For the Win

by Brenna Aubrey

  "We stopped it. It has to stay stopped."

  My hands caressed his rough cheeks. "For now...but I only have six weeks left. You won't be my boss after that."

  My heart beat in my throat, and I died a few times while I waited for his reply. He took a breath and let out a sigh, and a weight inside my stomach dropped as I anticipated his rejection. Reaching down, he put his hands on my hips and scooted me back on his lap. "April..."

  My eyes fluttered closed. Here it came...

  "You know why your dad was on the campus today, right?"

  I frowned and my eyes flicked to his. "He's investing in the company. He's done that before. And since Adam used to work for him and the company is going public..."

  His jaw tightened. "It's more than that. Adam brought him in to help form our new board of directors. It means...it means that he'll probably end up being the chairman of the board after the IPO."

  My throat tightened and I felt sick, pressure building behind my eyes. This meant that there would be no hope for us, not even in six weeks. If my dad was the chairman of the board at Draco, and the CFO of the company was dating his daughter...

  Wait, it wasn't like that was against the law or anything. Unless Jordan was counting on the fact that we wouldn't last...

  "It's not impossible." I said, testing my hypothesis, to see if I was right.

  "It could cause a lot of problems between your dad and me."

  "It could, if things don't end well, but why are you assuming that will happen?"

  He pressed his lips together. "Because it always does."

  I blinked. I knew that his past had messed with his head, but did that honestly mean he had no hope at all?

  I absently played with the collar on his shirt and avoided looking into his eyes. "There's...there's a first time for everything. You aren't willing to take that chance?"

  He clenched his jaw, eyes narrowing. "It's not really fair of you to ask me that."

  It hurt to breathe. My eyes stung from the sudden emotion rising up. I would not let him see me cry. I would not.

  I quietly slipped off his lap onto the couch beside him.

  He ran a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry--"

  When I thought my voice would be steady enough, I spoke. "So am I."

  There was a pinch of loss deep down in my chest. I'd allowed my foolish heart to get involved when I'd known perfectly well that this wouldn't go anywhere.

  "April...come here," he said, pulling me into his arms, pressing me against him. I didn't resist, letting him feel like he was comforting me when he really wasn't. The tears, they were coming. I didn't know how long I could fight them off.

  Everything in me hurt. My throat was tight. My gut ached. My skin was hot and flushed, my pulse erratic.

  I had either contracted the Ebola virus or I'd fallen in love with Jordan Fawkes.

  Chapter 24

  Jordan

  The next few weeks brought long, arduous hours at the office as we prepared for the IPO roadshow. I was here for twelve to fifteen hours a day, arriving at seven in the morning and leaving at nine or ten every night. I'd worked those kinds of hours before, but this was different. It seemed sort of hollow and meaningless, and the harder I worked, the more I realized that my heart wasn't completely in it like it had been.

  April was here most of the time, too, which made things all the more difficult. She arrived at her usual start time--I'd noticed in Canada that she wasn't a morning person--but she always stayed late and was one of the last people out of the building each day.

  Sometimes Daddy Dearest was here as well, and it was interesting to watch them together. I puzzled at the guarded way with which she dealt with him. I wondered if she counted him among the list of men in her life who had hurt her, who had let her down. I couldn't help but wonder if I was on that list as well.

  Her demeanor toward me could best be described as coolly polite. No more joking around, no conveniently placed middle fingers indicating that she wasn't going to take my shit. Even when I tried to get a rise out of her, she gave me the same tight, courteous smile.

  And I hated it.

  One night, on a particularly late night the week before we were to hit the road, Mia arrived with a stack of take-out from a nearby Mexican place. She wanted us all to sit in the break room and have a decent meal--together. And that all included Adam, Mia, David, his daughter, me, and a couple of other officers and their assistants, along with Kat, Mia's friend who worked in playtesting.

  The two of them were talking about going down to the warehouse and getting the prototype equipment out to play with it. Mia turned to April, who sat next to me, and said, "You want to come? We'll show you how it works. You could use it for your project."

