by Bella Rose
Self-control much?
She shook her head and yanked open the refrigerator. She pulled out a bottle of soda and twisted off the cap. Not even the sweet taste of carbonated high fructose corn syrup could chase away the memory of what Maxim’s skin tasted like. She could even recall what his smile looked like when she used her tongue to trace a path right down his chest toward his nipple. He’d liked that. A lot. Of course she’d liked it when he did the same to her.
Standing in the employee break room, Landry had to cross her arms over her chest to keep her nipples from aching at the memory of Maxim’s touch.
“Oh. I didn’t realize anyone else was here.”
She nearly jumped out of her skin when Maxim walked into the break room. Oh shit. They shouldn’t be anywhere near each other after all of the rumors and speculation. She swallowed and decided to walk out of the kitchen.
***
Maxim could not stop staring at Landry’s mouth. At least until she started walking away from him. Then he got distracted by her round butt. And that’s when he realized that she was indeed leaving the kitchen without speaking a single word to him.
“Excuse me?” he called after her. “I don’t think there’s any call to be rude.”
“Rude?” She turned around, brow raised. “I think we’re a little beyond rude or polite, or anything else. Don’t you?”
“Landry, come on.” His voice was low and husky. He could not control that any more than he could control his instant arousal at her presence. The scent of her alone was enough to make him hard.
“No, Mr. Sokolov.” The way she said his name was almost a curse. “Being around you right now is not a good idea. I’ve had to basically lie my ass off to keep us both out of hot water.”
“So have I!” he protested. Then he reconsidered. “And you—clever girl—you never really lied. Did you?” He narrowed his gaze and stalked toward her. “In fact, why should I not think that you do this sort of thing all the time? You were quite skillful at not telling the truth while satisfying Danvers’s curiosity.”
“Are you kidding me right now?” Her nostrils flared in anger.
He leaned forward. The tension in the room ratcheted up a few notches until it became unbearable. Her scent washed over him with each inhaled breath until he could hardly stand the fact that he was not touching her. He fisted his hands at his sides. He wanted her. There was no denying that.
“I’m not kidding you at all, Landry,” he murmured. “You’re a very delectable woman. I cannot imagine that you’ve never been in this situation before with a coworker.”
“Okay, for starters, I just finished grad school.” She made a face. “And I think you might remember my lovely ex-boyfriend. Remember? You guys met the other night.”
He did remember. Why had he forgotten until this moment?
“So between school and David, my social life was sort of limited. Now I find this amazing job and I’m super thrilled to get it. But wham! There’s a bitch here who is intent on punishing me because I was the one who got to have a one-night stand with the boss. Gee. My bad.”
Maxim didn’t like that description. He didn’t like it at all. She wasn’t a one-night stand and damned if he was going to be her one-night stand either. Before he realized what he was doing, he snatched at her arms and dragged her closer.
Maxim slammed his lips down upon hers and took her mouth in a kiss that had her sagging against him in three seconds flat. He reveled in the spicy taste of her. There was anger and passion and maybe even a little bit of fear. But at the heart of it all was a wild sweet arousal that curled around his senses and made him want her all the more simply because she was forbidden.
Chapter Eleven
Landry was in the office at the crack of dawn. Of course there were several reasons for that and none of them really had to do with her crazy dedication to the job. Sighing, she stirred hazelnut-flavored creamer into her coffee. Going home and attempting to go to bed after Maxim had laid that scrumptious kiss on her had been next to impossible. Her subconscious had woken her up every hour so she could castigate herself for having sex dreams about a man she was supposed to stay away from.
He didn’t stay away from me!
“Humph,” she muttered.
“Wait.” Cooper walked into the break room. “Why are you here? You were still here when I left at five, and the system doesn’t register that you logged out until after nine last night! Don’t you sleep?”
“Not really.” She lifted her coffee cup to her lips.
Being in the break room with Cooper was not nearly as disconcerting as trying to share the space with Maxim. Of course that was because Cooper was very plain and not all that attractive—despite the fact that he was very nice. Her brain began to mull over the notion that her life would be so much easier if she could just become attracted to a man like Cooper. Of course she couldn’t actually date him. That would carry the same stigma as dating Maxim. Or not really, but in a legal sense it would. Ugh! This was all so confusing!
Cooper reached out and tapped her shoulder. “Distracted much?”
“Just thinking about that security build.” She rattled off the first thing that popped into her head.
“You know that’s not really your job, per se,” Cooper began slowly. “Not that Adam, Nelson, and I don’t appreciate your help. You’re really adept with that sort of thing. But I don’t want you to feel like you’re overwhelmed the first week.”
“I get that,” she said quickly. Yes. Work. That was a safe topic to focus on. Right? “But honestly I appreciate the chance to really see how everything works around here. I’m still learning, but I hope I learn fast.”
“You’re about as quick as anyone I’ve ever met,” Cooper said appreciatively. “Most people come out of school barely understanding cloud concept computing.”
Landry laughed. “Yeah I know. It’s all in the cloud, right?”
