by L. L. Ash
“I don’t know what’s wrong with him,” Adele grumbled to herself as she plopped down in her chair, folding her arms under her chest.
“He’s jealous, baby, simple as that,” I told her, getting closer until I was leaning over her and pressing a gentle kiss to her lips.
She hummed and sighed, accepting the kiss, her lips begging for more.
“I came here to make your day better,” I told her, letting the words breathe against her lips.
“I’m glad you’re here. I’m always glad,” she grinned.
Brushing my cheek against hers, I moaned in her ear, pulling her earlobe between my lips with a gentle tug before moving down her neck.
“I seem to remember a certain something that happened here before,” I sighed against her skin. “And I want a repeat performance.”
“Oh God...” she hummed. “Would you?”
I laughed softly against her collarbone and sank to my knees between her legs, pushing up her skirt as she spread for me.
She stood a little from her chair, just long enough to lift the skirt over the curve of her ass before she settled on the edge, leaning back as she settled one foot on my shoulder.
Funny how she was a lot more comfortable the second time around, relaxed and eager to get my lips on her pussy.
I pulled the off-white lace panties I’d watched her put on this morning and snapped them off her legs, tucking it in my pocket just like before.
This time she didn’t complain.
Giving some attention to the insides of her thighs, I grated my cheek stubble against her sensitive skin and breathing on her bare lips until her legs were literally quivering for me.
I loved how she responded to me, as if we shared an electrical current, answering only to each other.
Her foot shifted off my shoulder, her knee hooking around it instead as I got closer, descending on her gently to get her worked up.
A moan escaped her lips, hands curling into the hair at the top of my head and pulling as she fell into the sensation.
I hummed into her, letting the vibrations wash over her as I lapped up every flavor she had to offer, savoring the sweet and salty taste she always gave to me.
“Oh my God...” she breathed, hips trying to bounce up further into my mouth.
Her sounds were like velvet and silk around me, cocooning me in the moment as my gentle ministrations grew into fast and dirty, slurping noises that had her groaning louder.
It took everything I had to try and tamp down my own arousal and not jizz my pants with how worked up I was getting just making her feel good.
“Ads, are we still going to lun-” a voice suddenly entered the room, the door swinging open to a shocked and outraged...Ryan.
Adele gasped and flew back in the chair, making the whole thing tip sideways, her crashing to the floor with it.
“Fuck!” I barked, moving over her to see if she was alright.
She was panting, both from being incredibly close to an orgasm, but also from extreme embarrassment.
“Knock!” she finally said, a stream of nervous giggles erupting from her mouth.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Ryan shouted. “In the fucking office? What’s gotten into you, Adele?!”
“This is my office,” she managed to sit up, “And the policy is to knock.”
I sat back on my heels, feeling like laughing too at the beet-red coloring Adele was sporting and the furious scowl Ryan had on his face.
It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop after Adele sucked in her laughter, standing and pulling her skirt down as they both glanced at me, zeroing in on what was probably a wet sheen on my lips and chin.
I wasn’t ashamed, but Adele probably was.
“You make me sick,” Ryan said finally, looking like he might throw up as he practically ran from the room.
Whelp, that went well.
Adele broke down in a mixture of laughs and tears, face in her hands as she sank onto the desk.
“It’s ok, malishka. Stop crying, please,” I begged her, rubbing off my chin on my white button-up shirt sleeve. “I only want to see you smile and laugh. No tears.”
She blew out a breath and nodded, wiping at the moisture gathered under her eyes
“I love you,” I breathed for the first time since the first night I admitted it to her. “I love you, Adele.”
That pulled her attention away from the situation. Her eyes focused on me as she gave a little smile.
“I love you too, Serge.”
“Let me go lock the door, then we’ll finish what we started,” I told her, pulling her into my arms.
She shook her head against my shoulder.
“Take me home, then finish the job like a man.”
A shivering chill ran up my spine as I grinned.
“Yes koshka. My fierce little kitty...”
She grinned back at me, obviously putting the whole thing behind us.
“What’s a name I can use for you?” she asked me. “If you call me kitty or baby girl, what’s your nickname in Russian?”
A flickering memory of all the times my Babushka had called me kot passed through my head, but I refused to get lost in them.
“Lev,” I answered her. “You’re my kitty and I’m your lion.”
She laughed quietly.
“A lion, huh? I guess that’s what I get for letting you pick your own nickname.”
I laughed too, pressing a kiss onto her lips.
“C’mon koshka moyo malishka,” I told her, standing up and holding out my hand for her.
She took my hand and let me lead her out, grabbing our sandwiches that I’d dropped by the back wall, on our way out.
Guess we had some fuel for after I fucked the hell out of the woman I loved, between making sweet love to her in the interim.
Hell, my thoughts were so focused on her body and lips, I didn’t really think about much other than that.
So when shit hit the fan, I was completely unprepared.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Adele
“Adele,” Rachel said to me over the phone, her voice shaking.
