After Hours

by Jodi Lynn Copeland

  Before she could think any further on the connection such a joining might trigger, she reached between them and moved the soggy lace covering her slit aside. “I’m going to punish you. I’m going to use your body and then I’m going to order you out.”

  She punctuated her words with her movements, slowly inching onto his dick, shivering with the enlivening feeling.

  He groaned and grabbed hold of her sides. “Damn, you are so tight.”

  Warmth welled in her cheeks. She refused to blush, to act like her tautness was a big deal. “It’s been a while.”

  “How long is a while?”

  “Four years.” She forgot all about blushing then and laughed at his stricken look as she sank the remainder of the way onto him. Her laughter turned to a gasp with the force of sensations that spirited through her when he was embedded inside her. “You would think I should be dead, from the way your face looks.”

  “Four years is a long time. A very long time.”

  “I can pleasure myself just fine.”

  Brendan’s cocky grin returned and he released her sides to cup her ass. He tipped his hips and lifted her up his shaft. He moved her back down as he drove hard into her sheath. The air whooshed from her lungs and she cried out with the magnitude of need splintering through her body, building pressure deep within her pussy, making her want to come again so soon.

  He chuckled and lifted her once more, slamming her back onto him so hard she was amazed stars didn’t dance before her eyes. “You might be able to pleasure yourself, but nowhere near to what I can.”

  It was the truth, and yet she couldn’t allow him to believe it. “You’re so damned arrogant.”

  “You like it.”

  The audacity of his response ate at the edge that came with Jillian’s stimulation. She sank back and dug her nails into the sinew of his thighs. Before, when she’d said she wanted to punish him, it had been for the sake of keeping things distant. Now she really wanted to. She wanted to hurt him for making her want him so badly, for making her yearn to know him beyond the physical, to uncover what it was that had made him approach her in the first place that night at the reception.

  He’d said she made him break from his norm. She longed to know why and how, and knew that she could never ask. She could only act the same way he did, aggressive yet holding part of herself back. “Sometimes I like it. Sometimes it makes me hate you.”

  He stilled his thrusting and met her eyes. “You don’t hate me, Jilly. You can’t. Because as hard as you try, you’re not the callous woman you make yourself out to be. It blows my mind that anyone could ever fall for that act you put on at the office. I mean, look at you. You’re warm as they come. Warm and sexy and sensual.”

  She froze. He couldn’t be any more wrong. She might have been that woman once, but she wasn’t any longer. She was cool and callous and dowdy. A dependable workhorse that people respected. Maybe he thought differently because for a while there she’d allowed the woman of her past to come out and make her want things she knew better than to want, but that woman was no longer around. “Shut up and let me blow your mind.”

  She grabbed hold of the headboard and ground her pussy against his cock, riding him hard, fast, determined to end this quickly. He met her thrust for turbulent thrust, until her body was shuddering and her sex clenched tightly around his.

  As if he knew how close she was to giving in, Brendan took over the frantic pace. He plunged into her again and again while he found and fingered her clit. He stroked the inflamed pearl, rubbing his thumb in circles. She was helpless from holding back an instant longer. She tightened once more and then came around him, just managing to hold back her shout of bliss. Seconds later, he found his own soundless release.

  For almost a full minute, Jillian allowed herself to revel in the belonging she felt when they were joined so completely, and then she pulled free of him and rolled off the bed. A sense of loss filled her as she stood. She refused to acknowledge it with anything more than a passing shrug.

  She grabbed the throw blanket that had fallen off the bed, wrapped it around her and moved to the door. She stopped when she reached it, but didn’t turn back. Couldn’t turn back. It was one thing to act like the cold, callous commander who didn’t need anyone or anything but work in her life. It was one thing to tell herself she wasn’t the woman she used to be. It was another thing entirely to believe those things. She didn’t, and she knew if she turned back and saw so much as a hint of sentiment in Brendan’s eyes, she would tell him so.

