by Parker, Ali
Giving Jeremiah the heads-up he asked for whenever I take off for lunch, I typed out a quick email and hit send, grabbing my purse in the same movement. Tiana got to the coffee shop minutes after I did. The restaurant she was doing work experience at for her degree wasn’t far away.
We ordered our lunch, then got a table in the crowded place where we got caught up. Since I started at Williams Inc, we didn’t see much of each other. I was out early in the morning, while Tiana’s shifts tended to start over or even after lunch and kept her out until well after I was in bed.
She sipped on her water, swallowing a bite of her sandwich. “So, week one down. How’s the rich bastard?”
“Surprisingly, not as much of a bastard as I thought at first.”
Tilting her head, she narrowed her eyes a bit and tore another bite out of her lunch, motioning for me to keep talking. “I actually kind of like working for Jeremiah.”
“Jeremiah, huh?” She lifted a brow, questions filling her eyes.
I shook my head hard. “It’s not like that, I swear. He just thought first names would make it easier since we spend so much time together.”
“Riiiight,” Tiana said. “Speaking of spending so much time together, has he been behaving himself? I know you were worried about it.”
“Surprisingly, he’s been totally professional. He’s keeping things strictly business between us. He hasn’t even made one comment that’s made me uncomfortable.”
What I didn’t tell her was that I caught him watching me every now and then from his office or when he thought I wouldn’t notice. The reason I didn’t tell her was because I didn’t mind him watching me. In fact, I was starting to want him to look at me. To notice me. Given I nearly turned the job down worrying about him, how twisted was it that I was slightly disappointed he was behaving so well?
Chapter 22
JEREMIAH
“Come in,” I called out when I heard a tentative knock on my inner office door. Stephanie. It had to be her since that was the door that led to her office.
She walked in, looking hot as hell in a tight black skirt and a top that showed all her curves. It was light blue with a paisley print and hugged the curve between her chest and her hip in a way that made me want to rest my hand there.
Although it didn’t show any cleavage, it did offer a hint of what was underneath for how it fit her. Damn, I really shouldn’t have been noticing these details about her. Not anymore. I kept waiting to be immune to her, but it hadn’t happened yet.
“I have your messages from yesterday.” She was holding a tablet in front of her. “Want me to walk you through them?”
“Just give me a sec.” I finished responding to a couple of emails and then tented my fingers, placing my elbows on my desk and nodded for her to continue. “Make it quick.”
Her head jerked back a fraction of an inch at my harsh tone, her eyes narrowing as if she was trying not to flinch, squared her shoulders and started firing off messages. As she scrolled through them, mercifully summarizing most, I rolled my head and tried to loosen the tension in my shoulders.
I ducked out early with my father yesterday. Our meeting didn’t go as well as I was expecting it to, and so I wasn’t in the best mood.
In fact, I was in a terrible mood. The sky outside was dark and gray, which suited me fine. It was perfect, actually. A literal representation of the thundercloud I felt following me around all day.
I should’ve known the second my father just showed up at my office in the middle of the day to brace for storm Jance, but it caught me off-guard this time. Partially because the only person I was focused on and completely aware of in this building these days was the girl standing in front of me now, her soft dark hair pulled back into a ponytail that swayed gently as she scrolled and made notes.
If I was as keenly aware of my father as I usually was, I might’ve seen the tongue lashing I got coming from a mile away. Dearest dad had high expectations of me, and even though I was doing my best, he came by to tell me it wasn’t good enough.
Among other things, he called me lazy, unmotivated and told me to work harder. Apparently, the mall project wasn’t moving as fast as it could’ve been—fuck the fact that we were actually ahead of schedule—and then he proceeded to ream me for employing Stephanie.
He didn’t know her at all, but he had only bad things to say about her. She didn’t look the part for the image I wanted to portray for my office, she was rude, she was too curt on the phone, she’d made him wait. On and on.
When I defended her, he waved me off and told me point blank he wanted me to replace her. I pointed out that would make the project even slower, at which point he shrugged and told me it wouldn’t make much of a difference for the pace we were working at anyway.
I wasn’t planning on replacing Stephanie at all, despite my dad’s insistence. I didn’t give a fuck what he thought if I was being honest. Stephanie was doing a good job, that was all that mattered to me.
There also wasn’t much more I could do project-wise. The negotiations were progressing faster than I expected them to. At the moment, no one involved was dragging their feet on anything.
My dad was insane if he thought anyone could’ve made it happen faster, and I knew it. It didn’t improve my mood though, knowing he was full of shit.
Stephanie cleared her throat to get my attention, blinking as she waited for me to say something. I hadn’t heard half of the damn messages I missed while out with my father. I nodded curtly to her.
“You can go now. I don’t need anything else.” I dismissed her, not even trying not to be rude about it. I wasn’t in the mood to humor anyone, as fucked up as that might make me. I just wanted to get the hell out of the damn office.
It felt like I was suffocating in here today. Shooting a wistful glance out the window over my shoulder, I wished I could be out there. I used to spend so much time outside. Nowadays, I was lucky if I got out in the sun once a week for the dreaded golf game.
