He finishes typing his message and then points to his closet. “I had your denim dress washed from the night of the club. You can wear that. And don’t forget to grab your money that you won at the casino. It’s in my pants pocket.”
“Thanks!” I rush into the closet, finding the dress immediately. It easily stands out between all the black suits. I grab it and drape it on my arm as I head to the bathroom. “I’ll just take a quick shower and be out of your way.”
“Take your time,” he says, eyeing the dress curiously.
“What?”
His eyes move from my dress to my eyes. “No bra or panties?”
I shrug. “I don’t have any clean underwear, and my bra is still at the beach somewhere,” I explain. “Don’t worry, I won’t flash anyone but you,” I say with a wink.
He groans, and I swear, his still half-hard cock groans with him. “I need to take a cold shower, alone, or I’ll follow you in there and do wicked things to you.”
“Rain check?”
He comes forward and places a lingering kiss on my lips. “It’s a date,” he promises. “My driver is downstairs. He’ll take you wherever you need to go. Preferably to a clothing store first.”
With a chuckle, I push him lightly on the chest. “Go on,” I say as I back away into the bathroom, dropping my dress onto the counter.
His dark eyes sweep up my naked body again. “Hmm. On second thought, maybe we can be a little late?” he offers. “Sharing a shower also conserves water.”
I roll my eyes. “Don’t pretend that’s your true motivation.”
He steps forward to grab me, but I quickly shut the door in his face and lock it. I hear the doorknob jiggle. “No seducing me!” I holler through the door. “We have places to be. You can give me shower orgasms next time.”
He’s quiet for a beat. Then I hear, “Fine. But just know that I’ll be fisting my dick in the guest bathroom thinking about you wet and naked.”
I gulp. “Noted, and very colorfully visualized,” I croak out.
I hear him walk away, and I quickly walk over to his shower and turn it on. I hop in as soon as the water is warm and quickly wash my hair and body, which is still tinged with saltwater.
I finish in five minutes flat because I really am in a rush. I wrap one of his fluffy black towels around me and swipe the water from my limbs and hair. But just as I pull the towel away from my back, I feel a sharp pain near my spine.
A little yelp escapes me. “Ouch!”
I look over my shoulder, and then study the towel, trying to see if there’s a splinter or something stuck in the fabric, but there’s nothing. Just as I’m hanging the towel on the rack, something on the floor catches my eye, and I freeze.
With a gulp, I reach down and pick up the single red feather at my feet. I lift it up as if to check that it’s real, before dropping it again in shock.
Oh, shit.
I hop up onto the counter and whirl around so that my back faces the mirror. I press my fingertips along the tattooed wings on my back, and my eyes widen in shock when I don’t just feel slightly raised skin of a tattoo, but soft, downy strands of real feathers.
Shit shit shit shit.
One feather near my shoulder blade is particularly pronounced. When I tug on it, I feel a sharp pain again as the feather plucks out of my skin.
Shock filters into me as I sit here, holding the evidence of my returning cupidity in the palm of my shaky hand.
It’s happening.
I’ve been successfully using my powers, so I’m turning full cupid. Last night at the casino, I made a lot of Lust Matches.
What’s going to happen if red wings snap out of my back? I can’t be seen like that. But even more worrisome is the fact that I know my time is running out.
The more cupid I am, the less human I become.
Dropping the feather like it’s fire in my hand, I quickly shimmy into the denim dress, grimacing slightly as the fabric ruffles and chafes against some of the feathers starting to poke out of my skin. With my short hair and the sleeveless dress, I know I need some different clothes to hide this predicament.
I poke my head out into the bedroom, but Warren is still gone, probably taking that cold shower. I quickly grab his pants from last night and pluck the wad of cash I won from the casino, shoving it into my cleavage for safe keeping.
I rush out of the room and down the hall, stopping when I see one of the guest rooms ajar. Not wanting to seem weird, I walk in to tell him goodbye.