I was still waking up with my first cup of coffee as I got ready for work, but the tone she was using was beginning to freak me out.
“What happened, Rach?” I asked her, trying to keep my voice even. “Are you ok?”
What had happened?
“Uh, well, I’m ok… I sent you a news article that just hit the shelves this morning...”
My stomach dropped out as I pulled the phone away from my ear, turned on speaker phone, then checked my email.
There, right on top, was the email from Rachel.
I opened it and saw a link. Pressing on it, it blew up to a picture of me and Serge, the headline saying, ‘The Woman Who Can Sell Anything Is Buying Love’.
Underneath was a whole smear piece written about how they had a ‘protected’ witness who blurted all the grisly details about Serge and his career as an escort.
No names were involved besides ours, and it didn’t look like they had proof, so much as someone’s opinion.
I got off the phone with Rachel just as I walked to Serge’s side of the bed, pressing my hand over his shoulder and waking him up.
He blinked rapidly, probably still tired from the middle of the night romp we had where he had made me come three times.
“You ok?” he asked, sitting up with a grunt.
I handed him the phone and he took it, blurry eyes dropping to the screen.
He brushed his fingers up and down the screen, reading it a couple times before handing it back.
“I’ll be ok,” he shrugged. “I’ve been careful about the money, dealing in cash and paying taxes. They can’t touch me unless they have an actual witness, which they can’t because I had a NDA with every woman I ever serviced. Even if they tried, they can’t use it in court. And if they try, I’ll drag their asses down with me, because what they did is just as illegal as what I did. They’ll drop their wi
tness report fast.”
I blinked down at the article again and breathed relief.
“So this’ll blow over?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Try not to think about it. But I’m going to walk you to work today, ok? Just in case there’s some media that thinks they can bully you.”
I agreed and watched him get up, naked as the day he was born and amble to the shower.
Somehow, amidst this smear campaign and accompanying anxiety, I still managed to find the time to get turned on by my boyfriend’s body…
I was a mess.
Pulling myself together, I finished getting my makeup on and straightening my hair, then went downstairs where Serge was already out of the shower, dressed, and making breakfast.
“What is this?” I asked him as I took the bowl he slid over to me, filled with something brown that looked kind of like oatmeal.
“Kasha, it’s good for you,” was all I got out of him as he plopped a bit of butter on top.
I eyed it, then him, then the cereal again.
“Mix it up,” he put a spoon in and stirred in the butter. “Now eat it.”
I took a spoonful up to my mouth and breathed in the salty, savory scent before tasting a little.
Like southern grits.
Disgusting.
“Milk?” he asked, pouring a little milk in the bowl.
“Milk isn’t going to make that taste better!” I coughed on the intense saltiness.
He frowned.
“It’s good for you,” he said again, as if that explained everything while taking a bite from his own bowl.
“That’s gross!” I laughed.
“You’re so Goddam picky,” he rolled his eyes. “Babushka wouldn’t approve.”
I laughed harder at the wink he gave me, telling me he was kidding.
She probably wouldn’t approve. I wasn’t her first choice, but after our one meeting, she seemed to like me well enough.
Serge had assured me that by giving me that coat and hat, she’d basically given her blessing to us, and seeing how that was our only chance to meet, I was grateful we'd had that.
“Probably not, but I’m not a good Russian girl. I’m sure she’d understand that I’m a terrible outsider that can’t appreciate your fine culinary cuisine.”
Serge just stared at me for a second before bursting out in laughter.
“You’re so fucking sassy,” he said, pulling my body to his hard chest, our foreheads touching as he grinned down at me, pinching my butt.
“You like my sass,” I winked at him and he chuckled again.
“I love everything about you,” he winked back, kissing my lips before moving away and putting the little frying pan he’d cooked the cereal in away into the sink to soak.
“Fine, take your refined carbs and fatty cream cheese and let’s go,” he told me, smearing some spread on one of the beagles we picked up on the way home from work the day before.
I took it gratefully, munching on a big bite as we went down the stairs to the front gate.
Outside, there were three cops standing there. Waiting.
“Mister Volkov,” one of the cops said. “We need to take you down to the station.”
Serge frowned next to me.
“Excuse me? On what charges?” he called back, opening the gate where the cops moved in on him.
“On claims of prostitution,” the cop spat back.
“From who?” Serge laughed. “Are you arresting me?”
The cops all looked at each other.
“No,” the female cop said, taking a step forward, obviously taking over for the emotional cop who was losing his cool. “We just want to ask you some questions.”
“If you’re not arresting me, then you can call my lawyer,” he said simply. “Now, I have to get my girlfriend to work since some asshole decided to have a grudge and take it to the extreme.”
The cops all frowned.
Serge dug through his wallet and gave them a card.
“That is my lawyer, and his number. Call him instead of scaring my poor girlfriend on her doorstep.”
