by Lauren Wood
“Created a monster,” I laughed.
“If it wasn’t Heartstring it’d be another big company taking her away,” Jordan added as he walked out to the curb. “I’ll catch you two later.”
We watched his car take off down the street, then said our goodbyes. When I got into my car, I told the driver to take me around the block. I needed Dad to think I was headed in a different direction. Once there was no chance of him seeing where I was really headed, I gave them the right address.
Jordan’s office was on one of the top floors, and I was sure he was looking forward to having his name signed to a whole building like Heartstring’s massive headquarters. Not that he hadn’t known success, because he had. But this was definitely going to be an upgrade for him.
I had come to know the building well—especially the side hallway that was a secret entrance of sorts straight to Jordan’s door. I popped out and quickly knocked, getting inside before too many of his employees saw me. We couldn’t risk one of them ratting us out to my dad, especially after we both just gave him the brush off.
He was on the phone when I came in and held up his finger to let me know he’d be a minute longer. I put down my jacket and bag and looked around for a moment, before I realized what a fun opportunity was before me.
“No!” Jordan shouted over the line, banging his fist on the corner of his desk. “Not good enough. If we say we’ll have it in twenty-four hours, we have it in twenty-four hours, goddammit.”
I winced a little for whoever was on the receiving end of his sharp reprimand, but secretly I was just jealous. I loved seeing him all worked up like that, and it kind of made me want to be reprimanded instead.
I swayed in front of him and then dropped down to my knees, setting myself to unbuckling his belt and unzipping his pants before he had a chance to argue with me.
He playfully tried to push me away, but I worked around his shooing hands and sucked him into my mouth anyway. The moment he slid down my throat, he grew rock hard and all of his protests stopped.
“Yes, mm-hmm,” he said tensely over the phone, trying to keep his composure. “Yeah, but I feel like you’re not listening to me. How hard is it…” he gasped, choking on his own words.
Very hard, I smirked to myself, sliding him to the back of my throat again.
The poor guy stammered through the rest of his phone call. Even getting a BJ while talking didn’t make him lose his edge or give the least bit of mercy. His broken sentences probably just made him seem even more angry and crazy—and all the more terrifying to whichever employee had pissed him off.
By the time he hung up, a long drawn-out groan escaped his lips as if he had been holding it in the whole time.
“You are such a bad girl,” he scolded, rubbing his hands through my hair.
I pulled him from my mouth and ran the tip of my tongue from his tip to the base, nice and slow. Another string of breathless expletives seeped from his lips as he sank deeper into the sensation.
I was more than happy to let him cum in my mouth just like that. I knew he’d reward me later that night. For all of our best efforts to behave, we hadn’t had much luck. Our rendezvous had become a daily occurrence. If anything, our efforts to control ourselves just made us even more sex-crazed for each other.
But he had other things in mind for me that afternoon. He stepped back and pulled me up to my feet.
“Oh no. Not like that,” he told me, spinning me around and pushing himself up behind me against his desk. “I want you bent over like the bad girl you are.”
I spread my hands out, remembering how our very first time was like this. He smacked my ass just like he had done that night. He didn’t hesitate to pull the zipper down the length of my pencil skirt to expose my bare flesh. Once he had it in sight, he smacked me again…and again.
I could feel his cock pressing against me and couldn’t wait for him to slide inside. But just as I thought he was finally going to give me what I wanted, a knock came to his door.
“Not now!” he barked.
“But Mr. Ashford, it’s…” his poor secretary tried.
“I said Not Now!” he shouted even louder than before.
I could practically see her flinching on the other side of the door, caught between the urgency of whatever important phone call or meeting he was shirking off and the unsavory temptation that was keeping him away—Me.
I swirled my hips, egging him on. He wasn’t the only one who was impatient. I didn’t follow him all the way across town to be blown off for some work thing.
Lucky for us, we now shared a love for mixing business and pleasure. Work hard, play harder. The phone call or whatever it was could wait. Right now, we had other important matters to attend to…which was to see how many times we could make each other cum in the small slice of stolen time we had left.
13
Jordan
As I was straightening my tie in the mirror, a wall of heavy doubt washed over me. I hated that sick feeling—no matter how used to it I should have been by now.
“Just about ready?” Cat called out from the living room.
She was sitting on my leather sofa with her long tan legs crossed. One of her heeled feet bobbed up and down impatiently while she gracefully sipped on her glass of white wine.
“I’m not so sure about tonight,” I confessed, hating to let her down.
“Uh-uh. Oh no you don’t,” she shot back, flying up to her feet before coming over to tighten my tie. “You’ve fucked me in every corner of your apartment, your office, and every corner of my apartment and office. We’ve done it in closets and copy rooms and…”
“And now what? You want me to fuck you in a public restaraunt?”
“No!” she slapped my chest. “We’re celebrating. We’ve kept this up this whole time without getting caught, and now our reward is Heartstring.”
“I’m just worried we’re going to get caught while we’re celebrating not getting caught,” I argued. “What if we run into your dad or something?”
