by Tina Donahue
“I should clean up my office.”
She smiled. “Take a picture first with your phone and send it to me. Last night was a blur. I’d like to see details of our damage.”
So much joy and trust radiated in her voice, sudden tears pricked his eyes. He pulled her into him so she wouldn’t see. “You bet.”
“Can I ask you something?” She hugged him closer.
“Yes, I’m enjoying this.”
“Me too, but I need to know something else. Why did you resist me until last night?”
He squeezed his eyes. “I was stupid.”
“No, you’re not. Did you have second thoughts about what you said in Vegas? You know, having me where you wanted and when you wanted? Did you worry the staff would start gossiping about us or me?”
“Uh huh.” Not a lie, though not the truth either. He wasn’t proud about keeping stuff from her, but couldn’t think to do anything else at this point.
“It’s so not a problem. We’ll keep our relationship quiet, okay?”
He hugged her until neither could breathe. Before she recovered, he kissed her hard, then smacked her butt playfully “Go to your mom. Give her your candy.”
Danni held the box to her heart. “No way. There are only three pieces left.”
“I’ll get you more.”
“You better.” She winked and left.
In his office, Adam sidestepped the mess and turned on his computer. He knew now he’d made a mistake earlier in his dealings with Roger. He’d been too eager suggesting they keep Danni due to the money they’d save on a new fabric vendor. There hadn’t been enough facts to support using the funds on her and nothing else. He needed to pin Roger to the wall, take away his wiggle room, and by God, he would.
He sank into his chair to begin the most important report he’d ever written. In it, he’d give the prick a cent-by-cent account, accompanied by graphs and charts detailing what they’d save, how the business would profit by keeping Danni, and what it would ultimately cost them if they let her go in favor of bringing in a colleague with little experience and far less talent.
Treating her mom to a decadent spa experience on Sunday didn’t mend the woman’s wounded spirit, but did make her feel pampered and pretty. Her grateful smile made Danni want to cry. She deserved honesty and respect from a man, yet had settled for so little.
It took great effort for Danni to shake off the blues and face her own reality. When she’d chosen Matt and Bryan she’d repeated her mom’s sorry history with men. Thank God for Adam.
In Vegas, he’d promised he was different and proved as much. As each day passed, she trusted him more. Despite his great looks, he wasn’t a player. She couldn’t fathom him lying to get what he wanted. He had too much integrity, which made her crave him as she never had another man.
She arrived at work early Monday morning and had to keep from sprinting to his office for a deep, lingering kiss. Cautious as to her behavior around others, she settled on a fast walk.
His secretary was already at her desk, dashing Danni’s X-rated dreams. Even if he closed his door, the woman might hear the lewd sounds they made.
Danni considered calling his smartphone, but didn’t want to crowd him. Last night, she’d phoned, offering a lame reminder about wanting to see a picture showing his abused office. He assured her he hadn’t forgotten and promised to have it in her personal email this morning. They talked until midnight about their parents and other stuff, including what they most liked on TV. Other than sports, he enjoyed A&E’s Cold Case Files, while she preferred the Food Network’s various contests—and what propositions would pass during the next election. To her relief, he leaned as far left politically as she did.
Unable to concentrate on work this morning, she used her personal laptop to check her Yahoo account. Adam’s email had landed in her spam folder. She opened the photo and spat out her coffee. In the doctored picture, chairs hung upside down from the ceiling. Her corporate headshot perched on bright purple feathers only a stripper would love. His corporate headshot peeked out from her groin. They both leered.
She laughed until she hiccupped, then giggled at what he’d written beneath the picture.
I’ll have you where I want, when I want… be ready for anything.
Each secluded space in the office took on a new, carnal attraction. He might lure her to the empty cubicle behind the file cabinets for a quick feel. Or screw her breathless in the computer room no one but the techs were allowed to enter.
Even thinking about it made her dizzy, especially when he didn’t jump her immediately. Monday zipped by, too many meetings and launch preparations crammed within the brief time period.
Shortly before five thirty, he stopped at her office. “Do you have a minute?”
All day she’d had several. “Sure.”
She followed him to the deserted employee lounge. Empty chip bags and candy wrappers littered the tables. Two women who worked in operations lingered just outside. He couldn’t be planning to make love in here now. Then again… The scrumptious bulge between his legs pressed against his fly. “What’s up?”
He took bottled water from the fridge and screwed off the cap. “Did you get my email?”
“I did. And I am.”
He finished his swallow. “Am what?”
She tempered her voice as he had. “Ready for anything.”
“We’ll see about that.” He glanced at the doorway, watching, listening. And then he leaned in. “I don’t want you working late. Go home like everyone else and get some rest, you’ll need it.”
“For what?”
Smiling, he left the lounge.
Danni expected Adam to show up at her place. He didn’t. Instead, Hanson’s delivered a carton stuffed with Silvano’s cherry chocolates. Thirty boxes in all.
Danni called him immediately. An old Mariah Carey release played in the background. “You’re home?”
“Yeah. Why aren’t you in bed?”
“I am. Freshly bathed, shaved, made up, and covered with cherry chocolates. Want to come over and eat me?”