They were still laughing when Taylor suddenly strode into the break room as though she owned the space. She looked down her nose at Landry and sniffed at Cooper. “Shouldn’t the two of you be doing something productive?” She cut an ugly look at Landry. “Or are you planning your next conquest?”
Landry couldn’t help it. She wasn’t going to stand there and let Taylor be so disrespectful. It was ridiculous. “You know, for someone who is being investigated for harassment and slander, I would think you’d watch what you said.”
“Investigated?” Taylor scoffed. “They asked me a few questions, but they know I’ve done nothing wrong. Around here I’m the one at the top of the food chain. I’m not the one who gets shafted.”
Cooper was chuckling. “I think that’s most of your complaint, isn’t it? You’re not getting the shaft?”
Taylor’s eyes nearly bulged as she gaped at Cooper. Landry was also staring at him as though she’d never seen him before. The unassuming computer geek had just pulled out some serious claws. She gave him a thumbs-up. “Nice burn.”
Cooper watched Taylor flounce out of the break room. “I’m probably going to regret that.”
“Nah,” Taylor assured him. She placed her hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “You might get in trouble for mouthing off, but you cannot possibly ever regret telling that woman off when she deserved it.”
“Yeah okay,” he agreed. “You’re right. She’s just so bitchy! Why?”
“I’m not sure.” Landry was trying to reconcile what Taylor had just divulged. “Yesterday they made it seem like they were going to hang her out to dry. Today it’s like nobody cares that she sent out a mass e-mail saying that I slept with the boss. A little inconsistent, don’t you think?”
“I always thought she was sleeping with him.” Cooper thumbed in the direction Taylor had disappeared. “It’s pretty obvious she wanted to. She’s so proprietary it’s almost impossible to imagine her not attempting to murder anyone she thought of as competition.”
“Do you think they had a thing?” Landry wondered out loud
. “It would make sense, right?” In more ways than I want to think about.
Cooper shrugged. “Dinah is more into gossip than I am.”
“Then I guess I need to go bug her.”
“Why does it matter?” Cooper wanted to know.
He took a long drink of his coffee and looked so calm and self-possessed that it made her wonder anew why she couldn’t fall for a guy like him. Why did she always want the crazy ones? It was like some kind of curse. She always fell for the hot guy with the amazing body and a dozen or more mental health red flags.
Landry had already walked out of the break room when she glimpsed Taylor stalking into Nelson’s cubicle with fire in her eyes. Pressing her back against the soft sides of the cubes, Landry held her breath and tried to hear what they were saying.
“You’re not the boss’s favorite anymore,” Nelson told Taylor. “And I don’t think you ever really were. If you were fucking Sokolov, he would have never picked a new favorite right under your nose.”
“She’s not a favorite!” Taylor fumed. “She’s just a passing fancy. You’re going to see.”
“Just because you think you can get her fired doesn’t mean he’ll give up on her. I’m out, Taylor. I just want to do my job without all the drama. I swear. You’re like a damned teenager with all of your bossing people around and expecting special treatment.”
“You’d better watch yourself,” Taylor snapped. “Soon it will be evaluation time and you’ll need me to put in a good word for you.”
Nelson snorted. “Not likely. At this point that would be the worst idea ever.”
Taylor turned to stomp her way out of the cubicle, but Landry was already gone. She had no desire to let Taylor know that conversation had been overheard.
***
There had been very few times in Maxim Sokolov’s life when he had become what he would consider obsessed with a woman. In fact, as he sat in his office and spun himself slowly in circles in his desk chair, he could not come up with a single example.
Maxim loved women. He enjoyed their bodies. He loved to hear them cry out in passion. He had even been known to tie them to his bed with bits of silk just so he could pleasure their bodies to the point of exhaustion. So why was he so focused on one woman that he could not think about anything else?
He balefully eyed the e-mail from Boris on his laptop screen. The man was demanding a larger share of the profits in the latest software release even though he had contributed nothing more to the process of development than he had in the past. Maxim was supposed to meet with the investors on Friday morning and he had nothing to tell them other than Boris was a greedy Russian bastard who had a very high opinion of himself.
Normally none of this would have fazed him. He would have negotiated Boris down a few points. He would have negotiated the investors up a few points. And everything would have been ready to go on Friday in time for the meeting. At the moment, he could not stop thinking about the soft skin on the inside of Landry’s thighs.
Those dimpled thighs had been the focus of his dreams the night before as well. He had never before realized how erotic a set of thighs could be. His brain painted images of the way his hands looked pressed against her inner thighs. He recalled the texture of the skin and the feel of the muscle beneath. He even remembered the salty sweet taste of her skin when he licked her there.
That brought him to another distraction entirely. He had not tasted her. He could not help but wonder what her pussy tasted like. Would it be sweet or wild? Would it be both? Would there be just a hint of salt? And what sounds would she make when he found out?
His cock was rising to the occasion and he could not help but squirm. His pants were too tight over his crotch. His zipper was cutting into his erection and he wondered what would happen if someone walked in and caught him in such a state.
