My hands moved without direction from my brain, unfastening the belt that held Oliver’s bulging erection captive inside the expensive trousers. He watched my fingers move, a low groan escaping him as I slid my hand inside his pants, palming his thickness through his briefs.
I couldn’t help the fire that blazed through me as I glowed with realization of the power I had over the most powerful man I’d ever known. The fact that I could hold him here, that I had the ability to make his mouth drop open, to make his eyes cloud and his breath come faster—it was heady. And more than that, I hoped I had the power to make him happy. Even if he could be an arrogant ass, I’d learned enough about Oliver Cody in the past days to understand a bit about how much weight he carried on those broad shoulders and how much pain hid behind his gleaming eyes.
Oliver met my eye, and for a long moment we were frozen there, my hand stroking him through the soft fabric of his briefs. A faint smile crossed his lips, and then he reached down and pushed his pants to his knees, freeing himself.
His erection stood at full mast before me. I wrapped my hand around the shaft and leaned down to dart my tongue out to trace the underside of the tip. I lowered myself onto the leather chair so my mouth was level with his cock, my eyes fastened on Oliver’s. His eyebrows rose as I licked him, and when I wrapped my lips around the head and sucked, a groan escaped his lips and his hands flew to bury themselves in my hair.
Feeling heady with the power I had in that moment, I experimented eagerly, licking and sucking, taking Oliver as far back into my mouth as I could. He cursed under his breath, encouraging me, and when I took him in so far he hit the back of my throat and I swallowed against him, he uttered a long, low curse and then pulled himself out of my tongue’s reach.
“One day soon I’m going to let you finish me that way,” he promised, his face flushed and his voice a rasp. “But right now I want to be inside you.” He ducked to remove a condom from his wallet and rose again, his eyes on me as he ripped open the foil.
I slipped the packet from his fingers and gave the tip of his head one more solid lick for good measure before rolling the condom down the length of him, my insides burning with anticipation.
“You’re killing me,” he moaned, his voice like gravel grinding against every nerve in my body. I felt like a live wire, as if there was an energy pooling deep and low inside me that had to be released.
Oliver reached down, sliding a palm up the inside of my thigh, his fingers dancing lightly over the fabric of my panties, teasing and gentle, and then increasing the pressure until his fingertips were a steady pulse on my clitoris. I gasped and heard myself whimper as I shimmied around, trying to simultaneously press myself closer to him and escape the intensity.
I had the sensation that my entire body might actually explode if something didn’t happen soon, and though I was beyond words, my body instinctively knew what it needed. Oliver lifted me up then, and I wrapped my legs around him as my eyes glazed at the sight of his bulging muscles, straining against the fabric of his shirt as he lifted me like a feather onto his cock.
I held his shoulder with one hand and slid the fabric of my panties aside with the other, guiding just the tip inside me, where I could feel myself slick and wet, ready for him. I moved my hand to hold his other shoulder and he thrust up into me, impaling me as he held me in his strong arms.
“Oh God,” I cried, surprised to hear my own voice break and fragment, sounding exactly like I was seconds away from falling to pieces—and I was. With Oliver’s hands under my ass and his thick hard cock inside me, filling me totally, I had the sensation of completion, and I cried out, overwhelmed by it.
“Yes, baby,” Oliver was crooning gently in my ear. He pumped his hips, moving me up and down over his length with an easy strength that made me feel small and protected at once. I used the muscles inside me to grip his length, trying to fight for an ounce of control as he pushed into me hard, over and over again.
“Come for me, baby.” Oliver slowed his pace, sliding in and out in an erotically lazy motion, every part of me gripping him as he moved, creating a delicious friction that pushed me closer and closer to the brink.
