In My Office, Now.

by June, Victoria

  "So you're going to let it end like this? A coward's death is what this is. You told me last night you admired me because I fight for what I want. I wanted this: you and me. I wanted it and I was prepared to do anything for it. It was never about the job, about getting ahead. It was about how you made me feel. Everything was clearer when we were together, things just made sense. I know you felt the same, despite your damn need to keep everything inside.

  "You think I haven't learned a thing or two about you since we've slept together? I'm not your ex-wives, Ethan, or any of the other women you've been with. I was never going to use you, to bail on you when things got hard, to leave you for someone I wrongly perceived as better."

  Ethan's blue-grey eyes flickered down to meet mine and just for a second I saw a little glimmer of hurt there that stole the breath from my lungs, but the cold, icy glare was back before I could be sure of what I had seen. Ethan straightened his back and stood a little taller, towering over me by almost a foot, treating me once more to the look which I'd forever remember as "the Dragon."

  And then he turned and made for the door. I stood in stunned disbelief for a millisecond and then bolted after him as quickly as I could and threw myself at the door just as he was about to open it.

  "Never walk away from me," I snarled lowly, feeling the anger boil over into something more. It didn't matter that Ethan outweighed me by a hundred pounds and that he could throw me aside without so much as breaking a sweat; there was no way I was going to let him do that.

  Ethan arched his dark eyebrow in the all-too familiar gesture which made my heart ache underneath my anger.

  "It is not ending like this," I said, my voice wobbling with fury. "I will not let it end like this. It's the goddamn twenty-first century and what Maddock thinks about us sleeping together doesn't matter in the least to me. What we do together after hours is none of his freakin' business and I'm not about to let some crusty old man make my decisions for me. Being with you doesn't hurt what I do as an architect; hell, it makes me better. I make you better too, Ethan, and you know it.

  "Shit, this morning Maddock was praising you to the rafters and saying he wanted to make you partner, and now he's going to take it all away just because the truth has come out? I don't believe it. I fight for what I want; why the hell won't you?"

  "What did you just say?" Ethan hissed. He grabbed my wrist and backed me against the door, pinning me in place with the broad weight of his body.

  "Fight for what you want, Ethan. If you want me, truly want me, then you have to fight for it."

  Ethan waved his free hand dismissively. "Not that, the other thing, before that. What did you say?"

  My mind blanked for a moment; Ethan's expression was so fierce that I was a little scared beneath my bravado. The difference between us was clear: my anger was only on the surface, masking my stubbornness ; Ethan's ran much, much deeper and hid much, much more.

  When I realized what I'd said I gasped aloud, and the noise confirmed what Ethan thought he'd heard.

  "What did Maddock say, Emma?" His grip tightened cruelly on my wrist. "Tell me what he fucking said."

  I repeated the contents of my discussion with Maddock earlier, about how he was looking to retire soon and wanted to leave the firm in good hands. How Maddock had asked me of my opinion of Ethan and I'd given it freely. About how hard he'd worked for Maddock for twenty-odd years and how much he deserved the promotion. I made no mention of Maddock's promises for my own career.

  "This job is everything to you, Ethan; I know that, I've always known that. And Maddock knows it too." It was hard to breathe with Ethan pressed so solidly against me, but I'd opened my big mouth already and wasn't going to let the opportunity to speak my mind pass me by.

  "Stand up for yourself and he'll back down. He doesn't really want you to throw your career away. He respects you too much, knows how much of his success he owes to you. You are Maddock Architects. As for what's between us, I know you'll never be happy until you have this firm, so if you feel I get in the way of that, then at least have the balls to admit it to me instead of walking away."

  Ethan looked down at me with an inscrutable expression, which I resented but would not back down from. We were both breathing hard and fast and the room was so warm it made my head spin. I felt flayed raw; ripped open by the intensity of every emotion I was capable of feeling, and it only felt worse for Ethan's lack of emotion. How could two people be so opposite to one another and survive?

  I didn't know what to say so I just watched Ethan, memorizing every line of his remarkable face, every fleck of silver in his blue-grey eyes. My anger slowly dissipated and left behind a hollow, aching hurt which made me want to reach out and smooth the dark hair from Ethan's forehead before curling into the warmth of his body and sobbing out my frustration and fear.

  But tears wouldn't get a reaction from the Dragon and I knew it, so I kept them back and did instead the one thing I knew might reach him: I kissed him.

  For a moment Ethan's mouth was motionless against my own, and my heart all but stopped from the fear that I had lost him forever, that I'd become nothing more than a sacrifice to his ambition. When Ethan did respond however, it was with a ferocity which made me cry aloud. He swallowed my whimper with greed and kissed me hard until we were both clutching frantically at the other, the battleground between us condensed into the heat of our mouths and the insistent thrust of our tongues.

  This is what we are together, I thought as Ethan plundered and I moaned. His arms were rock solid as I hung on to him, dizzy with the desire only he could evoke in me. Maddock can't stop this; Lawrence Mallory can't stop it; hell, even Ethan's stubborn, emotionless facade can't stop it. I'd tried resisting the pull between Ethan and me in the beginning and lost, and now that I was lost in it I wasn't going to let it go, and if the only way to make Ethan realize the same was by using my body, then I was prepared to do so.

