by Kira Blakely
“Are you even here as a protester?” I asked.
“Why does it matter what I’m here for?” Casper asked, rubbing the back of his neck with a hand. I couldn’t believe he was being this elusive in the middle of the riot that was about to break out around us. More importantly, why was I still standing there talking to him? I was somehow glued to him, to his voice, and to catching one more glimpse of his smile, even though every logical sense in my being was urging me to make a move, to get away from him. This could only mean one thing: trouble.
“Look, Casper, if that is even your name, we’re all here to protest Argent’s wind farm project,” I said, cocking my head in his direction. He smiled again, his lips curling and his eyes widening. I could stare at him all day!
“And I’m standing here, watching you explain it to me. Thank you for stating the obvious,” he said, snapping me out of my unwavering admiration of his good looks. I was filled with the most disastrous waves of mixed emotions – my growing annoyance at him and my undeniable attraction for his body.
“So, you’re admitting that you’re not a protestor,” I said, the tampons still dangling from my nose.
“I’m not admitting anything, other than that the glitter really adds a glow to your face,” he said, enjoying his own joke a little too much. His shoulders were shaking again from his laughter.
“So, you work for Argent Energy Systems. Is that it?” I said, ignoring his distracting comments and focusing on the gold mine I had just landed on. All day long, I’d been hoping to catch some employee, any representative, from the organization so that I could force them to hear what I had to say, what we had to say. And now, potentially, I had one right in front of me.
He must have seen the manic twinkle in my eye, because the smile disappeared from his face slowly, and he stared at me.
“Should I prep myself for a lecture?” he asked, and this time it was me smiling.
“There are only 160 Green Gleneagles left in the whole world, and they all live in your company’s construction spot,” I said, taking a few steps closer to him. It didn’t bother me that the man was way taller than me, that I had to crane my neck to look up at him. I caught his gaze, and I was going to hold it.
Casper breathed in and sighed, but continued to look at me. “I am aware of that,” he said in his usual calm and soft voice. Hearing him now, I couldn’t even imagine the same man throwing punches at a crowd only a few minutes ago.
The tampon strings dangling from my nose were distracting, and I tugged at them, pulling them out quickly. They had soaked up all the blood from my nose, and I dropped them in my bag again, deciding to worry about them later. Now was not the time.
“Building over their habitat means that they have nowhere to live. They will die out because of the loss of their homes,” I continued, and noticed that Casper was still looking at me earnestly.
“Do you mind me asking you a question?” he interrupted my flow of thought.
“What?” I snapped.
“Why did you put glitter on your sign?” he asked, focusing on the glitter on my face again.
I rolled my eyes and looked away from him. This guy wasn’t paying attention; he didn’t care about what I had to say. But at least he was better than having nobody to speak to directly. So, I decided to indulge him.
“My best friend’s daughter Zoe, who’s six years old, helped me make it. So, I had no other choice,” I said exasperatedly. “Anyway, are you listening to me? Don’t you think that your employers should feel a little guilty about how they’re ruining nature?”
“Do you babysit her often?” he asked, changing the subject again as though I had said nothing about the birds, as though he had not noticed how worked up I was about the protest.
“What? Yeah. Marla is a single mom. I watch Zoe five nights a week. You’re not listening to me.” I waved my hand in front of his face, even though he was looking at me. He didn’t blink an eyelid.
“That’s very good of you. To look out for your friend’s daughter. You must be a student yourself with very little time to spare,” he continued, again like that was the whole point of our conversation.
“I’m trying to get through to you about something important here, and all you can talk about is glitter!” Something in me snapped, and I was yelling at him now. I was furious again. My body was aware of his undeniable sexual presence, but my mind was focused on the protest. It was like I had no control over my body or my mind anymore.
“I hear you, Lily. I know what you’re saying.” Casper said, the smile disappearing from his face. He was all serious again.
“Then why are you avoiding the question?” I yelled.
“Because I can’t do anything about it. There’s no point lecturing me when my hands are tied,” he said, still calm. He wasn’t raising his voice to match mine at all. This was probably what triggered me into more anger, watching him so collected and noble.
“Of course, you can. You can do your bit. You can protest. You can quit your job. There are a million things you can do, if you really want to!” I was screaming still, my anger rising. I was probably angry with myself as well for having such painfully effective sexual thoughts about a man who stood so completely against my beliefs.
“You look cute when you’re mad. The tops of your ears turn pink,” he said suddenly, his face breaking into a smile again. “It’s no wonder that you get no work done.”
I couldn’t believe what he’d just said. Not only had he made an off-hand comment about my physical appearance, but he was trying to imply that our protests never worked, that we were picketing – or rather, I was picketing – for no good reason.
I hurled myself at him, a surreal and strange war cry emanating from my being. I could feel it in my core as I lashed out at him with a bunched-up fist. This was exactly what I had decided not to do. I had planned on not being violent. I wanted to show the world the power of a peaceful protest, and here I was, ramming myself into a man who had managed to get under my skin.
My palm landed on his chest, and immediately I felt the strength of it, like his body was made of pure muscle. My hand bounced off his chest, and he grabbed me by my waist as he gently pried me away.
