by Ravenna Tate
Chapter Ten
Harper couldn’t believe she was out with Ace in the middle of the day, strolling along the cobblestone streets in a part of town she’d only seen once. It was a complex filled with upscale shops and expensive, trendy restaurants. It featured piped in music, fake birdsong and other “outdoor” sounds, and wide streets designed only for foot traffic. No motorized scooter sounds to intrude on shoppers’ and diners’ experiences.
“So all the things in these shops are procured in the way you explained to me last night?” They stood in front of a collection of wind chimes that featured every imaginable design and theme.
“Yes. All of these were salvaged from above ground and restored.”
“Pardon the obvious question, but since there’s no wind here, why have one of these?”
He gave her an impatient look, like she’d just asked a really stupid question. “Because it’s part of our history. Something people had above ground. They’re very rare now.” He touched them gently to produce sounds from deep and booming to light and tinkling. “Which ones do you like?”
That was easy. She walked over to one with delicate shells on the strings that hung from the main part of the chime. When it moved, the sound was light but slightly clunky. It reminded her of her childhood because she’d had one almost exactly like this hanging outside her bedroom window. “This one.”
“Tell me why.”
She did, and the pain in his eyes nearly took her breath away. What was that all about? Surely this man had enjoyed an idyllic childhood, filled with privileges and anything money could buy. “Then it’s yours.” He plucked it off the hook and handed it to her. “Do you like any others? Whatever you want, it’s yours.”
“Ace, you don’t have to buy me gifts.”
“I know I don’t have to. I want to. Just let me, okay?”
“Okay.” Something deep in his eyes stopped her from telling him he couldn’t buy her affections. That wasn’t what he was trying to do. She had no clue what had evoked this reaction in him, but she sensed it was dark and deep. She didn’t want to do or say anything that would cause him further hurt.
They ate lunch in a charming café that featured songs and video feed from the 1980s. The food was strictly modern fare, though, which she and Ace both agreed was better than the establishment trying to mimic late twentieth century food.
“May I ask you a personal question?”
He grinned. “Why do I have the feeling if I say no that you’ll find a way to ask it anyway?”
She couldn’t help but smile in response. “I guess neither of us is very comfortable talking about our lives, are we?”
“No, we’re not. What would you like to know?”
“How old were you when you knew what you wanted to do? I mean, did you start out wanting to be in communications? Did you have any idea your life would end up like this? Ever since you told me about your friends, I’ve realized there’s a lot more to your companies than I knew existed.”
He averted his gaze and wiped his forehead. Was he sweating? The spices on the grilled vegetables were a bit tangy but not that bad, surely. “Thank you for saying so.”
She waited for him to answer her, but it soon became apparent he had no intention of doing so. “Now it’s my turn to ask you to tell me what you’re thinking,” she said quietly.
He gave her a wary look. “My life before all this is a long story.”
“Forty years long.” She grinned, trying to interject some humor.
He snorted quietly. “Good one. Yes. Forty years long.”
They ate in silence for long moments. “You’re not going to tell me, are you?”
“I’ve never told anyone the details of my life.” He leaned close. “Just like you.”
“I’ve told you quite a few things in the past twenty-four hours.”
He pushed the plate of potato skins toward her. “Have some more of these. They’re so good I’m about to eat them all myself.”
“You know, for a man who commands a boardroom as well as I’ve seen you do countless times, you’re really terrible at avoiding answering a direct question.”
“We’re not at work right now.”
“Are you honestly going to tell me that none of the women you’ve ever gone out with have asked you about your life?”
“They have all done so.” He shoved the rest of the potato skins into his mouth.
“And you haven’t told them anything.”
She had to wait until he’d swallowed the food. “No.”
“Guess I didn’t hack into the right sites after all.” She picked up her glass of lemonade and took a sip, glancing around the restaurant to avoid his gaze.
“That’s not funny.” His voice was soft but dark and angry. “Don’t even joke about that. Why is it so inconceivable to you that a person wants some privacy?”
“It’s not. I value mine, too. Ace, I was drunk. It was a huge mistake. I will never do anything like that again.” How many times would she have to apologize for what she’d done?
“Then why are you joking about it now?”
Dammit! Why did his words make her feel like a naughty child? “I shouldn’t have said that. You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“Not good enough. You’ll have to prove it to me. And I know exactly how I want you to do that.”
Just like that, the anger was gone, replaced by a look of molten lust that had her biting back a moan. “You’re an emotional rollercoaster.”
“I’ve been told that by many people.”
“Well, it’s true. They didn’t lie.”
He glanced at her empty plate. “Are you ready to get out of here?”
No. “Yes.”
Exasperating man. He paid the check and then took her hand as they headed toward his apartment complex at breakneck speed. She had to ask him to slow down several times. “My legs aren’t as long as yours. I can’t walk that fast.”
He slowed down, but only a bit. By the time they reached his apartment she was out of breath. He led her straight upstairs and into his bedroom, where he took a seat in the same large armchair onto which he’d tossed her clothes last night.
