by Cat Carmine
“Croissants.” I have a weakness for baked goods. During the week it’s muffins, but on weekends I splurge on croissants from La Belle Patisserie, the best french bakery in the whole city.
She smiles. “You like your carbs.”
I chuckle. “Yes, I do. Coffee?”
“Mmm, yes please.”
I go back into the kitchen and pour two mugs, set the croissants out on a plate and bring everything on a tray back into the bedroom. I don’t want to do anything that would encourage her to put on clothes yet so if that means taking her breakfast in bed, I’m down with that.
She’s sitting up now and she’s pulled on the shirt I was wearing yesterday. My dick twitches at the sight of it. What is it about a sexy woman wearing one of your shirts that is so damn irresistible?
She takes a croissant and breaks a piece off, popping it into her mouth. Her eyes bug out of her head a little, the same way mine did when I first tried them.
I grin. “Good, right?”
“This is … orgasmic.”
“Hey now. I thought only I got that title.”
“I’m sorry. This croissant is going to fight you for it.”
“I can take a pastry.”
“I’m not so sure you can. Do you understand how good this thing is?”
We’re both laughing now and I’m shocked at how easy and … natural … this all feels. I take a sip of my coffee to hide the fact that I’m grinning like a fucking moron.
“What do you want to do today?” I ask. “Besides screw like bunnies and fight croissants, I mean.”
Her face falls. “I have plans actually. I can’t … I really shouldn’t cancel. I’m having lunch with some friends from college. We only get together a couple of times a year.”
I force my expression to remain calm, even though I’m pissed at myself for making such a stupid move. “Actually, now that you mention it, I totally forgot I’m supposed to be playing racquetball this afternoon.”
Relief etches across her face. Fuck, I’m an idiot.
We eat the rest of the croissants and finish the coffee, and then she goes to shower. I text James, my lawyer, to see if he actually can make it to racquetball this afternoon. He’s been mentioning it for awhile now anyway.
Claire out of the shower is a sight to behold. Her wet hair hangs down over her shoulders, and her face is scrubbed clean of makeup. Her whole body is pink from the hot water. I put my arms around her. Her skin is still warm and damp and even that is enough to get me going.
“You can afford to be a little late, right?”
She considers this. “I think that would be acceptable.”
I grin and then we’re at each other again, writhing and trembling like rabid animals.
Eventually, after I’ve made her come twice, Claire drags herself out of my bed.
“I really have to go.” She smiles coyly at me. “So much for making me beg, huh?”
“What’s that?”
“You told me that you were going to make me beg for it, when you finally fucked me. I’m not sure I was the one who did the begging last night.”
Her tone is only flirtatious, but her words cut through to me.
She’s right. I lost control last night. A mistake I shouldn’t have allowed to happen. It’s exactly that kind of weakness that leaves you vulnerable.
“There’s always next time, right?” I try to keep my tone casual, so she won’t know how I’m starting to seethe.
“I hope so,” she says softly.
I kiss her on the lips and see her out the door. After I close the door I bite down on my tongue, hard, hoping the pain will distract me from how pissed I am with myself.
I check my phone and am relieved to see James has texted me back and is indeed up for some racquetball.
Good. I could really go for smashing some balls right about now.
Stupid.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
That’s all I can think while we’re on the court. Every time the ball connects against the wall, the word echoes in my head.
Stupid.
I knew I shouldn’t have taken her to dinner. Whatever this thing is between Claire and I, it should start and stop at the office. Whatever we have, it should start and stop at fucking, pure and simple.
James is leaning over trying to catch his breath. “Geez, Godrich, what’s got into you? Business deal gone bad?”
“Something like that.”
Last night, at the restaurant, we talked. We cuddled a little. We did normal couple stuff, date stuff.
And what’s worse, I liked it.
Fuck me, I liked it.
I liked being with her. I liked talking to her. I liked that I could smell her hair when I was sitting next to her in the booth. When is the last time I sat next to someone at a restaurant like that? Probably not since I was a teenager and took a girl to the Shake Shack.
I also should have never brought her back to my place. I never fuck girls there. That’s been my rule for I don’t even know how long. That’s why I do all my fucking at work. At work, I’m powerful. I’m a billionaire. I’m a bastard.
I’m the boss.
And that’s how I like it. Nobody gets any funny ideas.
Letting Claire into my home — into my bed — was a mistake. First thing Monday morning I would have to set her straight. Because I knew what happened once girls got it in their head that you liked them. One day they catch you fucking someone else or you don’t want to spend as much time together as they do, they suddenly get pissed.
Which reminds me…
“Lila’s cheque finally cleared,” I say, in between serves.
“She cashed it?”
“They always do.”
James sighs. “You know, Will, one of these days you’re going to come up against someone who doesn’t just want your money. You’re going to come up someone who actually wants to hurt you. What are you going to do when the non-disclosure agreement isn’t enough, and they run to the press?”
I slam the ball hard against the wall to show him exactly what I think of that.
