––––––––
He drank more than he should have that night. Justin had never been a big fan of alcohol. It dulled the senses and made rational men lose their way. But he’d already lost his, so there wasn’t much else that could go wrong. He’d done it. Sold out as it were, and there didn’t seem to be an alternative as to how to make it all right again.
Bethany Marcus was going to be his wife. He’d be stuck with her until death parted them, and that thought was enough to send any sane man to the bottom of a bottle. He made his stumbling way back to Reese Enterprises, not because he wanted to be there, but because he had nowhere else to go. It was around 10:00 pm, and most of the staff had already gone home. The only ones there to see him make his broken way to the 12th floor were those who had nothing to go home to.
They were just like him, and they turned away rather than speculate about what could have brought him so low. When he finally reached his office door he was surprised to see light streaming from beneath the heavy oak. At this time of night it should have been dark, especially since he’d called to send Stan home hours ago when he realized that he wouldn’t be coming back in that day.
Too busy making wedding preparations and finalizing the details of his contract with Bethany and her father. As of 3:00 that afternoon, with just the flourish of his pen and a handshake, his company had been saved. He’d gotten the information he’d needed to keep everything from going all to hell and in just three months he’d be a married man.
The reminder was enough to make him wince.
Opening the door, he stepped into his office, half expecting to find it empty. He was pleasantly surprised when he realized that she was there. Sitting behind his desk as if she owned it and reading through a stack of papers.
“Rei Donovan.” Her name was like candy in his mouth, round and sweet. “What are you doing here so late?” He grinned at her and watched in amusement as she scrambled to her feet, the papers clutched to her breasts.
“Mr. – Sir – Justin.” She stumbled over the words and her face flushed dark in embarrassment. “Hello.” She said finally, clearly determined to behave normally. “I was just going over some of your old files. Trying to get a feel for how things worked.”
His brows rose, and leaning against the doorframe he nodded his head in mock solemnity.
“Admirable.”
She blushed again and not for the first time, he found his gaze roaming over the lithe figure. She wasn’t a tall woman, but she boasted a sensual grace that caught the eye. Her eyes were a deep, dark brown framed by a thick fringe of lashes. There was a small beauty mark on the side of her face, right below her eye that gave her an old school glamour that he liked. He was as fascinated by that mark as he was by the plump curve of her bottom lip and the flawlessly rich caramel color of her skin. Her hair was a mass of curls, lustrous and dark, that fell to her shoulders and his hands curled into fists at his sides. Hungry for the feel of them. He wanted to sink his fingers into her hair, jerk her head back, and explore that mouth. It had been the only clear thought he’d had since the moment he’d met her, and now he couldn’t help but think that she was even further out of his reach now than she’d been before.
Or...was she?
This morning he never would have touched her. She was his secretary, a subordinate, and therefore off limits according to pretty much every sexual harassment class he’d ever taken. But now...now things were different.
He felt reckless, almost wild.
He hadn’t thought he’d mind it, planning his life around other people. It had always been his goal to be successful, to be influential, and to touch lives. He’d been blessed over the years to be able to do just that. His employees were like his children, his company his wife. These people, this job, was his family and when it came to protecting it he’d never felt cheated.
Until now.
Once again he’d been forced to give something up, to sacrifice his wants for the good of the many. He could never love Bethany. She was too cold for that. Even if he could grow to feel some type of affection for her, that didn’t change the fact that she’d be incapable of returning the sentiment. She’d lied about having breast cancer just to keep him around all those years ago when he’d first wanted to break things off. The only reason he’d found out any different was because he’d overheard her talking to her doctor over the phone one day.
Knowing that he’d have to spend the rest of his life with that sort of person made him view things a little differently. He only had a few months left before he had to live up to his end of the contract. A few months and then he’d be back to doing his duty. Back to living for other people. Just once in his life he wanted to do something unpredictable.
Unplanned.
Something just for himself.
Just to see what it felt like.
Why not start with a little interoffice affair?
Why not start with Rei Donovan with her wide hips and perfectly rounded ass?
She was still talking, and with a conscious effort Justin pulled himself from his inner thoughts to focus on what she was saying.