  With a low-pitched moan that bordered on a growl, Ethan's hands spanned my waist and lifted me up, grinding his hips into my own. He grabbed my leg and lifted it out, his agile fingers finding their way under my skirt to grasp at my ass. Unbalanced, I wrapped my legs around his waist, gasping as Ethan's erection ground into the heat of my pussy. Even through the layers of our clothing I could feel how hard he was.

  I knew in an instant he was going to fuck me then and there, in his office, the one place where we'd always avoided acting on the physical side of our attraction. And I knew as well that it would be amazing, the best we'd ever had. My heart beat so frantically it hurt and I could feel my need pooling wetly between my legs.

  Ethan's mouth travelled down to find the sensitive place where my neck met my shoulder; the shadow of his stubble scratched my skin and made me purr. I couldn't stop gasping, couldn't get enough air in my lungs, yet somehow I didn't care. Ethan's slim fingers crept under the fabric of my panties and met hot, wet flesh; the two of us moaned in unison. I wanted him so badly I could practically taste it.

  The knock on the door was right beside my ear and so loud I jumped in Ethan's arms. Swearing lowly, Ethan released his hold on me, easing me down until my feet touched the floor. We stepped away from each other and Ethan watched wordlessly as I smoothed my skirt back down before he wrenched open the door.

  Maddock stood in the hallway, the look on his usually kindly face was dark. He glanced past Ethan to where I stood. "Jesus, Anderson," he said loudly, his grandfatherly face painted with disgust. "You can't keep your hands off the girl for ten minutes?"

  Over the railing of the mezzanine, I could see heads at the desks on the ground floor pop up, every pair of eyes in the building watched us with undisguised curiosity.

  Ethan stood glaring at Maddock and for a split second I could see the hesitation on his handsome face. Maddock was his boss, his mentor, the man who'd held Ethan's career in his hands for twenty years, who'd long ago shaped a young, talented man into one of the city's best architects. If there was one person
in the world who Ethan liked and respected it was Robert Maddock. My stomach sank.

  "I don't want to keep my hands off 'the girl,' " Ethan snarled, his response a surprise to both myself and Maddock, whose shocked expression must have mirrored my own. "I happen to quite like 'the girl'; and she has a name, Maddock, I suggest you use it. Yesterday you didn't have enough good things to say about Emma. Nothing has changed."

  Maddock stood open-mouthed and silent as Ethan strode to the mezzanine balcony to address the room below.

  "Does anyone else have a problem?" he yelled sharply. The silence was profound. Not a single person dared to breathe. "No? Good." Ethan breezed past Maddock again and re-entered his office to stand beside me. He took both my hands and managed a small, crooked grin. "I'm sorry, Emma, if anything that's been said today, by anyone," he paused to shoot a dark glance in Maddock's direction, "has hurt you. You were right: my relationship with you doesn't interfere with what I do here. If anything, it challenges me to be better."

  Ethan reached up to brush a wayward curl out of my eyes. I held my breath. "I don't want to be partner in this firm if I can't work with you," Ethan confessed huskily. I only half-heard Maddock's gasp of disbelief because Ethan had already leaned down to kiss me. He curled one strong hand around my waist and drew me in to press against the solid length of his body, and with the other hand he reached out and shut the office door in Maddock's face.

  Chapter Eight

  When our kiss ended I stood and stared at Ethan in open-mouthed disbelief. "What did you just do?" I gasped. Out in the hall I could hear Maddock swear loudly and storm away, slamming his office door.

  "I've been wanting to do that for a long time," Ethan said dryly. He looked stern, but there was the tiny hint of a smile playing about his lips. "I've hated that man for twenty years."

  My mind couldn't seem to grasp what had just happened. It didn't seem possible that less than twelve hours had passed since I'd left Ethan's apartment that morning; the meeting at City Hall, the ensuing altercation with Lawrence Mallory, having everyone know the truth about Ethan and me, it was all too much to take in. And now Ethan had effectively slammed the door in the face of his career and unknowingly my own as well. Maddock might seem like a nice, old man, but he was as hard as nails underneath the Santa Claus exterior.

  "Do you think he'll fire you?" I asked, afraid to hear the answer.

  Ethan shrugged with his typical, effortless nonchalance. "Don't care really. I'm quitting."

  "Quitting?" I blurted out. "Quitting? But if you go…" I stopped, unsure of what to say. Sometimes it felt as if working at Maddock Architects was the only real tie I had to Ethan apart from our chemistry in bed. If that ceased to be, where did that leave us?

  "Are you doing anything this afternoon? Any client meetings?" Ethan asked in an offhanded manner which added to my confusion. I shook my head. He still held me in his arms but his voice sounded far away. I felt numb. I was still trying to imagine what the office would be like without Ethan. It was a painful thought.

  "Good. I want to show you something."

  I just stared at him in stunned silence. The entire day had been too much to process, making me feel slow and stupid.

