by Portia Moore
I’m halfway through counting the red wine glasses when there’s a knock at the back door, which is the one used for deliveries. Nothing usually comes in on Sundays. I go to answer it, and halfway across the room, I hear Sonya say sharply: “No, it’s okay, Chase. I’ll get it. It’s a special delivery.”
My ears prick up, but I hide my interest, shrugging and going back to my clipboard. I move to the champagne coupes, closer to the door, trying to hear what’s being said, as Sonya pushes it open. I see two men dressed in nondescript delivery clothes walk in, pushing two pallets stacked on top of each other.
Sonya is talking in a low tone, and while I can’t make out what she’s saying, I can hear that she’s upset. “…supposed to be Tuesday…” I manage to hear, and my interest piques even more. So something comes in on Tuesdays—probably with the week’s liquor order.
“It’s an extra order, supposed to be delivered ASAP. We had it cleared with Marcus.” The delivery man speaks in a normal tone, and I can hear Sonya’s exasperation in hers as she answers.
I don’t look over at them. But I can feel my fingers starting to shake with both excitement and nervousness. This could be important information. But I’m also the only one in the room, besides Sonya and the delivery men.
“Fine,” Sonya snaps. “I’ll take it. But shipments are only supposed to be on Tuesdays.” She takes a deep breath, collecting herself. “I’ll have to take one or two of the staff away from their other duties to handle this,” she continues by way of explanation. “It’s a disruption.”
“I understand, ma’am.” The delivery man hesitates. “Payment was cash on delivery, ma’am.”
“Just a moment, I’ll go and get it.” I hear the clicking of Sonya’s heels as she passes me and then pauses, as if she’d forgotten I was there.
“Zach, go out and help Bethany and Alicia with cleaning the tables, will you? I’ll get Ava back here to finish counting and help with unloading this.”
I want to stay and find out as much as possible, but I don’t argue or act as if I care. “Whatever you need,” I tell her carelessly, setting down the clipboard. “I’ll go out front.”
She doesn’t say another word, just waits for me to walk out first. I can feel her eyes on me the entire way.
It’s almost impossible to focus on the menial work she sent me out to do. All I want is to be in that back room, picking up intel on whatever is going on. I have to force myself not to look at Sonya as she comes back out of the office with the payment for the delivery guys and not seem too curious. After all, to me, this should be nothing but a slight out-of-the-ordinary liquor shipment. I should have no idea that this is almost certainly something else. I’m disappointed when I hear the sound of the back door locking again as I wipe down the bar and the truck driving away. The rest of the day is shaping up to be as boring as I’d feared it would be.
Sonya walks back out, glancing over at me, and jerks her head towards the back room. “Come on, Chase. I need your help making room for the shipment.”
My heart leaps, thinking maybe I might have a chance to see what’s inside the boxes, but I know that’s probably not the case. If she wouldn’t let me stay in the room while they unloaded it, there’s no way she’s ready to trust me that close to whatever it is that they’re moving.
I’m halfway through reorganizing the remaining bottles of liquor when I hear a banging at the back door.
“Open up!” I hear someone shout, the banging intensifying. “Open the door now!”
My first thought is that it’s the FBI, that maybe they’ve decided the case is strong enough to come in and make a move. But that doesn’t make sense. They wouldn’t have sent me in if they were that close to completion.
Sonya looks up sharply at the noise. She strides towards the door, her high heels clicking on the concrete floor, and shoves it open, her hands on her hips. There’s not a hint of fear in her face, and for a brief second, I feel a flash of admiration. This woman is tough as nails.
She shoves the door open, and my heart stops in my chest for a moment when I see what’s happening.
There are two gunmen at the door, black masks pulled over their faces, one with an AK in his hands and the other with a Glock. “Get your fucking hands up, bitch!” one of them yells. “Show us where the goods are. We’ll take money too, but we’re here for the drugs.”
