Vote Then Read: Volume III

by Aleatha Romig

  For a split second, I remembered the words from the assholes who hurt me in the alley. ‘Have you ever been fucked over your desk, office girl? Ever given a boss a blowjob for a promotion?’

  It wasn’t an unusual concept.

  I was sure many people had done just that and had lots of fun doing it. But I never had. And I wouldn’t today—not with Penn or anyone else who threatened my safety and position. Especially when chilly ice replaced my blood, struggling to separate that night in the alley and today with Penn.

  The way he watched me was too close to the guy in the Baseball Cap—too intense, too focused on something he couldn’t have but would happily take anyway.

  “Leave, Mr. Everett.”

  “I told you to call me Penn.”

  I cocked my chin. “Fine. Leave, Penn.”

  “Not until you agree to dinner with me.”

  “Never.”

  “Never is too long to wait.” He glowered. “And besides, we’ve already agreed on the ground rules. You want to fuck me. I want to fuck you. Playing hard to get is only making me want to do that sooner rather than later.”

  “No.”

  “No what?

  “No to everything. I told you, I changed my mind.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I said so.”

  He licked his lips. “Yes, but why? Why change your mind after what happened last night? From what your father said, you work too much, you have no friends, and you severely lack fun in your life.”

  My heart sank. “He said that?”

  “I read between the lines.”

  “Well read between my lines. N-O. Spells no. I’m too busy to play with you.”

  “I said I was sorry.”

  I stiffened, trying to sniff his new game. “Go on.”

  He shrugged. Even that was sexy, dammit. “I shouldn’t have put words into your mouth. It’s up to you to decide if you want people to know about us.” He looked up beneath his brow. “And the only way you can decide that is if you go on a date with me.”

  I opened my mouth to argue, but he interrupted—another habit he seemed to have. “Don’t answer for yourself right now. Answer for yourself in five years’ time. Where do you see yourself? Here in this office doing the exact same thing with the exact same unhappiness?”

  God, I hope not.

  “Or do you want to see if you could have this and more? Work and play? Love and obligation?”

  My eyes shot daggers. “You think I could love you?”

  “I think you could have fun with me.”

  “I think otherwise.”

  He grinned. “That’s what this is about. To see if our opinions line up.”

  “Are you going to leave if I say no again?”

  “Nope.” He came closer. “I’ll just keep showing up at really inconvenient times until you say yes.” His aftershave drugged me again. “Choose the easier option, Ms. Charlston. Let me have you. It’s the only way forward.”

  “What will you do to me?”

  Instantly, my office thickened with sexual tension.

  My breath hitched as his eyes drifted to my mouth.

  His voice lowered to scorching charcoal. “Anything I damn well want.” His hand cupped my cheek, holding me tight. “I’ll strip you, taste you, devour you. I’ll eat, lick, and bite you. And only once you’re begging will I fuck you.”

  My body flushed as hot as the sun, as bright as Venus, as untouched as Pluto.

  I shoved him away and stalked to the exit. All I wanted to do was dare him to try it. To fight and claw and let him subdue me because, holy hell, he made it sound delicious. But the other part—the vanishing part—was afraid of losing herself.

  Sex was too powerful.

  Sex should be done between two people who liked each other and not a couple with nothing in common.

  I cleared my throat and my mind. I clung to common sense. “I suggest you leave before I knee you in places a lady should never knee a man.”

  He hunted me, bringing with him cyclones full of lust. “If you want to touch that part of me, I would prefer it was with something softer than your knee.” He chased me, once again corralling me against a hard surface.

  This time the door.

  “Your hand would work.” He cupped my wrist, slipping his fingers through mine. “Your hand is welcome.” His eyes turned jet black with need. “I could come from your hand alone.”

  I fought my shiver but couldn’t stop the goosebumps darting up my arms. His touch was possessive but soft. Strong but coaxing.

  His fingers squeezed mine as he swayed closer. “Or if you didn’t want to use that part of your anatomy, your mouth would do equally well.” He licked his bottom lip. “In fact, I want both.”

