“Nothing like that. I’m just going to tell him no a little more often.”
Brenda groaned. “Is it too much to ask for a quiet life?”
With the next round of coffee, I couldn’t help a little saunter in my step. Keeping the smile away was even harder. I put the white cup on the corner, lining up the base with the little ring it had left behind. I was anal like that.
The tick tick of typing stopping. He swiveled in his chair. I risked a glance from under my eyelashes as I finished settling the cup. He was staring at me with his hands clasped in his lap. His expression was blank. He was trying to figure me out.
“Get me some water,” he said.
“Please,” I finished for him.
I walked from the room without telling him that I would. I was going to, of course. Saying no would be reserved for personal matters. He wouldn’t fire me, but I didn’t want to cause problems.
Brenda looked up as I passed by my desk toward the kitchen. “Did you spill, or did I screw up the coffee?”
“He wants water. He’s trying to figure me out.”
“Oh, Lord help him.”
After getting the water and passing by again, Brenda said, “Be easy on him, Olivia. Men can’t handle our insanity. They’re too dumb.”
I laughed as I entered the office. The tick tick stopped immediately. Hunter looked up, watching my progress. As I handed him the water, he didn’t ask what my problem was, or if something was the matter, he just watched.
“You’re welcome,” I said, as though he’d said thank you.
He put the water on the desk. “I want to make love to you, Olivia.”
I felt an almost physical tug to step closer to him. I swallowed down my immediate urge to say, “Yes, please!”
Instead, I took a deep breath, raised my chin again, and said, “Fantastic insight. But…no.”
He clasped his hands in his lap again. The slow burn in his eyes turned to liquid fire. His shoulders shifted just a tiny bit, hardly noticeable, but suddenly I got the impression of power and command in his bearing. His ability to control a room was magical. And so damn hot.
This day of no might be harder on me than it was him.
He didn’t say a word as I walked from the room. I could feel him watching, though. The silence pressed down on me in expectation. He was planning, working out my motives and figuring out how to get around them. He wouldn’t force my acceptance; he’d coerce it. I’d just plopped an emotional chessboard onto his lap, and he was going to play it for all it was worth.
It was scary how well I had come to know the man in such a short time.
“This is kind of thrilling,” I said in a breathy voice as I sat in my chair. My hands were shaking and my sexy systems were all revved up.
“What’s his situation?” Brenda stopped what she was doing, turned to me, and took another sip of her coffee.
“He’s intrigued, I think.” I giggled. “It’s weird, though, because if the roles were reversed, I’d be a mess of ‘What has gone wrong? Is he going to dump me?’ He’s just trying to figure out how to get what he wants, though.”
Brenda snorted. “Men and their egos. So he’s not pissed, huh? I should’ve figured.”
“No, not mad.” I clicked into the report I should’ve finished by now.
“What are you trying to get?”
I shrugged, leaning closer to my monitor. “Don’t know. Just…saying no.”
Brenda barked out a laugh and turned back to her computer. “The two of you are made for each other.”
“You should talk,” I mumbled. “Before me, you matched his grumpiness exactly.”
The next coffee delivery was uneventful. Hunter didn’t look up from his computer. He didn’t give me a command or ask anything of me. I could tell he noticed my presence, though. His eyeballs stopped moving. He had a page of words in front of him, and he was staring, but probably unfocused.
Tee hee!
Once again, I stopped myself from smiling. I turned and made my way from the room. As I walked out of the door, I turned my head just enough to see his desk in my peripheral vision. His body was pointed toward me.
“He must think I’m nuts,” I mumbled as I sat at my desk.
Brenda didn’t even look over. “You’re not boring, that’s for sure.”
In the middle of the day I got a ping.
Hunter Carlisle: Come in here.
Olivia Jonston: You forgot the please. Is this work related?
Hunter Carlisle: Yes. Per our verbal agreement, I need to fuck you.
Olivia Jonston: No.
A few minutes later, he responded.
Hunter Carlisle: Are you staying in the office for lunch?
Olivia Jonston: Yup. Want me to order something for you?
Radio silence.
I stared at the conversation. Nothing happened.
I tapped my fingers on my desk, wondering what his game was. It wasn’t like him to give up this easily. I also kind of wanted another reason to say no. It was making me excited and eager for when he finally worked around me and got his way.
How would he get his way?
“Stop giggling.” Brenda reached in her drawer of menus. “Do you want food?”
“Read my mind. What are you ordering?”
“Hunter wants Japanese.”
I leaned against the desk, incredulous. “He asked you to order him food?”
Brenda frowned as she glanced up. “He always does.”
“I just asked him if he wanted me to order something for him.”
Brenda went back to her drawer, shifting through the takeout menus. “He probably knows you’d get the order wrong.”
I didn’t think that was it, but Brenda was right. I probably would. He had quirky tastes with some things, and I always felt bad with the overbearing and exacting orders, so I missed an item or two.
I looked back at the message. I stupidly wished he’d asked me, though. Or just…kept talking to me. It was a fun game to shut him down, but it also meant I didn’t get to chat or touch him. I missed him.