“We’re business partners. We’re not allowed…No, you don’t think we’re expected to be sharing a meal together from time to time? If anything, it’s suspicious for us not to do it.”
“People don’t go to this place for business meetings,” I reminded her. The exclusive, all-booked restaurant was a notorious date spot. Very romantic and also very expensive. “If you’re seen there together, it’s assumed you are together. It’s precisely why people with a high profile don’t take their mistresses and lovers there. The tabloids and gossipers would call them out in a heartbeat.”
“All the more reason my dad won’t be there,” she countered. “I know my mom has her country club soiree tonight, and there’s no way my dad has a mistress to take out when she’s busy. He won’t be there,” she assured me.
She was right. In all the years I had known Mark, he would never cheat on his wife. He wouldn’t even think about it. In fact, when we were entertaining potential clients and the mention of a strip club would come up—he wouldn’t even indulge us in that. He was faithful and loyal through and through. Remembering that in that moment got me to thinking about all of his other honorable qualities, which made me not want to go out even more. I hated lying to him, and I hated always thinking about how he would feel if he knew what I was doing with his daughter.
But I could see how excited Cat was. I didn’t want to let her down either. She had been talking about these reservations for over a week, and only snagged the table because of our negotiations with Heartstring. The app and website was one of their biggest platforms for running advertisements since it was such a romantic dating spot. They were already buttering us up—extending good will to the new owners to ensure the relationship carried over without a hitch.
“Alright. Fine,” I groaned finally. “But if we’re going, let’s go. Before I change my mind. No last minute trips to the bathroom to primp.”
She arched a brow. “Do I look like I need to primp?”
&
nbsp; “No, you look perfect,” I smiled, kissing her forehead.
“Exactly.” She spun on her heels and led us out the door.
I had been trying to go with the flow and not stress about things with her too much. We were both having fun, and we were about to make a lot of money together. I figured—if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. And the only thing that would break it would be if we got caught, which neither of us planned on happening.
Sometimes it was harder than others to talk myself down from a spiraling panic, but I always managed to do it eventually. And that’s exactly what I did that night as the car took off for the restaurant. By the time we got there, I had pushed all of my fears and worries far from my mind.
Even with our reservations and good standing with the owners, we had to wait longer than expected for our table. We were forced into the crowd huddled in the foyer as the waitress made sure everything was ready for us.
“Wow, this place is packed tonight!” Cat shouted over the noise of chattering customers.
“No kidding,” I mumbled, barely loud enough for her to hear it. I was too busy trying to avoid getting my feet stepped on by people as they pushed by.
But once again, Cat managed to chase all of my grievances away. The crowd of people pushed her closer to me, until she was flat against my chest with her hands spread across me. All the noise seemed to stop when I looked into her eyes, and all the commotion faded. When she looked at me like that, it was like getting sucked into a vacuum where nothing else existed but me and her.
“Mr. Ashford?”
Our surroundings came rushing back as I snapped to.
“Your table is ready,” the waitress said.
“Right, thank you,” I replied, reluctantly letting the moment with Cat slip through our fingers.
What was that thing that always rushed over me around her? Why did it put dangerous words dancing around on the tip of my tongue? If we had just a few seconds longer before we were interrupted, would I have said…
The thought was slashed from my mind as I looked up and saw him standing there.
Right there on the other side of the room, staring straight back at me. Mark—Cat’s Dad. I froze under his watchful eyes, unsure of what to do next. There were enough people between us that he couldn’t have gotten to me quickly, no matter how badly he might have wanted to.
And judging by the look on his face, he just saw everything. Us pushed up so close together, me kissing her forehead, the way we looked at each other. It was all reflecting back at me through his eyes, playing over and over again like a bad horror movie.
His lips parted as if he might call out to us, but before he could, we were swept off into the rush of the walkway. People pushed through, trying to make their way to their tables, and we were carried off with them in the direction of our waitress. Cat was walking ahead of me, pulling my hand so we could keep up with her.
I imagined I was white as a sheet as I sat down at our table. Cat’s obvious concern confirmed it for me.
“Are you okay?” Her brow wrinkled as she reached across the table for my hand. “You look pale. Like you’ve just seen a ghost or something!”
Ha. I wished Mark had been a ghost—some vivid manifestation of my worst fears that could just vanish away in a cloud of smoke. But, no. What happened was real. He saw us, and it was all over. There was nothing I could do about it now.
But Cat seemed oblivious. She must not have seen him watching us from across the room.
“I’m fine,” I lied, trying to pull myself together.
What was done was done, and I should have known better. But I kept going down that dangerous road anyway, knowing full well that something like this was bound to happen eventually.
There was no reason to ruin Cat’s mood and night too. Whatever would result from us getting caught couldn’t be stopped now. The least we could do was enjoy one last night together, pretending like everything was normal and fine.
