It was like I shifted one block out of place in his perfect setup; I’d put a chink in his armor, a glitch in his perfect system. He ticked his head to the side and flexed his jaw before his hand started to inch up my thigh at an excruciatingly languid pace, with a glare that would bring most people to their knees.
“Cade, make sure she flies to the capital with you to confirm security and operational voting booths too.”
“Fine,” Cade blurted out. “I’ll update you soon. End call.”
“You’re an asshole.” I shoved his shoulders, but he didn’t budge an inch as he kneeled there, his eyes glued to his hands crawling up my skirt. “I’ll take a separate flight just to be rid of you.”
His fingers reached my panty line, and he rubbed back and forth. My nails dug into that tailored suit, and I hoped they ripped into those pressed shoulders as I hissed. “You scared to spend a little time with me, baby doll?”
“I don’t really know why we’re flying to meet anyone anyway. It can be done remotely.” I whimpered, moving my hips because he was lightly brushing over my pussy, like he wanted to play when I wanted to fuck.
“Jett’s old school. Most people don’t get the computer world like we do. I wouldn’t worry about it. We won’t need you there anyway.”
“Well, Jett just said you did.” I stared down at him.
“Are you always ready to go above and beyond at work?” he asked, perplexed by my work ethic.
I couldn’t tell him I had a mind that wandered if it was idle. I couldn’t let him judge me. “What’s so confusing about a stellar work ethic?”
“Well, for one, I’ve had to stop your poking around for about a year.” He shoved my panties to the side and slid two fingers inside me.
“The fact that you’ve been tracking what I’ve been doing for a year means you go above and beyond for work too.” I bit my lip to keep from moaning as he brought me closer to climax. Our hatred for one another didn’t hold up against my need to get off with him again. I started to think this would be a recurring scenario—something I’d keep going back to if we didn’t put a hard stop to it.
“You didn’t think you could keep that up and get away with it, did you? I think maybe you wanted me to come for you,” he growled.
“Is that why you came back to the office? Because I assure you that didn’t need to happen. I’m not even searching for things anymore. I—” He curled his fingers inside me, and I practically fell onto him as I pulled him closer and swore under my breath.
He shook his head at me like he couldn’t believe he was here either. “I came back to the office for the end-of-year cleanup. Stonewood Enterprises has an early fall party, then we do annual reviews.”
The man had an answer for everything, and this was one that made me feel insignificant and small. Of course we were closing in on the year-end and would need annual reviews. Why hadn’t I thought of that? “Right,” I grumbled.
“Don’t get your panties in a bunch, dollface. You’re not that important. Although, I do enjoy your company this way.” He chuckled.
“Please shut up,” I moaned and pulled my skirt up.
He instantly grabbed my thigh and draped it over his shoulder. “Why? Just want me to fuck you quiet so you can enjoy some good sex finally? It’s what you’ve wanted for a while now, isn’t it?”
God, I hated him. “I wanted nothing to do with you. I was with Gerald and—”
“And completely unhappy and fucking bored. So bored you kept searching for Albanian trafficking and drug raids when you shouldn’t have been.”
“I could help if I had more information regarding—”
“Do your job, Izzy. Not someone else’s,” he murmured before burying his face in my pussy.
“Fine.” I dragged out the word. “You know, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to exceed expectations.” The world kept spinning because people pushed their limits, not because they did the bare minimum.
“Don’t try. Just do,” he growled as he nipped my thigh, then went back to licking me where I was so wet, I could hear him tasting me.
There was no arguing with a man who took such good care of you, you were about to scream in an office. “Cade, this is really not a place where we should be doing this. Is the door locked?”
Instead of answering, he spun me so my ass hit his desk, then lifted me onto it, never removing his tongue. He lapped at me like he’d been starved and bit my clit when I started to protest again.
It was a futile attempt at best. I wanted that orgasm, was chasing it now. With him, I raced toward a different sort of high. I'd known addiction, known chemical alterations of the mind. This type of adrenaline—the fear of getting caught mixed with primal need—was the human body creating a drug on its own, one of the most highly addictive out there.
I clawed at his scalp, tried to push him further into my center, wanting to feel all of him between my legs. His masterful tongue rolled and flicked over my bundle of nerves. He was the enemy who delivered passion, the one I’d hated for a year now, but who was finally giving me something other than irritation and pain.
“Cade, please. Fuck me. Please, please, please.” I’d never begged Gerald like this, never wanted a man more than Cade. The line between loathing and lust had become paper-thin.
He hummed against my folds, and the sound vibrated up my spine, spreading an awareness through me that this man could ruin me if I was this turned on by just this. “I shouldn’t give you the satisfaction of fucking you on my desk when you can’t follow simple rules.”
I’d forgotten what we were talking about and murmured, “What?”
“You won’t try to do anything while working directly with me, you understand?” Cade said as he unbuckled his belt and pulled it slowly from his trousers, one loop after another. The leather slid out seamlessly as I watched it, intrigued suddenly by how he wound it up into a ball. “You’ll listen, right, dollface?”
I worked my lip between my teeth as we both stared at that ball of leather. He brought it up to my clit and pressed it against me.
I shuddered at the friction as he began to move it there. We both watched as he dipped it low enough to collect my arousal and then brushed it back against my clit, making me moan.
“Izzy, answer the question.” The command fell from his lips pointedly. “You’ll listen?”
I was past playing games and wanted to get off so bad that I nodded.
“Say ‘Yes, Mr. Armanelli.’ We need to establish the boss-employee relationship early. If you travel with me, people are going to have to know you’re not my fuck toy and that I’d never be with you. They need to know we’re only working together.”
I didn’t ever want to be with him, but why did him not wanting to be seen as my boyfriend hurt? “I highly doubt anyone would think that the recluse genius hacker who’s part of a mob family is dating someone like me.”
His hand inched up as I talked, like he wasn’t listening. His pupils dilated, his gaze changed, his grip on my thigh tightened. “If they did, we’d change the narrative online anyway. The internet writes the news.”
“So no worries, then.” I rolled my eyes.
“You still haven’t said, ‘Yes, Mr. Armanelli.’”
“I’m not going to either.” I crossed my arms, ready to defy him.
“Good.” He smiled, unraveling the belt quickly. With a flick of his wrist, the end of it hit my center, causing a zing to fly through every part of my body.
Pain was subjective, and here it felt more like pleasure. I gasped, “What the fuck, Cade?”
“You listen and you get rewarded. You don’t, you get punished. You can ride my belt all you want, but when you don’t obey me, I’ll discipline you.” He leaned forward, mouth so close to mine that I could have taken his lips if I wanted. “Remember that, Izzy.”
“I don’t think I’ll be working for you for long, then,” I murmured, getting lost in the way he held my gaze captive. My body ached for him, and I knew that wasn’t a good sign. I blamed it on Gerald, on the fact that I’d gone without sex and excitement for months while he traveled and screwed someone else. “And this will be the last time between us. I can scratch an itch like this with someone else.”
“Sure you can,” he murmured as he finally stood back up, pulled out his cock, and positioned himself between my legs. I felt the head of his cock and that cool metal piercing spreading my folds, reminding me of how big he was and how my body longed to fit around him, to mold to him. “They won’t scratch it like I do, though, and you’ll come crawling back, begging for me to take your breath away again. But, sure, this will only happen one last time.”
“Should I thank you?” I asked him, voice full of condescension.
“You probably are going to want to.” He chuckled, then his tone sobered. “Tap my wrist twice if it’s too much, got it?”
Before I could even tell him to elaborate, his hand shot out to grip my neck. He cut off my oxygen and made me wheeze for air.