Long for Me

by Stacey Lynn

  “This option puts all of that to the south, although I agree with you, Mr. Jakobs, that this provides for better parking and traffic flow in and out of the area. These bushes here at the entrance of the first option could potentially pose a problem with blind spots for the residents when pulling out in the winter, especially if snow piles up.”

  It was official. I’d lost control of my own damn meeting. I couldn’t find it in me to get angry or butt in.

  Rebecca was fucking nailing it.

  Every question Anderson had, she had a rebuttal. She even seemed to know what he was going to ask before he did. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think she was sleeping with the man based on how well she anticipated his every need.

  But the only man she was going to be sleeping with was me, because fuck I was turned on. My cock hard as a rock pushed against my pants. My balls were pulled tight. Every time she fluffed her hair, draped it over her shoulders, her vanilla scent wafted into the air and I wasn’t the only man in the room affected.

  More than once I’d seen Anderson reach below the table to do a quick readjust while Rebecca’s wine-colored, full lips were answering his endless questions. A part of me wondered if Anderson was continuing to draw the meeting out just so my sexy assistant would have to keep talking, but I knew him better than that. He truly was this indecisive.

  Even if he was attracted to Rebecca, she wouldn’t want him. She’d proven with me that she needed a man with a spine and a good strong palm to get her off well and good and nothing about Anderson screamed he could handle her when she went wild.

  I tuned back into the conversation that had come to a close while I thought of her lips around my cock. Anderson stood and kept his briefcase in front of him.

  Yeah, I wasn’t going to be that polite. As soon as he left, Rebecca was going to see exactly how hard she made me. Fuck her body. It was her mind that was turning me on.

  “Excellent proposal,” Anderson said, reaching his hand across the table to shake Rebecca’s hand.

  “You’re welcome,” I cut in, sliding next to Rebecca as she stood. Her back straightened at my comment and yeah, that was arrogance. Luckily for me, I knew it turned her on. “Thank you for coming and allowing us to pitch the proposal.”

  I stressed the us. I’d give credit where it was due. I would also give this guy five minutes to get out of our conference room or he’d see just how much appreciation I planned on showering on her. Or in her. Whichever she’d allow.

  He adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. “Yes, my pleasure Bennett. I’ll take these along with the two other options back to the board and we’ll let you know as soon as we’ve made our decision. Our meeting is set for next Wednesday so you should know by the end of next week.”

  “Perfect. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to give me a call.”

  I turned to Rebecca and arched a brow as she slid her business card across the table. Give her a call?

  Irritation prickled and I sucked in my lips. Giving credit where it was due was one thing. Her thinking this was her project? Quite another.

  “Have a good day, Anderson.”

  I nodded my head as he headed toward the door and turned to Rebecca. I placed my hand on her lower back, not appropriate in the least but I didn’t give a shit. “After you escort Mr. Jakobs out, come back so we can talk.”

  Her nose crinkled like my breath was sour. “Yes, Bennett.”

  All week long. Bennett this Bennett that. She was doing it because she’d called me Mr. Ashby before our night together, I wasn’t a total fucking moron.

  Still, it reminded me of my place and the line she’d drawn between us with a can of invisible spray paint.

  Fuck that.

  I wanted her. And I’d have her. I wouldn’t take her until she was begging, but I would definitely speed her up into getting to that point.

  Chapter Ten

  Rebecca

  If I could stomp away from Bennett with the full emotion of everything pounding inside of me, giving me a headache of epic proportions, I would. Too bad there was still a client in the office. Instead of throwing a tantrum the likes of which any adult had never seen, I fisted my hands at my sides and walked Anderson to the elevator banks.

  “Thank you again, Mr. Jakobs, for taking the time to meet with us today. On behalf of Ashby Enterprises, we look forward to hearing from you.”