  Forcing her emotions aside, she murmured, “I’m going to check on Ginger. Be gone when I come back,” and walked out the door.

  4

  H ow could anyone go so long without sex, and why in the fuck would they want to? It was a question that had plagued Brendan all morning.

  Jilly might dress like the wicked witch of the southeast for work, but what about when the workday ended? Larry and Tawny had indicated that this company was her life, but had they meant her only life? That she didn’t date, or even gather with friends for an after-work or weekend drink?

  If that’s what they’d meant, what a waste of a woman.

  She’d reverted to Jillian on him last night soon after he’d thrown up his own walls. It hadn’t been quickly enough to stop him from seeing her softer and sensual sides emerge. Not nearly soon enough to stop him from spending most of last night and all of this morning searching his mind for answers to the way she acted, to the way she made him feel in return.

  Son of a bitch. He’d vowed to get her out of his head and all he was doing was thinking about her more. It had to stop. He’d more or less promised that this thing between them wouldn’t occur at or even be discussed on the job, but he had to have some answers and he had to have them now.

  He’d spent the first hour of this morning catching up on Larry’s plans for appointing a person to take over Donaldson’s position. Thanks to a love for movies of all types, particularly fantasies such as the kid-oriented type he’d caught Jilly watching last night, he felt confident he could put together a great ad presentation for the Wild Side with little to no effort. The problem was he also felt confident Jilly could do the same. He had to be more than great. He had to be outstanding, and that would involve research. And research involved a clear mind—one thing he wouldn’t have until he spoke with Jilly.

  Jillian, Brendan corrected himself as he started toward her office. If he called her Jilly when someone was around she was liable to de-nut him.

  He reached her office door and found it open a crack, just far enough to hear voices filtering through from the inside. Damn, she was already occupied. So much for his plan to clear his mind and move on to more important matters.

  He started to turn back when his name reached him. It came from inside Jilly’s office, but it wasn’t Jilly who’d spoken. He knew the soft, slightly husky sound of her voice. Knew how it grew even huskier when she was wet and hot from his touch, knew the almost imperceptible mewls she made in the back of her throat right before she came.

  Pushing away the thoughts and the hardening effect they had on his dick, Brendan focused on the voice he now recognized as Tawny’s. Eavesdropping wasn’t something he approved of, but it might be the only way he’d get to the bottom of the puzzle known as Jillian Lowery.

  “…tell me?”

  “We’re here to discuss my proposal for the Wild Side, remember?” Jilly’s words were muffled and yet the irritation behind them was clear.

  “Ah, c’mon. I don’t even get a hint if he was any good?”

  “I never said I slept with him.”

  “Right. Like I’m supposed to believe that big red hickey got on your neck all by itself.”

  “What?” Jilly gasped and Tawny laughed

  “There’s nothing there. I was testing you and you failed, so fess up, girl. You did it, didn’t you? You finally let Jilly the Wildcat out to play.”

  The arousal Brendan had fought off moments ago returned as a full-
blown hard-on with the memory of Jilly’s ravenous look and the way her short nails had nipped into his back, urging his control to the snapping point. Jilly the Wildcat had a certain ring to it.

  Jilly groaned. “Do you think you could say that any louder?”

  “You did. I’m so proud of you.”

  He smiled at the unexpected sound of Jilly’s laughter. What would it take to get her to laugh that way for him, so honestly, so openly, where she held nothing back? The smile fell as his thoughts caught up with him. Not that he wanted to make her laugh that way, or make any other joyful sound come out of her mouth. At least, he shouldn’t want to.

  Shit, what was wrong with him? He never thought about a woman this way, never wanted one this badly after having her less than twenty-four hours ago.

  “If I knew that all it takes to make you happy is knowing I got off, I’d have informed you of it long ago,” Jilly said.

  “Right,” Tawny returned. “As if you’ve gotten off in years.”

