by Lia Lee
I laughed. “You’re as dirty as they come.”
“Well, if I can’t get any, I have to live vicariously through your love life. That’s how friends help each other out, you know.”
Lisa and I had another drink together before we paid and went our separate ways. I headed home. I had a lot to think about after what she had told me. I was pushing my luck. It could work perfectly, or Rodney could sit me down and tell me I was being out of line. He could even fire me if he wanted to. But if it meant sleeping with him again, it was worth a shot.
I would try Lisa’s way and see how it went. I would know soon enough, after all, and if it wasn’t working, I could always stop. Although I had never been good at stopping. I had always done what I’d wanted, when I’d wanted. And this time, Rodney was what I wanted.
I had to take time to think about how I was going to do it, but I was sure I could come up with something. I had a few things in mind I could do.
When I went to bed that night, I closed my eyes and flashed on Rodney’s naked body again, remembering the way he’d felt when he pushed into me. I thought about the orgasms he’d brought on, one after another. And I wanted more.
Chapter Nine
Rodney
On Wednesday, Danielle was back in the elevator with me. I was happy to see her, even though I wouldn’t admit it to her. Yesterday, she had come in on time instead of being early, so we hadn’t spent time in the elevator together. It meant there hadn’t been any sexual tension for me to deal with, but I had to admit that I’d missed her, even if I hadn’t wanted to.
Danielle had something about her that just got me. I hadn’t ever felt this way about anyone else. I wasn’t sure if it was the concept of something taboo, something thrilling because of the secrecy, or if it was because she was genuinely a great person and stunning to boot. Whatever the reason, I couldn’t seem to shake her. She was on my mind constantly when I wasn’t around her, and when I was, it was torture.
Yesterday, she was driving me mad. She was so distant and difficult to reach. I knew it had been because of what I’d said to her, but we couldn’t sleep together again. Still, she had been hot as hell, just out of my reach. Danielle was already a weakness I was sure I couldn’t afford. It was that much worse when she played hard to get.
It made her irresistible.
Yesterday, she had worn a navy pencil skirt with a white blouse that had given her a nautical look in the sexiest way. She had worn heels that made her calves look fantastic. Today, she wore another skirt with a slit at the back that ran up dangerously high. It made her ass look fantastic.
I had caught a glimpse when she walked in through the doors and turned around to stand next to me. Her legs were still beautiful. I wanted to run my hands up her smooth thighs, enjoying what I found.
The blouse she wore looked like a vest that had been adapted for women. It traced her curves, pushing up her breasts, and creating a small line of cleavage that was sexy and almost inappropriate, but it was still acceptable.
I pushed the thoughts away. If I didn’t keep it under control, I was going to end up in more trouble than I could handle. Or, more precisely, I was going to end up inside Danielle again. God, I could only imagine how fantastic that would be. I’d been there once, so I knew what to expect this time. And it had been as fantastic as I’d always imagined, if not more.
But I had to keep her at arm’s length. If it came out that we had slept together, I could lose one of my biggest investors and my best friend. And if it turned into a scandal, I could potentially lose all of them. I couldn’t afford for them to pull my funding. I had a lot of money, but it was all tied up in my company and real estate, and if I lost the company in any way, I would be royally screwed.
I had worked hard for my money, I had made a name for myself in the business world, and I had become someone worth knowing. I didn’t want to lose all of that because of a fling.
Although, I would never see Danielle as only a fling or some cheap piece of ass.
I glanced at Danielle again. She stood close to me, close enough that I could smell her perfume. God, that scent took me back to Saturday night. I wanted to take her so badly again. I pushed the thought away. We were two adults. We could be civilized.
Danielle dropped a pen, and it bounced, landing at my feet. Before I could kneel to pick it up for her, doing the gentlemanly thing, Danielle ducked down to get it. It pressed her up against my legs. She stood up, brushing against me, and my cock hardened in my pants.
I couldn’t help it. The moment she touched me, I was hot for her. I wanted to drive her back until she was against the elevator wall. I wanted to unzip that sexy little skirt and push my hand down the front, fingering her until she moaned my name. I considered hitting the emergency button so I could have time alone with her.
My dick pushed against my pants, and I couldn’t hide it. Thank God I had a briefcase. I cleared my throat.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, and she smiled innocently at me.
I swallowed, trying to shift to rearrange my dick without touching it outright. She’d only dropped something, but I was sure she had done it on purpose. Of course, I couldn’t ask her.
The last part of the elevator ride was pure torture. I had an erection I couldn’t do anything with, and Danielle stood next to me, syrupy sweet, looking like she had no idea what she had done to me. I was sure she knew exactly what she was doing to me but the way she stood next to me, pretending the air around us wasn’t impossible to breathe, somehow made it all that much more intense. God, what had I gotten myself into?
“Are you ready for the meeting?” Danielle asked.
I blinked at her, trying to figure out what she was talking about, when I remembered about the meeting that was arranged for today, last minute.
“I think so,” I said. “Are you ready to take minutes?”
