#Boss (The Empire Series Book 3) (4 page)

T
he next morning
, Vivienne ached in pleasure. She hadn't been fucked properly in a long, long time. Her head pounded, not from the sex, but the excessive alcohol intake from the night before. Alcohol was not her friend this AM.

She turned to latch on to Luca's naked body only to come up short. Feeling oddly dejected, she noticed the crunching sound of paper. Viv gripped the sheet from the opposite side of the bed, adjusting her sleepy eyes to read.

"Harper. I rather enjoyed fucking you on every inch of your apartment last night. You made good on your promise to keep up. I knew you wouldn't let me down. I'm not good with this wooing shit or whatever. Just know you're sexy as fuck...at
every
angle…" The comment made her chuckle as she thought of all the different ways she had bent, stretch and flexed her way into every position possible. Thank God for yoga.

"...P.S., I'll buy you a new lampshade." She blushed as she looked on her bedroom floor to see the crumpled remains of the shade.

It wasn't a promise for a repeat, but it was a good sign to hear he wanted to woo her and replace her shade. Most men would say screw it and walk away. She hoped it wasn't just because they worked with one another. That's right. They did work together.
How awkward was today going to be?
The only way to find out was to get her ass in gear.

V
ivienne Harper never slept in
. In fact, she was early to everything she did. Maybe that was her problem. She was a stickler for the rules, and she never took risks. Luca reminder her of how much fun life would be if she just loosened the reigns every once in a while.

Prancing into her office at nine AM, everyone stared, mouths agape that she was just getting there. Her uptight office attire was toned down today with a simple pair of skinny jeans, white v-neck and grey vest. No one saw her like this - ever. Her hair was down with soft, brunette beach waves; a far cry from the heavy smoky eye from the night before.

As she made her way to Ariel's office, she gave Quinn, Ariel and Sam a wink as she nodded for them to join her. She laid her bag on the ground as she relaxed in her cushy chair. Sipping her coffee, she motioned for the girls to come in.

"Who are you, and what the hell happened to Vivienne Harper?" Sam spoke up finally. The girls corralled around the desk, taking whatever seat they could find.

"I haven't changed. I'm still the same Vivienne I was yesterday." She smiled.

"Okay, am I the only one who's going to call bullshit here?" Ariel spoke up.

"Look," Quinn grinned, as she pointed at Viv. "Have you ever seen her smile that much? There are only two things that make
me
that happy - alcohol and orgasms. My money is on orgasms."

"A lady never kisses and tells." She took a sip of her coffee.

"You're not very good at this girl gossip thing. This is the part where you tell us he has a huge dick, fucks like a porn star, and worships your pussy..." Sam started. "Sorry, sometimes it just comes out."

"I won't argue with any of that," she began laughing.

"HE
IS
A FREAK!" Ariel nearly screamed.

"Fine. Yes, he fucks like a goddamned porn star. He had me in positions I haven't been in in years. It was..."

"Was what?" The girls were waiting on baited breath.

"Fucking amazing, but that's the problem," she answered, feeling a little blue.

"How can that possibly be a bad thing?" Quinn questioned.

"I can't do complicated right now and, besides, he's my boss."

"When has that ever stopped
the
Vivienne Harper from getting what she wanted?" Sam spoke up.

"You really like him," Ariel sparred, as she analyzed Viv's face.

Vivienne suddenly felt awkward for the first time since the girls came in her office.

"Yeah, well, he'll be gone soon and life can return to normal," she huffed, as her smile slowly faded from her face.

"I'm not going to tell you how to handle this, but something tells me you need to have a good time. Yes, he won't be here long, but that shouldn't stop you from getting some for yourself. I guarantee he is thinking the same thing," Quinn confirmed honestly.

"Have you talked to him about it?" Sam asked.

"He was gone by the time I got up," she answered.

"Yep. That's a clear indication that this thing you got going on is temporary. When a guy sleeps over, he's got ulterior motives," Ariel offered.

"Oh."