Ace pulled her onto his lap and kissed her, forcing loud moans from her throat. Every exquisite sliver of pleasure from last night came rushing back, until she forgot about her insecurities from this morning. She pushed aside her lingering questions about his life, and melted against his warm, hard body as his tongue and lips moved over hers.
When he finally released her mouth, she could hardly think let alone breathe. He cupped her face. “You belong to me, Harper. Here’s how you’re going to prove to me how sorry you are for what you did. I want you on your knees, right now, in front of me.”
“Excuse me?”
“I said, get on your knees.” His voice was quiet, but held a note of command she hadn’t heard before. “You did agree to my terms, remember?”
She nodded, and then she slid off his lap and knelt in front of him.
“Good girl.”
Oh why did he have to say that? It made her want to please him, and right now she didn’t want him to know how much she was actually enjoying this. She wanted to be angry at him, but all she felt was intense arousal, and the need to be dominated by him. Why did he have this power over her? Where the hell did it come from?
“Now unzip my jeans and take out my dick.”
She did, and he barely let her free it from his clothing before he grasped her head with one hand and shoved his cock into her mouth with the other. “I’m going to fuck your mouth, Harper, and you’re going to swallow my cum.”
He held onto her head with both hands now, and she wrapped one hand around his shaft to control the length inside her mouth as much as possible, but he was a man on a mission. The arousal coursing through her body at this show of dominance and strength was insane, and she nearly came by the time her mouth filled with hot cum.
She tried to swallow all of it, but most of it ended up on her
chin. When he finally stopped groaning loudly and grunting, he lifted her up and kissed her, tongue and all. There was no way he hadn’t just tasted his own jizz, and she found that so incredibly sexy that she moaned deep in her throat.
He released her, a wicked grin spreading across his face. “That was fucking amazing. Now take off your jeans, panties, and boots.”
He wasn’t even going to make her undress all the way. Instead of dredging up memories of that night in the frat house, the request sent shivers down her spine. Once she was naked from the waist down, he pulled her onto his lap, facing away from him. He still had his pants down around his ankles, and his dick pushed against her ass crack.
“Touch yourself. I want you to come, and I’m not letting you up until you do.” He wrapped his arms around her, under her arms so that hers were free. Then he spread her legs, pining one on each side with his thighs. She was trapped, but oh, what a seductive jailer he made!
She moved her hand to her clit, rubbing like she did when she was alone, but knew this would never work. She couldn’t relax enough in front of him right now to bring herself to climax.
As if sensing her hesitancy, Ace moved aside her hair and nuzzled her neck. “Come on, baby. I know you can do this.” He planted feathery kisses up and down her skin. “Do you have any idea how fucking sexy it is when you touch yourself?”
Harper groaned at his words, and resumed her efforts, trying harder this time. Ace kissed her neck and shoulders, then moved his hand over hers, resting it lightly on top. “Let me help,” he whispered.
That did it. Just the slight pressure of his hand on hers, not really doing the work but instead moving with her, brought her closer within seconds.
“Oh Harper, I’m going to fuck you silly after you come, baby. But not until you do. I want to plunge my cock into that wet pussy and never leave it.” More kisses on her neck and shoulder. “You are the sexiest woman I have ever seen. Come on, sweetheart. Come for me. I want to feel your juices all over our hands.”
“Oh God!” Harper cried out as her climax drew near. She was almost there. Ace grasped her left breast with his free hand and flicked her nipple through the clothing several times, sending jolts of electricity straight to her groin. She felt his cock grow hard against her ass, and when her orgasm started, she threw back her head and moaned continuously.
His hand pushed down on hers a bit harder, intensifying the contractions. “That’s it, baby. Don’t stop.” His breath was warm against her ear, and that voice sent her arousal to crazy heights. By the time she’d squeezed out the last possible contraction, she was covered in a fine sheen of sweat and panting.
He stood, helping her to her feet, and then he turned her around and captured her mouth in a red hot kiss. She could hardly breathe. When he released it, he took her hand and led her around the chair, then bent her over the back of it and gave her ass cheeks several hard smacks.
“That’s for being so damn sexy. Don’t move.” His voice wasn’t angry, but rather filled with the seductive humor she’d already grown used to. He crossed the room and took a condom out of the package still on the nightstand, donned it, and then moved behind her.
“I’m going to fuck you until we can’t walk, baby.” He slid a finger inside her. She was so damn wet there was no need for lube. “That’s perfect.” Ace sank his dick into her pussy from behind, and Harper cried out again as he slammed into her.
It was raw, and fast, and she came again within seconds, which only spurred him on more. She planted her feet and tried to keep breathing. At this angle, he was in deep, and with each quick thrust his balls slapped her clit. His grunts were sexy and harsh, and she couldn’t believe his strength or stamina. It was frightening and mesmerizing at the same time.
“You’re mine,” he said, his voice rough and deep. “You belong to me, Harper.”
