by Ellie Danes
I leaned forward to bring her into a passionate kiss as we moved in perfect rhythm with one another. The timing was perfect as if our bodies and spirits were connected to one another so closely it allowed us to fall into a synchronous bliss.
She wriggled and I growled roughly in her ear. She gripped the sheet beneath her, pulling it from the bed as she writhed beneath me. I always loved watching a woman’s orgasm. To see a woman completely at my mercy with pleasure so intense that she no longer had any control over anything—it was a joy and a privilege, and I liked it even more with Kate. She was so powerful. She was so in control of everything that it was nice to see her lose it for a second. It was even better — euphoric even — to know that it had been me to cause her to lose control.
Something unleashed deep inside of me as I caught sight of her lustful, half-lidded eyes. It was so incredibly powerful, so incredibly wild, that it caused me to slide into her faster until we were both screaming in pure ecstasy.
Completely spent, I rolled off of her and my head hit the pillow. I slung one arm over Kate and pulled her to me so that she was resting on my heaving chest. I smiled and placed a small kiss at the top of her head just before pulling the blanket over us.
Having sex with Kate was something I’d hoped for from the very beginning, but it was never something I’d expected to happen. If it did, no matter how I’d felt about her before the act itself — no matter how different she was — I still hadn’t thought the sex would be any different than it was with anyone else. I’d always loved sex, but this was something more than that. I couldn’t fully explain it, but it felt like a homecoming.
I’d never been one to cuddle, either, but now there was nothing in the world that I could imagine being better than her resting in my arms. With every small kiss she gave me, all I thought about was holding her closer. I didn't even think about the clothes we’d left strewn across the penthouse. I didn’t even think about how great the sex was in bed, against the wall, or on the couch. I didn’t think about our bodies moving perfectly with one another as we gasped for breath.
I felt a lot more than just red-hot desire—I felt something else. I felt weak in the knees when I thought about her. I felt weak in the heart as I held her.
Tangled up in her legs, I pressed lazy kisses over her skin while she did the same to me.
I felt for this woman, in every way possible. It started with the slope of her nose, and the sweet luscious curve of her lips, all the way down to her belly button and then to her kneecaps and ankles and toes. I loved her mind. I loved her body. I loved it all.
Was it only a matter of time before I fell in love with her, too?
I continued to admire her as we lay there, completely lost as to what time it was. I realized that my head had been cloudy with only images of her since I’d met her. She made my heart flutter. Thoughts of her distracted me every single minute of every single day.
I wanted to be with her for as long as she’d have me. I wanted to listen to her stories while we cuddled close. I wanted to hear her fears, her dreams, her hopes — and everything in between. I wanted to have dinner with her every single night, and watch a shitty television show with her. Most importantly, though, I wanted to wrap myself around her every single night and hold her as we both slept.
I wanted to be the first ‘good morning,’ and the last ‘goodnight.’ I wanted her. To say it didn’t scare me would be the biggest lie that I’d ever told.
“I really can’t believe we did this,” she finally said, breaking the silence that I hadn’t even noticed. I shifted to look at her.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You know what I mean,” she said with a laugh. “But I can’t really say I’m sad about it.”
“I’m not sorry,” I said.
“Me either, oddly,” she whispered, snuggling in close. “But we still have to do something about this.”
I nodded, just before placing a single kiss atop her forehead. I knew she was right. I just didn’t know what we could do — other than just not see each other again. No way. The option of not seeing each other again wasn’t acceptable.
“Well, first I need to ask how you knew where I live,” I said, laughing. “You’re not a stalker, are you?”
She laughed. “Sort of. I actually live in this building, and Claire found out and told me to ask the security guard, so I did — so I guess that part is sort of stalker-ish.”
Now that I thought about it, I did remember that douchebag Michael Murphy lived in this building. I never saw him. Didn’t bother to try to, though. I just remembered my dad always talking shit about how he had the penthouse and the Murphy’s lived below.
“At least it makes sense why I feel like I’ve been seeing you everywhere,” I said.
“I thought the exact same thing! We both thought we were going insane!”
I chuckled and looked down at my pillow, letting a silence fall between us for a minute.
“You know,” I said. “I don’t care who you are, or who your family is.” I cleared my throat. “You could be the daughter of anyone in the world—Adolf-fucking-Hitler in fact, and I’d still want you.”
“I’ve wanted you this whole time,” she said, and immediately I felt a hint of guilt rise up in my stomach. I’d rejected her today, or yesterday, rather, when we’d run into each other at the coffee shop. That had been a shitty thing to do.
“So that’s it then?” I asked, a bit amused.
“I think so,” she said, seeming pretty sure of herself. “We’re dating. Deal with it.”
I smirked, and then she spoke again.
“So are we going to tell my family, or keep it all a secret for a while — to see if we have anything worth telling?”
“Didn’t we already do that?” I laughed, gesturing towards her bare breasts. It was pretty obvious, at least to me, that we had something.
She giggled, almost shyly. “I suppose we did,” she agreed. “I’ll tell him.”
