by Emma Nichole
I’m getting into bed now.
I’ll see you tomorrow, Mr. Lennox.
Goodnight.
Piper
From: Lennox, Nathanial
To: Kingston, Piper
Subject: RE: Initial Twisted Vines Read Through
Sleep well, Ms. Kingston.
Nathanial
Once I’m changed into a pair of sleep pants, sans shirt, I slide into my soft sheets and for the first time in a long time, I drift off to sleep, but not without visions of a beautiful raven-haired Piper in my mind.
Chapter 7
Piper
Come see me when you arrive.
The email mocks me on my computer screen. Nathanial and I haven’t spoken in person since I walked out of his office two days ago after the almost kiss. We had a very cordial, even slightly… flirtatious… email exchange last night, but that doesn’t make me feel any more settled. I half-expect him to fire me for what happened that day. The text message, while sent on my own time, was highly inappropriate. The way we behaved after he read it, even more so.
Between constantly thinking about him and my mom and Kingston’s, my brain is fried, and I want to cry.
I pull a small mirror from my bag, check to make sure my makeup is still okay after walking from the subway station to the office in the rain, then I make my way to the lion’s den.
I pause outside of the frosted glass door, shake the nerves from my hands then knock.
“Come in.” The smooth baritone of his voice slides through the glass and makes my heart race like a teenager with a fucking crush, and it pisses me off.
I push open the door with my chin held high; ready to take whatever he throws at me like the badass woman I am. Whether he fires me, rejects me, berates me, or worse… I can handle it.
“You wanted to see me?”
“I did. Close the door and have a seat, Ms. Kingston.”
He didn’t shave this morning, so his beard is thicker today than normal, and I’d by lying if I said I didn’t immediately think about nuzzling my face against it to feel the coarseness against my soft cheeks until it left scratches on me.
“Mr. Lennox, I…”
“Nathanial. Call me Nathanial.” He places his forearms on the desk and leans forward, folding his hands together.
“Nathanial. Okay. Um, Nathanial, first and foremost…”
“Before you continue with whatever speech you inevitably prepared because you have overthought this situation between us to death, let me say something. Can you do that? Let me talk without interrupting and just listen to what I say?”
I fight the urge to respond with a smart-ass remark, and simply nod my head.
“Good girl.”
Yep. There it is. My heart just fell to my pussy. I need to get a handle on that. It’s starting to become a problem when I’m around him.
“It seems as if we are both trying to ignore what happened between us the other day. Would you say that’s fair?”
Once again, I only nod.
“We are both adults. We both know what happened between us, while it wasn’t much in a technical way, was highly unethical, against all policies, and simply put… wrong.”
I swallow the large knot that is forming in my throat as I watch him rise from his seat to stand, towering over me even from the other side of the desk.
“As I said that day, I should fire you. I should kick you out on your ass without a care in the world and move on with my day as if you never existed. Let’s face it, there are a thousand people out there I could place in your job, and my day-to-day professional life would never change.”
He walks around to my side of the desk and stops just in front of me, sitting back to perch on the edge of the desk and cross his arms over his chest. The new position forces me to arch my neck to look up at him. This is a power move. He likes hovering over me like this, and I have to say… I don’t mind the view.
“But that isn’t what I want to do right now.”
He reaches out brushes a stray piece of hair behind my ear, softly caressing my lobe before he pulls away. My eyes drop closed at the contact. How can a simple touch feel like an explosion?
“What do you want to do right now, Nathanial?” I ask when my eyes reopen and settle on his face.
“I haven’t stopped thinking about the way you felt against me. About how badly I wanted to strip you bare and bury my face between your thighs, just the way you wanted in that text message. I had to stop myself that day, Piper, because I would have never forgiven myself had I taken it too far without having a conversation with you first. I’m a hard-ass, yes, but I’m not a predator. I’m not a monster.”
“So what you’re saying is…”
“I won’t be able to form a coherent thought until I make you come, Piper.”
He bends forward, placing one hand on each arm of the chair I’m occupying, and gets so close to my face I can smell the minty freshness of the toothpaste he used this morning.
I still don’t respond. Not because I don’t have anything to say, but because he told me not to, and the sick part of me wants to obey him, but the other side of me wants to mouth off just to watch his nostrils flare in anger.
Fuck, I have issues.
“Now would be the time for you to say something.” I can hear the wooden chair arms crack under the pressure of his grip.
“Say it to me again… just so I know I’m not hearing things,” I tell him, as I shift in my seat. It’s like there are a million tiny vibrations happening all over my body.
His next words leave his mouth slowly in a sexy staccato that makes me weak.
“I. Want. To. Make. You. Come. Right. Now. It’s all I’ve thought about for two days. I can’t do anything without it forcing its way to the forefront of my mind, Piper.”
I have spent two days beating myself up for wanting him, berating myself for yearning for something so bad for me, but goddamn it, he’s right here, presenting himself to me on a platter. Nathanial Lennox, my asshole of a boss, has been fantasizing about me, and fuck if it doesn’t send my libido and confidence into overdrive.