He laughed. “Get some sleep. You’ll need it.”
“Wait!” She lowered her voice. “Thanks for the candy. That’s the nicest surprise I’ve ever gotten.”
“Then I’ll have to change that.” Without elaborating, he ended the call.
Tuesday came. Danni anticipated more than them working together like a normal VP and president, yet that’s what she got. They discussed and argued over endless launch details. Adam acquiesced to most of her decisions, and not because he was a pushover. She’d never known anyone as knowledgeable about the intimate apparel business as him. He was an expert’s expert who respected her take on the line and admired her work.
He also drove her crazy, her expectation ratcheting up several notches.
Every sound made her jump. Always wet around him, she worried she’d stain her clothing since she wasn’t wearing panties. After all, he expected her to be ready for anything.
She thought she was until she arrived home from work and found a medium-sized box, the kind used to ship a shirt, propped against her front door. Not recognizing the company name, she opened it cautiously. Inside the packaging lay a small paddle covered in black velvet. She trembled, liking this better than chocolate. She unfolded the stationery on top. Inside was Adam’s distinctive script.
For when you’re bad. Now, get some rest, you’ll need it.
For what? And when? She pressed the box to her heart, frustrated and giddy at his game, loving it, yet hoping for relief.
Reprieve didn’t come that night or the next day, though FedEx left another package at Danni’s apartment door. The small, lightweight box matched her hand length and width. She jiggled the container close to her ear, expecting to hear metallic clinking, the kind a collar and chain would make… like the one in Adam’s fantasy where he led her into the white room filled with lusty nobility. Beaming at the memory, she tore open the box and stared at the beige
silk ropes inside, tied together in an incomprehensible maze. Clueless as to what they might be or how they should work, she read the accompanying flyer. The apparatus was a karada, a harness used for stimulation bondage. Numerous photos showed a nude, beautifully endowed woman posing in the thing and indicating how it operated—shifting between her legs as she walked and sat, stroking her clit.
Danni draped it over her nudity, refusing to go farther. When she wore the karada, it would be because Adam had put it on her. She wouldn’t fantasize and masturbate while alone either, determined to have him satisfy her cravings.
With her adrenaline soaring, sleep became a hit-and-miss proposition. Thursday morning, she arrived early at the office, as always, tired and in a pissing bad mood.
A Post-It note taped to her door drew her closer. Apparently, Jim in Marketing had put the new advertising pieces in Woody’s cubicle rather than leaving some on her desk as Suzy Kline always did.
She shoved her purse in her bottom desk drawer and slogged to Woody’s workstation. Prior to reaching the cubicle, she paused at the storeroom door. It was opened. She glanced over.
Adam caught her wrist, pulled her inside, and closed the door.
Astonishment rendered her mute, elation made her want to babble. She held her tongue.
He leaned against the wall, eyes hooded in the murky light streaming through the closed blinds. “Drop your trousers.”
Her hands twitched excitedly as she obeyed his command, unbuttoning and unzipping.
Footfalls crossed the room in the upstairs office. Down here, staff would soon fill the cubicles.
Adam crossed to her, cupping her bare pussy in his hand, his smile saying he was glad she no longer wore panties at work. “Did you get my other gifts?”
He stroked her clit and pressed his mouth to her neck.
His soapy scent and heated skin eroded her strength. She fisted her fingers in his jacket, needing it to keep her from sagging to the floor. “Yes.” She spoke as softly as he had.
“Did you bring them with you?”
“No. I thought you’d want to use them at your place or mine.”
“I want you ready for anything.”
She bent her will to his, subduing her voice even more. “I will be.”
“Bend over the box to your left and lift your ass.”
She did so quickly, anxious to have him home again, his cock tunneled inside her willing pussy.
He touched her anus, his fingers slick from lubrication he must have brought in here, preparing her tightest passage for his cock.
She blew hair off her face.
The threat from exposure magnified every sound.
His harsh breathing signaled his enthusiasm. He ripped the packet holding a condom. The crinkling cellophane brought back the night in his apartment, ties around her wrists and ankles, a blindfold on her eyes, the expectant wait for his kiss and getting a cherry chocolate instead.
Sheathed in the satiny latex, he nudged his crown against her snug opening. No virgin there, not since they first slept together in Vegas, her passage allowed him entrance, hugging the head, waiting for his full length.
Before he plowed completely inside, he bent down and touched her clit.
On his first stroke, she dug her nails into the cardboard box.
He burrowed his cock more deeply inside her.
Damn. She was so primed, all he had to do was pump once while massaging her most sensitive area and she’d be done, coming in three seconds flat.
A door closed. She froze, unable to determine whether it was upstairs or down here.
Adam stopped stroking her nub, though he hardly ceased indulging himself. He grasped her hip and pumped smoothly, steadily, expecting pleasure, even as he denied the same to her.
She realized her error. He’d warned her to be ready for anything, meaning he expected her full attention during the act. No matter where it occurred, he wanted her to trust him.
She yielded, her head hanging between her shoulders, and concentrated on the moment, refusing to consider anything beyond the door.
