by ZN Willett
We said our goodbyes, and Christopher asked, “Would you ladies like a refill?” We gave Christopher our order, and he left for the nearest bar.
“You and Christopher make a beautiful couple.” Constance stated straightforwardly.
“Oh. Umm, Christopher and I are only co-workers.”
“Is that what you tell yourself, dear?” She smirked at me.
I chuckled to myself. “Our relationship is strictly business.”
“What fun is that?” She winked.
I laughed. “You are full of surprises.”
“Dear, I may be an old woman, but I know love when I see it.”
“Oh no. No! No! I would never fall in love with Christopher. Umm . . . no offense. I know you raised him and all, but he can be quite . . .”
“Stubborn? A jerk? An ass maybe?”
“Try all three.”
She laughed. “I know dear. However like every hard shell, once you crack it, you may find something soft and gooey inside. Maybe even a pleasant surprise.”
“Not sure if Christopher has that inside of him.”
“You won’t ever know until you crack it open and find out.”
“Here you go.” Christopher handed us our drinks.
I stood for a bit as I watched the two of them interacting, and thought about what Constance had said.
Everyone seemed to keep telling me that I needed to unwind, and Colby—I know—would help me with that. I sipped my drink while stewing over that bit of information. I felt his warm hand glide across the small of my back as he whispered, “Where are you?” Chills ran down my spine as I sat my drink down.
“I need some air. Please excuse me.” I walked out.
I wasn’t sure of where I was going. It was too cold to step outside, but I needed to think. I found an unlocked door to escape. When I opened it, it looked to be a library or study. I closed the door and searched for a light switch.
Shortly after, I heard the door open behind me. “Hello, I was just looking for a light switch. I needed a little breather and the door was open.”
The person didn’t respond. I turned around when the door closed, peering into total darkness.
“Is someone there?” I asked, as I heard their footsteps.
I scoured around to find a light, but then I smelled their scent; and knew exactly who was there. I felt the familiar hand softly run up my arm as he breathed out, “I want you.”
There was no response other than our lips joining together as each fought for dominance. We both gave to the other as we gasped for breath.
“You are extremely sexy,” Christopher whispered against my neck, his lips trailed over my collar bone. “I want to feel you—all of you.”
My fingers entwined in his hair, as I inhaled his heady scent. “I can’t do this . . .” My mind and body where battling for control.
“Let go.”
“I won’t let myself make another mistake.”
“Then let me make it for both of us,” he said. Biting my earlobe, as his tongue swirled down my skin.
I tried to fight what I was feeling. The sensory loss of sight only heightened what my body felt. The ridges of his fingertips brushed along my naked skin as they explored up and down my body.
Screw it!
I sucked in his earlobe as his lips continued to lavish my skin with wet kisses.
His hands hiked up my dress as he moved us against a shelf of books. I wrapped one leg around him as he moved aside my panties and pushed two fingers deep inside me. “Yes!” I moaned out.
Christopher worked his fingers, stretching me, and I quivered each time he reached the spot. His lips left my heated skin, and I could feel him lower himself until my leg was draped over his shoulder. His silken hair brushed the inside of my thigh, and when I felt the wet warmth of his tongue, my head fell back knocking books off the shelf around us.
I grabbed hold of his locks firmly, and the leg holding me up weakened. I wasn’t going to last long. My balanced leg started to wobble, and pleasure ripped through me exploding from my mouth. “Right there!”
I grabbed hold of his hair more tightly, and rode my orgasm to every last bit of it subsided. I pulled him up and attacked his mouth. Tasting me on him was surprisingly erotic, as our tongues twirled and spun together.
“You taste so damn good,” he breathed out.
“I want you . . . now, Christopher.”
I could feel his grin against my mouth as I felt him shift. Christopher fiddled around in his pocket and released my lips. He tore what I knew to be a wrapper from his teeth. I stepped back and gave him room as I reached for what I wanted.
I unzipped his pants and pushed them down as he positioned himself. Christopher grabbed behind my knee and lifted my leg up while he moved forward. A collective sigh came out of both of us when he entered me, and halted his movement, allowing me to just enjoy him.
“I can feel you wanting me, Quinn.”
All I could do was nod. I wished I could see him, but I felt everything around me. The warmth of his body. The ridges of his fingers as they dug into my leg. I pulled Christopher forward to lavish him with kisses along his face and neck.
“You feel incredibly good wrapped around me.” He moaned.
My heart beat through my chest. “Harder,” I breathed.
He chuckled as his lips firmly pressed against my forehead. “I want you to feel what you’ve been missing.” He punctuated his sentence with an upward tilt, hitting my pleasure zone.
“Ahh.” Pant. Pant. “Yes!”
“Quinn, can you feel what you do to me?”
I felt every bit of him. My hands slid down his back lifting up his dress shirt and grabbed onto his defined muscles. I cupped his ass as he pushed deeper into me.
“More . . . Christopher. I need more!”
That was all that was said until a gut wrenching scream escaped me as he pounded me harder into the spine of the books.