“Then what’s stopping you, Mr. Lennox?” I arch my brow.
I’ve just thrown down the gauntlet, tossed caution to the wind, with a hope and a prayer I won’t regret it.
“I need to hear you say it. Tell me I can touch you. I shouldn’t have before without asking, but this conversation will end right now, and you can go back to your desk and continue on with your day like none of this happened, if that’s what you want. But if you want to give me what I want then make it clear, Ms. Kingston.”
My tongue darts out of my mouth to lick my dry lips, and I don’t miss that his eyes lower to watch. I swear, they even grow darker at the sight.
My brain and my heart are screaming at me to run. Telling me this can only end badly.
But when I look in his eyes, there is such an easiness that I’ve never seen before, and at the core of it all: I trust him.
My body wants this… needs this.
So… fuck it.
“I want you to make me come, Nathanial.” I lean forward until our noses graze over one another, but our lips don’t touch. “Please.”
A predatory growl escapes from his throat as he takes his left hand and slowly grazes his fingertips up my arm, over my shoulder, before finally coming to rest at the base of my throat.
“Don’t make a sound.”
Before I can even process his request, I’m scooped into his arms, walked around to the other side of his desk, and deposited on the smooth surface with my legs dangling in front of his chair.
My chest is rising and falling so rapidly that it must look like I’m hyperventilating, and maybe I am. I’m so on edge, so wound up; my body can’t even function normally.
He steps between my legs with a hand on each of my knees.
“There won’t be any fanfare today.” He leans down and presses his lips to my neck. “We don’t have time for that.”
&n
bsp; “I don’t need the fanfare. Trust me,” I whisper.
“Oh?” There is a cocky smirk on his stupidly gorgeous face.
“I’ve been wet since I walked in.”
That must unleash the beast pounding on the cage inside of him, because he yanks me forward by my thighs, causing my torso to fall back. I catch myself on my hands and look up in time to see him sink to sit in his chair.
“Is your pussy as pretty as I’ve always imagined?” he asks, pushing my pencil skirt up to my waist, baring my lace-covered center.
“Oh God,” I sigh out. It’s too much. I’m overstimulated and well past the point of no return. If he were to suddenly change his mind right now and leave me hanging, I may start to hump his leg like a dog in heat.
I can hear him scoot his chair forward and I feel his strong hands grip my upper thighs, pulling my legs apart, and I let them go shamelessly.
I can’t explain the comfort I feel right now, but there isn’t an ounce of embarrassment. Everything about this moment just feels primal and necessary.
“Don’t make me wait. I don’t think I can handle it.”
“Your responsiveness is my fucking weakness, Piper.”
He hooks a finger into my panties and pulls the fabric to the side, baring me completely to him. He strokes his index finger down my seam then pulls my lips apart, exposing me even further.
I bite my lips to keep from making a sound.
“I want you to watch every moment. Don’t close your eyes. Don’t look away.”
I shake my head. “I won’t.”
Here I am, on my boss’s desk, skirt around my waist, panties to the side, pumps resting on the arms of his chair, while he stares down at my pussy like it’s his last meal.
“Remember, Ms. Kingston, not a peep.”
“I told you I—OH MY GOD!” I put all my weight back on one hand and cover my mouth with the other when I feel his tongue slide from my entrance all the way up to my clit.
He pulls away and I whine behind my hand. “Quiet. There are people, your coworkers, right on the other side of that wall. Do you want them to know you’re letting the boss tongue fuck you on his desk?”
I shake my head.
“I didn’t think so.”
He disappears between my thighs again and begins to lap at me with skilled precision.
Swirl, suck, flick, nibble, swirl, suck, flick, nibble, lick, bite, devour.
Over and over and over and over.
And the sounds, oh my fuck, the sounds.
Wet, sloppy, and raw. I can feel the wetness from myself, and his mouth, coating me from one thigh to the other.
My body begins to shake against my will. I’m no longer in control. My toes are curling inside of my heels and I am beginning to buck against his mouth, chasing his tongue, fucking his face.
When I feel the slip of his thumb pressing against my small, puckered entrance underneath, it’s game over.
I fall flat on my back against the cool wood and completely leave my body as an orgasm rocks me from my head to my toes.
I’m jelly. There are no bones left in my body. I’m a pile of useless flesh flopped in the middle of his desk.
“I don’t think I can move,” I giggle.
I can feel him pull my panties back into place and fix my skirt, pulling me back together from the waist down.
He isn’t saying much; so I look down to find him staring at me.
“What?”
“You’re more delicious than I imagined.”
“Well then.” I brush some invisible dirt off my shoulder.
“I have a meeting in ten minutes. Feel free to use my restroom to freshen up before you go back to work.”
The shift in the room is so immediate that I think I have whiplash. I push myself up, not taking his hand when he offers it to help me from his desk.
I turn to say something, to ask how we move forward from here, but the shrill ringing of his phone cuts me off.
“I have to take this. Close the door on your way out.”
There it is. The asshole mask firmly back in place.
