I knelt to the floor and pulled his briefs down, then took him in my mouth, longing to hear him moan again. It wasn’t long until he was digging his fingernails into my shoulder and groaning in pleasure as I felt him throbbing between my lips, and when I could tell he was close, he grabbed my hand and pulled me up to face him.
Adam wrapped one arm around me, his hand grabbing my waist, and worked his other hand into my panties, pushing his fingers inside me as he kissed me roughly. A moment later, he eased the top of my leggings down and grabbed the back of my legs. I gripped his shoulders as he pulled me up onto the bench, parting my legs and pulling my panties to the side, before entering me. I cried out in pleasure and he pulled me closer, moving deeper into me with every thrust of his hips.
As he came, I did too, and with a final moan, he collapsed onto me. It was so intense, that it took me few moments to stop trembling. I knew I would never forgot this instant, it just felt like he conquered my heart.
We laid against the mirror on the wall above the bench, catching our breath, our bodies pulsing together. Adam lifted his head, and laughed shyly as he stood up, pulling his briefs and jeans to his hips and rebuttoning them. I hopped off the bench, feeling steadier on my feet as if I’d sobered up, then readjusted my leggings and pulled my jumper back on as Adam looked around for his shirt, which was lying crumpled in the sink. He pulled it out, smoothing the creases, then put it back on, buttoning it up slowly as he looked at me, smiling.
I glanced down at my watch. Ten thirty-three. I looked back up at Adam, and as I watched him smoothing his hair in the mirror behind me, I had a sudden moment of clarity. Standing in front of me was my boss, who I’d only started working for that morning, and I’d just had sex with him in the restroom of a bar. Never mind the fact that he was gorgeous, even more so with that post-coital glow, or that it had been the best, most intense sex I’d had, probably ever - he was still my boss. How could I have done this?
“I have to go,” I stammered shyly, and without looking back, I ran out of the restroom and through the bar, navigating around tables and tripping over loose bags that had been dropped on the floor next to chairs, until finally, I made my way out into the street.
Chapter Nine: Adam
I tried to follow Amy out of the restroom and through the crowded bar, but by the time I’d finished buttoning up my shirt and staggered out into the corridor, she’d disappeared. I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror on the wall as I entered the main bar area - my hair was still disheveled from where she’d run her fingers through it, despite my attempts at smoothing it back to where it belonged. I noticed that I’d missed a button on my shirt, and the top four buttons had been mismatched, leaving it wonky.
After taking a minute to compose myself, I ordered another drink from a young male bartender with a blonde buzzcut - whiskey, on the rocks - and returned to the corner booth where Amy and I had first kissed, only fifteen minutes ago. Part of me hoped that Amy would come rushing back in at any moment, with some perfectly reasonable explanation for why she’d taken off so suddenly, but the other part knew that wasn’t going to happen. Still, if she did return, I wanted her to be able to find me.
At a quarter past eleven, I gave up and went home.
That night, I barely slept. I lay awake, thinking of nothing but Amy. The passion we’d shared in the bar that evening had been unlike any other experience I’d ever had. The way her lips had felt against mine, soft and moist, had made me hard almost instantly, and I shivered at the memory. And when I’d lifted her up onto the bench in the restroom, the way that she’d moaned as I took her had driven me wild.
I’d only had a taste - a fleeting, delicious bit - but I wanted more. I needed more.
At this point, I’d almost forgotten the fact that I was Amy’s boss, but every now and then, it kept coming back, interrupting my thoughts and reminding me that what we’d done was grounds for both of us to lose our jobs. How could I possibly entertain the idea of anything more with Amy, when we’d already risked enough?
Unless no-one found out.
We could be careful. I had the luxury of an office with a door that locked, and when we weren’t at work, we could venture to other areas of the city where no-one would see us. In a city of over one million people, surely it couldn’t be that hard to stay anonymous when we wanted to.
