make love to him every night when I came home from work.
I pressed against his warmth while he caressed the thigh I’d draped over him. He’d shown me a really hot time, followed by gentle lovemaking that felt so real…that had turned into an undeniable passion. In fact, I wouldn’t deny it any longer. I was going to have to embrace it and let the chips fall where they may.
I’d never felt as though a man was truly meant for me before, but now I did and we deserved a chance. And maybe, if things worked out, Ryan wouldn’t mind moving to a different company, since I’d built my career at MTI. His sales skills could transfer anywhere. I couldn’t believe I was thinking this, but I was pretty sure I’d fallen in love.
“We need to talk.” He folded his pillow under his head so he could look down into my face.
My heart dropped into my stomach. What possible good could come after “We need to talk”? Was he about to tell me he was married? Had a hot, young girlfriend? Was joining the Peace Corps and would be in Botswana for the next two years?
Whatever it was, I didn’t want to know right now. Maybe another day, when I was better shielded by my tweed armor.
“What made you sign up for Fantasm?” I asked, hoping his reasons had nothing whatsoever to do with what he wanted to talk about.
“It was a gift certificate, if you can believe that…from a friend.”
“Seriously? I can’t imagine anyone I know giving me this.”
“Yeah, my friend George and I have been best buddies since we were little kids. He’s my one friend who hasn’t gotten married and settled down—or as he calls it, ‘committed suicide’.”
“Sounds like a real charmer,” I said.
“An acquired taste if you haven’t known him forever, I’m sure. Anyway, I was really sick of the whole dating thing—meeting people on the Internet kept turning out weird, but the bars are full of twenty-one year olds who made me feel like I was dating a niece or something. The older you get, the more you notice how young they are. So, once George realized I’d been dropping off some of the hottest women in Manhattan with just a peck on the cheek, he became ‘concerned’.” Ryan rolled his eyes and smiled. He didn’t have an ugly facial expression in his repertoire. I was enchanted all over again.
“What a thing to be concerned about,” I said to keep him talking.
“It was serious to him. He pronounced me bored and gave me a gift certificate for my birthday.” Ryan gazed sweetly into my eyes. “I’m glad he did now.”
God he was adorable. I would have made passionate love to him again if every cell in my body hadn’t already been orgasmed to death.
“I’m glad he did too,” I said.
Ryan pulled me too him suddenly for a nose-bumping kiss. We laughed for several seconds then I relaxed onto the pillow next to him.
“Anyway, I have a confession to make,” he said, turning on his side to face me. “I’m not supposed to spill the beans for a few more days, but I don’t think it can wait any longer.”
Funny, “spill the beans” was one of Mr. Murray’s all-time favorite expressions. For some reason, Ryan’s news didn’t seem as threatening now. “Okay. Go ahead,” I said.
“As you may have guessed, I’m working at the office under unusual circumstances…and there’s a reason for that.”
Uh-oh. Was this where he came clean about whatever terrible thing he’d done at the New York office that made him flee to San Francisco?
“I’ve been working at MTI for several years now. I started at the bottom and worked my way up. My grandfather wanted me to know his company inside and out before I took over the reins, with no special treatment from the people who worked there.”
I stared at him for a moment with narrowed eyes—first trying to let the words sink in, and then trying to twist them into something other than the picture they were forming in my head.
The more I stared at Ryan, the more resemblance I could see to Mr. Murray. Take away the wrinkles, change the eye color…
I leapt from the bed, pulling the sheet with me. “Oh my God! I’ve defiled Frederick Murray’s grandson!” I yelled as I held the sheet in front of me protectively.
Ryan sat up and actually had the gall to laugh at me. “Come on, Celeste. It’s not like you were the first. I’ve been defiled plenty of times before y—”
He saw me frowning ferociously at him. Now I wasn’t just angry. I was jealous at the parade of women who’d come before me.
“Well, never as well as you defiled me, of course,” he finished.
I closed my eyes and shook my head. This was one scenario I couldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams.
“Okay, none of this is coming out right,” he said. “Let’s start over…”
“When did you know?” I demanded.
“Know what?”
“When did you know I was the same Celeste Phillips who worked for your grandfather? Was this some sort of test?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” He moved to sit on the edge of the bed.
“To see if I followed the protocol in my trainings.” Once it came out of my mouth it sounded way too conspiracy theorist, but out of all the men on this planet, how did I end up at Fantasm with Murray’s grandson?
“Think, Celeste. You’ve known my grandfather for fifteen years. Would he plan something like that?”
Well, he’d certainly aided and abetted by not trusting me with the truth about what was happening. That stung. “No, he wouldn’t,” I admitted. “But if Fantasm knew we worked for the same company, how did we end up here together?”
“That’s my fault. I didn’t want to take any chances that might embarrass the company, so I lied about everything on my application except the city I lived in, which was still officially New York when I filled out the forms.”
