by Marie Force
He’s already about to kick me to the curb. I suspect the only reason I’m still here is because it was more trouble to argue with me than it was to let me stay. I’m well aware of my tendency to be annoyingly difficult at times. My mother used to say that when I wanted something a certain way, there was no arguing with me.
God, I miss her. Why’d she have to die before I was done needing her?
Don’t think depressing thoughts when you’re standing in Emmett Burke’s bathroom about to share his bed! I fixate on the mirrored doors of the medicine cabinet. I could take one tiny little peek, couldn’t I? What’s the worst thing that could happen? I picture the door coming off its hinges and smashing to the vanity. With things going so well between us, the last thing I need is the seven years of bad luck that come with a broken mirror.
I resist the temptation, but God, it’s hard. That medicine cabinet calls to me like a lover, full of information that will add to what I already know about him.
“What’re you doing in there?” he calls. “Get out of my medicine cabinet!”
I emerge from the bathroom, full of indignation, leaving a light on so I can find my way in the dark. “I’m not in your medicine cabinet, you paranoid freak.”
“Right,” he says, grunting out a laugh. “I’m totally paranoid to think you might be snooping into my life.”
“Yes, you are. And you’re rather full of yourself, too. I said I want to fuck you, not get a PhD in Emmett Burke.” So what if I want both. He doesn’t need to know that.
“Don’t talk about fucking when I’m injured.”
“Why? Does it give you a little stiffy? Or should I say a big stiffy?”
“Will you please get in bed, shut your mouth and go to sleep?”
“And here I thought you might ask me to kiss it better. I’m so disappointed.”
“I’m going to suffocate you in your sleep. Maybe that’ll shut you up.”
I slide into the other side of the big bed and turn to face him. “You won’t suffocate me. You’ll be too busy dreaming about me kissing it better. Did I ever tell you I learned how to deep throat in high school?”
Groaning, he rests a hand over his crotch and closes his eyes. “I’m begging you to stop talking.”
As if he hadn’t spoken, I say, “I’m not sure I could do it with that thing of yours. It’s rather formidable. But, mmm, I’d sure like to try.”
“There must be something around here I could use to gag you.”
I laugh at the way he says that. He’s so sexy, even when he’s annoyed. Maybe especially when he’s annoyed, since he’s annoyed most of the time when I’m around. “You’d love that, wouldn’t you?”
“You have no idea.”
I scoot across the wide expanse of bed until I’m right next to him.
His entire body tightens with tension. “What’re you doing?”
“I can’t make sure you’re okay from all the way over there, and that’s why I’m here. What if you need something during the night and I can’t hear you, because I’m all the way over there?”
“Letting you into my house was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.”
“Duh. You’re just figuring that out?” I reach out to stroke his hair, and he startles from my touch. “Don’t be jumpy. Relax.” I brush my hand over his eyes, hoping he’ll close them. “Get some rest. You’ll feel better in the morning.”
“Go back over there where I can’t smell you.”
“Why? Do I stink?” I sniff my pits, but don’t smell anything foul.
“No, you don’t stink, and that’s the problem.”
Awareness dawns on me slowly, and a smile stretches across my face. “Oh, so you think I smell good?”
“Go away, Leah.”
“I’m kinda comfy right here.” I plump up a pillow and make myself at home right next to him, his body heat making me tingly in all the right places. I bet he throws off some major heat when he’s worked up. “I’m sorry you got hurt,” I tell him, and I am. I really am. But damn if this day didn’t turn out rather spectacularly well. I’m in Emmett’s bed, sleeping next to him. If only his penis wasn’t injured. Oh the places we could go!
“Thank you for…”
I wait breathlessly to hear what he’ll say.
“Taking me to the hospital and sticking around.”
“It’s my pleasure.” I can’t help myself. He’s close enough to lick. So I raise myself up and lean in to kiss his shoulder, dabbing just a little touch of tongue in there for good measure.
I’ve now officially licked Emmett Burke. A very good day indeed.
Chapter 5
I’m dying over here. I’ve been excruciatingly hard since she uttered the words “deep throat.” And what the hell was she doing learning such a thing in high school? I desperately want to ask, but I’m even more desperately afraid of encouraging her. Hmm, maybe you should’ve thought about that before you invited her into your bed?
I want to tell my subconscious to shut the fuck up, even if it’s right. What the hell was I thinking bringing her up here? She’s outrageous, completely uninhibited and funny. She’s funny as hell and endlessly entertaining. When she’s not annoying the fuck out of me.
Then she kisses my shoulder and is that… I bite back a groan at the feel of her tongue against my skin, which travels like an electrical current connected directly to my poor, abused cock. He can’t take much more of this day.
I sleep fitfully, aware of her beside me the entire night, especially since she mumbles nonsense in her sleep, which is kind of cute. Everything about her is kind of cute, if I’m being honest with myself—and I try to always be honest with myself because what’s the point of lying to yourself? She’s cute, sexy and annoying as all hell. And funny. Don’t forget that. She might be the funniest person I’ve ever met. When she’s not annoying me, that is. My thoughts go round and round in this endless circle that has Leah in all her annoying sexiness squarely in the middle of it.