“-just doesn’t make sense.” Holding up one of the graphs she scowled at it. “Your numbers just don’t add up. It could be that I’m not doing the math right, but your return is much lower than what was projected, especially considering the deals you made this year.”
He’d stopped listening again. What did any of it matter now anyway? Yes his returns had been lower than projected. So low that the company had been spiraling towards bankruptcy without him even realizing it.
But things were fixed now.
Saved.
All hail, the conquering hero.
Justin’s smile was a bitter twist of the lips and coming fully into the room he closed the door behind him, and locked it. Rei didn’t notice. She was too busy shaking her head at the papers in her hands in rising disbelief.
“With these numbers you should have started laying off employees months ago, not hiring new people and paying for retirement packages. You even gave some of these people raises, and I don’t even want to get started on the donations.” She looked up at him and her brow was furrowed in an odd mixture of approval and reprimand. “Do you have any idea how business works? How money works? You can’t spend what you don’t have.”
He shrugged, crossing the room in a few long strides as he spoke.
“At the time, I was under the impression that I did have it Ms. Donovan. All the evidence pointed to it anyway. I’m not sure what files you’re looking at, but I assure you they aren’t the ones my accountants and board members provided for me.” He snorted, “I’m not nearly as incompetent as you seem to think.”
Confused now, she blinked down at the files in her hand. “Oh. Then...these must be for something else. Or maybe their examples? Dummy files even. But why would he...?” her voice trailed off and she bit her bottom lip.
That, as they say, was that.
He watched the way her teeth sunk into the plush flesh of her lip, and the rest of his common sense went right out the window. He covered the last of the distance between them in the span of a breath. Then his hands were in her hair, fingers lost in the weighty mass of curls as his lips sought and found her mouth. She was stiff at first but then softened beneath him soon enough, lips parting beneath the demanding press of his tongue. She moaned into his mouth and his hands fisted in her hair, using it like a tether to hold her still so that he could trail his lips from her mouth and down her throat. His free hand fumbling with the buttons of her blouse until, with a growl, he simply ripped the delicate material from its moorings.
She jerked against him, gasping as the cooler air of the office caressed her flushed skin. Her breasts were small enough that she hadn’t bothered wearing a bra and Justin found himself glancing down at the pert peaks of her breasts, dark nipples hardening like pebbles beneath his gaze. His mouth watered and he pushed her back, back, back, until her hips met the edge of his desk, until he could lift her onto the surface of it and watch her back arch as his tongue lapped and teased first one nipple and then the other.
Her mewling little sounds of pleasure filled his ears and he couldn’t help but sink his teeth into the turgid flesh in his mouth. Listen to her cry out as sensation shot through her at the contact. She trembled under him, tits jerking with the movement so that he punished her just a little bit more. Rolled her nipple between his teeth and laved the surface of it with his tongue. Pulling back all at once so that he could blow his breath, hot and moist, over the sensitive nub and hear her sob his name.
‘Yes’, he thought, ‘I like that.’
Her sensible pants suit was I the way. A hindrance, an unnecessary addition for what he had planned. Pulling away from her torso he grabbed the waistband of her slacks and began tugging them down. Ignoring the way the buttons strained when he forced them past her hips. Her legs worked, helping him slide the pants the rest of the way down so that she could kick them aside. Her panties followed and soon after he found himself gazing down at Rei Donovan in all her naked glory
She was all wide hips and coconut scented flesh. Strong thighs and a waist that would have given the impression of an hourglass if her breasts hadn’t been so delectably bite sized. Placing his hand on her abdomen he couldn’t decide what he liked better, the way she whimpered as his fingers trailed down to slip between the lips of her pussy or the contrast of light on dark skin.
As he slipped his finger inside of her and watched the digit disappear between the ripe pink folds of her cunt, he decided that both had their merits. She was tight around his finger; he could feel her inner walls working, clamping around him until she grew used to the invasion. When he felt liquid heat dripping into his hand he added a second finger and watched her teeth sink into her lip and bliss transform her face.