I spent the night tossing and turning, my fantasies of when I could next hold Amy and touch her soft, smooth skin punctuated by fits of restless sleep. In the morning, when my alarm went off, I rolled over and thumped it without looking up. The sun was streaming through the gaps in the blinds at the window, and I pulled the sheet up over my head to envelop myself in darkness. Briefly, I considered calling out sick, until I realized that doing so meant I wouldn’t see her.
A few minutes later, I dragged my heavy body out of bed and took a long, hot shower to wake myself up. The water felt so incredibly refreshing as it ran through my hair and down over my shoulders, and I spent longer underneath the warm stream than I’d usually allow myself to, thinking about seeing Amy in only an hour as I lathered and scrubbed. Eventually, I stepped out of the shower and dried myself off, before choosing a beautiful dark blue dress shirt that I thought Amy would like. She’d told me that she loved my eyes, and that I should wear more blue to bring them out.
The subway ride to work was slow and painful, packed with commuters yawning into their takeaway coffee cups, but I managed to find a seat. As soon as I’d sat down, I pulled my phone out from my jacket pocket and noticed a new message. My heart jumped, immediately thinking of Amy. As I swiped to unlock the screen, I realized it wasn’t from her after all. It was just my friend Joe, wanting to meet for a beer after work.
I’d known Joe since high school, and had seen him through two marriages, and the same number of divorces. In return, he’d seen me through twenty years of flings and failed attempts at relationships, and had been the one to help me realize that maybe I wasn’t a relationship kind of person.
Of course, that had been before I met Amy, and before everything I thought I knew about the world had changed.
I texted Joe back to let him know I’d meet him at five that evening, at a bar two blocks from my office. Then, after hesitating for a moment, I opened up a new message and began typing. It took three cycles of writing and erasing before I finally settled for ‘Can’t wait to see you.’ I added a ‘x’ at the end, then thought better of it and deleted it. I selected Amy as the recipient, fixating on her name for a second, then pressed Send before I could change my mind again.
Returning my phone back into my jacket pocket, I relaxed down into the subway seat, took a sip of the latte I’d grabbed from Starbucks on my way to the station and closed my eyes, mentally preparing myself to see her again.
Chapter Ten: Amy
I was dreading seeing Adam, and had planned to sneak into the office before he got there and grab my laptop with a list of things that needed doing outside of the office, so when I arrived and he was already sitting at his desk, opening up his computer and getting ready for the day I cursed myself for not getting up ten minutes earlier.
When I walked in, he looked up. “Good morning,” he said gently. I figured he was testing the water, after the abrupt fashion I’d left things last night.
“Morning,” I replied breezily, walking straight past him to my own desk in the corner of the room.
I could feel him watching me as I took off my coat and hung it up. I knew I shouldn’t just ignore what had happened last night, but what could I say?
“I’ve been thinking about you,” I heard him say, and I turned around to face him. He’d stood up, as if he were about to approach me. “Last night-”
“Coffee?” I interrupted, and then walked out of the room without waiting for him to reply.
I’d never been this cold to anyone before - it wasn’t in my nature. I struggled telling beggars on the street corner that I had no change, let alone blatantly ignoring the man I’d slept with, bar
ely twelve hours ago, when he was trying to talk to me.
I hurried down to the kitchen and set about preparing two coffees, one for Adam and one for myself. I didn’t even really want a coffee - I was on edge enough as it was - but I needed an excuse to leave, and fast. If I was going to keep this up, I needed to be strong, I reminded myself. Whatever happens, I can’t let myself go down this road again.
I returned to the office and place Adam’s coffee, uncalled for, in the middle of his desk without saying anything. “Thanks,” he practically whispered. I could tell he was hurt.
The next eight hours crawled by. Every time Adam tried to make conversation, I shut him down. As much as it pained me to be so distant when all I wanted to do was kiss him, I knew that it would hurt ten times more if I allowed myself to get caught up in this fantasy again.
