by Sotia Lazu
She switched off her PC and shouldered her bag before turning to Ric. Saying goodnight was only good manners.
Ric looked up before she could speak. “Leaving already?”
“My work here is done. Good night.” She didn’t want chit-chat. She just wanted to go. Reach home with delicious Rex-thoughts intact, while the Rex in her head still had a voice that wasn’t Ric’s.
“Is it?” He cocked his eyebrow in that infuriating way that heightened her arousal.
No, no, no, no. There would be no naughty thoughts about him. No IT-Richie-lust. “Yes, it is.”
“Well, if you’re sure you’ve done all you could… You wouldn’t want to leave things unfinished, would you? Not finishing my work always makes me feel like someone’s doing me a favor, keeping me here. Like I need a smack on my arse, to get back on top of things.”
The eyebrow almost reached his hairline, but Lexi couldn’t even bother with an internal jest about it. He knew. He knew. She felt like a deer caught in headlights—wanting to run but unable to move.
Ric seemed oblivious to her panic. “Well, hope you get off all right. ’Night, kitten.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Get off work. Unless you were thinking of something else…” He ran that sinful tongue of his over his front teeth. “Be glad to help, you know.”
Lexi bit back a venomous response about how he could never do it for her, and not only because it would be a lie. She spun on her heel and fled, his low rumbling chuckle following her down the stairs.
So Ric was behind it all. Until she found out how he managed it and what he was trying to accomplish, all she could do was become a model employee.
That meant no more Exotic Beast.
Shit.
Chapter Eleven
Even as Ric laughed at Lexi’s indignant retreat on Monday, he had the distinct feeling he’d messed up. He considered running after her but dismissed the thought at once. It’d be better to let her cool off and see how she played it the next day. She’d confront him. They’d fight. They’d make up.
He knew she wanted him. He’d tasted it on his lips. If all went well, he’d soon be tasting more of her.
He should have remembered his plans never panned out, and done something, instead of shrugging off her fury and concentrating on his erection.
By Wednesday afternoon, he had to admit he’d fucked things up. Royally.
Instead of gathering her courage and confronting him, making him confess, and saving him the trouble of telling her how much he wanted her, Lexi had ignored him for the past two days. What was more, she’d constantly been on Pedelty’s case for more workload, which she’d handled strictly within work hours, leaving the office at exactly five in the afternoon.
She didn’t visit the site anymore.
Ric was getting worried by Thursday at noon. Well, that was a lie. He’d been worried on Tuesday morning. By Thursday, he was flat out agitated he’d scared her out of visiting the site. That made him even more reluctant to approach her the way he wanted to.
When he first formed the plan of getting to Lexi, he meant to keep letting traces of Rex seep into his demeanor. At some point, she’d realize the similarities were overwhelming, find him irresistible, and throw herself at him. Messing with her and irritating her in the process would just be an added bonus.
In retrospect, his plan wasn’t what one would call brilliant.
Sure, he had no doubt she wanted him, but only in the strict sense of want. She wanted his body, was turned on by him, but that was all. His behavior had put more distance between them, and now she wouldn’t even go near the site. Ric hated to admit he was hooked on the book, as well as on how she looked when she read it—pupils dilated, breath shallow and fast, cheeks reddened, nipples visibly peaking.
He pictured her reacting like that beneath him.
He remembered jotting down the address of the site and decided to check it out himself. Maybe reading more about Xandra and Rex fucking could do it for him, if he imagined Lexi and himself in the leading roles.
Ignoring the little voice that insisted doing so would be tantamount to torture, he typed in the address and hit Go.
All he got was an error page.
No matter how many times he reloaded the page or typed in the address from scratch, he got the same result. He must have copied the address wrong, to begin with. A tension headache blossomed behind his eyes. He had to do something.
Then she was in front of him, and he knew exactly what he wanted that to be, only there were people at the office, and he’d earn himself a slap or worse if he tried to bend her over his desk and fuck her.
“I’m done with my work for the day, and Matt suggested I ask if you need anything.” The disdain in her voice reached her eyes, and Ric masked his discomfort behind a smirk he didn’t feel.
“Anything, translation-wise.” She rolled her eyes and sent an arrow through his heart at the same time he felt a stirring in his groin.
It was official. He needed to be institutionalized. The woman of his dreams hated his guts, and all he could think of was how much he wanted to make her his.
Wanker.
He couldn’t bite back the juvenile response that jumped to his lips. “How much work do you want, kitten? Enough to make you stay late and enjoy a bit of after-work fun?”
Her eyes threw daggers at him as she rounded his desk. “I knew it was you.”
“Knew it was me doing what?” He kept his voice low, aware people around glanced at them.
“The whole e-Book thing, you asshole. What I can’t figure out is how you knew I’d be searching for anything related to it. Or was it supposed to pop up, no matter what I searched for?”
He was scared by the intensity of her gaze, yet more turned on by her anger and her proximity than ever before. “I didn’t—”
“Yes, you did. I may not know how, but I know why. You were hoping for proof I was slacking off, so you’d get Edmund to fire me. And what proof could shame him into throwing me out, if not my reading porn at work? Right?” She was whispering, but her tone was full of emotion.