“Okay, I’m leaving! I’ll stop by your work later!” I call from the threshold of the bathroom, keeping my eyes averted. I know his delectable body is visible through the glass wall of the shower, so I put a hand up to shield my eyes.
I hear him chuckle. “I’m pretty sure you’ve seen me naked already.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t want your dick to tempt me. I know his tricks.”
Warren laughs again. “Fair enough. He is very tempting.”
I grin and start to back away, just in case he notices my feathers. “XOXO! Gotta go!”
Once I’m all the way out into the hall, I turn and rush down the stairs.
For now, I shove aside all the worries about my wings. I’ll deal with that problem later. Hopefully this won’t spread more, and hopefully I still have a few more weeks like Sev thought. At least, that’s what I’m going to keep telling myself.
I’ll slow down on the Matches. I’ll use my powers sparingly. That way, I’m doing my job enough that the Veil won’t make me go pop, but not doing my job enough to go full cupid again.
Seems like a plan.
When I make it out of the house, I talk to the driver before slipping into the car and watching out the window as we pull away.
First item on today’s agenda: Buy some clothes to cover my wings. Second: Go back to the commune and get my stuff. And third: Go to the college. Because today is Wednesday, and that means it’s Professor Sokolov’s mythology class.
Today, I’m going to own that slacker Katie Asspants Welsh.
Chapter 28
Trix
Warren’s driver takes me to the closest clothing department store there is, where I quickly buy a couple bags of clothes, and then he takes me to the commune where I grab my other stuff before heading to the college.
It takes a lot longer to get to the university than I’m used to. Instead of flying my incorporeal ass downtown, I’m forced to take the roads filled with traffic, and I finally understand the concept of road rage.
By the time I get there, I’m ridiculously late. I rush past the quad, run into the building, down the hallway, and then fling open the door.
I forgot how this lecture hall can echo. My overenthusiastic flinging causes the door to slam shut behind me with a deafening bang.
Every head in the room turns back to look at me, and I notice that half of them are already on their feet and collecting their things because class is already over.
Dammit.
I rush forward anyway, right up to Professor Sokolov, who eyes me curiously. “Class was just ending. Can I help you?” he asks.
“Sorry for being late.”
The professor eyes me curiously. “I wasn’t informed of any new students transferring into my class.”
Oh, right.
“I guess the god of knowledge doesn’t work in the admissions department, am I right?” I quip.
Other students roll their eyes at my lame joke, but Professor Sokolov cracks a smile at that, because we’re mythology homies.
“Anyway, here you go,” I say, pulling out my stack of papers and shoving them into his hands.
He looks down with a confused frown, his white brows pulling together. “What’s this?”
“It’s all of the assignments you’ve set for the past two months,” I explain. “I worked particularly hard on the subject of Eros. He’s kind of my idol.”
He starts thumbing through the papers, his brows almost raising all the way to his receding hairline. “Wow, I’m impressed.
”
I shrug nonchalantly, even though I worked my ass off on those assignments. I did everything from memory too, and Blue let me use her phone for the research.
“You’re a very good teacher, Professor S,” I tell him with a pat on the arm. “If you ever need a Love Match, I’m your girl.”
He looks at me like he has no idea what to say.
“Anyway, have a good day! Don’t let that Slacker Katie Asspants Welsh get you down.”
I hear a gasp behind me right alongside a pop of gum. “Hey!”
I look back to see Katie standing with her hands on her cocked hips, her jaw smacking on the gum while her eyes are narrowed on me.
“You should really sit in the back row with the rest of the slackers,” I tell her, waving a hand to the students in the back. They don’t say anything, because they’re too busy napping on their desks. Case in point.
She bristles in her stretchy pants. “I’m not that bad.”
The professor and I give her a look like, don’t even try, bitch.
I hold up a fist for him to bump. He just stares at it with confusion until I drop it. Baby steps.
When I notice the time on the clock hanging behind him, I know I have to get going already. I want to get back to Knight Enterprises in time to surprise Warren for lunch.