At ten to five, I started to pack up my things, preparing to leave. Adam must have noticed, and seen it as his last chance at some semblance of a conversation before another night fell between us.
“Amy, what’s going on?” he said softly as I grabbed my coat from the stand next to the doorway.
“Nothing’s going on,” I responded. “Last night...” I looked behind me, and closed the door. “Last night shouldn’t have happened.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, looking taken aback. “I mean, I’m glad it happened.”
I shook my head. “No. I know what happens next. Why do you think I had to leave Tolstoy and Brown, a good job, so suddenly? I can’t do this again. I can’t get screwed over by another power-hungry man who thinks that because he’s my boss, he’s got me wrapped around his little finger.”
Adam looked shocked. “Is… is that what you think of me? You think I’m just taking advantage of you?”
I backtracked, suddenly worried that I’d gone too far. “No,” I said, taking my tone down a notch. “But I need to protect myself. And I already like you more than I should. It’s too much of a risk. Haven’t you thought about the fact that you could lose your job too?”
“Sure, I have,” he admitted. “But who has to know?”
I pulled my handbag over my shoulder. “No one. Because there’s nothing to know. This isn’t how it’s meant to be, Adam.”
“What do you mean?” I asked again. But without answering, Amy turned around and left.
Chapter Eleven: Adam
“Honestly, dude,” I sighed. “ I have no idea what to do.”
Joe looked at me from across the table and took a swig of beer, then returned his glass to the wooden surface with a loud noise. A plumber by trade, he was the hardy, no-nonsense type, but I could tell that even he was struggling to think of something to say to me in my current state.
“It must be bad if you’re asking me for advice,” he chuckled, his dark eyes crinkling as he grinned. I took a sip from my own pint of lager and nodded.
“She’s like no other girl I’ve ever met. There’s no way I can lose her. There’s just something about her that feels… right. Like she’s supposed to be with me.”
He raised an eyebrow. “But she doesn’t feel the same?”
I laughed. “That would actually make things easier, if I’m honest. But I know she feels it too. You should have been there. You’d have seen it.”
“No thanks,” he smirked. “But seriously, what is it then?”
“If I get caught sleeping with an employee, I’ll be fired. And so will she. We could keep things quiet, but she doesn’t want that.” I paused. “Something about her last job, and a guy there that screwed her over.”
Joe shook his head. “There’s always another guy in the mix.”
I brushed his comment off. His last marriage had ended when he’d come home early from a call-out, and found his wife, a high school music teacher, in bed with the science professor.
I sighed. “I need to figure out a way around this. One that doesn’t result in either of us losing our jobs.”
Joe looked at me with an exasperated expression on his face. “Dude, I don’t know,” he huffed. “If this chick really is all that, then you’d be moving mountains to be with her.”
I took a long swig of beer, swallowed, and then took another. Finally, I nodded. “You’re right.”
A waitress sauntered past, catching my eyes with hers, and smiled. “Can I grab some fries?” I asked as she approached. As she walked off to the kitchen with my order, Joe leaned across the table and hit me gently in the arm. “She was hot. You should get her number when she comes back. At least she doesn’t work for you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Thanks, but she’s all yours. I need to figure out how to win Amy over.”
We spent the next half hour finishing our beers and chatting about things - mainly discussing Joe’s current love interest with an apparently stunning ex-model from Louisiana who worked in recruitment and had matched with Joe on the latest dating app he’d started using. “She’s a head hunter, all right,” Joe had grinned. At least he seemed happy. And truth be told, it was a good distraction from my own situation.
On the subway ride home, I checked my phone between every single stop, secretly hoping that Amy had messaged me to tell me she’d changed her mind. But by the time I arrived at my station, there’d been nothing.
Chapter Twelve: Amy
The next day at work, I tried my best to avoid Adam as much as I could. I invented errands that needed running, and remembered documents that needed photocopying, and found cupboards that needed organizing - anything to keep me from being cooped up in the office with him.
