Worthy of Redemption (17 page)

He got very close to me, almost nose to nose. “If someone had come after me and kicked my ass up and down the eastern seaboard after what I did to Emmy, I would have not only deserved it, I would have
welcomed
it,” he whispered harshly. “In fact, I’m still waiting for it. If it takes ten years for someone to knock the shit out of me for what I did, I’ll deserve it no less. I wish someone
had
. It actually pisses me off that no one has. It makes me think they don’t love her enough to do it.

“Vic hurt you, Lily,” he said and his jaw clenched. “He is
dangerous
and he was prepared to do
much
worse than bruise your damn thigh. Trust me on that. I had to make sure he understood that hurting someone I love is not acceptable.”

I was stunned. I looked everywhere else but at his face, because I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know whether or not to address the fact that he wishes someone would kick his ass for what he did to Emmy, or if I should address the fact that he knew so much more about Vic than I realized. Hell, I didn’t
even want to touch the love thing with a ten foot pole.

I noticed that the woman at the yogurt was paying way more attention to us than the y
ogurt, not even having the shame to look away when I caught her staring.

“What the fuck is your problem?” I snapped at her. That made her pay atte
ntion to her fermented milk.

“Come on,” Kyle sighed, ushering me along with one hand on my back to keep me from willfully and knowingly kicking the yogurt lady’s ass.

We moved on a little ways. I stood by the cart with my arms crossed over my chest while Kyle grabbed eggs. We left the dairy and moved into meat and seafood. We discussed what cuts of meat to buy for a quick meal after work, what to eat over the weekend, and had a small, hostile argument about what brand of chicken to buy, but neither of us brought up the previous conversation in the dairy department.

At the front registers while we waited in line, Kyle pulled me into his arms and without any hesitation, he bent his head to meet my lips for a full on tongue to tongue public display of affection. Whatever iciness that had lingered from his ea
rlier speech was instantly melted away by his sexy mouth. After a moment, the kiss ended, but his lips were still lightly pressed to mine. I could feel the smile on his mouth.

“That’s a first,” Kyle said.

“What’s that?”

“Kissing my girl in public.”

My heart did a stupid flopping thing at his words. “I understand why you couldn’t make out with Emmy in public,” I said. “But what about Jessyca?”

“Jess was an ice queen,” he said with finality. “I don’t want to talk about Jess or…or Em…” His brow pulled together as he struggled to say her name.

“Okay,” I conceded. Reluctantly, I turned away from him to start loading up the conveyer belt.

When we got back to the penthouse, we had to make a second trip back to the car to get the rest of the groceries. As soon as we got through the door, Kyle dropped his bags on the floor, put his hands on my face and kissed me again. I dropped the bags I was holding, knowing damn well one of them was holding the eggs. I slid my hands into his jacket, over his hard chest and up his bulging arms and started to take it off of him. He released my face and allowed me to strip him of the jacket. He hurried me out of the hoodie, only breaking the kiss long enough to pull the hoodie and t-shirt over my head. I in turn pulled on the hem of his t-shirt and pulled away quickly to rip it off of his head and toss it aside.

Kyle’s hands worked quickly to unhook my bra and pull it down my arms. He pushed me against the door as his tongue continued to assault my own. When he pulled away, I was about to protest, but he ducked his head and inhaled a breast into his mouth. His tongue swirled around my nipple before giving it a hard flick. We both groaned when my nipple grew harder on his tongue. I cried out when his teeth nipped at me, but he instantly relieved the pain with his tongue.

Not wanting to ignore the other breast, he pushed them together and tried to get both of my nipples into his mouth at the same time.

“I love your gorgeous tits,” he growled before sucking a nipple into his mouth.

He released my nipple with a wet sound and started to kiss down my belly. A moment later he was
on his knees slipping my jeans down over my thighs. I kicked my sneakers off and stepped out of my jeans and panties. Kyle gently caressed the bruise Vic had left on my leg and then kissed it with care. His hand traveled over my thigh and then hooked under my knee. He raised my leg and put it over his shoulder. He gazed up into my eyes as he leaned forward and licked my sex from my entrance to my clit.