"I didn't mean to upset you," Ariel answered.

"Pff, no, never. I wasn't looking to make this permanent. It's fine. I'm fine," she responded, as her mood quickly changed. There was a small part of her that was hoping things would or could be different. "Okay ladies, get out. I need to get work done." And, suddenly, the old Viv was back in action.

"And shut the door on your way out!" Viv barked.

Even with the door closed, she could hear them on the other side.

    "And... She's back."

    She couldn't place exactly who said it, but it didn't matter. Part of her wonderful mood flew out the window with their scrutinizing her situation. Every time she allowed someone to cloud her judgments, she felt just as she had when she was a child. Pining after a man's attention only to be shot down for her incompetence.

    Shaking the lonesome feeling aside, she powered up her laptop to begin her day. Immediately, her computer began to ping out of control.

    "What the hell is going on?" she muttered to herself.

    Illuminating her inbox, the "unread" messages were in the hundreds. As she clicked each one, her skin began to crawl as the hairs began to rise on her arms. Vivienne was relentless, and overly meticulous, when it came to her magazine. To see countless messages about errors here and there, well, that just wasn’t Vivienne.

    Had she allowed Luca to infiltrate her subconscious to the point of delirium?

    Viv began to open the editing proofs to see the numerous red marks indicating her ineptitude. The more red strikes she noticed, the more she started to question if the correct versions had been sent to final edits.

    With each marked page, Viv began printing off each one. Her blood pressure sky rocketed as the printer screamed at her for more paper. Snatching the paper from the machine, she made her way to her old office. She was sure she had the proofing galleys in her office.

    As she approached the giant oak door, she tapped her fingers on the wood.

    "Enter," his sexy voice boomed from the other side of the door.

    It took her a moment to collect herself before she pushed through the entrance.

    "Luca," she stated simplistically, as she kept her composure. Making sure to not only keep her calm regarding the magazine, but to downplay her uncomfortable feelings toward her dominant.

    "Harper. What can I do you for?" he smirked.

    "I just came to get my proofing galleys. I left them over there," she specified, pointing across the room, yet not moving a muscle.

    "Is something wrong, Harper?" He looked at her concerned. "You look... distraught."

 “Just a few hiccups. Nothing to worry about,” she tried to convince him.

The last thing she needed was to let on that things were in complete disarray. Regardless of how things went down last night, he was still her boss and, as such, she needed to gain control of her publication. Any whiff of chaos could get her fired and she had worked too hard to go down like this. Operation recon was in full force.

“Well, let me know if I can help.” He looked skeptical.

“Will do, boss.” She struggled to give him a smile as she snatched the proofs.

Making her way out the door, “Harper, want to do dinner tonight?”

“Let’s skip the bullshit, and get to the point. Yes, I want to fuck tonight. See you around nine,” she leered.

“I knew I liked you,” he chuckled, as she made her way to her temporary office.

She wasn’t sure where the hell that came from, but a little sexual healing always made things better. Yes, they may be using each other’s bodies as physical therapy, but it was her way of releasing any anger, frustration or confusion within her life right now.

As she reached her makeshift office, she plopped down in her chair and opened her mailbox. Going to her sent folder, she scrolled down to see the document that was attached. She was nearly positive she sent the correct version of the magazine. Unfortunately, the document was incorrect. Just to make sure, she opened her saved copy on her desktop and the file she labeled as her final draft was incorrect as well.
What the hell was going on?

As a last resort, Viv plucked the USB drive she kept on her 24/7 from her purse. The drive was exactly the reason why she kept backups. Even backups for hers backups. As she opened the document labeled “Final _Draft_April,” she quickly noticed the document was the correct version.
How on earth had that even happened?
Perhaps she had forgotten to save her changes on her laptop file.

O
pening
up a new email she clicked “compose”.

R
on
-

I
t seems
the incorrect file was not saved properly. Attached is the correct file for production.

