by Jade Allen
But she was feeling too daring to go home. Eric’s eyes were darting to the window of cleavage afforded by her blood red scoop-neck t-shirt, and she’d brushed her hair out so it fell in shining waves past her shoulders. Her eyes were drawn to the muscles of his biceps, and the way his tongue kept darting out to moisten his lips. He was saying something about a board meeting when a question that had been on her mind for three weeks straight slipped past her lips.
“Hey, Eric?”
He turned to her, his green eyes hazy from the alcohol. “Yes, Cas?”
Her heart did a happy tumble at the sound of her nickname. “You’re so intense. But I’ve seen you interact with other people, and though you’re intense, you’re not…the same way with me.”
She could swear that his breathing stopped. “What do you mean?”
She set down her glass and turned her gaze on him. “Why do you look at me the way you do? No one else looks at me that way. Like…like you’re analyzing me. Like you’re figuring me out.”
Eric smiled lazily. “And you’re not used to that.”
Cassie shook her head, feeling tipsier than she’d anticipated. “So you are? Trying to figure me out, I mean?”
Eric put a hand on her lower back, and her heartbeat accelerated. “Is that okay to you?”
Cassie’s mouth was dry, and she had to try twice before she could successfully speak. “I don’t know. I don’t know if I want to be figured out.” She placed both of her hands on his shoulders and let him see the desire burning in her eyes. “But I don’t want to stop you from trying.”
Eric pulled her toward him and pressed his lips to hers hungrily, and her body cried out in joy. She wrapped her arms around the breadth of his shoulders as he massaged her lips with his, his hands slipping under her shirt to caress the silky warmth of her bare skin. He stood and pressed her body tighter to his, his arousal pressing against the front of her skirt, hard and heavy through his pants.
Cassie pulled back from the kiss breathlessly. “Wait, Eric, are you sure you want to do this? I work for you.”
“I don’t care,” he said deliriously, his hands running lower on her body until the lifted her skirt and grabbed her buttocks roughly. “I want you, Cassie.” Cassie moaned and ground her hips against his reaction, desire echoing through her body like a shockwave. A rush of moisture drenched the crotch of her panties, and the next moment, Eric was kneeling and pulling them away from her body, planting hot kisses on the soft skin of her thighs.
Cassie lifted her shirt, letting her high, round breasts spring free as she leaned back against the breakfast nook and parted her thighs. Eric gripped her hips firmly and gazed up at her, his green eyes burning with need. He kept her gaze as he slipped his tongue between her slick folds, and Cassie threw her head back and shouted her pleasure to the heavens as Eric dragged his tongue around her clit in long, slow licks.
“Eric!” Cassie shouted, throwing one leg over his broad shoulder and grinding herself more firmly against the force of his tongue. She couldn’t believe how perfect his mouth felt on her body, and couldn’t imagine the kind of pleasure his member would send through her.
Eric pulled away from her suddenly as though he could read her mind. He placed his hands on her hips and lifted her until she sat on the counter, kissing her roughly as her hands fumbled at the clasp of his khakis. She could taste her own sweet essence on his tongue, and her hand moved eagerly over the hot thickness of his shaft as she pulled his cock free.
He didn’t waste any time. Eric held one hand behind her head as he pushed his round head inside Cassie’s warm velvety walls, and she cried out in ecstasy as his length stretched and filled her for the first time. It was like they were two interlocking puzzle pieces; every slow stroke felt perfectly tailored to her body, expertly crafted to push her toward her most delicious edge.
“Cassie,” Eric moaned, his thumb passing over her erect nipple as he slowly pumped between her thighs. “Oh god, you’re the most incredible woman.”
His strokes grew faster and harder, and Cassie could only whimper and tighten her arms around him as his body collided with hers. Pleasure was streaking through her muscles and enveloping her brain, carrying away all thought except the joyous sensation of his hips pounding into hers. Eric’s hand fisted in her hair, and Cassie cried out as her ecstasy reached its peak at the precise moment that her lover reached his.
