by Lynn LaFleur
Weak and sated, Keefe stretched out on top of Marci, resting his weight on his elbows so she could breathe. He kissed her once, twice. “Am I too heavy?”
She shook her head. Her hands drifted up and down his back and over his buttocks. “No.”
“Do you want me to move?”
An impish grin turned up her lips. “Depends on how you plan to move.”
“You had two orgasms and you want more?”
“Orgasms are like shoes. A woman can never have too many of either.”
Keefe laughed, then rolled to his back, taking Marci with him. “I take that to mean you have a lot of shoes.”
“I do. But I wouldn’t mind having more.” She pushed herself to a sitting position. “It’s the same with orgasms. I wouldn’t mind having more.”
She gave a little wiggle with her hips and grinned again. Gripping her waist, Keefe lifted his pelvis to be sure his softening cock stayed inside her. “I’ll do my best to give you more.”
“That works two ways, you know.”
“It does?”
She nodded her head. “I like it when you come too.”
It surprised Keefe that his shaft began to harden. That wasn’t supposed to happen yet, not until he had more time to recuperate.
She must have felt his reaction, for her grin widened and she wiggled her hips again. “Something’s happening.”
“It certainly is.”
“Goody.”
Keefe didn’t know whether to laugh or groan. She affected him like no other woman ever had, not only physically but emotionally too. Getting involved with another woman so soon after his breakup with Jeania wasn’t in his plans, yet he had no doubt he was falling in love with Marci. And falling fast.
She shifted, lifting her hips a few inches and lowering them. Her warm, wet channel cushioned his rod. He thrust up and was rewarded with her soft moan.
“That’s nice.” Marci pulled his hands from her waist and interlocked their fingers. She raised her hips again, lowered them, raised them. He gripped her hands and met every movement. His cock became harder with each thrust.
Sweat beaded on his forehead, his chest. Marci picked up the rhythm, taking him deeper and faster. His jaw clenched, his pulse pounded in his neck. She forgot about her own pleasure, wanting only to have him come again.
“Damn, I love fucking you.” He moved faster, pistoning his shaft into her channel. “I’m gonna come, babe. Right…now!”
He closed his eyes and arched his hips. Marci watched the pain-like pleasure flash over his face. His body jerked beneath hers, and he released a long, low growl.
The buildup in her body fizzled, but Marci didn’t mind. This time had been to please Keefe.
He slowly opened his eyes and looked at her. “I think you’re trying to kill me.”
“No way. I’m not through with you yet.”
“That’s good, ‘cause I’m nowhere near finished with you.”
He tugged on her hands until she lay on top of him. He gripped one buttock, held her head with the other hand while he kissed her.
“You’re amazing,” he whispered against her mouth.
She would’ve told him the same thing, but he kissed her again. And again. He kneaded her buttock, ran one finger down the crease to her anus. He circled the sensitive area with his fingertip, over and over.
Marci’s breath hitched when he pushed his finger into her ass. She lifted her hips, driving his finger farther inside her.
“You like this?” he asked, pumping his finger in and out of her body.
“Yes.”
He shifted their positions so she lay on her back with him leaning over her. Cradling her breast, he gently kneaded it as he kissed her again. He journeyed down her body, stopping long enough to suckle each nipple until Marci was on the verge of coming again. She moaned in protest when he moved away from her breasts.
She didn’t protest when he darted his tongue into her channel. He slipped his hands beneath her buttocks, lifted her pussy to his mouth and feasted. Marci grabbed handfuls of the bedspread beneath her. Her clit, her labia, her anus…they all received the expert attention of Keefe’s tongue.
Her orgasm didn’t build slowly this time, but rushed through her body like a wildfire on a windy day. Marci held Keefe’s head and bucked against his mouth. He kept licking her folds, bringing her back down from her peak.
She hadn’t remembered how to breathe again when Keefe turned her to her stomach. Holding her hips, he lifted her to her knees and plunged inside her.
Marci gasped. “Oh God!”
He gripped her tighter and began to pump. After a moment, he crawled over the top of her, his chest pressed to her back, his hands cupping her breasts. Marci couldn’t move, but she didn’t care. She clutched the pillow and accepted his hard thrusts, the firm tugs on her nipples.
She felt him tense around her mere seconds before her climax zipped through her body. Her legs gave out and she collapsed on the bed. Keefe followed her down, his body warm and damp against hers.
“My legs are dead.” He kissed her nape, her shoulder. “And everything else.”
“I know what you mean.”
“I told you I’m not eighteen anymore.”
“Could’ve fooled me.” She pushed her hair out of her face. “I desperately need a drink.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Groaning loudly, Keefe pulled out of her body. The combination of his juices and hers trickled from her channel. He gathered the juices on his fingers and spread them over her pussy. She flinched when he grazed her sensitive clit.
“Did I hurt you?”
“I’m a little tender.”
“Yeah, me too. I guess round four is out tonight.”
Marci rolled to her back and pointedly looked at his soft cock. “Round four? With what?”
He grinned. “Hey, a guy can dream.” He kissed her softly. “I’ll get your water.”
