Billionaire Beast (Billionaires - Book #12)

by Claire Adams

  I finally looked at him, after avoiding direct eye contact all day. He was staring right at me, and I felt a warm shiver go down my spine, that I tried my very best to ignore.

  “It’s a matter of I was interested in learning about something, and someone who knows something about it happened to be right there. So I asked him. That’s it.”

  He nodded slowly. “I’d be inclined to believe that,” he said, “except you’ve seemed distant.” He took a step closer to me, and I swore I could feel the heat radiating off of his body. I took a step back, trying to put some distance between us. I didn’t want him to know how strong his effect was on me, even now, when I was trying to be completely immune to it.

  But it’s not like you could just turn those feelings off, could you? It wasn’t that easy. If it were, I imagined that Noah would’ve forgotten about me a long time ago.

  “Have I?” I said. I glanced at the clock hanging on the wall by the water cooler. “It’s a little past five. I better get going.”

  I grabbed my purse and stood up, but as I was about to step around my desk, he put his hand on my wrist.

  “The doors are locked,” he said. “I thought you’d appreciate that.”

  He gave me a long look, undressing me with his eyes.

  “Why would I appreciate that?” I asked, feeling my resistance starting to waver.

  It felt as though his skin was searing into my own where we were touching. “I really need to go,” I said tightly.

  But he didn’t release my wrist; instead, he pushed the straps of my purse off my shoulder and down my arm, so it fell on the floor. He turned me to him and reached up, pulling my shirt open, buttons popping off.

  “Hey!” I said, but I could already feel my body giving over to him, wanting him closer.

  “I’ve been watching you all day, and you suddenly playing hard to get has been such a turn on.” My shirt fell open, and he pushed my bra up, running his hands down the sides of my waist as he began to kiss my breasts. My head fell back, and I closed my eyes.

  “I’ve got to leave,” I said, even though it was plain as day in my voice that leaving was the last thing I was going to do.

  He held onto my hip with one hand and slid the other hand up my skirt, slipping his fingers into my underwear, which was already wet.

  “That’s a good girl,” he said.

  He kissed a trail from my breasts down to my navel, pulling my skirt, and then my underwear, down with his teeth. He let them fall at my feet, and then he stood up, unbuckling his own pants.

  He pushed them down and his cock sprang out. He pulled me toward him and then put his hands on my shoulders. I sank to my knees in front of him, and he held onto the back of my hair as I slowly took the head of his cock into my mouth.

  I moved my mouth slowly down the shaft, trying to keep my lips over my teeth, feeling the way his cock pulsed and grew harder inside my mouth. His fingers entangled with my hair. When I got him in as far as I could, I held him there for a moment, and then slowly pulled my head back, until just the tip was in my mouth. I moved my tongue around in circles, and I reached up and took hold of the rest of him, my hand slick with my own saliva, easily sliding up and down. He groaned. I let my mouth slide back down, then back up again, increasing my speed until it felt like his cock was going to explode in my mouth.

  He pulled me up, an intense, concentrated expression on his face. And just like in the movies, he swept his arm across my desk, knocking off the cup of pencils, the folders, the stapler. He lifted me up and plunked me down, then quickly reached for his pants which were still down around his ankles, where he grabbed his wallet and pulled out a condom.

  I stayed upright but leaned way back, letting my knees fall apart. He slid my ass closer to the edge of the desk and then slowly pushed his cock into me. It occurred to me then that anyone could just walk through the door. He said he’d locked it, but maybe he was just saying that so I’d be more comfortable. The idea, actually, aroused me, made me feel like I was doing something I shouldn’t be.

  Which I totally was.

  I wasn’t supposed to be here, practically naked, legs spread on my desk, his cock easing into me. Oh, but it felt so good. He was so hot, and I watched his face as he slowly started to move his hips back and forth. His lips were slightly parted, his brow furrowed, the expression on his face one that could easily be confused with pain. But if he felt even half as good as I did, pain was the furthest thing from his mind. I pushed back against him, almost as if he I was trying to get up, but he gripped me tighter, held me there on top of the desk while he fucked me.

  Afterward, my whole body was buzzing, and I didn’t know how I should feel. He had a satisfied grin on his face as he hitched his pants back up. As the pleasure started to recede, all I could think about was him having sex with his other secretaries in this office, too, probably right here on this desk, like it was some sort of initiation into the club of women who not only worked for Ian but also had sex with him.

  Most of the buttons on my shirt had popped off and now it wouldn’t close properly. Great.

  He came over and put both hands on the sides of my shoulders, rubbing them lightly. He kissed my forehead.

  “Sorry about your shirt,” he said. “We can’t have you leaving the office like that now, can we? Wait here.”

  He turned and went into his office, returning a moment later with a blue button down shirt of his own.

  “It’s clean,” he said. “And it’ll be big on you, but at least it’ll get you home without having to flash any passersby.”

  “Thanks,” I said, taking the shirt from him. I left my own shirt on and buttoned his on over it, giving me a sort of odd, misshapen look. We both stood there, not saying anything. Finally, I bent down and grabbed my purse. “Well, I better get going. I’ll see you later.”

