by Olivia Myers
Lexi had thought he looked thick earlier when she’d seen his erection straining against his jeans, and now, feeling herself stretch to accommodate his girth, she realized her suspicions were right.
He moaned against her jaw as he withdrew and then thrust again.
“Harder,” she panted. “Faster.”
Duke obliged, setting a thrilling, punishing pace. With her arms bound, she could only cling to him with her legs and let him take her. His hands were hard and steady on her ass, easily taking her weight as he slid in and out of her slippery sheath.
Every deep, rocking thrust twisted the burning pleasure within her tighter and tighter.
His mouth never left her skin, his lips, tongue, and teeth dragging over her collarbone, her throat, her chin. He bent to suck and nip at her breasts, making her gasp and arch up to press herself to his lips. Lexi could feel her orgasm building, throbbing in every cell. Even her fingernails tingled with pleasure as Duke used his entire body to make her feel good.
When he kissed her, she tipped over the edge, crying out her release into his mouth.
He rode her through it, suckling her lower lip gently between his even as his pace increased and grew uneven. Lexi could sense he was close, could feel it in the tightness of his grip and the urgency of his thrusts.
She trailed her lips along his jaw, feeling the rasp of his stubble, to take his earlobe between her teeth and flick it with her tongue. She breathed words into his ear. “Do it. Come for me, Duke.”
Lexi felt another all-over shiver of pleasure as he slammed into her all the way to the hilt, pinning her to the wall. She tightened her legs mercilessly to hold him close as she felt the warm pulse of him within her. He buried his face against her neck, shuddering and moaning.
For several long moments, the only sound in the room was their ragged breathing. Lexi tipped her head back against the wall, enjoying the warm lethargy spreading through her tired muscles. Opening her eyes, she caught sight of her bound wrists and felt a faint spark of arousal fire in the pit of her stomach. The blue and yellow rope looped around her arms reminded her of what they had been discussing when things took a turn for the physical. Lexi giggled.
“Well, if rock climbing is anything like that, I will definitely be giving it a try.”
Duke lifted his head. Their gazes collided, his brown eyes were still hazy with pleasure, but the familiar furrow appeared between his brows. Then he followed her look to her bound wrists. Lexi watched a flush darken his cheeks and he bit the corner of his lip. The gesture was uncertain and curiously endearing.
He reached up and unwound the rope, rubbing at her wrists with gentle fingers. His eyes remained on her arms as he coughed slightly to clear his throat.
“I, ah, didn’t hurt you, did I?”
Lexi felt the broad grin stretching her cheeks. She touched still tingling fingers to the rope. “Do you mean with this?” She arched her hips, making him give a sharp gasp. “Or this?”
“Either,” he said, stepping back and lowering her gently to her feet. He still wouldn’t meet her eyes. Lexi took a minute to smooth her clothes back into place and let him collect himself. When they were both once again clothed, she caught his eye and patted the center of his chest.
“Hey. We’re good, okay? You didn’t do anything I didn’t want you to. You know that, right?”
He shoved a hand through his hair, blew out a breath, and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I know.”
Lexi lifted both brows. “So we’re good?”
“We’re good.”
“Awesome. Because I still want this job, so it would suck if things were going to be weird between us now.”
Duke bent to gather up the forgotten paperwork. “I’m not gonna fire you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I wasn’t, but you’re acting a little squirrely now, boss. Look, we’re both adults. We felt an attraction. We had a little… okay, a lot… of fun. But it’s just sex. And now that it’s out of our systems, I’m sure it’ll be a lot easier to work together.”
Honestly, Lexi wasn’t so sure that last part was true. They’d only just finished and she already wanted to reach out and pull him back against her. But she didn’t do repeats, no matter how tempting.
“Right.” Duke didn’t sound convinced either, but when she met his eyes he gave her a short nod. “Your paperwork.”