“Got to go, Professor. Keep on keepin’ on,” I encourage him before turning to head back up the stairs.
Katie shoots me a dirty look over her shoulder as she walks in front of me, her velvety pants hugging her ass with the word Juicy on it.
When she goes through the door and then purposely slams it closed right in front of me, I grit my teeth.
Oh, hell no.
With a huff, I yank it open and follow her into the hall.
Then I look around, grab the first nerdy dude I can find, and blow a shit ton of Lust Breath in their faces. Because what better way to get revenge on Slacker Katie than make her fall in lust with a total nerd? I grin to myself for this master plan. It’s gonna be epic.
Except...it’s not.
It’s really, really not.
Because instead of my perfect pink Lust, I hack out a mist of lavender that smells like rotten eggs.
Katie and the nerd’s face both scrunch up with disgust.
“Eww!” Katie screeches. “Your breath is rank!”
Her shrill voice echoes down the hall, causing several people to look around and laugh.
“It’s not that bad,” I argue.
The nerd takes off his glasses and wipes his eyes since my Lust Breath was apparently bad enough to make them water.
I don’t understand… My body is turning more cupid, my powers working better than ever, so what the hell is going on?
I try it again, just to make sure, but it just happens again. Nerd boy starts gagging.
“Ugh, stop doing that!” Katie says, plugging her nose.
“My breath doesn’t normally smell like that,” I insist.
They both look at me like, don’t even try, bitch.
Touché.
“Here, you need this more than I do.” Katie pulls out a piece of gum and shoves it at me before walking away.
The nerd shakes his head at me like he’s very disappointed in me for pulling him into this whole ordeal.
“I apologize,” I say. “Please carry on.”
He walks away from me so fast that his pocket protector falls to the floor. He doesn’t even come back for it. That’s how much he fears my rotten egg breath.
I hightail it out of there with my cheeks flaming red in embarrassment, confusion swirling in my head, and fucking Katie Asspants Welsh’s gum stuffed in my mouth.
Karma and I are going to have a very long discussion the next time we meet.
I expect to have difficulty when I get to Warren’s building, but to my surprise, as soon as I give my name to reception, security lets me right up the elevator to the executive offices.
The real trouble comes with his secretary.
Ruby eyes me like she wants to toss me into her paper shredder. The industrial sized one. She isn’t playing around.
“But I already told you...he’ll want to see me,” I argue. “If you could just tell Warren that I’m here—”
She cuts me off. “I’m sorry, Miss…”
“Valentine,” I supply.
“Miss Valentine. I’m sorry, but Mr. Knight is very busy. I’m afraid you’ll have to make an appointment,” she says with a sickly sweet and totally fake smile.
I sigh. “Ruby, can’t we just skip the whole female-versus-female thing?” I ask her. “I mean, this is the twenty-first century. Women have banded together now. We don’t let men dictate our lives or pit us against one another anymore. We’re stronger together. Chicks before dicks. Ovaries before brovaries. Bellas before fellas. Besties before testes,” I list off. “Let’s toss away the old society’s behavior of patriarchal pessimism,” I say, slamming a hand down on her desk with conviction.
Wow. Bea and Blue are really rubbing off on me.
But Ruby doesn’t look impressed in the slightest by my awesome pro-women speech. In fact, I’m fairly certain she just pressed the button on her phone to get security to come up. Rude.
“Look, I get it. You want to mark your territory because you’ve been crushing on him secretly for a long ass time, right? Just waiting for him to notice you?” I ask, noting the way her face pinches and her eyes narrow on me, letting me know that I’m spot on. “The whole secretary being taken on the boss’s desk is an epic fantasy for sure,” I go on. “But you’re going to have to set your sights on someone else, because if anyone is going to be bent over his desk and getting fucked, it’s me.”
“Hmm. How perfectly dirty of you,” I hear a low, amused voice say behind me.
