by K. K. Hendin
“Of course,” she said. “I know you may want to do things a little differently than Harold did, and that’s more than okay with me. So let me know if you want to be or not be involved with any part of the process.”
“As of now, I’m going to keep my involvement at the same level that Harold’s was, just while I figure things out. But we will be meeting once a month for updates on the gallery, showings, and any other issues that come up.”
“Excellent.” Cedar passed him a folder of paperwork. “I assume you’ve seen all of this already, but just in case, I brought the basic financials for the last quarter.”
Ellis smiled, and pulled out a sheaf of papers from his briefcase. “I brought them with me,” he said. “I went through them earlier and had a few questions.”
Cedar moved her chair a little closer to his. “Go for it,” she said, dropping her voice just a little bit.
Ellis shifted in his chair, and then cleared his throat, focusing on the papers in front of him. Good. He was definitely interested. And now all Cedar had to do was have him make a move. She wasn’t going to make the first move. He was going to chase after her, even if he didn’t know that yet. Cedar was patient. She could wait for him.
But she would definitely be giving him a few subtle nudges.
Like now. She looked up through her eyelashes, and smiled at him with all the innocence she could manage. “You know, I was so worried when I first saw the will,” she said. “Nobody knew you, or what you were like at all. And then you were from somewhere out of New York, too. But Harold picked you and I trust him. And I’m really happy he picked you.”
“Thank you,” Ellis said, his voice a little husky. “I hope I can make sure you continue to stay happy.” He paused, and then rifled through his papers to a highlighted section. “Okay. So here, by decorations...”
Well, well, well.
He was definitely going to make her happy if he continued to smile at her like that. That was the smile of a deer wandering into a pride of lions and not knowing. It was the smile of someone who was going to be devoured and didn’t know it yet.
Cedar pushed her chair a little closer until she almost but not quite brushed Ellis’s shoulder.
When in doubt, tease. It was always a good idea.
Ellis shifted in his chair again, and Cedar smirked. Always a good idea. Give him something to think about.
God, why couldn’t he stop thinking about her? Ellis wondered, slumping in his chair later that night. Maybe he was hallucinating, but he was pretty sure his suit jacket smelled like her. His suit jacket, the one that was hanging over the back of his seat. The one that had completely fucked with his focus the afternoon, because every time he shifted, he would smell her on his jacket again. Which happened more and more as the night went on.
He was hard, almost painfully so. Hard, turned on, and frustrated.
You have a girlfriend, he reminded himself, but Cedar was the one who was torturing him today. Not Karen. Karen was safe, she was okay, she was just fine, and there was no way in hell that they saw and not somewhere else a little more risqué.
And now he was thinking about Cedar with another girl, and these pants were way too expensive for him to have any kind of solo sexual activity in them.
Think of Karen, he told himself firmly.
He closed his eyes, and imagined himself back at his old apartment with Karen. His hard on softened a little bit. Ignoring the fact that thinking about his girlfriend made him lose his erection, Ellis closed his eyes and fell asleep.
But the next morning, he was thinking about Cedar again.
Again. This was ridiculous. He had a girlfriend.
Who he didn’t want to talk to, if last night was any indication of anything.
This was all some sort of ridiculous situation that had probably been brought on by stress or some other shit like that. Ellis had been working in Manhattan for almost a month at that point, and minus the gallery showing, he hadn’t gone out at all, socially. Meeting with CEOs and accountants was work, it wasn’t fun.
“Rob? Have there been invitations?”
“There have been nothing but invitations.”
“Bring them in.”
“All of them?”
“Well, the ones for events for this week.”
“Be there in a minute.”
Robert walked into the office, his shirt looking suspiciously wrinkled. Ellis’s eyebrows raised. Well, then. Looked like someone was getting more action than he was. “A list of events you’ve been invited to this week,” Robert said, handing over a printout. “I can bring in the actual invitations, if you’d like.”
Ellis scanned the paper, looking for something remotely interesting. “Hmm. Do some research on these two, will you?”