Drugs. My mouth goes dry. Of course, this isn’t evidence, two robbers trying to shake down my boss—not admissible, anyway. But it is evident that we’re on the right track.
For now, I have to make sure Sonya isn’t hurt or worse.
To my amazement, she laughs. Her face is cool and composed as she faces them down. The barrel of the AK is less than an inch from her chest as they try to advance into the room, but she doesn’t budge.
“Don’t you know who you’re robbing?” she asks in her light voice, as if she’s asking them what they want to drink. “You should turn around and go. It’s not worth it, I promise you.”
“Fuck off, bitch!” the other one shouts. “We’re not leaving until we get what we came for.”
I edge towards the corner of the room. I know that Sonya keeps a gun in the office, and if I can get to it, I might be able to stop this from going south. They haven’t noticed me yet. I want to keep it that way.
I make my way carefully towards the door. I can hear Sonya still trying to talk them down, her voice as impassive as ever. The second I’m able to slide around the doorjamb, I bolt for the office, praying she’s left it unlocked.
The knob turns, the door opens, and I gasp with relief. Thank fucking god. But when I go to yank the desk drawer open, it is locked.
Shit. I scan the desk quickly, snatching a paperclip off of a stack of documents. Hoping that I still remember how to pick a lock from the petty crimes I committed as a teenager, I pull it apart, shoving one end into the drawer lock.
It gives almost immediately.
Without a second thought, I pull out the handgun lying in the drawer along with the spare ammo clip, shoving the latter into my pocket and hurrying to the back entrance, making sure there’s one in the chamber as I go.
The training takes over then, all the months of drills and practice. I slip out of the back door silently, gun held out in front of me as I keep to the wall. I can hear Sonya’s voice faintly, still talking, and the agitated sounds of the two men, who are getting angrier and angrier.
“Just let us in, you fucking cunt!” one of them shouts. I hear the sound of a body hitting the wall and boxes falling. I move faster, coming up behind them with my gun at the ready.
Two against one isn’t great, but I can even the odds pretty quickly. I’m not about to wait for them to realize I’m here. Without a second thought, I aim downwards and shoot the one on the left in the knee, the one holding the pistol. I don’t want the spray of the AK to go off inside the room.
He screams a high-pitched sound that doesn’t match his size, as he falls to the ground. His gun drops without a shot as he clutches his leg, sprawling in the gravel while his friend whirls around to face me. “What the fuck!” he shouts, his voice carrying over the screams of the other man.
“Put the fucking gun down and your hands over your head, unless you want to join your friend in the dirt.”
“You motherfucker,” the man snarls. “Fuck you!”
I smile coolly at him. “If you think you can shoot faster, be my guest. But it’s not a gamble I’d recommend.”
He starts to aim, and that’s all I need. I pull the trigger, aiming directly for the center of his shoulder. He has a moment to look surprised, but a second later, he drops like a sack of bricks, hitting the ground with an audible thud as his rifle clatters away from him.
I step carefully between the writhing men, scooping up both guns and moving them out of reach. The man I shot in the leg is crying now, his face dirty and streaked as he looks up at me, cursing as I walk past him. I keep my eyes straight ahead, walking straight to Sonya, who is
picking herself up off the floor carefully. Her clothes are rumpled, but there’s not a hair out of place. She ignores the hand I hold out as she gets to her feet, her face as unmoved as ever. Not even a hint of fear in her eyes.
She’s tough. A lot tougher than she looks.
She meets my eyes, and her gaze slides over me once as a small smile appears on her lips. “I’m impressed, Chase,” she says quietly. “Thank you.”
“Just doing what needed to be done,” I say with a shrug, and a few seconds later, several guys enter the room with guns at the ready.
“You’re sure as hell fucking late!” she snaps at them.