“This lovesick issue is kind of annoying,” I announced, pulling my report back up.
“Can’t back out now. He’ll win.” Brenda held up the menu. “Want something?”
“It’s irritating how well you know him.”
“Uh oh. Sounds like this game has lost its appeal. Or were you apologizing for yourself earlier?”
I scowled at her, making her laugh, before going back to my report. “And no, thanks. He knows Japanese is my favorite. This has to be a no situation.”
“Were these rules of yours pre-planned?”
“Nope, and I am starting to realize that my lack of planning is biting me on the butt.”
“Yup.” Brenda picked up the phone to order.
A new email came into my inbox. It was from Bruce. “Crap.” I opened it immediately and looked over the contents.
“What?” Brenda loved to be in on all the action.
“We got a bug report from the geeks that tried out our game. What the hell…” I scanned the pages of problems. “How could all this have been wrong?”
“That’s the thing with geeks. They’re too smart for their own good. Now you know what it’s like working with you.”
“Hilarious,” I said in a dry voice. “Can you order me some Indian, Brenda? I want to look at some of these.”
“Sure. Are you going to escape to the conference room?”
“Yeah. Call this my lunch break.”
“Got it.”
Heaving a sigh, because I knew tonight would be a mess of frustration with this game, I heaved myself out of my chair and headed away from my desk. Games with Hunter would just have to wait.
Chapter Fourteen
“Incoming.”
I looked up with bleary eyes before glancing at the clock. It was almost six o’clock. Brenda was buttoning up her coat and facing the elevator.
I saved the report I was finishing up. My mind s
trayed to the problems I still wanted to go over with Bruce’s stuff. I’d knocked out half the list already. The issues were just tiny things, and some were already known quantities that Bruce was working on. Still, I was tired. Doing two jobs, for two tough bosses, was hard work.
A man walked toward us carrying a huge bouquet of sunflowers. Under his arm he held a big red box in the shape of a heart on top of a clipboard.
“Did I fall asleep and wake up on Valentine’s Day?” Brenda asked as the guy came to stand in front of her desk.
The man set the flowers down on Brenda’s desk and grabbed the red box and clipboard. “Uhhm…” He put the box down and ran a finger down the page on his clipboard. “Olivia Jonston.” He looked up at Brenda.
Brenda pointed at me with a scowl on her face. Her gaze was accusatory. “Who’s this from?”
The excitement of getting flowers and candies delivered was tarnished in that stare. “You didn’t order them?”
“No.” She moved closer to me as the man put the flowers and chocolates on my desk.
“Okay.” The man raised his eyebrows and pushed out his lips, apparently asking if I was all set.
“Thanks,” I said.
He nodded and walked away.
I grabbed the card among the sunflowers as a small bit of worry trickled into me. Unless my dad was back from the dead, the only person I could think of that both knew my favorite flower, and would actually send them, was Jonathan. Hunter would not like that development at all.
I opened the white cardboard. Inside was typed:
Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. (Sonnet 116).
I love you. -Hunter
“What the hell?” I sat down as I stared at the note.
“Who’s it from?” Brenda asked, leaning over me.
“Hunter.”
“Hunter?” Brenda’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Who’d he get to order them?”
A conversation fluttered in my memory. He’d once asked me to have sex with him on autopilot. He’d simply told me to go in there and drop trow. I’d responded that he should come out here with flowers and chocolates and recite Shakespeare.
I fell back into my chair, still staring at the note.
“He must’ve ordered them himself,” I said.
Brenda was leaning over me, reading the note. When she straightened up, she was staring at me with wide eyes. “In all the years I’ve known him, that’s a first.” She put her hands on her hips. “I almost want to cry.”
I laughed to try and hide that I was crying a little. “Me too.” I wiped a tear from my cheek.
“Huh.” Brenda went back to her desk. “That’s sweet. He’s a good guy.”
“And he totally maneuvered his way into a yes.” I ran my hand over the chocolates. They weren’t even great quality; they were the silly, clichéd kind. And they were perfect.
I stood as Brenda grabbed her handbag.
“See you tomorrow,” she said.
I made my way into Hunter’s office. He didn’t look up as I closed his door, nor when I locked it.
“How did you know sunflowers were my favorite?” I asked as I came to stand beside his desk.
He typed a few things, clicked “save” in his spreadsheet, and pushed back from the desk. “I asked your mother if your father had ever bought you flowers. I figured he might have when you played dress-up. What else would you bring a princess?”
He stood and came around to me. His eyes were soft as he put his arms around me. “And I was right. Why sunflowers?”
“In the park where we always went to play and have picnics, there was this patch of sunflowers. It took me a while to realize their faces followed the sun. I thought it was so magical. I knew plants were living things, but that was like they had a brain, you know? At least to a six-year-old. My dad planted some in his backyard and I used to play in them all the time. It just became a thing.”
Hunter lightly touched my lips. “Why were you saying no? Was it something I did?”
“So guys do wonder about that stuff…”
“Was it?”