As dawn brings the first dim light, I find myself watching her sleep and marveling at how sweet and innocent she looks. There’s no comparison between sleeping Leah and awake Leah, and watching her lips move as she talks in her sleep touches something inside me that had been resistant to her.
I still have all the same reservations. She’s too young for me. She’s a coworker. She’s a troublemaker. But there’s something about her that gets to me, even if I want to resist her. It’s her persistence as much as her straightforward honesty. If she wants something—in this case, me—she puts it right out there. Despite her relative youth, she doesn’t play the games that other women seem to revel in, and there’s something so damned refreshing about that even as she drives me mad.
I begin to resign myself to whatever it is she thinks is happening between us.
While I work for all the Quantum partners, I answer to Kristian, the managing partner. If I want to date her, all I’d have to do, per the fraternization policy I drew up, is request his permission. She would have to ask Marlowe.
Neither of them would deny the requests. I’m quite certain of that, but I hesitate nonetheless. I’ve made a habit out of avoiding messy entanglements, especially those that might impact the career I’ve busted my ass to have. I’ve never once allowed anything to threaten my professional standing at Quantum, and getting involved with her would pose a threat.
People at work would know about it.
Our office is too small and too tightly knit for secrets, and besides, I have no illusions that Leah would keep it to herself. That’s not how she’s wired. Her expressive face gives away her every thought and emotion. For example, I’ve known for months that she’d set her sights on me, and everyone else has probably figured it out, too.
The little pain in the ass.
I’d love to get her in a playroom, bend her over a spanking bench and show her what happens to girls who play with fire. The thought of her sweet supple ass and the things I could do to it float through my mind like the mo
st erotic movie I’ve ever seen. My cock rises from the ashes of disaster, painfully coming to life to express its approval of the erotic movie playing in my brain. While the rest of me has been slower to catch on, my cock loves Leah and has for some time now.
If she’s in the room, I’m hard. It’s that simple and that frustrating. A staff meeting is now something to be endured in stiff arousal rather than the professional interaction it used to be before she showed up. Cookouts at Flynn’s, parties at Hayden’s, nights out on the town with my friends—everything now includes her and my hard cock.
Maybe if I have a go with her, I could work the madness out of my system. Perhaps once she gets a taste of how demanding I am in bed, she won’t want anything more to do with me. A woman like Leah won’t want to be dominated. She’s the least submissive human being I’ve ever met. If she finds out that’s what turns me on, I might solve my Leah problem.
The more I roll this idea around in my mind, the more I like it. And my cock wholeheartedly approves as well. In fact, he’s a little too enthusiastic in light of our ordeal last night. I grit my teeth and get up to use the bathroom. If there’s any good news, peeing hurts a little less than it did last night.
In nine years as chief counsel to Quantum Productions, I’ve never once taken a sick day, but there’s no way I can jam my bruised junk into suit pants for the next eight to ten hours. The thought of it hurts, and I won’t go to the office in sweats. That’s so not my style.
I text Kristian. Going to work from home today if that’s okay. And I need to talk to you about a personal matter when you get a chance.
He responds immediately. No problem. How are you and your boys feeling? I’ll call you after I drop the kids at school.
I marvel at how Kristian, one of the most confirmed bachelors I’ve ever met, has adapted so completely to family life since he moved into a new house in Calabasas with Aileen and her kids over the summer. Me and my boys have been better. Talk to you then.
Kristian replies with the grimace emoji. That about sums it up.
I brush my teeth, return to the bedroom and get back in bed to wait for Leah to wake up. While I wait, I plot my strategy. The more I think about this idea, the more I love it. She won’t know what hit her when she takes a spin with me. I’ll go easy on her, of course, because I’d never want to scare or traumatize her in any way, and there’s no way I’m having the “hey, I’m actually a sexual dominant” conversation with her if we’re only going to be a one-night thing. I can give her a taste of what I’m about without revealing the entire menu.
One night. That’s all it will be. Just enough to silence the fly buzzing around my ear and quell her interest in me, which would be better for both of us in the long run.
I let my mind wander to how I would use that one night. I’d ask her if she has any hard limits, anything she can’t or won’t do, and I’d make her choose a safe word so she can stop everything if she needs to. And then I’d have my wicked way with her.
I’d start with a spanking because she seemed to like the idea of it when I joked about it—and she needs to know from the get-go who and what she’s dealing with. I would be in charge. She would be along for the ride. The thought of dominating her has all the blood in my body heading for the southern hemisphere once again.
The good news is the erection doesn’t hurt quite as badly as it did last night. It still hurts enough for me to wish I could control the beast, but my mind and body are not collaborating at the moment. My mind is having a freaking field day imagining Leah at my disposal, which isn’t very supportive of the injured soldier below who’s beholden to the whims of my imagination. And my imagination is fertile when it comes to her. I’d fuck the living sass right out of her.
“Is that for me, or is this a private party?”