All the while I knew nothing was normal or fine. My head spiraled with the possibilities. Would he be waiting outside for us when we left so he could corner me around back and punch me in the face? Would he ever speak to me again? Was the entire Heartstring deal about to slip through my fingers all because I couldn’t keep it in my pants?
“Did you hear me?” Cat asked.
“Huh? Oh. No. Sorry,” I shook my head. “What did you say?”
“Maybe we could sneak away to Hawaii or somewhere tropical for a few days after the deal is closed and we’re all settled in,” she repeated.
I nodded, swallowing hard. I was finally realizing how hopeless all of this was. How long could we really expect to keep this up? I didn’t know what we were thinking up until now. But if somehow, by some miracle, Mark managed to just let it go—to forget that he saw us behaving so intimately together…we couldn’t go on like this.
I admitted the only thing scarier to me than my fear of us getting caught…We had to stop.
My stomach twisted as Cat carried on without a care in the world. I couldn’t tell her now and ruin that beautiful smile on her face. I had to keep pretending like everything was fine, no matter how delusional it was.
I made it through dinner and dessert, smiling and listening to Cat while pretending like nothing was wrong. But I was dying inside the whole time…not just out of fear of what would happen. But over the dread of knowing this would all be over soon.
No more of her glowing skin against mine, no more of her scent flooding my nostrils, and no more blissful moments of moving inside of her while we were both torn apart with intense pleasure.
I played it off, but I was starting to realize this was about more than just sex. I had really fallen deep for her. Would that make a difference to Mark? No way. How could it? If I had a daughter, I don’t care how much of an adult she was, I’d kill any friend of mine for even looking at her the wrong way. Mark had just seen me do way more than that.
“This was the perfect night,” Cat said as we were finally heading back to my place. “Thank you.”
“No need to thank me. You were the one who technically snagged the reservations.” I hesitated on the corner. “Hey, listen. I hate to do this, but I’m going to send you back home in my car. I’ll call you later.”
“You’re going somewhere without me…now?” she puzzled in surprise.
I nodded. “Yeah, sorry. I had a work thing come up.”
I shuffled her into the car before she had a chance to protest and went home alone to think.
14
Cat
My mind was occupied with thoughts of Jordan, and my teeth tugged at my bottom lip. I tried to shake him out of my thoughts. I was about to be a partner of a new business, soon, and I had not worked this hard through high school and college so that I could be obsessed with a boy.
But, then again Jordan wasn’t a boy. He was a man. A very handsome man at that. But, it didn’t change things in the slightest.
Even if all I could think about were his arms holding me, as he plunged into me. I shook my head, erasing those thoughts from my mind. Work. Just think about work, Cat. I let out a deep breath and brought my focus to the documents that were in front of me.
Usually, I did so well at blocking everything out and focusing on my work, but this thing between Jordan and me, it was expanding into something, quite like a relationship. And that thought should have shocked me, should have been forbidden, but it wasn’t. There were so many things that I’d learned and loved about him, so many more things that I wanted to find out.
I wanted to be in a relationship with Jordan Ashford. Saying it out loud should have made me cringe, but it didn’t. Instead, it brought a small smile to my face, as I tossed my hair over my shoulder. It was such a weird, yet pleasant, thought.
There would be obstacles, I knew. And the biggest one was going to be my father, but we were going to get through it. I knew that much. And I was excited to do so. Sex with Jordan was great, but I found myself longing for spending time
with him that wasn’t strictly sexual.
I wondered if he felt the same. I knew that he liked the rendezvous that we did in various places around the office. And, I also knew that he liked to take me out places, like when we’d gone to the fair and out to drink the night before. He liked to show me off, and I was okay with that.
He didn’t think that this was a friends with benefits type of thing, did he? Because, I wasn’t that kind of girl. I mean, it seemed like I was, but I preferred not to be, especially where Jordan was involved.
Our little no-strings-attached thing had been fun up until this point, but at some point it was going to have to come to an end. Were we going to continue to see each other, or let it fizzle out and pretend that it had never happened?
I preferred the first choice. But, none of that was important. Jordan wasn’t even there for me to have the relationship talk with, anyways. Who knew where he had found himself wandering to.
He could be cheating. It was a thought that plagued my mind every single time I wasn’t with him. He was a catch, and he could have any other woman he wanted. But, I was a catch too. I wasn’t just something that he could walk all over if he wanted to. I was a very attractive woman. And he wasn’t the only one who could get any person he wanted. Men would bow down on their knees for me.
But the only man that I wanted to bow was Jordan.
My phone was vibrating against the desk so I picked it up and turned it to face me. Daddy flashed across the screen, and I, eagerly, answered it. He hardly ever called me when he knew that both of us were working, unless it was about work. But, I was always happy to get any call from him.
“Hi, daddy,” I answered, hearing the chaos that was in his background. Who knew what was happening at his office. He ran a pretty tidy show, but that secretary of his had to go. I didn’t know why he liked her so much, but, hey, that was his personal business, not mine. And I wasn’t going to go sticking my nose where it didn’t belong.