by Ember Flint
I snort. “That’s why you missed the interview today?”
“Exactly, my man. Lara and I talked at length about you to and we were sure you’ll hit it off so to speak.”
I chuckle. “So you decided to play matchmaker?”
He laughs. “Bloody hell, no! You make it sound like I pushed you in her arms. We just thought if we told you guys you’ll be all self-conscious and stuff and we didn’t want that first meeting to be spoiled by preconceived notions. Don’t tell me you are going to complain about this, considering the outcome.”
I sigh. I could never complain about how Jessica and I met. It was perfect. “No, you’re right. It was best that we didn’t know.”
“Lara wants to introduce me to Jessica tonight, we thought about having dinner all together after we are done with all the meetings. What do you say?”
I smile. “I’m in.”
Aston nods as he stands up. “Lara probably already mentioned this to her sister. She told me Jessica was going to call after the interview. Why don’t you bring Cora along?”
That’s actually a good idea. It will give me a chance to pry my sister from her books and she’ll get to meet Jessica and Lara.
“I’ll ask her,” I say following my friend out of the busy, ritzy restaurant.
“Good. I’ll try to get Sterling to come, whatever is going on with him I don’t think he should be alone, plus I want him to meet Lara.”
“Yes, you’re right. Come one, we are about to be late,” I say as I gesture to my driver.
Another meeting and I can finally go back to Jessica and drown into her soft, delicious lips.
—*—
She is not here!
I can’t believe this!
She left.
She just left. Just like that and I don’t even know why.
I tried to pry as much information as I could from Michael, but he couldn’t tell me much.
They toured the building, he showed Jessica her future office, introduced her to her staff and the other office admins here in our New York headquarters, she seemed fine if a bit distant apparently and then about a quarter of an hour ago, instead of going back to my office and waiting for me like I asked, she politely said goodbye and left.
I can’t help, but think negative thoughts no matter my natural predisposition to being an optimist.
Did I come on too strong?
Did I scare her?
Or —far, far worse— did I see what I wanted to see in her eyes instead of what was really there?
Does she really feel about me as I feel about her, or did she simply went along with me?
I have to know and I have to know now.
I bark my assistant’s name and ask him to find me Jessica’s address.
I can’t simply call her. I need to see her.
I need to look in her eyes when I ask her.
Chapter 6
JESSICA
I take off my glasses and close my eyes slumping on the floor, my back against the underside of the sofa.
My heart is still racing despite the fact that I’ve been at home for almost an hour now.
I try to make sense of the jumble of thoughts floating in my head, but I can’t. I don’t think I know how to.
I totally freaked out for lack of a better expression and then I talked with my sister again to get her insight about this situation, only to find out she fucking knows Charles and she also knew already he was the man I was meeting today. That’s why she was all giggly this morning when she wished me good luck. When she met Charles, alongside Aston last week she got the feeling I might like him.
So yeah, Aston, the love of my sister’s life is apparently my other boss.
Lara said that when she saw Charles —I couldn’t make her spill whatever it was that he was doing in a Lingerie shop with Aston— she immediately thought about me, that he could be the kind of guy I might go for.
Yes, my sister knows me that well.
And she is so right.
Charles is so my type —he is too much my type to be my boss, maybe.
I close my eyes and I see him so clearly in my mind’s eye: his tall, muscular frame, his broad shoulders and narrow hips, thick biceps bulging under the sleeves of his perfectly tailored dark suit, the golden tone of his skin, so deliciously scented with some sort of aftershave or cologne so panty-meltingly good that it should be outlawed, those dark, shaggy, blonde hair that made my fingers itch with the wish to muss it as soon as I stepped into the office and in the veritable magnetic field emanating from him, a squared jaw covered in a layer of perfectly trimmed, short, slightly darker beard, clenched in tension and hunger and finally his crystal blue eyes staring deeply into me and in such a heated way that my legs buckled and even now I can feel my pussy growing wet at the memory.
I shake myself out of my reverie.
Lusting after Charles and his many —many manly charms— is not exactly productive, especially if what I want is to clear my head a bit.
I think back at my most recent conversation with my sister.
Lara told me that while she and Aston where sharing stuff, they figured out that I was going to interview for the edge fund company he and Charles co-own today and then decided Charles and I didn’t need to know that.
I confess I was a bit mad when she said that, not surprising considering how high are my emotions running right now, but Lara’s explanations were convincing.
She is my best friend besides my sister and Charles is like a brother to Aston, they feared the knowledge of the link between us all would have added strain to our first meeting, put us under pressure so that’s why they decided to ‘let destiny do its thing’.
It got me a little to calm down, but when I did I could really see their reflections had merit. Based on how much they know us, they thought Charles and I could hit it off —and boy, did we!— and didn’t want to interfere in it.
Makes sense.
Also, she admitted, they though it will be fun.
And maybe I can even see why, but just maybe.