“Fuck,” Oliver groaned, setting me down on the edge of the desk again. I braced myself with my elbows and took in the sight of Oliver’s chest, his mouth open as he ground into me, his strong arms flexing as he gripped my hips and pulled me into him. He cursed again and my head dropped back, my back arching to let him in farther, to give him more access. I wanted every last inch of him inside me, and I wrapped my legs around him again, pulling hard to take him all in, to hold him there, to hold on to that delicious sensation of fullness.
My mind had taken flight. I was no longer thinking about our meeting with MLB, or about the fact that this was my boss buried deep inside my slick wetness as I gasped and moaned for more. I wasn’t worried about whether I might be doing anything unethical, whether my plan was going to suffer, or if anyone might walk in on us in this very inappropriate use of company spaces. I just knew that I felt complete, with Oliver buried deep inside me. I was complete, and beyond that, I was happy.
I couldn’t get enough of him as I pulled my legs against his thighs, trying to pull him closer, to swallow him whole. “God, that feels good,” I moaned, both wanting to make the moment last and much too close to the edge to try to prolong things. I wrapped one arm around Oliver as he leaned over me, pulling his mouth down to mine as he began to pound into me harder, bracing himself above my head with one arm.
I gave in to an urge to reach a hand around to land on Oliver’s firm ass, and slip it around far enough to reach my fingers to cup his balls as he moved above me. My legs were around the small of his back now, and he was pounding me into my desk in a very literal way, over and over.
“Fuck, duchess,” he moaned, and he froze for a split second. I actually felt him harden inside me, his iron-hard cock turning to pure stone as he retook his rhythm, moving harder and faster than before. “Fuck,” he groaned again. “God, you’re fucking amazing, Holland,” he whispered in my ear as I moved my fingers over his balls, feeling them drawing up close to his body as his breathing increased to match my own desperate gasps.
The steady pressure that had been building inside me was close to exploding, and I could feel every muscle in my body tighten in advance of the eruption I knew was coming. “Oliver,” I whispered. “Oh God, Oliver!”
And then it happened. I felt myself shatter into thousands of pieces as Oliver continued the hard pounding rhythm, each stroke pushing me higher and higher as I felt myself spasming around his taut body. And within seconds of me letting go, I felt him go rigid as he cried out, “Fuuuuuck!” He thrust into me a few more times, grunting with each movement, and then he collapsed over me on the desk, his face turned to me with a broad smile on his beautiful full lips. “You. Are. Fucking. Amazing,” he said.
I wasn’t sure I could form words, so I offered him a smile instead, as I felt like I slowly came back to myself, returning to my body from a great distance.
Oliver kissed me once more, a slow languorous kiss that was both sweet and passionate at once, and then he eased himself up to his feet and returned me to a sitting position. “Welcome to your new office,” he said, grinning and looking at me from underneath those thick lashes.
“That was quite a christening,” I told him. “I hope you don’t celebrate all employee promotions this way, Mr. CEO.”
“Only yours,” he promised, kissing me again.
—
I spent the remainder of a very surreal week trying to learn the responsibilities of my new job. I’d still be working with the sales department, but instead of making fearful reports to Trey about the accounts I was trying to land or keep, he’d be making reports to me. It was a strange turnabout, but I couldn’t pretend to be unhappy about it. Trey and I would basically work as a team, matching potential sales opportunities with developers who could help iron out the technical aspects of applications and new i
mplementations. It was a formal solidification of the way Oliver and I had worked together. Minus all the sex.
By Friday I’d moved my things from my cube and accepted the confused congratulations of my colleagues in sales. Pamela had been less confused.
“Totally deserved!” she had gushed, bursting with excitement as she flew into my office. “I’m so excited for you!”
“Thank you,” I said, still feeling overwhelmed. “You helped a lot, you know.”
She nodded and winked at me. “I’m sure it was all about the schematics I got for you.”
“It was,” I told her.
“Are you excited?” she asked. “Oliver seems to think the world of you.” She said it innocently, and for a minute I considered telling her everything.
