Earlier in the day, I had almost forgotten about the upcoming staff meeting entirely. I supposed that wasn’t surprising though; my thoughts were so preoccupied with Joanna these days, I sometimes thought I would forget my own head if it weren’t attached to my neck.
As the meeting got started, my co-workers all put forth a valiant effort in paying attention. I, on the other hand, couldn’t even muster the energy to pretend. I stared down at the table before me, drumming my fingers on it and letting their voices turn into distant drones, knowing Tobias would fill me in on the details later. Granted, I’d caught his irritated glances, informing me that he knew I wasn’t paying attention. Yet I couldn’t bring myself to care.
I suppose part of the problem was that I’d had too many sleepless nights. It seemed that every night when I closed my eyes, I would have visions of Joanna’s soft eyes, her beautiful face, the feel of her soft skin, and the pleasure of her body on top of mine…
And then the frustration would kick in as her face slowly morphed into that of her brother’s. Her seductive eyes would turn into his judgmental ones, and I’d spend the rest of the night wondering how Joanna and I were going to carry on once he eventually found us out.
I kept telling myself that Joanna and I needed to have a serious discussion about it. We needed to be mature and fess up before things got too far out of control. I knew that it would be best if we told Tobias rather than letting him find out on his own. As long as we continued to sneak around behind his back, it made it seem like we were consciously deceiving him, which we were. The realization of this had started to make me feel disgusted with myself.
What kind of friend was I to do this to my best buddy?
I just didn’t know how much longer I could keep all the bullshit up.
I sighed and let my hand fall flat on the table, making more noise than I intended and subsequently causing a hitch in the conversation flow in the room. I caught Tobias’s eye and mouthed the word ‘Sorry.’ He gave me an exasperated eye-roll and then turned his attention back to whatever topic was at hand. Within seconds, the voices in the room returned to distant drones in the back of my mind.
I glanced around the room, feeling guilty to see that everyone else was so thoroughly invested. My own restlessness was starting to make me feel self-conscious. It wasn’t like I hadn’t heard the rumors; a handful of employees wholeheartedly believed that I had only risen to my rank in the firm due to my friendship with Tobias. More than a time or two, Tobias had told me that I needed to be careful and make sure that I showed my worth around the firm to ensure no one believed I was there just due to favoritism on his end.
Which made me wonder if he’d had a similar conversation with Joanna.
Joanna…
I’d fallen into the trap of thinking about her again, just as I always did. No considerable amount of time ever passed these days without her lovely face slipping into my mind.
A sigh accidentally escaped my lips at the thought of her. I cringed, knowing that my neighbor had heard it based on the irritated glance he shot at me.
Pull it together, Anderson, I inwardly scolded myself.
Vowing to pay better attention, I sat up straight in my chair. But no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t stay focused.
Giving up, I stood from my seat, figuring that I needed a break to take a walk and get the blood back flowing in my brain. Otherwise, I was going to be completely useless for the rest of the meeting, and there was still at least a half hour to go.
“Pardon me,” I said, nodding respectfully at Tobias and then excusing myself from the room. It wasn’t the most professional of actions, but it was better than sitting at the table like an antsy ten-year-old.
I headed down the hall, whistling to myself, planning to get a sip of water, visit the men’s room, and then return to the meeting with renewed focus.
“Good morning, Mr. Lawrence.”
I turned toward the sing-song voice behind me and was rewarded with the sight of Joanna herself. She trailed behind me, seemingly on her way back from running an errand. She gave me a sly smile that practically made me combust with desire.
“Good morning, Ms. Gentry,” I said, bowing at her with a grin on my face.
She giggled, and suddenly, a rebellious streak came over me. I cast a cautious glance down the hall, checking to see if anyone else was coming. It was fortunate that I did, as one of our co-workers was rounding the corner. Joanna and I separated, permitting her room to pass down the hall as she nodded at both of us in greeting. Once she was out of sight, I grabbed Joanna’s hand and led her around the opposite corner.
“Is there something I can do for you, Mr. Lawrence?” Joanna said in a tone of mock-professionalism, struggling to keep the laughter out of her voice.
“Possibly,” I said, smirking and stopping before an old supply closet. “I think I need you to help me find something in here, if you don’t mind.” I opened the door, pulled her inside with me, and then closed the door again. I flipped on the light-switch, revealing the closet to be full of office supplies and anything else an office could possibly need.
“What is it that you’re looking for?” Joanna asked, cocking her head sideways.
I slowly moved closer to her, slinking my arm around her waist. “I’m looking for something, right about here,” I said, lowering my face to the crook of her neck, and kissed the soft skin there.
Joanna groaned and wrapped her arms around my neck, her body flush with mine.
My heart pounded a mile a minute, knowing that we couldn’t afford to be so bold, carrying out such antics in the workplace, right under Tobias’s nose. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help myself. I wanted her so badly… My dick responded to her every moan, every touch of her ample lips or soft hands…
And it didn’t help that she seemed to have no objections.
I lifted my face from her neck so that I could kiss her lips. She returned the kiss in earnest, tightening her arms around me, and for a moment, I lost all my reason. I lifted her right off her feet and carried her to an extra desk in the corner, wanting to be buried inside of her badly. She wrapped her legs around me and pushed her tongue more deeply into my mouth, which made my cock painfully hard.
I cupped her firm ass and ground her against me, remembering the way her pussy felt around me, too tight and too wet. I unbuttoned the top three buttons of her blouse and pushed my hand inside, covering her lush breast.
She moaned, and I felt too close to losing the last thread of control I possessed. I couldn’t help myself but brush her nipple with my thumb, relishing in the way it quickly responded to my touch. “How I wish I can eat you and take you right here.”
“Ah… You’re so bad.” She rubbed her hot core against my dick, taunting me, and I smashed my lips against hers in the search of another quick “Joanna” fix.
After several long moments, we separated, gazing at each other. Her expression was lustful, but apprehensive at the same time. “We are so screwed if someone finds us in here,” she whispered.
“Tell me about it,” I said. Logic told me to step back, but my body refused to obey the command.
“How much longer are we going to keep this up?” Joanna asked. “This secrecy. Sometimes, I can hardly stand it.”
“I know what you mean. Trust me, I do,” I said, letting my fingers slide across her neck before I left an open-mouthed kiss right below her ear, clouded by desire.
“Do you really?”
I took a half-step back, taken aback by the somewhat cross tone in Joanna’s voice. A slight wrinkle appeared in her brow and the corners of her mouth turned downward. “What?” I was astonished at the sudden change between us. “You don’t think this is just as hard on me as it is on you?”
Joanna shrugged her shoulders and averted her gaze. “I don’t know,” she said softly.
“What are you thinking? What do you want to do about it?”
But she only shrugged again.
I sighed. “Sometimes
I have moments of thinking your brother should know, but then I always change my mind because I know how crazy he can be.”
Joanna huffed. “So it’s solely my brother that’s the problem?” she asked. Immediately afterwards, redness began to form in her cheeks and I got the feeling she hadn’t meant to make her comment out loud.
I took another step back and folded my arms over my chest. “Is there some other problem that I don’t know about?”
“Is there? You tell me?”
“You’re the one with all the questions,” I counter-argued. “Clearly there’s something on your mind that you aren’t being upfront about.”
“Somehow, I get the feeling that I’m not the one holding all the secrets,” she said, although once again, the comment seemed to be directed more at herself than to me.
I was just about to make a retort when we both heard movement outside of the door. In a flash, Joanna leapt off the desk, buttoning up her shirt, and I moved to the opposite side of the closet—both of us ready to pretend that we were looking for something in case someone opened the door and spotted us. But the sounds faded and whoever had been outside seemed to have moved on.
Joanna and I exchanged glances. She placed her hand over her mouth, stifling her laughter, although her shoulders shook from the force of it. I shook my head, but couldn’t help laughing myself. The brief tension between us immediately dissipated.
“That was close,” Joanna said, making her way back over to me.
I slid my arm around her waist again. “Looks like it emboldened you though,” I said, noticing the way she tilted her head upwards, reaching for another kiss. I leaned down to her, happy to oblige and feeling that I would never get enough of the taste of her lips. I ran a hand through the silky curls of her hair and before I knew it, we were leaning against a wall, lost in each other all over again.
She ran her hands down my back, and then along my waistline, gripping the front of my belt buckle. I let my hands trail down to her hips. She palmed my erection, feeling me.
“You’re killing me, you know that?” I muttered, pushing into her hand. Her fingers gripped me, and my precum soaked my boxers. I was sure that if she kept doing this, I would cum in no time. “I wish I can fuck you right here and make you feel good…”
I covered her breast over her blouse and kneaded it, kissing her earlobe. Her scent was alluring, and I was dying to get a taste of her…
“This can’t happen here,” Joanna said breathlessly and removed her hand from my crotch.
“I know,” I said, kissing her again while begrudgingly noting that I had been away from the meeting for too long. Any longer, and my absence would surely raise suspicion. But no amount of logic seemed capable of pulling me away from Joanna. She felt too good.
My mind went blissfully blank with every wet kiss we shared, and I felt that I could have stayed in the closet with her forever.
We both jumped at the sound of my phone buzzing at my hip.
“Shit,” I muttered, finally stepping away from her and accepting that our rendezvous was officially over. I looked at the phone, seeing Tobias’s angry text message urging me to hurry the hell up and get back to the meeting.
Joanna sighed, running a hand through her hair and then over her clothes, smoothing them back into place. She was breathless, her dazed eyes and flushed expression like an invitation to go all over her, but we couldn’t take chances at the moment.
“Gotta go,” I said reluctantly. I gave her one last quick peck on the lips and then hurried out of the closet, trying to recompose myself and push aside the fevered thoughts of Joanna on my way back to the meeting.
CHAPTER 16
Joanna
“See you later, Joanna,” Libby said as I signed out of my computer for the day. I turned around and waved at her before zipping my jacket and heading out the building.
“Joanna!”
I turned around just before reaching the door to see Tobias heading toward me. He was slightly red in the face, which I recognized as a sign of his agitation about something. I swallowed nervously, thinking about what had transpired between me and Anderson just hours ago in the supply closet. Terrified, I started thinking about security cameras, wondering if any had caught us in the act. I tried to recreate that particular area of the building in my head, trying to recall if there were any surveillance cameras somewhere near it that we’d had the misfortune of overlooking. Neither of us wanted to tell Tobias what was going on between us yet, so the last thing we needed was for him to find out by accident, courtesy of unsuspecting surveillance images.
But Anderson should have known better if that was the case. As long as he’d been working with my brother, he should have known the building inside and out just as much as Tobias. If we had been in danger of being caught by a surveillance camera, certainly he wouldn’t have let us fall into such a trap.
“Yeah,” I said, gripping the handle of my briefcase so tightly that my fist began to ache. I stared into Tobias’s eyes, trying to determine just how upset he was and if it really had anything to do with me.
“How far did you guys go today?” he asked. I raised my eyebrows, taken off guard by the question. Tobias sighed in frustration and snapped his fingers in front of my face. “Come on! I’m working a ton of extra hours here. How are the new set of numbers going? When will you have them done?”
“Oh!” I said, breathing a sigh of relief and having to keep myself from laughing. “They’re coming along well. Should be done in another day or two.”
“Let’s shoot for another day,” Tobias said, already turning on the spot and heading back to his office. “The sooner the better.”
“Got it,” I said. “I’ll work on them some more tonight.”
He briefly glanced backwards, flashing me a thumbs-up.
Relieved, I headed on my way, afraid that if I stuck around any longer, Anderson and I would somehow get exposed.
Once I made it outside, I tightened my jacket around myself against the cool breeze. It was in such contrast to the weather earlier in the week. But that was Chicago for you; every Chicagoan knew it was plausible to experience all four seasons within a single week.
Suddenly, a chill went down my spine that had absolutely nothing to do with the weather. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and I froze on the spot defensively.
It felt like someone was watching me.
I looked around the parking lot. Rows of empty cars surrounded me, their windshields each looking like prying eyes. My own eyes darted from one car to the next, looking to find an occupant inside one of them. But I saw no one. Nevertheless, I couldn’t shake the feeling and knew in my gut that someone was there. And judging from the way dread steadily coursed through my system, there was one person in particular standing out in my mind…
No. Don’t be stupid. It can’t be…I thought to myself.
But I knew better than to not trust my gut instincts.
I took a deep breath and reached into my purse for my phone. My first thought was of calling Anderson to ask if he would mind escorting me home. However, I knew there was a chance he was with my brother. With the exception of the brief break Anderson and I had shared together, today had been a busy day for him, and he’d been at Tobias’s side for the majority of it.
My fingers flying across my phone’s screen, I hurriedly called Tobias instead. As I listened to the rings, I scanned the parking lot again, the feeling of being watched growing by the second. Shakily, I walked backwards, heading back to the building in case I needed to dash back inside.
“Yeah?” said Tobias’ voice on the other line.
“Tobias…” I said, my voice quivering in ways I wished it wouldn’t. If I was truly being watched by—I couldn’t even bring myself to think the name—I didn’t want him to hear and see how frightened I was.
Tobias, on the other hand, instantly knew something wasn’t right. “Joanna, where are you? What’s wrong?”
“I’m in the parking lot. I
was about to leave, but…I think I’m being followed. Someone is watching me.”
“Okay, relax. Calm down and come back inside. Who’s watching you?”
Without wasting another second, I rushed back into the building, feeling close to hyperventilating. Standing behind the safety of the door, I closed my eyes and rested my hands on my knees, forcing a series of deep breaths to slow my speeding heart. Now that I was no longer out in the open, the feeling of being watched dissipated and my ability to think logically returned. I also was no longer afraid to think his name.
Zander.
He couldn’t have been out there though. He just couldn’t. I had been so sure it was him, but now, the thought seemed preposterous—or at least I hoped it was.
I stood up straight, having successfully gotten my breathing and heart rate back under control. Just as I was about to head farther into the building and up to Tobias’s office, I heard the ding of the elevator around the corner. Mere seconds later, Tobias was rushing down the hall.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
I shook my head as he waved me over toward him. We met each other halfway, standing in the middle of the hall. “Uh…never mind. It’s nothing,” I said.
“What do you mean nothing?” Tobias demanded. “Joanna, who’s following you? I know you’ve been holding something back from me. Enough is enough. Tell me what’s going on.”
I sighed and took another deep breath. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to seem like I was overreacting,” I prefaced, “but Zander called me last week.”
Tobias’s eyes widened. “And what happened?” he asked.
“He sort of…threatened to come after me…”
Tobias swore. “You mean to tell me this happened last week ago and you didn’t tell me, Jo? What the hell is wrong with you? Why didn’t you say something?”
“Because I never told him where I was going, and he doesn’t know anything about you or this company, so he has no way of finding me.”
“How do you know he isn’t tracking your cell phone?”
Baby Makes Three: A Brother's Best Friend's Secret Baby Romance Page 8