He hummed his assent. One of his hands shifted a little lower into the curve of her back, his fingertips grazing her ass.
"I thought you took advantage of a desperate man in need of money," she said, tracing the monogram on his shirt with her index finger. He smelled like soap and apologies. She breathed him in deeply.
"I think it was more the other way around. I paid more than double what I should have. And you have no idea what a cheap bastard I can be!"
Tory laughed. "According to Dad you paid triple." Her smile fell. "And now it's only worth five dollars?"
"Apparently I still wasn't clear. Five dollars plus a thirty percent share plus ... your respect."
"Oh."
"You have a marvelous way with words, Tory."
Tory slid her arms up his chest and linked them around his neck. "That's the first time you've called me Tory. Do you think that's the best way to earn my respect?" She grinned, hoping he didn't misunderstand her teasing.
"I can think of one other way." He bent his head and kissed her until all that remained was a boneless, mindless, lust-addled hot mess of a woman, who had no idea what her name was and couldn't have cared less.
The End
www.lilashaw.com
OPERATION CONQUER AND SEDUCTION
Michelle Rhys
Copyright© 2014
Chapter One
7:15 a.m.
Melissa pushed open the familiar glass doors that changed her life. Her heels clicked along the marble floor as she approached the imposing receptionist’s desk. A familiar face, a mature picture of elegance and grace, looked up at her. The welcoming smile opened the release valve on Melissa’s panic, somewhat.
“Miss Honsou, good morning.”
“It’s good to see you, Laila. And please, stop pretending to be formal. I’m already nervous as hell. Can’t believe I’m back.”
“To your first job.”
“Yeah, a lot of firsts happened under this roof.” Melissa mentally ticked off her first office romance, sexual encounter, orgasm, falling in love, heartbreak, and resignation.
“And, now, you’re back, bigger and badder.” Laila winked, and covered her mouth as if she’d said a bad word.
“Hopefully, not too big.” Melissa patted her hips.
They hugged each other with their laughter filling the open atrium.
“Let me get you on your way. You don’t have much time. The executive team meeting will start in about forty-five minutes. And he’s particularly testy over his opening remarks.” Laila looked at her watch and then hurried back to the desk to answer the phone. She covered the mouthpiece and whispered, “I’ve got to take this. You know your way, right?”
Melissa gave her thumbs up. Of course, she knew her way. Three years on the job couldn’t be erased in a finger snap. Although in those days immediately after she’d left, her greatest wish was a clean memory sweep of New Dimensions Technologies. Supposedly, she had gotten over it and this would be a new chapter. At least that’s what Laila had spent many weeks convincing her to believe and not to give up. Melissa headed down the familiar hall that led to the executive wing. Laila’s final tough love sentiment was that she needed to grow the fuck up.
Like a good pupil, Melissa had done just that over the span of the last two years.
Older, a touch wiser with the help of a personal coach, and now operating a temporary employment agency, Melissa had worked hard to reinvent herself. Still, little threads of doubt crept in to dismantle her bravado. After all, this was one wild scheme that she and Laila had cooked up.
Her feet slowed and finally stopped in front of the chief operations officer’s domain. Behind the solid wood door was the man who invaded her nightly dreams, pried open the lock to her inhibitions and planted his pole of ownership between her legs. Daylight hours also didn’t banish his reach into the well of her desire. Thinking about him always brought on that small tickle deep in her belly, the odd weakness in her legs, the warm blush that took over her cheeks and spread down her neck. Desire had no expiration date. Inhaling a deep breath and blowing it out, she fisted her hand, and knocked.
“What is it, Laila?” The deep growl didn’t mask his irritation.
Her hand shook a little, as it hovered over the door knob. Walking away would be too easy. She’d come too far to let the jitters derail her plans.