“Cassie!” he moaned, throwing his body against hers with abandon. “I’m coming! I’m coming!”
Cassie arched her back and screamed wordlessly as the slick walls of her pussy tightened and pulsed around Eric’s thick, rigid shaft, his cries reaching a fever pitch as he exploded inside her. His mouth covered her breasts in wet kisses as they both twitched and moaned together, hips bucking together weakly to pull all the pleasure from each other’s bodies.
She didn’t have time to catch her breath before she was being carried to his bedroom and laid across the bed. He wrapped his arms around her naked body and gazed down at her, stroking her soft hair as she gazed at him wearily.
“Eric,” she said softly, her eyelids growing heavier by the moment.
He smiled. “Yes?”
Cassie took a breath. “I love you.”
His face went blank, and for a moment, Cassie feared he wouldn’t respond. “I love you, too,” he said finally.
Something in his tone made her open her eyes. He was starting to turn away, but she put a hand on his arm to top him. Eric was startled, but Cassie fixed him with a stare.
“Hey. What’s wrong?”
The look in his eye was of pure terror. “I didn’t think it would get this far,” he said.
Cassie frowned and sat up on the bed. “You mean…love?”
Eric covered his eyes with his hands, and Cassie’s heart started to sink in her chest.
“Oh, no,” she said quietly. “Do you have a girlfriend that I don’t know about?”
He looked up, his anguish interrupted by surprise. “What? No.”
Cassie shook her head. “Then what is it?” she demanded. Eric didn’t answer, so she took hold of his chin and reputed her question. “Eric. Something tells me you think I’m going to find out anyway, so tell me what it is. You just fucked my brains out; I think I’m in a good enough mood. Come on, did you find the person sabotaging your project already, and then hide it from me so you could get in my pants?” she grinned at him to show him that she was joking, but when the panic in his haze sharpened, her smile faded. “Oh, no. Oh, god…Eric. Have you been paying me so you could woo me?”
His silence gave her the answer.
“Eric, what the fuck?!” Anger coursed through her, and she felt her heart start to gallop in her chest. “How long have you known?”
Eric met her eyes briefly. “A long time.”
Cassie scoffed. “So who is it?”
Eric covered his hands with his eyes again, a small sound of despair escaping his lips.
Cassie went numb with shock. “Eric…no. It can’t be. It couldn’t be…”
He raised his green eyes to hers, and they were brimming with tears. “I’m sorry, Cassie. I didn’t mean for it to go this far.”
A bitter laugh burst from her mouth. “You sabotaged your own project for some ass, Eric? Are you fucking kidding me? You led me along just so you could fuck me?”
“No!” Eric said desperately.
“Then why?”
“Because I wanted to get to know you, Cassie,” he said, his voice pleading. “I wanted you to get to know me.”
“Good idea, except the part where you lied to me about everything!” she shouted, scooting away from him on the bed as he tried to reach for her. “I can’t be with someone like that, Eric—I can’t be with a liar.”
Eric was following her as she raced through the apartment and pulled on her clothes. “I was so impressed by you, Cassie, I just wanted to work with you. And then I fell in love with you. I didn’t mean to.”
Cassie laughed in
his face as she pulled on her shirt. “Well, that makes it better. Have a nice life, Eric. Don’t call me. I’ll bill you.”
“Cassie!”
But she sprinted to the road and was flagging down a taxi by the time he caught up with her. Cassie sobbed in the back of the cab, unable to stop herself from watching Eric’s place growing smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror.
****
Cassie wasn’t sure how long it took her to stop crying. Hours maybe, or perhaps it was minutes. It was nightfall when she left her house again, and that was only to check the mail. She saw Eric’s silver Mercedes on the street and dashed back up before he could even leave his car.
She wasn’t sure what had hurt her more—that she’d been lied to, or that she’d fallen in love before she figured out. She kept going over the last few weeks in her mind, trying to find a warning or red flag that should have tipped her off. Cassie kept going back to their first serious conversation about who was sabotaging his company; once the truth comes out in a case like this, bonds can be broken and never repaired. How right she’d been.