“Is this what you wanted?” he asked.
“Yes!”
He halted and grabbed my other leg, and they both instantly clasped around him. I grasped onto the shelves above as he started to drive into me with more force. His pelvis tilted in an upward movement, and with each thrust, his shaft rubbed my g-spot. I screamed out over and over. My body started to convulse. The most intense orgasm I had ever experienced tore through me as I hung on for dear life as he released. Books tumbled down as we both collapsed to the floor.
What the hell just happened?
There were a few lingering kisses before I felt Christopher leave my body. When the room illuminated, the evidence of what we had done was clear. The books around us outlined our bodies.
What I thought was a library or study, seemed to be an office. I dusted myself off, and started to put things back in place, and clean up our mess. “I didn’t realize we were in Thomas’s office.”
“It’s actually my mother’s.”
Great, even better.
“Quinn, you don’t have to do that—”
I turned, face to face with Christopher, not realizing he was directly behind me. “I told your mother this morning that our relationship was only professional. I’m not going to give her the proof that I was lying or that I’m the whore she thinks I am.”
He grabbed hold of my wrist. “Never call yourself that.”
I snatched my arm out of his grip. “I’m not calling myself a slut, Colby. I don’t want to give her any more ammunition than she already has.”
“I see, when the lights come on it’s a different Cordell.”
“One that can see more clearly.”
Christopher moved a piece of hair out of my eyes and brushed his thumb over my bottom lip. “Maybe one should stay in the dark a bit longer.”
We had stared at each other before I turned around to finish cleaning up the books. When the last book was shelved, I grabbed my handbag and looked at myself in my compact. I was a mess, and needed to clean up. I headed straight to the door, however befo
re I reached it Christopher said, “You can’t fight what happened. Like it or not, you wanted it as much as I did.”
I faced him. “Yes. I was in need of some stress relief . . . a celebratory romp seemed to be in order, but don’t think that it was anything more than that.”
He stepped closer. “Is that what this was? You were asserting your position?”
“I don’t have to do that. I know how good I am. And since you seemed only too eager to find out just how good, I thought what the hell.”
Another step. “That was your doing me a favor?”
“It was me satisfying an itch. Don’t be surprised. You boys do it all the time. Why shouldn’t we be able to as well?”
A closer step. “I think I understand your situation.”
“Hah, I bet you do, but why don’t you enlighten me?”
He stood directly in front of me, ignoring my personal space, as usual. “You’re feeling guilty about cheating on your boyfriend. I completely understand that, and I can be very discreet. Our secret is safe, or you can blame it all on me.”
I chuckled. “How kind of you, but I don’t cheat, and I don’t have time for a boyfriend.”
Christopher’s forehead bunched up. “What about the man I saw you with in the office?”
“Guy is not my boyfriend. We just date.”
As hard as Christopher tried to hold his deadpan expression, his eyes showed something else.
“Well, thanks for the shag Colby. You really are quite good, yet I expected nothing less.” I walked out the door.
The next several weeks were long, however satisfying ones. When the news that we had acquired the new software came out, our stock had shot up. Inquiries had been flooding the office from our competitors regarding leasing out the new product. This wasn’t anything new in our industry. Most hotels shared the same manufacturers, used the same software, or adapted each other’s manuals and best practices.
Our training manual was the top in the industry, and we sold it to leading companies to use for training their employees. It’s sold at a premium price, but if they wanted the premium service, they had to pay for it. However, the software would not be placed in the sharing pool for a very long time.
I wanted the company to be the leader in the industry and the software would bring us to the top. Even though we had different value centered hotels, the luxury brands were my specialty. If we could provide a unique and specialized service to our clients then it would pay off in the long run.
That was the same speech I had given to the Board, and many of them wanted to reallocate Christopher’s and my terms. Nevertheless, I insisted that they hold to their decision. Maybe next time they would get it right. Either way, I would be making money and leading my part of the company to the top.
Although I was at the top of my game with my professional life, my personal life was a mess. I had allowed Christopher Colby to get under my skin—literally—and I had broken every rule possible. When I spoke to Lissa afterward, she wasn’t surprised. Leave it to my best friend to remind me that I was human and not perfect. I didn’t need a reminder. I knew I wasn’t perfect in any way, shape, or form. No matter how hard I tried to outwardly exhibit control, my insides were screwed up.
It was ironic what Constance had said. She hadn’t realized that even though she had been referring to Christopher, she could have very well been speaking about me.
Why was I stuck with all this inner turmoil?
Two words—Christopher Colby.
Everything about him should have repelled me, although it only made me want him more. Now that I knew how he felt, I craved him more than ever. I felt like a nymphomaniac, having to satisfy my urges on a daily basis several times a day. I was in a constant state of arousal and nothing seemed to stop it.
Lissa read somewhere that women in my professional position found it comforting to have a man who took control in the bedroom. I stewed on that for a few days. I did let a total stranger finger me in a closet—at a work function. That was reckless and not me, and I wracked my brain to figure out why.