R
egards
,

Vivienne Harper

T
aking a breath
, she realized this was probably a simple error on her part. Clearly, Viv would never make such a drastic error.
What if she hadn’t caught it?

M
s.
Harper-

W
e received
your communication right on schedule as usual. We were concerned this may have been the case. We sure are glad we caught it prior to print. If you continue to have problems with your computer, please let us know and we can get IT involved. We do not want to have to go through this every month.

S
incerely
-

Ron

I
nstead of being embarrassed
by the correspondence, she was more heated then anything. She had never been this careless before. Her insistent attitude to go out last night, and avoid Luca, was started to complicate things.

She was allowing outside forces to cloud her ruling and, therefore, putting her career in jeopardy. She didn't mind sleeping with Luca, but that's where it had to end -nothing more.

 Something didn't settle well with her, though. She had never been a loose cannon when it came to her magazine, and it was
her
magazine. Luca could come in and try to intimidate her all he wanted, but that didn't give him full reign to do whatever he wanted.

 Viv began to think about what Ron had said about having her IT people take a look at her laptop. She hated to assume the worst, but she couldn't take any chances. Maybe what she needed was an outside source to do a thorough investigation of her laptop.

 From her office chair, she yelled for Ariel.

 "Ariel! Get in here."

 "Viv, you know you can always pick up the phone if you need to get a hold of me."

 "Yes, but that would be less effective." She grinned.

    "So, what's up?" Ariel questioned.

    "Your boyfriend works with computers, right?" she questioned.

    "Yep. Why?" She looked at Viv speculatively.

    "And he's pretty good?"

    "Owen's a genius when it comes to computers. Where are you going with this?"

    "I think I may have an issue I need him to take care of," she identified, extremely vague.

    "What's wrong with our IT team? Should I be worried?" Ari looked puzzled.

    "Nothing huge, but a possible bug."

    "If you say so. I can give him a call. He's working on a couple things, but I'm sure he can find some time to help. I'll let you know what he says."

    "Thanks, Ari," she responded, as she watched Ariel leave.

    Was she crazy or overreacting? There was only one way to find out, and that meant investigating with the help of Owen.

Right about now, she needed a sexual punching bag and his name was Luca.

V
ivienne spent
the rest of the afternoon fixing the massacre that had occurred earlier that morning. She was exhausted, but not too tired to see Luca. She would never get tired of their extracurricular activities.

    Luca had kept his head low, and out of sight, for the majority of the day. His office door was closed and, even leaning her ear against the door, she was unable to hear anything. If he was supposed to be evaluating her employees, he wasn't doing such a spectacular job.

    As she was packing up her belongings, she received a ping from her email.

M
s.
Harper-

I
understand
I may be out of line, but I just received a few changes to the proofs from Luca Manning. I wanted to make sure the authorization came from you. I understand he is your superior, however his changes are... out of character of this magazine. I didn't see your sign off on the mock ups, which made me question.

A
ttached are
the documents he sent over. Please let me know how to proceed.

S
incerely
,

Ron

W
hat the hell
was going on? Ever since Luca came to town, strange things had been happening, but why? What for?

Opening the attachments, Vivienne stepped back in confusion. Why had he changed the layout and graphics for the cover and articles for that matter? There had to be some logical explanation for this. Viv knew she was going to get into trouble for her next move, but she didn't want to jeopardize the integrity of the magazine.

Ron-

D
isregard Mr. Manning's requests
. I will handle the repercussions of my actions. Do not worry. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

 
R
egards
,

Vivienne Harper

   
W
hat had
she gotten herself into?

A
t precisely nine
on the dot, Luca knocked on her apartment door. Instead of hitting him with the inquisition up front, she decided she needed to take out a little sexual frustration on her guest.

    "Mr. Manning," she lured, as she opened the door in only her bra and panties.

    "Harper, this is a great look on you."

    "Shut it, Luca. Get your ass in here," she coaxed, as she snatched his collar, dragging him into the apartment and to the bedroom.

    As soon as they entered the bedroom, Luca went to grab her.