It was a pleasure, watching every sensation cross her face. Her features spoke more clearly than any words could have just how much she liked what he was doing, and just how much more she could take. It was a heady thing, having this type of control over a woman. The women he usually slept with were practiced creatures. Not whores so much as they knew what a man liked to see and hear in the bedroom. Maybe some men couldn’t tell the difference between artifice and genuine enjoyment, but Justin could. It allowed him to keep a certain level of detachment between himself and the woman in question. Made it easy for his thoughts to wander to other things even as he pumped inside the unfamiliar orifice of a stranger.
Rei however, was unchartered territory and he found his pulse racing and his mind going blank as if he were a teenager with his first fuck. Her hips lifted around his hand, the heels of her feet coming up to rest on the edge of the desk so that her thighs fell wide and her pussy was on full display. Burying his fingers deep within her, he bent his head and kissed her, feather light, on the bundle of nerves that made up her clit.
She shuddered, hands clenching at her sides and he rewarded her with a long, slow, swipe of his tongue. He felt her thighs clench on either side of his head and placing his free hand beneath the rounded globes of her ass, he encouraged her to lift her hips, grind the center of her desire against his open mouth. He lapped her up, glorying in the feel of her skin and the dancing strength of her body as she writhed beneath him. And when the sultry musk of her excitement had pushed him to his limit, he pulled away.
Rei reached for him, but he slapped her hands away. Watching the expression on her face as he reached down to unbutton the clasp of his pants. One by one he undid them, and when he reached the zipper he grabbed her hand and pulled her forward. Pleased when her head lowered and her teeth caught the small silver zipper so that she could undo it with her teeth. As she worked on his pants he slipped off his shirt, letting his clothes fall where they may so that he could press back against her, this time skin to skin.
Her nipples were tight little pebbles against his chest, her mouth and teeth like a brand against the corded muscle of his shoulder and neck. She was so soft beneath him and all of her dips and valleys fit perfectly against the natural rises and falls of his own body. They merged together like a puzzle and when she wrapped her legs around his waist it was like coming home to slip the rigid length of his cock deep inside of her.
She was tight around him, the flavor of her desire mixing with his own pre-cum to leave them both gasping before he’d even managed to push past her natural resistance and sink the rest of the way in.
He held her hips still, watched the way her face worked as he began to thrust home. The head of his cock finding the molten core of her, the center that heralded the mouth of her womb. Watching the intensity of her face he could almost feel it himself. The stretch of muscle, the push, the open mouthed gasp that meant he’d touched the end of her. It was like performing a song. Her body was an instrument, fine-tuned and trembling beneath his touch.
He pushed deep, thrusting again and again until she lifted her hips to meet him. He found his hand resting beneath her thigh, fingers digging in as he lifted her leg so that he could get better access. Deeper access. That was all he could think of at the moment. The need to go deeper, to go harder, faster, to fuck her so completely that she wouldn’t be able to tell where one of them ended and the other began.
Her fingers dragged down his back and she cried out, inner muscles clenching, milking around the length of his cock until his own orgasm hit. It was like lighting traveling down his spine and the sensation of it, the force of it, tore a groan from him. He pounded in to her once, twice, three times and held still. Shooting his seed deep within her and groaning when her hips rolled to pull every last drop of it from him.
She locked her ankles at the small of his back, and unwilling to pull away from her just yet, he clutched her close and pressed his face into the curve of her neck. Breathing heavy, he stayed that way until the tremors stopped and the sweat that congealed them together cooled. Then, rolling off of her onto the desk, he threw his arm over his face and simply concentrated on breathing.
“I-I have to go.” Her voice was hoarse.
“Stay.” He said, instantly alert when he felt her move away from him and get to her feet. Sitting on the edge of the desk he watched her gather her clothes, struggling to pull them on with shaking hands and downcast eyes.
“Rei.” He began, “Look at me.”
“This was a mistake.”
“A nice mistake. One I was hoping to repeat.”
Instead of smiling as he’d hoped she shook her head, still refusing to look at him as she clutched the front of her shirt closed and pulled up her pants. Wildly, she looked around for her purse, only to give it up as a lost cause.
“Rei.” He began, sliding to his own feet and moving towards her.
