Made in America (13 page)

He holds me half an arms-length away, looking again in to my eyes.

“I’m serious, Raven. Whatever
this
is between us, I’m not good at it. I haven’t been for a long time.”

I shrug. “Are any of us?”

“I’m going to screw up.”

His honesty is shockingly brutal. I don’t know what to do with it. The guys I’ve been with, old boyfriends and such, we’ve always just gone with the flow until things fell apart. Grant seems to want something more. Some direction. A road map to follow when there’s nothing but unpaved ground beneath our feet.

“It’s okay,” I tell him, cupping his cheek. “We’ll figure it out.”

“Did you see the news? They’ve got pictures of us—of you—coming out of that bar.”

“If that’s the most compromising position they ever find us in, I’ll be surprised.”

“That doesn’t bother you?”

“It did, but it’s a part of who you are, right?”

“And you’re willing to accept that?”

His eyes betray a glimmer of surprise. “Look,” I say, “I don’t know what this is either, but for now, let’s just worry about what you have to do to get McCreedy, and go from there. We can worry about it all on Thursday, after you’ve landed the account.”

Grant’s smile is warm, if not a little perplexed. “You’re incredible, you know that?”

I tap him on the chest. “And don’t you forget it. Now c’mon, I got a calendar to clear and then it’s back to work for you. We don’t need Alan.
You
don’t need Alan, okay? We’re going to do this, together. Just tell me what you need and I’ll do it.”

He looks down at his cock, and though the bulge in his pants isn’t nearly as pronounced as when he had his hands all over me, it’s not difficult to tell that he’s still stiff. “Careful what you say,” he smirks.

I roll my eyes and gather the strength to tear myself away from his heated gaze long enough to turn my back and step out of the office, flashing the widest smile I’ve ever had because whatever this is, I’m fucking loving it right now.

- 15 -

Grant

“Tell me about Adam.”

Raven pauses, her sandwich midway to her mouth. I didn’t even realize how hungry I was for food until she forced me to stop working at 11:45. I was, however, painfully aware of how hungry I’d been for her all morning.

“Who told you about him?” she asks.

“Tito.”

“Bloody tosser. I’m going to have to have a word with him.”

I laugh, just as amused by her British slang as the first day I met Raven. Probably even more so, since we’ve come so far since then.

“Don’t be mad. He just mentioned him in passing. Said you guys were together for a year before you caught him cheating on you. Did you love him?”

“I love everybody,” she says, taking a bite of her sandwich. “When I fall, I fall hard.”

“So is it safe to say you love me?”

“Don’t push your luck, Huffman,” she chews.

“So what happened?”

She wipes her mouth and chucks the remainder of her panini in a bag. I know she’d rather be eating a Big Mac, and it’s not lost on me that she’s eating something I prefer to try and please me.

“Met him shortly after I moved here from London. We were at Columbia together. He was charming, dashing—blonde hair, blue eyes—the whole bit. We hooked up, and for a while things were going great.”

“And then?”

She sighs, scratching aimlessly at her cheek while frowning. It’s small, a quick jerk of her mouth, but it’s there. “And then they weren’t. He started pulling away, and I should’ve recognized the signs, but I didn’t. Or I did and just didn’t want to believe them. Then one day there he was, balls deep in another woman, confirming everything I’d suspected.”

Raven stands and snatches up the bag of garbage, visibly bothered still by the memory of what Adam did to her. I don’t blame her.

“That was my first introduction to American men,” she says, looking me dead in the eye.

I wave off her statement. Brush it to the side like a piece of lint. “Come on, men are like that all over the world. American, Australian, Russian, German—it doesn’t matter. Show me a woman who has never been cheated on, and I’ll show you a virgin.”

That coaxes a slight grin from Raven as she gathers up the remainder of our lunch. “Yeah, well. I stupidly thought it’d be different here, you know? America, home of the brave, land of the free. The whole American dream, right? Turns out it’s just as fucked up as every other place in the world.”

I stand and catch her hand. I’m not a patriot. I’ve never fought in a war. I’ve never felt any great pride in the country I call home. For me it’s always just been the place where I was born. “Hey,” I whisper. “I’m sorry that happened to you, and on behalf of American men everywhere, that Adam guy was a fucking jerk.”

