“Where are we having lunch today?”
“I wanted to have crab at that wonderful seafood restaurant on the water.”
“Which wonderful seafood restaurant, The Red Scupper?”
“Yes, that’s it, The Red Scupper.”
“That’s quite a drive, Mom. Are you sure you want to go that far away?”
“Yes, I’m sure. It gives me time to talk with you. You know I enjoy driving with you.”
“Okay, Mom, The Red Scupper it is.”
I drove out of the driveway and took the highway north. Very soon, my mother had me laughing with her jokes. She had a warped sense of humor, one that most people didn’t get to see.
“So how do you like having Annie around?”
“Do you really want to know, or are you just making small talk, like you do with your clients?”
“No, Mom. I really want to know.”
“She’s all right. I don’t need her living with me, though. I’d take her better if I only saw her when I needed her. She seems to be always there, like a bad stain; no matter how hard I rub at it, it remains.”
“Don’t be mean to Annie. I went through several applicants before I found her. And the reason she’s there with you is because I can’t be at the moment. I need her there in the event you have to go out in a hurry, and I can’t get to you in time.”
“You’re such a good, thoughtful man. I don’t know how you can’t find yourself a nice girl who’ll appreciate you. You’ll have to let her see the side of you I see and know and not the mean-mouthed, controlling man you present to the world. I must have done too good a job training you to hide who you are, not that it has become a permanent part of you.”
My mother had a way of finding a vulnerable spot and digging into it. She did it without missing a beat. I thought I was used to it, but sometimes she was still able to get under my skin. I had to remind myself that she was my mother and entitled to her opinion of me, her son—her only child.
“Mom, you have to stop,” I told her. And I again thought of Robyn. I wondered if she would like my mother and if my mother would like her.
“I’m talking to you, Dean. Are you hearing me?
“No. I drifted off for a moment. What were you saying, Mom?”
“Nothing important, so if you didn’t hear, I’ll let it go.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. We had arrived at the restaurant. I didn’t particularly like that restaurant, but if my mother liked it, I’d stomach it for her. I could see the happiness on her face as she got out of the vehicle.
“I love their crab sandwich, Dean. It’s the best I’ve ever had. I’m thankful it’s a drive away; otherwise, I’d be eating crab every day.”
“Thank God,” I whispered under my breath.
“Did you say something, Dean?”
“No, Mom. I didn’t say anything. Let’s go have crab,” I said, taking her hand and walking into the restaurant.
The place was busy, but we didn’t have to wait long before we were seated. We ordered our food. I ordered the old-fashioned fish and chips, and my mother ordered her crab sandwich. As I’d thought, there was nothing special about the food, but it gave me great pleasure watching my mother enjoy her sandwich. I took the time to look at her critically, and had to admit, she looked the same. It was just the panic attacks that made her vulnerable. I wished I knew what had brought them on. I knew what triggered them, but what had made it all start? That was a question I’d never know the answer to, but it was bugging the shit out of me.
My mother was only in her early fifties, not old at all. I’d better work on getting her at least one grandbaby. I had to smile because I was imagining myself giving Robyn that baby, and my temperature immediately rose. I had better think of other things while I’m in my mother’s company. Leave it to my mom; she didn’t miss my smile.
“Something is going on with you, Dean.”
“Why do you say that, Mom?”
“This was the second time you had a look on your face like the cat that licked all the cream.”
“You have too active an imagination, Mom. Now you’re comparing me to a cat.”
“I’m not comparing you to a cat, Dean. Don’t be obtuse. You looked very pleased with yourself, if you want a different analogy.”
“I’m still confused.”
“Well, keep being confused. Just don’t keep me in the dark too long about whatever or whoever is causing you to look so pleased with yourself. After all, I’m only your mother.”
I had to give her a hug. She was my mother, and I loved her to death. She was also very astute. When I was little, I was never able to get anything over her. It appeared to be the same now that I was a grown man.
After lunch, I drove to the edge of the water, and we sat in the vehicle watching the seagulls and talking about nothing in particular. It was too cold to stand outside too long, but my mom went out and fed the seagulls the bread from her lunch. She was like a kid feeding the seagulls.
Soon it was time to return home. I still had a business to run. When we arrived at her house, Annie was there with a fresh pot of tea and some freshly baked cookies for her. I was happy to see my mother was in a better mood than when she’d left the house earlier. She was joking with Annie about her cookies like old friends, and that was what I wanted for her, to have a friend instead of an employee. I hoped she saw that and was open to the idea.
“Bye, Mom. Bye, Annie. I’ll call you when I get to the office, Mom. I have some things to take care of, and then I’ll be done. But you’re connected to me by cell phone.”
“Thanks for taking me to lunch, Dean. I really and truly appreciate it. Even when it looks as if I don’t, I do.”
“You don’t have to thank me, Mom. It’s my pleasure to spend time with my favorite lady in the whole world. Bye, you guys.”
I put the pedal to the metal and was back at DL&J as the work day was drawing to an end. I had a pile of papers on my desk that I hadn’t had the time to sort through earlier, and I wanted to have a word with Robyn before she left for the day. I hoped I wasn’t too late to see her.