“We aren’t going to do this again.” She snapped, ire overriding anything he’d been about to say. Now she turned on him, dark eyes blazing angrily and her finger digging into his chest for emphasis. “In fact, it never even happened.”
“It sure as shit did.” He said, outraged that she would be willing to dismiss what had gone on between them. “And there was nothing wrong with it.”
“Everything was wrong with it. Don’t try and sugarcoat what happened to make yourself feel better about fucking your secretary.” She laughed, but not like it was funny. “God. We’re such a cliché. I thought I was better than this. I thought I knew better.”
Turning her back on him in disgust she marched to the door.
“You seemed willing enough to play the part of a cliché a few minutes ago.”
His words brought her up short and she spoke without turning to look at him.
“Like I said. A mistake.”
With that she opened the door, slamming it shut behind her as she hurried away. Justin looked at the closed door for a long time, mind working furiously. Then, slowly, he began to smile.
“Rei Donovan. You’re going to make my life a hell of a lot more interesting.”
********
She practically ran home. Despite how hard she tried not to think of what she and Justin had done, she couldn’t stop picturing it in her mind. She could still feel his skin beneath her fingertips; still feel his mouth on hers, his cock deep inside of her. Pushing, pushing, oh...
She stopped, shivering as her pulse raced.
Then, Rei shook her head. Angry with herself once again.
It had been a mistake. Nothing more, nothing less. She was a fool, thinking that Justin Reese was different from any other man in his position. Did he look at her and see nothing but a naïve young black woman or was he so used to the world tripping over itself to please him that he just expected her to open her legs as his right.
It made her ashamed that she had given in to him so easily. But there had been something in his eyes...something sad and desperate. Like a man drowning and lonely. For a moment he’d reminded Rei of herself and she’d found her defenses falling and common sense going right out the window.
What was it about a fragile man that turned women into idiots?
Rei hated the thought of going back in to work tomorrow. How would he look at her now? How could she even look him in the eye? She wasn’t sure which one she dreaded most. Having to give him the cold shoulder, or having him expect something more out of her than what she could give.
She was so occupied with thoughts of Justin that she didn’t even consider the files she’d found earlier until she’d gotten into bed. By then she was too tired to consider what it all meant. It was a mystery, a blip in the grand scheme of things. Justin had brushed it off, but Rei couldn’t. There was something strange about those files. Something off, and if nothing else, trying to figure it all out should keep her occupied until she could find other employment.
She just hoped Justin would give her a good reference.
********
The thing about knowing what someone looked like naked, is that once you saw it, you could not unseen it. That’s the problem that Rei found herself faced with the next day when she walked back into the office. Justin was standing beside her desk talking to Stan, and for a moment she found herself freezing mid step. Too nervous to draw attention to herself but too stubborn to simply turn around and leave before he saw her there.
Her gaze traveled over his suit clad back, and for the life of her she couldn’t seem to focus on the perfectly tailored Armani. Instead she was picturing what lay beneath it, the smooth tanned skin stretched across lithe muscles. Her mouth actually started to water, and she had to shake her head to clear it of the inappropriate musings. He must have felt her attention on him, because it was right around then that he looked over and saw her.
Rei wasn’t sure what she expected, though the smile he leveled on her would have been at the bottom of her list. Ignoring him, she nodded a stiff greeting to Stan who came to his feet at the sight of her.
“Rei.” He said, obviously surprised to see her standing there. Though why he would be was a mystery. He looked between both her and Justin and his expression became strained. “I need to talk to you.”
Her stomach dropped. Did he know? How could he know?
Her eyes flew to Justin, only to see him shaking his head sadly at Stan.
“Sorry, but it’ll have to wait. Rei and I have a few things to discuss.” He nodded towards his office, and without waiting to see if she would follow, turned and walked away. Helplessly, she shrugged at Stan before hurrying after Justin. Struggling to hide the sense of relief that filled her at the reprieve. She doubted she would like the direction of the conversation they would have had. Stan looked far too serious for it to be anything but bad.
