by Taryn Quinn
She angled her head. “So why did you?”
His beautiful eyes burned into hers. “Because I couldn’t think of anyone else I’d rather spend tonight with than you.”
Her wobbly heart plummeted straight to her toes by way of her lady bits. Every spot on the way tingled. “Sure you’re not just doing your holiday good deed?”
“Actually, I am. I hope to be repaid in blowjobs and eggnog. Sound good to you?”
She couldn’t help laughing as she waved at the living room. “Go on, go sit. I’ll just change.“
“No. You’re fine.” He rubbed the indent in her chin. “I’m not company. I want you just as you are.”
“Do you hear that dripping noise?” she whispered when she could finally speak.
He frowned. “No.”
“That’s me, melting.” His slow grin turned that melting thing she had going on into a total winter thaw. Especially between her legs. “I didn’t know you could be romantic, Des.”
“It’s probably because I’m getting ready to romance a veggie egg roll in extra duck sauce. It’s my one Christmas non-vegan indulgence and I’m feeling all lovey dovey.”
She laughed and went back into the hall. “I’ll serve the food and you can put up the tree.” She knelt, noticing the paper bag on top of the gift. She dug through it and shook her head, hoping the motion would discourage her tears. He really had thought of everything. “Mini lights? And ornaments?”
“I forgot the star.”
“Gonna dock your pay for that one.”
“The drugstore didn’t have much left, but I figured those would—”
Before he could finish, she shot to her feet and whirled into his arms, clamping her mouth down on his so hard that he let out a grunt. Then he was returning her kiss, his lips as icy as the frost that clung to his coat. He streaked his hands up her spine to tug on her hair, using it to pull her head back so he could plunge even deeper into her mouth. He was practically fucking her, just with his tongue instead of his cock.
She broke away and gasped for air. “You’re still my boss.”
“I don’t care about that. It won’t change anything.” His palms came up to frame her cheeks, and when his face dipped to hers, she realized he was shaking. They both were. “Just let me love you.”
He didn’t mean it the way it sounded. That wasn’t possible. But her body already missed his. So what if the word “love” from Des’s mouth for any reason made her long foolishly for more? She was a pragmatist, and she didn’t expect miracles.
Her rundown apartment and her job suddenly didn’t factor in the decision. This wasn’t about any of that. He didn’t feel sorry for her. It also wasn’t about Cole or quick office fucks with thick ripple icicles from the tree, as amazing as that had been.
There was a world of secrets in his eyes and she wanted to learn them all.
“Come with me,” she murmured.
Chapter 7
Her bedroom matched the rest of the house. It was sparsely decorated and the overhead light left the corners in shadows. Not counting her desk. That was bathed in a purple and yellow shimmering glow.
He grinned. “You have a lava lamp. You didn’t even live through the sixties.”
“No, but I loved them just the same. You should’ve seen my room back in Tennessee. I had a black light and fuzzy posters.” Biting her lip, she walked to the full bed. “Sorry, it’s kind of small.”
“That’s okay. We’ll just stack up double-decker.”
She laughed and flipped one of her ponytails over her shoulder. “Do you want a drink first? I have soda and eggnog. Coffee too.”
“I’m fine, thanks.” He came up behind her and snagged her full hips in his hands. She was rounded in all the right ways, and his cock wasn’t the least bit bashful about showing its appreciation. “I just want you.”
She slipped away and opened the nightstand drawer. “I don’t think I have any condoms. I haven’t bought any since—” She sighed.
“Since when?”
“Since I came here. I thought I might’ve had some stashed from home, but they’d probably be duds anyway.” She sat down heavily on the bed. “I’ve never had a guy in this room.”
“Am I supposed to be disappointed about any of these things? Because I’m not.” He sat down beside her and rubbed her thigh. “I have some.”
“Of course you do. You and Cole are always prepared.”