“Sure, sir.”
“And Robert?”
“Yes?”
“I don’t need to know you didn’t go home last night. Change your shirt.”
Robert blushed brilliantly. “Sorry, sir.”
“Don’t let it happen again. Keep an extra shirt at work if you need to. You do whatever the hell you do out of this office, but when you’re in here, you dress like you’re working for me.”
“I’m so sorry, sir. It won’t happen again.”
Ellis nodded, and watched Robert walk out of the room and smiled to himself. So he could be assertive and a bit of an asshole.
Fuck, why wasn’t he the one getting laid?
This had got to be the most boring social life Ellis had ever had, including the month after his parents died when he was five. He didn’t remember much from then, but he was pretty sure that his life hadn’t been so horribly boring as it was right now. Why had he thought coming to this party was a good idea?
Besides the fact that the party was being thrown by the wife of one of the owners of The New York Times. It was a very nice party, and everything looked beautiful, but he was bored as fuck and wanted to go back to the city and just watch a movie and eat shitty takeout.
Fuck this heir of Feingold Investments thing.
“Mr. Carrington, let me introduce you to my lovely wife,” someone said to him. Ellis was sure he should have known who it was, but he didn’t care enough to think hard enough. He was stuck here for the next hour or so, and all he wanted was to just get drunk, something that couldn’t happen in public.
So he smiled and nodded and made small talk with the guy and his wife and shook hands with every person that walked over to introduce themselves. So many people that he rubbed his hand on the side of his pants desperately, knowing that he couldn’t sneak off and wash his hands. It was too obvious, and he had to be smooth. Later, he was going to scrub off the layer of skin that everyone kept touching.
“Oh, Cedar!” Melinda? Miranda? Margaret? said, delighted as Cedar drew up to the little group. “It’s so nice to see you!”
“Lovely to see you, too,” Cedar answered smoothly, not a trace of a smile on her face. “I’m so sorry, I have to steal Ellis for a minute.”
The couple fell over themselves reassuring her that it was okay, and with a brilliant smile up at Ellis, she lead him away from the main room.
“Where are we going?” Ellis asked.
“Away from them. We have to talk.”
“Okay...”
The party was being held in an enormous mansion in Sands Point, but it was an important one, so Ellis had driven from the city. Well, he had been driven.
Cedar lead him through the house, to the back staircase.
“Don’t you think this is a bit much?” Ellis asked, following her up what seemed to be the service steps.
“No.”
“Okay, then.” What the hell was going on here? Were they going to do some drug dealing or something? Was that couple into drug dealing? Had Ellis drunk a little too much for a stuffy social event? He didn’t know the answer to any of those questions, but he was pretty sure the answer was yes for that last question.
Cedar tugged him down a darkened hallw
ay and pulled open a door. “Get in,” she hissed.
“What the hell is going on?” Ellis burst out.
“Not yet. Get. In. The. Room.”
“Calm down,” he muttered, and walked into the room. The lights were all off, but there was just enough moonlight for him to see it was an office. Cedar followed him in, closing the door firmly behind her. “Okay, you’ve dragged me away from those people like my ass was on fire and into a room away from everyone and everything. What the hell is going on?”
“I had to talk to you privately,” Cedar said, smiling up at him.
“And it couldn’t wait until after this party? I could have just given you a ride home or something.”
Cedar shook her head in disbelief. “Do you know who you were talking to?”
“I have no fucking clue.”
“It was the Robertsons.”
“Why are you saying that like she’s a prostitute and he’s her pimp?”
“Seriously, Ellis? Has Morris told you nothing?”
“What. Are. You. Talking. About.”
“I can’t believe it. He didn’t say anything?”
Ellis had pushed past annoyed and was headed straight to pissed off. “Can you just stop with the fucking hysterics and tell me whatever you wanted to tell me?”
