Office Affair (13 page)

“Jerry, I want that report finished, printed and on my desk in an hour for review. Sue, get Everton’s secretary on the phone and make an appointment for tomorrow morning. Don’t let her make any excuses for him. Not one. And when you’re finished, get Westpac on the phone and make sure the money’s been transferred. Pete, I need every document Everton ever signed double-checked right now. Also, let Alistair know Ben and I are dealing with the fallout right now, and I’ll get back to him in an hour with a game plan. Now move it. Go.”

She watched, gratified as all three of them ran to carry through on her instructions, then turned, marched into Ben’s office and closed the door behind her.

He sat behind his desk regarding her with a worried look. “Problems with the Everton deal?”

Melissa shook her head. “Not one.” She dumped her load on his desk.

He narrowed his eyes, obviously concerned. “Didn’t look that way to me.”

“Good. Then it won’t look that way to anyone else in the office.” She returned to the door and locked it. Thank God the only window to Ben’s office overlooked another building and not the corridor of their offices.

Ben sat up straight. “Care to tell me what’s going on?”

“It’ll be easier to show you.”

As she crossed the room, she looked into Will’s office. There he was, sitting at his desk. She smiled, once, and gave him not another thought.

“Show me what?” Ben swiveled his chair around to face her as she walked.

“This.” She eased onto her knees in front of him, pushed his legs apart and shuffled in close.

“Mel…”

“See, it struck me this morning, that for everything you and I have done together, or done over the phone, there’s one thing we haven’t tried yet.” She kept her gaze pinned to his as she spoke, watching his eyes grow black as night.

“There’s an office full of people right on the other side of my door,” Ben warned. But that was all he did. He didn’t walk away. Or push her away. Or try and still her hands as she worked on his belt, button and zip. Nor did he try to hide his growing erection.

“And most of them are, at this moment, trying to sort out a nonexistent crisis.”

“It’s the middle of the day, sweetness. A long way away from ten o’clock.” He lifted his arse up off the chair, so when she tugged on his pants and boxers, she met with no obstruction. His cock popped up to greet her watering mouth.

“Very good, Cowley.” She nodded her approval and folded one hand around his balls and the other around his erection. “You worked that out so quickly. I can see you must have shined in your math classes at school.”

“Sarcasm, Mel?”

“Desire, Cowley.”

“For math?”

“For a taste of you.”

His cock jerked in her hand. “Carry on speaking like this, and you won’t just get a taste. You’ll get a mouthful.”

“Exactly what I’d hoped for.”

A bead of moisture trickled from the slit of his cock. “Anyone could walk in.”

“The door’s locked.”

“Anyone can hear.”

“Stop speaking and there won’t be anything to hear.”

Ben shut up. And then groaned low in his throat as she took him into her mouth, one rigid inch at a time.

“Not gonna last, sweetness,” he warned. “Been waiting almost a week to come inside you again.”

She didn’t answer. Couldn’t. Not with her mouth as full as it was. She dove into the task at hand, giving it her everything.

It didn’t take long. Minutes maybe, before Ben’s moans filled her ears, before his hands clasped her head and held her face still while he thrust gently into her mouth.

She sensed the restraint in his movements. Knew he held back, restricting his thrusts for fear of choking her.

She was having none of it. He’d given her everything sexually up until now, held back nothing. He’d wrought orgasms from her with his mouth and his hands and his cock. It was only fair she give him back just as much.

She opened her mouth wider, and the next time he thrust inside, she caught his dick and swallowed.

“Holy fucking hell.”

His shout was gratifying, although Melissa feared for just a second it would attract attention.

Then he pulled back and thrust again, and she forgot about the attention and focused on his cock. On the way it slid further and further down her throat. On the way his flavor exploded over her taste buds, salty, musky. He tasted like pure, unadulterated man.

She focused on the way his low groans filled the office, and how his thrusts intensified. Focused on keeping her cheeks hollowed, sucking him when he drove in and caressing him as he pulled out.

“Gonna come, sweetness.” He clutched her face tighter, thrust faster. His voice was hoarse, and when she peeked up at his face, his eyes were closed, his head thrown back.

She sucked harder.

“Love…coming inside you,” he rasped. “
Ahh… Fuck!”

The words stopped, just like that. His cock pulsed in her mouth. Once, twice, and a burst of slippery fluid slid down her throat. Then another. She held off while she could, letting his orgasm flow, letting the pleasure take him, but when come began to spill from her lips, and she had no choice, she swallowed. Once.

Ben cried out and jerked. Another burst of fluid filled her mouth. God, she’d wanted a taste and he was providing her with a healthy one. A delicious one.

He pulsed once more in her mouth, and the rush of fluid trickled away to nothing. The next time she swallowed, he pulled away from her.

“Too…sensitive,” he gasped as she let his cock go.

Melissa leaned back on her haunches and watched as he struggled to catch his breath.

He watched her right back. Watched her wipe her lips with her thumb and forefinger, scooping off any come that had slipped out while he exploded and then lick those same fingers clean.

“Ya did that in broad daylight,” he commented raggedly.

“Appears so.”

“With the entire office right on the other side of the door.”

Melissa nodded. “I did.”

“Know what I reckon, sweetness?” Ben’s eyes were glazed, his chest heaving.

“Nope. Tell me.” She licked her lips, tasted his cock again, his desire and his passion.

“I reckon I’m falling in love with you.”

Melissa tried to respond. God help her, she tried. But she couldn’t. She just sat where she was, speechless. Her mouth gaped open, and she stared at Ben.