Dismissing the pounding of her heart, she turned the knob and stepped into the office. Everything was in its place. Heavy dark furniture had a polished, dust-free gleam. Awards and other accolades decorated the bookshelves and the walls. Opened vertical blinds offered the view of the District of Columbia’s downtown skyline with the iconic Washington monument in the background.
“You can take the amended quarterly reports on the desk. Make about fifteen copies. Dammit! This tie is a royal pain in the ass.”
Melissa froze. To hear his voice again made her close her eyes and savor excitement in the moment. Against the rules, she’d fallen for this man—executive assistant and her boss. Every part of herself, her heart and soul, she’d opened to him. Love wasn’t enough. Or maybe it was too much.
With only a few feet separating them, she spied on him as he attempted to fix his tie in his private bathroom.
“Laila, did you get what I’m saying?”
Melissa swallowed and offered a weak grunt.
He turned, looking ready to launch another command, but pulled up. No doubt that she’d shocked the hell out of him. His mouth twitched, a clear sign that the brain and voice were misfiring.
“You!”
“Annyeonghaseyo.” Melissa bowed at the waist. Suddenly, this plan to seduce and conquer didn’t seem like such a good idea. She straightened upright and waited, staying as stoic as possible.
“What are you doing here?” Gone was any sign of his sexy, deep voice that he dropped on her, especially when they were going for an office quickie. “Where’s Laila?”
“I’m the temp working during the executive retreat.”
“Nonsense. I didn’t hire you.” He emerged from the bathroom, shirt panels flapping with the brisk movement of his arms. Clearly his march was for the phone on his desk. He reached for it.
“At the last minute, the assigned temp couldn’t make it. It’s Sunday. There wasn’t time to arrange for someone else. My ladies are highly competent, reputable, and are in high demand. And I’m perfectly suitable and capable of filling in. Won’t you agree?” Slight attitude with her chin and she welcomed the return of confidence.
“Your ladies?” His brow furrowed, eyes still fastened on the phone.
“My agency is retained by your company.”
“That, I didn’t know.” Ice formed around his words. The unfriendly tone came loaded with displeasure that if he’d known, it wouldn’t happen.
She shrugged, as if that fact wasn’t her problem.
He waved a dismissive hand at her. “Fine. I don’t have time to haggle over this…at the moment. You can get things set up in the conference room.” He continued fiddling with his tie as he spoke to her. The knot wasn’t going as planned. “Why are you still here?”
Melissa had walked away once. This time, she meant to stay.
“You never could do your tie.” She set down her pocketbook and approached.
“I’ll manage. Been doing fine for a while now.”
“Allow me?” She stepped closer into his space. Gently she lowered his hands. She dared not look into his eyes. Focus on the tie. But first his shirt was unbuttoned from the midsection down. Rippled abs could be seen through the undershirt. Impulse said to grab a fistful of the barrier and pull it free from his waist band. Below the abs, below the belly button, his thin line of hair was like a directional beacon to his sweet cock.
A flush slid over her body from head to toe. Warm tingles of excitement zapped through her limbs. The heat inspired desire to put her hand between her thighs and stroke her pussy into temporary submission. Maintaining control was like dangling off a ledge
with fingernails dug in for dear life.
“I don’t want you here.” His warm breath smoothed a path over her head.
“This is a job. Nothing more.”
“It better be nothing.” He held her wrist, stopping any further attempt to fix his tie. “For you or for me.” As if she had scorched his skin, he let go with his hand paused in midair, fingers splayed.
Melissa squinted with as much icy calm as she could muster. “Then we’re on the same playing field. Now let me fix the damn tie.” She buttoned the rest of his shirt, hoping the task worked off some of the nerves before dealing with the tie around the arrogant neck of the one man she wanted to hate.
Hating Lee Chang Sun was tough. The cold hearted executive still looked damned hot and unbelievably sexy in a graceful, sophisticated kind of way. The man was more likely to use cavalier disgust and razor sharp sarcasm as his weapons, rather than a savage uppercut to settle a dispute.