“He’s…” I trailed off. It wouldn’t be right to tell her, and I didn’t know what I could say about him that wouldn’t reveal feelings I didn’t even understand myself.
“Let’s get a drink and celebrate soon,” she said, heading for the door again.
“Yes,” I agreed. “Oh, hey…” I called, and she paused in the doorway.
“How’s Kenner doing in school? How are you?”
She smiled and stepped back in. “It’s better,” she said. “He’s really happy, actually. And I’m doing better.”
“That’s good,” I said.
She left and I looked around me, feeling in many ways like I’d been dropped in the middle of someone else’s life.
When I had a quiet moment, I called Delia. We had missed our Wednesday dinner this week because of a conflict with a school event. I’d told her about the promotion, in a text and a couple of messages, but we hadn’t gotten to really talk. “I don’t even know where to begin,” I told her. “So much has happened in less than a week!” Over the next ten minutes, I told her every aspect of my encounters with Hale-slash-Oliver, and it was gratifying to be able to share with someone.
“So what happens now that you’re both back at work?” she asked.
“I don’t really know. I mean, I doubt we’ll be walking across the plaza holding hands. He doesn’t seem super concerned about keeping things quiet, though.” My mind flashed back to the way he’d taken me on my desk and a flush of heat washed through me.
“Are you dating, then?”
“We haven’t really tried to define anything yet.”
“Just go with it,” she suggested. “It’s about fucking time you let yourself be happy. Plus…” Her voice trailed off and she sounded thoughtful.
“Plus what?”
“You just crossed off number one. Time for number two on the Powerpuff Girls plan!”
I frowned, even though she couldn’t see it. “Don’t call it that.” There was something else on my mind. “Deel?”
“Uh-oh. I can hear your wheels clicking around over there. What’s wrong?”
I stared out my new office window at Los Angeles reaching toward the blue Pacific and felt like a jerk for being unable to fully appreciate it. “I don’t know if I can cross this one off yet.”
“You got the job. Task complete.”
“But I didn’t do it myself.” I hated that the success I’d just found was somewhat tainted by the way it had been handed to me. “It only happened because of who I know. I mean, I basically got promoted as a reward for fucking the CEO.”
“Girl, why do we do this to ourselves?” Delia sounded exhausted suddenly, her voice lowering. “Why is it that when a woman gets something good, something she deserves, she has to qualify the thing? Why do we have to pull our success apart to make sure it’s valid?”
“I don’t know, but it still feels like it came about the wrong way, like I took some kind of shortcut.”
“You worked your ass off to get that job, Holl. I watched you do it. Just because Mr. Hale-iver stepped in at zero hour and gave you a final boost doesn’t make it any less genuine.” She took a breath. “I hate putting things this way, but sometimes I think we’d be better off if we could think about things more like a dude would. You got the promotion, the new office, and the hot guy in your bed. You win. End of story.”
I let her words slide across my brain, examining their content closely. “You’re right,” I said. “It’s just hard to accept that I didn’t do it myself.”
“You did do it yourself. And you know what else? People like to help each other. I know we don’t always believe that because of where we came from, but the older I get, the more I see it’s true. This is the way the world works—especially in business. You network and make connections—you never know when one of those connections will turn into a huge win, or when you’ll have a chance to help someone you’ve met. Don’t you dare let yourself denigrate your success just because you asked the right guy for help.”
I made a noncommittal sound, wishing my brain would believe as sincerely as Delia seemed to.
“Congratulations, Holland. I’m proud of you! This week we’ll celebrate your success.”
“Okay,” I said, feeling a little better about things. “See you at dinner.”
Chapter 15
Oliver
Being back at the office felt like coming home from a long trip, or waking from an extended dream. Everything was the same in many ways. But the company was in danger, and the tension could be felt in the words that didn’t get spoken, the things people didn’t ask. Those words would come—but everyone was walking softly around me at first, probably waiting to see if I’d bolt.
