Staring down the long hallway to Olivia’s desk, the slow roll in my gut reminded me Violet’s little class contained zero instructions on how to begin. Every scorching second we’d spent last night resulted from a catalyst, her panties a means to set me off. Olivia had yet to leave her underwear where I could find them, or else I wouldn’t be loitering in my own offices like a fucking idiot, trying to figure this shit out.
I stood there for an hour, just staring at Olivia’s desk and wracking my brain for the puzzle piece escaping me. A game plan, while not necessary for every woman, was definitely in order for Olivia. Years of experience taught me that lesson.
The elevator dinged, and Violet marched across my shadowed corridor to her office. With her hand on the acrylic bar to push it open, she paused and glanced toward me. I waited for some sort of censure, but she gave me nothing. The very air around her told me to fuck off with indifference. Instead of acknowledging me, she ducked her head and entered her office without even so much as a bird directed toward me.
I hadn’t given myself time to think about what occurred last night. I’d wanted nothing more than to rip down my pants plunge into her bare heat. All the while, my fingers wrapped tight around her slender neck. I’d have bet every penny I possessed she wanted it too.
Until I bone-headedly released her, and the little bubble of what we created popped. And she asked me to leave. Advised me when to leave, inserting Olivia between us like a shield, but a man knows when he should go, regardless. Her face had been a mask of calm, but the edges weren’t completely in place, and when I released her, I’d put the first crack there. She used her anger to rip it the rest of the way open.
I’d shown up at her house expecting, I don’t know, anything but what actually happened. Violet, with her sharp tongue and inscrutable eyes, played a submissive better than some actual submissive women I’d met in my life. And I wasn’t ashamed to admit, I wanted her last night. Every cell in my body had been screaming at me to take her then and there. My brain interceded, and with Violet’s ineffable walk to her office, I couldn’t tell if I’d done the right thing.
It wasn’t Olivia in my mind when I fucked my hand in the shower later that night. It was Violet and the way her body molded to mine so perfectly.
Even thinking about it now fogged up my brain.
Get your shit together, Orsino. Not the lady you are about to try and seduce.
The elevator dinged again, and finally, Olivia squeezed behind her desk to put her bag away, before she hung her coat and scarf on a peg behind. I allowed myself a few moments to watch her, enjoyed a long look. She wore red like she’d been born to the color. I finally went back to my office. Seeing her arrival gave me a craving for a drink. Something that hurt on the way down to dull the nerves I wasn’t used to feeling.
Either a woman wanted me, or they didn’t. The ones I’d chosen were the ones who fell to my feet. Pretty obvious what a woman needs with her knees by your feet. Olivia was my first attempt at a woman who hadn’t thrown herself my way.
Time to join the ranks of mortal men.
I gave her time to settle in before I went back out. She wore headphones now and seemed to be dictating something as I passed.
I entered Violet’s office, and she barely spared me a glance as I threw myself in a chair in front of her desk. “How are you this morning, Violet?”
She narrowed her eyes at me before continuing to type. I thought she wasn’t going to answer until she stopped working and swung her chair to face me. “I’m wonderful, Mr. Orsino. What can I do for you?”
Her formality punched me, somewhere low and sensitive. Was this a game I’d missed, or was she attempting to put some distance between us?
When I didn’t respond, she sighed. “I’m screwing with you, Duke. You came in all ‘how are you,’ and I figured I’d give it back.”
Confusion still battled in my brain, but I gave her the smile I knew she wanted. I sat, trying to analyze why my belly flipped over from the bite in her tone.
I needed to get this over with. “Do you mind if I borrow Olivia for a second?”
She raised an eyebrow and waved at the door. “She’s all yours. Safety first, Duke. If you fuck on your desk, make sure it’s sturdy enough.”
She spun back to face her computer, and I definitely caught a chill in that statement. Something else to throw on top of the questions already stacking up in my head. Hell, after this, I’d need to start itemizing and cross-fucking-referencing.
“I won’t steal her for very long,” I said, standing to button my suit jacket. It definitely didn’t address the desk comment, but I had to let that one go for both our sakes.
“None of my business,” she said, eyes still firmly on her desktop.
I opened the office door and stepped in front of Olivia’s desk. She pulled her headphones off and shook out her black hair. “Can I help you, Mr. Orsino?”
My ego had taken a cut after speaking to Violet, but I had a smile for Olivia regardless. “Duke, please.”
She ducked her head in a blush, and I glanced back through the glass at Violet who remained too perfectly still behind her desk staring at her computer. Anyone in passing would assume she was typing an email or reading. Something I’d have to figure out later.
“I need your help. Do you mind?” I gestured toward my office.
“Of course,” she said, before she slid back, stood, and followed me down the hall.
We entered my office, and I sat on the edge of the desk. My bar was in the corner, and I pointed toward it.
“You want me to make you a drink?” she asked, her forehead drawn up in question.
I laughed and shook my head. “No, Violet thought you might be the one keeping her bar stocked. I’m out of bourbon, and she has a nice one on her bar. Can you refill mine?”