  April hesitated mid-chew, her eyes lighting up. "That would be--"

  "I'm sure you've got work to do, right?" her dad interjected. As if he wanted me to confirm it, his dark blue eyes--which were eerily like hers--flicked to me. Screw that. As her boss, I'd be the judge of what work she needed to get done.

  "She's been working hard. She could use a break. Go for it if you want to, Weiss," I said to her.

  But April's eyes were on her dad, her features clouding. She blinked and then turned back to Mia. "Maybe if you're still there in an hour or so. I do have to finish up some stuff for Jordan."

  Mia nodded, getting up from the table. "Join us whenever you want, April. We'll be there until I can pry this one away from his desk," she said with a wave of her hand in Adam's direction. "Hopefully before midnight."

  "Another hour," he said, capturing her hand and kissing the back of it.

  "I'll believe it when I see it." She stuck out her tongue at him.

  "Care to make it interesting?" He raised his brows at her.

  "I always make it interesting." With a cheeky grin, she turned to leave.

  David watched her and Kat go with a smile. "You've got a winner," he said to Adam with a nod in Mia's direction. "I like her."

  Adam smiled but didn't say anything as he forked the last of his Spanish rice into his mouth.

  "So when's the happy day?"

  "We haven't set a date yet. She just started medical school."

  I glanced at April, who was watching her father and Adam with a strange intensity. I wondered what was going through her head at that moment. What was the dynamic of their parent-child relationship? They didn't seem particularly close, but she seemed to desperately want his approval. She'd been about to get up and go play with the girls before her father's comment had stopped her. I wondered what kind of baggage was involved.

  Another woman with Daddy issues, like with Cyndi. I seemed to attract those.

  Of course, I had my own damn Daddy issues. I guess we all did.

  "Smart woman, knows what she wants. Successful. Beautiful, too. You've got the complete package. You need to make that official soon before she figures out she's getting the raw end of the deal," David joked.

  Adam threw his head back and laughed. "You were always good at taking me down a few pegs when I was getting too full of myself."

  "I was the best boss you ever had, admit it."

  Adam stood and wiped his mouth with a napkin before tossing it on the table. "You were the only boss I've ever had."

  David and Adam wandered back to his office, still laughing, while April watched them, absently gathering the paper plates and debris from the table and tossing them. I helped her collect the leftovers and put them in the fridge.

  "You okay?"

  She shrugged. "Yeah."

  She looked particularly fetching today in a short black skirt--barely long enough to be called professional attire--that came a few inches above her knees, a white, button-down blouse that hugged her luscious breasts, and shiny black patent Mary Janes with enough of a heel to emphasize the swell of her gorgeous calves.

  I tried not to look too closely these days. It was pure torture to stare at what I couldn't have. I supposed I could have called one of my paramour
s for a night of fun, but to what end?

  By default, I guess I was again observing Friar Jordan's New Law even if I'd shattered that fucker all to pieces--and in various different positions and locations in between April's extremely soft and supple thighs.

  The hot memory of it had me sporting a semi as we made our way back to my office. It didn't help that she walked ahead of me, giving me no choice but to study the sway of that pleated skirt against the back of her legs. It was so fucking unfair that I couldn't have her again.

  "You seem...upset," I said, mostly to distract myself from my wayward thoughts.

  She glanced in the direction of Adam's office, where the door was open and Adam and her father were bent over a computer screen having some sort of intense discussion about the business plan.

  "No. You're just mistaking my sexual frustration for something else," she quipped as she sauntered into my office. I almost swallowed my own tongue.

  I hesitated before following her inside, leaving the door wide open. Just to be on the safe side. Immediately, I got back to my pre-dinner task, which was a frame-by-frame screening of the latest version of the roadshow video while adding my last comments for any edits needed.

  April was in the middle of revising my slides for the banker presentation, but she seemed distracted, squirming in her seat and constantly catching my notice by doing so. I could hardly concentrate on what I was doing, too concerned about my damn hard-on and the way her breasts looked in that blouse.