  “Never.”

  “Never?” He smiled. “Don’t lie.” His hand crept up my arm to my shoulder, adding pressure until my knees threatened to buckle. “Let’s see how soon never is, shall we?” He kissed me sweetly. “I fingered you until you came last night. The least you can do is blow me.”

  I like the thought of you giving me a blowjob. Get her on her knees.

  The rapists and alley stole the present, hurtling me back before Nameless had found me. Before he hurt them for hurting me. Before he prevented my life from tumbling into ruin.

  Why did Penn cause flashbacks that I’d successfully put behind me?

  Why did he awake sharp instincts?

  And why were those instincts scrambled between trust and mistrust, unable to see the truth hiding in his lies?

  My office returned. The alley disappeared. Penn was still there. His pressure on my shoulder stronger, pestering me to fall into servitude before him.

  I breathed hard. “You expect me to wrap my lips around your cock? Here? Now? In my office?”

  He nodded. “Absolutely.” He fisted my hair without warning, tilting my head to attack my throat with his mouth and teeth. “Here, you’re god. Here, you’re in charge. It turns me the fuck on knowing you’re the one with all the power, yet you’re considering getting on your knees to serve me.”

  It took every ounce of willpower, every brave denial, but I managed to untangle my fingers from his and tear my neck from his kisses. “Too bad for you, you’ll have to remain turned on. I have no intention of doing such a thing.”

  “What are you afraid of?” His eyes narrowed. “You know this is a game. You understand the rules.”

  “I don’t understand any of this.”

  “The rules are sex. Mutually enjoyed sex. Despite what you think, you like being told what to do.” He gathered me close, inhaling my perfume. “Give me two minutes. Two minutes to command you, and if you don’t like it, I’ll walk away.”

  My heart beat crazy. “Two minutes?”

  He bit his lip, nodding. “You have my word.”

  “If you break it, I’m turning you into a eunuch with a sharp kick.”

  He chuckled, stepping back and spreading his thighs. “There are worst things I can imagine than your leg between mine.” His eyes were dark as nightmares. “But for now, get on your fucking knees.”

  Get her on her knees.

  A similar command had torn me apart. The thought of sucking strange men in an alley grotesque. However, this command turned my chest into a furnace, charring my heart to dust.

  I didn’t know what happened to my brain.

  I didn’t understand how hate could be such an aphrodisiac.

  But he circumnavigated the CEO. He spoke to some primitive part of me.

  I wanted to tell him to leave.

  I wanted to prove I had more respect than that.

  Yet I sank down the door to my knees.

  Sage watched me as if all her respect for me as her human evaporated.

  Damn cat.

  Penn shuddered, looking part monster, part angel. “Shit, you make me hard when you obey.” His gaze fell on my breasts. “Now that you’re playing, we’re going to do a little show and tell.”

  Before we sho
w you ours, you have to show us yours.

  The alley.

  I was back there again.

  Huddled in pain, grasping at dignity.

  I stayed silent, doing my best to stay alive while my heart tried to slam through my ribs.

  The past and future were merely two dimensions separated from each other by the present. Yet I lived in neither. I existed in the glue bridging them together, somehow allowing three years ago to affect today.

  I wanted Nameless to barge into my world and rescue me for the second time.

  Penn’s hands fell to his belt, pushing aside the tails of his midnight blazer, and undoing the leather slowly. “I’m going to show you what you do to me, Elle. But in return, I want to see you.”

  Let’s see what your tits are like.

  I gulped.

  He morphed into one of those bastards, flickering with Adidas symbols and expensive suits. He never looked away as he pulled the belt, unthreading it and letting it hang in the loops. “Unbutton your shirt.”

  Forcing myself to shed the memories and focus entirely on him, I latched onto the most idiotic thing I’d ever uttered. “It’s a blouse.”

  “I don’t care.” His growl echoed through my core. “Unbutton it.”