I strode into the building, my long strides eating up the distance to Joy’s office to see if there was anything needing my immediate attention. Joy was my left hand. She had everything under control. That freed me up to go through Robyn’s file, which was on my desk. I told myself I would walk past her office without stopping, but I couldn’t. She drew me like a magnet, and before I knew it, my hand was on her door. I knocked and didn’t get an answer, but I went in anyway. She was not there. I felt her absence like a kick to my gut. What the hell is going on with me? I know she has to go out of the office to get her job done, and here I am behaving like a spoiled brat because she isn’t here to greet me. I need to get a grip.
I turned to walk back out of her office, and there she was, reaching for the door handle. I don’t know who I surprised the most, myself or Robyn. I grabbed her and pulled her into the office into my arms.
“Mr. Holmes,” she said, and the snap in her tone jolted me to the core.
I looked at her, and I acknowledged that I was giving her control over me.
In that moment, she owned me, and God help me, as I looked into the focus of those incredible eyes and found a triumphant gleam there, part of me wanted to be controlled by her. I was already fully erect when I grabbed her hand; now I was throbbing with need and hunger. She knew it too, but I was too far gone to give a hoot’s ass. I was losing control.
11
~Robyn~
I was getting my things together to call it a day, and had gone to the ladies room to freshen up before I left. I walked into my office, and there was Dean, standing in my office, filling up the room with his presence.
To say I was taken by surprise to find Dean in my office would have been an understatement. I hadn’t expected to see him that day, so seeing him standing there was both shocking and exhilarating.
“We need to talk,” he said.
“Wh
at about?” I asked as my hand flattened against his impressive chest, remarkably firm, despite the heat that was coursing through my body.
He stared down at me, his expression unreadable, but the thundering of his heart beneath my hand told me he was just as affected as I was.
I felt his gaze as he fixed them on my breasts for a good minute. I knew what he was seeing; my nipples were behaving badly again. I swallowed hard, feeling every second like the stroke of his hand, the lick of a talented tongue. I was in big trouble.
“Come with me,” he said.
“Not now,” I said, stalling for time.
“Now,” he insisted, and he laced his fingers with mine and pulled me along with him. In a few steps, we were inside the conference room with the round table in the center. I turned to face him, not sure what to expect with his quicksilver mood. The last time we were in here, he had given me a dressing down.
He shut the connecting door, and before I could blink, he had advanced on me and had me against the wall. His hands were pressed on either side of me, but he didn’t touch me. I could feel the heat radiating from his body, and God, how I wanted him to touch me. I wanted it too much.
He glanced at my mouth, and suddenly I remembered the spicy, delicious way he tasted. Instinctively, my hands reached out to him. I didn’t think I could stop him if he pulled down my panties and took me there and then.
“Don’t kiss me,” I warned him.
“Why? You know you want me to,” he told me, his hands sliding to my wrists. I felt a burst of dampness against my panties that had me breathing hard.
“Are you saying I’m the only one wanting this thing here?”
“I’m freely admitting that I want to kiss you, but I sensed a hesitation in you. Is it because you don’t want me to or because you’re afraid of where it will lead?”
“Yes, that. And I’m also wondering if you want to kiss me because you sensed I want you to.”
“So, let me get this right. You aren’t denying that you want me to kiss you, but you are worrying if I want to kiss you as much as you want me to kiss you. Did I get it right?”
“Yes, you got it right, except for the part where I said, I don’t allow myself everything I want.”
“What does that mean?”
“Sometimes some things are best avoided if the cost of having them is too high—the temptation too great.”
“If anyone is to resist temptation,” he said, his head lowered, his lips within a hair’s breadth of mine, “it’s me.”
My fingers flexed against his arm. “Dean—”
“I think it’s because you’re afraid of where it might lead, of the control you think it might give me over you.”
“Speak for yourself. I believe it’s a situation of the pot calling the kettle black. I don’t have the fixation with control that you have. Yes, I like control, but I don’t let it rule my life. I don’t want control over anyone but myself.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. You have the control—all the control. If you didn’t, I wouldn’t have been lying in my bed at nights thinking about kissing you, tasting you, fucking you.” He paused. “And I do remember how you taste—all of you. Do you remember my mouth all over you—your mouth—your neck—your nipples—your—”
“Stop it,” I hissed, knowing exactly what he was going to say next. “I know what you’re trying to do.”
He moved back a step, taking the temptation of his sensuous mouth with him. His heated eyes focused on my face.
“What am I trying to do?”
“This is all a game to you—a game of manipulation. You are trying to punish me because somehow I was able to get under your skin, and now you don’t have the control you craved over me.”
“I want to fuck you. Many times. Many ways. How is that manipulation?”
“One minute you want to fuck me. The next you are berating yourself for wanting me.”
“I always want to fuck you. I wanted to the first time I saw you in that flame-colored dress. I want to do it on my time, my way, your legs wrapped around my waist, and my dick buried deep inside you. I’m also not happy with the way it’s consuming me to the exclusion of all else.”
