by Chiah Wilder
But spending time with her had been more than I could’ve ever imagined. By spending two nights with her, I allowed an intimacy I had never felt with any woman to grab hold of me. And then I did the asshole thing—didn’t call her. I didn’t know what was going on with me; I just needed some distance from whatever was happening between us. I wasn’t supposed to feel this way with a chick. When the time came, I’d settle down with a woman who was attractive, looked good on paper, could handle the charity circuit, and threw elegant parties. But, much to my grandmother’s chagrin, I was a ways away from taking a bride and having children who one day would take over Velocity.
Cierra was complicating everything, not to mention the no-fucking-the-employees policy my grandfather kept reminding me about. I guess he knew me too well. If the people at work found out that Cierra and I had fucked like rabbits over the weekend, the respect and confidence I had with most of the employees would be in the trash. I’d lose all credibility.
The phone buzzed on the nightstand again. Dreading what I’d read, I swiped.
Kelsey: I’ve wanted to say I was sorry 4 so long!
Okay, so Kelsey wasn’t contacting me on behalf of Cierra. I should’ve known she was only in it for herself. I scanned over the five previous texts and they were all the same: apologies, promises, and demands to meet whenever I was available. I tossed my phone across the bed. She was the last thing I needed. I thought she’d have taken the hint, given how dismissive I’d been of her after I caught her fucking Jason, but I guess she just couldn’t take no for an answer.
I didn’t need another complication in my life. Before the launch, I’d promised myself I would stay in control around Cierra no matter what, but one look at her that night and I had broken that promise with fucking aplomb. But what red-blooded man could’ve kept away after seeing her in that sexy dress with her hair swept up, revealing the ink scrolling down the back of her neck?
Even thinking about it, my cock grew hard beneath the covers. I’d banged a lot of women over the years, but nothing had come close to being as hot as it had been with Cierra. Damn. The attraction we’d been fighting came together for the hottest fucking I’d had. The way she’d arched her back that night in front of her building, her eyes squeezed shut, her body grinding back against mine—it was more than anything I could’ve imagined for us, and I’d dedicated a hell of a lot of time to imagining being with Cierra.
I ignored my hard-on and climbed out of bed to head to the shower. As the hot water cascaded over me, I pushed all thoughts of Cierra to the back of my mind. I had a company to run and employees who depended on me. I didn’t have time to have a fling with the hottest girl I’d ever known. And I had to figure out what to do about DTG before things got out of control.
I made a mental note to call Ivan, and to pass by Cierra’s building after work. I’d been doing that since the past Monday. That creep in the black Lexus was stalking her, and I wanted to make sure she was safe. It was nothing more than that. I’d do it for any employee.
Yeah, I’m not buying my own crock of shit either. She didn’t know I was watching out for her, and I hoped I could get up close and personal to this bastard. I’d teach him not to mess with my girl.
My girl? Fuck. No. I meant mess with any woman.
I climbed out of the shower and let Cierra fill my thoughts. The truth was she was always there, kicking around at the back of my brain like a sweet promise. When I thought of her, it felt as though the ground shifted underneath me in the best way possible. It was like the world twisted around me: my heart beating fast, my brain rushing with thoughts, and my heart swelling with something I didn’t want to put a name to yet. There was something between us, and it was intense. I’d thought I would’ve worked it out of my system since we’d hooked up over the weekend, but fucking her had only dragged me further into my feelings. And if sex didn’t get her out of my head, then what the hell would?
Ivan scooped a large handful of M&Ms and popped them into his mouth. As I looked over the reports, he crunched and checked his phone a hundred times.
“Doug Raley and Gwen St. Martin are in the clear. I’m glad. I sort of suspected they were in cahoots with DTG.”
“I’ll have more reports next week. I’ve eliminated the majority of your employees. There are only a few left. Do you have any more candy?”
“No. You pretty much ate the whole bag. Did you find anything on the partial license plate numbers I gave you?”
