When You Are With Me

by E. L. Todd

We headed to my apartment since it was close. It was only a few blocks away from PIXEL so I didn’t even need to drive to work. When we walked inside, she didn’t look at my place. She didn’t seem to care how it looked at all.

  “You look really good in this suit.” She loosened my tie then yanked it off. “But take it off.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” My lips found hers as I ripped off her dress and guided her to my bedroom.

  She pushed my jacket off me then unbuttoned my shirt. Then she pulled it over my shoulders and ran her hands up and down my chest. “God, you’re hot.”

  “Why, thank you.” My lips moved to her neck and I unclasped her bra. “Your pussy is amazing.”

  “Well, I work out.”

  I’d have to ask her about that later. I pushed her on my bed then crawled on top of her. She immediately gripped my ass and pulled me into her without taking her time. I immediately slid inside and felt her tightness and warmth.

  “Fuck me hard,” she said with heat in her eyes.

  “You got it.” I pinned her legs back and gave her everything I had. Sweat dripped from my body almost instantly. My headboard slammed into the wall and I hoped my neighbors were at work so they didn’t have to listen to it.

  Her nails cut into my back while she held on. “Conrad…”

  I liked it when she said my name. It motivated me to keep up my stamina and keep going as hard as I could.

  “Oh god, yes!” Her head rolled back as she came hard around my dick. “Yes…yes.”

  I loved watching her come. I loved it when she tightened around me in ecstasy. And I loved coming inside her bare pussy. I moved hard until I felt myself crumble. I tensed before I felt the explosive release. I pulled her into me while I inserted myself completely. “Fuck…” I gripped her lower back as I filled her.

  She lay back on the bed and caught her breath. “Hmm…that was good.”

  “You were good.” I leaned over her and dug my fingers into her hair. Then I kissed her hard, feeling my sweaty chest against hers.

  She tightened her legs around my hips playfully before she released me. “Nothing like a good orgasm for lunch.”

  I chuckled then got off of her. I was so sweaty that I sat still for a moment so the moisture would evaporate. Then I pulled my suit on.

  Lexie dressed herself then fixed her hair while looking in my bathroom mirror. Then she came out looking good as new.

  “You don’t look like you just got fucked hard.”

  “Well, you do.” She came to me then ran her fingers through my hair, fixing it. “All better.”

  I looked at my watch. “I should get back.”

  “Me too.” She gripped my suit then pulled me toward her, kissing me hard on the lips. “I’ll see you later.”

  “Alright.” I smacked her ass as she walked away. “Until next time.”

  She gave me a playful smile before she walked out.

  ***

  I returned to the office and adjusted my tie as I walked inside. When I passed my dad’s office, he eyed me through the floor-to-ceiling windows of his office. I kept going and ignored the look.

  When I reached my office, I got back to work and tried to blend in. I took an hour and a half lunch. I was the boss, so to speak, but I still broke the rules. Within minutes, my dad knocked and came inside.

  Goddammit.

  “What’s up?” I asked without looking up from my computer.

  “You took a long lunch.”

  “Talk about micromanaging…”

  “I’m just curious as to why you were gone for so long.”

  “Because I was.” Why was he prying?

  “Why won’t you just tell me?”

  “Like you’ve never taken a long lunch,” I noted.

  “I have,” he said. “But I’m the CEO and you aren’t.” Now his voice was cold. “You’re still a peasant to this company and you aren’t going to break the rules whenever you feel like it.”

  “You just told me you were proud of me and now you’re riding my ass?”

  “I don’t want you to get cocky.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “Now, what took so long?”

  I decided to be honest. “I met Lexie for lunch then we fucked at my place. There. Are you satisfied?”

  “And you couldn’t do that in less than an hour and a half?” he asked incredulously.

  “I lost track of time.”

  “Well, don’t lose track of time again,” he threatened. “Or look for another job.”

  “Since when did you become a hard ass?” I asked.