  My hands shook but slowly connected with the pearl buttons and hesitantly undid one.

  This was now. Penn was now. Nameless was yesterday.

  It took more effort than I could afford, but I shut the door on the past and slotted firmly back into the present.

  “The next.” Penn trembled as he locked his hands on the button of his waistband. The crisp cream shirt and dark jeans he wore made him untouchable yet so normal.

  I popped the next button, breathing hard and quick.

  He followed, undoing his and pulling on his zipper.

  Without waiting for his command, I undid buttons three then four; my eyes locked on his hands as he pulled his zipper down and down.

  When my blouse hung undone, and his zipper had nowhere else to go, our eyes met.

  Our lips parted; mirrored images of desire.

  “Open it.” His voice had lost the playful kink from before, slipping straight into serious smut. “Let me see you.”

  With bravery I didn’t know I had, I pushed my blouse away from my breasts, revealing the dusky pink bra.

  He groaned, his hand disappearing into his jeans.

  My stomach clenched so hard, so deep, I bent over a little in surprise.

  His lips twisted. “Do you like that?” He squeezed himself, his thighs tightening beneath the denim. “Do you like knowing I’m this hard all because of you? That I haven’t been this hard in years. That all I can think about is sticking this in every place you’ll let me.”

  Oh. My. God.

  I swam in heat. I drowned in liquid. I was so wet my panties were soaked.

  “Pull your bra down, and I’ll show you more.”

  My fingers hooked on the front cups of my bra as his latched around his jeans and levered them a little off his hips. Never looking away, objectifying both of us by only watching our bodies and not our souls, he reached into his tight black boxer-briefs and pulled out his cock.

  My core spasmed as I swallowed hard and pulled my bra down, revealing my pebbled nipples and heavy globes of flesh that had long since been neglected.

  “Fuck, Elle.” His hand grasped his long length. The head glowed with darker flesh, a droplet glistening on top. Veins ran down the sides, bulging with desire—the same desire throbbing in my clit.

  All I could see…all I could think about…was sex.

  My legs parted a little as my hips became loose and wanting. An emptiness echoed inside me, becoming more and more cavernous the longer I stared at him.

  “Do you want this?” he murmured, his face black with lust.

  There was no banter or connection. Whatever respect we had for each other was tarnished by the way I stared up with him standing over me with his cock in his hand. It ought to be degrading, but I found a different sort of power on my knees. The way he panted. The way his hips rocked with a subtle sway even he wasn’t aware of.

  We no longer lived in the real world but sex, sex, sex.

  I nodded just once, licking my lips.

  “Jesus, Elle.” His head fell forward as he squeezed the tip. “Say it out loud. Do you want my cock?”

  I didn’t care if anyone was outside my door eavesdropping. I didn’t care that I should stop this and throw him from my office.

  I embraced the river flowing inside me and whispered, “Yes.”

  “Where? Where do you want it?”

  So many places.

  So many foreign, wonderful ready-to-be explored places.

  But first, the one he wanted. The one he’d hinted at, and the reason I was on my knees. “My mouth.”

  He groan-growled as he stepped forward. His shoes hit my knees, his height towering over me with his cock speared from his angry fist. “Suck it then.”

  My breasts ached with pain I’d never experienced.

  I sat taller on my knees.

  I reached forward.

  My fingers so close to claiming him.

  But then he stepped back, tucking his erection away, shaking with need and discipline. He didn’t do up his belt or zipper, but he flashed a silver watch on his wrist. “Your two minutes are up.”

  The sexual trance he’d put me into shattered.

  I shivered with sudden cold and yanked up my bra in disgrace. Grabbing the sides of my blouse, I huddled before shooting upright with rage so bright, so brilliant, I wanted to rip him into pieces.

  “That’s it?” I snarled. “Was that all a stupid game to you? A ploy to show me that you can make me do what you want, after all?” A heavy gathering sat between my legs, throbbing to be touched. Desperate for a release.