She sat up and leaned against the headboard. She enjoyed watching him, working with him, talking with him. Everything he did gave her pleasure, even something as simple as preparing two glasses of iced water.
Her relationship with Keefe had gone way beyond employer and employee. And she had no idea what to do.
“Here.” He handed one glass of water to her, then sat beside her. “Damn, woman, my legs are still weak.”
“Mine too.”
“Between the plane ride, the hiking, the food and the sex, I won’t have any trouble sleeping tonight.” He drained his glass and set it on the nightstand. When he looked back at her, Marci could see tenderness in his eyes. “The sex was amazing.”
“Yes, it was.”
He picked up a tendril of her hair that lay over her breast and twined it around his finger. “I didn’t want a one-time thing with you, Marci. This meant a lot to me.”
It meant a lot to her too, but she couldn’t say that. She shouldn’t have surrendered to her feelings, no matter how much she’d wanted him. “Keefe—“
“What did the bastard do to you that hurt you so badly?”
Her body went from relaxed to tense in a moment. She hadn’t expected him to bring up Ben. “I don’t want to talk about him.”
“Don’t you think you should?” He touched her chin, ran his thumb over her lower lip. “I don’t want a man from your past coming between us. Tell me about him. Please.”
Chapter Thirteen
He thought at first she would refuse to talk to him. She stared down into her glass, her lips pressed together. Keefe waited, not wanting to push her but knowing they couldn’t go any further in their relationship unless she was honest with him.
She set her glass on the nightstand, then drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She didn’t look at him. That was fine with Keefe. Sometimes it was easier to talk without looking at someone.
“His name is Ben Windsor. He worked in Legal under Harold. He was intelligent, charismatic, handsome. I doubt if there was a woman at
Marshall Media who didn’t lust after him.”
“Including you?”
She nodded. “He’d worked for the company about three months when I went to Harold’s office to speak with him about contract negotiations on a project. Harold wasn’t in, but Ben was. He asked me out for a drink. I refused since I didn’t believe in dating an employee. He said it wasn’t a date, only a drink. When I still refused, he told me where he’d be that evening in case I decided to drop by.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.” She pushed her hair behind her ears. “We had a great time. He made me laugh.” Finally, she turned her head toward him. “That’s something I like so much about you, your sense of humor. I like when a man makes me smile.”
Keefe didn’t comment. He didn’t want to say anything that might cause Marci to stop talking.
“That was on a Friday night. He called me at home Saturday and invited me out to dinner. I accepted. Two weeks later, we became lovers.”
She lowered her head and fell silent. Keefe waited for her to speak again. When she didn’t, he cupped her chin and turned her face toward his. “What happened?”
He saw her throat work as she swallowed. “It was great. Ben was a really good lover. A little…dominant, but I didn’t think anything of that. I mean, his holding my hands down when we made love was kind of…exciting.”
Keefe sensed there was more to this “dominant” thing, but didn’t ask. Marci needed to tell him at her own pace.
“It progressed from there. First he held me down, then he tied my hands. Then it was my hands and feet. He added blindfolds and dildos and…” She closed her eyes. “Paddles.”
She said everything with such disgust. He couldn’t imagine his strong-willed Marci letting a man do things to her she didn’t want. “You didn’t like that?”
“I did.” She opened her eyes again. Tears swam in them. “I liked everything he did.” Propping her elbows on her knees, she dug her heels into her eyes. “I kept going back for more. Whatever he wanted, I did it.”
“Hey.” He pulled her hands away from her eyes. “There’s nothing wrong about whatever a man and woman do together sexually, as long as both partners agree to it.” He rubbed his thumbs over the back of her hands. “I’ve played around with bondage. It can be very hot when your partner is as turned-on as you are.”
“We never did the heavy BDSM stuff, like whips and collars. I couldn’t do that.”
“Did he want to?”
Marci nodded.
“Sounds like he was really into the dominant thing.”
“He was, but I didn’t suspect that until we’d been involved for several weeks. He got a bit…rough one night and insisted I call him Master. That’s when I knew he’d gone too far.”
Keefe narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean by ‘a bit rough’?”
“He…pushed me against the wall and…slapped me.”
Rage boiled up inside Keefe. If the bastard was here right now, Keefe would have no problem giving the man a taste of what he’d given Marci. “A true Dom takes care of his sub. He doesn’t hurt her. It’s all about her pleasure.”
“I know. I mean, I have a friend who’s in that lifestyle and that’s what she told me.” She looked at their clasped hands a moment, then back at Keefe’s face. “I broke up with him that night. He told me I belonged to him and couldn’t leave until he gave me permission. That’s when I kicked him in the balls and ran out of his house.”
Keefe snorted with laughter. “Good girl.”
“I’d thought about firing Ben before we got together because I wasn’t completely happy with his work ethics. In fact, Harold had given him a mediocre evaluation only a month before all this happened. I spoke to Harold about firing Ben. He said I had every legal right to do so, and he had the paperwork to back me up. I went to Ben’s cubicle with two security guards behind me and told him he had fifteen minutes to clean out his desk. I slapped an envelope on his desk that held a check with one month’s pay and told him to get out.”
“Which didn’t make him happy.”