“We’ll handle it from here,” she tells me before kicking the guy I shot in the shoulder, whose scream is piercing. I have a feeling they’re not going to be calling the police. I make a mental note to call my own handler as soon as I return to my apartment. I nod and make my way out the door, wondering if those guys will make it out alive. A few minutes later, Sonya appears. “Chase.” She says my name sharply, stopping me before I can go back to work. “Come back to the office with me.”
My heart does a flip in my chest, but I don’t have any choice other than to do as she asks. I follow her back, ignoring the curious expressions of the other employees.
Once we’re in the office, Sonya shuts the door behind her, leaning back against the desk. I stand awkwardly in the middle of the room, wondering what this all is about.
“Where’d you learn to shoot like that?” She appraises me; her gaze is flirtatious but intense. She’s studying me. I can practically hear the wheels in her head turning.
“We did a lot of hunting, growing up. My family was poor. I spent some time on the wrong side of the law. You know that already. Pays to be good with a gun in those situations.”
“Hmm.” She presses her lips together. “Come here.”
Her tone is one of a woman who is never denied anything. I know I’m not going to be the first one to do so. I take a step towards her, confused. She doesn’t look suspicious or angry, the way I would expect if she suspected something. She’s just staring at me with those dark, intense eyes, casually leaning against the desk.
I have no idea what’s going through her head, and I wish like hell that I did.
“Closer.”
I take another step.
“Chase.” Her voice is firm. “Come here.”
It’s an order, not a request. The office is very small, and one more step brings me up very close to her, so close that if my hands weren’t by my sides, I’d be touching her.
“You probably saved my life.” Sonya looks at me, her expression unreadable. “I’m not sure anyone has ever come to my rescue before.”
“It was the right thing to do.” My heart is beating faster now, not only because I don’t know where this is going, but also because of how close she is. It’s been a long time since I’ve been this close to a woman so beautiful, and never anyone like Sonya, worldly and commanding and sure of herself, certainly at least a few years older than I am. My body doesn’t care that she’s part of a criminal syndicate that I’ve been tasked with taking down. It only cares that she smells like vanilla and that if I leaned forward, I could kiss her.
But it’s not me that kisses her.
“It’s not the only thing I want you to do,” she says, her voice dropping an octave. And then, before I can say anything else, she puts her soft, long-fingered hands on either side of my face and pulls me forward to kiss her.
My mind goes completely blank for a second. My body reacts before my brain does, and I can practically feel the blood draining out of it as her tongue brushes over my lower lip. She tastes like the chai tea she was drinking earlier, and the spice of it sparks against my tongue as my mouth opens of its own accord, and I realize that I’m kissing her back.
She reaches down for my belt, and I pull back sharply, realizing in an instant where this is going.
“Sonya, I don’t think we should—”
She smiles at me. “I don’t pay you to think, Chase. And I’ve been wanting to do this since I saw you outside your apartment.” She leans forward, biting my lower lip in a sharp, quick nip that, for some insane reason, makes my dick hard as hell. “I always get what I want.”
I have a choice. I can do this, or I can refuse her and deal with the consequences. I already know Sonya isn’t the type of woman to take rejection well, especially when it comes to someone she thinks is beneath her. There’s not a doubt in my mind that she considers herself out of my league.
Hell, she is out of my league. But that doesn’t mean I want to fuck her, even if my dick has other ideas.
I don’t think I have a choice, though. And I know exactly what my handler, and Bellona, and Simpson would say—that this is a chance to get even closer to the inner circle. If Sonya wants me badly enough, she might want this more than once. And if I wind up as her fuck toy, at some point, she’s going to let her guard down.
Sonya pushes herself up onto the desk, her skirt riding up around her thighs as she grabs my belt loops and pulls me between them. Her hand goes to my zipper, tugging it down as she cups me through the fabric.
Fuck, that feels good. I’m not supposed to want this, but the desire is quickly overruling everything else. My dick is aching, and when Sonya reaches into my boxers and pulls me out, her slender hand wrapping around my shaft, I groan aloud with the sheer pleasure of it.