A very big part of me, a part I thought was silenced for the uselessness of that line of thinking, wanted nothing more than to walk the fuck out. For good. Very few people knew I had more going for me than just this godforsaken place. Back when I thought this would be Jack’s kingdom, I started carving out a life for myself elsewhere.
A life I missed more than I ever let myself think about. I could walk out of this building and never look back. I probably wouldn’t, but I could. And it was fucking tempting right now.
“What’s crawled up your ass and died?” Stephanie asked. I hadn’t even realized she hadn’t left. Her eyes were blazing, her hands on her hips as she glared at me.
I felt my brows jump. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. You’re being an ass,” she said, scowling at me.
I rose from my chair. “I am, am I?”
“You are,” she insisted firmly, her fingers digging into her voluptuous hips like it was taking everything she had to keep them on her instead of wrapping them around my neck and strangling the life out of me. “You’re acting like that typical alpha, bad boy, jerky mold the tabloids cast you in.”
My nostrils flared. I took a step closer to her. Two. “You can’t speak to me that way.”
“You can’t speak to me the way you just did either. Where does that leave us?” Her chest was heaving in anger.
To her credit, she didn’t back away from me as I advanced. Instead, she seemed to have sensed I threw down the gauntlet and stepped forward to accept the challenge. I smirked at her. “Not sure where it leaves you, but I am an alpha. And I never said I wasn’t the bad boy or the jerk the press made me out to be.”
Her eyes narrowed. “If the shoe fits, I guess you’ve gotta wear it.”
“Guess so.” I took another step toward her, my own breathing coming hard and fast as I thought of the audacity of this girl—my secretary, of all people—calling me out like this.
She met me halfway, the tops of her ears and cheeks flushed. An inferno blazed
in her eyes. Man, was she pissed.
Good, at least I’m not the only one. A rogue thought flashed in my mind. Why was it so satisfying to see the rage burning in my chest firing into me from her eyes?
Her lips parted, undoubtedly to give me another piece of her mind. The movement drew my attention down to that plump mouth, my gaze fixed on the fiery red it was painted.
Without warning, I hiked my arm around her waist. It fit perfectly in that curve I saw her shirt showcase earlier. I yanked her against me and snapped my eyes to hers. She still didn’t back down.
Her hands flew to my chest and bunched the material of my shirt between her fingers. I didn’t know if she was trying to pull me closer or push me away, but I was willing to bet on pulling me closer when she leaned into me the tiniest bit.
That was all the assent I needed. I wound my fingers around the nape of her neck and kept her flush against my body with my arm around her waist, bending my head to crush her lips beneath my own.
All the tension between us turned to passion. The inferno from her eyes seemed to explode from both of us, consuming us. Razing our inhibitions and this week of playing fucking professional to the ground, melting the facades we put up to convince ourselves we hadn’t felt exactly the same thing for each other in that club.
I kissed her hard, but she kept up. She gave as good as she got, her hands wandering all over me. Feeling her fingers grip me, trace up and down my sides and over my arms set my skin on fire despite the shirt I was still wearing.
Groaning, I lifted her against me and walked back until I hit my desk. I positioned her between my legs and set her down, devouring her. My one hand stayed on that luscious fucking hip I’d been dreaming of feeling against me, while the other joined hers in exploring.
I felt a cold, hard plastic nub and realized it was the top button of her shirt. In a flash, I had it undone. She didn’t stop me, so I reached for the next one.
As undone and consumed as I was, Stephanie’s tongue plunged into my mouth and stroked at mine. One of her busy hands dropped to my belt buckle, and she brazenly started to undo it. This is what I’m fucking talking about.
A girl who wanted as much as I did and was as unforgiving about taking it. None of this shy, coy shit. Straightforward fucking desire. My cock swelled, straining against my zipper.
Her fingers were on the metal pull of the zipper, her skirt bunched around her waist and our bodies mashed so closely together I could feel the heat radiating from her center.
This was so fucking happening. I reached into my back pocket, knowing I had a condom in my wallet. Stephanie started pulling down on my zipper when suddenly there was a loud knock on my door.
Steph and I both froze, then broke apart so fast it was like a wire snapping under tension. She jumped off my desk and hurried to do up her buttons while I adjusted myself and sat down behind the desk to hide the very obvious evidence of what we’d been doing seconds before.
“Come in,” I called when I thought it was safe.
It was Neil. He eyed us both, then turned his attention to me. “I need you Jer. Right now. Something urgent’s come up. Sorry bro, but it can’t wait.”
“Then let’s go,” I said. I took my jacket from the hook behind my chair and slid it on as I walked to the door. When I reached it, I paused briefly to look back at Stephanie. “Excuse me.”
I left her standing there in my office, looking like she’d just been fucked with her hair all mussed and her lips bee-stung. Breathing hard.
Damn, she was fucking gorgeous. Sexier than I’d ever seen her. Whatever Neil needed me for, I hoped like hell for his sake it was worth leaving a girl like her standing alone after what could’ve just happened between us.
Chapter 23
STEPHANIE
“What the hell was that?” I asked the furniture in Jeremiah’s office as the door slammed shut behind him. I blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of the last few minutes. I had no idea what came over me.