  “The pleasure was mine,” he said, taking my hand and shaking it gently. His hold was soft, his hand a bit clammy. It wasn’t the first time today I’d shaken his hand. It also wasn’t the first time I wanted to rub my hand down my thighs afterward to erase the wetness. “And forgive me for saying this, because it’s highly inappropriate,” his eyes slid toward the conference room we’d exited and back to me, “If you should ever find yourself in need of a change of scenery, please call me. I’d love to discuss future possibilities with you.”

  I swore I heard the screech of a car slamming on emergency brakes as he spoke. Did he just? “Excuse me?”

  “Again, I apologize for my forwardness and unprofessionalism. However, I find you highly intelligent and impressive in your knowledge of not only your business proposals but what a client is looking for. Like I said, if you ever find yourself needing something different, call me. I’d love to talk.”

  I was going light-headed. What in the heck was he talking about? I was an assistant. “Mr. Jakobs, I’m honored, but forgive me, are you offering me a job?”

  “A chance to, perhaps, stretch your wings a bit. Yes, I might be. No pressure, Miss Morales, just keep us in mind.”

  Stunned. I couldn’t speak. Hell, I couldn’t even think. Fortunately, the bell on the elevator rang and Mr. Jakobs stepped away before I had to. “Good day, Miss Morales.”

  “Uh, you too, Mr. Jakobs.” He nodded once and stepped into the elevator and out of sight.

  I mean...what?

  This week had been bizarre, and by far the strangest I’d ever had. So much so that last night I went home, sat in my chair, and stared at a mirror hung over the fireplace and for a brief moment, wondered if I was like Alice, and had fallen down a rabbit hole at some point in the last six days.

  From assuming BDSM was beating and abusive, to a night of experimenting, to my current boss going from arrogant to sexy and straight back to assholery and then, to whatever the hell he was doing now—

  Nothing could have prepared me for Mr. Jakobs’s off-the-cuff proposition.

  “You okay, Rebecca?”

  Louise’s voice startled me and I stumbled on my heels before I faced her.

  “What?”

  “You’re as pale as a ghost, sweetie. Everything alright?” Louise reminded of a grandma. A good grandma. Something I never had but she often brought in freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and banana bread, setting it in the executive break room. Her silver hair bobbed on her shoulders as she scanned the elevators where Anderson had left. “Did that man bother you?”

  “No.” I reached out and covered her hand with mine, squeezing gently. “No, he didn’t bother me. Just said something that surprised me, that’s all.”

  “Okay, sweetie. How’s everything else going? I’ve been busy with Ralph so I haven’t been able to check on you lately. You and Bennett getting along okay?”

  Louise had been Ralph Manson’s assistant for longer than I’d been alive.

  A vision of Bennett holding my hands down, the grittiness in his voice as he groaned and climaxed flashed in my mind. “Yeah, we’re getting along okay.”

  “Well, you know where I am if you need me. But don’t be a stranger, Rebecca. The other managers say they’re thrilled with your work with Bennett. They say he’s never been nicer.”

  “Uh. Thanks.” He’d been nicer in the last two months? Good grief. How mean had he been be
fore?

  Whatever. It didn’t matter. He’d already shown me he was too mercurial for me. I needed stable and gentle, not overbearing and pompous. That was the only way I was going to survive my job here. But if I worked somewhere else...

  I glanced toward the elevator and considered Anderson’s proposal.

  Louise patted my hand again and walked away, turning the corner that took her to her offices at the end of the hall. There were a dozen people on the floor, over fifty in the company, but the other senior managers and their assistants were down one hallway where Bennett and I had the main area to ourselves. Everyone else filled the two floors beneath us. It’d always seemed strange to me before, how he kept himself so distant from everyone else, but as I trudged back to the conference room where he’d told me to return, I was thankful. No one in the company needed to catch a whiff of the turmoil swirling around us.

  I’d left the door open when I’d escorted Mr. Jakobs out and it was still open when I returned.

