Bound to You--A Hot Billionaire Workplace Romance
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I thrust up into her, pressing my fingers to her clit and watching arousal darken her eyes and turn her areolas dusky.
‘H-Hudson.’ She stutters my name between gasps and contracts around me as she comes, giving herself entirely over to the pleasure. It’s an addictive sight. As I crush her in my arms and chase my own release, there’s a tiny piece of me that acknowledges the vision of Monroe’s pleasure is a privilege I wish I could keep for ever.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Monroe
IT’S FULLY DARK OUTSIDE, but neither of us has yet surrendered to sleep. It’s as if we’re both counting the hours. Both driven to insanity with the need to keep touching each other. Every kiss, every cry, every climax brings us closer to the end. I briefly close my gritty eyes; I can’t bear to think about that.
Hudson’s heartbeat under my cheek, where I’m sprawled across his chest in a sexually satisfied heap, helps to soothe the panicked feeling bubbling away in me.
‘Tell me about the photo of the Blackhearts boys,’ I mumble, my voice thick and sleepy. I’m not ready to close my eyes on another day. And what a day it’s been...
He tenses. He doesn’t need to say it—to him Blackhearts is deeply personal. He rarely mentions his charity work, which he started years ago when he lived in London. My desire to know intensifies. The photo taking pride of place on the shelf all but tore out my heart.
His deep voice is sleepy too. ‘The need for the mentoring programme for kids in the foster system has grown. Now we operate in twenty-three countries. But I’m always looking to expand.’
‘Of course you are.’ I lift my head and press my lips to his in a slow, languid kiss that says everything I want to voice. ‘It’s something close to your heart, isn’t it?’ Now I know more about his past, I understand how important it is to him.
I wonder if he discusses it with Sterling. They often hit the gym together when we’re in the same country. What do they talk about when I’m not there?
He shrugs as if to say, ‘of course.’ And he’s right. Why didn’t I notice when I was just a business partner and, I like to think, a friend? I’m still those things, I hope. But becoming lovers has thrown a spanner into our well-oiled machine, and I’m not sure I want to stick in my hand to retrieve it.
His fingers idly trace a line up the centre of my back. ‘Yeah. I want as many youngsters as possible to have access to counselling as well as fun outings and experiences. A safe place where they can just be normal kids is important.’
‘Yes, it is.’ I want to ask if he had those things, but something holds me back—perhaps the nauseating instinct that he didn’t.
My patience is rewarded when he continues. ‘Some children have great foster families but others need contact and consistent support outside of their foster homes. It’s vital for them to make social connections with other kids. When I was fourteen my social worker put me forward for an outward-bound youth group. I think that stopped me from veering off the rails.’
I swallow hard. My heart bleeds for the boy he was and for the man trying to make a difference for other kids. ‘I didn’t realise you took such an active role.’
‘I don’t, really. My job is to donate large chunks of cash, invite very well-connected businessmen and women to the fundraisers, and occasionally put my face to the marketing campaigns.’
He’s also emotionally invested, even if he doesn’t want to admit it. ‘So where was the photo taken? It looked like you were enjoying yourself.’
‘Yeah. There’s a branch here in Tokyo. I joined them for a soccer game and picnic at a nearby park. I got roped into playing goalie.’ He chuckles, a lovely, rich sound that vibrates through his chest and makes me yearn to make him laugh every day.
‘They kicked my butt.’ His smile is full of warmth, his eyes faraway, as if he’s remembering the day fondly. ‘My Japanese isn’t brilliant, but I think I took a ribbing for being the oldest and slowest on the team.’
I bury my face against the side of his neck and try to breathe evenly, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult in his presence. Today has been magical in many ways. I’m humbled that he invited me to his home. I’ve discovered so much about him that I didn’t know. It’s made me wonder what it would be like if this fling had no time limit. What if Hudson wanted more than our few nights? Surely, if he can open his heart to Blackhearts, he can one day open it to the possibility of a lasting relationship?
