by B. B. Reid
“Don’t start, Angel. I’ve never fucked her.”
At that moment, the door open and Celesha walked in carrying a giant turkey sub in one hand and an equally giant ham sub in the other.
“Hungry much?” Dash joked.
“I couldn’t decide so I got them both.”
“Or you could have asked them to put both meats in one sandwich.”
She rolled her eyes at Dash as if he were slow. “But then I’d have less bread.”
I was the first to lose control and burst out with laughter, Dash and Celesha followed.
“Should I take that?” she gestured to the legal envelope in Dash’s hand.
“This is going to accounting and you look like you need to sit.” He thrust the folder towards me. “Ms. Waters will take it.”
His blatant disregard pissed me off. Even Celesha noticed it and lifted an eyebrow. I chose not to say anything and took the folder from his hand none too gently. The envelope was addressed to the head of accounting who was none other than Nate. I smiled to myself realizing that if Dash wasn’t too concerned with being a dick he would have realized it.
With each step, I expected him to come charging after me, but I made it all the way to the accounting department.
The floor receptionist led me to Nate’s office. He was on the phone, but when he noticed me, he quickly ended the call. “Willow, hello.” He dismissed the receptionist with a nod. “I hope this is a social call.”
“I’m afraid not. Numero uno wanted me to deliver this to you.”
“Well, I’m glad he did. I’ve been meaning to catch up to you. Would you consider having dinner with me?”
“Oh, um. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
His smile was arrogant in a way that said he thought I was playing hard to get. “And why not?”
“Because I’m not sticking around so there’s no point in us getting to know each other.”
“Ouch. Are you always this cold-hearted?”
I reared back and considered slapping the smirk off his unremarkable face. “Excuse me?”
“Don’t get me wrong. I love it very much. I expected your temper to match your hair. Tell me… does it also match the rest of you?”
“You’re a pig.”
“You wound me. I am simply a man that can appreciate all you have to offer.” His hand slid around my hip and rested on my ass before I could put him in his place.
“Nate—”
“What the hell is going on here?”
I felt the color drain from my face and knew who it was that spoke before I even turned.
“Mr. Chambers, I was just speaking with your assistant about proper dress attire—”
“With your hand on her ass?”
Nate snatched his hand away as if he’d forgotten that it was even there.
“Well, she—I—”
“Save it. Get your shit and get out. You’re fired.”
Dash didn’t wait around for a response. He took me by the hand, disregarding the baffled looks and whispers as he led me out of the suite and to the elevators. Not once during the ride up did he speak, but he didn’t have to. He was pissed and ready to take it out on me.
My theory proved right once we made it to his floor.
“What are you trying to do to me?” He growled as he all but flung me from the elevator and into his office suite. If there was a door, I was pretty sure it would be slamming right now, but I was forced to settle with the powerful thud of his footsteps as he charged me.
“I could ask you the same. You didn’t need to fire him.”
“I think his hand on your ass meant I did.”
“It doesn’t matter because you sent me down there in the first place.”
“An error I overlooked because of your childish behavior about my relationship with Celesha. For fuck sake, you had no reason to believe I ever fucked her.”
“You had no right to be this upset over a stupid ass grab.”
“No one touches what’s mine.”
“I’m not yours!”
He tipped his head and regarded me with narrowed yes. “You say that as if you have a choice.”
“I do. I always did and I made it. I left, remember?”
“You ran. Big difference.”
“Whatever the difference, I got far away from you and your overbearing ability to be a complete ass!”
“Stop shouting.”
“You first.” I should have heeded the threat, but I was done taking orders. I only ever wanted to be my own person and only two people had ever succeeded in stealing my right. He shed his suit jacket while keeping me trapped in his gaze. The part of me that longed to submit knew what it meant, but I held my ground figuratively and literally.
“Stand down.”
“No.”
“Where was all this bravery when I asked you to be with me? It was so easy for you to be a coward but hard to love me?”
“It was easy to leave because you were nothing to me. You meant nothing because you never could. I thought of you so little I could have forgotten you.” I choked on the last, but it was too late for regrets.
His silence was deafening. Or maybe it was the pounding of my blackened heart. The one that he sought to rip apart so callously.
So wrapped up with the battle between my angry heart and my conscience was I that I never noticed him closing the distance until he was standing in front of me. The amber flecks of his eyes disappeared to the silent anger raging in their depths.
When his hand rose, I flinched but didn’t miss the question in his eyes as his finger swept his lip thoughtfully.
I desperately needed to know what he was thinking just as my conscience had won me over. “Dash, I didn’t—”
“Shh, Angel.” His voice was deceptively calm. His finger left his lips and fingered the button on my dress. The first slipped through followed by a second and third before I could muster a sentence.
“What are you doing?” I held my now gaping dress together with trembling fingers.
“Undressing you.”
“Yes, but why?”
“Because I like this part of our arguments.”