I let out a long, low cry of pleasure when his lips closed over my clit. I put my hands in his dark hair and pressed his head closer. He growled as his suckling on my clit grew harder. When he slipped two fingers inside of me, my orgasm was instantaneous. I rocked my hips against his face as I screamed out his name.

He pulled away slightly to watch his fingers sliding in and out of me.

“You’re so wet, Lily,” he said in awe. “This is all mine,” he groaned when my orgasm became evident on his slick fingers.

He rammed his fingers deep inside of me and rubbed at the sensitive area that only Kyle has been able to discover with ease. He leaned forward and started flicking my clit with his glorious tongue. The building sensations inside of me were almost too much to bear.

“It’s too much,” I panted to Kyle, trying to pull his face away from my sex. “It’s too much!” I screamed as the nerve endings in my body went into overdrive.

My body rocked and jerked violently as I had the most powerful orgasm of my life. Kyle groaned constantly as he licked away my orgasmic nectar. When I was sure my legs were going to give out, Kyle pulled his fingers out of me and stood up. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he held me around the waist as he dipped his head to kiss me. Tasting myself on his lips made me feel drunk with excitement.

I heard his pants drop to the floor. For a moment I was amazed that he had so expertly removed them with one hand without me knowing it, but my mind was forced away from that when I felt myself being lifted off of the floor.

“Wrap your legs around me, baby,” he commanded.

My ankles were barely locked around him when he drove his impressive cock into my core.

“Lily,” he groaned my name into my neck. “Oh,
fuck
,” he growled as he moved his hips in a circular motion.

He pulled back until just the tip was sitting at my entrance. “Beg for it,” he whispered.

“You’re not going to reduce me to begging,” I growled and nipped at his lips.

“I’m not going to give it to you until you beg for it,” he said with a smile, but it was a s
erious smile.

“Then I guess we’re going to have a standoff.”

“I’ll win,” he said confidently before crushing his mouth to mine. Kyle kissed me with a sweet viciousness, nipping at my tongue and my lips, completely owning my poor mouth.

I tightened my legs around him in an effort to pull him inside of me, but he was like an unmovable rock.

“Beg for it and you can have it,” he said, before clamping his mouth over the sensitive skin on my neck where my tats are.

“No,” I moaned as he sucked hard on my neck. “Are you a fucking va
mpire?” I growled, digging my nails into his back. He responded with sucking harder.

He pulled back and readjusted his cock so that it was standing straight up b
etween us. I was about to object when he started to rub his cock on my clit. Now I was starting to get frustrated. I really wanted to feel him inside of me, but I didn’t want to beg. I tried to reach between us to guide his cock inside of me, but without relinquishing my neck, Kyle held me up with one arm while forcing my hand away from him.

I groaned in frustration. He chuckled against my skin. The pain in my neck from his su
ctioning was beginning to become unbearable, but the pain combined with the pleasure he was giving my clit was pushing me towards another orgasm, but not fast enough. It was time to humble myself.

“I need you inside of me,” I panted. “Please!”

He chuckled again and didn’t comply.

“Please, Kyle!” I cried out. “I need you. Please, please, please, plea – ungh!” My pleas were cut off by Kyle ramming his manhood inside of me. He released my neck just as I started to come again. He didn’t give me an opportunity to come down from my orgasm. His hands slid under my upper thighs and he started pounding into me so hard my head slammed back against the door with every pump.

Kyle kept his eyes on mine as he fucked me hard. I relished the feeling of his skin moving against mine. His movements made my breasts bounce, causing the sensitive pierced nipples to brush across his hard chest.

“I’m so close,” he gasped and then groaned as his orgasm neared.

“Give it to me,” I groaned. “Give it all to me!”

“Oh, shit, Lily,” he said through gritted teeth.

I didn’t think he could pound into me any harder, but he was slamming my body against the door with each thrust.

“I lo-….shit,” he groaned.

I knew what he was going to say. I didn’t think it was a term I wanted to hear in the grocery store – it had made me cranky, but now as Kyle’s cock slammed into me and his chocolate brown eyes focused so intently on mine,
I
wanted to say
it. It wasn’t a heat of the moment thing, because I meant it.

“I love you,” I breathed on his lips.