Cedar shot him a look that could have shriveled his dick if he weren’t so mad and turned on. “The Robertsons are the biggest losers in New York. She’s this horrible uneducated slut. She was his assistant’s assistant. Not even his assistant. She was with some guy, and he was married to Cynthia Maine. They fucked, she told him she was pregnant, and so he dumped Cynthia and married her in this horribly gaudy ceremony, and then realized that she had been lying to him, but he liked her enough to stay married to her. Or something, I don’t even give a fuck. Anyway, he’s in real estate. Never talk to him again.”
“Because he cheated on his wife?” Ellis asked, confused. “You’re saying that like nobody else in the whole damn state has ever cheated on their spouse or partner or whatever.”
“I swear to God, he should be fired,” Cedar muttered, exasperated. “The Maines are some of the biggest names in diamonds. In terms of the food chain, they’re the sharks to the Robertsons’ algae or equally slimy plant. They’re bottom feeders, and you’re better than that.”
“Did you have to drag me through this house to tell me that?” Ellis asked. “Really?
Cedar moved closer to him, until her breasts were pressed against his arm. “You’re new at this,” she purred. “I just want to make sure that you don’t mess anything up.”
“So you’re saying that you think I’m going to fuck up?”
Cedar pressed a little closer, and Ellis wasn’t sure if he was still that angry anymore. “I would never say that,” she cooed.
“You’d think it.”
She pushed against him until he backed into the desk. “Look at me,” she growled, inching closer and closer. “I trust Harold. Even if he’s dead, and even if he had never met you. I’ve trusted him since the day of my parents’ funeral, and I will trust him until the day of mine. If he thought you were the one to take over for him, then you’re the best person for the job. I’m just trying to help.”
“I’m sorry,” Ellis muttered. “It’s been a shitty day.”
“It’s okay,” Cedar soothed, patting his arm while pressing herself closer. If she were any closer to Ellis, she’d have been swallowed whole by him. She could definitely feel his cock at this angle, that was for damn sure. “You’re allowed to be frustrated.”
There was frustrated, and then there was frustrated. “I don’t have time,” Ellis snapped, pushing her away. “Fuck, I have a girlfriend. I can’t do this.”
She smiled up at him, so hard to see in the moonlight, so incredibly tempting. “Do what?”
“Anything. Nothing. Never mind.”
“Tell me,” she pressed, walking toward the window. “Do what?”
“It’s not important,” Ellis said, shoving his hand through his hair. “Just forget it, seriously.”
“Well, if you ever want to talk about it,” she said, twisting a finger through a strand of hair, before letting her finger drift down her body, down her torso. Fuck, what was she doing to him?
“I don’t want to talk about it!” he practically shouted. “Just stop it!”
“Well, you don’t have to get all angry about it,” Cedar said, shoulders dropping a little. Which was a terrible fucking idea for Ellis to be watching, because the little slump of her shoulders made her dress gape forward. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Fuck,” he muttered.
Cedar walked toward him slowly, giving him plenty of time to run away. He should have run. He should have, he knew that. But it felt like his shoes were glued to the floor, and Ellis could barely breathe, let alone move. “I was hoping we could be friends,” she whispered. “Are we?”
“I guess so.”
“And friends are there for each other, aren’t they? You don’t have to tell me exactly what’s been stressing you out, but it might make you feel better.”
The house wasn’t big enough for her and him. There wasn’t enough room in the world to separate Ellis from Cedar, even while a voice in the back of his mind kept yelling about a girlfriend he already had.
She was bewitching. She was magical. And he was so riveted by the sight of her dress slowly slipping down, he didn’t move.
Not as she drew up next to him. Not as she stroked the hair off his face. Not as she let her hand trail slowly down until it reached his crotch, and she cupped it like she owned it. “Talk to me, Ellis,” she murmured, tracing a finger over his lips, and then nudged it into his mouth, just enough to make Ellis completely lose control.
“I’m going to regret this,” he muttered, hands reaching for Cedar.
“Oh, baby, you’re not going to regret anything,” Cedar murmured as Ellis pulled her flush against him. “You’re not going to regret a thing.” She didn’t move from where she was, just stood there for what felt like forever before she wiggled just the smallest amount against him.
