Chapter 2
“Jessa!” I sifted through the mess of folders on my desk and prayed for patience. I had an intercom but yelling released some of the stress. Hopefully, it would keep me from a rash reaction like firing her. “I need the paperwork for my next appointment.” I couldn’t find it in the pile, so I shoved everything to the opposite end of my large, corner desk. Another task I’d have to ask her to re-do. Everything was running at a snail’s pace since I hired Jessa, but she was a sweet kid and I could tell she was trying.
I didn’t normally have a softer side. In fact, I was known for being rigid and uncompromising, pretty much a total asshole. But, I had my moments and one of them was when my assistant, Margaret, an extremely efficient and sarcastically funny woman in her sixties, had announced she was retiring. She’d asked me to hire her eighteen-year-old granddaughter because she was too sheltered and needed to get some experience in the real world. Margaret said she would stay on and help her out until she got the hang of things, so I agreed. Then Margaret’s appendix had burst, and she was currently in the hospital. Leaving me with no one but the teenager with her head in the clouds.
In the rarest of occurrences, I happened to have one of those moments the night before as well.
Calista.
Something about that woman inspired some softness, although parts of me were certainly rigid. I had a completely foreign desire to possess another person. I wanted to throw her over my shoulder, take her home, and tie her to my fucking bed so I didn’t have to share her with anyone else. With her long, inky black hair, high cheekbones and full lips she had a face Hollywood would love. She was tall, which I appreciated because even though I was still quite a few inches taller, I didn’t have to bend in fucking half to kiss her. Her body was lean and toned, with endless legs that had shown off her strength when they clenched around me as I fucked her tight, little pussy. Last night had been the greatest fucking sex I’d ever had in my life.
Shit. I had an interview in less than twenty minutes, and I was hard as a fucking rock. I’d probably scare the fuck out of Jessa if she saw me at that moment. I tried to think of something other than how it had felt to be inside Calista.
Baseball stats. Weston. Rhys. Thank fuck thinking about my best friends was working, and I was starting to soften. But damn it, I still couldn’t stop thinking about her. When Weston and Rhys had fallen for their wives, I’d rolled my eyes and told them to stop being such pussies. And, it only took a minute of staring into her dark brown eyes to know exactly what they’d been talking about. There was no doubt in my mind that this woman fucking belonged to me. Not that I’d be admitting it to either of those jackasses any time soon.
A knock on my door broke through my thoughts, and Jessa stood there timidly, holding a file. “I’m sorry,” she practically squeaked. “I forgot to bring it in with the other folders.” I tamped down the urge to shout that it was probably a good thing or it would be lost in the pile behind me. She’d organized client folders all morning, then brought them in and set the unsteady pile on my desk. I asked her to move them and start putting them in the filing cabinet but just as she was reaching for them, my phone rang and she sprang to answer it, knocking the pile and sending everything flying in all directions. She’d started crying and fled the room.
I sighed, I didn’t need to bring down the wrath of Margaret on my head, so I just moved everything and tried to get ready for my appointment. “Thank you,” I grated, holding back my temper. The point was that she was trying, right? She handed me the file and spun around, scurrying from the office.
Flipping it open, I scanned the CV of C. Lewis. I’d recently picked up a handful of high-security clients, and it required hiring more bodyguards so we wouldn’t be short-staffed. This guy had been recommended by a friend from the agency who Weston had introduced me to. Evie Shaw was one of the most badass women I knew and if she had a hand in training this guy, I wanted him.
There was a whole shitload of “classified” typed on the papers when it came to work experience. My security clearance was higher than most people knew. Even Weston, who was currently CIA, didn’t know just how deep I was in with the agency. I’d been secret service when I first started out and had risen through the ranks at lightning speed. I realized quickly that I would be happier answering to myself, but I’d made the right contacts. They came to me for help on certain cases and returned the favor when needed.
Digging into his missions was as simple as picking up the phone, and they’d sent the un-redacted file over, but it wasn’t really necessary. All I’d needed to consider the guy was the recommendation of someone in the agency that I trusted implicitly. This interview was more of a formality than anything as I fully intended to hire the guy.
“Mr. Gray.” Jessa’s high-pitched voice pierced the silence in the room through the intercom. “You have a visitor.”
“You mean my appointment?” I asked after pressing the little button on the box.
“Um, I think—maybe? I—let me double check—”
Fucking hell. “Just send them in, Jessa.”
My door opened and in walked the star of all my daydreams. “Calista,” I greeted with surprise, jumping to my feet and rounding the desk. I could feel the grin splitting my face, insanely happy that she hadn’t been able to stay away from me. Her mouth formed a cute O, like she was shocked about something. Had she expected me to be upset that she’d showed up at my office? Clearly, I needed to prove that wasn’t the case. Before she could say anything, I slammed my door shut and pushed her up against it, my mouth crashing down on her.
By the way my heart was racing and my blood pumping, you’d think I hadn’t kissed her in years instead of hours. She tasted so fucking good, like peppermint and something that was all her own. My tongue danced with hers, and my hips involuntarily rolled into her when she moaned. Before I fucked her against the door to my office, I tore my mouth from hers and buried my face in her neck. Her chest rose and fell rapidly as she panted, and I fought the instinct to feel the beat of her heart by palming her tits.