“As you wish, Mr. Lennox.” I put the emphasis on his last name.
He sits in his chair and pulls the phone from its cradle. “Lennox.” His tone: calm, unaffected, and professional.
When I come out of his bathroom five minutes later, he only gives me a passing glance before I walk out the door.
Nathanial
I couldn’t get her out of my office fast enough, because had she stuck around a moment longer, I was going to fuck her. There was no question about it. The instant her body arched off my desk and I felt her seizing against my touch, I had to actively keep myself from mounting her right there like a fucking animal.
No sooner did she shut the door behind her, and I quickly end my call; viciously jerking off in the bathroom to the mere thought of having her again.
Christ, when did I become this person? Needy and sex driven, like a teenaged boy who can’t keep his hormones in check.
When I woke this morning, this wasn’t the intention. Hell, when I sent the email asking her to come see me, I hadn’t even thought about doing this.
Actually, that’s a partial lie. I have thought of this every single day, but this was supposed to be about discussing what happened the other day and deciding how to move forward from there, because ultimately… I want her.
Taking advantage of her, though I am willing to wager she would be a very willing participant, isn’t my M.O. here.
I’m a bastard, not a monster.
After a few moments of privacy and a cleanup, I splash a bit of water on my face to regain a sense of composure, and reset my body back to office mode.
When I come back to my desk, my phone light is blinking, indicating a call is coming through.
I lift the phone from the cradle and answer, “Yes?”
“I have your mother on the phone for you, Mr. Lennox.” Piper’s voice swirls through the phone.
“Send her through, and Piper… remember what I said. It’s Nathanial.”
I can hear the intake of her breath before she responds, “Yes, sir.”
“Send her through.”
The phone line clicks as the call is pushed through, and I can hear my mother messing with something on the other end of the line.
“Oh, fucksticks,” she gasps and mutters under her breath.
“Mom?” I question.
“Oh, Nathanial. I’m sorry. I spilled a bit of coffee on the counter. That’s what I get for trying to do this with one hand.”
“You could always use the Bluetooth earbuds I got you. That would free up both hands.”
“Oh, I don’t know how to use those things, and to be fair, that just wasn’t on my mind right now.”
My mother has slowly started sounding less and less like herself every day since my father began treatment. Her once bright and bubbly tone is now sad and melancholy.
“Is everything all right?”
“I just wanted to hear your voice.” I can hear her sniffle through the phone.
“What happened? You’re crying.”
“It’s nothing, Nathanial, really. Some days, it’s just so hard. One morning, I can wake up and be next to my husband who’s been by my side for forty years, and the next morning, he’s a stranger who doesn’t even know where he is.” With that, she chokes out a sob.
“How bad is he this morning? Did he have an episode?”
He’s been having those periodically over the past six months. Sometimes they show themselves in confusion, other times in anger and violence. The latter is what scares me most.
“I was waking him up for breakfast. He looked so confused. He kept trying to get ready for work, and I had to intervene. He yelled and got very angry.”
“Did something else happen?” She knows exactly what I’m implying.
“No, no, no. Nothing like that. It just took some time and he finally understood. There were tears and apologies.”
; “Where is he now?”
“He’s in his study. He wanted to read, he said. I think he just wanted to do something to keep his brain firing. He wants to feel like he’s not broken.”
“When does he see his doctor next?” I cup the back of my neck with my hand.
“Which one?” she says with a small laugh. “We see his neurologist next week. Just as a follow-up and check-in. Hell, Nathanial, I’ve even thought about looking into holistic medicine. Anything that just might make the progression a bit slower.”
She just wants her husband back.
Over the next twenty minutes, she fills me in on every detail of how my father has been the past few days, telling me over and over that I need to talk to him, and by the time we end the call, my head is pounding. My neck is tightened with so much stress; it feels like the muscles are wound into a tight knot.
I scrub my hand over my face and pull up my calendar, finding I have a meeting in half an hour with a seller, and then I’m clear for the afternoon.
Thank fuck.
On days like this, I usually bury myself in a mountain of work until my eyes are burning from staring at my computer screen, but all I can think about right now is how badly I want to just be in the presence of one Ms. Piper Kingston.
I mean, I should at least ask her to join me for a meal right? That’s the least I can do after essentially kicking her out after she was at her most vulnerable with me. I’ve never claimed to be a gentleman, but a meal is deserved, and at the end of the day, it’s more time I get to spend staring into those beautiful eyes.
But I have to make it clear, right then and there; that it is probably for the best this stays professional. Not for my sake, but for hers.
I know how this building works. First one person finds out, then the next, and the next, and suddenly she’s being called names and looked down upon.
It’s a disgusting truth, even in this day and age, a woman can’t do the exact same things a man does without being labeled a whore.
I find her at her desk, as always, with a cup of coffee in her hand, and her earbuds firmly in place, as she works her way through some mindless filing I’m sure I saddled her with at the beginning of the week. She’s dancing in her chair, bopping her head back and forth, and mouthing the words to whatever she’s listening to.