He didn’t miss the note of dejection in her voice. He turned toward her, waiting until she did the same. “I’d like to not use them tonight. I’ve never…” He exhaled. “I’ve never gone raw with a woman.”
“What about with a man?”
“No. There’s only been Cole and some dude in college. I just tried it with him to see if I was really bi.” He glanced down at his hands. “The experience sucked, so I decided it was just about Cole for me. And only when we’re with a woman.”
“You’ve known Cole a long time.”
“Yeah. We met in high school in Maine. We came to New York for college and stayed.”
“Was he born in England or something?”
“You mean because he uses the word ‘love’ as an endearment?” At her nod, he chuckled. “He was an exchange student in London for one semester. I think he tries to sound British to get women going.”
“It works for Van. She swoons every time he starts that ‘love’ stuff.” Wendy picked at a loose thread on her comforter. “When did you and he, you know? Start doing it?”
Considering everything she’d done with them, he found it incredibly charming that she could still be shy. “We didn’t have sex until we shared a girl at our prom senior year. We’ve been together sporadically since then. If you’re wondering about my sexual history, I’ve been tested recently. I’m clean.”
Wordlessly, she crawled into his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her tongue parted his lips, tasting. Exploring. Giving him back something he hadn’t felt for way too long.
Hope.
They didn’t move from that position for what felt like hours. His lips felt bruised by the time he finally dragged her sports bra over her head and bared her beautiful breasts. The light from her lava lamp played over her skin, showcasing the dark nipples that beckoned his mouth. He kissed each one in turn, drawing deeply, not stopping until her soft sighs led him to bury his hands in his hair and lift her back onto the heaping pile of pillows. They filled almost half of the bed and cradled her as she extended her arms to him. He stretched out on top of her and tucked his nose against her throat, just breathing in her sultry jasmine scent while she stroked his back and tangled their legs.
Shit, the room was too warm. He quickly shucked his clothes, though all that did was remind him exactly how small the bed was. Still, it was hard to complain when she flashed him a bewitching smile and settled back with her sexy red hair draped over the pillows.
This was finally going to happen.
She shifted against him, lining his still eager cock up with her pussy. He yanked at her leggings, needing that barrier gone. As soon as she was naked, he inched down the bed and threw her legs over his shoulders, wasting no time in opening her for his mouth.
Slowly, he trailed his tongue over her hot, wet slit, sinking into her over and over. Journeying from her plump clit over her trembling entrance all the way down to the pucker between her cheeks. She was like an erotic version of that kids’ doctor game—each destination earned him a new sound. A helpless cry, a long sigh, an urgent moan. They left no doubt as to what she liked.
Normally he tried to be a little more precise when he was going down on a woman, but the scent of her desire combined with the tightening of her thighs around his head destroyed his finesse. He wanted her taste inside him by any means possible. She arched, shamelessly grinding against his face until she finally gave in to him on a rippling wave that left her sensitive tissues quaking around his tongue.
He slid back up her body to kiss her, wanting her to know how much
he loved pleasing her that way. She whimpered, spanning his stubbled jaw with her fingers to hold him still as she licked his tongue clean.
“Fuck, you’re hot.” Groaning, he cupped her still twitching sex. He pushed two fingers inside her and absorbed the clenching spasms that instantly overtook her again. “I want in you. Bare.”
Wendy’s drowsy eyes locked on his. Her nod told him she understood he wasn’t demanding anything. It would be her choice. “It’s okay.” As if in silent acquiescence, more of her arousal dampened his palm. “I’m still on the pill.”
He didn’t wait. Couldn’t. He’d spent so long telling himself this couldn’t ever happen. That he wouldn’t risk their work relationship—or her.
Now she was beneath him, her nails scraping up his back as he circled her with the tip of his cock. Goddamn, he’d known she would use her nails.