She didn’t answer. She couldn’t. When he finally cried out again and came inside her, she could barely keep standing. He pulled out, wrapped her in his arms, and they sank to the floor, breathing heavily. Ace pulled her closer, kissing her tenderly.
Harper drifted off to sleep with a smile on her face. If this was how she needed to prove to him she was sorry, she’d have to think of more transgressions for the future.
Chapter Eleven
The next week passed by in a blur for Harper. Ace had hung up the wind chime in his bedroom, and each time she walked in there she smiled, thinking of how they’d had wild sex the afternoon he’d bought it for her.
She was busy at work, but not too busy to stop and let the memories of the past week wash over her. Whenever she recalled Ace’s evasive reaction after asking him about his personal life, she couldn’t help wondering if part of the reason he was so matter-of-fact most of the time had to do with past trauma.
Granted, his past was none of her business, but she couldn’t let it go. Saturday night as they had taken a shower together, she’d asked about the scars. He’d finally told her they were the result of fights in school when he was younger and more of a rebel, but she’d known he was lying. She heard it in his voice and felt it in the way his body stiffened as she brushed her fingers over the healed wounds.
His official bio listed nothing more than the schools he’d attended and a few achievements earned. He’d simply burst onto the business scene, seemingly out of nowhere. The urge to look deeper for background information on him was strong, but he likely monitored what they did online at work and she couldn’t betray his trust again. She wouldn’t even use her personal laptop to dig around. It was too much of a risk.
She ate lunch with her coworkers, and tried to ferret out information by casually dropping Ace’s name into the conversation, but Tim and the other guys offered no insight. They either had no clue about his life, or they weren’t saying anything.
And now Rob kept finding bullshit excuses to come over to her desk. More than once she’d glanced up to find him standing there, staring down at her with a creepy leer on his face. She thought about telling Ace, but there wasn’t anything to tell. Rob hadn’t touched her or said anything inappropriate, but his very presence did give Harper an uneasy feeling. She promised herself that if he said one thing that was out of line, then she’d tell Ace.
Her new work was interesting, and that surprised her. Ace’s team was looking for back door ways into a series of message boards set up in the early 2100s, dealing with weather control and the earlier computer programs that had tried to do what The Madeline Project eventually accomplished.
The teams that worked for Ace and the rest of the Weathermen had isolated hundreds of message boards that contained possible clues to what they were searching for. Different members of each team had been assigned to a group of them, and Harper now had her own group to hack into and look around. Ace had explained to her that he and his friends had divided up their teams this way on purpose so that each person had their own area to concentrate on and no work would be duplicated.
Everyone was looking for the same thing. Clues to the developers of the Tommy Twister virus, their current whereabouts, how they’d gained control of The Madeline Project, and what code sequence they’d used to try to hack into it that had allowed it to proceed with a mind of its own.
She’d been afraid her work in this new role would be boring or tedious, but she’d been wrong. She found it fascinating, and as the week wore on, she began jotting down things she found that correlated with what she’d done in her prior role as an analyst. She intended to talk to Ace about a growing suspicion, but wanted more information first. She didn’t want to waste his time or look foolish in his eyes.
In her former role, she’d been part of Ace’s analysis team that monitored and updated his vast PR website. Part of her job duties had included tracking customer responses on message boards and social media sites, looking for trends and patterns, and also making sure to keep out the trolls and fake personas.
She’d been used to seeing Ace all day long, but in her new role she didn’t see
him at all during the day. He did, however, send her text messages during the week, telling her in graphic detail what he intended to do to her that coming weekend. She’d asked if they were going to see each other during the week, and he told her he wanted to have dinner with her each evening in his apartment, but there would be no sex until Friday night. When she asked why, he’d texted back saying he preferred them both to be so hungry for it that by Friday night they’d be ready to burst.
“Sadist,” she’d texted back.
His reply included several grinning emoticons. “Took you long enough to figure that one out, didn’t it?”
She was growing used to his sarcastic humor, and now that she knew it wasn’t intended to be cruel, she enjoyed trading barbs with him. It made her day go faster, and kept up the feeling of intimacy she’d indulged in all weekend.
Harper had to constantly remind herself this was only an arrangement. He wasn’t her boyfriend, and as far as she knew, no one at work was aware that she’d spent the entire weekend in his apartment.
Each evening during dinner, she and Ace talked about work. He asked her what she’d found that day, and wasn’t satisfied until she’d given him a detailed accounting. Harper wasn’t sure if he was simply making sure she kept busy doing what he paid her to do, or if he was merely being polite, but she enjoyed having someone to talk to about what she did all day.
The few friends she had outside of work didn’t want to talk about their jobs when she got together with them, and they’d never really understood what it was she did. It was nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of, and who understood why she was excited at finding a piece of hidden code.
When she finally told him how Rob would suddenly appear at her desk, and she’d look up to find him watching her, Ace’s entire demeanor changed. He told her if the man said one thing to her that was even close to inappropriate, to text him immediately. She promised she would.