But could I rely on my instincts and explore a relationship with him? Someone with dreams opposite to mine.
My head pounds with arguments for and against. It’s crazy. Hudson lives in Tokyo and I’m in London. There’s Sterling to consider—he’d surely feel betrayed by the idea of us and the fact that we’ve messed around behind his back on more than one occasion. Not to mention the biggest obstacle—me. I love my career, but I’ve always wanted more—a family. It’s as if it’s in my DNA.
‘Do you like living here?’ I slide my fingers into his thick hair, which is inky-black in the darkness.
‘Yes. But I can run Bold from anywhere.’
He has no ties. I try and fail to imagine what that’s like. To me, family is my security, but for Hudson security is success and wealth. Except there’s also Blackhearts. He’s not the emotional island he probably tells himself he is.
We stare, our hearts thudding against each other, as if both conscious of what we’re leaving unsaid.
‘What?’ he asks, rolling us onto our sides so we’re face to face.
‘Nothing.’ I pull back from probing what-ifs. ‘You’re just full of surprises, that’s all—romantic, philanthropic, good with kids.’
He shakes his head but his smile is relaxed. ‘I’m also a single, workaholic loner. Besides, all three of us are involved in charity work—that was one of our goals for Bold from the outset.’
I nod and entangle my legs with his under the sheet. ‘Just because you’re often alone doesn’t make you a loner. I’ve seen you with your team here. They respect you. They know they can challenge you. You empower them. That’s a sign of a natural leader.’
‘Is that right...?’ He’s distracted, his erection surging against my thigh.
‘Also, it’s a total aphrodisiac imagining you kicking a ball around a park with a bunch of kids.’ I rock my hips against him, sighing with pleasure and triumph when he rolls on top of me and nudges my thighs open with his knees.
Smoky desire fills his eyes. ‘Is it?’ He brushes his mouth over mine. ‘You have very strange ideas about what constitutes sexy.’ He lays kisses along my jaw and down my neck to my collarbone.
‘Mmm-hmm,’ I moan, because he’s moved to my breast, his mouth and tongue working my nipple into a frenzy of sensation. ‘You’re right. I am weird. I find commitment sexy. I think dads are sexy. But at the moment there’s nothing sexier than you. Just you.’
He takes a moment to stare, as if he’s puzzled by my admission, time enough for me to remember I want more than this. He grabs a condom, sheathes himself quickly, and pushes inside me once more. But, as I lose my mind to our physical connection, I wonder how I’m ever going to survive without it.
* * *
It’s so early that the outer offices where the assistants and associates sit in open-plan cubicles are deserted. My reflection bounces from the many windows and glass partitions turned mirror-like by the still-dark sky outside. I look like a woman with winning on her mind—careful make-up and red lips, tousled hair styled into glossy waves and bright eyes. My breath catches with illicit excitement for my mission.
When I woke this morning, alone in Hudson’s expansive and comfortable bed, urgency gripped me until I vibrated with a sense of panic. We have two more days to outdo each other in our sexy little game of seduction. Two more nights before we fly to London and meet up with Sterling. Forty-eight hours to indulge this fling, which has completely taken me by surprise.
Before I left his bed this morning I logged onto Blackhearts’s website and made a large anonymous donation. Then I spent a frustrating half-hour trawling the website for more clues about the man I can’t push from my mind, even for five minutes.
My throat aches anew for young Hudson. For all the children out there who believe that no one cares. It’s hard for me to comprehend—most of my life I’ve felt as if I’ve had multiple caretakers. My parents and my older siblings. It was a blessing and, for a teenaged Monroe, at times felt like a curse. But it shaped me, allowed me to discover who I was in safety.
Hudson had no one.