She warms to my touch, her features softening. She tucks her hair back behind her ear and steps around the desk, leaning against it next to me. My office looks like a tornado’s run through it, yet Raven remains the calm after the storm.

“But you’re not a fucking jerk, are you?” she asks.

I shrug. “I have been, and probably will be again”

She flinches, slightly taken by my honesty.

“I can’t make promises, Raven. Not now. My life is…complicated, and not just because of my money, or who I am. It’s complicated in here,” I point to my heart. “All I can say is that I’d never hurt you on purpose.”

“Why?” she asks. “Why is it complicated?”

I shake my head. “I can’t. Not yet.”

“But some day?”

I offer her a lopsided grin that quickly fades. “No promises,” I repeat.

She considers my words, staring into my eyes as if searching for something. I stare back, hoping to give her what she’s looking for while at the same time becoming intoxicatingly lost in her gaze without even realizing it. Her eyes are beautiful—gorgeous—and I quickly find myself burning with an overwhelming need to kiss her. It’s not sexual, which surprises me, but rather a desire to be connected to Raven as deeply as possible. To be near her, close to her.

To be one with her.

She leans forward, feeling my need without a word spoken. Her lips meet mine. Brush up against them tenderly as she pulls me closer to her. My body pulses with recognition, sending a shiver down my spine that travels to my balls, making my cock twitch with anticipation. Our kiss deepens as she drinks me in. Her tongue slips neatly into my mouth and she moans, breathing into me. I press up against her, letting her know what she’s doing to me with just a kiss.

“That didn’t take long,” she giggles into my mouth.

I press harder, letting her feel the girth of my erection. “You drive me crazy.”

“Why?” she asks.

I shake my head, never allowing my lips to drift from hers. “I don’t know.”

“Does that scare you?”

“It terrifies me.”

I take her back. Kissing her hard and deep while trying desperately to control myself because if I were to have her now, I wouldn’t want to stop. I’d want her again and again and again. On my desk, on the floor, in my chair. I’d spend the rest of the day fucking Raven like she’s never been fucked before, allowing pressing business to fall by the wayside. As much as I’d welcome the distraction, now’s not the time for one.

I pull to the side, my breathing hot and heavy against the shell of her ear. Raven wraps her arms around me and holds on tight.

“Just promise me you’ll be good,” she whispers.

I close my eyes, allowing her words to penetrate the deepest parts of me, and when they reach my heart I can feel it struggle against the weight of all that she’s becoming to me.

“No promises, Raven. No promises.”

The next time I concentrate on the time, it’s just past 8 o’clock. The day has been hectic, made bearable only by Raven’s enthusiasm. Together we’ve spent an endless amount of time going back and forth with numbers, projections, charts, and forecasts; peppered throughout with flirtatious touching, gestures, innuendos, and looks. I find myself constantly aware of her presence at every moment. Where she is, how she’s feeling. She’s never lost to me. Even when I’m buried in work, she’s still there. At the back of my mind. Her lips, her perfume, her smile, her breasts. All of her. Threatening to consume me like a roaring fire.

I drop my pen on the floor and reach my arms above my head, stretching madly with exhaustion.

“When’s the last time you spent this much time in your office?” she asks, still tapping wildly on my laptop.

“About five years and never ago. I’ve always been a workaholic but not like this.”

“This really means a lot to you, doesn’t it?”

I nod. “You have no idea.”

“Is it just because of Alan?”

Her disdain for him is visibly evident by the way she spews his name from her lips.

“Partially,” I say, dropping my arms back to my side. “It’s just…I want to be the best, you know? At everything. With or without him. McCreedy would go a long way toward adding that extra bit of
umph
to Huffman Financial.”

Raven lifts her gaze from the computer. “Do you always have to be the best?” her head cocks inquisitively to the side. Her hair is a tousled mess around her shoulders, made rough by the day’s tasks. Her blouse hangs untucked from her skirt, with the top buttons undone for comfort, and for torture. She sits barefoot, her pumps long removed and resting haphazardly on the floor somewhere.