“Stop!”
“Why? Am I making you wet?”
I glared at him, my only defense my silence.
“I’ll find out for myself,” he said, stepping back into me, and before I knew his intent, his hand was on the hem of my dress, lifting it.
I grabbed his hand and my dress. “Don’t even think about it.”
“We’re both thinking about it.”
He lifted me bodily and placed me on the table, moving between my open thighs. He leaned into me and took my mouth in a kiss that was so hungry it was brutal. I kissed him back just as savagely. When he broke the kiss, we were both breathing hard. He had somehow managed to undo his fly and released his member, which was now rubbing against my thigh. I thought I was going to come there and then, just feeling him between my thighs, which was the greatest turn-on.
He reached down and moved my panties to the side, and with one thrust of his hips, he was inside me. He withdrew almost to the edge, and then he surged in again, and I lost it. I forgot where I was, and the scream that came out of my throat was quickly swallowed up by his mouth.
He wasn’t wearing a rubber, and I knew it was evidence of his lack of control. I wasn’t surprised after I could breathe properly to see him pull out all the way and retrieve a condom from his wallet and come at me again. He brought me to orgasm on that table two more times before he claimed his. By then, my tailbone was hurting and my legs had gone to sleep being suspended in the air for so long.
I knew I looked like a hot mess by the time I was able to stand on my own two feet. My breasts were hanging out of my clothes. I didn’t know when he had done that or if it had been me. I only knew the conference room was smelling like a sex hovel by the time we had it all under control. I was thankful I had a bathroom in my office because it would have been one sperm mess.
I don’t know how Dean is able to make me do the things I do with him, but if he thinks I could control him, he has no idea. I think of him as my puppet master. My only fear is getting hurt by him. So far he had not admitted to having any feelings for me. It had been all about control. What does control have to do with it when two people can affect each other the way we do? I’ll wait until he tells me.
I was thankful it was the end of the workday because there was no way I could have continued working. I was one disheveled mess, and Dean looked the same.
“Don’t leave yet,” he said, giving me an apologetic look before he walked out.
He didn’t have to worry. I had no intentions of letting anyone see me walking out of my office looking like something the cat had dragged home, smelling of sex. I waited fifteen minutes and put in a call to his assistant, Joy. If she was gone for the day, then I’d be able to sneak out. The call went straight to voicemail, so I grabbed my bag and walked out.
When I made it to the garage without seeing anyone, I took a deep breath and was about to release it when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I thought it was Dean and turned with a smile on my face, only to find myself looking at Levi.
“Hi, Robyn. I’ve been trying to get a hold of you since you started, but you are always on the road.”
“I am. I’m sorry. Most of my work is done outside the office.” I tried shaking his hand off; it was still resting on my shoulder. If he didn’t remove his hand, I’d have to knock it off.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yes. Why?”
“You look as though you were in a fight…. Were you?”
The prick knew I had been in my office with Dean. I didn’t know how he knew, but he knew. Otherwise, why would he ask me such a question?
“No, Levi, I wasn’t in a fight. I’m trying to get home.”
All I heard was a growl like a savage beast. Levi was removed from my space, and he was splayed out on the ground. I turned in tim
e to find Dean lifting him bodily, as if to slam him into the concrete.
“Dean, Dean!” I yelled. “Stop. Stop!”
The fear in my voice must have gotten to him because he turned and looked at me before he released Levi. “What were you going to do?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Yes, I do want to know. I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”
“Had he ever made a pass at you before?”
“He has. I ignored him.”
“Men like Levi don’t understand the word ignore. If he did, he wouldn’t be touching you. He could have spoken to you without touching you. That’s the way he operates.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I was just about to ask him to remove his hand from my person when you threw him down.”
“I’ll have it out with him later. I’ll call you when I’m done here.”
“Don’t put your hand on him again, Dean. He’s not worth it.”
“I’m cool now. Go on home. I said I’ll talk with you later.”
That man is too much. Where does he get off assaulting the man on my behalf? I didn’t know we were an item; maybe that’s a good sign. I hadn’t known.
12
~Dean~
I watched Robyn drive off and was cursing at the look on her face before she left. Then I cursed that damn Levi for causing me to lose my temper. I wasn’t by nature a jealous man. I’d never had any reason to be, but when I saw his hands on Robyn’s shoulder, something in me snapped. I became like a dog with a bone. I lost control. Damn it. That was just what I had been trying my best to avoid. I’m no longer going to fight it. She owns me. I belong to her. There’s no question.
Now that I had this settled in my head, I had to take care of Levi. I wasn’t going to apologize to him; it would be the other way around. I’d never disrespected him or any of the many women he’d been in relationships with. It was an unbroken code. We respected each other’s women. I was rejecting totally the fact that he didn’t know I was serious about Robyn because he had seen me coming out of her office earlier and had given me “the look”. It was a look that said, “I know what you’ve been up to.” I didn’t deny or acknowledge it, but just the fact that he suspected was reason enough to back off.
Seduction in a Suit: An Office Romance Collection Page 73