“What are you trying to do, Lily?” he asked, and I heard the laughter in his voice again. He was still enjoying himself!
“I’m trying to attack you for what you just said,” I screamed, completely at a loss. This was supposed to be a fist fight, not an explanation about why we were going to have a fist fight. Casper was laughing; he wasn’t affected at all by any of this. It was almost like he wanted me to try and punch him.
He let go of my waist and grabbed my wrists as quickly as he had pushed me away from him earlier. His fingers were wrapped tightly around my wrists, and I could feel the strength in his grip again. It was almost frightening. He yanked me closer. His face was only a few inches away from me. Some of my auburn curls fell over my face, and I blew them away.
“You’re making a big mistake, Lily. This is not what you should be doing,” he said, and I heard a threat in his voice.
“What are you going to do about it?” I hissed.
“Sir? Is everything all right? Is this woman bothering you?” someone asked from behind me. Casper still had me tightly grasped in his hands, and I didn’t see the man who’d asked that, although I did immediately wonder why Casper was being referred to as “sir.”
“Take this one into the building,” Casper said, while he kept his eyes on me.
Then a different set of hands grasped my shoulders and pulled me away from him.
The man who’d rendered me helpless pushed me through the back of the crowd, around the back of the office building we had congregated in front of, and then through the elevators to the twentieth floor.
The doors opened, and he led me into a room. He had answered none of my questions about where he was taking me, who he was, or what any of this meant.
“You can use the bathroom through that door to cle
an yourself up,” he said robotically, before banging the door shut behind him.
I stood quietly for a few moments, looking around me. The large room was like none I had ever been in before, both futuristic and minimalistic. This had an immediate calming effect on my nerves, even though I wanted to remain riled up. I wanted to fight somebody. But I was alone in this room, decorated in varying shades of white and gray.
Water trickled somewhere, and I turned to find an elaborate pond in the corner. A slow-trickling fountain supplied water to it, and when I stepped closer, I found delicate koi fish swimming around.
None of this was threatening, I wasn’t scared for my life, but I was definitely confused. Who was Casper? What had he ordered that security guard to do?
I found the door to the bathroom easily, and I stepped in to quickly wash my face. The bathroom was as elaborate and sparklingly decorated as the rest of the building. A full-length mirror faced me, and I splashed water on my face from the sink, wiping the caked blood streaks away from my cheeks with a clean white towel.
I stared at my face in the mirror for a few moments longer. My curls were as unruly as ever, forming a thick halo around my head. My eyes looked tired and larger than usual and had turned a deep blue. My lips, which I now realized I had been chewing incessantly, looked thick and pouty. I dragged myself away from the mirror and stepped out of the bathroom.
Casper was standing in the middle of the room with his hands thrust into the pockets of his pants.
“What am I doing here?” I asked.
He looked more natural in these surroundings. He appeared just as clean and neat as the decor of the room, his hair carefully styled and brushed away from his face. None of the action outside had moved a single hair on his head out of place. His skin looked darker as well, and it glistened smoothly in the dim lighting. He didn’t come closer to me, and I stayed away from him, too.
“Why do you think you’re here?” he asked, and this time there was no humor in his voice. A chill ran down my spine. My body was caving in again. I had an incredible urge to run my fingers down his chest, to feel his skin on my fingertips. I felt like I was losing my mind. His voice was strong and effective. I gulped in response.
“Who are you?” I asked him instead of answering the question. From the way he was looking at me, I started to get a feeling that I was here for reasons aside from the picketing going on outside.
“My name is Casper Argent,” he said flatly, like he expected no reaction from me.
My body shook when he told me his name. His last name. He wasn’t just a mere employee in the company; his family owned it.
“Argent? Are you serious?” I thundered, a crazed laugh escaping my mouth. It almost sounded too fantastical to be true.
“I’m as serious about my name as I am about how easy it will be for me to fuck you,” he said. Very seriously.
I couldn’t believe my ears. Had he actually just used those words? I straightened my back and raised my chin up at him.
“You’re highly mistaken, Mr. Argent. You’ve pegged me for the wrong kind of girl,” I said, dropping my arms to my side. His eyes were on me – not on my face anymore, but on my body. He was trying to guess what I might look like with my clothes off, and his gaze was awakening goose bumps on my skin. As hard as I was trying to remain mad at him, I didn’t want him to stop looking at me.
“Yes, I know who you think you are, Lily. A conservationist, here to protest the construction of our wind farms, etcetera,” he said, crossing his arms across his chest. His muscles bulged beneath his t-shirt, and I could see his body clearly through the fabric of his clothes. I pressed my thighs tightly together as I felt myself growing embarrassingly wet. He wasn’t even anywhere near me, and I could feel my stomach reeling, my skin desperate for his touch.
“You’re also a girl who can’t stop picturing me naked,” Casper said, a soft smirk forming on the side of his lips. I gulped again. He had seen it in my eyes. He had caught me staring. I looked away from him.
“I know you’re wondering how it might feel to have my mouth on the hollow of your neck, and don’t get me wrong, Lily, I would like that very much, too,” he continued.