  My pulse sped as I walked closer. When Bennett touched me earlier, his hand had seared a heat straight to my spine that shot to my fingertips. The closer I came to the conference room the lingering heat pulsed, a flickering flame growing stronger and stronger until I was in the conference, mere feet from him.

  “Close the door,” he all but growled, arms crossed over his chest and feet far enough apart to make him look like he was getting into a boxing ring and not a conversation with his assistant.

  “I don’t think I will.” I stayed where I was even as a wave of something undecipherable rolled off Bennett like a tidal wave. The force of his emotion, whatever it was, slammed into me so hard, so physically even though he was at least five feet away from me, I jerked backward. Sure, I was a bit sassy. A bit disrespectful, but I’d never been so blatantly rude to him before.

  I didn’t feel the need to apologize either.

  He stood in front of me, shooting daggers out of his sexy brown eyes, because damn it, I still noticed that, and every muscle in his shoulders bunched. I noticed those too. He was too beautiful to ignore.

  Then he moved, and he did it quickly. Stalking toward me, he reached me, wrapped a hand around my biceps, and tugged me forward. I stumbled and jumped as the door slammed closed behind me.

  “What the—”

  “Quiet.” His voice was thick, losing the growl, and laden with desire. “I have something to say to you.”

  Stunned by the richness in his voice, the closeness of his breath at my ear, I listened.

  “You impressed the hell out of me today, Rebecca. I had no idea you knew or understood so much about the entirety of every step that goes into acquiring new land or new developments, and I’m standing here with my dick as hard as a rock, wanting to fuck you so bad I can’t think straight. And I’m not saying that because I know what you taste like, what you sound like right before you come, but because your intelligence and the way you took over is one of the sexiest things I’ve ever seen.”

  I swayed toward him. His praise was so unbelievably beautiful and naughty at the same time. “Bennett—”

  “I said be quiet. Let me finish.” His grip on my arm loosened, trailed down my arm until he cupped my waist and held me to him. My chest to his side, my nipples hardened and tingled. Then it turned to a pulsing, distracting throb at the center of my thighs. “We’re good together. I learned that the other night. I knew it before then with all the work you’ve done since you became my assistant. No one has impressed me as much as you have today. And I mean that, Rebecca.”

  His sweet, sweet words, his presence, the scent of him, all of it sent me spinning. My breath heaved and I pressed in closer. My lips were at his throat, his delicious, corded throat that bobbed as he swallowed and spoke. The rumble of his voice vibrated through me.

  “Fuck,” he groaned, his lips moving to my forehead. “I broke my promise to you not to mention our night together until you begged me, but fucking hell, Rebecca. Beg me. Tell me you want this. Tell me you haven’t been able to stop thinking about our night or the way I feel inside of you, driving into you over, and over again.”

  His fingers dug into my waist. Delicious, aroused sparks spread from his touch through my veins. “Bennett—”

  “Mr. Ashby.”

  Fuck, fuck, shit! A groan slipped from my throat. My hands went to his hips. This was the moment I’d wanted since he showed up the other day. I needed to hear he thought about me all while trying to deny it myself.

  He’d shown me though, that I couldn’t trust him. The tailspin he’d put me in this week, rude to kindness, bossy to helpful, ignoring me to praising me.

  My dad had been so mercurial my mom could never anticipate which version of him she’d find. It wasn’t fair or kind or good. Not to her. It wasn’t to me either.

  I slid my hands from Bennett’s hips to his chest and pushed, stepping back as I put space between us.

  “I can’t.” I took another step before he could reach for me. The distance didn’t help. I still felt his touch all over me, memories of the other night flashed in my mind. His scent enveloped me.

  “What?”

  “I’m sorry, Bennett. But I can’t. I can’t do this. Not with you. Not today.”

  His head snapped toward me so fast it was a wonder it didn’t snap right off. “What do you mean?”

  Panic swamped through me like a swarm of wasps, stinging my senses as I tried to back up and get away from him. He didn’t let me. Bennett prowled toward me, stalked me in large, slow steps until my ass hit the conference room table.