“Oh good,” she says with a smile, clearly happy with what she sees. “I was hoping you’d have a big cock.”
And then she pulls me towards her, yanking her panties out of the way with her other hand. Before I can say or think anything at all, I feel the head of my cock pushing up against her hot, slick entrance. I hear the tearing sound of foil and then feel her expertly rolling a condom over the tip of me, in complete control of the situation. She didn’t even ask if I had one.
I’m going to have to do a good job, or she’s never going to want it again. And if I’m doing this, it can’t be the only time. This needs to be for a reason.
I lean forward, my voice deepening as I brush my lips over hers. “So fast? Don’t you want me to eat your pussy first?”
Sonya laughs a high, musical sound. “Oh, that’ll come later, Chase. Right now, I just want you to fuck me.”
And with those words, every single thought I have flies straight out of my head.
She wraps her hand around the back of my head, pulling me towards her for another kiss as her other hand grabs my ass. As her legs wrap around my waist, I feel myself sink completely into her as she leans back. A moan escapes her lips, vibrating against mine, and all I can think is that she feels so fucking good, that it’s been too long, and I don’t know how I’m going to last more than a few minutes. But I have to. At the very least, I have to make her come first.
So I throw myself into it headlong, kissing her passionately as I start to thrust, fucking her hard and deep the way I know she wants it. As I sink into her again and again, Sonya pushes her hand between her legs, rubbing her clit under the lace of her panties as she gasps against my mouth. All I can think dizzily is that this is the hottest sex I’ve ever had in my adult life, fucking this woman on her office desk after I just saved her life from two burglars. It’s like a fucking action movie, and it’s impossible for me not to get caught up in the moment, to feel like goddamn James Bond giving it to the woman who turns out to be the villain. I know Sonya is in control of the situation, that I’m only even doing this because she demanded it. Still, with my cock balls deep inside of her, that’s not what it feels like right now.
“Oh god, Chase—” she moans my name against my lips, her back arching as her fingers move faster between us, and I can feel the tightening in my groin that tells me I’m close. “Fucking come with me, Chase, I’m going to come—” the words fly shamelessly out of her mouth, her gorgeous face flushed. Then she kisses me hard, the sound of her moans swallowed up as I feel her clench and flutter around my cock, her hips bucking agai
nst mine as she comes harder than any woman I’ve ever seen.
“Oh god.” I moan aloud as I feel my own orgasm hit, and I thrust once more into her hard, the pleasure of her clenching tightly around me, sending me over the edge. My hips jerk against her, grinding as I come inside of her, grateful now that she had the presence of mind to grab a condom. There’s no way I could have stopped to pull out, and that’s the last fucking thing I need to do.
I’ve barely stopped coming before she pulls away, sitting up and moving so that I slip out of her. I grab the condom before it can slip off of my dick, turning away to deal with that with some measure of dignity. When I turn back around, Sonya is standing up, her dress back in place and everything about her as composed as if I didn’t just fuck her on her own desk.
She’s in control. I know without a doubt that’s what this was about. I absolutely think that she wanted me, but it was about more than that. It was about showing me that she can do whatever she wants with me, whenever, and that there’s nothing I can do about it. Not without consequences.
Sonya steps towards me, brushing a lock of tousled hair out of my face. “That was incredible, Chase. I can’t wait to see what you’re like in an actual bed, with more time to enjoy it.”
“Are you asking me out on a date?” I joke, trying to regain some control of the situation. Sonya has me so far off-balance.
“I don’t need to ask. You’ll have dinner with me tonight, at seven. There are things we need to discuss.”
“Are you sure? I’m on the schedule tonight for the party--”
She waves a hand. “We’ve got other good bartenders.” She pauses. “It’s not a request, Chase.”
Fuck. I’m in deep now, in more ways than one. But there’s nowhere to go but forward, and I hope this leads down the right path.