“Baby, I didn’t expect to see you today. I’m so fucking glad you’re here, but I have an appointment any minute. Can you come back in about an hour? I’ll have you for lunch.” No, that was not a slip of the tongue.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she mumbled. I pulled back and inspected her beautiful face, trying to decipher what had changed between leaving her in the morning and right that moment.
“Did something happen with your interview?” If it hadn’t gone well, I was going to do everything in my power to get her to come work for me. Jessa could help out one of my managers and Calista could help me. My only requirement would be that she bring me my lunch every day and spread it across my desk. The picture of eating her pussy while she was sprawled there in front of me almost broke my control. But, I was a fucking professional, and I needed to handle the interview first.
“I haven’t had the appointment yet.” Her eyes darted around the office, looking at everything but me. My eyes narrowed, and I grabbed her chin, forcing her to meet my gaze.
“Calista, what’s going on?”
“My interview is at Gray Security, Xander.” Her dark eyes were studying me closely.
Then everything clicked, and I let go of her to run my hands through my hair. “You’re C. Lewis?” She nodded. “Holy fuck,” I whispered, her file running through my photographic memory. I felt ten years of my life immediately fall away. Right then and there I vowed, never again would she be in that much fucking danger. I didn’t care how capable she was. I was going to hire her and keep her close so I could protect her.
Besides, once we got married and had kids, she’d have to quit this line of work anyway.
That thought brought me up short. That was fucking fast. I mentally shrugged; that didn’t make it untrue. Then I remembered. We might just be well on our way there since we hadn’t used a condom the night before.
“I guess I’ll be moving back
to D.C.,” she sighed.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I growled.
“I can’t stay here without a job, Xander. Evie offered me a position—”
“Hell to the motherfucking no, baby. You are not going anywhere. You have a job; I’m hiring you. I’d been intending to offer you the job before I knew it was you.”
She scoffed, “I can’t work for you, Xander.”
“Why the fuck not?” I was seriously considering bending her over my knee and spanking her ass until it was cherry red.
“It’s one thing to joke around about me calling you boss in bed, but it’s another thing entirely for you to be my actual boss. We slept together, and the attraction between us is still there. It would make it incredibly difficult for us to work together. The barn door is already open so to speak, and leaving it as a one-night stand won’t close it.”
I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. And this day had started out so well…
Chapter 3
I had a reputation for being unflappable in the field. Nothing ever threw me for a loop. But when I walked through the door to the office and found Xander on the other side of it, I was stunned. In an instant, I went from excited anticipation for the position I was about to take, to crushing disappointment. There was no way in hell I could work for Xander after the night we’d spent together. There went the job that would allow me to stay in Atlanta and see what could build between us. And judging from the look on his gorgeous face, I was going to have a hell of a time convincing Xander how obvious it was that I couldn’t take the job.
“I don’t mix business and pleasure.”
“Don’t,” he growled, his dark eyes popping open and meeting mine with a burning intensity that had me taking a step backwards.
I didn’t have anywhere to go, though, since the closed door was right behind me. “Xander,” I whispered, my sadness over the situation in which we found ourselves filling my voice.
“No,” he barked. “I’m not going to stand here and listen to you boil us down to less than what we really are.”
Even though my heart raced at the way his voice got raspy, I couldn’t let it sway me. “It was one night—” I started, but he didn’t let me finish my thought.
“Enough of your one-night bullshit,” he hissed, pinning me to the door with his hard body while his hands pressed against it on either side of my head. “It was the first night of many—something which we were both on the same page about when we parted ways this morning, damn it.”
I dropped my head onto his chest. “That was before I walked in here and discovered you were the guy I was interviewing with.”
“That’s an excuse, and I’m not willing to accept it. Nothing’s really changed.”
My head snapped back up, and my spine straightened. If he was trying to go about convincing me to take the job and keep him in my bed, he was doing a shitty job of it. Pissing me off was definitely not the way to go. “It’s not an excuse,” I spat out. “It’s the reality of our situation.”
“Our reality is that you’re going to damn well learn how to mix business and pleasure because you’re going to spend your days working with me and your nights in my bed.”
“You can’t force me to take the job!”
His eyes narrowed, and his jaw hardened with determination. “Fight me for it.”
“What?” I sputtered, my hands pushing at his chest while I tried to figure out what the hell he was getting at.
“You heard me. You win, you don’t have to take the job. But if I win, you’re going to work here, and I don’t want to hear any more bullshit about us being a one-night stand.”
His voice rang with confidence—too fucking much of it. I was a woman in a man’s world, which meant I was used to being underestimated on a regular basis. It had irritated me in the past, but it hurt like hell to think Xander believed it would be easy to defeat me on the mat. “You might want to think twice before you challenge me. Many others have done it before you, assuming I’d be an easy target. They learned the hard way, each and every time, exactly how stupid they were. I’m just that damn good.”
