Inked

by Mia Ford

  “I can’t.” I rise to my feet, decision made. “I would prefer for us to forget about this. I would like if you could just sign the papers and we can both put this incident behind us.” One look tells me that isn’t ever going to happen. “Okay, then I suppose we are done here. We have nothing left to do. I’m going to leave.”

  I can hear her yelling at me as I walk away but I don’t pay any attention. This is done now, it’s over, the decision has been made. All I can do now is try to make the best of it. It’s shit, but I can’t change that. And anyway, I have something else that I need to think about, and I cannot put it off any longer. I need to decide what to do about me and Lexi. After what just happened in there, I don’t think I would be comfortable continuing on with what’s been happening between us. It’s gone from sexy and fun to seedy as all hell.

  I’m going to have to end things with her, I tell myself sadly. It’s the only choice I have.

  It’ll be sad to say goodbye to what we have, we have had such a good time, but it’s weird now, and I need to make it right again. I need to get us to a normal place. She’s an awesome person and she obviously has her difficulties, which is where the need for cash has come in, so what I need to do is help her.

  I will keep her salary what it is, since no one has picked up on it yet and complained that my PA is being paid a fortune, but I will stop the sexual favors. I mean, we can’t ever like each other, can we? No love story has ever started with a sexual arrangement. As sad as this is, I’m going to have to treat this as a learning curve. Not make the same mistakes in the future. Next time I think I might like someone, and there probably will be a next time once I recover from this one. I will play it properly and not be a douche bag. I will act like a normal person and not make ridiculous sex pacts that can only end up blowing up.

  I just wish I didn’t lose Lexi through it.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Lexi

  “Hi, Isaac!” I smile brightly at him as he comes into the office. With him being out yesterday for most of the day was much weirder than it should be. It makes me realize that I don’t like this job without him. He’s the key to it. So, seeing his face is really refreshing. It’s awesome. “Good to have you back.”

  Since I felt all kinds of pangs for him yesterday, I expect that he felt the same. The deep desire between us seems to grow all the time, and I hope that it isn’t just me that it’s growing for. But his face doesn’t look as buoyant and happy as I feel. In fact, all I get in return is a thin line of a smile. He doesn’t even seem to really look at me. More through me. Like I’m not really there, or perhaps he doesn’t want me to be.

  “What did I miss yesterday? Did anything dramatic happen or are we all good?” he asks in a plain tone.

  Urgh, the sting in my chest really hurts! That’s cold and I feel it bad. But I have to push past it and act like everything is okay. The last thing I want him to realize is that I might be catching feelings for him.

  “Erm, no nothing dramatic. Just the usual. I have put your phone messages on your desk…”

  “Right, good.” He takes his seat and picks them up. “Well, I have a lot to do today to make up for the shit storm that was yesterday.”

  Ah, I take it the meeting didn’t go well! “So, if there’s anything you need from me…,” I say in a low voice, shake my head and back off. It does help a bit to know that his mood isn’t anything to do with me. I’m stung that he doesn’t want to talk to me about it, but I guess we don’t really have that kind of a relationship yet. All I can do is back away and let him recover from whatever the hell happened. Hopefully then we will get back to normal.

  I take my seat at my desk and blink a few times as I try to cool down the freaking sensation in my body. I was so looking forward to seeing him. I even thought that there might be another night of me staying late because we’ve missed one another. I suppose that could still happen later on…who knows?

  But he doesn’t return to normal. Not for the whole week. The bad mood remains like a black cloud hanging over the entire office. It isn’t just me who has to tip toe around him, it’s everyone. The knock-on effect that this has is ridiculous. I don’t know what the hell is going to happen here. It can’t be good, that’s for sure.

  I just want him to open up to me, a little bit. To let me in. I could help him. Sometimes, just getting the issue off your chest is half the battle, isn’t it? Like, I’m sure if I could talk to someone about Jane, it would help me, but I can’t… I don’t have anyone close enough that I can confide in.