I don’t feel funny right now, I feel like a total incoherent mess and I’ve felt this way since Charles left me to my tour of the building and once I started doubting and my doubts started to cement one on top of the other, there was no stopping me: I got out of Henley & Spade as if someone was chasing me, completely terrified by the speed of our actions and the intensity of our attraction, of my reactions to Charles and my feelings for him.
Yes, feelings. I don’t know how it’s possible, but I do: I have feelings, impetuously strong ones, for a man I just met.
I shake my head. This morning when I talked with Lara it was so difficult to comprehend what she meant when she said she met Aston last Friday and just knew that he was the one.
Now I’m not any closer to understanding such an idea, yet I feel the same way about Charles: I just know.
I don’t know how and I don’t know what this means, but I know there could be something between us, something so powerful it would erase everything else from my path, no memory of past lovers would be left standing and no other man could ever make me feel this way.
How do I know?
That’s the only easy thing about this whole situation. It was in the way my heart tugged, in the sensation of safety I experienced in his presence and most of all in the amazingly wonderful kiss we shared.
It was like a fucking out of body experience or something. I’ve never felt like that in my life, so happy, so at peace, so connected with another human being, another soul, his soul, beating and breathing with my own as our lips met and sealed, igniting our hearts. He is a stranger to me, but I know his heart, better than I know my own, yet I can’t help but wonder if giving into the impulse that lures me back to him would be the right thing or if I’ve simply gone insane.
Maybe that’s it, maybe I’ve just lost it completely.
How else could I explain the way I behaved?
How can I be running from a boss because he wants to be all over me only to go straight to a boss that I wish would be all over me right now?
And yet…
Did I do the right thing in leaving like that?
Should I have stayed?
Did I just ruin my chances with him only because I got scared?
What do I have to do?
Call him maybe?
Tell him that I was—
A knock on the door stops the course of my thoughts and I stand up to go see who is it.
As I open the door, I feel a smile stretching my lips as part of me almost hopes that somehow Charles tracked me down and is now standing on the other side of it.
Boy, I couldn’t ever have been more wrong.
My smile falls off my lips and I feel my body going rigid as I stare into the eyes of my other boss —the creepy one.
Great. Just fucking great. This is exactly what I needed. An awkward confrontation with a sex-thirsty fiend.
I can see he looks furious and I can even imagine why. Saturday I didn’t know if I would get the job at Henley & Spade, but I knew very well that I wasn’t going to keep on working for this pathetic excuse for a man, so I said fuck the consequences and I mailed my resignation letter.
I gather he must have read it today.
“What the fuck are you thinking, Jessica?”
I recoil at his tone and at the familiarity with which this guy speaks to me.
I can feel a frown scrunch up my forehead. “I beg your pardon?”
“You want to quit?” he barks, his beady eyes boring into me.
He is trying to be intimidating I guess.
“I don’t want to quit, Mr. Powells, I quitted already as of Saturday. I explained my reasons to Mr. Marshalls over the phone, because I didn’t want him to worry for me and he said I should go ahead with my plans and don’t worry about giving two weeks’ notice.”
At first I did not want to talk to him at all about this, but once I calmed down a little I figured I had done nothing wrong and it was better Mr. Marshalls knew the truth from me, rather than getting an adulterate version of what happened from his sleazy business partner.
This way, we still managed to keep everything quiet, but at least Mr. Marshalls would be prepared in case, Mr. Moral Pillar of Society here ever tries his little nasty games on some other poor soul.
Mr. Powells wrinkles his nose and sneers at me in disgust.
“You little slut, I can’t believe this. First you go around the office flaunting that piece of ass in my face and when I react like any man would, like you want men to react, you pull something like this? Go behind my back? Play victim?”
I sigh deeply, feeling offended and frustrated in the face of his unrelenting chauvinistic stupidity, but I don’t get mad. He doesn’t deserve my rage, only my contempt.
“Mr. Powells, you’re a lawyer, you should know what a slander consists in. I didn’t want to take action against you, even though I could, because I didn’t want Mr. Marshalls to sink down with you, please leave: don’t make me reconsider.”
“I can’t believe this! After all I have done for you, I get nothing? We hired you practically out of grad school, taught you the job, took you in practically without any guarantees and I get nothing for it?”
I feel my eyebrows climb up my forehead. “First of all, you in particular taught me nothing but to be weary of my working place and secondly, are you in any form implying I should sleep with you only because you gave me a job I was more than qualified to do? Because if that’s the case, then you have serious problems, Anton.”
“Bitch!” he screams and as soon as the word is out of his mouth he launches himself at me, he grabs me until I’m no longer in the doorway but out in the hall just like him and then he pushes me against the wall; his body so close to mine I can feel his heavy breath fanning on my face.
I feel his hands tightening on my shoulders, and I react.
He may be a Manhattan snooty prince, but I’m a Jersey girl, this shit doesn’t fly with me.