Rob avoided me for that first week I was back, finally coming by on Friday. “Slumming?” he asked, pushing through my office door and seating himself across from me. His face was tight, and there were dark circles under his eyes. “Just dropping through on your way to the liquor store, or are you planning to stay awhile?”
I fixed him with a glare, biting back the words that tumbled over each other to jump out at him. I wasn’t going to be that guy. Not anymore.
I could still remember the smell of Holland on my skin, the memory of her citrus scent reminding me that everything had changed. I had changed.
“I’m back,” I told Rob. “And I’m sorry I left you to handle things alone for so long. For too long.”
Rob widened his eyes and pressed his lips together in a mocking expression. I couldn’t blame him for being skeptical. He’d figure it out, though. Once I’d been here regularly, he’d start to trust me again, see that I wasn’t going anywhere.
“What do I need to know?” I asked him. I’d already sat down with Pamela, who turned out to be a fucking sponge, soaking up every bit of information that passed over any of the desks on the executive floor. She knew what had transpired at board meetings, who was on edge (Rob, mostly), and who was looking to leave (our corporate counsel, mostly, but I’d already handled that). Things at Cody were not good, and it was my fault. I had a lot of work to do.
“Fuck, Ollie. This place is sinking. It might already be too late.”
I shook my head and stood, coming around to lean against the edge of my desk. “It’s not. I had a meeting with MLB Monday.”
His eyebrows shot up. “About…?”
“We have a crackerjack analyst working down in sales. She came up with a new application for StrokeStat that is gonna breathe new life into Cody. We pitched it Monday.”
He shook his head, running a hand through his short dark hair. “You pitched it? I didn’t even know this was happening!” His face darkened, the eyebrows knitting together. “Look, man, you don’t get to just walk back in and take over. There are things you don’t know…”
I waited while Rob ranted. He deserved it. He’d been doing both our jobs for almost a year, it made sense that he felt ownership of the company and wanted to know what was happening. When he’d finished pacing around, he sat back down.
“You’re right. It just happened quickly. I won’t take any more meetings without you knowing about them.”
“You think they’re gonna buy?” he asked, finally looking hopeful.
&nbs
p; I nodded. “Holland is a genius. She got right to the heart of things. They almost don’t have a choice.”
“Holland…” Rob waved his hand absently and shook his head, trying to place the name.
“Holland O’Dell. Our new director of analytic application.”
“Director of…what?” Rob frowned. “Oliver. You’ve been back for like a day, you can’t just walk in and start handing out…” His voice slowed and then trailed off. “Shit, Oliver. Are you fucking this girl?”
I felt my lips press into a thin line. I wasn’t going to lie. Not to Rob, not to anyone. Adam and Sonja had lied to me my whole life, and as far as I was concerned, discovering the truth about being adopted had cast doubt on everything else they’d ever told me. Lies were poison and I wasn’t spreading any. But I didn’t want to out Holland, either. So I didn’t answer.
“Got it.” Rob stood again. He was full of some kind of nervous energy that made him move like an animated puppet, despite the clear exhaustion on his face.
“Hey,” I said. “It’s fine. Everything is gonna be fine now, man. And when we get things balanced again in a week or two, I want you to get out of here for a while. Take a break.”
“Yeah, I hear eight or nine months is the standard vacation around here now.”
I took the shot and shrugged. He was going to be angry with me for a while. I could handle it. “When’s the next board meeting?”
“Next month.”
“By then we’ll have MLB signed. That should quiet them down.”
“If half of them don’t sell first.” Rob shook his head. “There are investors from SonicCom breathing down their necks, ready to acquire whatever stock they’re willing to part with. We’ve already lost ten percent.”
“Hey. We’ve got fifty-one percent between us—you, me, and Tony,” I reminded him.
“You fired Tony.”
“So we get the shares back?”
Rob shrugged. “Not quite that simple. I’ll figure it out. We’ll get some of them.”
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