“He made it a point to yell out as he was leaving about how I liked being tied up during sex, and how I loved having a plug in my ass while I was getting fucked.”
“That son of a bitch.” He brought her hands to his lips and kissed each one. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”
“I was mortified. I had to stand there while he said those horrible things and feel my employees looking at me. It was only on one floor since he was quickly hustled into the elevator, but I know it spread all over the building. People would be talking and stop as soon as I came up to them. Men would give me that nudge-nudge-wink-wink look. It was horrible.”
“Surely the talk didn’t last very long.”
“No, it stopped after a few days. At least, I didn’t hear anything else or get those looks. I don’t know what happened behind my back.” She shifted to her knees and clasped his hands. “I broke my rule about getting involved with an employee and I became a joke.”
“I’m not Ben Windsor, Marci. I would never hurt you like that.”
“I can’t take the chance of losing my employees’ respect.” She turned his hands so their palms touched. “I can’t be their boss if they’re snickering at me.”
“It wouldn’t be that way with us.” Keefe released one of her hands and cradled her cheek. “I don’t want to give you up.”
“I don’t want to give you up either.”
“So what do we do?”
“We can be together this weekend. We’re away from the office and everyone who knows us. We don’t have to hide from anyone.”
“Are you saying we do have to hide once we get back to Seattle?”
She bit her bottom lip. That simple gesture told him more than any words. “Marci, I don’t—“
Her kiss stopped him. “Let’s enjoy our time together, okay? I don’t want to think about anything but talking to Tyler Wilson tomorrow, then spending the rest of the weekend with you.”
Keefe didn’t want to argue with her. Once they got back to Seattle, they’d have a long talk about where their relationship was going. For the weekend, he’d do what she wanted. He nodded. “Okay.”
*
Marci hung up the telephone and sighed. It had been a very busy Friday with call after call. She would be so glad when this day was over and she could escape with Keefe.
For the last two weeks, ever since she and Keefe returned from their successful trip to British Columbia, she’d been in heaven. She saw Keefe during the day at work. Keeping up a professional image around him wasn’t easy when she wanted to drag him to the loveseat in her office every time she saw him. Sometimes, when no one was looking, he’d wink at her and give her a sexy smile. Her knees grew weak every time.
The evenings belonged to them. She’d arrange it so they never left Marshall Media at the same time. She’d go to his house after work, or he to hers. They’d talk, cook dinner together and make love.
He wouldn’t tell her what he had planned for this weekend, only that she’d love it. He’d taken her to the ocean last weekend. They’d made love to the sound of the waves breaking on the beach. She didn’t know how he could top that.
The snick of her door closing drew her attention. She looked up to see Keefe walking toward her desk, his expression serious.
A ball of fear formed in her stomach. Something had to be wrong for him to close them in her office. “Why did you shut the door?”
“Because I don’t want us to be disturbed.”
Marci looked at the closed door. It wasn’t unusual for her to have private meetings with her vice presidents, or any number of her employees. She’d meant it when she told everyone she’d see them at any time. She’d avoided meeting alone with Keefe because she didn’t want to make anyone suspicious.
“Come out from behind the desk, Marci.”
She’d never heard Keefe speak in that serious tone. The ball of fear in her stomach grew. She rose on legs that weren�
��t quite steady and rounded her desk to stand in front of him. “Can’t we talk later? It’s almost four. We’ll be leaving in an hour.”
“I don’t want to wait. I’ll get distracted when I see you in your sexy underwear and my brain will drop between my legs.”
She would’ve laughed if she’d detected any humor in his comment. The fact that he remained serious scared her. “You said you like my sexy lingerie.”
“I do. I love it. I love seeing you in it and I love taking it off you. That’s the problem. I can show you how I feel about you when we’re alone, but not here at the office.”
She was afraid this would happen. She’d hoped it wouldn’t be this soon. “I thought you understood why we have to keep our relationship a secret.”
“I thought I did too, but I don’t like it. I don’t like hiding the fact that we’re lovers. I don’t mean I want to take you on top of your conference table where anyone can see us, but touching you when we pass, or kissing you… I’d like to be free to do that.” He took a step closer to her. “I’m turning in my resignation.”
If he’d said a fifty-foot dragon had been spotted in downtown Seattle, she wouldn’t have been more surprised. “What?”
“We can be together without breaking your rule if I’m not your employee.”
“Keefe, no. I don’t want you to give up your job.”
“I don’t see where I have another choice. I love you, Marci. I don’t want to hide that anymore.”
It was the first time he’d told her he loved her. His sweet words melted her heart. She couldn’t resist touching his cheek, caressing his jaw.
Before she could comment, her door swung open. Marci was shocked to see Anne Marshall sweep into the office. She quickly jerked her hand away from Keefe’s face.
“Hello, Marci.” Anne walked up to Marci and hugged her. “I’m sorry for dropping in unannounced.”
“No, that’s fine.” She glanced at Keefe, then back at her boss. “Anne, this is Keefe Donegan, your new Logistics Vice President. Keefe, Anne Marshall, the owner of Marshall Media.”
“It’s an honor, Mrs. Marshall.”