  "I'm warm in here, are you?" she finally said in a low voice.

  "Huh?" I glanced up in time to see her unfasten two buttons on her blouse. I could now see the top of her lacy bra. Holy fuck.

  "Maybe if I close the door in here so the warm air doesn't come in from the atrium. I could turn down the thermostat, too." She got up, shut the door and then pressed the lock. Holy hell.

  Then she strutted--and there was no other way to describe the gait that made that pleated skirt dance against her sexy legs--to the thermostat and fiddled with it for a moment. I swallowed and focused on my computer screen, trying desperately to think about statistical finance or the market cap formula...hell, even baseball stats.

  She sashayed back to her seat--thank God--but instead of sitting, she placed a foot on the seat of her chair, giving me a torrid view of the whole length of her leg. Holy Christ.

  Then she reached under her skirt and tugged on the top of her thigh-high stockings. Edged with white lace, they looked like delicate, delicious cake frosting hugging her lush thighs. She had a dark beauty mark on the inside of her left thigh. I'd tasted it several times while we were in Vancouver. I wanted to taste it again. Without looking at me, she switched legs and did the same with the other one.

  And now I was officially in pain from the swelling below the belt, my erect cock straining against my pants. I put my face in my hand, unable to look anymore.

  "What's wrong?" she said in a faux-innocent voice. "Do you have a headache?"

  Nope, definitely not the location of the aching. Unless she was talking about the head below the belt. I didn't say anything, scrubbing my palm across my eyes, the vision of her curvy legs forever burned in my mind. Why the hell was she torturing me like this? Or maybe this was her enacting a well-thought-out plan of revenge she'd had since the very beginning.

  Nice timing. Her father was in the next room, separated by one office wall, for Christ's sake. If she wanted to spell my doom, she couldn't have picked a better opportunity.

  When I looked up again, I almost jumped, seeing that she was now sitting on the edge of my desk right beside me, looking down with a knowing smile.

  "I know an excellent cure for a headache and...that other problem you seem to be having," she said with a meaningful look at my crotch.

  I blew out a breath in exasperation. "Are you enjoying this?"

  She smiled as she swung a leg back and forth. "I plan to. And I think you will too."

  I took a deep breath and let it out. Hard-on, be damned. "No. I am not doing this."

  She raised a brow and stuck her bottom lip out. "No? You don't sound very committed to that."

  "Jesus, April, your dad--"

  "We're not talking about him. He's very busy over there and so is everyone else. And that door is locked." She bent over and ran a hand from my knee up the inside of my thigh, giving me a tentative, questioning glance.

  When she reached my cock--now past the point of mere pain--I captured her delicate wrist and yanked her toward me. With a gasp, she stumbled off the desk and fell against my chest. She looked up, her mouth ready to be kissed.

  "Miss Weiss, you are being inappropriate."

  "You love it when I'm inappropriate."

  "Fuck yeah, I do."

  Then she kissed me. "Mmm. I thought I'd miss the scruff. But I missed your hot mouth more."

  "You don't fight fair."

  "Nobody said life was fair." She kissed me again, her sleek tongue darting into my mouth. One hand slid down my stomach to cup my cock through my pants. I hissed against her mouth, threaded my fingers through her glossy hair and yanked her off my lap so that she was on her knees in front of me. Fuck yeah, indeed.

  April held my gaze for a long time, the shock evaporating like foam seawater off the hard-packed beach sand. Understanding dawned in her ocean-blue eyes and she swallowed, licking those puffy pink lips. I reached out and traced the bottom one with my thumb.

  "I want these gorgeous lips wrapped around my cock," I ground out between my teeth.

  Her eyes darkened with lust and she nodded, reaching for the fly on my khakis. After she undid my belt and unbuttoned my pants, I leaned back, watching as she dug into my boxers and pulled out my stiff, painful erection. She swallowed again, then ran her thumb up the bottom of my shaft and over the head. Fire crackled through my veins and my heartbeat drummed in my throat.