Kyle’s orgasm hit both of us hard. As I felt the first stream of semen shoot inside of me, Kyle growled out my name. His ability to speak correctly was torn away from him by this powerful orgasm. “Love...” he growled out, never losing eye contact. Suddenly he shouted as I felt his cock spasm and jerk inside of me, filling me with his hot load. My last orgasm had me near sobbing as I rocked my hips against my lover. My sex squeezed every last deserving drop from Kyle as our orgasms began to dissipate.

As our breathing began to slow, I carefully unraveled myself from him. His cock slipped out with a slick sound. He held onto me until my feet were firmly on the floor. One hand cupped my cheek before he gave me a slow, but passionate kiss. Even after all we had just done, his kiss still made my toes curl.

“You begged,” he teased after kissing me.

“I demanded,” I argued.

“Whatever, baby, you caved.”

“In your dreams,” I said. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my cheek to his bare skin.

“Maybe I’ll stay home tomorrow, too,” Kyle murmured into my hair as he held me.

I pulled away and planted my hands on his chest. “Okay. Who the hell are you and what the hell happened to Kyle Sterling?”

“Ma’am, if you’ll follow me to the bedroom, I’ll explain everything,” he said taking my hand.

“You’re going to kill me with sex,” I whined, reluctantly allowing him to lead me to the stairs. “We have ice-cream to put away,” I objected.

Kyle paused and looked back at me. “I wonder how you would taste with ice-cream.”

Oh, wow. This
is
some kind of Fifty Shades shit.

I walked up behind Lily and slipped my hands under her skirt and groaned when I felt the stockings and garters on her thighs.

“Did you wear these for me?” I asked, snapping a garter.

“Yes, but not for right now,” she said, smacking my hand away.

“Why not?” I asked as I hiked her skirt up over her ass.

“Because we have to go to work,” she laughed, pushing me away.

I wasn’t deterred as I again pushed her skirt up and grinded against her ass. “We have a few minutes,” I murmured against her neck.

She moaned as I pushed her thong aside to push my finger inside of her.

“You’re all ready for me,” I said and nipped at the stars below her ear.

“You’re going to make us late,” she breathed as I
kneaded one breast with one hand and freed my cock with my other hand.

“Better late than never,” I said.

“My boss would disagree,” she smiled.

“Fuck him.”

“About to,” she said.

“Hold on to the counter,” I commanded.

Seconds later, I was sliding into her wet heat and groaning her name.

“Kyle,” she whimpered as she pressed back to meet my thrust
s.

I put my fingers to her mouth and she instinctively sucked on them. I pushed them in and out of her mouth in time with my thrusts. My other hand pressed against her clit as I gently bit down on her neck.

“Gonna come,” she cried out around my fingers.

I gave her one hard and deep thrust that sent her over the edge. I held her around the waist to keep her from collapsing as her orgasm weakened her knees. I pulled out of her
and growled as I shot my load on her ass.

After a moment of trying to catch my breath and just enjoying the aftershocks of the quickie, I grabbed a paper towel and wiped the cream off of her round ass.

“Thank you for not getting me all messy,” Lily said and turned around to give me a quick kiss. “Now move your ass. We’re going to be late!”

I let Lily drive us into work. A client called me on our way out the door, starting my work day. I was still on the phone when we walked through the lobby towards the elevators.

“Lawrence, I’ll call you back in a little while. I’m about to get on the elevator and I’ll lose the call.” I ended the phone call just as Lily was stepping onto the elevator ahead of me. I positioned myself behind her as several more people entered.

Without a thought, I put my hand on her waist and kissed the top of her head. I felt her stiffen under my hand and then she looked up at me with a shocked expression before her eyes met a few other pairs of eyes that were looking on just as shocked. She not-so discretely knocked my hand away from her waist.
I narrowed my eyes at the back of her head.

“Is there a problem?” I whispered in her ear.

“Not now,” she whispered back fiercely.

A couple of people pushed past us to get off of the elevator.

I again put my hand on her hip, because she was mine and I was going to touch her if I fucking wanted to.

“Stop it,” she snapped in a loud whisper that may as well
have been a shotgun blast in the small cab.

“No,” I snapped back.