  “Since I decided to give my son the company. I will not have a cocky, hotheaded brat running it. If you think I’m hard on you, you should see Sean with Skye. He doesn’t baby her. And I’m not going to baby you.”

  I knew my dad wouldn’t budge on this. “Fine. I’m sorry and it won’t happen again.”

  “That’s what I wanted to hear.” He stood up. “You can fuck your friend on your own time.”

  Chapter Ten

  Cayson

  Sean scared the shit out of me.

  Who the hell was after him? Why did they want to kill him? What did he do? Was it because he was rich? There were a million other rich people out there. Why him?

  I kept my promise and didn’t tell anyone his secret. It was difficult not to tell Skye, my best friend. I told her everything, the good, the bad, and the ugly. And since it concerned her own father I felt a little guilty. If my dad might be assassinated at any moment I’d want to know about it.

  But I kept my mouth shut.

  It was weird carrying a gun—really weird. And I had to hide it in different places because Skye touched me so often. I even had to buy a gun holster for my ankle because that was the only place she wouldn’t grab me.

  It was still weird.

  When we were at her place, I tucked the gun under the bed so she wouldn’t see it or accidentally touch it. If she did catch wind of it, I wouldn’t be able to hide the truth from her. She would pry it out of me with her womanly skills.

  Sean said she wasn’t in any danger and that made me feel better. Sean was psychotically protective of his family, so if he thought Skye was safe then I didn’t worry about it too much. But that didn’t mean my eyes weren’t peeled. I constantly scanned the crowd for suspicious characters. And I did as Sean asked by taking Skye to work every morning and picking her up. Skye didn’t question it, thankfully.

  The hardest person not to tell was Slade. He was my best friend and I shared everything with him. I even told him about the time I lost my virginity. At my lowest point and when I was most embarrassed, I trusted him not to laugh at me. When I thought Skye cheated on me, I broke down in tears and sobbed my heart out. Slade was there for me and comforted me, and never once did he call me a pussy for being emotional over a girl.

  Keeping this from him was hard.

  ***

  Slade shoved half his burger into his mouth like he hadn’t eaten in three months. “Can you believe it? Trinity actually thought she needed to lose weight. So fucking stupid.” He kept eating.

  “But she’s practically a twig as it is.”

  “I know. That’s what I said.” He shook his head and rolled his eyes. “I love her body. Don’t get me wrong. She’s got sexy curves all over the damn place. But it wouldn’t kill her to gain a little weight.”

  “Why are girls always trying to be skinny?” I demanded. “Society makes them think they need to be skin and bones, but guys don’t even like that. Skye wants to lose more weight but she’s absolutely perfect. I don’t want her to get any skinnier.”

  “Women…” Slade moved onto his fries. “You know what we should do?”

  “Hmm?”

  “We should bulk up and put on a bunch of muscle,” he said. “Then Trinity will be like, ‘I love you the way you are. Don’t get any bigger’. And I’ll be like, ‘But I’m supposed to look like a professional wrestler, according to society’.” He rolled his eyes again. “We’ll
see how they like it.”

  I didn’t have any complaints about my size and weight. I was six-two and I weighed two hundred pounds. My muscles were toned and strong, but they weren’t bulging out unnaturally. I only went to the gym to keep up my appearance, not change it. It was unfortunate that women were so obsessed with their body image. Why didn’t Skye just believe me when I said she was perfect? Did she think I was lying? “So, Trinity isn’t actually going to try to lose weight, right?”

  “She better not,” Slade said with a growl. “I’ll kill her if she pulls that shit.”

  I’d kill Skye too if she were that skinny.

  Slade’s phone started to ring and he pulled it out of his pocket. I assumed it wasn’t Trinity who was calling him judging the cringe on his face. He silenced it and stuffed it back into his pocket.

  “Who was that?”

  “Nobody.” He ate his fries without looking at me.

  “Slade?”

  He shrugged. “Arsen.”

  I sighed. “You can answer his calls, Slade.”

  “No, it’s cool.”

  The phone kept ringing. “Seriously, answer it. I didn’t say you couldn’t be friends with him.”