“Close the door please.” Justin said absently, and Rei obliged him. Suddenly reminded that she had another problem on her hands. He may have just saved her from an awkward conversation with Stan (did he know? God, she hoped not), but she wanted to talk to Justin even less. Though this confrontation may be a good thing. At least now she could see what she’d have to deal with from him.
“Sit down, Rei.” He said, chuckling. With a start she realized that she had been hovering before his desk, anxiously shifting from foot to foot and wringing her hands as she examined the surface of it. As if she could see the two of them there in her mind’s eye.
In a way she imagined she could. Even as she pulled up a seat, she thought she could see a faint imprint of her ass forever marring the polished mahogany.
“Rei?”
She jumped, “Yes sir?”
He winced. “I think we’re past all of that don’t you?”
She shook her head and her chin lifted. “No sir. I don’t.”
Sighing, he settled back in his own seat. He regarded her for a long time before he finally spoke again.
“I have a problem.”
Shifting in her seat, Rei raised a brow in surprise. “Only one?”
The corner of his mouth lifted in a little half smile. “So far? Yes.”
“Fine.” She said, determined to play along. “What’s your ‘problem’?”
He hesitated, and she almost thought he wouldn’t go through with it. That he would just let it go. But then his resolve hardened and he spoke.
“I’m not a very exciting man. In fact, if I had any friends, they would say I was boring. Work has always been my main priority. Building my business has always been my only concern. I want to change that.”
She frowned. “What does that have to do me?”
“I want you.” He stated simply, as if it was a normal thing to just blurt out to someone.
“Well you can’t have me.”
“It’ll only be for a little while.”
She scoffed, “Like that makes it any better? I’m not going to whore myself out to you. How long do you think we’d last before you got tired of me anyway? A week? Two?”
Looking chagrined he said, “I don’t think I could ever grow tired of you Miss Donovan.”
Disgusted, Rei threw up her hands. “We are not having this conversation.” She warned him. “Because if we were, I’d be forced to report you to the corporate office for sexual harassment.”
He shrugged. “I am corporate. And as far as I’m concerned, this is more of a business proposition than anything else.”
“How so?”
“You want to run your own company. I’ve seen your credentials, I’ve seen your grades, and looking at you right now, I can see your potential. You want your own business, something you can build from the ground up, and it would satisfy you a hell of a lot more than teaching overseas ever could.” How in the hell had he found all of that out? The benefits of having money and connections she supposed. He took her silence as permission to continue. “Tell me, why did you change your mind about being a business major? From what I hear you were doing very well.”
She glanced away, no longer able to meet his eyes. “I didn’t think I’d be able to pull it off. Not yet anyway. The odds aren’t exactly in my favor.”
He seemed honestly confused, “Odds?”
“How many lower middle class women do you see going on to run Fortune 500 companies? Especially if they’re black?” Not for the first time, the sound of her father’s censure echoed in her ears. She’d grown up in a single parent household, and after her mother had run off her dad hadn’t been all that inclined to give women the benefit of the doubt. She’d wanted something for herself. Something great, and she’d known in her heart that she could pull it off. But it was hard to step out of the box people built for you when the only one supporting you wrote you off as a failure.
“Not many.” He said, finally answering her question. She felt both vindicated and hurt by his agreement. But he finished with, “But things can change.”
“I’m not sleeping with you just to jumpstart my career.”
He winced, “I’m not asking you to. I need a protégé, and who better to start with than you? If things don’t work out you can still go and teach English. No harm no foul. My offer stands whether you agree to share my bed or not.”
“That’s not how you made it sound.”
Justin shrugged, looking sheepish. “Sorry. Things were supposed to head in that direction but I couldn’t pull it off. I haven’t gotten the hang of this whole coercion thing just yet.”
She laughed in disbelief.
It was hard not to give his offer serious consideration. If he would mentor her no matter her decision to sleep with him, then that meant that she could decide whether to go through with it based entirely on whether she wanted him as much as he wanted her.
And the answer to that was simple.
She took a deep, shaky breath, but when she spoke her voice was without doubt or hesitation.
“Ok.”
“Ok?” he blinked, “To which part?”
She looked into his eyes and stood, her fingers reaching up to unbutton the front of her blouse.
“To all of it.”