He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, aiming towards his desk. “Based on the sheer volume of redacted information in your file, I’m expecting you to be incredibly skilled.”
I was uncomfortable thinking about him reading my file, even the little information they would have given him access to. After the way we met, the night we’d spent together, I didn’t see Xander as a colleague. He was the man I wanted to date, and I wanted him to look at me the same way. But at the same time, I also didn’t want him to see me as anything less than his equal. His willingness to put our potential future together on the line made me wonder if he really did, though. “Then why the challenge?”
“Because I’m that fucking good, too. And my motivation will give me the edge.”
That was a damn good answer. “Okay, you’re on,” I conceded.
“Let’s go.” He grabbed my hand and yanked me away from the door to open it.
When he led me past his receptionist, she let out a frightened squeak and almost fell off her chair. He barely paid any attention to her, except for the irritated frown he sent her way. “You make some interesting hiring choices.”
“You’re a choice. Her? Not so much,” he chuckled. “Her grandmother talked me into it. Now I’m stuck with Jessa, who’s received no training at all, while Margaret recovers from surgery.”
Based on what Evie had shared with me about Gray Security, I expected the owner to be a hardass. But knowing Xander had a soft side just made him even more attractive. Damn it, why did it have to be him behind that damn door?
“Where are you taking me?” I asked grumpily.
“Here,” he replied as he led me into a large room that had been set up as a gym, shutting the door behind us and locking it.
“I’m not dressed for sparring.” I gestured down at the pantsuit and stiletto heels I’d chosen to wear for my interview.
“Neither am I,” he pointed out as he kicked off his shoes and jerked his suit jacket off.
I copied his actions, but I paused when I looked up and found him bare-chested. His nipple rings glinted in the overhead lighting and his tattoos rippled with every movement of his muscles. “This isn’t naked wrestling.”
He slid his belt out of his pant loops and tossed it onto the floor in the corner where the rest of his clothes were piled. “Remind me to suggest that sometime in the future. Sounds like fun.”
“Xander,” I growled.
“I only took off the stuff that restricted my movements. I’ll leave my pants on.” His gaze slid over my body. “For now.”
“Cocky bastard,” I muttered as I walked over to the center of the mat.
“Ready?” he asked as he joined me, dropping into a fighting stance.
Moving my arms into position and bending my legs, I motioned him forward with a wave of my fingers. As he stepped towards me, I forced myself to view him as an opponent while I went into combat mode. I held my position, waiting for him to strike first, kicking out at his left leg as I side-stepped his first punch. Swiveling on the balls of my feet, I quickly turned and aimed a hit at his kidney, but he was ready for me and blocked it. He followed it up with a quick jab to my stomach, and air burst past my lips involuntarily. Then he moved in close, tossing me onto the mat hard. As quickly as I could, I flipped up and back onto my feet.
From what I’d seen so far, he was as incredible as he claimed to be and he wasn’t holding much back. It was an odd time for it, but knowing he was giving it everything he had made me grin even as I kicked up at his middle, bending low right after I connected to attempt a sweep of his legs. He anticipated my move, sending me to the ground again using my momentum against me.
Scrambling up, I ripped my blouse over my head. It was restricting my movements, just like his shirt would have, and it also gave me a slight advantage for that brief moment when he couldn’t resist staring at
my breasts wrapped in the lacy pink bra I’d picked out while thinking of him. It was all the time I needed to jump in the air, landing a flying kick with both legs to his chest. I followed him down to the mat, intending to land on top of him with my arm against his throat. I must have given it away somehow, because he quickly rolled me underneath him and pinned me to the mat with both arms above my head and my legs held down by his powerful thighs.
“Concede,” he breathed into my ear as I struggled beneath him.
“You’re good.” It was all I was willing to give at the moment, even though he’d won fair and square. A small part of me couldn’t help but wonder if I’d fought as hard as I could, or if I’d held back because I really did want to work for him, even if it complicated things.
“I’ll show you just how fucking good I am.”
We went from fight to fuck mode in a blink of an eye. He tore my pants down my legs while I ripped the zipper down on his to free his cock from its constraints. His fingers slid up my thigh, going straight for my pussy and he groaned when he found how wet I was. Wrapping my hand around his cock, I gave him a couple of quick strokes. “I want you inside me. Now.”
His eyes darkened with need, and he slammed his mouth down on me to claim it in a brutal kiss. As I wrapped my legs around his waist, his cock nudged my entrance. With one powerful thrust, he drove deep inside me. My head fell back against the mat, and he shifted forward, his mouth following mine. Refusing to end the kiss while he hammered in and out of my body. He plunged his tongue into my mouth and stroked mine, holding my head steady with a hand gripped tightly in my hair.
His other hand moved to my tit, plucking at the nipple before sliding further down to circle my clit. He swallowed my cries of pleasure, my orgasm building hard and fast. I leaned up and sucked on one of his metal rings, loving the moan and shiver it caused. He thrust even harder and let go, my head falling back and my nails digging into his shoulders.
Safe With Me, Baby: A Yeah, Baby Novella Page 2