By the end of the first week holed up in her apartment, Eric stopped calling, and his Mercedes couldn’t be found outside on the street any longer. Her relief was enormous—but she was surprised to find that she was more than a little disappointed, too. Had his love for her dried up so quickly?
Don’t be stupid, said a nasty voice in her head. He never loved you—he just wanted to get in your pants. Now that it’s over, he has no reason to try again.
She burned with rage at the thought of him simply losing interest in her and the body he’d ravaged so insatiably. Was she really so disposable to him? Cassie took another week off work and spent it wandering the streets aimlessly, bumping into walls and citizens at random as she tried to sort her jumbled thoughts and feelings. Cassie hated to admit it, but Eric had given her a purpose beyond professional—she’d felt important to someone for the first time in years. Maybe that was why she’d been so upset with him; not because she felt disposable now, but because she’d felt so invaluable before. Could it be possible that she liked feeling so desperately needed—so desired that a man would concoct a wild scheme just to get close to her?
Am I that crazy? She thought—and then: Do you have to be crazy to miss being madly in love? Maybe. Probably. Cassie pushed open a door without reading a sign, and her heart stopped when she realized where her legs had carried her: the bookstore where she’d first met Eric.
Definitely crazy.
Cassie’s heart felt strangely heavy as she strolled through the aisles, the cashier and bored shelf stockers ignoring her like they had the first time. There was The Joy of Sex, precisely where she’d picked it up last time. The arrangement of spines looked just as dusty as they had before, and when she turned toward the front of the store, she could swear Eric was standing right where she first laid eyes on him. Then she did a double take, and her heart stopped.
“Cassie.”
Eric hurried toward her, and Cassie stood, rooted to the spot by the panic and heartache mingling in her chest. “Cassie, please, just let me say this.” He took her hands in his, aquamarine eyes shining with sincerity. “I’m sorry I lied to you. I should never, ever have lied to you. But you’re right—I have blind spots. Huge ones, put there by money and the privilege it brings. One of those blind spots kept me from realizing that all I had to do was be real with you—and let you come to me yourself.”
Cassie gazed up at him, her eyes wide and unblinking.
“I don’t have any common sense—but please, don’t let that scare you away from me. I’m willing to learn. I want to learn. And more importantly, I want to show you the way you make me feel—so you understand why I’m so damn taken with you.” Eric swallowed, and his Adam’s apple bobbed. “You make me feel like I’m the only one who matters on Earth…and I’m so used to putting that idea out of my head in favor of work or profit, that I didn’t realize I wanted and needed that kind of love so badly.” He squeezed his hands. “Do you know what I mean by that?”
Cassie finally opened her mouth to speak. “I think I do.”
Eric didn’t try to hide his surprise. “So…will you give me another chance?”
Cassie paused. His eyes were shining with such luster and love that she felt like she was being warmed by the sun from the inside out. She did know exactly what he meant—Eric was the only person immune to her shield of invisibility. Before him, she had no idea being seen could feel so good. Cassie pulled him down and pressed her lips to his hungrily, wrapping her arms around his neck as he slipped his hands around her waist and melted into the kiss.
When he pulled back, he looked dizzy and more than a little dazed. “So…that’s a yes?”
Cassie laughed. “Let’s run another test and see.”
THE END
Alpha Billionaire’s Desire
“So, hopefully, with this feature, we’re going to see a real growth in new accounts at IQID, and thus be able to start building toward our goal of being able to tailor responses to client need. And remember, we need more clients for more capital… So what are we focusing on?”
The room was too warm to be productive for this kind of meeting, he realized. When the eleven men before him responded with “more clients!” it was not only less hearty than he would have liked, several of them looked genuinely confused as to what the meeting had actually been about. Damian couldn’t talk to anyone about turning up the air conditioning without being reminded that their planet was being destroyed because of their need for ultimate comfort—at least, that was the way Brian in HR put it every month when Damian went to complain.