He resumed stroking her clit and thrust his cock into her repeatedly, proving her earlier prediction wrong. She came in two seconds flat, rather than three.
He didn’t last much longer. Draped over her back, he puffed hard against her bronze cardigan. “Good morning.”
It was, wasn’t it? She tightened her pussy around his deflating cock, wanting him inside as long as possible. “Hi. Did you leave the Post-It on my door to lure me here?”
“I couldn’t lasso you with the karada and drag you in here, now could I?”
She pressed her hand over her mouth to shush her laugh and imagined him smiling.
He slipped his hand beneath her cardigan and bra to cover her right breast.
Nice. “I want you at my place tonight. You can tie me into the karada and we can—”
“No.” He pulled his hand from beneath her clothes and stepped back, releasing his cock.
She hoped he hadn’t heard something in the hall. Cringing, she prayed no one would open the door and see her like this. Despite her bare ass, fear bolted her to the spot.
Nothing happened. The door stayed closed.
No unusual noises sounded either, unless her panting drowned them out.
Adam zipped his cocoa-colored pants. Given his slumped shoulders, he looked beat not alarmed.
Confused, she said the only thing she could. “Did you hear something?”
He smoothed his clothes. “No. Why? Did you?”
Yeah, she heard him say “no” to her invitation, which made no sense. They could more easily engage in these games at her place as well as his, rather than risking discovery here. Hell, she would have even been up for a quickie at an X-rated theater, or on his boat where no one would bother them. She accepted the tissues he handed her, tidied herself, and buttoned her trousers. “If you want to go somewhere other than my place, that’s perfectly all right.”
He shook his head.
Her stomach fell. “It’s not all right?”
“Not tonight.” He glanced at his watch. “I’d like to leave it for Saturday evening and all day Sunday, okay?”
“Sure.” She remembered to breathe and to trust. They wouldn’t last long if she kept reading stuff into everything he said or did. Don’t be an idiot. “I’ll cook you dinner.”
His mouth twitched. He rubbed it to tame his smile. “You know how to cook?”
“Sure.” She made certain to sound offended. “What do you like?”
He pressed into her so quickly, she didn’t have a chance to react. He held her head and brushed his lips over her ear. “You and our toys.”
He couldn’t have chosen a better answer. “Why can’t we play this evening or tomorrow night? Tomorrow’s Friday.” She ran her finger beneath his shirt collar. “If you have too much work, I can help.”
“No, you can’t. It’s a special report for Roger.”
Crap. “Do you mind if I hate him?”
“Be my guest. He’s a fucking, goddamn, pissing prick.”
His vehemence surprised her. She pulled back and regarded him in the subdued light. “Did you and he have a falling-out? Oh my god, he’s not trying to replace you after making you president, is he?”
Adam glanced at the door.
She lowered her voice. “Did you hear something?”
“Maybe. We better go.” He grabbed her wrist. “Me first. Wait a few minutes then you can leave, all right?”
She nodded.
He reached the door, hesitated, then returned. “No, we haven’t had a falling-out, and I’m not going anywhere, okay? He’s just demanding, and sometimes I let it get to me.” He hauled her close and squeezed her hard. “Looking forward to Saturday night.”
Chapter 10
After leaving the storeroom, Adam used every spare moment to work on his ‘Keep Danni’ report, his thoughts frozen on how she looked when asking if Roger planned to replace him. Similar to a wife
consoling the ‘other’ woman about an unplanned pregnancy, not realizing the child belonged to her cheating husband.
Fuck, I have to fix this.
Or die trying.
Seeing Danni’s pain if she learned the truth, living with the knowledge he was responsible was too much for him to bear.
On Friday, she entered his office without warning as he reviewed a graph showing her numerous contributions to the company. Quickly, he closed his laptop.
Surprise crossed her face, then concern at him hiding anything from her.
He felt compelled to explain, or rather lie. “Porn.” He kept his voice low. “Getting pointers for our next evening together. I’d like it to be a surprise.”
Beaming, she edged nearer, her enticing fragrance wafting toward him, making anything seem possible.
He fought a crazy urge to hug her.
She glanced at his doorway. Empty. No staff lingering nearby, his secretary on her break.
Danni leaned closer. “Do you like spaghetti and meatballs?”
He adored the way she smelled. “Generally speaking…” He spoke as quietly as she had. “Do you plan to make it on Saturday?”
“I swear I’ll take good care of you.” She stroked his neck above his collar, then ruffled his hair.
Lord, Lord, Lord. His head lolled to the side, his lids edged down, and his toes tried to curl in his shoes.
“We can eat the sauce off each other, if you like.” She touched his cheek. “Dessert too. I’ll also have another surprise.”
He smiled, loving when she behaved like this. “What is it?”
She stepped away and gave him her sassy look. “You’ll see.”
Danni lived on the first floor in a small, red-and-tan brick building in an affordable San Francisco neighborhood approximately twelve miles from the office. The only view here was other apartment buildings and storefront businesses.
Eager as hell to be alone with her, Adam gripped the booze he’d brought and knuckled her buzzer.
She snaked her hand around her front door, her index finger gesturing him inside. The first surprise.