“Lexi, love—”
“Do not call me love, kitten, or anything of the sort, ever again. I’m on to you, Richie, and you don’t scare me.”
He should be more worried about what she thought of him, but that last part was his chance to make things right. “If you’re not scared, how come you gave up what you were doing?” She recoiled as if slapped, and he rushed to explain. “Why did you stop reading? Staying late?” He did his best to return her fierce glare.
“I just felt like it.”
“I say you chickened out. I do scare you.”
“You so do not.”
“Prove it.” There. He had her. She wouldn’t back away from a challenge.
“Why? Don’t you have enough incriminating evidence against me?”
“Wasn’t looking for any.”
“Right.” She sucked in her cheeks.
It made him want to crush his lips against hers. “Kitten—” He cleared his throat when she flared her nostrils at the endearment. “Lexi. I’m not the one doing this. I know what you’ve been reading, but I didn’t—”
“Take your glasses off.”
“You going to punch me?” He tried to look more nervous than he felt, to gain some time to figure out what she wanted to do. And then he knew. He remembered the look on her face when he took off his glasses and slicked back his hair the other day. He didn’t want her to know, though. Not when it would reaffirm her belief he was behind it all.
“Take them off. Now.”
He shook his head but did as she asked anyway, making sure to squint more than necessary.
“Now look at me.”
He did, and his gaze wandered to her rising chest as she gasped.
She tangled her hand in his hair and held the unruly curls back from his face. “Oh, my God.”
Ric pulled away and hurried to put his glasses back on. “What’s wrong
?”
“You don’t know?”
“No, I don’t. Care to share?” He hoped his snideness would mask his fear that she’d never again give him the time of day if she believed he not only wrote the e-Book but also cast himself as the leading man.
“You’re Rex.” She sounded resigned, instead of livid.
“Yes, I am. But it’s not what you think.”
“What is it, then?”
He opened his mouth to say something. Anything. Whatever it took, to keep her from hating him.
“Never mind.” She straightened up, turned on her heel, and hightailed it to the ladies room.
Ric was left watching her back and wishing no one else was there, so he could run after her and tell her the truth. Hold her to him—chain her up if he had to—until she believed him.
*
Lexi leaned against the closed door, unsure why she was crying. Not like she didn’t already suspect the man whose goal in life was to torment her and make her lose her job was the same as the fictional character she pined over. No. Not suspected. She’d been convinced it was him. He said he wasn’t behind the site, but there was no other reasonable explanation, and it stung that he wanted to hurt her like this. What had she ever done to him? Not like she even asked to be there.
And did he have to make her lust after him? Was that another thing to rub her nose in?
By the time she returned to her desk, her eyes were dry and her mind made up. She’d do whatever she felt like, and if Ric wanted to tell Edmund about it even after she’d confronted him, she’d deal with the consequences.
She signed onto her instant messenger account, glad the company proxy didn’t block it, and clicked on Angie’s avatar.
Blondes_Rule: Guess what I found out.
Angie didn’t reply immediately, but a new window popped up.
Rex_is_sorry: I swear I’m not behind the bloody thing. You have to believe me.
She closed the popup and pinged Angie.
MagicA: I’m here, I’m here. What happened?
Blondes_Rule: Richie-boy was behind the site with the book
MagicA: How do you know? Did he fess up?
Lexi started typing her response, but Ric’s window reappeared.
Rex_is_sorry: right. Ignore me. I’ll just say what I have to say. I didn’t do it, but I’ve known about it for a while.
Blondes_Rule: never talk to me again
Rex_is_sorry: HOW could I have done it, you crazy woman? The thing is hundreds of pages long. How could I have written it? Even if I wanted to do what you said, I’d have to be writing non-stop for more than a year.
Lexi scrunched her nose and chewed on the back of a pencil while she pasted that last bit to the window she chatted in with Angie.
MagicA: He’s right, you know. Maybe it wasn’t him.
Whether he was telling the truth or not, Ric was persistent.
Rex_is_sorry: didn’t say I’m not wrong for knowing about it and not telling you, but I swear I’m just as shocked as you. Someone’s been writing fiction about me and you, for fuck’s sake
Blondes_Rule: ‘someone’ *snorts*
Rex_is_sorry: I’m telling you: Wasn’t me!
Blondes_Rule: whatEVER. Blocking you now. Buh bye.
She waited until he looked up, and waggled her fingers at him.
*
Ric wasn’t fazed by her dismissal. He didn’t expect her to believe him. He’d tuned in on her screen to see if she’d taken him up on his challenge and gone back to reading. When he saw her on her messenger, he gave it a try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, and all that.
Now he sat back and waited, while Lexi said goodbye to that MagicA bird, signed out of messenger, and returned to Exotic Beast.
Ha. He knew she wouldn’t be able to resist, and maybe getting back into the story would make her forget for a few minutes that she hated his guts.
It did. For the rest of the day, Lexi went through page after page, only occasionally glancing up from her screen.