She braced her heels on the bed and rose up, engulfing his length in one slow roll. She moaned at the sensation of him bottoming out inside her before he drew back and forged forward again. He set a punishing rhythm, determined to pay his way in orgasms. It was a shitty penance for taking her like this, but he’d known he would only be able to resist her for so long.
They weren’t the typical boss and secretary, and they’d fucking make their own rules. They’d make this work.
She cupped her breasts, thumbing her stiff nipples. The gesture almost seemed unconscious until she coasted her hand down her torso to encircle him where he pumped into her pussy. She gripped him at the base, squeezing him while her wicked eyes danced in the shifting light from her desk lamp. Purple streaks highlighted her hair and added shadows that made her lips look even more full.
Oh, fuck, those lips.
He surged into her until he couldn’t go any farther, brushing her clit with every pass. Crushing her fingers between their bodies, adding an extra layer of friction.
The wilder he stroked into her, the more fiercely the nails on her other hand scored his back. She reached down to grab his ass, hauling him into her so roughly that he couldn’t hold back his shout. The bed frame rammed against the wall, likely gouging out the paint, and still he swiveled into her, finding angles that nudged her to new heights. He grasped her breast, massaging it while she sucked him balls deep. She was so tight and slick, and she met his thrusts beat for beat. That she was as close as he was to the edge turned him on almost as much as the unrelenting grip of her pussy.
Des gazed into her hazy eyes. In them he saw so much more than passion. She was open to him, all the way. Body, soul and heart.
She bowed up, sobbing through her pleasure. Her shudders reverberated through his body, becoming his own. She pumped more wetness over him, prodding him to enter her faster. Harder. Pounding into her so that his sac slapped against her ass. The sounds of their lovemaking offset her cries and stole his focus from her manic thrashing. She didn’t restrain anything. What she needed from him, she took.
Tonight they both took. And gave.
He pulled back, stopping just barely inside her. “Look at me,” he whispered, hating that she’d finally closed her eyes. Her lashes rose and her lips fell apart as he drove into her one last time. “Baby, I’ve never…this has never…Wendy.”
Buried within her, the tingling in his spine exploded in a rush that damn near splintered his balls. He came hard, holding back nothing. Now she owned this part of him as she owned all the rest.
Gasping, he collapsed on top of her, his mouth at her breast. The flavor of her skin grounded him. And he drowned in it, just as he’d drowned himself in her.
He almost didn’t notice as she eased away from him and shimmied down the sheets. Her mouth gloved his spent cock and tore a grunt from him, but she didn’t relent. She swirled up and down his length, using all the carnal knowledge she’d gained from him the last couple of weeks. Holy shit, he was actually getting erect again.
She was a miracle worker. A goddamn dirty angel. His.
When she clasped her fingers around his sac, tugging gently, he hissed a curse and fisted her satin pillows. When she deep throated him so damn hard that his ass clenched to stave off his orgasm, he grabbed one of her ponytails and dragged her off.
She smiled up at him, rubbing her breasts so blatantly that his dick gave a pulse in defeat. He grabbed the base, twisting. It didn’t help. She pinched her nipples and flexed her hips, letting him see exactly how excited getting him off made her.
“Roll over.” He snatched her ponytails, yanking them while he positioned himself behind her. He trailed his cock over the crack of her ass, making her moan, before sliding down and powering into her drenched slit.
“Fuck yes. Give me that pussy.” He crushed her to the mattress, still stunned he could even do this again so soon. It was a banner frigging night. Seeing that round ass bobbing in front of him, feeling that brush of fingers that let him knowing she was touching herself again, urging them both to that point there was no coming back from—God, he couldn’t take it.
His body went on auto pilot and his hearing dimmed, tuned only to Wendy’s keening moans and her moisture bathing his cock. She rocked back to meet him and he gentled his hold on her hair, releasing one of her ponytails to rain a light series of smacks on her ass. Testing to see if she really enjoyed that sort of play or had just tolerated it to please him and Cole.