  He walked me out, and I didn’t know what to say, so I felt awkward, but he seemed completely content, a happy half-smile on his face. At my car, he again put his hands on my shoulders, pulling me to him, then wrapped me up in his arms in a long embrace, his face nuzzled next to my neck.

  “You be good,” he said when we pulled apart. “I’ll see you later.”

  I got in the car and got out of the parking spot as quickly as I could, breathing a sigh of relief when I turned the corner and he was no longer in sight.

  What the hell had just happened?

  Yes, it had been so good, but I also felt disappointed with myself. Was I really one of those girls who was incapable of resisting a good-looking guy? Shouldn’t I have just yanked my purse back up and stomped out when that whole thing had started? Didn’t I have any self-respect, any dignity? Just because something felt good didn’t mean that it was the right thing to do.

  I drove for a while, not really thinking about anything. My inner thighs were aching as a reminder of what we’d just done, and at that moment, I found myself wishing more than anything for a time machine to go back and not have done it at all. Now that the good feelings were done and over with, I wished that it hadn’t happened.

  I met up with Caroline the next evening after work, glad that Ian had a late meeting with a client so he wouldn’t be there to try to tempt me into having sex again. It had been so good that last time. Well, every time that we’d had sex had been good, but the other night had been mind-blowing.

  Caroline waved me over when I got there. “Hey,” I said. “How’s it going?”

  She held her beer up to me. “I’ve been working like a dog,” she said. “And I totally deserve this beer. Probably at least three or four more after this, too. How’s everything with you?”

  “Oh it’s great,” I said sarcastically. “I’ve still got a stalker, my boss that I slept with—lost my virginity to—is acting like he’s only got eyes for me, which I know is a big act, but I can’t find another job, and I’ve got an appointment with some shrink to go talk about a quarter-life crisis.” I decided not to mention the part about our office encounter the other day. At
least not right now. I knew she wouldn’t approve and would probably give me some sort of lecture about being a strong woman, about not giving in to a guy just because he was hot and wanted to have sex.”

  “Quarter-life crisis?”

  “Yeah. Don’t ask. It’s something my mother set up.”

  Caroline laughed. “Oh boy,” she said. “This ought to be good.”

  “Apparently, he’s writing a book about people going through quarter-life crises, and he wants to interview people and probably include their sob stories in his book, and my mother said that I’d be the perfect candidate for it. Under other circumstances, I might have disagreed, but I’m starting to wonder if she’s right. I mean, what the hell am I doing with my life? Aren’t I supposed to feel a little more adult by this point? I still feel like I’m seventeen. Like I’m waiting for my life to start, like I have no clue what I’m supposed to do but that’s okay because I’m still young and I’ve got time.”

  “You are still young.”

  “I know, but look at you. You’ve got a career. You know what you’re doing.”

  “That’s not true, but thanks for saying it.”

  “Anyway, the point is you’re not working some menial job, sleeping with your boss. You went to college, got a degree, and got a job in that field. I am totally floundering, am completely adrift, have no idea what I’m doing, and am just making some really bad choices, it seems. So, I’m going to go talk to this guy, and maybe he’ll be able to shed some light or something. At the very least tell me I’m not alone, which I guess will make me feel a little better.”

  Caroline patted my arm. “You’re being too hard on yourself,” she said. “The whole thing with Ian—he’s hot, and it sounds like he was great in bed, so who cares if you slept with him? You’ve realized that he’s a dick, and now you’ll have a better idea about it when the next guy comes along. And we all need to pay the bills, right? And sometimes that means taking work that doesn’t perfectly align with what it is we went to school for or got our degree in. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still be working toward something. Have you written anything lately? Have you been working on that at all?”

  “No, I’ve been too stressed with this job stuff and Noah and every time I sit down at my computer, the sight of the blank screen just staring back at me makes me want to scream.”

  “You know, I feel that way too sometimes. I think it’s just part of the process. You just have to let yourself feel it, and it’s uncomfortable, sure, but eventually it passes and you’ll get an idea, or inspiration will strike, and then you’ll be off and running.”

  “You make it sound so simple.”

  “It is, though. You’re just letting all this other stuff get in the way of it. Which I understand; I’m not trying to say that all the shit you’re currently dealing with isn’t super stressful. Girl, you have a lot on your plate right now! But I think if you were writing, then it might help.”

  “Maybe,” I said.

  “You’ve always been happier when you’ve been writing.”

  She was right, I knew this, but it felt like so long ago that I’d last written something that I could barely remember what it felt like.

  When I got home later that night, I saw a car that looked like Noah’s, parked a few spaces up from the front of my building. It was dark, so I couldn’t tell if there was someone sitting in there or not, but I hurried into the apartment, anger and anxiety swirling through me. Part of the anger because I was once again aware of how helpless I was, how completely inept I would be at defending myself. I hoped that Jonathan would be able to teach me everything he knew about self-defense. Another part of me, though, knew that I was feeling like this because everything seemed like it was out of my control. And that was really my biggest problem: I didn’t feel like I had control over any aspect of my life.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Ian

  Women seldom played hard to get with me, but when they did, boy, I sure as hell found it arousing. It rarely happened, and often happened out of default; they’d think I was out of their league, they’d feel intimidated by me, they would assume I was already taken. That’s how it had been with Wendy, the nurse at Pete’s nursing home, at first. She’d been all business. Except I happened to catch her looking at me when she thought I wasn’t aware of it, and I knew that she was interested. And now Daisy, it seemed, had decided to play hard to get, too.