  “I have. Just not with…”

  Brendan pushed aside his unsettling thoughts to concentrate on the turn the conversation had taken.

  “A man?” Tawny guessed.

  Jilly’s tone returned to irritated. “Can we please get back to work?”

  “If we have to,” Tawny said glumly, “but can you at least tell me if he lived up to his expectations?”

  He was confident in his ability to please a woman, knew how well he’d done just that to Jilly last night, even if she hadn’t allowed him to stick around and make certain, and yet Brendan found himself holding his breath for her response.

  “He was okay,” she supplied after several long seconds.

  He let free his breath with a rush and fought back the urge to bolt into the office and remind her how much better than okay he’d been. If she truly believed he’d only been “okay,” then it was her own goddamned fault. She was the one who’d turned witchy just when things were getting hot.

  All right, so he’d closed himself off, too. He hadn’t had a choice. She’d been getting to him with her softer, more trusting side, getting under his skin and slipping past his defenses in a way that hadn’t been close to a good idea. Just as standing here, listening to this conversation, wasn’t. Only, he couldn’t make himself turn and walk away.

  “Right,” Tawny said, “and so was the bagel I had for breakfast this morning. He was not okay. He was good. Damned good, if the color in your cheeks is to be believed. Not to mention the way you’re riding that chair.”

  “Oh, my God! I am not riding the chair!”

  Tawny dissolved in a fit of laughter. Brendan bit back his own chuckle and sighed. He knew he hadn’t been just “okay.”

  “Fine,” Jilly admitted. “He was good. He was very good. He made me moan, groan and scream.”

  “That’s more like it. Do you plan to see him again?”

  “I don’t know.”

  She didn’t? Why the fuck not? She’d just said he’d made her moan, groan and scream. Was this about her kicking him out? Did she think he was upset about it? Her curt dismissal had bothered him at first—more so than he’d ever imagined rejection could—but she’d done it for the right reasons.

  “But you do want to see him again?” Tawny asked.

  “I shouldn’t.”

  “But you do.”

  “It’s just sex.”

  “Is it?”

  Hell, yes. What else could it be?

  “Yes,” Jilly agreed with his silent response. “He didn’t even stay the night.” She hesitated, then added in a barely audible voice, “I made him leave.”

  Brendan had just told himself her dismissal had been for the right reason, and yet hearing her admit it to someone sparked the same gut-deep reaction he’d had last night.

  “Oh, God, Jilly, you aren’t!”

  “I’m not what?”

  “Falling for him,” Tawny said in a rush that turned the tightness in his gut to near pain. “He’s fine for a fling, but that’s all. You know his reputation. You know he’s the—”

  “Of course I’m not falling for him! I don’t even like him.”

  The tightness should have subsided with Jilly’s remark. Instead it grew, fanning out as fingers of ache.

  She damned well did so like him. She’d tried to say she hated him last night, but he’d known it was a lie then as he did now. The fact that for even a short while she’d let loose enough to show him her “wildcat” side, as Tawny had called it, confirmed it. Maybe she didn’t love him yet, but she liked him.

  “Why not?” Tawny’s question stopped him from worrying over his inclusion of the word yet, and again Brendan found himself waiting for Jilly’s response with held breath.

  “Because he’s…he’s…”

  “After the job you want?” Tawny guessed.

  “Yes. Among other things.”

  “Why do you even want it? I mean, you’ve never been the type to get into managerial stuff like this job would entail.”

  “There’s more to it than that.”

  “The job, or your reason?”

  “Both,” Jilly admitted after several seconds of hesitation. “I just want it. Why can’t that be enough?”

  Because she didn’t sound like it was enough. She didn’t sound any more convincing than she had when she’d claimed not to like him, either last night or now.