“You don’t care about causing trouble, do you?” I said with a laugh. She sounded so sure about this, about telling her dad. If I were in her place, about to tell my dad, I’d be a nervous wreck.
“I just don’t care what he thinks,” she said. “It’s my life. He knows that now. He also has to know that I’m going to see whoever I want.”
She looked down at my hand and took my fingers in hers. I heard her gulp, and pull in a deep breath.
“But,” she said, “I think the bigger problem is that I’m moving across country in a few months.”
I felt a pang of worry hit me, and my stomach whirled with nausea. I cleared my throat again, hoping I wouldn’t show how bothered I was by the thought of her moving.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” I said with a half-smile.
I couldn’t believe it. I’d managed to sound convincing. My tone was actually reassuring. Too bad it was completely at odds with how I felt.
Chapter 18
Kate
It didn’t even feel like a walk of shame that morning as I went back to my dad’s apartment. I took the stairs. I needed to give myself a little more time to muster up the courage to go into my family home, reeking of sex and betrayal.
I couldn't even pretend like I was upset about “betraying” my father, though. I couldn’t pretend like I wasn’t glowing as I took each and every step down, like I didn’t have a stupid, silly grin plastered on my face.
I couldn’t pretend like I gave a damn about any professional issues. In that moment, it felt like nothing in the world could possibly bring me down. I just hoped that I wouldn’t be proven wrong.
When I reached my floor, I took a deep breath and barreled through the door to my hall, and before I knew it, I was standing face-to-wood with my door. I reached out, hesitating for moment. My hands were a little shaky.
No matter how happy I was, I was nervous.
I wasn’t nervous because I’d done anything wrong—I hadn’t done anything wrong. Being
with Ian had been the most right thing in the world. But I was nervous that my perfect mood would somehow feel heavy and burdened as soon as I walked through the door I’d called home for so many years.
With a deep breath, I slowly turned the knob. I dreaded having any sort of talk with my dad, and I knew that right now he’d likely be home. I also knew that I’d have a hard time keeping my blush away from my cheeks if I talked to him.
He’d read me; I knew he would. He was good at reading people. He was even better at reading me, specifically, especially when something was on my mind.
I knew I’d have to have the conversation as soon as I saw him. There was no denying my feelings for Ian.
The door creaked open and I took a step forward, cringing at the sound of the hinges. As soon as the entire living room came into view, I noticed the lights that were always on in the hallway were off. I felt my face twist in confusion and I threw the door closed behind me, just hard enough that it shut without slamming.
I glanced around, craning my neck, remaining still — my feet planted in the perfect safety zone.
There were no sounds. It was quiet. Too quiet for anyone to be home.
“Hello?” I called, almost afraid that I might have been wrong, and therefore alerting everyone to my presence. But no one answered back.
“Claire?” I called again, my feet leaving the safety zone in front of the door.
I traipsed through the living room, toward the hall where the lights were off. I peeked around the corner. “Claire?” I called again, knowing that if she were there, she already would have said something by now.
“Dad must have taken her out for breakfast or something,” I muttered, almost in relief, before turning on my heel and heading back to my bedroom across the hall. I needed a shower.
“Kate?” a deep, gruff voice called from behind me as soon as I reached the threshold of my room. I stiffened and stood still, frozen in fear. I didn’t have to turn around to know who was behind me.
Dad.
“I thought you were out,” I whispered, almost breathless.
“Claire went out to grab some bagels. I was working in my study.”
I closed my eyes, tightly, and took a deep breath, trying to regain my composure.
“Where have you been?” he asked, a little more harshly than I’d anticipated.
It was now or never, I supposed. I turned to face him. He looked a little curious, but mostly suspicious.
“I was out,” I said, “and I think it’s best that I tell you where.”
His brows contorted and his lips tightened. I could tell he was already preparing himself to be pissed off. I never started a good conversation out this way. I was more of the ‘get right to it’ type when good news was concerned.
“I don’t have a lot of time to waste, so out with it,” he grumbled.
“I’m seeing someone,” I said, simply.
Immediately his expression changed to confusion. Not only confusion, but complete uncaring confusion.
“Kate, I really don’t care about who you’re dating,” he said, “or who you’re sleeping with for that matter, considering you’re coming in like this in the morning.”
“It’s not like that,” I said. Even though it was — it really was like that. This was mortifying.
“Why are you acting so strange about it, then?” Dad asked. “Does he have some sort of crazy defect?”
“No,” I said with a sigh. I didn’t really know how to say it. “It’s just that it’s someone I’m not sure you’ll approve of.”
I felt my throat tighten. I wasn’t even sure why I was doing this so quickly.
“What, are you dating a bearded lady or something?” He laughed, amused with himself, but when I looked at him, eyes serious, not laughing, he stopped. His eyes narrowed. “Who?”
“Ian Cross.”
He laughed again. “Ian Cross, like MTS’s Ian Cross?”
I nodded, not sure of what else to do.
“Uh yeah, that’s a hard no,” he said sternly before turning on his heel and walking away.
