by Lauren Wood
“Here, we don’t have to go anywhere. I told you I had something for you to wear.”
I looked at the dresses in my hands and I was torn between what to do. I knew that I was supposed to take it up a notch, but I wasn’t sure if this was the notch that I wanted to take. I would be showing a lot of skin, no matter which things I picked to wear.
“You know, if that was your boss that I talked to, you should go with this.”
She pulled the velvety black dress from my hands and held it up to me. “It looks really good on me, so it will look good on you sis. Wear this and he won’t ever be able to hold back.”
Chapter 10
Rick
I was nervous to leave on the trip with Claire. I shouldn’t be of course, but ever since I saw her look-a-like at that club, I haven’t been able to get her off of my mind. The woman’s body became Claire’s and I saw it every night when I closed my eyes. Now I was going to be on a plane with her for hours and together with her all the time for days. My confidence that I was going to be able to keep it all together was lacking at the very least.
“Are you ready to go Rick?”
Claire had popped up next to me and I jumped a little, which made her giggle and embarrassed the crap out of me. I didn’t like being this way and I certainly didn’t want Claire to see me in such a state.
“Yes, are you?”
She lifted up a bag and said that she was.
“Is that all you are bringing?”
“What more do I need?”
I shrugged and was a little surprised. Most women that I knew would have brought a lot more. The case for them needing it all eluded me, but I liked the fact that she wasn’t that type. I still caught myself looking around for another bag or two.
We made our way to the airport in silence and Claire was doing something on her Ipad. She was constantly on it and I knew that it was something to do with work.
“Don’t you ever stop?”
Claire looked up a little surprised. “Why would I stop?”
“I don’t know, relax.”
She smiled like I was being silly and went back to work. “You are the one that keeps giving me these big clients. What else am I supposed to do?”
“Your boss is telling you to take some time out this weekend and relax.”
I took the device from her hands and she gave me a pouty lip for a minute. I could tell that I had thrown her off and I almost gave it back to her with a guilty look on my face. Had I given her too much to do? She was just so damn good at it and quick. I didn’t think about how much time Claire had to put into work lately.
“Fine, I will relax.”
She closed her eyes and put her head back. I had to laugh at myself. I was failing miserably with her, over and over again and it didn’t seem to matter what I tried to do. There was nothing that could be done. I was her boss after all. I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about Claire in that way.
I took a cue from her and laid my head back as well. It was a long flight to Prague and I was ready to get there. Maybe if I got her away from work and everything else, she would loosen up and I would get to see her outside of all of this. I wanted her to see me as more than just a boss, even as I told myself that Claire was off limits.
***
I almost swallowed my whole damn tongue.
We were at the hotel after the long flight and I was waiting for Claire down in the hotel lobby. We had different rooms and I thought that meeting downstairs would make it easier for both of us. The restaurant wasn’t that far from the hotel and I was looking around at the art. Then I saw her and everything that I had tried so hard to deny was gone, right out of my head.
“Oh my God.”
I kept repeating those words, over and over again. I hadn’t expected to see her like this and she was absolutely beautiful. Now Claire looked just like the girl that I saw a few weeks back. Her blonde hair was down and flowing around her shoulders. The makeup wasn’t as dark, but it accentuated her bright blue eyes in a way that made me swallow hard. I stopped the chant as she got closer, but I was no closer to figuring out what it was I was supposed to say.
“How is this?”
She was asking me a question, I knew that, heard the words, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out a way to answer her. She was stunning and there were no words. I just nodded my head and Claire smiled back at me. “You look rather handsome yourself.”
My eyes followed the tight material down her body and I could see the stripper in her stead. They could have been twins because I imagined that they looked just alike with their clothes off as well. When I met her gaze again, Claire was blushing and barely looking at me. Did she know what I was thinking?
I was thinking that I had given up the steady stream of women that I was used to. Hadn’t even tried in a couple of weeks to go out with one because I would rather be at home, visualizing Claire instead. Now I had more to go on, but even more of an urge to push away the rules of not having her. I wanted to pull her to me, feel her lithe body against mine and devour her whole. That is what I wanted and more importantly what I think we both needed. My gaze stopped at her throat, watching her heart beat quickly as her breathing got faster as well.
“Are you ready?”
“For so many things.”
She blushed at my answer and it really was astonishing. the contrast of the sassy girl in the sushi place. Now Claire could barely meet my gaze, which was just as well because I was feeling out of sorts as well. At least I wasn’t the only one. That was the only good thing about it all.
I put my arm out to offer it to her and Claire took it after a moment. She was shaking a little when I moved next to her and I liked how close we were.
“You look beautiful Claire. Where did you get that dress?”
“Just something I had around in the closet. Haven’t had anywhere to wear it to in a while.”
“That seems a shame.”
She looked up at me and smiled in a shy way. “Where are we going?”