    "No." The command felt all too familiar.

    "Alright," Luca agreed with a huge grin.

    "Undress me," she demanded with a straight face.

  Luca stepped around her, eyeing his prey. He placed his palms gently on her shoulders as he leaned in sweetly to her shoulder, a far cry from the other night where their passion was hot and heavy.

  Luca slide one strap down, kissing her exposed skin. Sending chills down her spin, he trailed his lips across her shoulder blades to her other shoulder. Caressing her silky smooth skin, he bit her warm flesh. Running his tongue across the tender skin, he pulled the tiny strap off her shoulder with his teeth.

  Pressing his chest to her back, he ran his fingers down her arms. The delicate tickles raced up and down her limbs. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he dragged his fingers across her tight stomach, up her torso and cupped her breasts. Taking hold of the flimsy fabric, he pulled the cups down, freeing each breast, to rest comfortably in his palms

  Kneading her plump breasts, he toyed with her nipples just to tease her. Vivienne let out an agonizing moan as he pinched the hard tips. Releasing her mounds with a sigh, Luca trailed his hands to her back where he unlatched the simplistic thread. Like rain, the fabric floated to the ground, swimming around their feet.

  Grabbing her waist, he twisted her around to face one another. Luca's expressing perplexed Vivienne; this was not the same man as the previous night. Yes there was still and animalistic feel with each touch, but a simple glance made her question herself.

  Luca ran his nibble fingers up her torso, stroking her smooth flesh. Since their first encounter, Luca had made it pretty obvious he was a boob guy. But, right now, even standing topless in front of him, he was looking directly into her eyes. His chocolate brown eyes bore down on her, searching for some sort of answer she couldn't give him.

    He parted his beautiful lips to speak and, instead, pulled her towards him. Taking her face into his palms, he tilted it slightly to lay sugary sweet kisses across her flowery neck. His kisses were sensual, passionate and thoughtful. He was gauging his actions based on her every reaction to each touch, lick and suck.

    The intimacy began to build like an orgasm, and nearly exploded, when he laid his lips on hers. This wasn't a quick fuck, but meaningful and tangible. The feeling was so overwhelming that she nearly stopped him for fear she might get swept away in the moment. She was caught up in the feeling, and nearly forgot where she was or whom she was even with.

    She had never felt this way about anyone before. She didn't
want
to feel this way for anyone. The risk of having her guarded heart ripped to shreds terrified her.

    Lost in the moment, Viv nearly screamed at Luca when he unlatched his lips. Kissing her chin, throat, breasts, and stomach, he picked her up by the waist and tossed her onto the bed. Before she had time to settle in, he gripped the sides of her panties and pulled them to her ankles and slipped them off her painted toes.

    Luca pushed her legs far apart, and climbed her very willing body. Not waiting for any sort of confirmation, he dove into her wet slit. Vivienne bucked and arched her back at the sudden sensation. Just like his kisses, his tongue stroked her with passion. Something they tried to avoid.

    Flicking and sucking her clit, she gripped his hair on instinct. Drilling his head into her throbbing bud, he took her to the brink and then lay on the brakes. Driving her crazy, he snickered, sending a sinister vibration through her dripping sex.

    Clutching Luca's head, "Luca..."

    "Mmm," he moaned, as he didn't let up on torturing her.

    "Get undressed and fuck me! I want to feel you inside me when I cum."

    Luca practically sprinted to his feet, tossing his clothes aside.

    "Yes, ma'am," he chuckled.

    "Stop talking, more fucking," she ordered.

    Tossing the last of his clothes aside, he stalked his way over to the bed. Lifting her hips, he moved her to the back of the bed.

    "Grab the headboard, sweetheart," he stated, seemingly more aroused then ever before.

    With her arms above her head, clutching the headboard, she spread eagle for him.

    "Like what you see?" she lured him in.

    "More than you could possibly know," he panted, as he thrust into her. As soon as he was nice and cozy, he gripped her hands, holding her on the headboard. With only the headboard to support the resistance, he rolled his hips and pumped hard and fast into her.