She took the sheaf of paper, studying his handsome face. Something was clearly bothering him. Though he was trying not to frown, the line between his brows was there and his lips were turned down at the corners the tiniest bit. She didn’t know if he was upset that he’d given in to his attraction to her, or maybe because he’d had sex with an employee. Whatever it was, she hoped he’d get over it. She liked the job and she liked him. More than she should, probably.
Tapping the papers against her palm, Lexi forced a smile to her lips.
“See you tomorrow night, then.”
Duke ducked his chin in a curt nod. “Tomorrow.”
***
Two months. It had been two long, frustrating months since she’d first started working at Shotguns and she still couldn’t get her mind off the mind-blowing back room sex she’d had with Surly McCrankyPants… aka her boss, Duke.
Lexi knew some of her friends considered her a slut. She rejected completely the idea that her worth had any connection to the amount of guys she slept with. But even she had to admit that two months was a fairly long stretch for her not to have hooked up with someone.
Not that she hadn’t tried.
At first, she just wrote off her lack of interest to the fact that her kinky rope encounter with Duke had been a bout of fantastically satisfying and athletic sex. It had been, in fact, the best sex she’d ever had. It was bound—she smirked at the pun—to tide her over for awhile.
Besides, between school and the new job, she was pretty busy. So what if the few interactions she did have on her nights off lacked the fire of her and Duke’s verbal sparring? She didn’t have to hook up.
But when several weeks had passed and she still hadn’t found a single other interesting prospect, Lexi began to worry. The problem was, Duke had made it clear he’d be more than willing to go again. She could almost wish for the awkwardness she’d worried about right after they’d had sex. But no.
The next afternoon when she showed up for work, Duke was all glowering, heavy brows as he took in her tight black leather vest and purple mini-skirt. He grumbled, “If you wear things like that, we’re going to end up back against the office wall.”
She’d replied with a stern, “No, we will not,” despite the fact that everything in her body had tightened.
Apparently, Duke had decided he liked a challenge. Either that, or he was secretly a sadistic bastard, because from that moment on he seemed determined to make her go back on her word. Since they were the only two employees, they worked together every Thursday through Sunday from five in the evening until one, sometimes two in the morning.
Every night, he gave her shit about what she was wearing, or how she did her job. Lexi knew he was just fucking with her, and she wanted to be annoyed, but it was hard when he seemed to delight in her giving back as good as she got. She’d never met a guy who seemed to enjoy getting snarked at as much as Duke did. It was almost a game for them, seeing which one of them could get in the funniest dig or get a rise out of the other the quickest.
Several of the regulars even got in on the fun. Buz, the white-haired old biker that came in almost every night, had taken to shouting, “Get a room!” at them when they got going. Duke would usually flip him the bird and then tip his head toward the back hall.
“Got a room right back there, if you think you can handle it, Blondie.”
That always caused a flare of irritation and Duke knew it, though she doubted he knew exactly why. The truth was, the teasing nickname reminded her of that first day, and the way he moaned ‘Lexi’ against her neck when he came.
It had become automatic fo
r her to reply, “Keep dreaming, boss,” and try to repress her smile as he shot back, “Every night, Blondie. Every night.”
Of course, that was on the good nights, when they were joking and picking at each other. But the more time stretched between them and that first night, the more tense they both became. Lexi didn’t think it was just the bubbling heat between them keeping Duke on edge, though.
She heard him cursing to himself while he was back in the office doing paperwork. She’d offered to help because she was getting her degree in Business Administration, after all, but he’d waved her off. She wanted to ask what was wrong, but that felt like a step too far.
Besides, she was trying to distance herself from him.
No repeats, she reminded herself every night as he told her to ‘get the lead out and serve some drinks for Christ’s sake,’ or rested a hand on her hip as he maneuvered around her in the supply closet after closing.
He didn’t try to grab her or kiss her though. He wasn’t pushy. Lexi almost wished he would be, because then she could get good and angry at him and then maybe she wouldn’t think about how it had felt when he drove into her.