She nodded, a smile growing wide now that she had a task to complete.
I stepped toward her and slipped my hands in my pockets. Keep it cool. Keep it light. “How are you enjoying working with our new CFO?”
She smiled further and seemed to relax some. “I’m really enjoying myself. Violet has an intensity about her, a passion for her work, that is inspiring to watch. I’m learning a lot about what it means to have a demanding boss, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“What do you find so demanding about working for Violet?”
She wrapped her arms around herself and smiled in a way I’d never seen before. “She lets me know what she expects of me without getting too much into the details. I’m free to choose what and how as long as the task is finished by when she needs it. I think too many employers get bogged down in details they don’t understand.”
I nodded. “You mean the details like where you buy the liquor or how you go about filling the bottles.”
With a laugh, she relaxed completely, her smile more genuine now. “Exactly. You have more important things to do than worry about that sort of thing. It’s trust that allows you to give up the reins and let me do it for you. As long as the task is completed, within budget, and with quality materials, it shouldn’t matter, right?”
I nodded, trying to tread carefully. This might have been one of the longest conversations we’d ever had alone. I didn’t want to put her back on high alert.
“And Violet allows you these freedoms?”
“She does. She’s only been here a couple weeks, and I’ve really enjoyed working with her.”
The image of her on her knees in front of Violet came to mind, but I shook it away.
I grabbed two of the empty bottles off the bar and passed them to her. She reached out, but I held tight not yet releasing them. “This is a very important task, Olivia,” I tried to make my tone a little playful. Violet said Olivia liked the game, so I needed to keep it light. But there had been nothing light in Violet’s face as she stroked Olivia’s hair. “I am very particular about my bourbon.”
She nodded, eyes going wide. I let myself graze her fingertips as she took the bottles.
“Was there anything else I could do for you, Mr. Orsino?”
“How many times am I going to have to ask you to call me Duke?”
She ducked her head, a pretty flush going into her cheeks. “I’m sorry, sir. It’s a hard habit to break.”
I took a deep breath and stepped a little closer. Not crowding her, just closing proximity so I could speak softer. “Now, you calling me ‘Sir’ is another story entirely.”
She blinked a few times in rapid succession before turning away and heading toward the door. She threw back a smile and said, “I’ll just go get these filled, Mr. Orsino,” before she ducked out.
I plopped down on my couch and stared at the door. That went as well as I expected.
A minute or two passed, and I refocused to find Violet standing in my doorway, one shoulder braced against the frame. And in a flash, I saw her tattoo and the bare skin of her thighs, then current Violet all covered up and demure. “I told you I’d send her right back.”
She shook her head, but I didn’t know why. “You’re too nice.”
I stood, anger beginning to replace the pent up shame. “Excuse me.”
She stepped into my office and closed the door to lean against it, as if she wanted to weigh in on the situation but keep as much distance as possible between our bodies. “You’re too nice. You need to let her know you can give her exactly what she wants without actually saying it.”
“Did you hear our conversation?” My humiliation.
She shook her head. “No, I saw her confusion when she returned to her desk, and I guessed as the why. You were too blunt. Like most men, you went right for the goods when you should be focusing on her mind. Let a woman see you seducing her in her head first, and then she will fall into your bed.”
The leash I’d barely been restraining broke, and I surged forward trapping her between my hands on the door. “I don’t need you to tell me how to pick up women.”
She met my eyes and my rage with her own. “Oh, don’t you, Mr. Orsino?”
I didn’t know if I did it because I wanted to shut her up or take that fucking smirk off her lips, but I trapped her face in my hands, and I smashed my lips against hers.
The kiss I wanted to take last night, the one decency wouldn’t allow me, but also so much more.
It was part frustration and part anger, and fuck, her lips melding with mine felt exactly as I’d imagined. I swept my tongue into her mouth, and she made a noise like a sob, which seized my already hardened cock and ramped it straight.
I wasn’t kissing Violet the submissive. I was kissing Violet, my CFO, one of the strongest damn woman I ever met. And only that thought made me release her. I pulled away, and fuck me if it hurt to do it. She licked her lips and opened her eyes, drawing a heavy breath.
For a second, something soft stayed on her face, yielding, pliant. Then it fled, and she snaked her hand out and slapped me hard enough to sting.
I waited for chastisement, but she simply said, “You’re goddamned lucky I wasn’t wearing lipstick this morning.”
Then she fumbled at the doorknob and left, shutting it behind her. Shutting it with me on the one side and her on the other.
What the hell are you doing, Duke? I gave myself the mental beratement she should have given me. I deserved more than a slap for my behavior. Trying to seduce Olivia. and then Violet giving me the advice I’d asked for, and I get pissed off, then I kiss her. What the fuck kind of man are you?
I wanted to grab my bottle of bourbon, but the combination of 10 am and the missing crystal meant I’d have suck it up and live with my guilt for a few more hours.
What kind of apology gift do you send the woman helping you fulfill your fantasies? Something told me flowers weren’t going to cut it.