I gave her the name as I thought it was pronounced, but I was sure that I was chopping it up horribly. I didn’t speak the language either, so we both laughed when the host said the name as we entered. We were way off.
“I thought you were the cultured one?”
“My parents are cultured, I am just rich.”
“Oh. Well that explains a lot.”
She didn’t go any further and I didn’t have to ask what she meant. We were taken to a table and I was glad to see that we had a great view as well as some privacy. I wanted to spend some time with Claire with no one else around, but this was going to have to do for now.
“I can’t get over the change in you Claire. You look like a completely different person.”
“I guess that is a good ting huh?”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because you have been staring at me since I started coming down the stairs. You make a girl blush.”
I was staring again and I turned away. It was hard not to stare when she looked like that. She was absolutely stunning and I wasn’t the only one getting an eyeful of Claire. I saw several men and women looking our way as we were seated.
“With a dress like that, it is hard not to stare. It is even harder to remember that you work for me.”
I didn’t mean to say that last bit, but it made her turn a little redder through the face. “No work this weekend, remember?”
“Right, no work.”
We sat in silence for a minute until the waiter brought out the menus and took our drink order. She ordered some wine and I did the same. I wanted to savor the night and a little relaxation wasn’t going to hurt anything at all. We were both wound up for completely different reasons.
“So why are you single Claire?”
“That was out of the blue.”
“Not really, I have wondered that since I met you. A woman like you should be snatched up by now. How has no one snatched you up yet?”
“Mayb
e I don’t want to be snatched up Rick.”
“Every girl does.”
“Not me.”
“Are you sure?”
She wasn’t and she bit her lip. Taking a drink of her wine, I watched her hand tremble a little bit. Claire was a mystery. Now she was nervous and I liked that it was her and not me. I was getting over the initial shock of her new look and was getting back into the swing of things.
The food came before she would answer my question and I didn’t bring it up again. I was glad that it didn’t get around to me and Lisa. That was a marriage and a divorce that I would like to forget about if at all possible.
“I almost got married once. A few months back I broke it off though. It just wasn’t for me.”
“Talk about out of the blue.”
Claire looked down. “Well you asked, so I thought I would answer. I had to think about it. What about you?”
I groaned inwardly and wished that I hadn’t opened the door to this. “I was married once, a long time ago and it was a mistake.”
“Oh.”
“Nothing to really say to that, is there?”
“No, I guess not. I am sorry to hear that.”
I waved her off. “It was a while ago. Something I would never do again.”
“Right. I could see why not.”
Claire was a bit quieter after that. I don’t know why, but she wasn’t as quick to flirt. I asked her what was wrong, but she didn’t answer me. The only thing I could think of was my comment about marriage, though I didn’t see the relation.
I asked her if she would like to take a walk before we went back to the hotel. She agreed without much hesitation and I told myself that it was nothing from before.
We walked through the city as it lit up around us. It was beautiful and at some point we stopped on the side of a canal. It was the perfect moment and before I realized what I was doing, I was leaning it to kiss her. So long had I waited for this moment and it did not disappoint.
She was a little surprised at first. Her eyes flew open and I pulled her to me. Her lips didn’t resist, but didn’t participate for a moment. I urged her lips open and tasted the inside of her mouth. She tasted like the sweet wine we had for dinner, intoxicating my senses.
Claire’s soft body molded against mine and I heard a small moan that drove me mad. I had never heard such a sweet sound in all of my life. I wanted her, badly and my hands roamed down her back, cupping her ass in my hands. I needed more and soon I was pressing her against my hardness.
“Wait Rick. Woah.”
She pushed against my chest a few times before I realized that she was no longer pulling me closer. I didn’t want to stop, but I had to.
“What?”
“We can’t do this. You are my boss.”
I knew that the fact was supposed to matter to me, but it really didn’t matter at all. “So?”
I wanted more and I moved closer as she backed away. Her hand went up and I didn’t know what she was doing until a cab slowed down next to us. “I am going back to the hotel Rick. I think I have had enough fun for one day.”
Like that she was gone and I was left on the side of the canal looking at the car’s brake lights. What had just happened? No one ever refused me, so why did the one I wanted most deny me?
Chapter 11
Claire
I had to get out of there before I did something that I was going to regret. Not only was Rick my boss, but he was the kind of guy that I had to stay away from. He was a heartbreaker and I didn’t even want to go down that route again. Maybe I had gone a little too different with my sister’s dress. She had been right about what it would do to Rick. As soon as I seen the way Rick looked at me, I knew that I had him right where I wanted him. But then I wasn’t able to deal with how turned on he was.
My hands were actually shaking when I got into the cab and my lips tingled from his where he had kissed me. It was like nothing I had ever felt before and I was sure if all kissing felt like that, I wouldn’t have waited so long for it. Was it only with Rick that I would feel this way? It didn’t make sense to be so drawn to a man that I knew was so bad for me.