“Nah, scratch that. I reckon I fell in love with you the first time you walked into my office and let your hair down.” He nodded. “No doubt about it. That’s the exact moment I fell in love with you.”

Melissa hid in her office for the rest of the day. She took just enough time to rinse her mouth out and assure her staff the crisis had been resolved, then she hightailed it to the safety of her desk and chair.

Not that she got any work done. Work was about the last thing on her mind.

Ben loved her?

Her?

It wasn’t possible. Men like Ben didn’t fall in love with women like her. They respected her business acumen from afar, or enjoyed her body from up close, but that was as intimate as they got with her.

She didn’t let them any closer. Knew she’d only fail them if she let them in.

Just like she’d failed Thomas—and herself—all those years ago. A shard of glass cut her from the inside. God, she didn’t want to think about Thomas. Didn’t want to go there.

She thought about Ben instead, but then remembered what he’d said and so thought about the weather. Or tried to, anyway. But it was too late. She’d jumbled up Thomas and Ben in her mind, and now she couldn’t stop thinking of either of them. Couldn’t stop remembering the disappointment in Thomas’s expression, or fearing the disastrous way things would end with Ben.

Because they would end. No way could they continue to see each other now. The last thing she needed in her life was a man who loved her. One who would make demands on her time, distracting her from making partner.

The minutes dragged, the hours felt like days. She counted each one until she could escape the prison that her office had become. A hell she’d helped create. If she’d just left Ben alone she wouldn’t be in this situation now.

At five thirty she promised herself that come six, she could escape. She’d get out of the city center, get as far away from Ben as she could go. Find safety somewhere else, perhaps with one of her sisters? Perhaps she could—

The door flew open, cutting off any further thought.

“Get your things, Mel. We’re leaving.”

Her heart slammed into her ribs. “Pardon?”

“I’m tired of you running. Tired of you pulling away every time I make some leeway with you. This time you don’t have a choice. I’m not letting you run. So get your stuff, and let’s go.”

She glared at Ben. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Yep, you are. We’re going to walk out of the building together, while it’s still busy and everyone can see us, and we’re going to go sit somewhere nice and quiet and talk this out.”

“There is nothing to talk about. You crossed a line today, a line you should never have crossed, and that can only mean one thing. This…” she waved her hand between them, “…thing, affair, whatever it is, is over. You changed the rules, changed the game, and I’m afraid the new game doesn’t suit me. So, while it’s been fun—and it has been fun—it is now over.”

“This game is so far from over it’s a joke. Now either grab your things and walk calmly out of the office with me, or I’m going to pick you up and carry you out of here. And on the way, I
will
stop in reception and kiss you. On the mouth, with tongue, for everyone to see.”

As he spoke, he stood straighter, showing her his full height and the impressive width of his chest and shoulders. Melissa knew, without a shadow of a doubt, he would have no physical trouble carrying through on his warning.

She turned her back on him. “Your threats don’t scare me. I’m not the only one with a professional reputation to protect. There is no way you’d carry through on them. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like you to leave.”

“Damn it, Sparks. You’re too fucking proud for your own good.”

Before she knew what was happening, Ben had lifted her up and slung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. A freaking sack of potatoes!

Instinct made her struggle. She slapped at his back and tried to kick him, hard, where she knew it would do the most damage, but he wedged an arm around her knees, held her legs in place and headed for the door.

Panic struck.

He was going to do this.

“No, Ben. Wait!” She tugged frantically at his shirt.

He paused.

“Okay, I’ll come with you. But I’m going to walk out of the office—you’re not going to carry me.”

“Not just out of the office, sweetness. You’re going to come with me to a restaurant, and we’re going to talk.”

Melissa shook her head fiercely.

Ben shrugged and took another step.

“Okay, okay, damn it.” Damn the man. “Fine, I’ll walk with you to the restaurant.”

“And sit beside me in said restaurant while we talk.”

“And sit beside you in said restaurant while we talk.” She fumed in silence.

“Good.” He slid her down the front of his body, letting her find her feet. But the set down was slow, and as she slid, he pressed her close against a bulge in his pants. When she stood on her own two legs, he didn’t let her go. He kept her pinned against him.

She glared at him, staring daggers into his amused eyes. “You’re enjoying this?”

“I had your arse in my face and your legs dangling around my cock. What’s not to enjoy?”

“You’re turned on.” Her voice was laced with accusation.

“Course I am. Your body’s pressed against mine, your perfume is making me crazy, and I’m in love with you. Who wouldn’t be turned on under the circumstances?”

Oh, God. Who wouldn’t be, indeed? Her own traitorous body was beginning to show all the signs of arousal. Racing heart, tight nipples, butterflies in her belly and more than a little stirring of arousal in her now-soaked cunt. “I’m starting to despise you, Ben Cowley.”

“No.” He shook his head. “I believe you’re starting to feel the same way I do, and it frightens the hell out of you.”

His words hit a nerve—a very real, very raw nerve—and she stepped back, instinct telling her to put a little distance between them. “If you want to go to a restaurant, we go now. Or not at all.”

He released her, giving her the space she desperately needed. “You’re good at avoiding talk about yourself and about issues that matter, you know that?”

“I’ll get my bag and we can leave.” She turned and gathered the few things she thought she’d need.

“I won’t let you avoid what’s going on between us, Mel.”

Irritation got the better of her. “Fucking you stupid every night is hardly avoidance.”

“It is, if you insist that’s all we have—a few nights of stupid fucking. It’s more than that. Way more, and we both know it.”