by Katy Kaylee
“So, you kissed her,” I said slowly, as if I was trying to piece it all together.
“Yup.”
“But she’s not here now.”
“Nope.”
“Did something happen?”
He shrugged. “She seemed to like it, then suddenly she pulled away and booked it.”
“Huh, really?”
“Really.”
Something pooled in my chest, happy that she had rejected him. I knew from experience that he was rarely ever rejected by a woman. He had those classic good looks that often-had women swooning at his feet while I tended to look a bit more… dangerous. Some had even called me ‘wild’ in the past. I was hardly either of those things, but I appreciated the aesthetic.
“I suppose we’ll have to deal with that on Monday then.”
Xavier groaned. “Ugh, deal with it. That’s possibly the worst way you could put it.”
“Hey, you’re the run who literally made one of our employees flee from your mouth.”
“You don’t know that it was negative,” he countered. “She could have just been intimidated by my skill.”
“I’m sure that’s what it was.”
I looped my arm around his shoulder, and he leaned against me ever so slightly. Ah, so I was dealing with tipsy Xavier. He was always a bit more tactile than his sober self, with shaky legs and a laugh that rolled out often.
“Come on, let’s get you home.”
“Yeah, sure. At least there I can’t make a fool of myself.”
“I don’t know,” I countered. “I wouldn’t put it past you.”
“You know, you’re not entirely wrong.”
I pulled out my phone and texted our driver for the night, helping my friend out to the entrance. By the time we reached the front steps, the car was pulled around and we were both piling into the back seat.
Often, for social events, we had our own limo to take us and any guests about the town, bit we’d just chosen one of our company SUVs for the night. It was simple, but big enough for our long legs to sprawl out in the back, which was exactly what Xavier did as soon as we were inside.
The car took off and for a bit Xavier just seemed content with pressing his forehead against the window. But as the minutes passed, he seemed to get a bit more drunk and then a bit more drunk. He must have had several drinks in rapid succession, and they were slowly starting to affect him.
“She’s so sweet, Samson. You don’t even know.”
I looked to him in concern. “Who is?”
“You know who,” he said dreamily. “And soft. She’s like, sinfully soft. I thought my hands were gonna sink right through her.”
I stiffened. He was talking about Tabitha. Expounding enthusiastically about all the things that I wondered about her. While my friend wasn’t normally so cruel, it seemed his intoxication was making him more than a bit inconsiderate.
Then again, he probably had no idea how desperately attracted I was to the woman. Because if I admitted that to him, then I’d be admitting that to myself, and I didn’t know if I’d be able to keep resisting her.
“Ugh, I just wanted to hold onto her for forever. And there was just so much to hold, you know? She was like… just.., a bounty.” His face scrunched at that and I felt my temperature rise. “Is that cheesy? It sounds cheesy. God, she makes me wanna be so cheesy.”
“You always did have a flare for a dramatic.”
“I just can’t help it, man. The way she pressed up against me, it should have been illegal. I just wanted to hold her, and mark her, and make her-”
“Stop the car,” I said before my brain even realized that I was saying anything. The driver pulled to the side, but Xavier seemed even more confused.
“What’s going on? Where are you going?”
“I just want to enjoy the night air. Being in the party in this suit made me feel a bit suffocated.”
“Aw, you want me to walk with you?”
“No, that’s fine.” I looked to the driver. “Make sure he gets up to his room alright. I’ll make sure to add your tip to your paycheck coming up.”
“Yes sir. Whatever you need.”
I nodded and shut the door, waving them off. Once they were gone, I tilted my head up to the night sky, letting a cool breeze drift across me.
It took the edge off the heat building inside of me, but not nearly enough. As I walked, my mind kept conjuring up what it would be like to kiss the woman with her full, ruby lips and her mismatched eyes.
I could tell she was clever. Even if I hadn’t read all of her reviews in the week since I’d learned of her existence, I could tell by the way she carried herself.
Well, how she carried herself when she wasn’t running face first into my chest.
She had an alertness to her, a keen sort of way to dealing with things that I found incredibly attractive.
But none of that mattered, because she was off limits and she needed to stay off limits. It was bad enough that I was going to have to clean up after Xavier, but I wasn’t about to add more to the mess.
We would be lucky if she was just willing to dismiss it as a drunken misstep and take a little bit of financial compensation for the inconvenience. Xavier had said she had run, so I couldn’t help but worry that, somehow, he might have misinterpreted the situation and made her uncomfortable.
Or worse, feel unsafe.
Xavier had never had an issue with that before. He liked his partners about as enthusiastically willing as they could be, but I couldn’t help but wonder… what if? The thought made my stomach turn, and I hoped against everything that it wasn’t the case. That it was just Tabitha either trying to scam us or making a mistake of her own. That I could deal with.
My walk was far too short for my tastes and I ended up in my penthouse feeling no more relaxed or cooled down than when I exited the car. Sighing, I went to pull my suit off in my empty living room, knowing that I was completely alone so it didn’t matter if I strutted around naked.