Up close, in the two-year absence, time hadn’t taken her cries of revenge to turn him into a wrinkled prune. Charles, as he liked to be called in his business dealings, was still an over six feet tall pretty boy, with smooth skin and chiseled angles for a complete picture of perfection.
The man could have stayed on the fashion runway and worked his height and exotic blend of Korean and Canadian ancestry to the max. Instead, he took a right turn at the beginning of his career and co-founded New Dimensions Technologies, building it from a two-man operation to a multi-national corporation. That was merely one accomplishment among many credited to his success as a businessman and attraction as soul mate material.
She finished up with the tie. Thankfully, neither of them wanted conversation.
Right now, on her mind, was that his throat was only a breath away. In tongue sweep proximity. Her nipples perked like proud beads aching for attention, craving his touch, his tongue, his dick to playfully beat a crazy rhythm.
As for her pussy, well it had its own recall of how well he fit and stretched her with powerful thrusts until she erupted like a volcano. If she didn’t take care to calm the hunger, she’d climax right here, right now.
Two years. 720 days. All that time since she had been properly fucked. Withdrawals from his signature pleasure took her a quick minute to get over. Perfect time for her to go on and dedicate learning how to give and receive pleasure. Once a sex fiend, always a sex fiend. The erotic pastime and starting her new business helped dull the ache of losing Chang. That is, until she ran into Laila, the office manager, who didn’t let her slip back into acting like a drone. Instead, her mentor and friend hatched a strategy for a hostile takeover. Together they had a plan that had many elements to go wrong, but that also offered the second chance to right things. Melissa couldn’t resist the possibility.
“Now you’re all set.” Melissa stepped back to admire her knotting skills. Hopefully she would have the opportunity to test more than knotting skills on Chang.
“Thanks.” He turned to examine her work in the mirror.
She didn’t budge.
“What?”
Obviously he had no clue that she found his brooding expression sexy as hell. “You’re uptight, Chang.” She preferred calling him by his Korean name.
“That’s not your concern. Get the conference ready with the materials.”
“Used to be my concern.” She dropped her hands from a quick adjustment to his tie, deliberately brushing against his cock as a reminder that all of him was once hers.
“Like I said, it’s not yours…”
A punch to the gut couldn’t have hurt as much. Was he telling her that he’d moved on? She looked into his eyes, a stormy mixture of grey and caramel. Could he truly have had no lingering regrets? No sleepless nights? No pang for the warm sheath of her slick pussy on his shaft?
Melissa bit her bottom lip to keep from moaning her hurt.
“You can leave.”
Yeah, she could walk out and go play secretary. In a few minutes, she’d do what he hired her to do. Right now, in this very second, she needed to know.
She pushed him down on the edge of his desk. Keeping her hand planted on his midsection, she retrieved a condom from her pocket and knelt in front of him.
“What do you think you’re doing?” He grabbed the back of her head.
“Finding out if it’s still mine.” She pulled down his zipper and freed his “killer” dick. No matter who he’d been with, she was one hundred percent sure that his cock hadn’t performed the same in any woman’s mouth, pussy, or ass, as it had done with hers.
Melissa’s mouth watered. An instrument as fine as its owner, thick and hard, poised for action. She licked her lips, before looking up at him. “May I?”
“Nae.” He nodded. Eyes hooded. Nostrils flared. “It’s been a long time.”
Chapter Two
7:42 a.m.
Chang felt locked in the tracking beam of Melissa’s gaze. His balls tightened in anticipation of her mouth. Sheer stubbornness tamped down any softening of his heart. She’d left without an explanation. She’d refused his calls. Now she popped back in his world, fixing his tie, down on her knees, ready to suck him dry.
“I will alleviate your stress.”
“Won’t make a bit of difference.” God, how he lied.
“It used to work before.”
His mouth tightened…before he begged.