    Luca addressing her as "sweetheart" had thrown her and her plan. She needed a sexual punching bag right now, and his endearment didn't help. But, damn, if the sex wasn't mind-blowing. This man knew how to satisfy her in ways she had only ever dreamt of.

    When his orgasm came out of nowhere, he squeezed her hands harder as he crashed his lips to hers. The incredible sensation of his cock inside her, along with his euphoric tongue working it's magic across her own, was enough to push her to her own climax.

    The wave of pleasure ran through his body and pummeled her own. They road the wave, hoping it would never end, hoping the night would never end. Vivienne knew better than to wishful think though. She still had to scold Luca for something complete non sexual and that crushed her. The task seemed impossible.

A
s they crashed
to the bed, Viv laid on her stomach, just looking at an exhausted Luca. 

    "Luca," she whispered.

    He stretched his appendages across the bed as he huffed in exhaustion.

"Harper," he exhaled, as he twisted his head to face her.

    "We need to talk about something that happened today." She dreaded having this conversation, and had ever since she got the email from Ron.

    "What's that?" he questioned, looking completely normal, as if he wasn't trying to interfere with her and her magazine.

    "Ron emailed me before I left tonight," she began. Suddenly, his senses were on high alert. He knew what she was about to say and he looked concerned.

    "Oh yeah? What did he have to say?" He continued to act coy.

    "Luca, come on. I've formed a very tight bond with my staff. Nothing happens unless it goes though my hands first, even if changes come from you."

    "If it's so tight, why does each and every one of them fear you?" He looked at her annoyed.

    "Wait, why are you the upset one here? You were the one who tried to interfere with
my
magazine."

    "Correction. It is Airlon's magazine. It would behoove you to remember that."

    "I didn't bring this to up to start an argument. I'm very detailed when it comes to Empire, and I don't like when outsiders try to interfere with my life's work. Regardless of what your title is,
I
know Empire. I've lived, eaten and breathed this publication for over a decade. As someone who just joined the company, I would hope you would understand."

    "I do understand, but I was also sent here for a reason: to help Empire. As your boss, I would trust you could understand that as well. I have a lot of people watching my every action and, if Empire fails, that's my ass, not yours."

    "We are the number one magazine within all of your publications. I'm not sure where we need to improve. Is that not good enough?"

    "Why do you feel this intense need to not only fight me on this, but to control this conversation? Sometimes things are out of your control, Harper."

    "You want to know why I'm so defensive?

    "Of course."

    "My career is the only thing I can control. I can't control my destiny, or fate for that matter, but I sure as hell can control my career. I am the one that holds the cards when it comes to whom I allow in my life and how they affect me. I know this now.

    “Luca, I had a pretty disturbing childhood. My father was verbally abusive to my siblings and me. His interpretation of love was telling us what pathetic and lazy kids we were. I was working three jobs in high school just to support our family and, yet, I was still lazy. Sweet irony, huh?"

    Vivienne couldn't understand why she continued to talk, or reveal her deepest secrets for that matter. The words spilled from her lips, as the tears began to build up, threatening to crack her hardened interior.

    "Look, I couldn't do anything about my father not loving me, but I sure as shit can control my career, my life and who I fuck.

    “I may seem anal retentive, but, to me, it keeps me from losing my mind completely. What little insanity I still have. The more I feel things are out of control, the more I'm thrown back in time. A time where I was a scared little girl trying to protect my siblings from a verbally abusive asshole."

    Vivienne had never spoken of her childhood with anyone. Even her therapist never got the full story of what really made up Vivienne Harper.

    "As an older sister, I could have and should have done something. That’s just another reason why I do not allow myself to feel too deeply about anything, or allow anyone to deter me from my goals. If I teeter off that rock, I spiral out of control. You. You make me teeter, too, and it makes me feel unstable. Something I haven't felt in a long time."

    Luca had twisted his head, staring at the ceiling in disbelief.