Charity's Passion (11 page)

Watching them has me stirring for Justin. It’s completely reconfirming to see a couple that loves as strongly as Justin and I do. I’m missing his lips and hands, the warmth of his arms around me. As if he can read my mind, Justin loops his left arm around the back of my chair so that his strong hand rests on the back of my neck. His fingers press into the flesh, massaging my muscles there.

I remember sitting at this same table one day last year when my ex-boyfriend, Steve, grabbed me by the arm just as Justin came through the door. Moments later Steve was flipping through the air toward the front door and it took most of the men from around the bar to stop Justin from going after him for more.

Suddenly I need to sit on my foot or take Justin into the back. I lift my foot up onto my chair and move myself over it while everyone is busy talking. The relief is instant but not complete. Listening to Justin’s voice as he talks keeps my fire burning, and I want more. As I talk, I drop my hand into his lap. Most of his thigh is under my palm, but my fingertips feel the bulge of something much more fun and enticing.

I catch the furtive smirk that skates across his face and I love it. Now I’m really considering getting him into the back. It wouldn’t be the first time, and I know he can get me off in minutes when we need to be fast.

Maybe if we were alone, but I wouldn’t leave Lena and Terrence at the table like that. For now I’ll toy with his cock under my fingers and think about later when it’s plowing into me, trying to split me in half through a screaming orgasm.

“So you are coming into the office tomorrow?” Lena asks her boyfriend with a huge smile on her face.

“Do you still have those blackout-glass walls?” Terrence teases.

Lena’s smile widens, which seems almost impossible. “You know I do,” she laughs as she leans into him, resting her hand on his muscular chest for balance as she kisses him again. He grabs her face and holds her to him tighter.

The moment inspires Justin, and with his hand still on my neck, he pulls me to his face. I thank God for those lips pressing mine, and I feel him all the way to my toes like always. My tongue has a mind of its own, slipping quickly into his mouth for a taste of him as I try to steady my head.

When I stop kissing Justin, Lena and Terrence are still going at it. We wait for them politely until we see their mildly embarrassed grins.

“Tomorrow,” I begin, “when we start onboarding Terrence’s company, I think I should handle it instead of you.” Lena looks slightly hurt so I quickly continue, “Nothing personal, I’d just like to handle this account, and I think, with your emotional tie into this one, I might have a more level perspective.” Lena chews on it for a few seconds and I can see she’s having a little trouble with what I’ve said. “Are you going to deny you’re emotionally involved?” I ask.

She laughs at me. “No.” She looks adoringly at Terrence once again. “I guess it’s for the best.” His head shaking at her to agree seems to settle Lena the rest of the way.

Now we are ready.

TERRENCE BROUGHT HIS DIRECTOR
of IT, Allen Miskiv, to the office today as he promised. Allen is a thin shell of a man, very nervous and twitchy, but there’s an obvious intelligence when you look through the thick glasses almost buried under his long, dark bangs. Our IT director is working with him for the rollout, deciding on the best way to push the silent install. They’re talking about using Davis Construction’s RMM utility, and since I have no fucking clue what that means, I stop paying attention to them. I don’t need the particulars; I need to know where it gets pushed to and what’s being monitored. Mostly I need to know when they find something odd, which won’t happen today—it never happens right away.

I move away from them and join Terrence and Justin as they discuss the people at his office that he would suspect the most, those that were hired most recently before the issues began. Terrence is accessing his office directly, pulling up the necessary HR files to make sure their list is complete, including not just office personnel that could control their bids, but people from the field that could be related to the site injuries. That list will be for me; I’ll run background checks on every name we get, and probably lots of others Terrence doesn’t even think about himself.

We have Lena setting up all the normal contracts that Terrence will need to sign for the service. It gives her something to stay busy with and keep her mind occupied. She looked giddy when Terrence came in, and she really hates to look giddy in front of everyone—ever. Getting the papers was her own idea, but I see her returning already and the closer she gets to him the bigger her smile grows. She passes him as she comes into Justin's office and closes the door behind her.

“This fucking sucks,” she says to me quietly, making me laugh at her. “I was really looking forward to him being here.”

“Then learn how to control yourself,” I jab.

"Bitch," she says, laughing through most of it.

Lena puts the papers across the table and hands Terrence a pen. She opens her mouth to begin explaining the papers but he puts a hand up. “They’re basically the same as last time?” He asks.

She nods.

“And you say they’re safe for me to sign?”

Again she nods, this time blushing as Terrence begins signing. “Good enough for me,” he says.

Lena scoops up the papers after Terrence is done with them and she motions me to follow her. “I want to show you where they go from here,” she says, which we both know is complete bullshit. I know exactly where the paperwork goes; I’ve been here almost a damn year. She wants to get out of the hot seat for a few minutes, nothing more.

I follow her to her office, where she closes the door. “You know Justin pretty well,” she says. “Do you think if he were hiding something from you that you could tell? Maybe you wouldn’t know exactly what it is, but you would know there’s something?”

I’m silent for a moment, trying to understand what this is about, my mind wondering if she’s hinting about Justin wanting to marry me. That’s short lived, though. If Lena was holding Justin’s secret for him, she would never tell me. This is about something else maybe about herself.

“I think I might notice something,” I admit.

“You know how much I love Terrence,” she says.

Okay, that’s the first time I’ve heard her admit that and I’m a little floored.