It was pure craziness, that’s what it was. Madness at expert level.
“Fuck, you’re an idiot.” I cursed myself loudly and sank into the white leather couch in his office. I couldn’t believe I’d let him, or his stupid, wildly freaking tantalizing kiss get into or go to my head. “Stupid, stupid, stupid.”
How did I allow it to get that out of hand? One second, I was so damn angry with him I felt like I could throttle him with my bare hands and the next well… The next there were a whole bunch of things I wanted to do to him with my bare hands, none of which was to throttle him anymore.
I felt hot and heavy, ready to screw the rich bastard’s brains out. My brains though, now that I was capable of stringing a coherent thought together again—somewhat—were not impressed with me. It should never have happened.
My body, however, didn’t agree with my brain. While I was doing all I could to convince myself it was a dumb, one-time mistake, my cheeks burned, and there was an unprecedented ache between my thighs. My entire body was on fire for him. I fanned my cheeks, hoping the rest of me would cool down as they did.
Cold water was what I really needed, but I didn’t want to leave his office for the bathroom yet. I knew I was completely disheveled and I didn’t want anyone seeing me leaving his office that way. Office gossip was as rampant here as anywhere. If someone saw me emerging in this state, I would’ve bet the farm the entire building would have us sleeping together before we closed up shop for the day.
Men had it so much easier when it came to hiding this kind of thing. Tuck away the erection, brush fingers through hair, and they were as good as gold. None of this having to redo hair, wipe away smudged makeup, get rid of the just-fucked flush crap.
When he’d left, Jeremiah looked as calm and put together as ever—despite the raging hard-on I knew he had had just seconds before storming out the door with barely a second glance at me. And he’d been as into our mind-blowing kiss as I was.
I knew this because I felt his hardness pressed into my panties, onto my stomach while he kissed me like a man possessed. From the feel of things, the man was fucking huge down there. He would, of course, be hung like a goddamn horse.
All wouldn’t be right in the world if something about Jeremiah was average or mediocre. I was learning to accept that, much as I hated him for it.
And how on earth had he managed to get himself under control so fast? I was still panting, my body still ached with unsatisfied need, and he’d been gone at least two minutes.
Probably because he has more experience than you with forbidden office trysts, a snooty voice inside me whispered. I heard rumors about him and his ex-secretary from the people on our floor. Some people thought they might’ve hooked up once, while others swore it happened on the regular.
“Shut up,” I muttered to my racing thoughts. I pressed my palms to my temples, trying to regain control of my mind.
It spun and splintered under the perfect pressure of his lips on mine, completely overtaken by how good it felt to be kissed by him. His kiss was as undulating and intoxicating as he was. Firm and confident. My heart was still beating overtime from the mere memory of it.
I touched my lips absently, running my tongue over them. They felt different somehow, tasted like him. Of mint and hazelnut and man. I rolled my eyes at myself for even thinking he tasted like a man. I mean, what did men even taste like?
Like him? I ventured a meek, mental guess. I couldn’t think of any other word to describe it, so man it would have to be. He might’ve been a self-professed alpha bad boy, but he kissed like a freaking superstar. No wonder women got sucked in by that shit if all guys like him kissed that way. Not that I’d ever met a guy like him, but surely...
I got flustered just thinking about what fucking him would be like if kissing him was that intense. Which was why I really had to stop thinking about it. Unfortunately, the way his body felt against mine left me little choice but to wonder what it might be like. Incredible, probably. The stuff erotica and porn were made of,
possibly.
Or it would be a total disappointment. I didn’t really think it would be, but I had to stop imagining it as the best sex I’d never had.
Because it’s not going to happen, I reminded myself. When that knock came on his office door and Neil burst in, I was ready to yell at him or order him away. Now I was beyond thankful for the interruption. Jeremiah and I would’ve made a mistake there would’ve been no coming back from if it hadn’t been for Neil.
Catching sight of myself in the reflection of his large window, I realized my blouse was still half-undone. I began buttoning it up when someone else burst into his office—this time without knocking.
The new arrival was a tall, statuesque red-haired woman wearing a dress and nail polish to match. Her eyes were wide as she scanned the room, looking more than a little wild. She was beautiful in that untouchable, porcelain looking way, but she was way off base if she thought she could just invite herself in here.
I had no idea who she was, but she had to go. “Excuse me, this is a private office. I’m afraid you’re going to have to leave.”
Her gaze zeroed in on me, furious, then she threw her head back and laughed as if she couldn’t believe what she’d heard. Manically and loud. “Me? I have to leave? You’re the interloper here, you whore. You leave.”
“Whore?” Who the hell did this woman think she was? I took a deep breath, planting my hands on my hips. She had another thing coming if she thought calling me names was going to get me to back down. “Look, I don’t know who you are, but if you don’t leave right now, I’m calling security to remove you. You shouldn’t be in here. I don’t know how you got in, but I’m sure security will be very interested in finding out.”
I started for the phone on Jeremiah’s desk when the crazy lady practically dove onto me. I caught her moving just in time to step out of the way and jump to the other side of the desk. Away from the phone, but at least I was out of her reach.
