by Emily Bishop
She wasn’t wrong about that. With one small correction, maybe not all of it.
Chapter 12
Demi
My heart was pounding in my chest, my breathing already speeding up as my body remembered what he was capable of doing to it. Electricity sparked and crackled between us, and our eyes locked as Barrett leaned down and crashed his lips to mine.
He kissed me, hard and hungry. Right in his office. In the middle of the day. The door was closed, but it wasn’t locked. Although I’d never thought of myself as an exhibitionist, the possibility of discovery thrilled me and made me even hotter somehow.
Ripping at his tie, I yanked it off and tossed it aside. Our tongues darted and danced, our teeth biting and nipping as we ravaged each other. I jerked the hem of his button-up shirt, tugging it from his slacks. Then I started to descend, easing my fingers under the waistband of his pants.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” he groaned against my lips. One of his hands weaved into my hair, pulling me even closer to him and snapping my head back.
Barrett leaned down to nibble along my throat, kissing and sucking at the sensitive flesh as he moved me backward until the soft material of the couch in the corner of his office hit the back of my legs.
“Sit down,” he commanded. His voice was husky and thick.
I looked at him and then shivered as he kneeled down in front of me, his hands settling on my thighs. They moved upward, sliding my skirt higher as they climbed. Finally, at my hips, he paused.
“Are you particularly fond of these?” he asked, fingering the outline of my lacy panties.
I shook my head. Nothing mattered but getting his hands on me.
“Good,” he told me, a storm raging in his hooded eyes. He ripped the front of the lace wide open, exposing me to his hungry gaze.
A small laugh escaped me at the unexpected move, but it died in my throat when he leaned forward, pressed his hands to the insides of my thighs, and groaned as his hot mouth clamped over the smooth skin of my pussy. His tongue darted out, licking between my folds and brushing over my clit.
My fingers flew to his head, holding him to me, anchoring myself to him as I weaved them between the strands of his silky hair. I eased my legs apart, giving him full access, something he quickly took advantage of by moving deeper, until finally he found my center.
He plunged and devoured with a torrential force that had me trembling and struggling to hold back the moans I knew I couldn’t release in the office. He consumed me until my skin was so hot, it was like lava was running through my veins. My pulse beat with desire throughout my entire body.
I rocked into his mouth. My hips rolled with a wildness that mirrored my erratic breathing. When he slid his tongue inside of me, I dug my fingernails into his scalp as I tried to hold back a scream of pleasure.
He returned his mouth to my clit, sliding a finger inside my tight walls. My teeth bit into my bottom lip, and a low moan spilled out, despite my best efforts to stay quiet. It felt too good. I squeezed my eyes shut as shudders wracked through me. I came so hard and so fast that white lights exploded behind my eyelids.
He licked me through my orgasm, massaging the sensitive flesh of my thighs as he waited for me to come back down to earth. I opened my eyes, finding him looking at me, wild and desperate.
We stared at each other, momentarily frozen in time and place. He trembled beneath my hands, and I removed my fingers from his hair.
“I want you inside me,” I told him softly.
“Thank god,” he said, scooping me up from the couch as if I weighed nothing and carrying me to his desk. I grabbed at the buttons of his shirt, sliding each one through its hole. My bare ass hit the edge of his wooden desk, and he stood between my legs, watching my hands move down his hard body.
I was aching with desire for him again by the time I slid his shirt from his torso and let it fall to the floor. I pulled him toward me, until his body molded against mine.
The solid length of his dick pressed against my stomach, and I reached down to stroke it through his slacks. Then I eased my fingers under the waistband of his shorts and pushed them down. He didn’t stop me this time.
His cock sprang forward, hard and seeking. I reached down to caress the smooth length of him. Wrapping my hand around his shaft, I stroked upward, letting my fingertips rub around the ridge and pulling on the head, then sliding back down. Our mouths continued to ravish each other as I stroked him, until his hips were rocking against me, and a groan erupted from his chest.
