I couldn’t focus on anything Mr. Barnes was saying. I was in a state of euphoria and no matter how hard I tried to rejoin my coworkers in the real world, it never happened.
Every day for the past two weeks, I’d been having sex with Jonathan after business hours. At first, we were meeting in the photography room, but after the photographers started hosting later meetings, we took things to wherever an empty space was available—stairwells, janitor’s closets, employee lounges.
There were no deep conversations between us, no eye-opening revelations about our lives; it was just sex. Pure, mind blowing, out of this world sex.
It was like he knew my body better than I did; I’d never had multiple orgasms in my life. Ever!
I’d never thought having so much sex was possible or that sex could be that incredible. I mean, sex with Ryan was “good,” but it never left me getting hot just thinking about it, never left me completely ravaged and on cloud nine for hours after.
Jonathan was an Adonis in bed—well, we hadn’t actually had sex in a bed, but he was amazing nonetheless.
All it took was once glance from him, one slight brush against my skin after a group meeting, and I was wet and ready to go.
“Miss Gracen? Miss Gracen?” Mr. Barnes shot me a quizzical look.
“Yes?” I reluctantly snapped out of my thoughts.
“Do you want to introduce the interns’ presentations?”
“Certainly, Mr. Barnes.” I stood up and looked around the table. “All the interns were given the task of coming up with a commercial for the sPhone blue with animation. We have two groups that are going to present and they each have ten minutes. At the end of the presentations, we need each of you to send an email to myself and Mr. Barnes about which one you feel will better fit the campaign.”
I sat back down and tried not to roll my eyes.
While the first group was setting up their presentation, Jonathan walked into the room. “Hello everyone.” He smiled. “You all don’t mind if I sit in for this do you?”
There were murmurs of “Not at all,” “Of course,” and “Sure.”
He walked around the table and once again took a seat directly in front of me.
Mr. Barnes beamed. “Miss Turner, could you please pass Mr. Statham a copy of the power-points please?”
She walked towards him, blushing bright red, and handed Jonathan a folder. He nodded his head and smiled at her, making her face turn crimson.
The lights dimmed and Jonathan’s eyes immediately met mine across the table. He was giving me his ‘I want you right now’ look, and I couldn’t deal with that right now—not in the middle of the day, not in front of all of my colleagues.
I swiveled my chair around and exhaled, watching the first few minutes of a presentation that was shockingly well done.
I felt my phone vibrating and opened the text. Jonathan: “Turn back around. Now.”
“Only if you agree to stop looking at me. I don’t want other people sensing that we are sleeping together and I can’t focus with you eyeing me...”
“I don’t give a f**k what they think. TURN. AROUND.”
“Pay attention to the presentation. You might learn something.”
I clapped at the end of the first presentation and prepared to take notes on the second, but I received another text from him: “If you don’t turn around within the next sixty seconds, I swear I will walk around this table and f**k you in front of everyone.”
My heart fluttered. I figured he had to be bluffing; he wouldn’t risk his reputation on something so reckless and trivial.
I kept listening to the interns and writing down my thoughts.
“Thirty seconds, Claire...”
I stifled a gasp and texted him back. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me.”
“Alright everyone!” Mr. Barnes said. “Thanks to both intern teams for outstanding work. Directors, make sure you email me and Miss Gracen what you think before you leave for the day. It’s now time for our weekly Zen session, so we need to head on over to the relaxation room.”
I closed my notebook and breathed a sigh of relief. I followed my team across the hall and into a room full of tacky sea-colored bean bags.
As usual, one of the directors turned off the lights and Mr. Barnes lit the three huge Zen candles that stood at the front of the room.
We were supposed to “find” our way to the bean bag that “spoke” to us,” and sit on it for one hour of meditation in the dark. Of course, most of the time people just turned on their music and fell asleep—especially me.
I headed towards my secluded spot in the back corner and started to sit down, but I felt Jonathan wrapping his arms around my waist.
Before I could tell him to stop, he bent down and kissed me until I was out of breath.
“You’re lucky it’s so dark in here,” he whispered. “Next time I’ll do it in the conference room for everyone to see.”
“I—”