I startle and whirl around in surprise to see Warren striding towards me from his office. He walks right up to me and gathers me in his arms, placing a kiss on my lips that borders on inappropriate for the office. I guess when you’re the boss and owner, you can make out wherever you want.
When he finally releases me, I have to gasp a little to catch my breath from his onslaught. He grins at the effect he has on me. “I thought I heard your voice out here,” he says quietly, and he’s so damn handsome and suave that I almost forget that Ruby is staring daggers at me right now. “I just ordered lunch. Care to eat it with me in my office?”
I nod. “That sounds great.”
Warren looks over at Ruby. “Hold my calls.”
Ruby frowns and stands up, probably to show off the tight shirt and skirt that she’s sporting. I’m quite certain that three buttons undone on her blouse wasn’t by accident. “But, Mr. Knight, she doesn’t have an appointment, and—”
Warren cuts his gaze over to her. “Miss Valentine doesn’t need one, Ruby, as you were already informed,” he tells her coolly.
If it’s possible, Ruby blushes even more.
Warren gives her an unimpressed look before turning and leading me towards his office.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I whisper to him. “She just has a crush on you.”
“She was petty and unprofessional,” Warren replies without lowering his voice at all. “I don’t tolerate that in my building.”
My nipples instantly pebble. I guess they like it when he goes all CEO-alpha.
Warren pulls me into his office and closes the door behind us. I open my mouth to ask about lunch, but my words don’t get a chance to come out before I’m shoved against the door, and Warren’s mouth swallows up any hope of talking.
His tongue forces its way between my lips, and he starts thrusting into me like he’s showing me what he wants to do with his dick.
It’s hot. So hot that I whimper and clutch at his suit jacket to pull him closer.
With him pinning me against the door, owning my mouth, I soon turn into a squirming bundle of nerves craving more.
But instead of giving it to me, Warren suddenly pulls away. “Strip.”
I have to blink at him several times while I try to process his words, because my libido seems to have overridden my verbal comprehension. “Huh?”
He drops his hands from my body and steps away. “You heard me, Miss Valentine,” he says, his voice husky and dominant. “I want you to strip.”
Damn, that’s sexy.
I gulp audibly, arousal swooping down my stomach.
My shaky fingers drop to the button on my jeans. I peel them down slowly, kicking them and my flats off, before reaching up to the hem of my t-shirt. Luckily, I’m careful enough that I don’t pull any feathers out as I toss the shirt at my feet.
Now I’m standing here wearing only my new black lace panties. I didn’t buy a bra in case the back strap aggravated my feathers. I’m trembling slightly, not because I’m scared, but because the anticipation mixed with the headiness of desire that he’s bloomed between us has me thrumming with nervous need.
Warren’s eyes fall to my bare breasts before dropping to my panties. “And the rest, darling,” he says quietly but firmly.
I slip my fingers beneath the straps and pull them down until they’re added to the pile of clothing at my feet.
Here I am, completely naked in Warren Knight’s office again, while he looks at me in that domineering way of his. Still fully dressed in his suit, I’m vulnerable and waiting and so damn horny. Just the way he wants me.
His dark orbs are intense, his perusal slow. I can’t help but shiver from the look in his eyes. “Very good,” he croons. “Now I want you on your knees under my desk, Trix.”
Hot damn.
Excitement thrums through me as I realize his intent of reenacting our first encounter together. I guess Ruby isn’t the only one with hot office fantasies.
I bite my bottom lip as I pad my way over, feeling his eyes on my ass as I go. As soon as I round the desk, I drop to my knees and position myself beneath it.
I chew my lip, my chest rising and falling faster and faster with every second that he makes me wait.
Finally, I hear his expensive shoes tap across the tile as he rounds the desk and then takes a seat in his chair in front of me.
“Now I’m going to make a call,” he says, his voice reverberating through me in the enclosed space. “And you’re going to unzip my pants, pull out my cock, and then suck me like a good girl.”
Can't Fix Cupid Page 20
