I was in no mood to scold him over being inappropriate, and truthfully, seeing him caused a fair amount of the day’s stress to fall from my shoulders. He was a welcome interruption. “I was actually thinking about getting my old job back.”
“What was your old job?” He placed the files in my tray.
“Solicitor advocate to Olivia, the barrister you met last night.”
“Your friend, the blonde?”
“That’s her.” I tapped the pile of briefs that had been checked over to indicate he could hand them back to the junior solicitors. They’d either correct their mistakes or send them up the chain.
“And why aren’t you still working with her?” he asked as he lifted the pile with those strong arms of his. He’d removed his jacket and rolled his sleeves halfway up his forearms. I wanted to bite his skin.
Instead, I looked up at him and smiled. “Let’s just say that you aren’t the only one who gets in trouble at times.”
He grinned. “Now I’m intrigued.”
“Be intrigued while you hand those back. When you’re done, sit with Penny while she does the preliminary workup on the drunk driving case I handed her this morning. She can take you through the issues.” I could see a lot of potential in Penny and knew that having her teach someone else would be a great way to reiterate her own learning. I could see her being able to work autonomously soon.
“Sure thing, boss,” Brandon said, turning to head out. Before he got out the door, I called his name.
“Did you get the envelope I put on your desk?”
“I did.” His lips quirked as he shifted the weight of the files to one arm. Did he think this was funny?
“And you understand where I’m coming from? We’re cool?”
He chuckled a little. “I’d better hand these out.” And then he was gone.
Confused by his response, I started on the pile he’d left for me and found the envelope beneath the first file. The card was gone, but inside was another note: Not if I have a say in it.
13
Since I didn’t have to wait for Olivia, I managed to get out of work early, needing to avoid any sort of alone time with Brandon. That cologne of his was simply too much for my senses. By the time five o’clock rolled on, I was biting my lip to stop myself from burying my nose in his chest and biting his delicious skin. His effect was so…carnal. I couldn’t explain it. My brain was resolute in the morning, but by the afternoon I was squirming in my chair and daydreaming about his violent thrusts.
Please be there, I silently begged as I entered the mailroom, finding my parcel sitting on the ground beneath the letterboxes.
“Oh, thank fuck,” I said as I leaned over to pick it up, then rushed for the elevator so I could get inside my apartment and try my toys out.
Excitement thrummed below the surface of my skin knowing that a sated evening was in my near future.
The moment I got inside, I placed the box on the small white coffee table and dropped to my knees in front of it.
“Who needs the complication of a man when you can buy all the fulfilment you need?” Using my keys to cut the tape, I flipped the box open with grand plans of wine, bubble baths and battery-operated boyfriends. But my expression dropped along with my hopes when the box contained nothing I ordered.
“What the hell is this?” I pulled out a contraption that looked like it should be used for abseiling that I discovered from the packing slip was a sex swing, along with silk rope, a blindfold and gag, and some padded handcuffs. “The fuck?”
Flipping the lid on the box, I double-checked the address. They got that right. It was just the contents they got wrong. How obscenely disappointing.
Digging through my bag, I pulled out my phone and found their website, logging in to double-check my order. It was right on the screen. I found their customer service number and put through a call. This was a life and death emergency. If I didn’t get off properly and soon, I was going be wired all night. I didn’t care if they needed to hire an emergency courier—I needed those sex toys.
Just as I was cursing while listening to a recorded message telling me their operating hours, there was a knock on my door.
“This had better be a parcel delivery,” I muttered, stomping over to the door and flinging it open.
What was waiting for me had a sexy grin, amazing green eyes, and a bag of takeout dangling from his index finger. “I brought dinner.”
Brandon Sharp.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
He pushed past me into my apartment. “I figure if I’m going to fuck you, I should at least feed you first.”
My vagina jumped for joy.
My head had alarm bells going off inside it.
“You shouldn’t be here. How do you even know where I live?”