When she did so a little after five, Ric expected her to log out and go. She didn’t. Instead she blew him a kiss, flipped him the bird, and resumed her reading.
Ric was twisted for finding that so erotic, but he decided not to focus on it. What mattered was that Lexi had been playful with him, even for a split second.
Maybe he could work with that.
Chapter Twelve
Lexi saw Ric gather some documents and shut down his laptop. She’d won. She’d shown him she wasn’t afraid, even if she was still worried about what he’d do with the information he had on her.
She didn’t look up when he switched off all overhead lights except for hers on his way out. Good riddance. Now she could read her book undisturbed and be as naughty as she damn well pleased. And she’d be extremely naughty. It was her reward for being so good for so long.
Still, her release was the furthest thing from her mind once he’d left. Her gaze was locked to the screen, but all she could think of was his face when he swore he didn’t do what she accused him of. He looked innocent. And writing an entire book in mere days, to get her out of his hair, was a Herculean task. Let alone a stupid one, since she wasn’t even in his hair.
“Nobody said Richie was clever,” she mumbled, folding her arms over her chest.
She wished Angie could meet him. She’d always been a better judge of character than Lexi was.
But she’d spent enough time on that menace of a man. Especially when Rex was once more about to have his wicked way with a very willing Xandra. She clicked on the next page and shifted to raise her skirt a little, in anticipation of what was to come.
She wasn’t disappointed.
Rex let his canines elongate, and Xandra’s skin prickled, as it always did when her lover reminded her of his real nature. “Do you need to do this?” she asked.
“I do, because you love it. You love being reminded of how different we are, of how bad everyone thinks we are together. You love being bad, Xandra.” He dragged a fang along one side of her neck, and a growl rose in her chest. She loved being bad with him.
“Feel free to tell me I’m wrong.” He kissed her behind the ear, and she shivered.
“You know you’re not.” She clasped his wrist and led his hand up her inner thigh. “Now shut up and help me be bad.”
Lexi stopped her hand halfway up her own inner thigh when she heard heavy footsteps approaching. She hurried to smooth down her skirt, and looked toward the entrance, praying it wasn’t that brain-dead Chad.
It wasn’t Chad.
It was worse than Chad, even if she’d never thought that possible.
It was Rex.
Rex.
In the flesh, complete with the short black hair, tight black jeans and shirt, leather bomber jacket, and steel-toed boots.
“Hello, Xandra.” He smirked, approaching her with panther-like grace. “Miss me?”
Her head felt light, her brain short-circuiting in an effort to reconcile the truth she knew with the sight facing her. This was Ric—IT-Richie—and he looked like sex personified. She was aroused because of the book, and not the way his muscles rippled beneath his tight outfit.
Luckily, when her brain short-circuited, her snarky mode kicked in.
“I did miss you, Rex”—Lexi spat the name out with enough contempt to mask the tremor in her voice—“but give me a stake, and I will try again. Promise my aim will be better this time.”
“I love it when you talk dirty, love.”
Ric—Rex—rounded her desk till he was right beside her, but she refused to turn toward him. She gripped the armrests of her chair. If she let go, she might melt into a puddle. “Do you have a point there, Richie, or has Halloween come early this year, and no one informed me?”
He grabbed her arm and tugged, spinning her chair so she faced him. “You look at me when I talk to you, Shifter. And the name is Rex. Better remember it, ’cause you’ll be screaming it soon enough.”
Lexi lifted her chi
n defiantly, suppressing the wave of lust that rose inside. The man tempting her was her enemy. “Oh, cut the crap.” The knuckles of her hands hurt with tension. His proximity heightened her desire, despite the anger his behavior sparked in her. “You’re not Rex, and I’m not Xandra. You’re nothing but an IT nerd, and I’m the boss’s daughter, whom you dislike. Snap out of it and leave me alone.”
“Oh, but you are Xandra, kitten, much as I’m Rex. At least for tonight.” He touched a finger to her lips when she parted them to voice her thoughts. “Don’t fight this. I know how your body reacted to me in your kitchen.” He waved a hand toward her monitor. “I know how hot and bothered you get every time you read that. You want to hate me? Do. But don’t deny your body what it wants. I can give it to you, Xandra.”
“I don’t want you. I could never—” That was as far as she got, before he leaned down and closed his lips over hers. He cupped the back of her head with one hand, the other still holding on to her arm, not allowing her to break free.
Not that she tried. Or even considered it.
She clutched his shoulder. He wasn’t wrong. She needed this. And if it wasn’t about her and him, if it was about Xandra and Rex, maybe she could have it.
*
The way she clung to him, the way she devoured his lips as though he tasted of nectar and ambrosia, made him dizzy with a euphoria he’d never known before.
She pulled away, and he groaned. “Bloody hell, not again.”
He let go, straightened his body, and turned to go. He didn’t want to push her too much, and he knew if he opened his mouth that moment, he’d forget his bravado and beg her to pick up where they’d left off.
Lexi stood up so abruptly, she sent the chair rolling backward. The noise made him shoot a questioning look her way.