Instead of growing bitter and angry, turning to drugs or crime as a coping mechanism, he’s devoted his adult life to financial security and helping others succeed. I know him better than ever now. Relationships mean risk. He’s protecting himself from further abandonment.
But the tortured and caring and romantic Hudson—he could make me lose sight of everything I’ve always wanted.
Shoving away my confused emotions, I roll my shoulders back and head for his office. My seduction plan helps to keep my wildly budding feelings in perspective. This affair began with a competition—that’s where I need to stay focussed.
Outside his door I drag in a breath. I hear his fingers clicking away at his keyboard. He must have been here for hours, perhaps half the night. Did I chase him out of his home by staying over? He’s not used to having his space invaded. Now I know the depth of the demons chasing him, it’s easy to understand why he pushes himself as he does professionally. Why he spends so many hours here at his office. Why Bold is perhaps the only marker of success he can trust and control. I don’t blame him.
Powerlessness sticks my feet to the carpet. Helping him overcome his past to see that he’s more than just an outstanding businessman seems as colossal as the skyscraper we’re in.
Except I do have power. I feel it every time we’re intimate. And if that’s the only way I can reach him, the only way to give him something, anything that shows him he has people in his life who care, then I’ll take it. I want him to know that opening himself to me emotionally, something that must have felt like a trip to the dentist’s chair for him, isn’t life-threatening.
And you’re also reminding yourself that you’re still just fooling around, that you will return to normal, that you too are safe.
I cinch the belt of my trench coat, as if tightening my resolve. I push open the door, my heart banging against my ribs. At first he’s too focussed on the screen to notice me standing in his doorway. Then some sixth sense must alert him to my presence, or perhaps it’s my audible sigh at the sight of him. He’s wearing a black T-shirt and well-worn, soft-looking jeans. There’s a sexy shadow on his jaw and his hair is untamed. He looks as if he’s just crawled out of my bed and is as sexy as he looks in his bespoke business suits.
He notices me. Heat and something close to longing chases away his surprised expression. My heart clenches painfully.
‘What are you doing here so early?’ He pushes back from his desk and makes to stand.
‘Don’t move.’ I hold up my hand. ‘Stay right there.’ I try to make my voice sound like a sexy purr, but I want him so desperately, I’m scared of giving myself away.
He obeys, a curious glint in his narrowed eyes as he takes in my outfit. Swallowing hard, I close the door behind me, turn the lock and drop my bag on the floor. My legs wobble as I sashay closer, anticipation and frenetic energy coursing through my nervous system.
I can do this. I’m here to seduce him. Nothing else matters for now.
‘We have unfinished business.’ I stop before him, noticing the way his thighs are spread and his arousal already bulges at the front of his jeans. That I do that to him bolsters my resolve.
‘We do? I thought we were up to speed.’ Confusion dims the lust glimmering in his stare. He’s doubting his instincts, which are spot-on: I’m not here on Bold business. I cut him some slack—he hasn’t slept much for three days and it’s before dawn.
I finger the knot in the coat’s belt, slowly sliding the fabric free. ‘You left me alone in your bed.’
My disappointment had been an ache only pacified by a snoop around his apartment for more clues about the real Hudson. Apart from discovering his well-loved home gym and a stuffed bookcase of crime thrillers, my search left me far from gratified.
‘I wanted to catch up on a few things I postponed yesterday afternoon.’ His voice is tight with desire.
My trusty trench coat is working its magic.
The reminder of our wonderful day beneath the cherry blossom, our chats and watching the sun setting from the hot tub floods me with chills of doubt. But I can’t give in to any weakness where he’s concerned. I know what I want long term, and Hudson doesn’t even come close.
But he could...
Instead of indulging any more flights of fancy, I focus on my big reveal. I abandon the loosened belt and slide my hands up my torso to the top button of the coat, which sits just above my cleavage. My nipples tingle against my bra, begging to be set free, begging for his mouth. The heat building behind his dark eyes like an inferno drags me back to the reason we work as lovers.