I was the dominant one in all of my relationships, or at least an equal partner. But, when Christopher spoke . . . the way he was . . . it made me . . . well, wet. Add excited, aroused, and sexy, which only made me a jumbled up mess. No man has ever made me feel that way.
When I relinquished control, or didn’t care about what I was doing, the intensity of what I experienced was mind-blowing. I’ve been to hundreds of masseuses to get the knots of stress rubbed out; yet after being with Christopher, I felt as if my body was made of putty, and the stress completely dissipated.
Why are you ignoring me? Colby/Christopher
I stared at the bubble on my computer screen.
I know you’re there. Colby/Christopher
What do you want? I’m busy making money! Cordell/Quinn
You’re very good at that too. You haven’t responded to my dinner proposals. Colby/Christopher
Christopher had asked me to dinner at least twice a week since we had . . . relations. He even invited me up to the estate after the Thanksgiving holiday, though I graciously declined, I was in Cape Town at the time.
I’m busy. Cordell/Quinn
For the entire year? Colby/Christopher
Is this work related? Cordell/Quinn
I want to get to know you better. Colby/Christopher
I think you know me well enough. Cordell/Quinn
Have dinner with me. Colby/Christopher
Going to a meeting. Cordell/Quinn
It wasn’t that I couldn’t handle having dinner with Christopher; it was the fact that every time we were together he became more human, and that was something that a Colby was not. They had an unscrupulous reputation which they sugar coated with charitable donations. You know the kind of people who smile to you in your face, and then stab you in the back? After which they turn around and volunteer to take you to the hospital.
The hotel testing rooms were located in the New York office. They had the best facility, so I had everything installed there. I made several trips to the city that next week. Christmas day was quickly approaching, and I thought I could do some much needed holiday shopping while I was in town.
The holidays had been easier lately. My dad would still get low, however not as much as before. He still had his moments, but they quickly vanished when the girls visited. Lissa purposely brought them by to see Grandpa Joe. Kids brought a different kind of joy to the holidays and I was glad that Lissa understood that. She also had a few hours to herself while they were out with my dad. Even though they were not his biological grandchildren, he spoiled them just the same. Between all of us, those girls were spoiled rotten and rightfully so.
Before I left the building to finish my shopping, I stopped by Christopher’s office to give him the new projections. I was returning to LA that next morning and was on his floor for an earlier meeting.
“Vanessa, is Mr. Colby in?”
She looked up, rolled her eyes, and looked back down at the keyboard. “He’s on his way out.”
“Then that means he’s in?”
She looked up again, but before she could smartly reply, Christopher walked out laughing with a tall redhead. One, whom I noted that he had his arm around the small of her back. “Vanessa, Brianna and I will be back at—Quinn?”
We stared at each other for a moment, and then I remembered the report. “Colby. Here is the report you needed.” I walked up and gave it to him then started to head out.
“Quinn, wait. Vanessa, can you get Brianna something to drink? I need to speak to Ms. Cordell for a moment.”
Christopher caught up to me, clasping my arm, and turned me around toward his office. “It will only take a moment,” he said, pulling me into the room before he closed the door.
I was about to protest, but found myself pushed against the wall while Christopher leaned in. “Why didn’t you tell me you were in town?”
I tried not to breath in his intoxicating
scent. “It was common knowledge that I was working in the office today.”
“I just came back from Paris.”
“Well, you have the updated report. I didn’t mean to keep you from your date.” I heard the disgust come out of my mouth.
His brows furrowed. “She’s not my date.”
I felt relieved for a split second, before remembering who I was talking to. “Whatever you want to call it, Colby. Now excuse me.” I pushed forward although he pinned me more firmly to the wall. “Christopher!”
“Come to dinner with me, tonight?”
“I have plans, and don’t you have plans yourself?” I asked, nodding toward the door.
“That’s business.”
I chuckled. “So are we.”
He narrowed his eyes, before moistening his lips. “We can make it personal.”
Christopher’s eyes looked intrigued, while I pondered for a bit longer. “Why don’t you go with the redhead and do what you do best. I will talk to you after the holidays.”
“What are you afraid of?”
“Look, it was one night . . . well, maybe a few times, though we can both be professional about it.”
He leered at me for a moment, and when I felt him release his hold on me, I exhaled the breath I didn’t realize I had been holding. But, when he grabbed hold of the back of my neck joining our lips together, all my breath was gone.
The warm mint flavor of his mouth flooded mine as our tongues danced around. Far back in the reaches of my mind I could hear a slight echo telling me to stop, although it was drowned out by our moans. He always tasted so good and I wanted more of him, but when the door knob turned, I quickly pushed him off of me.
Christopher stared me down as he brushed over his lower lip with his thumb. I knew Vanessa said something to him, nevertheless we both stood, focused on each other. It was Christopher who eventually spoke. “Vanessa, is there something I can do for you?”
“Umm, Brianna said she would meet you in the car. She needed to take a call.”
“Thank you.” Then he directed his attention toward her. “And next time, knock!”