I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even protest. I was wet and breathless, embarrassed, and turned on all at the same time. I wanted to scream at him, I wanted him to stop saying all this, but I couldn’t get a single sound out of my throat. He had some sort of magical grip on me, even though he was standing several feet away from me.
“Which is why I have an offer to make to you,” he added.
No offer he could possibly make to me now could be good news. No offer that he made could be something that I, in my right mind, should even consider.
“What offer?” I finally managed to squeak in a small, weak voice. My temper had all but disappeared. I was ashamed. Despite my fury, my attack on him, Casper Argent had seen right through me, and he knew exactly what I thought of him. I’d wanted him inside me from the first second I laid eyes on him.
“The position of Conservation Consultant at my company,” he said, finally taking a few steps in my direction.
I stepped away from him, aware that I was getting closer to the koi pond in the corner. A few steps in the wrong direction, and I might tumble into the water and further embarrass myself.
“And why would I be interested in that?” I asked him, my mind whizzing with contradictory thoughts. Of course, I needed a job. I needed the money, but an offer from Casper Argent, in the middle of all this, didn’t exactly seem like a good idea. What did he even mean by that title?
“Because you can’t stop thinking about what it’ll be like when I finally make you come with my tongue,” he said, and this time, his face broke into a full, wide smile. He was enjoying watching me squirm and writhe. I breathed in deeply to steady myself. I needed to get a grip on my mind.
“And you think that is a good reason to take on a job at your company?” I said, licking my lips, hoping I was managing to sound prideful. He stepped in my direction again, and this time I didn’t step away. I didn’t want to fall into the koi pond, and also, honestly, my body wouldn’t let me move away from him. Subconsciously, I wanted him to come closer. I wanted to get a whiff of his scent again.
“I haven’t explained yet what your responsibilities are going to be; you’ll see the reason in it when we’ve talked about it at length,” he said self-assuredly.
My breathing quickened as he moved closer to me, my heart beating out of my chest. My nipples hardened again; this was the closest I had ever gotten to passing out from a sexual experience. And he hadn’t even touched me, not yet.
And if I could help it, I wasn’t going to let him touch me, because then I might explode.
Casper Argent was looking at me like he could read my thoughts. He practically had me cornered, and like a fool, I made no attempt to escape. He had me hypnotized with his burning gaze. My own burning desire was searing through my body, through my skin. I was desperate for his touch.
He lunged at me, and this time I had no strength or desire to push him away. I kind of fell into him, he caught me with both hands, and our lips met in one crazy motion. It was like he had anticipated what I was going to do, and he was ready and waiting for it. Like I was a puppet and he made me fall into his arms.
Casper’s lips were on my mouth, and I was kissing him back. It was a ferocious kiss, a hungry kiss, like we had been waiting for decades to finally have our bodies meet. The reality was that I’d met him less than an hour ago, but our bodies had done all the talking.
He used his tongue to part my lips, and I let him in. The way he thrust it inside my mouth gave me a preview of what it might feel like to have his cock slide inside me. He was kissing me, exploring my mouth with his. I bit down on his lower lip, and he didn’t even wince.
He was holding my face with both his hands as we kissed. It lasted forever, and when I finally pulled away, I was breathless. But thirsty for more.
He could s
ee it in my eyes, a glazed-over look that told him that I wasn’t ready to run away yet. His hands flew from my face and down my arms, gently tracing the skin with his fingertips. While he kept his eyes on me, I couldn’t tear my gaze away from his glistening lips.
“I can see you’re ready,” he said breathily in a soft murmur, moving his face near my left ear, like he was telling me a secret, even though there was nobody else in the room. When he pulled away, I slowly nodded. This was no time for pretense; no use in pretending. I was ready from the first moment I saw him.
The knots in my belly grew tighter, my wetness throbbing. Just his words would make me come if he said them again. I pressed myself to him as his fingers lingered on my arms. My hips centered against his so that our groins were touching now. I could feel his erection, that bulge that I had been admiring, that had barely grazed my face earlier. Now it was thrust between my thighs. Through the fabric of my long skirt, and through his jeans, I could feel his throbbing cock. He was right; it would be very easy for him to simply part my legs and slide in.
“Lily.” He said my name hoarsely, like he was trying to teach me a lesson. Like I should be really paying attention now. His voice echoed in my soul, and my body shook. Now he could feel the goose bumps on my skin with his fingers, and he looked at them and smiled. He was enjoying this, enjoying the reaction each of his movements, his words, had on me.
Then he grasped the small of my back and ground me against him. I thought he was going to kiss me, but he grabbed my earlobe with his mouth and started sucking on it.
It was a weird feeling, my earlobe in his mouth, the tug of his teeth… My eyes shut of their own accord, and my lips parted. Then his mouth was on mine again. His hands left the space on my back and were slowly finding their way up my blouse. He slipped them in under the fabric so that his hands were on my bare torso now.
“Casper, don’t. You’re torturing me,” I said in a voice much louder than his. It was torture the way his fingers slowly grazed up my skin. My wetness was growing, and my thighs drew apart subconsciously. I could imagine him slipping deep inside me.