“There’re a lot of black Lexuses in the city. It’ll take me some time to eliminate people. How old did he look?”
“I never got a clear look at him. He was a little under six feet, and maybe late thirties or early forties? Not real sure about that.”
“I’ll narrow it down. It’ll just take a little time.”
A knock on the door had Ivan turning and looking toward it. “Come in,” I said.
Chandra Pierce sashayed in and smiled broadly at me, then threw a coy smile at Ivan. His eyeballs almost popped out of his head as he watched my curvy secretary come next to me and bend down low. He was definitely getting the early afternoon peep show. I could always count on Ms. Pierce for that.
After I signed the letters I’d dictated to her, she slowly walked out of the room, very aware of the effect she had on Ivan—I was sure of that.
“Wow. How do you get any work done with a secretary like her? Is she single?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose between my fingers. “I think so. I think we’re done here. Let’s meet next week and see what you’ve got. Put a priority on the black Lexus.”
“Will do.” He sauntered out and I saw him stop at Ms. Pierce’s desk. I wondered if he secured a date with her.
My cell vibrated in the top desk drawer and I pulled it out. Kelsey. Only she was calling me instead of texting. I debated whether I should answer, but decided to in order for her to stop communicating with me.
When I’d spoken to Sheila on my drive in to work that morning, she told me she’d heard through the grapevine that Jason had dumped Kelsey a couple of weeks before. Rumor had it she wanted to get back together with me. A suspicion that she knew about my and Cierra’s hookup niggled at the back of my mind. After a moment’s hesitation, I hovered my finger over the button to take the call and then pressed it, pulling the phone to my ear.
“Hello?” I took out an account file and thumbed through it.
“Trace?” She sounded stunned that I’d actually answered. “I hope you’re not in the middle of something.”
“Actually, I am. What do you want?”
She giggled nervously. “Not even a ‘how are you’? Do you hate me that much?”
I really didn’t have time for this. “I don’t hate you. What do you want?”
“I….” She sniveled and took a long, shuddering breath. “I’ve been trying to get hold of you all morning.”
“Yeah, what for? I don’t have a lot of time. Can you get to it, whatever it is?”
“I just wanted to call to say that I’m sorry.”
“Okay. Anything else?”
“I want to find some way to make it up to you.” Her voice dropped from the tearful into the seductive. “We could meet up. I could be over at your place after work and we—”
“I’m really not interested in any of that.”
“What can I do, Trace? Please, tell me. Anything.”
“Anything?” I took a deep breath. Anything was a lot. I could work with anything.
“Anything at all,” she said, her voice growing warm and full as though she’d finally gotten me where she wanted me.
“Tell Ms. Duncan what happened between us,” I replied.
She fell silent.
“Are you still there?” I swiveled around in my chair and faced the cityscape.
“Why the fuck would you want me to tell Cierra?”
“You said you’d do anything, and it seems like she has a skewed viewpoint of me thanks to you.”
“Why don’t you tell h
er?” I could hear the pout in her voice. It was the same one she’d pulled on me whenever she’d wanted to try out some fancy new restaurant and I’d wanted to stay home and order takeout. Hearing it at that moment made me bristle with irritation.
“Because she needs to hear it from you. Think you can do that?” I asked.
“But it’s none of her business,” Kelsey argued, and I squeezed my eyes shut and pinched the bridge of my nose.
“That’s what I’m offering. Take it or leave it.”
“You can be such an asshole sometimes.” Her voice took on a hard edge.
“Yeah. What’s your point?”
“I should go,” she mumbled. “Thanks for talking to me again.”
I put the phone down. The chance of her telling Cierra the truth was slim to none. I wasn’t even sure why I’d said it. It didn’t really matter; I didn’t plan on taking any more of Kelsey’s phone calls.