  “Well, I’m hanging out with you right now.”

  “Goddammit, Slade. Just answer it.”

  “Whatever.” He finally pulled the phone out and took the call. “Hey, man. What’s up?” He listened to Arsen on the other line. “Actually, I’m spending time with Cayson. We can meet up later.”

  “Don’t be stupid,” I said. “Invite him.”

  “Yeah, I’ll talk to you later.” He hung up.

  “Slade, the three of us can hang out.”

  “I don’t know…” He eyed me warily. “You got really mad, Cayson.”

  “I was just…overreacting.” I knew I was being childish about the whole thing. But I was scared someone was going to take away my best friend.

  “I didn’t like it when you were mad at me,” he said. “I don’t want to go through that again.”

  “You won’t,” I said firmly.

  “Really, it’s fine,” he said. “I’d rather hang out with you anyway.”

  Sometimes I wondered if I was too sensitive for a guy. His words made me feel warm when they shouldn’t. “How are you handling the wedding?”

  He finished his fries then moved onto his soda. “There’s nothing to handle. Trinity is doing all the boring stuff.”

  “I meant the fact you’re getting married in two months. Are you freaking out?”

  “Why would I freak out?” he asked seriously. “When I asked Trinity to marry me, I meant it. I want to spend the rest of my life with her.”

  “That’s great,” I said. “I just…thought you might be nervous about it. If you are, you can tell me. I won’t mention anything to Skye.”

  “I’m really not. We’re pretty much married anyway. Now it’ll be official.”

  I watched his face, seeing the sincerity inside. “Okay, I’m glad you’re excited.”

  “You know what I’m excited about?” He gave me a wicked gleam. “The honeymoon. I’m going to fuck her so—”

  “Anyway,” I said before he could finish his sentence. “I’m glad everything is good.”

  “I wonder who will be next,” he said. “I mean, it could be anybody.”

  What did he mean by that? “I’m proposing next. What are you talking about?”

  “Well, Arsen is probably going to pop the question soon. He mentioned something to me.”

  Fuck, I couldn’t wait for another wedding to pass before I asked Skye to be my wife. That was too long.

  “And maybe Ward and Clementine.”

  I glared at him. “Ward is out of the picture—for good.”

  He shrugged. “It could happen. Or maybe Theo and Alex.”

  “I’m proposing next,” I said firmly. “I’m not going to wait.”

  “Who said you had to wait for other people anyway?” he asked. “There’s so many of us that it should be okay for two people to be engaged at the same time.”

  “That’s true…”

  “It’s only weird because Skye and Trinity are best friends,” he said. “Nobody else is best friends except you and me. So, you should be good.”

  “I guess so.”

  “Well, Trinity and I are getting married soon. So…when are you going to propose?”

  I hadn’t really thought about it. I was expecting Slade’s engagement to last a lot longer than this. “Honestly, I don’t have a clue.”

  “What?” He seemed mildly surprised. “I assumed you already had it planned out the moment she became your girlfriend.”

  “Well, I can think of several different ways off the top of my head. But…it has to be special.”

  Slade sipped his soda again. “Well, I proposed to Trinity the way her father proposed to her mom. That meant something to her.”

  “I’m not even sure how Sean proposed to Scarlet.”

  “I’m sure he would tell you if you asked.”

  “I don’t know…I want it to be unique.”

  “I have the perfect idea!” His eyes lit up like lighthouses.

  I knew whatever he was about to suggest was a bad idea.

  “You could take her on a ferry and then scuba dive in a shark tank so you could see a real shark. And then when one passes you could propose underwater.” His eyes were wide like he thought his idea was pure genius.

  “Uh…I’ll think of something.”

  “Maybe I should tell Arsen. He might do it.”

  “Yeah, maybe.” Not really.

  “So, anything new with you and the Mrs.?”

  “No…” Just me protecting her with a loaded gun.

  “When are you guys having kids?”

  That question caught me by surprise. “I don’t know…not anytime soon.”