“My relationships are none of your business.”
James swings back at the ball and misses. As he runs to retrieve it, he continues with his schpiel.
“I’m telling you this not just as your lawyer, but as your friend, Will. This whole company you worked so hard to build? Every time you get mixed up in one of these ‘relationships’, as you call them, you’re leaving yourself vulnerable. Lawsuits, scandals. You might not think it’s such a big deal, but some of your investors — especially the ones in other countries — are not going to be forgiving when they find out they’re dealing with a man who left a woman handcuffed to his desk.”
He’s referring, of course, to Lila. Just her name leaves my mouth filled with a bitter taste.
Everything I had done with Lila had been purely consensual. It had been more than consensual. There had been feelings there, or at least I thought so at the time. But it was all a charade.
Handcuffing her to my desk had been my idea, but she was the one who had begged me to leave her there while I went to my meeting, saying it would be hot for me to think about her lying there, naked and waiting for me.
And it had been hot. Until my secretary walked in and found her there, cuffed to my desk.
It wasn’t until months later that I realized they had probably cooked up the whole thing together. They had been friends before I started fucking Lila, and they were definitely still friends now. Last I’d heard, after I’d fired them both and paid them off, they’d opened a little chocolate shop together over on the north side.
So.
Claire’s face comes to my mind then, even though I try to push it away. This relationship is already so similar to the one I had with Lila, that I can’t help but wonder if I’m setting myself up for disaster.
I can’t get Lila or Claire out of my head now, and it throws me off my game. James ends up whooping my ass, which puts me in an even pissier mood. After we’v
e said our goodbyes and James has headed home, I stick around the club and hit the punching bags to try to get some of this frustration out. I hammer on the bag until my muscles ache and my entire body is covered in a sheen of sweat, but it doesn’t help.
All I can think about is Claire. I need to reclaim my power there, let her know that William Godrich is not a man to mess with.
Sweet Claire. You have no idea what’s in store for you.
I picture her naked, spread out on my desk. Her wrists bound above her head. Her legs tied to the legs of the desk. Spread for me, and unable to move. Me plowing my dick into her while she begged for more.
That would teach her who did the begging.
14
Claire
I float home from my alumni lunch on a cloud. A cottony soft, marshmallow-flavored, William Godrich scented cloud.
I collapse backwards on to my bed and replay the events of yesterday. And this morning. William’s hands, his tongue, his …
It was all worth waiting for. So worth waiting for.
I spend the rest of the weekend swooning around the apartment like a lovesick teenager.
It’s pathetic, really.
And probably misguided.
So we had a evening together. I’m not naive enough to think it means something. I know what men like William Godrich are like.
And even if it did mean something, he’s still my boss. So I should probably be careful.
But none of that makes it any easier to wipe that stupid grin off my face.
Even my roommates notice it. By Sunday night, Vanessa corners me in the kitchen.
“What’s going on? You’re being even more of a space cadet than usual.”
Normally I don’t tell them much — or anything — about my personal life, but I’ve been dying to spill to someone.
“I had a date on Friday.” I still can’t stop smiling.
“Ooh,” Vanessa elbows April. “The Hermit had a date. I can’t believe it. This calls for wine.” She gets up and takes a bottle of white out of the fridge and pours three generous glasses.
The Hermit? Oh God, is that what they call me? I guess I do hide out in my room a lot. I take a sip of my wine.
“Did you sleep with him?” April asks, taking a sip of her wine.
I look down at my glass.
“Oooooh. You did. You saucy minx.”
I blush but laugh.
“So who is he, what’s his name?”
“William. He’s actually my boss.”
You could have heard a pin drop in the room. Both April and Vanessa are looking at me like I’ve completely lost my crackers.
“Are you crazy?” Vanessa screeches. “You don’t sleep with your boss. My friend’s cousin slept with her boss, and then he dumped her and fired her on the same day. Can you imagine?”
April shakes her head. “I know a girl who was sleeping with her boss and she eventually had to quit her job. Once people found out they were sleeping together, they all thought she was getting special treatment. Everyone made her life a living hell and she eventually couldn’t take it anymore. To make things worse, the guy she was screwing didn’t even care. Once she wasn’t working down the hall from him anymore, he didn’t want anything to do with her.”
They’re both staring at me like all of this should be obvious to me and I’m the most naive person on the planet.
I take another sip of my wine, trying to think this through.
“I mean, I know it’s not the best idea…”
“Not the best idea?” They both shriek in unison. “It’s a fucking terrible idea.”
Geez. I wasn’t expecting them to jump up and down but I’m kind of stunned by their strong reactions to this.
“What are you going to do if you get fired?” Vanessa asks. She folds her arms. “It took you months to find this job. Months. And we were the ones who had to cover for you when you were late on rent.”
Crap. She has a point with that one.
“You don’t have to worry,” I try to assure them. “That’s not going to happen.”