I wanted him. I wanted to feel him inside me. My skirt was already bunched around my waist, and my top was hiked up. Barrett groped at its hem and broke our kiss just long enough to allow the material to pass between us before bringing our mouths back together. I lay back on the desk, pulling him down with me. With desperate roughness, he positioned himself between my legs. I felt his thick head probe at my entrance. His cock was blazing hot and thick with need.
Propped up on his elbows, Barrett kissed me deeply as he thrust home. Hard. Fast. We moved together, savage and merciless, each of us seeking out the volcanic end, bucking and rocking against one another. My nipples turned into stone pebbles as they rubbed against the hair on his chest through the soft lace of my bra.
The smell of him was intoxicating. I whimpered. He pushed up with his arms above me, and I felt him drive deeper inside as we continued to move together, my hips rising to meet his with each thrust. I reached up and braced my hands on his chest, feeling the hammering of his heart under my palms. It matched the galloping tempo of my pulse.
One of his hands traveled expertly down my body until he reached my clit and began to massage it with the pad of his thumb. I gasped as my race to orgasm intensified, becoming mindless in my quest to spill over the edge of sanity.
Hard and urgent, our bodies slammed together, the slap of our flesh shattering the silence in his office.
His cock became steel inside me. He felt like every dirty fantasy and dream I’d ever had, come to life. My nerves coiled tightly as I climbed higher, exploding outward as wave after wave of pleasure ripped through my body. Above me, Barrett shuddered and tensed, letting out a low growl as we rode a shooting star together and fell back to earth with it.
We stilled slowly. Savoring the feeling of satisfaction that seeped through my bloodstream, I sighed contentedly. Barrett’s ragged breathing evened out and he shifted above me, grinning wickedly as he stepped away. “We should have misunderstandings to make up for more often.”
I nodded, surprised to find once again that I didn’t feel a shred of self-consciousness being naked with him. I had waited for it to come the other night, the desperate need to cover myself, but it simply never did. It still didn’t.
“Or we could just skip that part and get right to the sex,” I said.
Barrett lips pulled into a satisfied smirk. “I can get behind that plan.”
Our clothes were scattered all over his office, wherever they’d been flung in our haste. After pulling up his slacks, Barrett bent down and handed me my shirt. All too soon, his glorious body was hidden from my view, covered by the corporate armor that was his thousand-dollar, or probably more, suit.
Smoothing my skirt, I hopped from his monstrous desk and flushed when my gaze fell to my shredded panties. Barrett’s eyes followed mine, grinning devilishly as he walked over to them, swept them up, and stuffed them in his back pocket.
“What are you doing?” I sputtered.
“Collecting my souvenir of the best ruined shoot ever,” he told me, eyes sparkling as he crossed back to me and pressed a kiss to my forehead.
We jumped apart when a brisk knock sounded at the door.
“You ready for the meeting, Hart?” Adam asked as the door flew open, and he stepped over the threshold of Barrett’s office, looking surprised to find me there. “Demi, nice to see you again.”
“You, too,” I said, trying my very best not to blush.
Barrett’s hair was sticking up in all d
irections from my tugging at it earlier, and I was pretty sure I looked like the just-fucked, orgasm-high woman that I was.
If Adam picked up on it, he didn’t say anything about it. “You look beautiful, as always. Have you thought some more about that drink?”
Barrett glared at him, smoothing his hair absently. “Aren’t we late for a meeting?”
“That we are,” Adam said. “That’s why I came to get you.” Adam tapped the spine of the folder he was holding in one hand to the palm of the other. “See you around, Demi.”
Barrett waited for Adam to leave before planting a chaste kiss on the corner of my mouth. “See you later, beautiful.”
Chapter 13
Barrett
Demi looked positively gorgeous at the shoot the next day. The stylist had decked her out in a sheer black chiffon cover-up, with heels that made her long legs look like they went all the way to the moon. Underneath it, she was wearing a couture swimsuit that I ached to rip off of her with my teeth.