  After I had fucked her at the office though, the game continued the next day, at which point I began to wonder if it was really a game. I’d be sitting there at my desk, and I’d look up, and she’d be doing data entry, or answering the phone, and I’d watch her, waiting for her eyes to meet mine. They never did, though. It was as if she was purposefully not looking at me, replying with the most perfunctory answers to any question I asked.

  Had she enjoyed the other day so much that she’d decided to adopt this attitude permanently? That certainly wasn’t the vibe that I was getting.

  During lunch break, she actually left the office. I looked out the window and saw her sitting across the street on one of the benches that overlooked a small community garden. A few moments later, I saw Jonathan walk over and sit down next to her, though there was a big gap of space between them. I went back to my desk and tried not to wonder too hard about what it was they were talking about.

  When I saw her getting ready to go later that day, I asked her if she’d first come into my office.

  “I’m getting the sense that there’s something you want to say to me,” I said.

  She looked down. “No, there’s not really.”

  “Daisy.”

  She didn’t look up.

  “Daisy,” I said again, and I waited until she finally raised her face and looked at me.

  “What?” There was a hint of irritation in her voice, sort of the way a teenager would sound when a parent was asking a particularly annoying question. It reminded me of how young she actually was.

  “There is something wrong,” I said. “I’m not sure what, but I can tell you are definitely not happy about something. Is it because of the other day? At your desk?” Maybe that had been taking it too far. Maybe I should have just stopped when she said she had to go the first time.

  She blinked a few times and didn’t say anything. I could see her thinking, though, trying to work out what it was she wanted to tell me. Or if she wanted to tell me. I tried to think of what it was that might be bothering her. Was she not okay with the fact that I was her boss? Had doing it in the office been too uncomfortable? Or maybe it was—

  “I know about your other secretaries,” she said finally. “I found out. I know that this is something that you just . . . do.”

  Ah. Okay. Well, everything was starting to make sense now. “You did?” I said. “From who?” Probably Jonathan.

  She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. What does matter, though, is that I feel like a fool for thinking that there was actually something . . . something special between us. I know how stupid that sounds.”

  “It doesn’t sound stupid,” I said. “And I happen to agree with you—I do think there’s something special between us, too.”

  But she kept shaking her head. “You’re just saying that. How can there be anything special between us when you’ve done this exact thing with your other secretaries?”

  “It was only one,” I said. “It’s not like that was part of the job description. And the difference there is that the thing with her was solely physical. Just physical attraction, nothing more.”

  “Oh,” she said, her voice small.

  Shit. I hadn’t been expecting this. Fucking Annie! Fucking Jonathan, too, or whoever the hell she found out about it from. “Daisy,” I said. “I don’t want you to think that what’s been going on between us hasn’t meant anything to me.”

  “I’m sure it’s meant something to you,” she said, “just not what it did to me. I know that you enjoyed it. But I felt like . . . I just thought . . .” She trai
led off. “Never mind. It sounds stupid. I’m not trying to be a bitch to you; I just don’t know how else to handle it. Having to come into the office and see you every day.” She gave me what seemed to be a brave smile. “I’m glad we’re talking about it, though. I mean, it’s uncomfortable and everything, and I’m embarrassed to admit it, but it’s good to get it out there. Good that I realized this stuff now and not later.”

  “You’re making it sound like I’ve done something terrible to you,” I said. I must’ve had a rather distressed look on my face, because she came over and touched my cheek, a sympathetic expression in her eyes.

  “I know you’re not,” she said. “It just seems like it would be better if things didn’t go any further between us. I don’t think I can do a casual relationship. I don’t have that much experience with these sorts of things, but I do know enough to know that I couldn’t do a casual relationship with you.”

  In a way, she was saying everything that I wanted to hear, which surprised me, because up until this point, I’d never wanted a woman to utter anything other than, “Why yes, no strings attached sex is absolutely all I want from you.” That had been before; this was now. And with Daisy, for some reason that I still couldn’t quite understand, I wanted things to be different.

  “Look, Daisy,” I said, “I’m certainly not perfect, but the last thing I ever wanted was to hurt you. I’m sorry that you had to find things out this way. About Annie and everything. I didn’t bring it up because I thought it was over; I didn’t think that I’d ever have to see her again. You have to understand, she and I were never a couple. It was just a fun thing that I thought we both understood would never get serious. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. Letting her go was the best for both of us.”

  The sympathetic look in her eyes wavered. “Best for both of you? Or you?”

  “Both of us. I wanted her to move on, to be able to get on with her life without having to see me every day as a reminder of what she thought she wanted. But the thing is, Daisy, she barely even knew me. There’s a difference between being intimate with someone and knowing them intimately.”