I undid the buttons on his shirt, feasting on his delicious upper body. “You have a meeting in thirty minutes. We need to hurry. Kinda.”
“Olivia?”
I undid the button on his fly and pushed down the zipper. “No.” I reached in and captured his velvety shaft.
He sucked in a breath. “I like when you resist,” he murmured against my lips. “I like the challenge. I know you’ll give in eventually.”
“You do, huh?”
“Now I do.”
He backed me against the desk and lifted, sitting me on the edge. His hand worked up my inner thigh as his kiss hardened. Tricky digits grazed my panty-covered sex before stripping the fabric to the side.
“Oh,” I sighed, opening my legs wider. He felt up my wetness before a finger dipped into my body. I moaned. My core tightened.
I leaned back and pulled at the back of his neck, making him lean over me. His body coated mine, hot and hard. His tip pushed at my opened before sliding inside.
“Hmm.” I wrapped my legs around him, squeezing him closer.
He thrust. His manhood pushed deep into me.
“Let’s not use protection this time,” I whispered.
He paused for a second, probably making sense of what I’d said. Then he said, “God, I love you, Olivia. You give me the hope of a different life. A better life. Never leave me.”
“Please…” I smiled against his lips.
“Please,” he said softly. Lips still close to mine, he ran his hands up my chest and over my arms, pushing them flat onto the desk. He threaded his fingers through mine as his pace sped up.
I felt his urgency. His fire. His hips rocked into mine, his manhood inside of me taking all my focus.
“Oh, Hunter.” I gyrated my hips up, taking more. A new feeling scorched my insides before flowering, opening up, and spilling out. A love like I hadn’t experienced before, one that could not be defined, took over.
We might be creating life.
Urgency took over my movements. Suddenly, something else was driving me. A different kind of love. I thought of a baby, of a family, of Hunter and me together forever.
I ripped my hands out of his and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. My kiss turned manic. I needed him with a desire I couldn’t control.
“Take me,” I urged. “Take me, Hunter.”
His arms scooped under me. He lifted, picking me up before stepping out of his pants. I continued to rock, kissing him, as he walked us over to the couch. He dropped down, laying us down awkwardly. My leg was trapped by our bodies and my neck was bent awkwardly. He didn’t stop, though. Still thrusting, harder, he pounded into my body, as desperate as I was.
“Floor,” I directed.
He rolled, taking me with him. He crashed to the ground, me on top of him. I pushed off his chest, riding him. I rocked my hips forward, feeling the delicious friction.
“Yes, Livy,” he said, his hands finding my hips. He lifted and then pulled back down, adding more force.
“Holy—” I bounced again, jarred with unspeakable pleasure. Over and over. Harder. “I’m getting close.”
He sat up, wrapping his strong arms around me again. “I love you.”
“I love you, Hunter.” I rubbed my taut nipples against his hard chest. His length worked in and out of me, winding me tighter. Driving me crazy.
“Oh yes. Oh God. Oh yes!” I squeezed my eyes shut, holding on for dear life.
We pushed through a plateau into unbearable pleasure. Our movements became smaller. Tighter. His muscles flexed against me. I bit into his shoulder, unable to push on but desp
erate to all the same.
“Come with me, baby,” he commanded.
I exploded. Fractured. Color blossomed between my eyes. Ecstasy washed over me as he shook. Panting, I vibrated in the shock waves of one hell of an orgasm.
“Wow,” I said quietly, losing all the strength in my body. I melted around him, laying my head on his shoulder.
“I hope you are pregnant, Olivia. I haven’t been with you that long, I know, but it doesn’t matter. I knew when I first met you, and despite trying to push you away, you just kept getting closer. This feeling I have for you will never go away, I’m certain. I just want to add to it.”
“I know, Hunter.” I kissed his neck. “Eventually we will.”
“Maybe soon.”
“Maybe.”
Chapter Fifteen
Two weeks later, my life hadn’t changed much. I was still trying to use protection, and I failed most of the time. After a while, I wondered what the point was. If it was going to happen, it was. If not, that was probably good until I had known the guy for more than a couple months.
I needed to stop thinking about time frames. It made the situation sound totally crazy.
“Thanks, Bert,” I said as he dropped me in front of my flat. I flicked my phone screen, checking the most recent updates to the game.
“I thought you were done with that game, Livy?” Bert said, waiting for me to get out of the car.
“I was supposed to be, but Bruce found something else. It’s as if he isn’t stacked with work in this takeover. I’m stacked with work.”
“I don’t know how you do it.”
“I don’t either. Okay.” I pushed the door open and swung a leg out. Once out, I closed the door. “Bye.”
I probably should’ve said the farewell before closing the door. Oh well.
Head still bowed over the game, I made it to my front door and reached into my handbag for keys. On autopilot, I let myself in and trudged up the stairs. At the next door, I did the same, only blinking out of my fog when the door lock didn’t clunk over.
I pushed the door open and peeked in. “Hello?”
More, Please (Please Series Book 3) Page 14