Just like that, he led us past the cops and down the street.
“Holy crap!” I whispered to him. “You handled that like a pro!”
“I handled that like an innocent man,” he whispered back. “Which I am unless they can somehow prove otherwise.”
I nodded, settling myself into the crook of his arm while we walked.
The way to the studio was only about a ten minute walk, which we liked to take in the brisk air some days. Today, however, I figured it had more to do with the fact that we were both stressed and needed some air and exercise.
“Come in,” I told him when we arrived.
“No, I need to go work some shit off. You go, and tell me when you’re ready to come home. I’ll come pick you up so we can walk home together, too.”
I nodded and he headed further down the sidewalk to the gym he prefered since he started working out there instead of Carnegie where his apartments were.
Inside the studio, the place was buzzing with whispers.
Rachel found me immediately with a worried expression on her face.
“We need to head out. They called an emergency board meeting,” she whispered.
I frowned.
Emergency board meeting that I didn’t approve?
We went right back out the door and into a car that was waiting for us.
At the main office, several people were already sitting in the boardroom, computers open, faces engrossed in phone or tablet screens until we stepped in. Pulling up my regular seat, Rachel sat beside me and we waited for our screen to pop on where we’d be joined by the other half of our board members in LA.
“Alright, I think we’re all here.” A voice rang out over the intercom as the screen blinked on, four faces staring back at us.
“What the hell is this about?” I asked them all, not at all intimidated that they had called a board meeting when this was my company. “And what the hell gives you the right to assemble this without me?”
“This,” Ted, one of the members slung a gossip tabloid at me from across the table.
It was me and Serge on the front again, his face in my neck and my eyes closed in bliss.
Where did they get that picture?
Anger, no, rage boiled inside me.
Not only was it all disgusting, it made me feel dirty, like someone had been watching me without me knowing. Taking pictures during private moments and creating dirt out of nothing to sling at us.
“What about it?” I asked. “So they have a picture of me and my boyfriend. What’s the problem here? Lots of you all have spouses or significant others.”
“But he’s a prostitute. Really, Adele? After everything you’ve sacrificed to build this brand?”
My mouth popped open.
“He is not a prostitute!” I shouted.
Not anymore, at least.
“Someone from inside these walls seem to disagree.”
My eyes swung over to Rachel and she looked at me wide eyed, shaking her head in denial.
“Ryan?” I asked and the hard look Ted gave me confirmed my suspicion.
So Ryan had done this.
Out of hate or spite or revenge…
The asshole!
“He’s just jealous,” I assured them. “Ryan has been coming on to me for… forever. He got jealous when I got a boyfriend and this is his revenge. I can’t believe we’re even talking about this.”
Robert, our only other senior board member, beside myself, leaned forward on his old elbows with a frown.
“It doesn’t matter,” Robert said. “Whether it’s true or not is not the point. The point is we dropped twelve points in stock since this trash hit the shelves. No matter how we look at it, this is bad publicity we can’t afford. People won’t buy from a company they can’t trust, and this makes people think they can’t trust us. Sales are down and testimonial calls are non-existent.”
My jaw dropped.
“This is my company. You can’t just push me out of my own company,” I scoffed.
“Your company is publicly traded,” Ted sneered.
The dickweed always had something against me. Maybe he just wished he looked as good in high heels as I did.
“This is ridiculous,” I said again, turning my eyes to all the board members.
“You may have majority shares, Adele, but you do not have the majority say in decisions regarding the company,” Robert told me in an even voice. “You’ll always be a co-founder, and we’re not asking you to resign. We’re asking you to take a break. Go do something else for a while and give us a chance to pull this all back together.”
“And what if we don’t pull it together?” Ted frowned. “What if the people never want her back in?”
“Well, that’s a situation we’ll have to deal with should it come up. Meanwhile, you’ve needed a break for a while now,” Robert added.
“You’re pushing me out of the board for a vacation?” I gritted my teeth.
“Think of it however you want,” Ted waved his hand. “But you have to get out of here.”
“I have majority shares, Ted,” I said again, completely flabbergasted that we were even having such a ridiculous conversation.
“You do. But you are still only one vote,” another voice piped in from the screen.
“So we vote,” Ted called out. “Adele is still the majority shareholder, but we vote to ask her to step down as a senior adviser and board member.”
My heart started pumping so hard I felt like it might burst through my chest.
“Voting for Adele to step down,” Ted said, shooting his hand up.
Seven hands went up.
“And against?” Ted asked as a courtesy, where Rachel and one other woman raised their hands in my defence.
Robert gave me a sad look.
Pity.
Because I’d let a man ruin me and my reputation.
After everything I’d built, everything I’d done for this company, working it from the ground up…
Tears slid down my cheek.
The screen blinked off after the final decision had been reached and everyone but Rachel and Robert, left the room without another word. As if their brutal votes hadn’t just set off a nuclear bomb in my life.