  Ethan released his hold on me with a gentle squeeze and a quick kiss on my forehead before he crossed to the desk and picked up the phone. It wasn't long after he dialed that he began to speak.

  "Karen? Ethan. I'm going to sign. Can you meet me at four? I'd like to see it one more time before we do the paperwork. Yeah? I'll see you soon. Thanks." He hung up and began gathering papers off his desk, completely ignoring my small squeak of protest.

  "What the hell is going on, Ethan?" I asked once I'd regained the ability to speak.

  He scooped up my purse and jacket, thrusting them at me with a crooked grin. "You drive," he drawled, chuckling all the harder at the shocked look on my face. Mystified, I just stared at him.

  "Where are we going?" I asked, frustration and confusion dripping from every syllable.

  Ethan's answering smile was enigmatic. "Forward."

  ********

  Everybody watched the two of us make our way through the office and out the door. No one said a word. Even the phones seemed to stop ringing. I looked as many people in the eye as I could and saw a myriad of expressions reflected back. A few of the older architects looked bemused, while the younger guys seemed either in awe of Ethan or angry with him. Every one of the female staff was grinning broadly. I smiled back at them even though I was still terribly confused about what had just happened and where we were going, but my pride had kicked in and I wasn't about to show weakness in front of the others.

  I knew better than to expect Ethan to open up to me, so once we were road I followed Ethan's directions without question, turning left when he said "turn left," right when he indicated right, merging in all the appropriate places, blindly trusting Ethan to direct me to the unknown. No amount of arguing in the world would get the Dragon to talk if he didn't want to talk.

  We eventually ended up in a part of the city which was unfamiliar to me and the narrow streets demanded my attention as I drove. Occasionally I chanced a glance at Ethan. His handsome face was stoic in profile and he looked neither angry over the day's events nor excited to be free of Maddock.

  "It's on the right-hand side, Emma. The next block up," Ethan interrupted my thoughts with a small smile that revealed nothing of what was happening in his brain.

  I pulled up to the curb where Ethan specified and he was out of the Jeep before I could even put it in park. With a heavy sigh I turned the key and quieted my grumbling vehicle before I joined him on the sidewalk.

  It would have been hard to miss the large "For Sale" sign in front of the red brick fire station and I was so distracted by gawking at the building's textbook classic revival detailing topped with a wonderful clock tower, that I almost missed what had caught Ethan's attention.

  Tall, slender, blonde, and beautiful, and she was hugging Ethan in a way that made me grit my teeth until they hurt.

  "Danny," she cooed as he embraced her and kissed her cheek. "I swear you get better-looking every time I see you."

  "Karen," Ethan replied in a smooth tone of voice I'd never heard before. "Thanks for doing this last minute."

  The blonde shrugged. "For you, Honey, anything." She clutched familiarly at his arm. "Have you been working out?"

  He chuckled and made no move to shake off her grip. "Karen," Ethan said, turning his gaze from her perfectly made-up face to my own. "I'd like you to meet Emma."

  I took a few steps closer to the pair and tried to smile bravely.

  "Emma, this is Karen." Ethan's smile was bright and had the crooked, sexy edge he typically reserved for me. "She's my…" he trailed off, sounding unsure.

  "Wife," Karen supplied with an equally bright smile. "Ex-wife," she amended with a giggle which didn't quite fit her highly polished image. "Danny was my first husband. You know what they say," she leaned conspiratorially towards me. "The first time for love, the second time for money! And the third time… well!"

  I was speechless. Up close Karen was even more perfect; there wasn't a flaw on her face or a hair out of place. I figured if she was Ethan's first wife she had to be at least 40, but she certainly didn't look it.

  "You know, Danny," Karen laughed, studying me as carefully as I was studying her. "I swear your girlfriends get younger every year. You must be old enough to be her father!"

  Ethan actually had the audacity to laugh, but secretly I was happy to note he didn't dignify Karen's flirtatious teasing with an answer. Typical Dragon: never feeling he needed to explain himself to anyone.

  Karen brushed off Ethan's non-response with a casual wave and produced a set of keys from the pocket of her fitted designer blazer. "I know it's been a while, care to have another look, Danny love?"

  Ethan's large hand swallowed the keys and his face broke into a boyish grin. He looked like a kid who'd just bee
n given the key to a candy store.

  "You two go ahead," Karen prompted, suddenly sounding professional. I realized with a jolt that it was her name on the 'For Sale' sign; not only was she Ethan's ex-wife, she was apparently his real estate agent too.

  "Come on," Ethan said in a warm, low voice. He took my hand. "You're going to love this."

  I only half-heard Ethan's dissertation on the classic revival architecture of the fire hall's exterior; my usual enthusiasm for dormer windows and original decorative dentils was dimmed by the sight of Karen's mini-skirt-clad ass as she dug about in the back of her car for paperwork. To his credit, Ethan didn't appear to notice.

  It wasn't difficult to picture the two of them as a couple. Both were tall, fit, and ridiculously good looking; they looked like a married couple in a television commercial. It was obvious as well that they had a comfortable rapport with one another that could easily bloom into some serious chemistry. I wondered how long they had stayed married. I wondered who had left whom.