  “Phew,” he said. “Prolong it as much as possible. Because I’m not ready to have a little Slade running around.”

  “You’re going to name your kid after yourself?” I asked incredulously.

  “Why not? Slade is a great name.”

  “It’s just a little egotistical.”

  “Just don’t knock her up, alright?” he said. “Because then I’ll have to knock up Trinity. And I can’t fake my orgasms like she can.”

  “Well, as long as Skye takes her birth control we should be fine.”

  “Dude, how sick would it be if there was a guy birth control?” He wiggled his eyebrows. “I would take that shit forever, even if Trinity was trying to get pregnant.”

  I cocked an eyebrow. “You would really do that to your wife?”

  He shrugged. “What she don’t know won’t hurt her.”

  I knew he was joking so I didn’t press him on it. “How’s it going with Arsen and Silke?”

  “They’re great but Arsen has a monster on his hands.”

  “Abby?” Would Slade really talk about his little girl like that?

  “No, Abby’s mom. She’s a real piece of work.” He told me everything that’d been going on.

  “Wow…psychopath.”

  “Right? I’d kill her if I could get away with it. Then Abby could stay with Arsen and that would solve everything.”

  “No you wouldn’t, Slade,” I said. “You’re too noble.”

  “Shows how much you know,” he said darkly. “Arsen is a brother to me. I’d do anything to help him out.”

  “Hopefully, it will work out.”

  “It better,” he said. “Arsen is a good dad and he deserves to be with Abby.”

  “Talk about a nightmare…” I was glad Skye and I weren’t like that. We would never divorce, and even if we did, we would never act like that. I would never want my children not to see her, and she would feel the same way.

  “Right?” Slade said. “Good thing Trinity isn’t a bitch like that.”

  “As in, you would want to see your kids?” I smiled, glad I caught him in his own words.

  “I never said
I wouldn’t love my kids,” he argued. “I just said I wouldn’t be a good dad. I stand by what I said.”

  “I don’t believe that, Slade. If Arsen can do it, you can do it.”

  “Well, he’s older than me.”

  “Age has nothing to do with it,” I said. “Your dad is just like you and he did a terrific job.”

  He slowly nodded. “I guess that’s true.”

  “Don’t stress about it, alright?”

  “I’ll try,” he said. “But I’ve got to get through a wedding first—one without tigers.”

  ***

  When I picked up Skye from work, that fucking asshole was there.

  “There’s no rush,” Ward said when I entered the office. “You can just leave them on my desk in the morning. I have a meeting so I might not be around for a few hours.”

  “Will do.” Skye saw me then gave me a smile. “Hey. Right on time.”

  “Yeah.” I turned to Ward and venomously glared at him.

  Ward turned to me and smiled. “You sure know how to hold a grudge, huh?” He seemed amused more than anything else.

  Skye sighed and rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry, Ward. I really wish Cayson would grow the hell up but apparently he never will.”

  “Maybe you should leave him and be with a real man like me.”

  Did he just fucking say that?

  Skye knew shit was about to go down.

  I marched toward Ward and grabbed a lamp as I went, ready to bash it over his head.

  “Enough!” Skye jumped in front of Ward and stuck out her arms to protect him. “Put my lamp down and back off!”

  Now I was pissed off at her. “Did you not hear what he just said to me?”

  “He’s just upset that you keep treating him like dirt, Cayson. Frankly, I am too.”

  I couldn’t get to Ward without hurting Skye so I put the lamp down.

  “I didn’t even do anything to you,” Ward snapped. “You were the one dragging Skye along like a fucking cat toy. It’s not my fault you took so long to figure out what you wanted. Can you really blame me for trying to snatch her? Because if it wasn’t me, then it would have been some other guy. And you fucked me over far more than I ever wounded you. You snapped at me in front of Clementine and drove her away. She’s the woman I was supposed to be with but now she’s knocked up and alone because of you. Because of you! So, go fuck yourself, Cayson. You’re a greedy, selfish monster.”