And he was done. He was done now.
Fuck this. Fuck everything. Ellis slammed his lips down onto Cedar’s. He was too worked up for slow, passionate kisses. He was too fucking turned on for anything other than attacking her like a goddamn lion after a zebra. But Cedar was just as aggressive as he was, hands tightening where she had trailed them to, her hands all over him. She kissed back the way he kissed her, pissed off, angry, and more turned on than either of them knew what to do with.
There was a fine line between fighting and fucking, and at that moment, that night, neither Ellis nor Cedar knew what that line was, and which side they had crossed to. Cedar’s fingers scraped up his back and then back down, grabbing his ass with just enough fingernail for it to go from just pleasure to a just enough pain mixed in. Ellis pulled back for a few seconds, taking a breath.
“I’m not done yet, asshole,” Cedar panted. “Look at me. Everything else is extra. Everyone else is extra.” She wiggled her shoulders and watched as her bra straps dropped. “We’re not done.”
She grabbed the front of his shirt. “Start unbuttoning or I’ll rip it.”
Ellis grabbed her and shoved her back, still holding onto her. “I don’t remember you ever having permission here,” he growled. “Don’t tell me what to do.”
“I don’t submit,” Cedar said, chin raising.
Ellis tried to pry off her fingers, but she wouldn’t move. “You will today,” he growled. “And I hope you don’t need this dress anymore.”
“Don’t you dare.”
“What did I tell you about being in charge?” Ellis asked, wrapping her hair around her arms and yanking her back a little. “You’re not in charge here, if you want this.”
Cedar struggled in his grip, and tried to rip at his shirt. “Fuck off,” she growled, pulling on his shirt. “You’re never going to be in charge.”
Ellis sho
ved her against the desk and shoved her dress up to her hips. “Is that what you think?”
Cedar shot up on the desk, and grabbed his neck. “It’s what I know.” With fingers that had more practice opening and closing buttons than most people’s did, she unbuttoned half of his shirt before Ellis realized. “I don’t play fair, Carrington. Just accept that and move on.”
“Bullshit,” he argued, bending down and sinking a finger into her. “And neither do I.”
Things exploded after that. Grabbing each other’s clothing, tugging, yanking, scratching. Ellis fucked as angrily as he felt. If the desk hadn’t been so fucking enormous, he probably would have moved it with his thrusts.
When the dust finally settled around Cedar and Ellis’s relatively clothed bodies, it was hard to tell who won, or who had the most scars.
Cedar wiggled a little, and Ellis moved off of her, panting. Fixing her dress, Cedar headed to the door. “I’ll see you in a bit,” she purred, sashaying out, leaving Ellis alone against the desk, suit a little wrinkled in a room that smelled like sex.
Fuck, what had he just done?
Ellis couldn’t concentrate the rest of the evening. He spent it worrying that everyone knew what had happened upstairs in that room, worrying about what was going to happen with Cedar, and how bad it was that he had talked to the Robertsons.
It wasn’t until the drive home when he realized that he had fucked a girl who wasn’t his girlfriend.
Cedar stretched out in her bathtub later that night, basking in the nice post-coital glow she still had going for her. Angry sex wasn’t what she had expected from Ellis, but damn, if she wasn’t pleasantly surprised. Cedar was so good at pretending to orgasm, sometimes she wasn’t sure which ones were real and which ones were fake anymore. And while she would have pretended for Ellis if she needed to, the aching of her inner thighs was a sure sign that she wouldn’t have to fake nearly as many orgasms as she thought she would have had to.
Waltzing out on him straight after had been a stroke of genius on her part. So had slipping out of the party straight after and heading right home. There was nothing that kept a guy on his toes more than girls disappearing straight after sex. Especially if you angry fucked them against someone else’s desk and left before they remembered they had a girlfriend. Or a wife. That had worked amazingly that time, and so far, Cedar was sure that things were going well this time around, too.