He stopped in front of my coffee table and put down the bag of food, picking up the padded cuffs. “I see you were expecting me.”
Rushing over, I shoved everything back into the box. “Those aren’t mine.”
“Cora Knowles. Invoice number 21563. One Sex Swing-black. One silk play t—”
I snatched the packing slip from his hands and shoved that in the box too. “Yes. It’s under my name. But they got my order wrong.”
That just made his grin even broader. “Now I’m really intrigued. What was your real order?” He advanced on me, his arms going around my waist, pulling me against him, his hands sliding to my arse. “I have ways to make you confess,” he rumbled against my ear, his teeth biting my lobe.
I melted against that taut body of his, my own buzzing with need. How did he do this to me? I felt drunk and willing, ready to do anything he wanted.
Then he stole my phone from my hand.
“What are you doing?”
He moved away from me swiftly, pressing the home button to open the password-protected screen. “What’s your password?”
Ha! I had him there. There was no way I’d give him that information. I shook my head and took a step backward.
“That’s fine. Don’t tell me. It’s Touch ID. Give me your thumb.”
“No!” I hid my hands behind my back, and lifted my chin in defiance.
The moment I saw the glint in his eyes, I knew I was in trouble. The corner of his mouth twitched then his upper body hunched. He was ready to pounce.
A squeal burst from my lips when he shifted, and I turned tail and sprinted to the other side of the couch, putting a barrier between us.
“That’s not going to stop me.”
I bit my lip, the smile too hard to fight as I watched him like a hawk, moving in the opposite direction to him, a game of cat and mouse.
He laughed, and I taunted him by wriggling my thumb in the air, daring him to come and get me.
He didn’t fail to meet my challenge.
With one swift movement, he leapt over the couch and caught me. I shrieked with laughter as he lifted me off the floor and dumped me on the couch cushions, my body bouncing for less than a second before he climbed over the back and pinned my body beneath his.
He grabbed me by the wrist. “Let’s get this phone open, shall we?”
“Not if I can help it.” I grinned, trying to make a fist to thwart him further.
“I have other ways to make you talk,” he murmured, wickedness in his eyes as he kept me pinned, his legs mixed with mine, his chest weighing me down in the most magnificent way.
Suddenly, I was very aware of how close he was, how vulnerable I was in this position. Screw the sex toys. I had the real, live man on top of me and my resolve didn’t give a fuck about the implications when he was this close. No one had to know.
My smile dropped from my face. I pulled my lip with my teeth, while rampant dirty thoughts filled my mind.
“I love the way you do this,” he murmured, bringing his thumb to my mouth and freeing my bottom lip. “It means you have nothing but filth going through that sexy mind of yours.” With enough pressure to wipe away my lipstick, he ran the pad of
his thumb against that same lip, his eyes darkening as he watched intensely.
The action and the expression on his face tipped me over the edge of indecision. I wanted him, and no amount of logic was going to change that.
Shifting slightly, I caught his thumb between my teeth, biting gently before sucking back, laving the pad with my tongue. My eyes dropped closed and I moaned at the taste of his skin. I’d missed that.
His chest made a long deep, resonant sound as he withdrew from my mouth, dragging his fingers down my chin to my neck where he pulled at the tie of my blouse. “I’ve been dying to tug on this all day. It’s the sexiest damn blouse I’ve ever seen.” When he exposed my neck, he ran his fingers over the soft skin before wrapping his whole hand around it, fingers pressing into flesh as he lowered his head and placed his forehead against mine.
His breath washed over me, minty and warm, my lips burned with need, wanting the sweet torture of his nearness to end. “Fuck me, Brandon,” I whispered.
“Call me Bran,” he responded, his lips at the edge of mine, his erection pressing forcefully against my hip. “Brandon at the office. Bran when we’re alone. Understood?”