“So this is all a coincidence?” I asked.
“Yeah, I guess so, but the longer I know you, the more I want to think of it as fate.”
“So, without consulting me, you decided my fate was to either be a boss sleeping with her younger subordinate or an employee sleeping with her boss, depending on how you look at it.”
“Celeste, Gramps and I had planned the work situation for years, so I could get experience without special treatment, and the rest is a bizarre coincidence. Bottom line is, you and I found each other. Can’t we be a little glass-is-half-full here?”
“I don’t know what glass you’re drinking out of, but however you fill mine, it leaves me as some office cougar-whore. It totally undermines my professional reputation and when Mr. Murray finds out about this… God, I’ve spent my life working in his company, Ryan. You took my life’s work and cavalierly fucked around with it…literally!”
“Celeste!” Ryan said in a reprimanding tone. I stopped talking and breathed in deeply. “Just tell me this—do you have feelings for me? If I weren’t Fred Murray’s grandson would you have wanted to be with me in a real relationship?”
“Yes, I had feelings for you, and you played with them and lied to me and tried to ruin my life,” I said. I released the sheet, grabbed my clothes off the chair and began dressing as fast as possible.
“Celeste, don’t run away again. Not like this.” He sto
od up, completely naked. He sounded so vulnerable.
I steeled myself against the soft feelings that were trying to take hold. “Sorry, Ryan,” I said harshly. “I have too much to do now to lie around here with you. I have to go back to San Francisco and get my resume in order and figure out what the hell I’m going to tell everyone.”
“Please don’t do anything rash. It will all work out. I promise.”
“I really don’t know what a promise means from a man who’s lied to me about something this important, Ryan.” I grabbed my car keys and purse and took off.
* * * * *
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! It was the only word that would come to me after Celeste stormed out.
I’d completely screwed things up and she’d run out on me…again.
On the way home, I kept going through every step in our relationship, trying to figure out when I could have done something different that would have us together right now. And it was like a catch-22. If I had told her the truth the first day at the office, she wouldn’t have touched me with a ten-foot pole, given her relationship with Gramps. If I hadn’t told her today, she would have found out in a few days in public, when Gramps made the announcement. And what if I had never gone to Fantasm and only met her in the office that first day?
I would have automatically been off-limits as her assistant, then Frederick Murray’s grandson, and even if she would have given me the time of day, I never would have known the real Celeste. She would never have trusted anyone in her real life with her raunchiest fantasy…her most private needs.
Although I’d spent a lot of time imagining her naked in my bed since our first night together, the truth was, I couldn’t imagine any part of my life without her in it.
I had known a lot of woman. In fact, they’d all started to blur together until it didn’t even seem worth the trouble to search them out anymore. Sometimes I’d liked them a lot, sometimes I’d really enjoyed them in bed, sometimes they drove me fucking crazy and I couldn’t wait to drop them off.
None of them had grabbed me by the balls and the heart at the same time. None of them were Celeste. I had complete respect for her professionally—my grandfather had a knack for surrounding himself with the best people, and Celeste was the best of the best—and I loved how much she cared about the company. The same company I’d dreamed of running since I was a kid.
But there was more. She was complicated. She was smart. She was a woman who could challenge me in a witty conversation or a no-holds-barred argument. Yet she was beautiful and vulnerable…and hot and nasty.
She was the whole package and I couldn’t have done better if I’d ordered her from a catalogue. There had to be a way to make this right.
Chapter Six
I walked to Mr. Murray’s office on Monday afternoon with a letter of resignation and a heavy heart. I already had a job offer, and it was a good one. I should have been happy and relieved, but I wasn’t.
I tapped on Mr. Murray’s door.
“Come in,” he called out.
When I entered, he wasn’t seated at his desk. Instead he was sitting in the big leather chair that was grouped with a couch and coffee table in the corner of his large office. Ryan was on the couch.
He looked up at me and smiled.
I averted my eyes and focused on his grandfather.
“Mr. Murray, I need to speak to you—”
“And I need to speak to you, too, Celeste. Ryan and I have been discussing some major changes to the way we run things around here and you’ll want to hear about it.”
“You mean Ryan my assistant?” I said sarcastically as I glanced at Ryan.
Mr. Murray chuckled. “I have a feeling you’ve figured out he’s more than your assistant.”
“Well, sir, there is a strong family resemblance.”
I figured, why “spill the beans” that Ryan had “spilled the beans” at this point? I had to go. There was no reason to damage the relationship between Ryan and his grandfather.
Mr. Murray gazed proudly at his grandson. “Believe it or not, I was quite the hunk in my day.”
I couldn’t resist laughing at Mr. Murray’s use of the work “hunk”. I realized Ryan and I were laughing together.