I wasn’t the only one who noticed how hot she was looking, though. Adam practically started panting as soon as he arrived, and even Stefan seemed flustered.
“Check out that rack,” Adam said next to me, his eyes following her every move.
“What are you, fifteen?” I snapped. I wanted to gouge his eyes out and strangle him, seriously considering doing it when he shrugged, shot me a what-can-you-do? look, and headed over to her.
I watched them from the corner of my eye, though I was on the opposite end of the sun deck where the shoot had been scheduled, being kept busy by an overzealous marketing assistant who needed my final say so before our latest ad campaign went live.
Adam circled Demi like a damn predator. It was the first time that I noticed his moves with disdain, the first time that I wanted to swoop in to protect the woman who was his latest prey from him. Usually, I would be right there beside him as the perfect wing man.
With Demi being the subject of his attraction, his practiced moves irked me. I swore if it was socially acceptable to walk over and piss on her to mark my territory, I would have.
I didn’t. Obviously.
“Sir?” the marketing assistant prodded, grabbing my attention by shoving some pictures onto the slatted wooden table in front of me. “We need your approval on the final fifteen shots.”
The pictures were of the jeans campaign we’d been shooting the day I found Demi. It was hard to look at them and approve them when I knew what, or rather who, we had now.
Keeping Demi and Adam in my peripheral vision, I pushed my sunglasses onto the bridge of my nose and got to work spreading the pictures out in front of me just as Adam went in for the kill. I randomly pointed to pictures, my ears straining to catch snippets of their conversation.
“You look great,” he told her. “I can’t wait for the part of the day when you get wet.”
Adam gestured to the azure blue pool in the middle of the deck on the rooftop of one of the most exclusive hotels in the city, wagging his eyebrows at her. My fists clenched on the table as I waited for her response.
Her tinkling laughter met my ears. “You’re such a horn-dog.”
“Yeah, but charming, too, though, right?” he asked, his Southern drawl suddenly pronounced.
“Sure,” she told him.
I pointed to five pictures. “Get rid of those.”
The assistant swiped them from the table and rearranged what was left as I continued listening in on my best friend making a move on my girl. I could just have told him, I guess, but I didn’t know what to think of what was going on between us. The last thing I needed was for word to somehow get back to the others that I’d staked a claim on someone.
It would make things even harder on Demi. I’d already learned that she was skittish, another problem and she might leave, which would destroy the launch I was planning to introduce her as our new poster girl. It would set me back weeks. I didn’t want to risk it, especially not without knowing what the hell was happening between us.
So, instead of proverbially pissing on the tree, I sat there and took hit after hit as Adam flirted with her.
“You know, we should go out for dinner and drinks later. I promise it’ll be a great time.”
“Thank you for asking,” Demi said. “But I really shouldn’t. I don’t have time for a relationship right now, and I don’t want to lead you on.”
Adam’s hands went to his heart, clutching at it. “You wound me, woman. I’m not proposing. It’s not like I want, or have time for, a relationship, either. Casual sex is good for the soul. Haven’t you heard?”
Demi laughed, a deep blush traveling from her chest to her cheeks. “I hadn’t, no. Thanks for sharing.”
“How’s tonight for you?” Adam asked.
That was it. I wanted to protect her from the other models, sure. But I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t sit back and listen to Adam proposition her outright like that, especially not since I knew that his track record with women once he really started laying it on was just as good as mine. Flawless.
I pushed back my chair, startling the marketing assistant who was still waiting on me to make my final choices. Casting my eye over the remaining pictures, I quickly selected the fifteen that sucked the least, which wasn’t saying much but considering what I had to work with, they’d have to suffice.
“Those,” I said. “Run them over to the office, get a mock-up of the spread done, and send it over to the client for final approval.” With that, I strode over to where Demi and Adam were talking.
“What’s going on here?” I asked, trying to sound like I didn’t have murder in my heart.