After a month of that torture, she’d gotten desperate. She’d known it wasn’t a great idea to sit on Luca’s knee, but the leanly muscled Italian biker was gorgeous enough to be an underwear model if you overlooked the slightly crooked teeth and prison tats. He was a motorcycle mechanic and had a great laugh and was exactly the kind of guy Lexi would enjoy having in her bed for a night and then never seeing again.
Except he did nothing for her, even when he leaned down and drunkenly whispered in her ear what he wanted to do to her. Several of them were wonderfully filthy and normally would have had her all aquiver. But she hadn’t felt so much as a single flutter in weeks that wasn’t caused by her stubborn, scowling boss.
The stubborn, scowling boss who proceeded to toss Luca out on his ear for ‘manhandling the waitstaff.’ And damn it if seeing Duke’s muscles bulge as he hefted the smaller man out into the parking lot hadn’t made her mouth water and her thighs shake.
Which was maddening, because it wasn’t the last time. In fact, it became pretty common over the last several weeks, seeing as Duke seemed to take exception any time he felt one of the customers was getting too handsy with her… or she was being too friendly with them.
Hot or not, she wasn’t about to let him keep it up. When he came back in from tossing a huge, three hundred and fifty pound bruiser out on his face in the gravel parking lot, Lexi cornered him behind the bar. He raised both brows and wiped at the thin rivulet of blood trickling from the corner of his mouth where he’d caught a stray elbow.
Lexi balled up her fist and socked him in the shoulder. It hurt her hand, but helped some of the twisting in her stomach calm down.
“Knock it the fuck off, Duke.”
“What?” His tongue poked against his cheek and he winced. Some young, shaggy haired guy whose cut was brand spanking new raised his hand for another beer, but subsided when Lexi shot him a glare.
She turned the fierce look back on her boss. “Don’t ‘what’ me, mister. You know exactly what I’m talking about. You can’t keep kicking out every guy that makes a pass at me. For one thing, if you keep it up you’re going to run out of customers, and it’s not like you’ve got that many to begin with.”
“It’s my bar. I get to decide who’s allowed in and who isn’t.”
“And no one’s allowed in who hits on me, is that it?”
A muscle in his jaw jumped, but she plowed ahead, leaning in and poking her finger into his chest.
“The bar may be yours, but I’m not! Trust me, if someone crosses a line with me, I will either let you know or take care of it myself, but you have no right to go all caveman on someone just because I bat my eyelashes at them. Got it?”
She was panting by the time she finished. Duke crossed his arms. His voice was low when he replied. “I’m just trying to protect you, Lex. A lot of these guys are bad news. Not all of them, but… It might be innocent eyelash batting to you, but some of them have records for not taking ‘no’ for an answer. I know which ones are which. You don’t.”
Lexi blew out a breath. She knew he had a point, as much as she didn’t want to admit it. At least, he had part of a point.
“Maybe so. And if that’s the case, you need to talk to me and tell me who I should be careful around. I will listen. But don’t try and tell me that you threw Luca out because you thought he might try and take what wasn’t offered. Or Justin. Or Tex.”
The muscle twitched in his jaw again. The one that meant he was clenching his teeth.
“You can’t, because that wasn’t about wanting to protect me. That was about wanting to own me. And I’m not a possession, Duke. I won’t ever be any man’s possession. That’s why I don’t do repeats or relationships. I thought I made that clear.”
Duke stared down at her, the expression in his dark eyes unreadable. After a long moment filled only with the noise of the bar, pool balls and laughter and old school rock and roll, he exhaled heavily through his nose.
“You’re right. You did. And I apologize. I was out of line. From now on, the only time I’ll crack a head is if I have to break up a fight…or you ask me to.”
Lexi chewed her lip, surprised at the sincere words. She opened her mouth, unsure what to say but feeling like she should say something, but Duke cut her off.
“Let me make it up to you. The gym on Orchard has a climbing wall. Meet me there Tuesday after your last class and I’ll show you how to climb.”
That stopped her. They’d talked about him teaching her how to climb several times, but she’d always figured it was one of those throw away, ‘sure, sure, let’s totally do that’ type agreements people did when they didn’t really mean it.