And yet somehow, even though it was impossible, my place seemed so much emptier than before.
Tabitha
I chewed nervously at my lips as I walked from the parking garage up to my office. I was still largely in disbelief over what had happened at the anniversary dinner and far too much of me hoped that it was just some sort of fever dream or I had somehow gotten ridiculously drunk of my one glass of punch and half of an amaretto sour.
Because if it wasn’t either of those things… well then, I was about to face some ugly truths about myself. It was wrong to kiss my boss. Workplace romances, or hook ups, or whatever the hell one wanted to call them were just asking for trouble.
Plus, Mr. Mannon had just been comforting me when I’d suddenly sprung my lips on him like some sort of horny teen. Who even did that?!
I mean, sure, it had seemed like he had been flirting with me pretty hard that night, and when he asked me to dance I wasn’t sure how I didn’t combust right then and there, but that didn’t give me cart blanch to mac on him. For all I knew, he had some sort of secret girlfriend, or even a wife!
I groaned to myself, barely pulling my professional mask on by the time I was inside the building. Just like every other day, I went to my desk and tried to act like everything was normal.
Unfortunately, Mondays were always heavy meeting days, with discussing where we ended after the previous week and our goals for the next one. I found myself jumping at the slightest of sounds, like I was wound tighter than a top.
I felt pretty silly by the time the end of the day rolled around. It seemed pretty clear that Xavier either didn’t remember what happened or wanted to avoid talking about it just as much as I did. Which was fine with me. If I could go the rest of my life without seeing his handsome face, then I would be more than happy.
I had finally let myself relax ever so slightly when my phone rang and the most biting sense of de ja vu swamped me.
I picked it up after one ring and, sure enough, it was the same friendly
voice as before.
“Miss McCreedy?” she asked.
“This is she,” I answered as slowly and calmly as I could.
“Ah, it’s lovely to speak with you again. Could you please join us up in the executive suite?”
“Sure, I’ll be right up.” I hesitated for a moment and then pushed through. “Does Mr. Mannon wish to see me?”
“No, actually. It’s Mr. Loto who requested your presence in his office.”
Mr. Loto?
“Of course. I’ll see you soon.”
“I’m sure you will.”
I hung up, my heart pounding in my chest, and headed towards the elevators.
I thought about a million and one things on my way up and all of them were pretty dark. I had thought I was getting fired before, but now I was definitely sure. I just hoped that I didn’t get slammed with some sort of sexual harassment case or something. I normally was never so irresponsible!
I reached the floor and gave Stacy a nod. She smiled back and gestured for me to just walk right up to Samson’s door.
I did, even though it felt so strange not to knock, and I headed right in. I wasn’t going to kid myself, I felt incredibly intimidated to be in his space, like I was entering into the lair of a bear or some other apex predator.
It was actually quite similar to Xavier’s layout, but with more stern looking furniture and a punching bag set up in a free corner. The man himself was sitting behind his desk, somehow completely dominating the space even thought he was seated.
Mr. Mannon, however, was nowhere to be seen and I was a bit relieved at that. I was sure if I saw him that my face would turn red as a tomato from embarrassment.
“You wanted to see me, Mr. Loto?” I asked as quietly and cautiously as I could.
“Have a seat,” he said, gesturing to one of the chairs in front of his desk.
I acquiesced, settling down as much as I could considering the circumstances, and waited for him to speak.
“Miss McCreedy,” he said, letting the silence linger until it was almost painful. “From what I understand, an incident happened between you and my business partner at the anniversary dinner.”
Shit!
He knew.
And if he knew, and he called me up to his office that meant that the situation was now official business.
And if it was official business… then I was definitely getting fired.
“Uh… yes…” I whispered, trying not to cringe. I wanted to be brave, but it was so hard. I had worked my ass off for three years to get into my position, and I had ruined it with one stupid, hormone fueled decision.
God, I was such an idiot!
“First of all, I do want to apologize if you feel in any way uncomfortable or unsafe. If you feel the need to follow this situation legally, we will of course put you in touch with HR to discuss all of your options.
“I, however, am hoping that you would be willing to accept that this was an unfortunate accident. We will, of course, compensate you for the inconvenience of all of this, and should you no longer feel comfortable working here, well we will work with our recruiting department to find you a comparable position with another company.”
I stared at him blankly, my mind catching up with what he meant.
I had been so sure that I was going to be reprimanded, or even fired. Labeled as a gold-digger who tried to prey on my rich boss. But instead, Mr. Loto was offering me money to keep quiet.
“If you need time to consider things, I understand that as well. I think three days of paid vacation would be helpful, would it not?”
Wait, vacation time?
My temper started to flare. I didn’t need hush money! Just a promise that I wasn’t going to lose my job because I had been a monumental fool.
“I don’t need vacation time,” I answered. “I’m happy if we just forget it.”
He seemed surprised at that, but he recovered quickly. “I appreciate that you’re willing to look past the incident, but it would be best if we legally-”
“Why do we have to bring legality into this?” I heard myself snap. I didn’t know where my chutzpah was coming from, but I found myself irritated that he was making this a whole thing when I was willing to let everything go.
“Its for everyone’s protection. Really, it would be best for all of us if-”
“If nothing, I want to drop it.” I stood up, as if I was going to leave.
“With all due respect, if a business owner kisses one of his employees at a business function, there are certain steps that need to be taken.” His voice grew more serious and I wondered if this was his infamous intimidation tactics coming into play. Well I wasn’t one of the snooty business men he was so good at cowing.
“And I said it’s fine. You want to know what I want? For us to pretend that all of this never happened.”
He stood up too, leaning over his desk and speaking so low that I wouldn’t have been able to hear him if we weren’t so close to each other. “If you wish to not make this an issue, then just take the compensation.”
“I don’t need compensation!” I spat back hotly.
“I understand that you think you’re being helpful, but let me assure you, signing a couple of papers and allowing us to compensate you for Xavier’s trespass will be more than-”
“For the last time! He didn’t kiss me, I kissed him!”
Mr. Loto scoffed at that, his eyes looking down at me with irritation. “As if there’s a difference?”
“Oh really? No difference?”
I didn’t know what I was thinking. I was just so mad, and he was just so handsome, and everything was just so intense. One moment I was standing there, yelling at him and feeling my face flush, the next my hands were wrapped in his long, long hair and I was laying one on him.
Oh dear.
He was clearly shocked for a moment, stiffening over his desk and I was sure I was about to get pushed away. What was I, some sort of boss-predator? Praying on my handsome, billionaire employers like a bad porno? It certainly seemed like it.
But then, just as suddenly as it happened, Mr. Loto seemed to get with the program and kissed me back.
It was wild and burning, with his mouth pressing to me like he was drowning. I moaned and gave into him, letting him thoroughly ravish my mouth as much as he desired.
I couldn’t say how long passed until my common sense kicked in and I pulled away with a gasp. Eyes going wide, I looked at his face to see my make up smeared across his lips and his pupils blown so wide that they were almost black.
What did I do!?
I went to whisper out an apology, to bed him for another chance to make things right, or a promise that I wasn’t normally like this, but then his hands wrapped around my thick waist and he was pulling me up and across the desk until I was on my knees and pressed against his strong form.
“Oh…” was all I managed to whisper before his lips crashed to mine again.
I could hardly breathe, it was so desperate and bruising and perfect. His hands gripped me so tightly, like he was sure that I would vanish into a puff of smoke if he relaxed for even a second. I wanted him to grip me even harder, to leave me ten little pinprick bruises to remember that this was real, that I was being manhandled by one of the hottest men that I had ever seen.
He caught my lip between his lower teeth, tugging at it just enough to pinch. I whispered slightly, but that just seemed to egg him on more, leaving me feeling so thoroughly debauched that I almost couldn’t think.
And I didn’t need to think. All there was in the world was me and the delicious, impossible sensations that he was pulling out of me. He was devouring me alive and I so desperately wanted him to eat every bit of me up like a morsel.
That was, however, until someone cleared their throat behind us.
The heat behind us died instantly. Samson’s hand dropped, leaving me feeling like an absolute fool kneeling on top of his desk as I craned my neck to look behind me. When I saw who was standing there
, I grew cold.
Because it was none other than Xavier with the door shut tightly behind him, arms crossed and with an expression I couldn’t read at all.
Shit.
Xavier
I stood in the doorway, looking at the kiss-swollen faces in front of me while I figured out exactly how I felt. I had expected to be annoyed at my friend’s hypocrisy, perhaps a little jealous that Samson was moving in on the woman who had be so enthralled. But instead… I felt something that felt awfully similar to arousal at seeing them together.
That was decidedly strange.
While Samson and I had been friends our entire life, there was some things we just didn’t share, and romantic partners was one of them. He had his flings, and I had mine, with neither of us inclined towards relationships. But seeing him there, so thoroughly wrecked by the curvy woman kneeling on his desk, my body responded as if it was a good thing.
I could deal with that bizarre revelation later, however. He was supposed to be cleaning up my mess, right? I was curious as to why it looked like he was just making a bigger one.
Crossing over to one of the chairs in front of his desk, I sat down, letting my legs sprawl out casually. I didn’t let my eyes leave the two of them and Tabitha looked like she wanted to melt right down into the floor.
“So,” I said slowly, quietly. I was a bit irritated after all. She had run from me but now she was perched on Samson’s desk, kissing him without restraint. Had I read everything wrong? “Do you normally have a habit of coming onto your employers, or was this a gambit for twice the money?”
Samson winced at the words and I knew that I shouldn’t have said it, but they were already out so I couldn’t take them back. As for Tabitha, her puffy lips opened in shock, as if she was struggling to find the right way to answer me.
Apparently that right way never came, because her hand lashed out and the next thing I knew, she slapped me right across the face.