“Yes,” I whispered, moving my mouth to try and catch his. My body was screaming. I needed to taste him. “Please, Bran.” I moved beneath him, pressing against his erection, pushing my swollen breasts against his chest.
The hand at my throat shifted and he swept his thumb along my jaw. “I like it when you beg.”
Then he kissed me.
That mouth.
That tongue.
My body thought it was New Year’s Eve, with an array of fireworks going off behind my eyes, causing my desire for him to treble.
I whimpered beneath him, my body coiling into an intense ball of need as his hand glided up my arm, his fingers entwining with mine.
Then it was over. And the stark realisation of what just happened hit me when my thumb was pressed against the home button on my iPhone.
He played me.
Like a fiddle.
“Bran!”
He sat back, his thighs straddling my waist so I couldn’t get up. “Let’s see what kind of toys Cora Knowles likes to play with.” His thumb moved over the screen while his free hand fended off my flailing arms as I tried to get it back.
“You don’t play fair.”
He grinned. “No. I don’t.”
Then I folded my arms and pouted, trying to hide my humiliation with anger. “You’re an arsehole.”
Ignoring me, he kept his focus on my phone. I wanted to curl up in a ball and die. Once he saw what, and how much I’d ordered, he was going to think I was some sort of oversexed nympho.
When his brow lifted, I knew he’d found it. Please Lord, open the ground and swallow me now.
He took a moment, studying the list quietly before he shut off my phone and placed it on the coffee table without a word.
The suspense was killing me. “Well?“ Now he’d seen it, I needed to know what he thought.
Leaning back over me, he took a hold of my wrists and pinned my hands above my head. “I think the box delivered was much better.”
“You do?”
“Uh-huh.” He kissed and bit at my neck. “You don’t need a big thick vibrator when you have your very own big thick cock right here.” He pressed said cock against my thigh.
“My very own?”
He nodded. “On call. Twenty-four-seven.”
“That sounds a lot like a relationship.”
“Or a very dutiful fuck buddy. Take your pick, feisty. Whatever name you give it, it’s still going to be you and me fucking each other’s brains out. Now”—he reached an arm out and rummaged around in the box, withdrawing the silk rope—“let me show you how much fun this box of goodies is while I remind you why a giant vibrator isn’t as good as the real thing.”
As he wound the rope around my wrists, I grinned up at him. “It might take some convincing. I was really looking forward to those toys.”
He fastened the knot around my wrists then anchored it to the lamp table.
“They were a poor substitute for me and you know it.”
“Someone’s arrogant.”
One side of his mouth tilted upwards. “Maybe. But I’m still right. You were worked up after our meeting in your office and instead of coming to me last night, you ordered all those toys to fill the void my cock should have been filling. It’s simple maths.” He barely knew me but was completely right in judging my actions. What was he, a spy?
“And what did you do to fill the void?” I hoped I wasn’t the only one in a sexual frenzy last night.
He pulled the blindfold from the box and ran the silk through his hands, wrapping it around his fists before pulling it taut then placing it over my eyes. “I jacked off a thousand times, imagining I was spraying my cum all over your tits and arse. But it wasn’t enough. I need the real thing.” His voice gruff, he lifted my head and tied a knot. With my world ensconced in darkness, all I could do was feel him. His lips pressed against my ear. “Just like you need the real thing, Cora. What’s going on between us is more than just wanting to fuck. It’s about the desire and anticipation when we’re around each other. You can’t synthesise that.” What was going on between us was more? The idea made me nervous. Bran was young and beautiful. He was part of a powerful family and had the world at his feet. How long would it take before his desire waned and he got bored of basic me, deciding he needed his fulfilment elsewhere, just like Jack did? It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. What did I possibly have to offer him that he couldn’t get from a much younger woman?
“So, what do we do?” I asked, breathless and shrouded in dark. Not being able to see his eyes made it easier to ask questions. “Screw each other until this desire and anticipation is out of our systems?”