Our chemistry has always been undeniable. That doesn’t mean we’d work in a relationship. I can’t risk making another mistake.
I drop my voice to a smoky whisper, embracing my seductress role. ‘You can’t show a woman a good time the way you did yesterday and then expect her not to want to share breakfast...’
I reach out and trace a finger across his parted lips, smiling at the gusts of excited breath he can’t control.
‘You don’t eat breakfast, Dove. And I don’t usually do mornings after.’ He spreads his thighs. His erection must be pretty uncomfortable trapped behind the denim. But I want to prolong the anticipation until he can’t take any more.
I ignore his reminder of how we differ in our approach to dating and pop the first two buttons, my pulse pounding between my legs when his gaze drops to the parting fabric and my cleavage.
‘That’s right, I don’t. I’m impressed you remembered. That’s because I always take my workout in the morning.’ I pop another button and catch the sound of his rough inhale. I look down and see that my new black mesh bra is on display. His eyes linger there, his pupils flaring as he stares.
‘So you see...it’s payback time. You took me home and let me sleep over... Seems to me the least you could do is provide morning sex.’ I battle the renewed urge to read too much into his gesture, as I did last night. I am different from the women he normally sleeps with, but only because I’m also a business partner.
His glittering eyes narrow, shocking desire through my body like lightning. I’m playing with fire. But challenging Hudson has become an addiction I have no desire to shake.
‘Did you walk here from the hotel like that?’ His voice is rough and urgent, and he blatantly adjusts his cock behind his fly.
I continue undoing the coat’s buttons. ‘Takao took me back and waited for me to change.’ And every move I made on the way here reminded me of my seductive plan. By the time I made it into his personal lift, which bypasses all the floors below us, I was soaking wet.
‘Fuck.’ He makes a fist and then releases it. ‘Takao would have a heart attack if he knew what you’re wearing.’
I finish undoing the coat and push the two sides open, bracing my hands on my hips so he sees the full effect. ‘What...? This old thing?’ The matching panties are sheer and leave nothing to the imagination, and of course I’m wearing my signature lace hold-up stockings and my favourite high heels.
‘I thought you’d like it.’ I want him to know the lengths I went to for his seduction. To understand that he was the first thing on my mind when I opened my eyes.
His stare mov
es over every inch of my body, sending powerful shudders through me to my core. Then his gaze flicks to the door and outer office beyond.
‘People will be arriving in a little while.’ His hands grip the arms of the chair, as if he’s dying to touch me. And I want his hands all over my body, a feeling more addictive than our game of sexual one-upmanship.
I shrug off the coat so it falls to the crook of my elbows and stand between his spread thighs. I brace my hands next to his on the chair-arms and lean in close to whisper in his ear and to flash him a clear and uninterrupted view of my breasts.
‘So what are you waiting for...?’
My heartbeat deafens me for a handful of tense seconds.
‘I have no idea.’ He scoops one arm around my waist and tumbles me into his lap as if he’s performed the smooth move a hundred times.
Sitting across his steely thighs and crushed to his hard chest, I’m breathless, desperate for him to snap and kiss me. Instead, I press my index finger to his soft lips and trace their fullness. ‘Remember, this was my idea.’
And then I can’t toy with him any more because he cups my face, hooking his fingers around the back of my neck, and brings my mouth crashing to his in a rush of lips and tongues and the collision of teeth.
Our kiss is frantic. As if we hadn’t spent most of last night in each other’s arms, rolling around in his massive bed until the sheets were a tangle.
He pulls away first. ‘You are a raunchy sex goddess.’
My laughter dies in my throat as he traces one nipple and dusky areola through the mesh of my bra.
I tease him back, stroking my fingers along the length of his erection, which surges against his fly. ‘Well, I couldn’t have you outdoing me.’ I pop the button on his jeans and feel the wet patch on his underwear where he’s leaked for me.