Even in a state of disarray she looks sexy.

“I don’t
have
to be the best,” I tell her. “I
want
to be the best.” My eyes travel down the length of her body as she uncoils herself, crossing her feet at the ankles and resting her weight on her palms. Her toes wiggly aimlessly in the air and I imagine for a moment taking them into my mouth and sucking them. Licking them. Teasing every part of her before slowly grazing my way up between her thighs. The thought sends a tremor of wanting desire through me and I shift slightly, causing a knowing smile to cross her lips.

“You’re an animal,” she says playfully.

I growl, darkening my eyes to meet hers.

“Well here, Simba, take a look at these and let me know what you think.” She turns the laptop toward me and I lean over, taking in her projected numbers before feeling a sense of pride.

“You catch on fast, you know that? You ever think of getting in to finance?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. Never really thought about it, you know? Being cooped up in an office all day. And besides, it’s math, and I hate math.”

“Yeah, but you’re good at it, Raven. I showed you the basics this morning, and you just ran with it. I mean, with numbers like these McCreedy is going to have a hard time saying no. You’ve taken the bare bones of his portfolio and increased it five-fold. I don’t know of many senior executives that could’ve done that in such a short amount of time, let alone a cocktail waitress.”

She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, ‘cause us waitresses are oh so clueless, right?”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it. I’m serious, you seem to have a natural knack for this sort of stuff. You should think about it more.”

She brushes my comments away and I wish she wouldn’t do that. Not because I want her to be wooed by my words, but because I see in her a wide chasm of potential just waiting to be filled. She shouldn’t sell herself short.

“Yeah, well the only thing I’m thinking about right now is food. It seems like we ate lunch days ago.”

“You wanna go grab a bite?”

“And come back here?”

“No,” I shake my head and stand, feeling the snap, crackle, pop in my body. “We’ve done all we can today, and honestly, there’s not much left. We can finish this up tomorrow.”

I offer her my hand and she takes it, sending a shiver of awareness up my arm at her touch. I pull Raven to her feet and she leans against me, pressing her chest firm to mine. I glance down at her cleavage, salivating at the sight of it.

“Cat got your tongue?” she grins, heaving it up and down with a deep breath.

I wrap my arms around to the small of her back and yank her closer. “I’d like your tongue,” I say heatedly.

“Oh yeah? And what would you have me do with it?” Her hands reciprocate my petting, traveling up and down the length of my back, almost claw-like.

“I’d have it slide up and down my cock, feeling it wet and hot against my shaft.”

“That sounds like fun,” she purrs, feeling her way down to my ass. She squeezes tight and I groan as my dick hardens at the thought of her tongue all over it. “What else?”

“I’d have it lick my balls, all over. Sliding wet and wild before you take me in your mouth, swirling around my swollen head.”

“I can do all those things,” she breathes, inching her hands around front of my trousers. Her lips find my neck, depositing tiny kisses across my skin. “And more.”

“Don’t tease me,” I command.

“Who’s teasing?”

Her hands make their way to my stiff cock and she grips it tight. Her palms brush hard against it, working up and down with an unbearable amount of friction that has my breath seeping from between clenched teeth.

“Don’t,” I restate.

“Don’t what?” she innocently bats her eyelashes, continuing to rub me.

“Don’t start what you can’t finish,” I dare.

Her mouth retreats from my neck and she takes a step back, still clutching to my cock. Her eyes rise up to meet mine and I gasp, seeing the seriousness in them amidst crashing waves of lust that roll through her irises like a tsunami. My God, she’s not teasing. Not at all.

Without a word, she drops to her knees and begins fumbling with my buckle. She releases it, and whips my belt through the loops, tossing it to the floor. Her hands glide tauntingly up and down my lap, and all I can do is look down at the beautiful sight before me. My cock is a pillar of granite underneath my pants, trying to break free from its fabric prison. Raven’s fingers rise up and unbutton me before gingerly gliding the fly down tooth by tooth. She’s staring up at me and grinning coyly, a sexy smirk plastered on her eager mouth.