  “Oh.” My hands went to the edges of the table. “Stop.”

  His eyes gleamed and I recognized my mistake immediately. “Now, come on. You know that’s not a safe word. You want me to stop? Say them.”

  The arrogant, arrogant prick.

  “Bennett,” I seethed. “Back off. We’re not doing this.”

  Whatever he saw in my eyes, hopefully it was the daggers I was trying to shoot from them, he listened and stepped back. “Talk to me.”

  Talk? Talk!? He wanted to talk? Fine. A shudder rolled through me and I opened my mouth to speak, and when I did, all the frustration I’d had bottled up for weeks went flying. “You’re an asshole! You’re bossy and you’re rude and you demand too much of me without giving me any thanks. Not only that, but you’re mean. You knew what the other night meant to me, you knew how hard that was for me, and I thought when you left that you’d be nicer to me. Instead, you’ve been even ruder to me this week—”

  “I bought you a coffee.”

  My God. Did he think that helped anything? This man!

  “Bennett. You’re my boss. That’s all. You’ve made it clear that you don’t mind fucking with my mind or my body, but I can’t, won’t do what you’re suggesting right now. There’s no way, not after this week. Not after—”

  I clipped my mouth closed. I’d almost said too much. I might not have been wearing Miranda’s armored suggestion of clothing, but I absolutely needed something to protect me from being so irrevocably stupid.

  “After what, Rebecca?”

  Damn him for knowing me so well.

  Sucking in a deep, shuddering breath, I breathed out the one word that would get him to go away. “Red.”

  He jerked like I’d slapped him. Eyes widened and his bottom jaw popped forward before he gritted his teeth together.

  “You’re going to safe word so you don’t have to be honest with me? That’s not fair.”

  “Fair?” Oh my God, was that my screeching? “You haven’t played fair since I saw you beating that woman at Luminous.”

  His lips twitched but he had no response.

  I pushed off the table, turned, and grabbed my files and iPad I’d left there when I left the room earlier. “Damn you, Bennett. You can’t twist me up like you’ve done
all damn week and think that I’m just going to fall into your arms like a woman without any self-respect. I spent too many years fighting to get away from that bullshit and the last thing I need is another man in my life who thinks he can flash some sexy grin, give a couple orgasms, and then assume that he can treat that same woman like shit and expect her to just fall over and spread her legs.” A splash of water hit my iPad.

  Fuck! I swiped my tears. I’d said it. I’d said everything I never wanted to admit and I’d said it to him.

  I pushed past him without looking and swung the door open when he stopped me with a word.

  My name.

  But it wasn’t that he said my name, it was the way he said it. Tortured, like it’d been ripped from him.

  “What?”

  “Please, look at me.”

  I couldn’t resist. I’d humiliated myself in front of my boss, spread my garbage at his feet, and still, that please spun through me and warmed me. Damn it!

  “What?” I asked again, turning. I held my files to my chest and dragged my eyes reluctantly to him. “What else can you possibly say to me right now?”

  His hands were at his hips. Broad shoulders heaving. He scrubbed a hand over his mouth and dropped it back to his narrow hip. His tongue swiped across the front of his teeth and every moment he didn’t speak, a thickness filled the room, spun around me like a thick storm cloud and charged the air in the room.

  “I’m sorry.”

  If the pope had walked through the door I wouldn’t have been more surprised.

  His expression slowly went blank. All the heat and desire in his eyes disappeared like someone slowly turning window blinds closed. “Have a good day, Rebecca. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  I sidestepped Bennett as he walked to me, and then through the doorway. What in the hell had just happened?

  Chapter Eleven

  Bennett

  Okay, so that was a major fuck up on my part. Not just because I’d driven Rebecca over the edge straight to crazy town, but clearly she had deeper-seated issues with BDSM than I was aware of, and that was on me.