“Apparently, casual sex is good for the soul,” Demi told me.
I shifted so that I was just a little closer to her than casual acquaintances would be, my arms lightly brushing hers.
“Back me up here, Hart. I know that you’re a staunch follower of the hit-it-and-quit-it relationship.” Adam laughed, poking an elbow into my side.
Demi’s eyes widened, and her jaw clenched.
“Shut it, Campbell.” I flashed him a warning glance but if he caught it, he didn’t act on it.
“No, seriously. What is it you’re always saying about the fact that the lingerie may change but the women never do?”
“What?” Demi gasped.
I glared at Adam. “Maybe I have said that but it doesn’t make it true.”
“Oh, but it so is, though,” Adam said, a grin still on his face. “Right, Demi? No one’s got time for a relationship these days but coming so hard that you can’t see straight for a solid minute? I’ve always got time for that.”
“I… uh...” Demi stammered, clearly flustered by the conversation. I was used to Adam running his mouth but it was time to shut him down.
“Too bad you’re only ever on the receiving end of that scenario,” I not-so-jokingly joked.
“Bullshit,” Adam argued. “I know how to show a girl a good time.”
“Yeah, you’re great fun as a drinking buddy for women.”
“What’s gotten into you, Hart? I know for a fact that you know I’m good for more than being a great drinking buddy to the ladies.”
Yeah… There might have been one or two times, way back when, before Nancie became my responsibility, where Adam and I had gotten down to business in the same room. We might have even had a few threesomes, back when I was in college, but there was no way Demi needed to know about that. Somehow, I doubted it’d be a turn on for her.
Instead, I tried steering the conversation away from that, shrugging. “Old age, you know.”
“I’m thirty-six,” he deadpanned. “I’ve got decades before that starts being an issue. Back me up here, Demi.”
“Are we really talking about erectile dysfunction at work?” she asked, her gaze alternating between the two of us. “Calm down, boys. Whatever pissing contest you’re in the middle of, this is not the time.”
We were interrupted by Stefan, who called for Demi. “We’r
e ready for you, bellissima. Come on over to the loungers first.”
As soon as she sauntered away, Adam turned to me, confusion playing on his features. “Dude, what the fuck was that?”
Before I could answer him, my assistant came rushing over to us. “Mr. Hart, I have a Mr. Kimyoshi on the line. He’s calling from Tokyo. He says it’s urgent.”
“I’ll take it.” I palmed the phone she was holding and marched to the relative quiet of the bar area on the rooftop, leaving Adam gaping in my wake.
The call with Tokyo lasted for the rest of the shoot. Kimyoshi talked my ear off about a blitz campaign he needed done as soon as possible, while I watched Adam and Stefan crowing over Demi. I didn’t like it.
I liked it even less when the shoot wrapped, and I saw Adam leading Demi to a cab. I overheard them talking about being headed in the same direction, so splitting a cab made sense. But for the rest of the day and all night, I stewed about it, imagining them tangled in Adam’s crisp white sheets.
I looked like shit at our next shoot the following morning, more than a little relieved that Demi and Adam arrived separately.
Of course, that didn’t mean that nothing happened.
Demi greeted me warmly when she arrived for day two of the sun deck shoot, a huge smile on her face as she headed straight to me. “Barrett, hey. Beautiful day to make some magic, isn’t it?”
“You’re spending too much time with Stefan if you’re starting to talk like that,” I told her, my voice curt and cold.
I ignored the hurt look on her face and went back to my emails on my phone, watching her and Adam interact and trying to ascertain if anything had changed between them, and if she’d fucked him. Demi was polite as always, declining Adam’s advances as they chatted.
The shoot went well, and Stefan wrapped us up a few hours later. “Well done, bellissima. Next time, we’ll have some of others around. Be prepared.”
Demi nodded, shot me a questioning look, and went back to her dressing room. I let her go.
Back at the office after the shoot, Adam burst into my office and slammed the door behind him. “What the fuck is up with you lately?”