“This isn’t some ploy to get me out on a date?” Normally, Lexi would hardly count learning to rock climb as a date, but considering the reaction she still had every time she got a glimpse of that picture on Duke’s office wall she figured it was a fair question.
Duke’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. Startled was kind of an adorable look on him.
“No! I just…you said you wanted to learn. But if you’d rather not, I’ll make it up to you another way. You can cut out early tonight and I’ll clean up or… something.”
She patted his bulging bicep. “Relax, boss. Rock climbing Tuesday afternoon it is.”
***
Rock climbing with Lexi had been a terrible idea. Duke bit back another groan as she leaned into him, warm and strong and smelling faintly of coconuts and sweat. He’d tried just instructing her from the ground, coaching her where to put her feet, which grips to try for, but it hadn’t gone well. For the first half an hour, she barely made it a few feet up the wall before falling.
She wasn’t afraid to fall, at least. She trusted the harness and auto belay device. She just hadn’t yet figured out the rhythm to climbing, how to grip and reach, grip and reach. Her body wasn’t used to the movement.
He’d finally given up watching (as if seeing her ass in the tight black leggings wasn’t torture enough) and climbed up with the auto belay device to instruct her hands-on. Now, he was reduced to desperately calculating times tables in his head to keep his mind off the feel of Lexi’s body. Despite that, he was still half hard. They were both just pretending he wasn’t.
“Here, now make sure your grip is tight and swing your right leg up to that blue peg.”
“Right foot blue, got it. Like some sadistic form of adult Twister.”
She chuckled lightly, but the image her words conjured up nearly made Duke swear out loud. Was she trying to kill him?
He’d meant it when he said the offer was strictly platonic, an olive branch to make up for his bullshit alpha male behavior of the last few weeks. Lexi had never led him on or made any promises. In fact, she’d done just the opposite. The fact that he hated the thought of any other man touching her was his problem and he had no
right to make it hers.
But he hadn’t thought through what often went into teaching another person something physical like rock climbing. In order to show her where it was best to place her hands and feet, he had to climb up behind her. They’d spent most of the last forty-five minutes pressed together from shoulder to groin.
“Ha! I did it!”
Lexi’s triumphant shout thankfully pulled his attention from the feel of her ass brushing his erection. Glancing up, he saw they were nearly at the top of the wall. Both of them were drenched in sweat. Not that this was a particularly difficult climb for him, but being this close to Lexi got his blood boiling, just like always.
“Great! Now… hmmm. Let’s see. Why don’t you try left hand, yellow?”
She snickered. “Which yellow? Oh. Okay, got it.”
It would have been easier if she had turned out to be the rich bitch he’d thought she was when she first showed up at Shotguns. Then he could have written her off as a hot fuck and moved on. Not that she wasn’t a hot fuck. She was the hottest, actually. Duke hadn’t ever gotten that worked up by another woman. He’d never had fantasies about tying a woman up, either, but seeing her wrists wrapped up in his climbing rope had… well, it had just done it for him. He’d nearly drilled her into the wall.
Right afterwards, he’d been a bit aghast at himself. He’d never done anything like that before in his life. He wanted to do it again.
But Lexi didn’t do repeats. And God help him, but he didn’t want to do it with anyone else.
As he helped guide her up the last few feet of wall, he tried to reason that out. He understood her reluctance. They talked while they cleaned during down time at work and she’d told him a little about her mother and stepfather.
Personally, Duke thought she was taking the ‘I refuse to belong to anyone’ thing a bit far, but he could understand her wanting to stay single at least until she finished college (she had one more semester), got a job, and could stand on her own two feet. He respected her for it, even. That didn’t mean he had to like it.
After one or two attempts to convince her of the folly of her ways with sound reasoning, he’d given up. It only pissed her off. And while Duke found pissed off Lexi hot, he didn’t like it when she was genuinely upset with him. Instead, he’d taken to teasing her about giving him another shot. That worked much better.