“Then you haven’t been listening.” His small smile followed by his lips moving against mine was his only reaction, and whether it was an answer or a distraction, it worked. My lips moved with his seeking more of his taste, and I suspected he did the same judging by the hungry urgency.
“I heard everything,” he whispered when he finally came up for air. I could see the unmoving purpose in his expressive eyes.
“Celesha,” I reminded.
“She won’t be disturbing us.” I was lifted in his arms and carried through a door I’d never noticed before. Inside was a small bedroom that still managed to appear luxurious. The large bed with its dark sheets dominated the room, and for the first time since returning, I admitted fear.
“I don’t—”
“Shhh,” he repeated as he forced my fingers away and unzipped my dress. “I don’t care.”
His hands pushed the dress from my shoulders first and then tugged the tight material down my trembling legs until it drifted to the floor with finality.
It wasn’t until the dress was gone that I remembered I never got my panties back. I looked down my body hoping I was wrong. How could I possibly forget my panties?
Oh, God… maybe they were still on the floor. Celesha surely would have noticed them by now.
“Looking for these?”
I turned my head to see my panties hooked around his finger at eye level. I moved to take them, but he moved his hand away just in time and stuffed them in his pocket.
At least they weren’t lying in the middle of the office floor…
In the next moment, his hand forced its way between my thighs. “Spread your legs.”
I wanted to refuse.
I really did.
Instead, I did what any girl would do when faced with someone as hot as Dash and a voice that promised ecst
asy to the stars and back. Never mind the emotional connection. Sometimes the physical was enough to forget who we are.
As soon as my legs shifted, his hand cupped my sex completely.
“Why are you doing this to me?”
His fingers rubbed tantalizingly against my sex. Strumming me to delirium. “I’m going to make you remember.”
It was then I realized my mistake. I wasn’t fighting some horny teenager anymore. I was defying a man bent on having his will obeyed.
He led me to the bed, and with every shift of his body, his clothes rubbed against my naked skin, increasing my feels of vulnerability.
He pushed me lightly, bending me over, and I caught myself on my hands and crawled toward the headboard. His hand caught my foot before I could get far so I looked over my shoulder, silently asking the question.
“I want to see your face when you remember me.” His hands made quick work of his belt. The sound of his zipper lowering was like a threat. He didn’t bother to shed his pants before he covered me with his body. “Who am I?”
“Please.”
“Who am I, Angel?” He lifted his hips and lowered his pants enough to free his erection.
“Just fuck me.”
He wasted no time following my command. His hard length plunged to the very depths of me making me cry out and lose my breath simultaneously. Just as I began to revel in the feeling of him filling me full, he abandoned my body slowly.
“Don’t make me ask again.”
“Then don’t ask again.”
His hands were quick and strong, flipping me over onto my stomach. I felt his fingers digging into my hips and his chest pressing into my back as he leaned over me.
“Angel.”
His pet name for me was followed by a bite on my shoulder sending vibrations down my spine.
It was a warning.
A threat.
One that I should heed, but my pride wouldn’t let me.
“Fine.” His hand parted my thighs but bypassed my sex for the forbidden. “Have it your way and I’ll have you mine.”
“Dasher…”
“Too late, Angel.”
His fingers biting into the skin of my hips was my only warning before my ass was forced in the air.
“Dash?”
“Shh.” His finger dipped inside my sex and teased until I was dripping with need. He then slowly eased them out and brought them up, spreading my ass open more and teasing the puckered flesh. With each pass of his fingers, he grew bolder until his fingers invaded my ass and then started the familiar push and pull until I was writhing and wordlessly begging for more.
“I’m going to fuck your ass now, Angel.”
I had only registered the feeling of him probing my entrance before he plunged inside me uncaring, unforgiving, and unapologetic. He was impossibly hard as was his thrusts.
The force of his possession was too much for my heart and body to handle and yet I couldn’t make him stop. In this moment, I wanted to give him what he wanted. What we both wanted. Even if it was just pretend.
“I told you, Willow Olivia Waters. You’re mine.”
I could only muster a small sound that was barely a moan and to push back onto his cock.
That’s when the pounding began.
Hard.
Fast.
Unrelenting.
And completely mind blowing.
I wanted to beg. I wanted to scream. Fuck me, I wanted to be his. But I was tainted. By lies and fear. I didn’t deserve love with him.
I hadn’t realized I was crying until I felt his tongue trail my cheek. “Crying won’t make me stop, Angel.” The rumble of his voice was electrocuting and thrilling.
“No.”
“No?”
“Don’t stop.”
His answering laughter was unexpected and strangely chilling. “You better fucking believe I won’t.”
The threat of pleasure led to floodgates opening and the tiny thread of Dash’s control to snap.
“Such a tight ass.” As if on command, my ass gripped him and the groan that rumbled from his chest was music to my ears. My ass pushed back against him, against my will, silently asking for more. “When I’m ready, I’m going to come in your mouth. Would you like that?”
