And that suited her mood just fine.
If flashes of Cullen’s steely blue eyes happened to occasionally pass through her mind unbidden and unwanted, she tried her best to ignore such memories.
But sitting on the T, as it wound its snakelike way towards the station near Biomatrix, she found her thoughts drifting back to the brief moments they’d spent together in Cullen’s bedroom that morning.
The feel of his hand on her bare bottom.
The sting.
The sensation of excitement.
Her opening for him, his finger sliding so easily into her dripping wetness.
Cullen’s rock hard body lowering onto her, readying to penetrate her before those fateful words had left her mouth and changed everything instantaneously.
Ivy found it impossible to resist the memory of those powerfully charged moments. She couldn’t help the fact that it was the most intense sexual experience of her life, and Cullen Sharpe was responsible for it.
But Ivy reminded herself that even if Cullen had been the catalyst for the experience, that didn’t mean another person couldn’t bring her there again someday.
It could and would happen again.
It just wouldn’t be with Cullen Sharpe anymore. That was that. He’d made it quite clear he wanted no part of her virginal escapades.
Finally, she arrived at Biomatrix Pharma, and entered the building confidently, head held high. She had to assume he was already there, sitting in his expansive office, watching his monitors and doing whatever it was he did up there.
Maybe he was even watching her right now on his surveillance system. Knowing Cullen Sharpe’s interest in controlling every facet of his business, she thought it quite possible he was watching her as she came inside the lobby.
That being the case, she made a point to look happy and completely fine with everything.
Because screw him.
She was actually a few minutes early into the cube farm, and so she stopped by the break room to get a cup of coffee. The break room just so happened to be near Emma Marks’s office.
The blond, bitchy supervisor gave Ivy the hives, but it didn’t hurt to wander by and hope that Emma might notice Ivy had arrived early, ready to start her day.
As she strolled by Emma’s office, Ivy happened to see that Emma wasn’t actually in there. But someone else was.
Lucas was standing behind the desk, peering at Emma’s computer screen and appearing to be typing something on the supervisor’s unattended keyboard. He glanced up as Ivy passed by and instantly he stood straight and his cheeks went red, as if caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
“Hey,” he said, waving. He came around the desk and quickly exited the office, walking in step with Ivy as she continued on to the break room.
“What’s going on, Lucas?” she asked, trying not to sound as suspicious as she felt.
“Not much,” he replied.
There was a brief, awkward silence.
“What were you doing in Emma’s office?” she asked, finally, unable to pretend she hadn’t seen what he was up to.
“Please don’t tell anyone you saw me in there,” he said, sounding pained. “Please, Ivy. They’ll fire me if you do.”
“I can’t promise that. What if they think I covered up for you?”
They were now inside break room together, and she put a plastic cup under the Keurig machine and prepared to make her coffee.
“There’s nothing for you to cover up,” Lucas said. “The whole thing is so stupid.”
“If you say so,” she replied, not believing him just yet.
“Yesterday, there were some emails circulating between the temps,” Lucas continued. “It was like, inside jokes about the job and stuff. Goofing on Emma and…you know…Cullen too.”
“I never got any emails,” Ivy said, watching him as her coffee started brewing.
Lucas nodded. “Yeah…” He looked slightly pained. “Well, the thing is—the other temps don’t really trust you.”
She felt her jaw drop. “They don’t trust me? What did I ever do wrong to them?”
“You didn’t do anything wrong necessarily,” Lucas said, sounding increasingly nervous. He looked around as if fearful of being overheard. “But everyone’s noticed the way Cullen Sharpe treats you.”
Ivy paused as she went to retrieve her cup from the brewer. “How does he treat me?”
His hand on my ass—his finger, sliding deep into my wet pussy.
The head of his cock, preparing to push into me, to break me wide open…
Oh, Cullen. Fuck me, Cullen.
She snapped out of her reverie, as her coworker seemed embarrassed to comment.
Lucas eventually gave an embarrassed half-shrug of his shoulders. “You know he treats you different from the others. Like how he picked you, out of everyone, to bring him coffee. Calling you at your desk—“