The problem was what Rick made me think of. I wanted to know what his mouth felt like on me and what would be after that. His hands were so large and roughened. Everything about him was so manly that I wanted more. I wanted more of his arms around me so close, but I knew that it wasn’t meant to be. I had to forget about my boss and it was no easier to do when he wasn’t around.
I paid the cab driver for the ride and looked up at the hotel with a little apprehension. I knew that I was going to be sleeping right next door to Rick and I didn’t like the idea of it at all. This dress, this night, everything that had happened in the last couple of hours had complicated everything. I wanted to go upstairs and forget that any of this was happening at all.
The guy in the elevator smiled at me and I smiled back, but I was thinking of what the weekend was going to bring. This was Prague and I should have been ecstatic to be here. The place was beautiful and I would learn a lot from the conferences, but I wouldn’t have come if I would have known that it was going to bring up a host of such confusing emotions. It was just hard to cope with it all.
I went back to my room and locked the door. I didn’t think someone was going to come in or anything like that, but it made me feel safer in such a strange place. I should have waited for Rick. That was a mistake and I hoped that he didn’t take it the wrong way.
Not wanting to think about any of it, I turned my phone on with some music and started a bath. I poured all of the free shampoo into the bath and made it start to bubble up. I didn’t know anything that a bubble bath couldn’t fix and I needed some relaxation.
Just getting in it, the water was finally off and all I could hear was the low jazz playing from my phone. It was a few seconds of bliss before I heard a loud knock at the door that startled me and made me jump a little bit. I was about to ask who it was when I heard Rick’s voice on the other side.
My body just kind of stopped moving and I even breathed a little slower like he could somehow hear me from the hallway. I knew he couldn’t, but I was desperately afraid that he would. I couldn’t bear to see him, I really couldn’t. I knew what he was going to want and I didn’t have the energy to deny him again. It was hard enough walking away last time. If that cab wouldn’t have been driving past, I don’t think I would be here now.
I shuddered to think about what would have happened and how awkward it would have been when we got back to the states. It was easy to see that I would have been head over heels in love with Rick and he would just kick me to the curb like he did all of his other flings. The man had quite a reputation that everyone in the office liked to talk about.
This is what I reminded myself when I heard him say my name again. No matter how much I wanted to open the door, I knew that it was only going to end in heartbreak for me, something I wasn’t too excited to feel.
“Come on Claire I know you are in there. This has gotten out of hand and I think we should talk about it.”
There was silence for the longest time and I almost thought he had left, but then I heard his knuckles on the door again and I realized that he just wasn’t giving up. The man was refusing to give up and I didn’t know what to do. What if he went downstairs and got a key from the front desk? He had paid for the room after all, so it didn’t seem that farfetched that they would give it to him. What if he already had one?
My eyes went to the front door that I could see from the opened bathroom door. I stared at it like it was suddenly going to burst open and I almost wanted it to do that so I would finally be faced with it all. I wanted to get it out in the open, even though I was scared to death of what that would bring. I felt many feelings when I was around my boss, but most of those feelings were of fear. I feared what Rick made me want to do more than anything else. It was things that I knew were wrong, but I still wanted to do them.
“I am going to be ri
ght next door if you want to talk Claire. It would be better if we talked this out instead of ignoring what happened.”
It certainly wasn’t going to be better if I went to the door, because I knew in the end that we wouldn’t end up talking. I would end up giving into whatever he wanted and by the look that he had given me, I knew exactly what it was going to be. I knew what Rick wanted and that I did as well is what scared me. The only thing more terrifying than that was the fact that I wanted to finally be with a man in that way. Not just any man, Rick. It was something that I didn’t want to want and I don’t think even if I tried to, I would be able to change it. I was drawn to the man, there was no other way around it.
So instead of saying anything or making it known that I even heard him at all, I stayed as still as I could in the tub. He wouldn’t have heard me moving around, but I was still waiting and wanting to hear more. When after what seemed like hours, I heard his footsteps walking the short distance to his room and the door shutting behind him, I was finally able to breathe.
Only then did I realize that I was holding my breath. I felt silly, but there was really nothing I could do about it. My only saving grace was that at least he couldn’t see what it was he was doing to me.
I closed my eyes and thought about the kiss that had numbed out my lips and started all of the thoughts spiraling out of control in my head. My fingers moved to my lips and I felt the softness of my own skin. He had felt so good and the way he had touched me ever so softly was something that I would never forget, no matter how badly that I wanted to.
Touching myself on my neck and shoulders, I wanted to believe that they were his hands and his fingertips running along my skin. By the end of the bath, I was turned on to no end and my nipples were rock hard when I got out.
Looking at the large mirror that took up one whole side of the bathroom wall, I could see that my eyes were actually sparkling. My wet, blonde hair stuck to my sides, but I couldn’t hide how hard my nipples were or how much I wanted to see Rick. What if I just went over there right now, with just this towel on? I had to wonder what it was that he would do. Would he send me away or send me to another level of pleasure that his eyes seemed to silently promise?