I was confused. Did he just tell me no? No to what? And I hadn’t expected him to take the news well, but this was…strange.
“No, what?” I called after him.
He put his hand up in the air and continued walking, without making any sort of motion to stop. “Just no,” he said again, without even so much as turning his head over his shoulder.
I wasn’t going to accept that as an answer. He was a complete idiot if he thought this was the end of it. I mean, seriously, what kind of nerve did a man need to be so ridiculous as to think that he could say no without giving any explanation, discussing anything — or hell, what made him even think he could say no to anything and have me listen?
“Dad, there’s nothing you can do about it!” I yelled as I ran after him.
He spun his body around to face me. His anger was right there on the surface—shades of red, his eyes slit into sharpened points. Even the vein in his forehead was beginning to throb. He was quaking.
I didn’t care, though, because I was pissed, too.
“You never hear me out. It’s not like I went searching for this man,” I said. “We just sort of bumped into each other, started dating, and I just now found out who he was to you.”
“That man isn’t shit to me!” Dad bellowed, red spreading out across his forehead and neck, and I knew that if I kept baiting him, he’d eventually bust a blood vessel—or worse, have a heart attack.
I quieted down to let him get himself together. He could take a deep breath, compose himself. I knew him, and I knew it was only a matter of time before he’d catch on to how much of a jackass he was being.
Usually, he didn’t care — but I hoped that maybe in this case he might. He took a deep, dragon-filled breath, and nodded.
“It’s your life,” he said, in a tone that was so quiet that I almost didn’t hear it. “You can do what you want.”
I stood there, my mouth open, waiting for him to say something else. Instead, he just turned around again toward his office, and went in. He didn’t say another word. He didn’t even look at me.
It was his way of telling me to go ahead and do whatever I wanted. He knew I was going to anyway, and I knew that by now, there was a high possibility that he was sick and tired of fighting with me about my future. I was going to do what I was going to do. Neither he, nor anyone else, could stop me. And maybe he was finally coming to terms with that.
It was about damn time.
The door clicked closed, and I stood, staring after it, barely blinking.
I couldn’t help but wonder — a bit amazedly — how and why he didn’t get angrier. But rather than sit around and contemplate it, I needed to go to sleep. My night with Ian had left me exhausted.
Chapter 19
Ian
I walked briskly through the halls of MTS that morning, nodding and smiling at all the familiar faces on the way. Even though I was in a good mood, I still resisted the few small attempts at conversation. More than anything else, I wanted to get to my office. I wanted to sit down and get to work. Admittedly, I hadn’t been getting a lot of work done, with all the plaguing thoughts of Kate whirling about my mind.
When I finally reached my floor, I sighed. Not with dread to be at the office, like usual. I wasn’t in a piss-poor mood or anything. On the contrary, I was in a pretty damn good mood. My sigh was one of longing, not irritation. I longed for Kate. I wanted her long limbs to be wrapped around me again.
A part of me felt self-conscious that I was sighing dreamily like a love-struck teenager, but luckily for me the top floor was deserted. It was still early, before most people arrived.
Janice — one of the first top-floor people usually in the doors— wasn’t even here yet. That was probably a good thing, because no one could read me quite like Janice. I knew we’d have some sort of conversation about it all. But in the meantime, I could actually concentrate on some work. Then I’d be doing well.
I’d have a huge chunk of it done before Kate was even up and able to tell her father about us, or Janice was in the office to question me.
I trekked to my desk, laid my briefcase down, and wandered over to the giant windowed wall. Gazing out, I let my mind drift off, just like I’d been doing ever since first meeting Kate.
I wondered what she’d think about the view, and what she’d think of my office. After spending her life with Michael Murphy, she probably couldn’t care less about medical innovations, but maybe she’d be curious about how we ran things here.
No more thinking about Kate. I really needed to get to work. I sat at my desk and opened my laptop. For the next two hours, I worked steadily. I’d glanced up occasionally over the top of my screen and watched as people started to filter in. I’d only been distracted once, and that was when Janice had brought in a cup of coffee for me, her mouth turned up in a sweetened smile.
“You’ve been working on the new concept for a while,” she said. “How’s that going?” She leaned down to look at the screen.
I smiled. Usually assistants didn’t give a rat’s ass about anything technical with the company. All the other assistants in the office, in fact, skulked around and only focused on the job two-dimensionally. They only focused on knowing what they had to know. They only did the minimum. Janice wasn’t like that—she was concerned about what was going on. She knew my days in and out, and she helped me in times of stress and need — and God knows I had experienced plenty of those times after being left in charge of the whole company.
She was the best assistant I’d had. She felt like a mother, of sorts. She was a friend at the very least, and I needed friends in a business as cutthroat as this one.
“I think it’s going to be just what we need to slaughter the competition.” I chuckled proudly as I looked at the technology’s schematics.
“Slaughter,” she sighed. “I love that you talk about this like it’s war.”
“It is war,” I reminded her.
She sighed. “When I first signed up for this job, I didn’t realize how ruthless medical technology companies could be.”