  “I wanted to be sure there were no lies. You saw how much I want you. I saw how much you want me.” He kept his distance, refusing to touch me. “Next time, I won’t accept your bullshit.”

  “Next time?! You think there’ll be a next time? This was the only time, and you just humiliated me.”

  “Yes, well, you almost made me come just by licking your fucking lips.”

  I opened my mouth to retort, but angry tears crept up my spine. The lust in my blood eroded my self-control. Spinning around, I grabbed the doorknob and yanked. I didn’t care his trousers were undone. I didn’t care my blouse was open. I wanted him gone. I wanted it now.

  His hand slammed against the wood, shoving it back into the frame with a loud smack. His body heat pressed against me, the teeth of his open zipper digging into my pinstripe skirt.

  “You think you can leave? I didn’t say you could.”

  “Let me go.”

  His hands pressed flat against the door, caging me.

  Sage meowed loudly, attempting to join my battle to make him leave.

  I couldn’t think with him so close. I could only feel. And by God, I could feel. Everything. His breath on my nape, his chest rising and falling against my spine. And his cock twitching against my ass.

  The domination and power of his will were tangible things, suffocating me under his command. Everything outside of him and me ceased to exist. My entire body begged for whatever he would do next even while my mind bellowed at me to scream.

  Whatever existed between us was visceral, indescribable, completely imprisoning.

  “I’ll never let you go. Not until I’m through with you.” His lips landed on the top of my shoulder. “Turn around, Elle.”

  My body shuddered in an overwhelming wave of arousal. I wasn’t supposed to like this. I wasn’t supposed to get wet under his cruel, commanding tone. His body heated with hunger and demand, dragging urges from deep inside me. Urges I could no longer deny.

  I wanted him.

  And I didn’t know how to handle that.

  I refused to turn. Sadness interfered with my desire, scrambling me up inside. “I can’t do this with you. I’m not equip
ped.”

  His lips caressed my hair. “You can. You’re doing it right now.”

  “But I don’t know what comes next. I—I—”

  “You do. You know exactly what comes next.” His hand splayed over my stomach, pulling me back into his hips. His cock was big, hard, and so hot. “This goes inside you. It makes all that confusion and emptiness vanish.”

  I spun in his arms.

  “How? Nothing has that power.”

  “Trust me.” His fingers latched around my throat, pinning me against the door. He fell forward, wedging his entire length along mine. Aligning his cock to my clit, he thrust.

  The action was so crude, so basic in mating, I moaned.

  “Wrap your legs around my hips.”

  Shifting my skirt high so I could spread my legs, I jumped and did exactly what he told me, my body taking control.

  He grunted as he caught my weight before crushing me against the door again. “We’re both going to come. We’re going to do it together. And we’re not going to overthink it or ruin it by refusing what our bodies so fucking desperately need, got it?”

  I had no other choice.

  I nodded.

  I didn’t know if he meant he planned to take me against my door or if he’d use his fingers or expected my mouth but all questions died like flightless birds the moment he thrust again.

  Reaching between us, he pulled down his trousers, freeing himself and wedging his naked cock against my panty-covered pussy.

  With my legs around his waist, his hardness lined up perfectly against every inch of me.

  “Christ, you’re soaked.” He looked down. “Soon, I’m going to see every inch of you, Elle, but for now, you owe me an orgasm.”

  Confusion hit me. So he meant to keep the tiny piece of cotton and lace between us? That we would grind and come but not consummate?

  His jaw clenched, his messy hair tumbling over his forehead. His biceps bulged from holding me as he curved into me. “Kiss me.” His voice was hoarse.

  I gave up my questions and denial and tipped my head up.

  He groaned, capturing my mouth with his. His lips were firm and warm. His pressure the perfect accompaniment. His tongue dived inside, tasting me, fighting me with deep licks.

  And then, he moved.

  Slow and deep, thrusting his long length against my wet panties, grinding into me at exactly the right spot. His hands dropped to my ass, tightening and pinching with each rock, driving me insane.