  “Do you know what I heard?” one of the reception girls whispers, grabbing my attention. I can just tell that she’s talking about Isaac, there’s something in her tone, and I’m intrigued. She might have an insight that I don’t know. So, I discreetly lean in and listen. “That Isaac is in a bad mood because he screwed some business woman when he was away and now, she’s black mailing him with intimate pictures.”

  That’s too much for me. I can’t stick around and wait for the reply. I don’t want to know. That sounds too close to the truth for my liking. Isaac has been weird since he returned, he hasn’t wanted to speak to me at all, and that might be because of a sex related drama. That’s awful… it makes me feel ill.

  Actually, not ill. I’m annoyed. I’m jealous. I don’t like it at all. It coils like a bitter snake, making its way through me in a horrible way, leaving my organs boiling hot and ice cold at the same time.

  I grip onto my stomach, remembering the moment that I refused to have a drink with a perfectly nice, good looking guy in the bar because it felt a bit like cheating on Isaac. I’m an idiot. I have been falling for this man who doesn’t care about me at all, and I only have myself to blame. He didn’t make me any promises.

  What the hell do I do now? Do I carry on as normal, pretending that none of this matters? Then if he brings up the whole ‘sexual favors’ thing, I could just refuse… or carry on thinking of it as just a business transaction. Or do I go over a boundary and tell him how I really feel about this? I might get fired, but I don’t like not speaking my mind. I’ve pushed my feelings down enough here, I don’t want to make it worse.

  “Fuck,” I mutter to myself, my eyes welling up with irritated tears. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

  I’m angry. I’m in a whole bundle of emotions that I don’t know how to process. I know that I don’t really have a right to be annoyed by this, a man like that has probably been having sex will all kinds of people, while hooking up with me. He’s probably got a fierce appetite and he needs to have women everywhere… so I should say nothing. Just stuff it down, like everything else, afford Jane’s treatment, deal with it until then and move the hell on. That would be the smart thing to do…

  But then I remember Jane telling me that I kick ass, and those words swim right through me. I kick ass, and I should be myself at all times. I just won’t let Isaac fire me, that’s all.

  My feet move before I have made a decision, and I find myself stomping towards Isaac’s office. All the times that I have behaved and let things pass me by, rise to the surface and flood free. I can’t stop this now, it’s happening. I need to say a few choice things to Isaac. He might be having a hard time, but I am too, and mine isn’t a mess of my own making. Nor have I been an asshole to him about it even once.

  “Lexi?” He gives me a confused look, my mood evident from the moment I see him. “What’s happening?”

  I slam the door closed behind me so hard it almost makes the walls shake. “You tell me.”

  “Huh? What on earth are you talking about? Have I missed something here?”

  “Your ‘business trip’? The one where you hooked up with someone else. Everyone is talking about it.”

  He groans loudly. “That isn’t what happened at all. Why are people talking?”

  I fold my arms across my chest, not about to back down now. “She’s black mailing you with intimate pictures. That’s why you have been in a bad mood, that’s why you have been pushing me away.
”

  “What? No, that’s not it, at all.” He tuts loudly. “I had a shit time at the business meeting. My father sent me as a trust mission because he thinks that I’ve been doing well, and it all got fucked up. The woman there did proposition me, but I turned her down and then the deal got blown… and it also made me realize certain things.”

  “So, you didn’t have sex with her?” My mind is a bit blown, I don’t know how to process this.

  “No, I didn’t have sex with her. I wouldn’t do that for work reasons.”

  Okay… that’s good news in a way… so why isn’t he looking at me? Why does this still feel so bad?

  “What… what did you figure out?” It has to be that, doesn’t it?

  “I figured out that me and you… what we’re doing is wrong.”

  My heart sinks, I feel stunned to the core. “What do you mean? Me working here?”

  I knew that his father didn’t like me, I could tell from the very first moment that I saw him. He just gave me a look that was so ice cold, I knew it came from a place of hate. And now that’s about to come out.