“Yes.”
“Say it. Say you want to swallow my come.”
“I want to swallow your come.”
“Yeah?”
“Taste you…” I felt delirious. Words were impossible. I could only feel and submit to his possession.
Finally, after I didn’t think I could survive anymore, he forced one final thrust and then flipped me over. His hand gripped my hair and lifted my upper body from the bed just as his cock erupted.
But it wasn’t my mouth that received him. His warm come coated my lips and cheeks in the most vulgar way that both excited and pissed me off. I stared up at him questioning him with my eyes when my brain refused to function.
“You don’t deserve my come,” he answered simply.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
WILLOW
“YOU’LL BE STAYING here,” Dash announced at the last minute as he gathered his bags. He barely even looked at me.
“What made you change your mind?” And why was I disappointed at the thought of not seeing him for an entire week?
“You.”
I faltered at the sadness in his voice. “Me?”
“I need to think, and I can’t do that with you around. I’ll only end up hurting you or fucking you.”
“So am I supposed to be stuck alone in this apartment for a week?”
“You won’t be alone.”
“Another guard?”
“Of sorts,” he answered vaguely.
I felt as if I should say something but words seemed impossible. He hesitated only a second before leaving without another word or a goodbye.
I wandered to the couch and dropped onto it feeling lifeless. I should have been relieved. I was no longer going, but I was still trapped inside… or so I thought.
My gaze landed on his car keys lying on the glass cocktail table. He must have taken a car to the airport…
My mind raced, already putting my plan into action. This morning as we left he had been too distracted by the phone call from his mother to notice me watching him key in the code. I still had no wallet or cellphone, but I now had my freedom and means of transportation.
But first things first…
I tiptoed to the door and opened it. My eyes ran up and down the private corridor leading to the elevator only to find no sign of a guard.
Had he been toying with me?
I shook off the suspicion and counted my blessings. After dressing in one of the jeans and plain shirts I’d bought during my shopping trip with Sheldon, I prayed that my luck hadn’t ran out and headed for his office.
The next step in my plan would require cash.
I took a deep breath and tried the doorknob. To my utter disbelief, it was unlocked. The door opened a crack, and I hesitated for only a moment before pushing inside. The room was dark so I flipped on the light switch. My eyes immediately landed on his desk.
I crossed the space and came around until I was facing the drawers. I tried them but found my luck had run out. All of the drawers were locked.
I banged my fist on top of the wooden surface in frustration.
What was I going to do now?
I sunk into the leather chair and placed my head in my hands. If I couldn’t get my hands on cash, I would need something else worth trading, but what?
Someone of Dash’s status would have to have something of value lying around…
Jewelry!
I rushed for his bedroom ignoring the fact that I had just been reduced to petty theft. Considering what was at stake, I was willing to take the decimation of my character.
The large walk-in closet held all that I needed. I perused the watches and took what looked like the least expensive though I was sure they were all worth a pretty
penny.
I resisted the urge to celebrate before the true victory was won and slipped out of the apartment.
All the way down, I held my breath, waiting for someone to jump out to stop me, but no one came.
When I made it to the parking garage, I quickly located his car and slid into the leather seat. I immediately felt out of place. The car looked as foreign as a space ship to me.
I started the car and carefully drove away, smiling only on the inside.
I did it.
Now for the risky part…
My destination was the local university Sheldon had attended. Using the built in GPS, I made it there in just less than fifteen minutes.
The next part took longer than expected. Everyone was wary of the unknown girl asking to buy a product that would surely land them in jail for the rest of their days, but eventually, I scored what I came for and sped all the way back to the apartment.
I rehearsed in my head the next step and ignored my sweaty palms. This part was particularly hard because it involved Keiran directly. I had to get him here without making him suspicious. If he blew me off and warned Dash, then Buddy would die.
I only had a few days left, and Keiran and Lake wouldn’t be back for the Christmas holiday for a few days. By then it would be too late.
I made it back without getting caught and made my way to the bedroom. All the fucking, planning, and sneaking around had done me in, and no sooner had I laid down, I was out like a light.
Shortly after, the low beep of the front door jarred me from my sleep as if it were the sound of a bomb detonating. The clock on the nightstand read that it was just after midnight. Had Dash come back?
Maybe he’d come to torture me more with his presence.
My toes sunk into the plush carpet as I shook off the remnants of sleep. I felt as if I could go a few more hours, but the silence leftover from the door opening was spooking me.
Hesitant steps led me to the front of the apartment, and I was scared shitless by the sight of Keiran standing at the door wearing all black. The dark hood over his head shielded his expression, but the energy drifting across the space was enough.
It took seconds too long as we stared at each across the large space that wasn’t large enough. I managed to find my voice along with a little misplaced courage. “What are you doing here?”