She continues, “I feel the same way about him that you do Justin. I don’t want this life anymore; I want the life with him I’ve always dreamed about and didn’t think I deserved. And I know him, Charity, I know him in ways I don’t have words for. Just like you couldn’t explain how well you know Justin, to the point that it is intuitive, I have that with Terrence. What makes you think I can’t tell there’s something more to Terrence coming to Panther than some minor theft issues? I don’t know what it is, but I know he’s worried about something. This is bullshit that you guys are pulling over me, and I’m not buying into it at all.”

Denying is futile—she’s way too smart for that. “I won’t tell you, Lena, not unless it comes that you need to know,” I say. “I love you, you know that. If it wasn’t for the best right now I’d tell you, but right now I need to keep my word. They need to be able to handle this their way.”

There’s some relief in her to just know that she isn’t losing it, that her intuition was not wrong. “Fair enough,” she breathes. “Promise me something, then. Promise me that if it gets to the point where I should know, that you will tell me what’s going on even if the men don’t agree. Can you do that for me?”

“I don’t even have to think about it. Absolutely I will tell you, so don’t go wasting your time looking into this anyway. There are better things you should be doing. If you need to know—you will,” I snap at her in a bitchy tone.

She smiles, un-insulted by my words. “By the way, you don’t get to tell anyone what I said about my feelings for Terrence. I’ll kill you if you do.”

That makes me laugh loudly. It’s so sweet to see her cheeks turning red. I don’t care that she’s not a hugger, I throw my arms around her before there’s any protest and squeeze her tight. To my surprise, I feel her squeezing back. The change Terrence brings in her is wonderful.

When I leave her office, I know Lena is being completely genuine, but I also know I’m going to have to watch her. She doesn’t want to disobey what I’ve asked her for, but this thing is going to eat at her. She’s come a long way, but she’s not used to not having control and knowing every inside detail about what’s going on.

She will dig into this; it’s a matter of when
.

D
espite the fact that I’ve wiped my hand across the mirror once already, the steam from my shower is still wafting around and recollecting on the glass. I wipe it again to find my clean face staring back at me, my hair still wet and pulled back carelessly. The towel I dried off with is now beneath my feet where I’d tossed it to catch any missed droplets falling from my body. It was a long day, but the heat of the water had penetrated deep into my muscles and lifted my tension away while it washed the yuck of our job down the drain. I brush my teeth wielding my toothbrush like a samurai with a sword, and spit into the deep red sink while leaning on the marble counter.

My mind is back on the moment yesterday where I wanted to take Justin into the bathroom at the Grill and fuck his brains out, or at least have him ram his talented fingers into me until I’m streaming down his arm in rivers of satisfied lust. Maybe I don’t need to get dressed; maybe I should just walk out into our bedroom where I left him on our bed and persuade him into playtime.

Suddenly I hear something just outside the bathroom door. I stop and listen, wondering if my ears are playing tricks on me. I don’t hear anything else, my imagination is getting the best of me.

Then the door swings open wide.

Justin has obviously been having the same torrid thoughts as me, because he’s standing in the doorway with nothing on his magnificent body. Muscles bulge out from everywhere, calling my hands to them, beckoning me to sample their firmness. My mouth waters and there’s a pleasant flow of wetness between my legs to match it. Justin’s chest is heaving slowly but deeply, as if the sight of me standing before him is too much for his heart, and that’s just how I feel about him.

He’s too beautiful, too much man.

“You are absolute perfection,” he breathes, ignoring my self-conscious attempt to hide my body. “My thoughts are all you, and when I see your exquisite beauty it reminds me that my memory of you, as wonderful as it is, still never does you justice.”

My knees feel weak. Thank God for the counter behind me keeping me up, without it I'd be a stumbling fool.

“I’m taking you now; I’m bringing you into the gym and I’m going to have every inch of you until I’m satisfied.” He steps closer to me, making my heart race. “Understand—I’m not asking,” he growls as his voice rumbles my warrior parts.

Justin grabs me by the hair and twists my face up toward his waiting lips. My mouth is pried open and his tongue slides in.

This is the caveman that I've been craving.

Fuck me already!

My twitching thighs are yearning for him to be between them. One of his hands grabs my ass tightly and pulls me away from the countertop. Our bodies crush together in a moment of pure heat and bliss, his hardness on my belly. I can feel him with every millimeter of my body.

Without warning he ends our kiss, keeping my hair in his fist and using it to pull and direct me in front of him. “Walk!” He demands. I obey with dripping eagerness. He steers me out through our room and then into the hall before stopping me and pulling me close to him again, his cock riding the crack of my ass. Heat from his mouth covers my neck and then the wetness of his tongue follows, melting me. His fingers dig into my ass as they did back in the bathroom, squeezing and kneading my flesh before rolling over my hip to the front of me where they delve into my wet folds. He never has any trouble finding my clit, and this is no exception as the pad of his middle finger flicks my trigger.

My moans fill the hallway.

“That’s right,” he growls again. “Tell me you like this; tell me how turned on you are.”

“I love what you do to me,” I admit desperately. “I love this and I need to cum; make me cum, Justin.”

Jolts of electricity arc from between my legs to every point of my body and I’m buzzing with energy. The stiff heat of him on my ass is driving me insane. I want to bend over and have it rammed into me from behind. I reach for it and he stops me.

“Not yet,” he says, showing his complete control.

He ushers me further down the hall, still by my hair, until we reach the end of the hall just outside of the gym where he pushes me up against the wall next to the lock key pad. There’s no hesitation, his cock presses through my ass from behind and burrows its way through my labia deep into me while I gasp my appreciation.

“Open the door,” he demands as his hips rock into me.

I try, but my hand is so shaken by my ecstasy that I cannot get the number right on the key pad.