The cab stopped again and a few more people exited, but not before giving us a long look. Lily didn’t try to push me away again before we made it to our floor, but she was very stiff and rigid and purposely looking straight ahead and trying to pretend I wasn’t there.

When we got off of the elevator, a couple of the women in our department looked at us with wide eyes until I glared at them, making them scurry away. I stopped Lily in the now empty hallway.

“What the fuck?” I scowled. “I can’t touch you now?”

“Are you out of your mind?” she cried. “Are you trying to get us both fired? We are strictly prohibited from having a relationship. Didn’t you read the damn handbook?”

“I don’t give a shit what that handbook says,” I growled. “I’m not hiding our relationship. I did that shit before and I’m not going to do it again, so you better get used to me fucking touching you and kissing you or pulling you into my office for a damn quickie.”

I stormed away from her, but I didn’t miss her loud whisper.

“Asshole!”

I walked into our department and walked to the center of the big room.

“I have an announcement,” I said, catching everyone’s attention. “I am living with and screwing my assistant. Does anyone have a problem with that?”

Several heads shook at once and a few people snickered. I could hear Lily’s quick footstep as her heels hit the carpet in an
angry cadence. I turned around just as her hand flew towards my face. The resounding crack sent her employees scurrying.

“Fucker,” she growled and went into her office and slammed the door.

~~~

Just before lunch, I was called upstairs. I knew it was about Lily, but I didn’t care. I stepped out of my office just as she stepped out of hers. She gave me a hateful glare before walking past me. I walked after her in silence with several pairs of eyes on us.

“I’m probably going to lose my job,” she grumbled with her arms crossed as we waited for the elevator.

“I’m not hiding our relationship,” I said in warning.

“You’re a trust fund baby, Kyle,” she said, stepping onto the cab. “You don’t have to keep this job. I don’t have a trust fund. I have responsibilities to take care of.”

“Lily,” I started.

“No, don’t
Lily
me!” she yelled and stomped her foot. “You’re not going to get fired. I’m just a lowly assistant – it’s my job on the line! How dare you make that decision for me!”

“It’s not just about
you
, Lily,” I snapped and then walked off of the elevator ahead of her.

The secretary didn’t make us wait before leading us into the board room. Inside sat Ned Sterling, Warrick Sterling, and Nadia Hurley, the three top leaders of Sterling Corp. Walter used to be in Nadia’s position before he got canned.

“Have a seat,” Ned said.

I waited for Lily to sit first and then sat down beside her.

“We’re waiting for one more,” Warrick said, watching us carefully.

“Who?” I asked and then “Why?”

“Sorry, I’m late,” Mayson said, rushing into the room. She took one look at me and Lily and her steps faltered. Quietly, with wide accusing eyes, she sat down on the other side of me.

“Why did you call us here?” I asked without hiding my irritation.

Though the three sitting across from us gave me my job back after they realized I wasn’t in league with Walter, they had since watched over me like a hawk. They questioned every major decision I made, picked through my files and breathed down my neck constantly. They didn’t trust me; even after all I had given up and lost to take care of the company and the people that relied on Sterling Corp to live.

“First thing is first,” Warrick started, pushing a few files to the center of the table in my direction. “These accounts had several major mistakes that could have cost us money.”

Lily reached for the files before me. “I know these accounts. I’m the one that found the mistakes. I spent a whole weekend fixing them.”

“Who made the ‘mistakes’?” Nadia asked Lily.

Lily narrowed her eyes at the woman across the table. “A worker who is no longer in our department. The position wasn’t the right one for her, so I had her moved into one that is working out perfectly for her and the company.”

“You approved this?” Warrick asked Mayson.

“Yes, I approved it,” she said in a soft voice. “As Lily pointed out, the woman is doing fine in her new department.”

“Are you sure that she made the mistakes?” Nadia asked Mayson.

“How would I know? That isn’t my department. I don’t even know how to read one of those reports.”

“Look, if you’re going to accuse me of something, get it done and over with,” I snapped. “The employee messed up. I wanted to fire her but Lily
convinced me to just move her, so we did. Lily spent a whole weekend fixing the mistakes as she pointed out and I checked over them myself later that week. No one lost any money and no one gained any money that they shouldn’t have. All is well in the world. What the hell do you want?”