Quietly he watched Melissa undo the single strand of pearls from around her neck. Still she kept her eyes on him. Her hand slipped on the condom and closed around his shaft. As if winding garland around a tree, she wound her necklace around his cock. And let the end of the necklace fall against the tip of the sensitive head.
Oh man, his dick twitched as if electric shockwaves shot through. The pit of his stomach seized in a tight grip. Even his ass cheeks clenched from the erotic fire alarm ringing through the lower half of his body. Anticipation turned every muscle rigid. In slow agonizing motion, her mouth descended like a ship closing in on its dock.
He growled like he was a damned wolf. Fuck. Where was his will power?
Her tongue snaked out and flicked the tip, also flipping the pearls to beat against his helmet. The tip of cock sang its own melody. Again and again. His toes curled in his custom fitted shoes.
“Aaaah.” The sound caught in his throat.
As if the flutter licks weren’t enough, she used that damned tongue to trace from the length to the helmeted peak. Art appreciation wasn’t his thing. But watching her roll the pearls around his cock was worthy of admiration.
If she didn’t stop, he was bound to get excited with a hip thrust. Hard, smooth pearls. Warm, wet tongue. A cruel and inhumane combo. A vacuum suction that inhaled him into knee-buckling weakness. His fingers curled around the edge of the desk when she released her hold on him.
“Chang,” she called softly. Her breath warmed the spot that ached for the return of her mouth.
“Nae.”
“Did you miss me?”
He looked at her face. Still beautiful. Hot. Sensuous. But there was a difference. Gone was the innocent young woman, the confidence that would peak and quickly evaporate. The eagerness to please. Deep in that bold stare with her soft green eyes, gentle slope of her nose, punctuated by full lips that shimmered with color, his student had blossomed. Now she boldly asked him such a question, with more of a challenge.
“What does it matter? You won’t be here after today.”
As if a shade had been drawn, she lowered her gaze and swallowed him to the hilt.
He sucked in his breath. Hard and fast. And blew it out in a long hiss like a deflating tire.
The certified vacuum seal had reattached. Her tongue curled around his shaft, and she worked the sucking with a harsh abandon, dragging and wrapping the pearls against his skin.
His cock responded like a fine-tuned engine smoothly pumping, throbbing, grinding.
His hands continued to grip the edge of the desk. Nails dug hard into the wood. Shit. His toes spastically cu
rled. Any moment…explosion imminent.
One hand shot out cupping the back of her head. His fingers intertwined through the black curtain of silken tresses. Surrender wasn’t supposed to be his reality. He tried to back-pedal, head for safer shores.
Instead, her hands grabbed either side of his ass and put a lock on his contorted retreat.
“Melissa…” He hissed her name into three long syllables made up of his breath gushing at each pull on his cock. “I can’t…” The words drowned in the pit that he swore he’d fallen into and couldn’t find the bottom.
Her moans echoed his on a softer plane. Harmony, in an erotic melody of highs and lows, that added its soundtrack to every explosive climactic burst until the end when his throat felt raw and overworked.
Blood rushed through his ears. It took a few seconds for his senses to slow down and return to normal. Now that he was done squeezing his eyes shut, he gazed down on her.
Her face glowed like a sexy, earthy angel. Once upon a time, he’d considered her his perfect mate. He had mixed heritage and so did she with her father from Benin and an Irish mother. Boarding school. Moving around. No place feeling quite like home. Only a handful of friends to claim. They shared so much that he knew that they belonged to each other.
Her small smile teased him. Prying his heart open. The endearing shyness had been replaced with conniving seductress. Now that his pulse had drifted back to normal, he could think again.
He unwound the pearl necklace and dropped it in her waiting palm. No way would he let himself be swayed and bent to her will.
“Thanks.” She took his offered hand and stood.
With a quick sidestep around her, he tucked in his cock and zipped his pants closed and headed to the bathroom to clean up. Time to keep his emotions on lock down. By the time he reemerged, his outward calm slid back in place.
Executive Assistant Page 4