When I left work, I was the only one there except for the cleaning crew. I swung by Cierra’s place and camped out for a bit to make sure the black Lexus jerk didn’t show up. Her windows were dark except for a dim light in the small kitchen. She wasn’t home, and knowing that pissed me off. It was stupid, of course; Cierra had every right to be out having a good time with friends. I should’ve been doing the same, but I didn’t want to.
I took one more glance around the quiet street, then headed to my place, putting some distance between us.
Chapter Twenty-One
Cierra
Okay. Focus. I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror, staring intently at my reflection and taking long, deep breaths over and over again. It’d been four days since I’d seen Trace. I’d waited to hear from him, but he hadn’t made any effort to contact or see me. I refused to go to his office, so I figured we were at a standstill.
I was just his weekend fun. My heart dropped when I realized it. But what had I expected? He was a player, so why would he change his lifestyle just because we fucked? As much as I hated it, my brain and body were still pulsing with desire for him, confusion overwhelming me even though I knew I couldn’t let it get the better of me.
Lindsey had asked me to go up to Trace’s office to pick up some of the reports on the launch and bring them back down to the advertising department. I didn’t know why the hell someone else couldn’t have gone, but Velocity had a few new investors and a couple of suppliers showing interest after the launch, and apparently that was top-secret information that we couldn’t risk falling into the hands of anyone else around us. I didn’t see why an encrypted e-mail wouldn’t do the job, but apparently my opinions on the matter weren’t really being taken into account.
I turned out of the bathroom and went to the elevator, feeling as though I was headed toward a prize fight, preparing myself to deal with a battle I had never thought I would face the likes of. I bounced from foot to foot in the elevator, eyes cast down, like I was moments away from stepping out into the ring.
Okay. I can do this. I’ll just pick up the papers and get the hell out of there before he pulls me in once more.
The elevator pinged open on his floor and I strode along to his office, head held high, heart thumping hard as I prayed that no one would notice the fact that my hands were trembling a little. Because I hadn’t spoken to Trace since the previous weekend we’d spent together, I’d assumed he was just trying to avoid me. What if all he’d ever wanted or needed from me was that wild weekend? What if he’d already lost interest in me?
I arrived outside his door and before I had the chance to overthink things any further, the door swung open.
“Oh, hey,” I said, looking at Trace. He nodded at me while his eyes traveled up and down my body briefly, and I felt my face heat under his gaze. Fuck. Okay. I can manage this.
“I thought I heard someone coming,” he said, offering me a smile and stepping aside so I could come in before he closed the door behind me. “You’re here to pick up the files, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right.” I nodded, wondering if it would be wiser to leave the door open so we wouldn’t be tempted to indulge ourselves, but I swiftly dismissed the thought. Nothing was going to happen. I just had to keep reminding myself of that. He was a professional and so was I, and that meant both of us just had to not pay attention to the crackling tension that filled the space around us.
“Here, give me a minute.” He pulled open a drawer and rummaged through it for a moment. “I crammed the stuff in here when I was tidying up for a meeting earlier today….”
“No rush.” And I meant it. Being in his presence again was weirdly comforting, oddly satisfying, and I didn’t want to leave too soon. He glanced up at me, his gaze flicking down briefly to my lips and then up to my eyes. Straightening up without any files in his hands, he took a step toward me, closing the distance between us, and I fought the urge to lift my hands and rest them on his chest, to feel his heartbeat beneath my fingers.
With a bit of stubble on his jaw, he looked more handsome than ever. I desperately wanted to feel the roughness against my skin as his mouth touched and nipped every inch of me. Focus! He just stood there for a moment, looking down at me, and then let out a long sigh. He lifted his hand to my face and rested his thumb, lightly and briefly, on my mouth; I closed my eyes and focused on the feel of his skin next to mine. And then he spoke, breaking the spell.
“We need to talk about this past weekend,” he said in a low voice.
My shoulders sagged. “Do we?” I replied weakly, leaning my face into his hand. His eyes filled with doubt for a moment, as though he didn’t trust himself to follow through, but with a deep breath, he nodded.