April snorts. “Why? What do you honestly think is going to happen here? You think he’s going to fall in love with you and everything’s just going to magically work out?”
“No!” I might be naive but I’m not that naive. William Godrich doesn’t seem like he has it in him to fall in love with anyone, let alone his twenty-three-year-old secretary.
“Well, how do you think this is going to end?”
I don’t answer them. I realize … I don’t know.
Maybe they’re right. Maybe there is no way for this to end happily for me.
I think about their words all night. When I think about what I have to lose, it suddenly seems like a lot — my job, maybe my apartment. When I think about what I have to gain, it doesn’t seem like much, at least not logically. Some hot sex. With an attractive dominant guy. One who knows how to really pleasure a woman. One who can get me off like no one else I’ve ever been with.
Okay, maybe that’s not so little. But it still pales in comparison to my job and my apartment — both things I actually need.
I don’t need William.
Right?
Then why does the thought of not seeing him again make me feel so fucking gutted?
15
Claire
By Monday morning I haven’t come to any further decisions. The logical part of my brain knows I should try to cool things down with William. My heart — and my body — aren’t interested.
William is out of the office for most of the day. He strolls in sometime around mid-afternoon, looking as sexy as ever in a navy Armani suit. He walks briskly past my desk and gestures at me to follow him. I grab my notepad and scurry into his office after him.
He closes the door.
“Get on your knees.”
“William, I …”
“I said get on your knees, Claire.”
I do as he commands. Despite all my earlier reservations, I know that in this moment, I can’t resist him.
He’s standing in front of me now and unzipping his pants. When he unleashes his cock, I gasp. It’s already hard, throbbing, and it seems to lunge towards me.
“You want to suck my dick, don’t you Claire?”
I nod and then I’m leaning forward, taking the head into my mouth. I can already taste a few sweet drops of him, and I swirl my tongue around the crown to get more of the heady taste of him.
William braces himself against the desk as I take him deeper into my mouth. I slide my tongue up and down the shaft. I want to consume him. I look up and see his eyes rolling back into his head and it turns me on even more to see the effect that I’m having on him. My pussy is already drenched, thinking about where he might put his big dick next.
I keep sucking him off until he gently moves me head away.
“Any more of that and I’m going to come in your mouth, and I don’t want that today.”
“Oh? What do you want?” I ask innocently.
His eyes blaze and he shoves me back on the desk, into the same position as last time. Legs hanging over the side of the desk. Spread open for him.
He leans in and tongues my clit and I let out a mewl.
“Oh, God.”
“Does that feel good?”
“Oh, God, yes.”
“Yes what?”
“Yes, sir.”
He groans into my pussy and keeps licking, flicking my clit back and forth with his tongue until my legs start to shake.
“Remember what I told you about how I was going to fuck you?”
How could I forget?
“What did I tell you Claire?”
“That I was going to have to beg for it.”
“And are you ready to beg?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Let me hear it.”
“Please, sir.”
“Please what?”
Oh God, he really was going to make me say it. He’s moved his hand up to my pussy no
w and is circling the edge of my opening with his finger, making me extra aware of how badly I want him to be inside me.
“Please fuck me, sir.”
“Again.”
“Please, William. Fuck my pussy. Fuck me with your big dick. Please.”
“That’s more like it.”
He hoists himself over me and lines himself up at my entrance. His hand is in my hair, tugging my head back so that I’m forced to look him straight in the eyes as he slowly drives his dick into me. My body arches immediately, thrilling at the sudden fullness.
William tugs my hair harder as he slams into me, jerking my head back to an uncomfortable angle. It’s almost too much but not quite — a line that William seems to be an expert in finding. He kisses my exposed throat and that bit of softness sends me spiralling further up.
“Do you like that?” he asks as he slams into me.
“Yes. Yes, sir.”
“Are you going to come for me?”
“Yes, sir.”
He reaches down between us and rubs his thumb over my clit which finally sends me over the edge.
“Oh God.” My body arches against him and I bite down on his shoulder to keep from crying out. The wave of my orgasm makes my pussy clench down around him and the pressure of it sets him off too. William grunts as he buries his cock deep inside me. I feel it twitch once, twice, and then he’s filling me.
William collapses on top of me and buries his face in my hair.
I’m still trying to catch my breath, but I can’t stop myself from reaching up and moving a sweaty lock of hair out of his face. Our eyes meet, and William gives me a slow lazy smile.
“See?” he says. “All you had to do was ask nicely.”
“Yes, sir.”
Back at my own desk I try to recover from that quaking orgasm. I’m too distracted to work and I spend a fair bit of time just spinning around in my chair, humming to myself. William comes in and out of his office a few times, and every time he sees me he shakes his head and smiles.
Since I can’t concentrate on work anyway, I log in to my personal email to see what’s new there. I’m surprised and happy to see that I finally have an email from Kelly. I open it excitedly, hoping to see a cheerful update from her. I wonder if she’s found a new job yet? But instead of a chatty email, it’s blunt: