by Nikki Sloane
“Bull fucking shit, Ruby. Besides, there won’t be anything casual about it.” His expression turned serious. “At this time, I’m not willing to offer more. You don’t want that anyway. You hate me.” His lips sealed over mine, and there was a hint of tongue. His tone was mocking. “Remember?”
“Why?”
He looked thrown. “Why . . . do you hate me?”
“No. Why aren’t you willing to offer more?” I didn’t want a relationship with Kyle either, but I needed to know his motivations.
“Honestly?”
Was honesty possible? I nodded.
He straightened and leaned back against his desk. “We both made mistakes, and neither one of us has forgiven the other.” He folded his arms over his chest and shot me a hard look. “You trust me enough to fuck you, but not enough to date you.”
My mouth fell open, but no noise came out. He was terribly right, but I didn’t love having him point it out. It made me sound ‘bladdy awful,’ as Grant would say. “That’s . . .”
Kyle’s expression was pragmatic. “The truth. I don’t fault you for feeling that way. As I said, we both made mistakes.”
It wasn’t exactly an apology, but hearing him admit fault knocked me sideways. How could he be so rational and logical with the damn partnership agreement sitting right there beside him?
“You told me,” he said, “no one else makes you come like I do. I like that. Let’s keep doing it.”
Oh, good God. I took my hands off the armrests and smoothed my sweaty palms over my skirt. “Kyle.” I rose onto my heels and issued a grateful sigh in my head when I didn’t teeter. I tried to readjust, and steeled my tone. “Mr. McCreary.”
I was standing eye to eye with him, far too close. The long lashes around his beautiful blue eyes were lulling me in like an insect to a Venus fly trap. Every cell in my body wanted him, but my mind? It was less sure.
His tone was confident. “You need a pen?”
“No, thank you. I’m not interested in your partnership offer.”
I expected him to seem disappointed, but excitement lit like fire in his eyes. “No?”
“No.”
“Prove it.”
I bent to grab my briefcase, but his voice caused me to halt. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
His hands caught my hips at the same moment his mouth landed on mine. His indecent tongue possessed and slid deep, stroking against mine, sending pleasure jolting down between my legs. His mouth was hot and soft, gentle yet dominating. The fingers on my hips clamped fiercely, holding me in place so he could wage his attack.
God, this man knew how to kiss.
His lips pressed to mine, moving urgently and demanding. Without my approval, a tiny moan slipped out. Kyle reacted like it was a starting pistol. He gripped my waist and turned me so suddenly, I was spun around before I understood what was happening.
My hands flew out and I braced myself on the desktop as he bent me over with a shove. “What are you—”
He was faster than lightning. The sides of my skirt were jerked up over my hips, exposing my black thong. I’d worn it to prevent panty lines, and as the cool air washed over me, I felt essentially naked from the waist down.
I tried to right myself and push the skirt down, but he coughed loudly at the same moment his open palm smacked hard against my ass.
Chapter
SIXTEEN
Kyle’s spanking sent me flying forward onto my elbows. Flames licked at me from this shocking act, and it took me a moment to realize his ‘cough’ was perfectly timed to cover the slap of flesh meeting flesh.
Holy shit. He was willing to do it, right here in his office.
I glanced over my shoulder to look at him. He was staring at my ass, probably watching the blood rush to the skin and color it. I’d be damned if he didn’t look powerful. And sexy as hell.
But this was madness. Someone was going to catch us.
Once more I attempted to straighten, and this time his cough was louder. It disguised a strike that stole my breath. My mouth rounded into an “oh” and I clenched my hands into fists.
As much as I wanted to deny it, I liked this. I liked it a whole fucking lot. This was wrong and I wanted him to keep doing it.
“You know what’s going to happen now?” His voice was pure sin. “I’m going to jerk your panties down and find your pussy’s soaking wet.”
Holy shit.
I could stand up, shove my skirt back down in place, and walk out of his office. I could unleash the full force of my temper on him and make sure he never attempted to talk to me again.
But I couldn’t move. My elbows were glued to his desk. My ankles stayed locked together, encouraging him to carry out his indecent plan. My back arched subtly without thinking, and my heart beat a thousand times a second.
He didn’t wait for me to protest or agree.
I stared straight ahead as his fingers hooked around the thong, and then the fabric was yanked down with such force, it had an edge of pain. I bit down on my bottom lip to hold in the gasp at his aggression. He wasn’t soft or sweet; he was so much better. Would I burst into flames right here on his desk?
The underwear fell to my ankles and then his fingers were there, delving between my legs, rubbing my dampness. I hung my head as the moan erupted from my throat, low and deep.
“You’re going to sign,” he said. His hand stirred over my clit, one small circle and then gone. He grabbed my hair by the top knot, yanking my head back with a sharp tug. It was so he could smear the moisture he’d collected on his fingertips all over my mouth. Over my parted lips and pushing inside. “Here’s the goddamn proof.”
Who the hell was this man?
I was thankful for the support of the desk. Lust had turned my knees to rubber, my insides to jelly. I had to struggle to breathe over the aching fire he’d started. Everything burned, and burned for him.
He released my hair and my head lolled to hang down between my shoulders. I could barely hear over the rush of blood in my ears, but he’d moved. Kyle dropped behind me onto a knee and gripped my ankle, urging the panties over my heels one by one. I was too overwhelmed with desire to resist.
As soon as I was free from my underwear, his grip was back on my waist, forcing me to turn around once again. I wobbled on my heels, both unsure of what he was doing, yet also filled with jittery excitement, and my backside slammed against the edge of the desk.
He was on his knees in his two-thousand-dollar suit, staring up at me, but there was no doubt he was the one in charge. His palm flattened on my belly over the skirt bunched up there, and he pressed me back until I was seated on the desktop, my bare ass cold against the smooth wood. I moved like a puppet under his command, my body doing whatever he ordered it to.
“Get those legs open,” he demanded, but didn’t give me time to comprehend. His palms clasped my knees and shoved them apart, putting my wet pussy on full display. With him on his knees, it was right at his eye-level, and he moved in for the kill. I had to thread a hand through his thick hair and hold on as he hooked my knees over his shoulders.
I froze with anxiety and desire, both wanting what was about to happen and terrified of it. This was a really bad idea, not just because we were in his office during work hours, but he’d broken my heart. I shouldn’t let him get close, even just for sex. Mind-blowing, toe curling, everything-I-ever-wanted sex.
“Kyle . . .”
Too late. He dragged his tongue steadily along the inside of my thigh, not stopping until he’d found his intended target. His tongue was furious, lashing at my clit, and making my whole body jerk.
Oh.
Oh, wow.
I gripped the edge of the desk under my ass with one hand and yanked on his hair with my other, desperate for more and hating how quickly he’d gotten me to fold. In over your head with him, Ruby. You knew that already.
He paused only to utter the phrase, “Sign it.”
And he went right back to
work.
I stared at the top of his head which was buried between my spread legs and my vision blurred from the pleasure. “You son of a bitch.”
His dark laugh only made more heat fill my belly. Before, I’d loved it when he didn’t fight fair, because I didn’t either. He’d get his way, and he knew it.
Maybe I had, too, right from the beginning. But I wasn’t going to blatantly agree to his terms. My mind scrambled to find something to negotiate. He’d taken emotion out of the equation, yet there was something else I desired, which just happened to make him uneasy. Perfect.
“A line needs to be amended,” I said. “Total honesty between partners.”
He slowed as he considered it, and when he stopped altogether, he must have grasped the full extent. No hiding behind half-truths or deflecting questions, as he liked to do. Getting information out of him was no easy thing.
My belly did a flip-flop as he grabbed a pen and scrawled the line of text after the final paragraph. Like it was easy to give this up. Shit. I thought I’d been so clever, and now I had the suspicion my term was going to come back around to bite me.
The pen clattered to the wood, and Kyle refocused on me. “Done.” He slid two fingers deep inside me, hard and fast. “Now say yes.”
“Fuck.” My eyes wanted to roll back in my head. I half-expected to come away with a fistful of his hair, I was tugging on it that hard. Like everything else he’d done today, his tempo wasn’t slow. His thick fingers moved roughly, fucking me with a blissful burn.
It was impossible to restrain my moans. How soundproof were the offices? Was anyone still around to hear if I lost control? “Someone’s,” I panted, “going to hear me.”
“Not if you stay quiet.” His mouth was a volcano, causing mini eruptions of pleasure, and threatening a big finish.
“I can’t . . . when you’re doing that.”
“Sure you can. I believe in you.”
His tempo was blistering. My legs were trembling on his shoulders. God, he was going to have to stop, or at least slow down, or I was going to lose my mind. My inhibitions were likely to go right along with it.
My tone had a fair amount of warning. “You’re going to make me come.”
“Not until you tell me what I want to hear.”
There was no point fighting any longer. We both knew I would agree, whether I put my signature on the non-binding document or not. “Yes. Yes, Kyle.” How could I say no? At this point, all I wanted was . . . “More.”
I collapsed backward so I was propped on my bent elbows, and surrendering set me free. I gazed at him as his tongue stroked my clit and his fingers slammed in and out. They’d grown slick and glossy with my arousal. He’d set a demanding pace, and it was probably taking a toll on him physically, but he didn’t slow down.
Not even as a third finger joined his first two. His palm was turned toward the ceiling, allowing him to slide right in to the perfect spot.
“Your fingers,” I said between two gulps of air. “Fucking magic.”
His mouth worked in conjunction with his hand, hurtling me so close to the edge of orgasm, I could barely tolerate it. I picked at the buttons of my blouse, undoing them as fast as I could with one hand, and yanked the shirt open when I had enough done so I could expose my bra. I needed a hand on my breast, pinching my nipple. Didn’t matter if it was my touch or his.
I jammed my fingers inside the cup, searching, and my eyes lidded with desire as I found the tight, painful bud of flesh. My pinch stung in a delicious, perfect way. It all looked so good, his determined gaze watching me while his jaw worked, and it felt a million times better than it looked. And he obviously liked how I was touching myself—his eyes hooded further.
But it was difficult to keep unwanted emotion from slipping in. I’d loved him and hated him, and now I was stuck somewhere between. We’d both changed over the years. Would the new version of myself be able to survive the new version of him?
He nuzzled and used suction, focusing the sensation all on my center. When he made a soft noise of contentment, like he was enjoying tasting and fucking me with his fingers almost as much as I was enjoying him doing it, I lost the ability to breathe. He was wild, yet powerful, and the look in his eyes said he wanted to consume me. Eat me up, one lick at a time.
I’d let him. I’d love every second of it.
The orgasm crashed like a wave. It stormed through my bloodstream, sweeping along my body first with pinpricks of pleasure, then followed with fire. The muscles in my thighs tensed and clamped down on his head, holding his face to me as I rode, bucking with ecstasy.
I tried to stay quiet, I really did.
He might have told me to keep it down, but I’d successfully muzzled him with my pussy. If anything, it served him right. In this moment, I didn’t give a shit who heard as Kyle delivered an orgasm so great, my body went boneless. The moans poured from my mouth and I rocked against his face, enjoying every drop of my climax.
The thud as I banged flat on the desk was loud enough to be heard over my cries as they began to ebb. I fell slower back to the present, coming down off my high, and it barely registered my legs had released their vise-like grip on him.
He climbed to his feet and wiped a hand over his short beard, removing the evidence of what he’d just done. I couldn’t do anything but lie on the desk and heave breath into my lungs while he towered over me. His gaze wandered along my skin, tracing the curves of my body appreciatively.
“Oh my God, Kyle,” I whispered.