  “Because I know you better,” Tawny said. “Up until four years ago you weren’t like this—so career-driven nothing else mattered. You wanted things out of life that had nothing to do with work. Things like friends, like a family, like the same kind of lasting love your parents have. I think deep down you still want it. Maybe you’ve set your mind on moving up the corporate ladder before worrying about anything else, but what if your mind isn’t listening to your heart? What if your heart’s so desperate for attention it falls for the first guy you let into your bed in years?” She sighed loudly. “Promise me you’ll be careful, girl. That you won’t let him hurt you.”

  “No one is going to get hurt. I promise.”

  “I hope not. I really do.”

  So did Brendan, because Jilly didn’t sound sure of herself. She sounded like she wanted to believe it, but might not be capable of it. Ironically, that’s exactly how he felt. Like he wanted to believe he could return to her bed and at the same time keep her distant from his thoughts and feelings. Only, he wasn’t sure he could. Not after hearing what he had and, subsequently, adding more questions to a growing plethora of questions. And sure as hell not after hearing there was a chance she could be falling for him.

  Jillian lay in bed, petting Ginger’s soft coat and wishing to God sleep would claim her. It was after midnight, and thanks to her stupid body and its even more ridiculous belief that Brendan would return, she was too keyed up to shut her eyes.

  She shouldn’t want him again, shouldn’t want to risk her feelings becoming more tied up in things than they already were. Tawny had hit too close to the truth this morning with her thoughts that Jillian could get hurt with Brendan. She’d known it last night, and she knew it more so now. As much as she knew it, she couldn’t stop herself from wanting him to return. She wanted it so badly she’d raced home from work and wolfed down a microwave dinner so she’d be ready for him if he did show up.

  That had been more than six hours ago, and she still waited for him. Waited for a man who had the power to steal not only her heart, but her dream job. How pathetic was that? “You are an idiot,” she chastised herself. “Completely hopeless.”

  “And you really should be asleep. It’s well past midnight, Cinderella.”

  Jillian jerked upward and screeched loudly enough to send Ginger racing off the bed and out of the room. Her heart thudded against her ribs. The pounding increased when Brendan dropped down on the end of her bed and crawled up over top of her.

  His dark eyes were more intense, more potent, more sinfully arousing in the dark. The shadows of night played with the strong angles of his fac
e while his scent reached out to fill her senses and fire her longing.

  “Hi, Sleeping Beauty,” he breathed, lowering his mouth to nip a kiss at each corner of hers. “Were you waiting for me?”

  “Yes,” she responded automatically.

  He chuckled. “You were?”

  Her judgment returned with the rich, rolling sound of his laughter. Oh, God, she was all but falling into his arms! Fury raced through her at the witless way she was acting. This kind of behavior was exactly the type that could lead to heartache.

  Refusing to set herself up for a fall, she pushed at his weight, which was trapping her arms beneath the covers, and tried to squirm free. “No. I wasn’t waiting for you, you overgrown ape. How the hell did you even get in my house? I know I locked the door.”

  “And left the windows open. You need a security system, sweetheart.”

  She glanced at one of the three open bedroom windows and sighed. She had only her own negligence to thank for his presence. A presence her wriggling was not urging away. A presence that less than five minutes ago she’d ached for. Truthfully, she still ached for him—her pussy grew wetter and her breasts heavier with each wriggle—but she could never admit that aloud. Giving up her struggle, she glared. “Thanks for your concern, but this is the first time I’ve had any problems.”

  Brendan looked wounded by her response and she knew a moment’s sympathy. Then his mouth tugged up knowingly. “A problem, am I? So you want me to leave?”

  Of course not. “Yes.”

  “No, you don’t. You know how I can tell, Jilly? Because you’re breathing hard. And because I can feel your nipples pressing against my chest through the covers.” He rubbed his upper half over her slowly, and she dragged in a hard breath as the friction worked its magic on her body. Humor glinted in his eyes. “You’re excited, aren’t you? Just wondering what I’m going to do next. Close your eyes and I’ll tell you.”