Danielle nodded. “I looked it up, asked around, and found out how I had to do it, so I think I’m ready.”
I nodded. I was impressed that she was taking initiative, making an effort to get to know her job. It was another thing that made her attractive. There was something about a woman that knew how to figure out life without the help of a man. The era of damsels in distress had long passed, and it was beautiful when a woman could stand up for herself.
The elevator pinged and slid open on the top floor. I let Danielle walk first. I watched her ass as she stepped out of the elevator in front of me, and I had to force myself not to stare at her the whole way to the office.
When Danielle and I walked into the boardroom, everyone was already present. Harry and Max were there, as well, and I nodded a greeting to them. My lab assistant, Leon Martin, stood at the head of the table, ready to start his presentation. He had prepared a beta version of the software, the first trial run.
The first step was usually the most exciting. It was where we could see what we were going to eventually offer the public without having to worry about gossip and bad reactions. It was where we could relish in our invention in private.
But I was distracted, today. Danielle was with me in the room, upright in her seat in the corner, concentrating on her laptop. She was beautiful when she concentrated. Her face was serious, her green eyes were focused, and her long nails clacked lightly on the keys.
“Mr. Jones?” Leon asked, and I looked up. He looked at me expectantly, and I realized I had been asked a question. I had been distracted.
“I’m sorry, what was the question?”
“I wanted to know if you’re happy with the project moving forward to phase two. We need to make a date for surveys.”
Everyone was looking at me expectantly. I glanced at Danielle. She nodded almost imperceptibly. Was she giving me a hand? Did she hear him, and she was giving me my answer?
“I think we’re ready,” I said with mock confidence. “The team has produced quality, as usual. I trust that whatever glitches we might come across won’t be a problem.”
Leon looked satisfied, and the others
nodded. I was relieved. I shot Danielle a grateful glance. She smiled at me, pouting slightly, and it was so damn sexy.
“What about the interface?” Max asked. “I think we need to run it by a few beta users to be sure it’s easy to use.”
I swallowed. I hadn’t paid attention to what Leon had explained about the user interface at all.
“Do you think it needs to be changed?” I asked, hoping Max would give me something to work with.
“Well, it’s your final call,” Max said. “But I think we should run with the second option.”
The second option?
I glanced at Danielle again. She wasn’t giving me anything to go by this time. She twisted a strand of hair around her finger, looking at me with an expression that made me wish we could be alone. Was she deliberately distracting me?
“All right, let’s run with option two,” I said.
Leon frowned, and a murmur rippled through the boardroom.
“I thought we were pressed for time,” he said.
God, I had no idea what was going on.
“We are,” I said.
“Option two will set us back by another two months,” Harry spoke up, giving me an idea what was happening. I nodded.
“Right,” I said, thinking fast. “But I think it’s important to bring the best we have to the field, and I trust that the people I employ know what they’re talking about. I would like a test run to see if we can do it sooner, but if we have to add another two months to our deadline, so be it.”
Conversation broke out, but the general consensus seemed positive. Maxine was smiling. At least, I had done something right. It was quite impressive, considering how I hadn’t paid attention at all.
After the meeting, I returned to my office with Danielle. She walked to her desk to format the notes she had taken in the meeting and send them to everyone who had attended. I tried to concentrate on work now that she wasn’t around.
I worked for about ten minutes when Danielle knocked on the glass doors and stepped into the office. She walked to the desk.
“I have the notes for you,” she said. She had a piece of paper in her hand. “I printed them out for your convenience, and I’m going to file them right here.”
She leaned over my desk and put the paper into the file I was working on. With her bent over like that, I had a perfect view of her breasts down her shirt, the white lace bra she had chosen to wear, and the swells of her smooth, milky skin.
I forced my eyes away. It was wrong to stare.
“Is there anything else you need me to do for you before I take my lunch?” Danielle asked.
I nodded. “Can you throw this in the waste basket over there?” I asked. The cleaning lady had taken out my bin and hadn’t put it back underneath my desk.
“Of course,” Danielle said, taking the crumpled ball of papers from me. She walked to the garbage can near the door, dropped the paper, but missed the can.
“Shoot,” she said and bent at the waist to retrieve it. She didn’t kneel. She bent over, putting her ass on display for me. Her skirt rode up, the slit splitting open as the skirt tightened around her ass, and I caught a glimpse of her bare pussy.
My heart hammered in my chest. She wasn’t wearing any panties.
Danielle found the paper and threw it away for me, straightening up. She looked over her shoulder at me and winked before walking through the door to her desk. I followed her with my eyes, my mouth dry. My cock was hard in my pants again.
Danielle was fucking with me. There was no doubt now. She was making me want her, and it was working.
I was in trouble.
Chapter Ten
Danielle
My first week working for Rodney was quite different than I ever could have imagined it. A lot had happened in a very short time. We had gone from friends, to lovers, to players in a game that neither of us wanted to tap out of. Since I had spoken to Lisa on Tuesday, I had been doing everything to make it difficult for Rodney to ignore me.