“If that’s what you want.” His tongue drew a trail down my chest as his fingers undid the buttons of my blouse and pushed it aside. “But I expect it’s going to take a very long time. I can’t stop thinking about this body of yours.”
My breath quivered in my throat as my skin bumped, excited. With my sight gone, my hands tied above my head, I could hear every movement, sense his touch before his fingers met my skin. He was gentle yet rough, each grab of my flesh firm while he also ran feather-light fingers along the skin of my heaving breasts. He collected them in his hands and pressed them together, growling at what he saw.
“I’ve been dreaming about these tits since I first saw them. They’re magnificent.” His hand worked the lace cup of my bra down freeing the mound of flesh to be worshipped by his hands and mouth. He sucked on my nipple, pinching me between his teeth. Then he squeezed and teased, releasing my nipple with a pop before I felt his teeth against my skin. “I’m going to have to mark them to make sure they’re mine.”
With a firm suck and swirl of his tongue, he took my flesh in his mouth again. I moaned as he placed his mark on my body, arching against him and writhing for more. I didn’t know why I liked it so much, and as long as he kept the love bites to places I could hide beneath my clothes, I was more than happy to accept them. It was possibly the domination, the arrogance, or the possessiveness of the act. I liked that he took what he wanted from me and willingly gave what I wanted in return. That first night with him felt like freedom, and this was no different. Despite being tied up, I knew his touch was a promise I was free to take, free to respond to. And would absolutely and thoroughly enjoy.
Then his fingers sank into my skin and dragged down my abdomen to the waist of my skirt. Gripping my hips, he flipped me over to my stomach, the silk rope twisting above my wrists. I felt the button to my skirt release then the zip open. He pulled the fabric down my legs, his hands covering my arse cheeks and squeezing through my black lace panties. “And that arse. I just about blow in my pants every time I see you lean over.” He slapped the left cheek, hard. Then he rubbed away the sting and pulled my panties aside, his hand running over the smooth skin. “This
arse is mine too.” His teeth bit into my skin before he sucked back, marking me again.
“Bran,” I moaned, my core aching for more. I wanted every-fucking-thing he had to give.
His hand ran over my arse cheeks then slipped between my thighs, staying on the outside of my panties. This was torture. Sweet, sweet torture. If I didn’t come soon, I might die. “Those lips are mine too. The way they say my name, they shouldn’t be speaking another man’s name in the same tone. Not until I’m done with you.”
Pressing his fingertips against my clit, he massaged me through my panties, getting me to gasp and curve back into him as my senses started to spin out of control.
“Bran,” I moaned again, so close.
“Mmm, say it again.” His fingers slipped beneath the fabric and plunged into my depths. He released an erotic growl.
“Bran.”
“Tell me you aren’t going to fight this anymore.” He worked his fingers in an out, in and out, pressing against my G-spot and sending me into a frenzy.
“I won’t,” I gasped, my head spinning, my body on fire.
“Promise me that no other man will touch you.” His fingers moved faster.
“They won’t.” I loved the way he demanded. I felt claimed. Wanted. In that moment, there was no doubt in my mind that I was the only woman Bran was thinking about.
“Promise me.”
“I…” My mouth fell open, my orgasm at breaking point as his fingers moved inside me.
“Say it, Cora.”
“I promise,” I shrieked as I exploded around his hand, my body bucking as his fingers kept working me, pushing my orgasm as far as it could go.
“I’m a selfish man, Cora.” He spoke close to my ear as my moans turned into screams of ecstasy. This was almost more than I could stand. “I take what I want, and I don’t share.”
With those words, the weight of his body left mine, leaving me whimpering at the loss while feeling full from his proclamation. It was just what I needed. My ego had taken such a hit from Jack’s infidelities. Having a man as sensual as Bran demand that I be only his stirred something primal inside me. I felt…desirable, powerful even. This man was relentless in his pursuit of me and unforgiving in his taking.
Never Again Page 10