I drive my knee up and forward and I get him where it hurts the most, before I push him away.
He drops on the floor, hands clasped between his legs, red-faced, panting and calling me all sorts of names.
I think it’s over, but then I screech in surprise and jump back when he hauls himself up with a groan of rage and tries to get a hold of me again, going for my hair.
This time he doesn’t touch me at all. I hear a thudding sound and then my ex-boss is lying again on the floor.
Charles knocked him out cold.
“Ch-Charles? How did you—?”
“Are you okay?” he demands, his voice is a mixture of worry and barely-restrained fury, but his eyes are full of a tenderness I feel deep in my heart.
I nod.
He sighs deeply, shaking his head. “Fucking bastard. I think I know him from somewhere. Isn’t he Anton Powells?”
I nod again, feeling myself beginning to shake all over now that the tension is starting to leave my body and the rush of adrenaline is receding.
I can hardly believe Charles is standing in front of me, his warm, comforting big hands on either one of my shoulders.
“I saw him fall down bent in two before. Did you kneed him in the nuts?” he asks, chuckling.
“I did,” I say, smiling a little.
Charles picks me up and kisses me hard. “Let’s go inside, baby.”
I look down at my former boss still on the floor.
“What about him?” I ask.
“We’ll call the policy once we get you settled a bit.”
I shake my head. “I can’t… I can’t do that… I mean I know he more than deserves it, but… his business partner doesn’t. I’ll explain later.”
Charles sighs, but in the end nods albeit reluctantly.
“So what should we do with him?” I ask again
Charles laughs. “It was just a punch, I’ll be okay and if he is half as smart as they say, he’ll get lost as soon as he regains consciousness.”
I bury my face in his chest as we get back in my flat.
“Your bedroom?” he asks in between kisses and I wordlessly point him in the right direction.
He lies me gently on the bed, kisses me one more time and then pulls back and starts to leave the room.
I frown reaching for his hand. “Where are you going?”
He kisses my knuckles and smiles. “To get you a glass of water. I’ll be right back.”
Alone again, I sit up, until my back is resting against the headboard and I sigh, trying to organize at least a little the mess I have in my head.
The progress is minimal by the time Charles comes back and he offers me a glass of cold water.
I’m too shaken to think lucidly right now, but one thing I know is that if he is here then perhaps he feels the same way I do and if that’s the case I’m never letting go.
“Charles, I… I’m sorry I left like that. It was just too much, too fast. I’ve never felt this way before and and… then I started to…”
He sits beside me on the bed and gathers me into his strong arms. “What, baby?”
I lay my head onto his shoulder. “To doubt myself and what I felt. I mean, rationally how can you explain such a thing? How can you—“
“Feel so much, for someone you know so little?” he finishes for me and I nod.
“You don’t, Jess. You don’t try to explain. I don’t think you really can. I don’t think anyone really can. You just…” he stops and heaves a deep breath, casting about for a word.
“Feel it. Know it…” this time I end his sentence and he smiles at me.
“Exactly, Jess.”
I giggle. “You know I actually prefer Jess to Jessica,” I tell him randomly.
He kisses my temple.
“What made you call me that?” I ask, looking up at him.
He kisses me again, o
n the lips this time. “I don’t know. It felt right.”
I snuggle into his arms. “Right…,” I murmur. “Everything feels right about this. About us.”
I turn more toward him and our lips meet again, more intently now and before we know it, it’s happening.
Just like this morning, I’m losing touch with reality, feeling myself pulled against him, my soul floating toward his, his hands and lips anchoring my body to his.
And this time I know there will be no stopping.
No coming back.
And God, I don’t want to ever leave his arms, I don’t think I would know how to even if I try.
He pulls away, hands caressing my face. “I am crazy about you, Jess. I don’t know how it’s possible, but I am. I have no explanation, no idea how this could be happening. I don’t know how it’s possible to be this far gone and this quickly for someone you just met, but that’s how I feel.”
I feel my heart soar at his words, so close to the ones I was too afraid to utter and yet an exact mirror for what I feel.
“I feel exactly the same and I don’t care if we don’t understand, maybe we don’t need to. Not right now.”
He nods and clutches me to him, his lips frantically smashing on mine, his tongue eagerly seeking entrance in my mouth and dueling with mine, until we are both blind with desire and this is no longer enough.
Charles whispers my name on my lips. “I need you,” he groans. “I need you so much.”
I feel his erection jump against my belly as he presses his much bigger frame down on me and my pussy clenches in lust and want.
“I want you, Charles. I want you now,” I moan on his mouth and I kiss him desperately as our fingers dive under our clothes passionately looking for skin.
I feel his hands roam all over my body and sooner than I thought could be possible I’m totally naked under him.
The yoga pants and tank top I changed into as soon as I got home, laying in a heap on the floor beside the bed.
Charles’ fingers slide down my back until they reach the curve of my ass and squeeze, making me moan and writhe under his powerful frame.