“I wouldn’t mind if it were Landry,” he muttered to the room at large.
Yes. Landry. She could come in, kneel down, gently rub the fabric tented over his crotch and he would instantly feel better. He pictured her there. Perhaps she would lift that beautiful gaze and show him those sexy eyes. Then she could unzip his pants and draw his cock into her hot little hands.
To have her taste him would be heaven on earth. He had never wanted something so badly in his life. Maxim would stab his hands into her hair and hold it back as she swallowed the length of him to the back of her throat. And when he sprayed his cum across her tongue she would swallow it down and lick her lips as though she had never tasted anything so sweet.
“My, my,” Taylor’s husky voice intruded on Maxim’s fantasy.
His eyes shot open and he realized that he actually had his hand on his erection. He’d been rubbing himself at the office. Foolish! And now the worst possible outcome had happened.
“Please don’t stop on my account.” Taylor entered his office and perched on the edge of his desk. She was holding file folders.
“Just set them down and leave,” he managed to say.
She chuckled. The husky timbre of her laugh made him twitch with distaste. He really did not like this woman in the way she wished he did. Why could she not get the message? Instead, she actually reached down toward his crotch and laid her palm on his knee. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell.”
“Out.” He growled and spat the word as if it were poison.
She looked briefly taken aback. Then her face settled into its constant expression of overconfidence. “I’ll suck your dick, if you’d like.”
Her smile was so irritating that it was all he could do to keep himself from snarling at her like a rabid animal. “I’m not interested, Ms. Pearson. Please leave my office.”
“You’d rather masturbate than have a woman suck your dick?” Taylor raised her eyebrows. “You’re gay. Is that it? Why didn’t you say something ages ago? I can respect that.”
“I’m not gay!” he roared. What would make her think that? In her mind, did he have to be gay just because he wasn’t interested in her? The woman was delusional!
“Ms. Pearson.” Maxim stood up. He no longer had to worry about his erection, because it was very conspicuously gone. “I would like you to leave my office. Now. Your behavior is entirely inappropriate.”
Her smile made no sense. His brain stutter-stepped for a moment as he tried to process what was going on. Why would she look at him as though she had won a battle of sorts? There was nothing in this for her. He had rejected her out of hand. She should be angry. Shouldn’t she?
Then, before he could even process what was happening, Taylor dropped to her knees and grabbed his hips. She had his fly down and his cock in her hands before his brain caught up.
“You’re mine, Maxim,” she murmured right before she put him into her mouth.
Chapter Twelve
Landry moved backwards until she couldn’t go any farther. Her back hit the wall and she pressed her palms to the cold surface until she felt as though she could breathe again. Of all the possible things she thought she might be exposed to while walking down the hallway that was certainly not even on her list of very rare possibilities.
Maxim is getting a blowjob from Taylor.
She had to say it in her brain just to try and reconcile what she was seeing. She sucked in a few deep breaths to try and regain her equilibrium. The sound of her blood rushing through her veins roared in her ears. It was almost as though her flight-or-fight instinct was kicking in at full throttle. She either felt like marching in there and giving the two of them a piece of her mind, or running as if the hounds of hell were right on her tail.
Run. Definitely run.
She finally managed to get her feet turned in the right direction. Getting herself into motion was the nest step. She put her head down and started walking. Then she was moving faster and faster until she was all but running toward the elevator. She had to get out of there. In fact, she needed fresh air. It didn’t matter where.
Veering away from the elevators, she took the stairs. She hiked up her
long cotton skirt and went up instead of down. It was closer to the open air. One flight of steps, two flights, then three and finally she burst through the metal door onto the roof. She stood bent at the waist with her hands on her hips gasping for breath as she felt the hot flood of tears overcome her self control.
What was wrong with her? It shouldn’t matter. Maxim could fuck whomever he wanted. It should make no difference to her. In fact, if Taylor had him, maybe she would lay off the rest of them. It might make her less bitchy if she laid every once in a while. And if Maxim was stupid enough to want a piece of that, then he deserved whatever was coming to him.
She stood up and forced herself to walk a few circles. In and out. She breathed until she was no longer gasping and her thoughts started to come in a nice orderly fashion. She could think again. She was just an employee. That had not changed. Right? So why did she keep tearing up when she thought about Maxim with someone else?
“He does not belong to me,” she said out loud. “He never will. It was a one-time thing. Sex with a stranger. That was the purpose. Right? Just to have a wild night of fun without David getting involved and ruining things.”
Thinking about that night made Landry miss her friends. She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and sent a text to Thayla. It was time to have dinner with a friend and get a second opinion on the soap opera that had become her life.
***
“Enough!” Maxim roared.
He put his hands on Taylor’s head and shoved her bodily away from him with very little care as to how much strength he used to do so.
Her teeth scraped his shaft on the way out. The excruciating pain was tempered by the anger he felt towards her. She cartwheeled backwards, falling on her backside and hitting the floor with a definitive bump.