So far, it was working. Not only did it get him hot and bothered, but it made me feel like a million bucks. Every morning, I tried to look irresistible, taking extra time with my hair and makeup and planning my outfits precisely. I had to adhere to the company dress code while I played my little game, but I enjoyed the challenge.
Rodney was just about losing his mind. I caught him staring at me more and more often, a wild look in his eyes like an animal who had seen something he desperately wanted–a piece of meat he couldn’t say no to. I was more than happy to satisfy him, to see to his appetite, and to let him take a bite.
Rodney was busy on a conference call before lunch, focusing on his work for a change, and it gave me a chance to stare at him without reserve. His black hair curled around his ears and collar. It looked like he hadn’t had time to slick it back today. I preferred it when he looked more natural. It made him look a little more rugged and handsome as hell. Rodney’s blue eyes were trained on the file in front of him, and they were the color of an autumn sky.
The rest of him was neat and professional as always. He wore another one of his fantastic suits, tailor made to fit him perfectly. I remembered how hastily he had gotten rid of his suit when he had come home from the business meeting on Saturday night and had undressed the both of us to fuck me.
I was in the middle of remembering when Rodney stripped me naked when someone knocked on the office door. My dad stepped in.
Seeing my dad yanked me out of my fantasy. “Dad, what are you doing here?”
My dad chuckled. “Don’t look so startled,” he said. “I’m here to visit you at work. I want to see you in action. Besides, I haven’t seen Rodney outside of work in a while. I was thinking we could all go out to lunch together.”
My stomach twisted. How the hell was I supposed to be in the same room as Rodney and my dad? After what I had done with Rodney, I couldn’t think of anything more awkward. I already felt uncomfortable that my dad had walked in on me when I was thinking dirty things about Rodney. He couldn’t have known, of course, but it was the principle. It was my dad.
“So, what do you say?” my dad asked when I didn’t answer. “Or are you too busy for your old man?”
I shook my head. “Of course not. I’m not sure about Rodney, though. It looks like he’s still on a call.”
As I said it, Rodney put the receiver back in the cradle and scribbled something on his notepad.
“Looks like he’s done, now. Why don’t you go fetch him?” My dad looked at me expectantly, and I couldn’t do anything but agree. I opened the door between our offices and closed it again behind me, soundproofing the office once more. I had to give Rodney a heads up without my dad hearing.
“My dad is here,” I said, jabbing a thumb over my shoulder. Rodney looked past me and saw my dad standing close to my desk. He lifted his hand in a half wave.
“You can send him in,” Rodney said.
I shook my head. “He’s not here for business. He wants to go out to lunch. With both of us. Together.”
Rodney raised his eyebrows, and I knew he thought exactly what I had been thinking.
“Well, that should be interesting,” he said. “It’s not ideal, is it?”
“No, it’s not,” I said. Rodney glanced at my dad again, thinking. He didn’t look as stressed about it as I felt, but I knew he masked his emotions well. After more than twenty years in the business, Rodney had developed a very good poker face.
“What are we going to do?” I asked. “I’m not sure I’ll know how to handle this.”
Rodney shrugged slightly. “There is nothing to handle. I’m glad nothing else has happened between us since Saturday.”
His words struck me like physical punches. Was he really glad? I wasn’t sure if I was, but I supposed in this situation, it was better that way.
“I guess,” I said flatly.
Rodney looked at me with an expression I didn’t understand, pressing his palms flat against the desktop. “Well, we can’t exac
tly turn him away now. We should get this over and done with.”
He stood up, smiling at me, but his smile didn’t reach his eyes. I didn’t know what he was thinking. I was suddenly panicking. How was I going to sit at the same table as Rodney and my dad? Everything I had been doing to get his attention had been away from home. I felt out of my depth. I had had no warning.
“Come along, Danielle,” Rodney ordered, and I had no choice but to follow him. He was right. We had to get it over and done with. There was no way we could get out of it.
When my dad saw us approaching, he smiled broadly. He was clearly looking forward to seeing the two of us together. How ironic that the both of us dreaded it. That was what happened when you harbored secrets. But my dad and Rodney were good friends, and this wasn’t exactly the kind of thing we needed to have a confession about. After all, it was my life, and I could choose what I wanted to do with it. Who didn’t have secrets from their dad?
At least, that was what I would keep telling myself to make it through this lunch.
We left the building together and found a cafe close by that suited my dad. With all his money, he was fussy, and the place we ended up at was classier than I would have liked for lunch. The upside was that the tables were larger, so we weren’t squeezed together. There was a little bit of breathing room, and I was glad I wasn’t practically pressed up against Rodney. I needed the physical distance to keep my head clear.
“So, it looks like things are working out with the two of you,” my dad said when we were seated and had ordered coffee. Rodney and I glanced at each other, shocked at what my dad was saying. But, of course, he was talking about our business arrangement.
“Yes, it’s working out very well. Danielle has proven to be a worthy secretary.”
My dad looked proud. “That’s my girl,” he said. He turned to Rodney. “You understand I don’t want her in this position for the rest of her life. She can do so much more with her degree than be a secretary forever.”