She cried out and shuddered through a brutal climax, contracting around him so violently that he used her hair to pull her up again to make sure she hadn’t passed out. She mumbled unintelligible words, her hips still racing under his, her nails digging into the sheets.
“Oh baby. You’re incredible.” He plowed into her until the sexy line of her spine and the curve of her ass blurred. Until his life’s purpose distilled to emptying himself in her. Giving her all of him, even when he’d been sure there was nothing left. There was always more, with her.
Des shouted as his release jetted deep into her body. There was so much a little trickled out around him, which didn’t exactly help in bringing him back down from his high. By the time he finished pounding into her, even his damn balls were sore.
He collapsed atop her, knowing he shouldn’t. He should move.
Yeah, he should do that. Someday.
“Des?”
Now he was hearing voices. At least they knew his name. “Mmm?”
“Why wouldn’t you make love to me before? With Cole?” She rushed ahead. “I thought…God, I thought so many things. But I want to hear the truth from you.”
Somehow he summoned the strength to roll over and draw her into his arms. She belonged there. If he hadn’t known that before tonight, he was damn certain of it now.
“That guy Johnny who raised me? He was my mom’s best friend. After she died, I ended up with him and his wife. They divorced when I was in college and he died a couple of years back.”
She stroked his chest. “I’m so sorry. What about your dad?”
“He wasn’t really in my life. He had another family, and they took his focus.”
This time she didn’t say anything.
“They met at work. She was his receptionist, and he used his advantage to get exactly what he demanded from her. I was the unwanted consequence.” The words pressed on his chest, imprinted there like a tattoo he’d never wanted. “She never got over their relationship. Over losing him. Then I lost her too soon too.”
She was quiet for so long that he craned his neck to take a good look at her. She was staring at him, eyes wide and wet. “You could’ve told me, Des.”
Shaking his head, he let out an abbreviated laugh. “How?”
“Just like this.”
“Yeah, after I’ve been inside you.” He gazed at the ceiling. “I tried, Wen. I really did. It was stupid, thinking that with all we’d done I could still pretend I wasn’t like him. I did everything I could to make it clear to you it had nothing to do with your job, and I never took advantage all the way—” He pinched his nose, unsurprised it didn’t relieve the pressure gathe
ring in his head. “It was all just a bullshit game. All these weeks of denial… I lied to myself. Worse, I lied to you.”
“You did? I must’ve missed it.” She crossed her arms over his chest and leaned forward so that her hair trailed over his skin.
He couldn’t stop the shudder. God, he had so many plans for that hair and her mouth before the night was through.
If she didn’t tell him to go to hell.
“You didn’t lie, Des, you just didn’t tell me everything. And that’s okay, because I didn’t tell you everything either.” She pulled back, retreating even further when he pinned her with his stare. “Maybe we should hit pause right here.”
His stomach knotted. When she was nervous or upset, the southern in her voice grew more pronounced. Usually he couldn’t get enough of it. At the moment, the rich, silky tones only increased his need to command her to tell him every secret she had.
He was no expert, but he figured that meant he was in love with her. Or possibly a burgeoning psycho.
Inhaling deeply, he turned her face toward his. Whatever it was, he’d face it with her. He’d be damned if he gave her up now. “Tell me.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, blocking him out. “I’m in love with you.”
At least he didn’t laugh. She supposed she couldn’t complain at his lack of response or how he went as still as a corpse. He was still her boss, after all. They had their working relationship to think about, and despite his revelations, he might not be ready to take things public. Or maybe he just didn’t care for her that way.
She could handle it. She’d handled much worse.
“I don’t expect you to love me back.” Wendy reached for his hand. His skin was hot to the touch. “I just needed you to know. Every time I was with you and Cole, I wanted it to be just us. You and me, like it was tonight.” She glanced around her woefully tiny bedroom and sighed. “Though I wish we’d been at your place. This bed is one Des-powered thrust away from collapse.”