  “No, no.” He shakes his head rapidly, calming me down at least a little bit. “That isn’t what I meant at all. I want you to remain working here. I love having you here and you’re good at the job. I just mean the other part.”

  “The other part…” It hits me hard what that means. He means the sexual favors bit. “I see.”

  Why am I disappointed? What the hell is wrong with me? This is good. This is an ideal situation. I can keep my job and I don’t have to worry about anything else. This is exactly what I want…

  “Your pay won’t change,” he insists. “That won’t happen.”

  “What’s going on, Isaac? I don’t understand this at all. Please explain it to me.”

  He darts his eyes away and for a moment, I’m sure that this is about to go all wrong way and he won’t tell me anything again. I can almost feel him closing off, shutting down from me completely.

  But then his eyes meet me again and relief floods me. “When the woman at the meeting said that I needed to have sex with her or she wouldn’t sign the deal, I realized that’s what I’ve been doing to you.”

  I take a step back, considering these words. “So, it isn’t me that’s the issue?”

  “No, definitely not. You’re amazing. It’s just the situation. You know, the arrangement.”

  “So… if the arrangement wasn’t in place, then it would be okay?”

  As he gives me a confused look, my pulse races, and I get a funny fluttering sensation in the pit of my stomach. I realize that I want to be with him again. I want to. I like what we’ve shared, and I want to carry it on. It would be even better if we didn’t have the arrangement hanging over our heads.

  “What are you trying to say, Lexi?” he asks cautiously.

  “I’m asking if I wanted to stay late to spend extra time with you, but not because of the arrangement, just because I want to, if that would be okay?” I cock an eyebrow at him. “That would be nothing like what happened to you. I can see that you’re worried about it being seedy or whatever, but it won’t be like that anymore…”

  His face remains confused for a second before it breaks out into a smile. “Are you serious?”

  I shrug. “If that’s what you want?”

  “So, we would be more like dating? Seeing one another or whatever?”

  “It doesn’t have to have a label, but yes.”

  I love seeing that happy look on his face, it’s so much better than sadness. He’s far more handsome that way.

  “That sounds like an absolutely perfect arrangement to me.”

  “Okay, so I think that I might stay late tonight then.”

  He grins now, his whole body relaxing. I take a step towards him and lean down to gently press my lips to his. I can’t get too much into this kiss because there are far too many people here, and in a gossipy hellhole like this, we can’t get caught, but it’s just a little promise of what’s going to happen tonight.

  Because tonight will be incredible. It will be the first time that something happens between us without any pressure, without any arrangement, and I am excited as hell about it. I even have a skip in my step. This is the start of the next chapter of us and I’m thrilled to see where it might go.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Isaac

  “You’re still here.” I smile at Lexi, loving every inch of her standing in front of me. “I wasn’t sure if you would stay late.”

  When she said that she was going to stay late, it seemed like a spur of the moment decision, I didn’t know how committed she was… but here she is standing in my office doorway with a sexy smile playing on her lips.

  “I promised you, didn’t I?” “So, here I am.”

  The look in her eye has my heart pounding in my chest. It’s full of lust. A dark desire that sends my imagination spinning into overdrive. God, I want her.

  Her sexy hips sway as she moves towards me, the skirt that she’s wearing blows out around her thighs, nearly making me explode right here. There’s an intricate flower design traveling up her leg that’s driving me wild. As she gets closer to my desk, her fingers trail along it, which makes me stand to attention. My cock pulls so hard against the material of my pants, I fear it might explode open, creating a real mess.

  I can’t take my eyes off her fingers, she has me captivated, in awe. Now that this isn’t an arrangement and I know for sure that she wants to be here, it feels so much better. I really enjoy this.