“We do.” His eyes scanned mine as though trying to commit me to memory, just like he had with his touch over the weekend.
“It was amazing but it can’t happen again,” I blurted out, even though that was the last thing I actually wanted to say. I wanted him to shake his head, grab me and throw me down over the table, tell me he was going to have his way with me at least once more before we called this off for good. But he didn’t.
“You’re right,” he breathed, but his hand didn’t move from my face. “I don’t want to jeopardize your career with Velocity, and I’m still new in the company. If people found out, this could turn out to be a real mess.”
“You’re the boss, aren’t you?” I pointed out playfully, managing a smile as I arched my body toward his so there was only an inch or two between us. I should’ve stepped away, but he was still touching me and I couldn’t find a good reason why I shouldn’t be touching him too.
“That’s true.”
I placed my hand on his hip, sliding it around so it was on the small of his back, and his breath hitched slightly. He closed his eyes and swallowed, as though trying to center himself.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,” he said hoarsely. I closed my eyes, enjoying the sound of it, the sound of him confirming everything I’d known.
“Me neither,” I replied, and he leaned down, just close enough that our mouths barely brushed by each other. His touch was so soft and so brief that I almost couldn’t tell if the weekend had happened, but the explosion of tingles down my spine told me otherwise. The hand resting on my face moved down my body, landing at my waist, tugging me in close. Our bodies pressed together, so close and tight it felt like we’d been made to fit together. My lips parted but before I could say anything, he leaned in and kissed me.
As soon as our mouths met, I knew any chance I’d had of walking away from this without letting it go any further was out the window. The kiss was explosive, and it came after days of fantasizing and reliving our time together. He tucked his hands beneath my ass and sank his fingers into the flesh, groaning slightly with something that sounded like relief. I knew the feeling.
Without thinking, I dropped to my knees and fumbled with his belt. He brushed a strand of hair back from my face and took over, unbuckling and unzipping his pants quickly. I pulled them down and then his boxer
s, his already rock-hard dick smacking against my cheek. I wrapped my fingers around his length and looked up at him. He stared back down at me, his lips parted, eyes flashing with desire. I slowly moved my mouth closer to his cock, making sure he could feel my hot breath on his flesh before I touched him with my lips. His chest heaved up and down, and when I flicked my tongue out and circled it around the head of his cock, he moaned.
Desire surged through me, and then a pulsing need settled between my thighs. I twirled my tongue around the head of his dick for a few moments longer before pushing my mouth down to take as much of him as I could manage. He felt thick and full in my mouth, his dick pulsing as I moved my mouth up and down his length. He let out something between a groan and a growl above me, then reached down and grabbed a fistful of my hair, yanking it. Hard. My scalp tingled as I kept moving up and down, my tongue swirling around his thickness.
The darkness in his eyes as he focused them on mine, the sound of his soft groans of pleasure as I worked my mouth around him, the knowledge that at any minute someone could walk into the office and bust me on my knees with the boss’s cock in my mouth drove me wild with desire. But before I could act on it, he shuddered with pleasure above me.
“Fuck, Cierra,” he growled.
Suddenly he pulled out of my mouth, reaching down and pulling me up. I barely had time to blink before he kissed me hard, his tongue meeting mine as he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me in close. His hands strayed down to my butt, and that time he used it as leverage to hoist me up and place me down on the desk behind him. It clattered as pens and notebooks scattered across it, but I didn’t pay any attention to it; I couldn’t keep my eyes off him.
He reached around me and pulled out a drawer, where he fumbled for a moment before he returned with a condom. I parted my legs and he stepped between them, taking the invitation. Reaching down, he hooked his fingers around my panties and yanked them just far enough off me to expose my glistening sex. I tipped my head back, already desperate with desire. I just needed him inside me again. As he tore open the condom and sheathed himself, he dipped his head down and planted a soft kiss against my throbbing clit. I squirmed and groaned, and he pulled away and grinned wickedly at me as he grabbed my leg and draped it over his shoulder.