Her sexy, husky voice gives me goose bumps. That’s what she sounds like in the morning? I glance at her to find her gaze firmly fixed on my hard cock, which is plainly visible through the blanket.
“I’ll give you one night.”
She rolls her full bottom lip between her teeth.
“But I have conditions.”
“What conditions?”
“We do it my way or not at all. I’m in charge. And you don’t tell anyone. It’ll happen once, and that’ll be the end of this little fixation you have on me. We’re never going to be a couple or live happily ever after. We’re going to fuck and be done with it.”
She licks her lip, and my dick gets harder imagining her practicing her deep-throat skills on me. Damn me to hell, but I want to see if she can really do it.
“Do we have a deal?”
“When will this single night transpire?”
“Next weekend.”
“That’ll be during the wedding. If you don’t want anyone to know, that might not be the time to do it with everyone we know underfoot.”
“Let me worry about logistics and everything else. Your job will be to do exactly what you’re told.”
“What’s with the bossy shit?”
“It’s how I like it.”
“So you’re…”
“Dominant in bed? Yep.” Um, remember five seconds ago when you weren’t going to tell her that?
She swallows. Hard. Her eyes go wide, her lips part, and goddamn, I want to devour her.
“You got a problem with that?”
“N-no, no problem.”
“And you agree to tell no one about this?”
“Not even Marlowe? I thought I had to clear it with my supervisor.”
“It’s only going to happen once, so there’s no need to discuss it with her. It’ll be over before it begins.”
She does this cute thing with her mouth with her lips curled to the side, as if she’s thinking it through and trying to decide.
“Do we have a deal?”
“I’m not sure about the dominance thing. Will I know ahead of time what’s going to happen?”
“We’ll fully discuss it as we go. That’s how it works. And you’ll need a safe word that you can use to stop everything at any time. That is nonnegotiable.”
She takes a deep breath and releases it slowly. “I had no idea that you were…”
“Kinky? There’re a lot of things you’ll never know about me. You want to have sex. We’ll have sex, and then we’ll move on.”
“And it won’t be weird when we’re hanging with our mutual friends?”
“I can be an adult about it. Can you?”
“Of course I can.” Her eyes flash with indignation that’s so fucking adorable—and arousing.
“Then we shouldn’t have a problem.”
“What if, after we do this, you want more than one night?” she asks.
“I won’t.”
“But what if you do?”
“I’m offering one night, Leah. That’s all I’ve got to give.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why do you only have one night to give? Why can’t it be more?”
Lying on my bed with her hands under her face, she looks so sweet and young and innocent. I feel oddly protective toward her. I want to protect her from things that can hurt her, including me. “It’s not what I want.”
“At all or it’s not what you want with me?”
“I don’t want it in general. I’m not like my friends. I didn’t get the family-man gene. I like being free to do what I want when I want. It works for me.”
“What about love? Don’t you want to love someone and be loved in return?”
“I loved my grandmother, and she loved me. I love my friends. They love me. I’m good.”
“I never knew you were so cynical.”
“I’m not cynical.”
“Yes, you are. Don’t you want what Flynn has with Natalie, what Hayden has with Addie, what Jasper has with Ellie, what Kristian has—”
I stop her with a finger to her lips. “No, I don’t want what they have. I’ve never wanted that. When I tell you I’m not capab
le of being what you want, I need you to believe me. I’ll never deny that I find you sexy and the thought of fucking you is extremely arousing. But that’s all it’ll ever be between us, Leah. And if you can’t accept that, say no to my offer. Don’t go into it thinking you’re going to change me or change my mind. When I tell you who I am, listen to me.”
“I need to think about it.”
I have to be honest. I didn’t expect her to say that. Based on the vibes she’s been putting out and the things she’s said to me, I expected her to jump at my offer of one night. “No problem. Let me know when you decide.” I check my watch. “Don’t you have to get going to work?”
“I told Marlowe I was taking the day off to take care of you.”
“When did you tell her that?”
“Last night. She said I should totally do that and there’s no need to take a vacation day. My job today is taking care of you.”
“I don’t need anyone to take care of me.”
“So you said, but it seems you’re stuck with me anyway.” She gets up and stretches, the short dress rising to reveal sexy ass cheeks. I swear she puts some extra writhe into her stretch because she knows I’m watching her. “I’m going to run home to shower and change. I’ll bring back breakfast. You want coffee?”
Resigned to my fate, I say, “Yeah. With cream and—”
“Two sugars,” she says, winking as she heads for the door. “I know.”
I hope I get the chance to fuck the brattiness right out of her.
I take the elevator from Emmett’s apartment to the lobby, where it occurs to me that I don’t have a way back into the building. If I leave, will he let me back in? I text him to ask that question—and no, he didn’t give me his number. I acquired it. Don’t ask how.
It’s Leah. Will you let me back in if I leave?
After a full minute passes, I see that he’s responding. Yeah. Buzz 4D on the keypad outside.
He doesn’t ask how I got his number. If he asks, I’ll say Addie told me the assistants are encouraged to have the personal cell number of every member of the Quantum team, since we never know what might be needed by those we serve.