I knew he was confused, and that I’d been rash in my outburst yesterday, but I’d needed to be firm, for my own good just as much as his. It was better to be ending things now, before I was in too deep to find my way out.
That didn’t make it any easier to ignore his glances across the room, or to stop myself from reaching out to brush his arm every time I walked past his desk.
By the time the afternoon rolled around, just from pretending that passion we’d shared two nights ago had simply disappeared, I felt entirely exhausted. I decided to take a break in the kitchen, and brewed myself a cup of tea as I stood against the counter, reminding myself yet again that I was doing the right thing.
Once my tea had steeped and I could smell the tangy scent of cranberry calling out to me, I picked up my mug and took it over to one of the couches in the corner of the kitchen. I’d barely taken a sip when Gloria walked in.
“Afternoon, honey,” she hollered from the coffee machine as it began to whirr, and a stream of warm brown liquid came pouring out into the mug she’d placed underneath it just in time. “How are you settling in?”
I managed a smile, but the sheer kindness beaming out from Gloria’s face made me suddenly collapse into a pile of tears. She came rushing over and wrapped her arms around me, the soft polyester of her jumper warming my bare shoulders.
“I’m so sorry,” I bawled. “I can’t believe I’m crying at work. How embarrassing!”
She giggled softly. “Honey, we’ve all been there.” She leaned back slightly and looked at me. “Did you want to talk about it?”
I shook my head as the tears kept running down my cheeks, but what I really wanted to say was yes. I needed to talk.
“Let’s grab a drink after work,” she suggested. “You can talk about it then, if you want, or we can just drink. Either way is fine by me.”
I nodded, then started sobbing again. The fact that someone I barely knew was going out of her way to try and cheer me up was only making me cry harder. I felt like I didn’t deserve her friendship. After all, I’d been working here for three days now, and I’d hardly made an effort to learn anything about her. Was she married? Did she have children?
I looked up at her, my vision blurry with tears, and managed a smile. “I’d like to get to know you. A drink sounds perfect.”
“You sure seem like you need one,” she grinned back. “Let’s leave at five.”
And true to her word, Gloria appeared in t
he doorway of Adam’s office at five on the dot, ready to collect me. I murmured a quick goodbye to Adam, who was still at his desk, and then I followed Gloria out without looking back.
She lead us to a quaint little bar on the next block over, with French decor on the walls and wine bottles repurposed as candlestick holders on each table. Gloria ordered a glass of red wine for us each from the bartender.
For the next two hours, we talked about our lives, and what had lead us to this point. Gloria had grown up here, and had married her high school sweetheart when she was nineteen. Two daughters and thirty years of marriage later, she wasn’t short of stories to tell.
Eventually, the conversation headed in a direction I’ve been dreading.
“So,” Gloria asked slowly, “you’ve been working for Adam for three days now. Has he been treating you well?”
I almost choked on my wine. “He’s been treating me as any boss should. I feel lucky, actually, I barely even see him, which is great. I hate being micromanaged.”
At least that part was true.
“I’ve never quite been able to figure him out, you know,” Gloria mused. “I mean, obviously he’s frickin’ gorgeous. Maybe that’s why I have no clue what he’s actually like.”
“He’s nice,” I said absently. “He seems like a nice guy.”
Gloria raised her eyebrow at me, smiling. “Honey, I know that look.”
“What?” I pretended to be offended. “He’s nice to me! And what look? I wasn’t making a look!”
She shrugged. “If you say so.” She raised her hand and motioned to the bartender for one more round. “But honey, just be careful.”
I recalled her giving me the exact same advice when we’d first met, back in the kitchen when I was flustered and panicked from the coffee disaster.
Risky Business: A Steamy Alpha wealthy Boss, Passionate At First Sight (Fiery Edition Book 1) Page 3