“Sit down, Celeste.” Mr. Murray motioned to the couch, next to Ryan, but I pulled over one of the chairs that had been facing his desk. I didn’t want to sit next to Ryan but I couldn’t resist hearing one last bit of company news before I resigned. I knew I was stalling, but what was the rush?
“I’m all ears,” I said.
“You know how they say great minds think alike? After spending time in your department, Ryan came to me with an idea that I’ve been toying with for a while, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to proceed because I didn’t know if he’d find it unsettling.”
I leaned forward now, wondering what he could be referring to.
“I’ve been thinking for a while that we should really split into two divisions or possibly two companies. While we specialize in trainings, the types of trainings are quite varied now, thanks to you. Marketing-wise, I think it would be easier to promote ourselves as specialists in the field if we had one company that specialized in the more psychologically oriented trainings, like the AOBs and customer service areas, and another in the more tangible, like safety and technical.”
“That’s brilliant!” I said, and it was. With the myriad new technical trainings the company was planning, we were going to grow even more than we had in the past two years. “It would also keep each company more streamlined and agile,” I added.
“Exactly,” Mr. Murray replied. “What I’m thinking, Celeste, is two separate companies. Ryan would eventually take over for me at one. You would head up the other. Of course, as my grandson, Ryan would inherit controlling interest in both, but he would only run the training and technical company as president and CEO.”
“You’re making me president of a company?” I asked. Vice-president was as far as I’d ever dreamed, since I never wanted to imagine a day when Mr. Murray wasn’t able to head up his company anymore.
“As luck would have it, the twelfth floor in this building is vacant. We could house both companies here. Ryan says you two work great together, so you could run things independently but still have each other to bounce ideas off of.”
Still have each other. My mind repeated those words several times.
But Mr. Murray would still be angry if he found out and I was a total bitch to Ryan when I last saw him—not that he didn’t deserve at least some of it. And I was still more than a decade older than he was…
“Gramps, there’s something I want to talk to you about now,” Ryan said. He rose and walked around to stand behind my chair.
I tensed up. Don’t spill the beans, Ryan. Don’t spill the beans.
“Gramps—”
“No, Ry—”
“I’m crazy about Celeste. And I’m not just talking about professional admiration. I’m…well…smitten, as you would say.”
I leaned my head back and looked up at him with wide eyes. Was he on drugs? I wanted to jump from the chair but realized his hands were on my shoulders. I was now being held against my will.
I looked back into Mr. Murray’s wide eyes. “Honestly sir, when we met, I had no idea he was…” I began. I pulled Ryan’s hands off me and stood.
Mr. Murray looked curiously at his grandson. “You and she…?” He motioned between us.
“Yeah, Gramps. I’m in love,” Ryan said brazenly.
I felt my legs buckling and wished I’d stayed in the chair. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know he was your grandson when we…” I began again, but I didn’t know what to say next—because a huge smile had broken out across Mr. Murray’s face.
“Finally!” Mr. Murray strode over to his grandson and shook his hand heartily, slapping him on the back at the same time. Then he pulled Ryan to him for a hug.
“You’re happy about this?” I asked stupidly.
“Of course! Why wouldn
’t I be? This boy is so damn picky I thought he’d never find someone.”
“But, sir, I’m thirteen years older than he is.”
“Actually, closer to twelve if you look at where our birthdays fall on the calendar,” Ryan interjected.
I waved his words off. “I’m forty-five years old.”
“You look great, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Mr. Murray said. “You have that timeless quality…like Sophia Loren…or Charro.”
Ryan and I burst out laughing. Yeah, these two were related all right. But I thought someone here needed to be a bit more practical, so I pulled myself together and tried to be the voice of reason.
“Mr. Murray, while there is some possibility I could still have a baby, I really can’t see myself becoming a mother at this point. You know my work is my life. I love what I do. You’d never have a great-grandchild to carry on the family business. You can’t possibly want me to be with Ryan permanently.”
“You know, Celeste,” Mr. Murray said, placing a hand lightly on each of my shoulders. “I’ve always had the utmost faith in you. It disappoints me that you don’t have faith in me.”
Mr. Murray was disappointed in me? I felt awful.
“I still have a lot of years on you, so I’m going to share something I’ve learned. Life is short. Yes, I know people say that all the time, but when you get to be my age you really understand what it means.” He placed his hand on Ryan’s shoulder. “When I started this company, I didn’t envision my great-grandchild running it when I was gone. I started it because I wanted to. And as I’ve told Ryan many times, if he’d wanted to become a veterinarian or a car salesman, I would have loved him every bit as much.”
He took both my hands in his. “Since my own daughter died, you’ve been the closest thing I’ve had to one.” Tears formed in my eyes at his words. “And Ryan’s always been more like a son than a grandson. I’ve been blessed with wonderful people in my life and more success than I could have imagined, much of it thanks to you.” He held on to my hands but turned his face Ryan. “To see you two running my company—companies—and taking care of each other would be icing on my cake.”
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