“Okay,” he continued. “Let’s all look forward to tomorrow’s recap email; you can shoot back any questions—”
“I’ve got a question,” said Jamie in his jagged baritone. He leaned back in his chair, his lids drooping as he spoke. “Is the retreat still going to be catered?”
At the mention of the quarterly retreat, every man in the room straightened up. This year, they would be in Maine in a luxurious resort where they could request more types of massages than they could possibly have time to receive. It was one of the perks that many higher-level employees signed on for exclusively, partially because of the parties Damian tended to fund while they were there—Damian Wyles’s parties had always been worthwhile in Silicon Valley.
Jamie was still speaking. “Those salmon rolls were divine last year. Most perfect things ever. I’ve been dreaming about them every night since the last one cleared my system.”
“With Lola next you?” Gary said, leaning across the gleaming table to show Jamie his roguish wink. “I wouldn’t be able to sleep at all.”
Damian closed his eyes, resisting the urge to roll them. “Guys, can we keep things professional here?”
Jamie snorted. “You wouldn’t be so eager to jump behind the wheel with Lola if you’d been on the rides I’ve been on,” he said darkly.
Gary’s expression turned curious. “What do you mean?”
Jamie shrugged. “My tastes are a little more vanilla, I guess. Once I start bruising, I’m out. There’s a reason Lola has so many private tennis lessons—better him than me.”
“Okay, gentlemen, it’s nearly eight,” Damian said hastily, waving his arms toward the door. “We should all head out. We can talk about the retreat as we get closer to the event.”
The men finally started to stand, but now they’d all broken out into various shades of lewd conversation. Damien pulled his blazer on and walked through the long, mirrored conference room, thankfully slipping out before Jacob could finish telling Miles about the time he and his girlfriend went skinny dipping in Majorca and nearly got arrested for indecent exposure. Someone near the door called his name before he closed the door, but they were pulled into another conversation before they could even finish addressing him, so he turned out and completed his exit uninterrupted.
The dim fluorescent lights told him it was past eight o’cl
ock now, so the silence of the hall wasn’t at all out of place. His footsteps were completely swallowed by the plush blue carpet, the fibers reaching up to sweep the top of his gleaming black loafers. Damian caught sight of himself in the glass door of his office before he unlocked it, and he was shocked to see that his skin was far paler than usual, his wavy black hair making him look more vampire-like rather than camera ready. His legs were aching as he closed the door behind him, and he took solace in the fact that it was Friday—meaning he could sleep in as late as eight or nine if he wanted, though his body surely wouldn’t let him lay around that long.
Damian’s office sat in the corner of the thirtieth floor of a slate gray building on Palm, two blocks from the center of Mountain View’s downtown area. He could see the bay, and the windows that stretched from the floor to the ceiling of his back wall also gave him an incredible view of a good half of the city, and even parts of Palo Alto if the fog wasn’t pressing against the glass. He remembered the first time he’d seen the view from his window, four years before; IQID had just begun to come into its own, with its first televised commercials rolling out around Labor Day.
“IQID is Identification protection—that’s the ID—that works smarter to keep you safe—that’s the IQ!” Chirped the bubbly young woman in front of her laptop. The letters floated above her as she spoke, and Damien was so shocked at seeing his company name in glossy, computer-generated letters on his flat screen that he had been momentarily convinced that someone was actually pranking him. By the fifth time he’d viewed the commercial, things were starting to feel real, and his half a million subscribers went a long way toward helping that feeling solidify. Then Damian got the news that they could buy three floors of the huge building on Palm he’d strolled past a million times while he interned at Intracode, and his dream-like sensation sharpened and receded at the same time, somehow—like he was trapped in limbo, or that strange space between sleep and waking where thoughts and words drifted away and were never heard from again. He got that feeling every time he looked out the window for nearly two years; after that, the reality of the relentlessly gray life in the tech capital of the world started to dull his reactions to everything else. Damian kept his shades drawn during the daytime, especially.