  I was throbbing with need. She looked at me, as if reassuring herself that I was enjoying it. As if she had to be reassured of that. The thought almost made me laugh. "You're so beautiful," she muttered. "Every part of you."

  Her words had a new, more powerful effect on me, stroking me in places her fingers couldn't reach. I had to have her--now. I leaned forward and reached around the back of her head, pulling her closer, pressing my cock to her lips. Her gorgeous mouth opened to take me in, and my chest felt like it was about to explode as her heat enveloped me.

  I reached down, groping her breast through her shirt, and she let out a soft, muffled moan. My fingers slipped under her blouse, inside that lacy bra, where I rubbed and rolled her nipple until it came to a beaded, hard point under my attention. My cock surged in her mouth.

  With a shudder, my eyes closed and I concentrated on her subtle movements as she slipped lower, taking more of me in. I hadn't had sex in weeks, and working in such close proximity to her made me feel achingly deprived and tense. Now I was so over-the-top turned on, I feared this was going to be over before it even got started.

  This moment transported me back to the time I'd first laid eyes on her, late last year during the intern orientation when they'd been brought around on a tour. The group had spent a few minutes in my office, and I distinctly remember her asking a question because my eyes landed on her beautiful face. Right there and then, those luscious lips had given me visions of her on her knees in front of me, pleasuring me just as she was now. She'd flashed that even, white smile that must have cost thousands at the orthodontist. I'd felt something then, a twinge of want, of lust. The interns were off-limits, sure. But it didn't stop me from fantasizing about burying myself inside her every time I saw her.

  Now here she was, sucking me off, her eyes never leaving mine as her mouth slid down, taking more of me in before slipping back up again, the suction increasing until I was about to start whimpering with the intensity of it.

  Jesus fucking Christ. Where had she learned to do that? I didn't know whether to be grateful to whoever it had been or to hunt him down and kill him for having been the
re before me. Pure, ice-cold pleasure spread out from my crotch, up my stomach and down my thighs. I was panting, my own breathing out of my control. I was going to come if she continued at this pace.

  My hand darted out, holding her head still. "Slow down..." I muttered, and obediently she kept her head in place. But her tongue--that sinful tongue--was sliding all down the underside of my cock and back up again, lavishing it with her hot, wet attention.

  All the air rushed out of my chest. With her head still pinned in place, I pressed my hips forward, thrusting into her mouth. She sucked in a breath of surprise through her nose until her breathing was cut off--by me. I froze, watching her, carefully noting if it was too much for her. But those eyes held fast to mine before her lids drooped and her hand thrust into my pants, stroking my balls. Slowly, I pulled back and pushed in again. I was seconds away from coming. I removed my hand to give her a chance to pull away if she wanted.

  I really hope she didn't want to.

  "I'm going to come," I groaned. A second later, her mouth slid down over me again, taking me in deeper than before. My head fell back and I stared at the ceiling, my eyes shut tight, that familiar pinch gathering at the base of my spine.

  "April--fuck!"

  Her mouth locked over me, sucking harder than before, and I came in hot, gasping waves. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think. And all I could feel was the molten pleasure of her mouth on me, sucking. Still sucking.

  She held me there until the spasms faded and then slowly pulled away. I opened my heavy eyes, feeling completely wrung out. Holy shit.

  "That...was fucking incredible."

  Without a word, she got up and walked into the bathroom. I heard the drawer open and the faucet turn on. But I still couldn't move, so I sat there with my dick hanging out in the air like an idiot. My body felt relaxed, like I was boneless.

  She came back into the office and handed me a washcloth to clean up. I thanked her and then finally got up to take my turn in the bathroom. When I returned, she was in her seat, buttoned up and arranged primly in front of her laptop, back to work as if nothing had happened.

  I walked over to the door and unlocked it, but left it closed. When I turned around, she was watching me, a smile hovering on her lips.