by Chloe Hawk
“You heard me. I don’t want you talking to Connor. Or any other guy at this party.”
“That’s ridiculous! There are going to be guys here, Cole, and they’re going to –”
“No.” He shook his head. “Then I won’t leave your side.”
“You can’t do that,” I said. “I’m supposed to be here for a photo op, remember? So maybe someone will see that I’m not brainwashed, that I’m just here as your assistant, that everything’s fine? You’re acting crazy.”
“I am crazy.” He grabbed me then and pushed me up against the door, pushing his body against mine. I tensed as his hands moved up my leg, stopping at the bottom of my dress. “Because you’re driving me crazy.”
“Please, Cole,” I said. “We can’t – ”
“Shut up.” His hands grabbed the bottom of my dress and pushed it up, his fingers sliding up my thighs and into my panties before finding my bare pussy.
I gasped. “What are you doing?”
“Finishing what I started.” His fingers moved inside of me, in and out, making me so wet I couldn’t take it. His thumb swirled against my clit, making me breathless. He grabbed onto my hair from behind, gathering it in his hands and yanking my head back as he finger fucked me.
I moaned. Feeling his fingers inside of me was ecstasy. Back in his office, he’d wanted to tease me, to toy with me, to play with me. Now he wanted to make me his. “Come for me, Avery,” he commanded, his breath hot on my neck. “Come on my fingers, baby.”
A second later, I did, my orgasm ripping through me like a tidal wave.
As soon as I was finished, and he pulled away.
“I’m going to go back to the party now,” he said. “Wait for a couple of minutes, and then follow me.”
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.
As soon as he was gone, I took in a deep breath, seemingly breathing for the first time. What the fuck had just happened? It had been the best orgasm of my life. With any of my ex-boyfriends, they’d had to touch me just right, using different positions or pressure. And even then it wasn’t always a guarantee that I could get there.
And yet Cole had made me come so fast.
It was all kinds of fucked up.
And the worst part was, I liked it.
I took another deep breath and made myself count to one hundred slowly. It wasted time, giving myself a buffer just in case anyone had seen Cole come out of the closet, and it gave me a chance to think about something other than what had just happened.
I ran my hands over my dress and smoothed my hair, and then opened the door and returned to the party.
I ran my eyes over the smartly dressed men and women, looking for Cole.
But I didn’t see him anywhere.
And then someone stepped into my line of vision.
A ghost from my past. Someone I’d never wanted to see again. Someone who’d shown up in my nightmares, over and over again, causing me sleepless nights for years.
“Hi, Avery,” Jeffrey Adams said, grinning. “I thought I saw you here. How are you?”
He looked exactly the same – same chipped front tooth, same weak chin, same bags under the eyes. He was older now, of course, but his face was the same, his eyes still dark and soulless.
“I’m fine,” I said, struggling to keep my voice even.
I went to move past him, but he followed me. “You here with Cole?”
“Yes.” I was moving through the party now, weaving through the party-goers, looking around wildly for Cole.
“Just visiting?”
“I’m working for him now.”
“Good for you,” he said. “I heard something about that.”
I stopped and turned and looked at him. “How?”
He shrugged. “You know, things get around.”
I gave him a tight smile. “I need to find Cole. We’ll be leaving soon.”
“I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think what?”
“I don’t think you’ll be leaving soon.” He pointed over to the side of the room, and I squinted. I could make out Cole, deep in conversation with Kalia. What the hell was she doing here?
“They’re fucking,” Jeffrey said. “They were fucking from the beginning, when we first hired her, before I left the company.”
My mouth had gone dry, and my body had gone numb. So numb that it took me a second to realize Jeffrey had grabbed my forearm, his nails digging into my flesh. I looked down. His nails were perfectly manicured, immaculately clean and filed.
“I’m sorry,” I said, wrenching out of his grasp. “But I should go.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” he said jovially. He took a sip of the drink he was holding. “Not unless you want me to tell Cole about that summer.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming. That summer. The summer I wanted to forget about, my biggest secret, my biggest shame. I’d rather go back to Gordon, rather have everyone I knew what it was like to grow up in my house, rather have what Cole and I had just done in the coatroom plastered on the front page of every tabloid in the city than have anyone find out about that summer and what had happened.
“Relax,” Jeffrey said. “Don’t look so panicked, Avery. I’m not going to tell him. You just have to do one thing for me.”
“What?” I whispered.
And then he leaned in and began to talk.
End of Book Two
Look For Book Three, Coming Soon