  Then she tumbles to the ground in front of me in an unexpected heap. My first instinct is to check that she’s okay and pull her up, but the cheeky glint in her eyes lets me know that she meant to do it, this is going somewhere… and then her hungry fingers fiddle with my zipper. I can hear her ragged breaths as she tries to pull me free, almost like her mouth is watering with need. If she wants to taste me anything like I did to her, she’d be on fire. My cock throbs, I toss my hands behind my head to stop them from grabbing her, and my eyes slide shut. I want to really feel every single sensation as she takes me in her hand.

  “Oh fuck,” I grunt as her silky fingers wrap around me. “That feels…”

  A tremble races right through my body, from the base of my spine down to my cock. It’s challenging to hold myself together as she glides her hand up and down me, really exploring me like I’m a delicate possession.

  Just as I get used to the rhythm and settle into what she’s doing to me, Lexi stuns me, snapping my eyes open and taking me to another level. Her lips graze my tip, her tongue darts out to taste me, and the groan that flies out of her throat is too much to handle. It’s so fucking hot I want to explode.

  “Mm, you’re so big,” she moans, sounding too delighted for words. “And you taste so… manly.”

  It feels like a compliment, my cock certainly thinks it is, so as her lips wrap around me, I swell in her mouth. Lexi dips her head low, taking me right in until I hit the back of her throat, hard. It’s really fucking hard to hold myself together while she does this to me, pumping her head up and down while her tongue swirls everywhere. Impossible almost, and with the glimpse of her cleavage I don’t know how to keep it inside.

  I’m falling for her, I realize as my head spins euphorically. Far more than I should be. But I can’t stop…

  I don’t know what this is now, and I don’t have time to work it out, all I can do is to enjoy this moment.

  “Oh, Isaac, I need you,” she moans, her words vibrating down to my base. “I want you to fuck me.”

  Those words make me crumble, I’m a fucking vulnerable mess for her. I wouldn’t be able to resist even if I tried… not that I’m in the habit of trying right now. I tuck my hands underneath her arm pits and pull her to her feet. Then I collapse in my office chair with her on top of me, straddling me. Her fucking panties are in the way which is so annoying. I want them to melt away, but since that isn’t going to happen, all I can do is tug them to one side, caress
ing her soaking wet core as I go, my chest burning lovingly as I do.

  “Fuck, Lexi. So wet. You’re so wet for me. Hmm, this is ridiculous, you’re trying to make me insane.”

  She tosses her head back, exposing her sexy throat to me. “That’s what you do to me, Isaac.”

  I pulsate all over, my cock screams for her, but right now she has slid down onto my fingers and she’s riding them hard and fast. I slip my thumb forward, circling her clit, and explore her throat with my lips. She’s so sexy right now, so powerful, the hottest woman I’ve ever been with. I think it’s the feelings getting in the way, being in the mix, making it one hundred percent more intense than it was already.

  “Lexi, you’re teasing me, driving me crazy,” I pant. “I want you. Let me have you now.”

  I slide my fingers from her and grip her hips, my cock almost at her entrance. I twitch, almost able to feel her, which is utterly phenomenal. Knowing how good she actually is as well makes it that much more special.

  But before she slips down onto me, she rests her forehead against mine and stares into my eyes. There’s something new in her gaze, something that mirrors the way I feel. She’s stumbling and falling, we’re both tilting into a dangerous territory and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. But do we even want to?

  “I…” I part my lips, not quite sure what I’m saying, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t get to finish my sentence because her lips cascade into mine and we begin kissing like there’s no tomorrow. Her hot tongue massages mine and a serious heady passion flows between us. I run my hands all over her, wanting to feel every inch…

  “Fuck, you feel so good,” I pant out. “Your body is amazing. Honestly, Lexi, you are…”

  There are no words. How do I tell her that right now she is my everything, without sounding like a freak?

  Thank God, that’s the moment she picks to thrust down onto me, allowing me to fill her right up. There’s no need for words, I can just become a slave to the intense sensations exploding through me. Fuck, I have slept with more than a few people in my time, but it’s never been like this. This is fucking incredible.