The thrilled smile that swept across his face was beautiful, and my heart swelled.
No, I warned myself. Stop that.
He leaned over and planted a kiss on my lips, and when he straightened, his fingers went to the buttons of my blouse. Not to finish undoing them, but to refasten. I peered at him and the magnificent wood he was sporting, and grasped his hands, causing him to stop.
“What are you doing?” I asked softly.
He stepped back, fished my underwear off the floor, and put my foot through one of the leg holes.
“What the hell are you doing?” I kicked the panties off, glared up at him, and was surprised when his jaw was set. “Aren’t you going to fuck me?”
His victorious expression only lasted a moment. “No.”
“I’m sorry, no?” I propped myself up on an elbow and reached for his belt. “Per our agreement, I thought you didn’t get to say no.”
He turned his hips away from me. “The agreement you haven’t signed?”
“Oh my God, you already have my verbal. When did you get so annoying about the details?” I launched upright, plucked a pen from his desk, and scrawled my signature at the bottom of the page, followed by the date. “Done. Fuck me.”
His gaze followed the stroke of my pen, and dark satisfaction streaked his face when I dropped the paper on the desktop. But then his expression turned down. “No.”
I’d come to his office today not wanting to see him again, and now I was throwing myself at him. Practically begging. My eyes narrowed into slits. “What the fuck is this game?”
His movements slowed. “It’s not a game. We can say no if we have a valid reason, which I do. I’m at work.”
My vision hazed into red, but I walked myself back from the edge. “Wasn’t a problem a minute ago. You know, when you had me coming all over your face.”
“Yeah, coming loudly. Imagine what you sound like when it’s my dick.”
Asshole, even if he had a point. This was supposed to be a partnership, though, and I didn’t want him holding anything over me, including orgasms. “That issue is easy enough to solve. I won’t come.”
Had I just told him I’d murdered someone? Kyle’s face twisted with horror. “Not possible.”
My vision went red again. “You think you’re that good, huh? News flash, your dick doesn’t have superpowers. It’s possible to have sex with you and not come.”
He let loose a laugh like I was talking utter nonsense. “Superpowers?
No, probably not. But we both know my dick’s even more magical than my fingers.”
I wanted to punch him in his smug face as he used my own words against me. Unfair. Like an interrogation under duress, anything I said during sex and foreplay should be inadmissible.
I stood up so quickly and was still lightheaded from the orgasm; tiny spots danced in the edges of my vision. I shoved my skirt down and hurried to do up the last button on my blouse, trying to get my head on straight. What was I really upset about? He’d given me an amazing orgasm. It was stupid to be pouting about not having sex, and I was smarter than this.
The new idea formed. I drew in a deep, cleansing breath, and peeled my lips back into a bright smile. It was so wide, it froze him in place.
Chapter
SEVENTEEN
KYLE
Ruby’s shit-eating grin made a red flag spring up so hard, it nearly knocked me to the ground. She had two different stages of anger. One was your standard fare. Her face would flush, her words would heat, and she’d tense up like she was locking down the fire doors to contain the worst of it.
But the other stage I was less familiar with. She appeared quiet and calm, while I was aware she was nothing but below the surface. That was when she was the most unpredictable.
She finished smoothing her clothes back into place, and gave a tug to the sides of her loopy ponytail, cinching it tighter to her head. The loose tendrils of hair at her temples were tucked behind her ears, and she lowered gracefully to sit in the client chair. She crossed her legs, folded her hands together, and pressed them into her lap. So prim and proper, like she hadn’t begged me to fuck her thirty seconds ago.
I was sweating under my collar, and my dick ached with need, but I’d meant what I’d said. Chances were the back offices were empty and no one had heard Ruby’s throaty moans, but I wasn’t that big of a risk taker. She was always louder when we had sex.
Her back was ramrod straight, and her chin jutted out, giving her an air of power and control. Everything about her body language screamed she held the upper hand.
“Okay,” she said. “Tell me about New York.”