Three sets of eyes stared at me for a moment. Finally, Ned spoke up.

“We wanted to be sure that they weren’t your mistakes and that Miss Whitman wasn’t covering for you.”

“Why the hell would she do that?” I growled.

“It has come to our attention that you are…involved,” Ned said slowly.

“Oh. My. God.” Mayson said, staring up at the ceiling.

“You didn’t know?” Nadia asked her.

“No, I didn’t know,” she said in a controlled voice and then looked at me. “Is it true?”

“Yes,” I said unapologetically. I turned to my superiors. “Yes, it’s true. We became an official couple over the past few days.”

I heard Lily sigh next to me.

“You do realize that there are rules and regulations against such relationships, especially since your last…relationship with an employee?” Nadia questioned.

“Of course I realize that,” I said. “But I really don’t care.”

“Kyle,” Lily sighed again.

“No, Lily,” I said roughly. “I refuse to hide our relationship.”

I refocused on the two men and one woman across the table from me.

“I gave up a lot to keep this company from going under,” I said coolly. “I lost friends, I lost my family, and I lost someone I really cared deeply about. I put in longer hours than anyone I know and bring more profit to this company than anyone I know, but I get nothing in return but a pat on the back under your watchful and distrustful eyes.
If you can’t accept the fact that I have a relationship with this incredible woman, than you can fire me. I really don’t care anymore.”

They looked at each other and back to me.

“We don’t want to fire you,” Ned explained. “But we may have to let Miss Whitman go or move her to another area. We can’t have this outright disregard for rules.”

“Actually,” Mayson surprised me by speaking up. “Mr. Sterling’s department is doing much better than any other department in the building right now. It runs like a well-oiled machine and even with a less than full staff, they are running at 97%
efficiency. That’s not perfect, but that’s pretty damn close to perfect. If you move or fire Lily I guarantee that number will drop. I don’t condone their disregard for the rules, but I also agree with Kyle. You all know that he went through a lot of sh…stuff…and let’s be honest. You put him through more headaches than necessary and he still keeps everything rolling smoothly. I think you’re going to have to overlook this one.”

Again the three of them looked at one another.

“I think we need to have a private chat,” Nadia said, getting to her feet. She walked out of the door, followed closely by Ned and Warrick.

The door had barely closed before both women were on me.

“You asshole!” Mayson yelled. “Can you stop fucking your assistants!”

“I told you they would want to fire me!” Lily yelled and punched me in the arm.

“Dick!” Mayson spat and shoved me.

“Asshat!” Lily yelled.

I sighed loudly and ran a hand over my face. This was bullshit. I was getting the shit beat out of me by these women while they stood outside deciding my fucking fate. I stood up, pushing my chair back so hard that it crashed into the wall behind me. I started around the table, but the three superiors re-entered the board room. They didn’t sit down, but stood near the door.

“You can keep your position, Miss Whitman,” Nadia said, though she didn’t seem happy about it. “You are allowed your…relationship
…but we ask that you not make it so damn obvious to the rest of the company until we can make some adjustments on the regulations. Public displays of affection are unwelcome and unnecessary. Furthermore, when you are with a client, you are to be one hundred percent professional. The clients do not need to be aware of your relationship.”

“This is only temporary,” Warrick warned.

They left without another word.

“Well, that was fun,” Mayson said dryly as she got up to leave.

“I’m sorry,” I said to her. “I didn’t expect you to be dragged into this.”

“I don’t even want to talk to you or you right now,” she said waving her arms. “Once again I have to picture your tongue flopping around in a friend’s mouth and…I just can’t stomach it.” She put a hand to her stomach and quickly left the room.

Lily stormed past me and out of the room. I followed behind her as she bypassed the elevators where Mayson was waiting and took the stairs.

“Lily,” I called after her as she moved down the stairs.

At the next landing, she spun around suddenly and shoved me against the wall. She stood on her toes to reach my mouth and kissed me hard. I put my hands under her ass and lifted her. She wrapped her legs around me and I turned around so that I could hold her up against the wall. Her skirt had risen up her thighs. I pushed it up further and tore her lacey white panties off of her. Quickly I unzipped my pants and pushed my hard cock inside of her. She panted as I fucked her hard against the wall and kissed her neck.