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Rhodi worked hard on the heavy bag, sweat running down his body in rivulets, but he refused to stop. The burn was necessary for him to forget what an ass he’d been to Karen. She worked there, and he saw her every morning and did his damnedest to keep everything professional.
For the first week, it hadn’t been easy. Uncertainty waged in her gaze as she watched him around her. His behavior fell each time Derek teased and laughed with her, but he didn’t make a scene. While they’d fallen into an easy rhythm at work—she was damn good at her job—he struggled to keep their interactions minimal.
When he couldn’t seem to move his body anymore, he exhaled heavily and stared around the room. Adam leaned against the wall of their gym, looking as together as he felt apart.
“You’re back. Everything go okay?”
“I wish I could say like clockwork, but it wasn’t. What are you doing down here?”
“Working out.” He removed his gloves. “What does it look like I’m doing? Painting?”
He whistled low. “Derek was right, you are a bear. What the hell happened while we were gone?”
“Nothing.” He slammed his gloves down and rotated his wrists. “Not a goddamn thing. Now why are you here asking me what I’m doing here?”
“We have the dinner with Emma and Earle.”
He shoved a hand through his sweaty hair. “I forgot. I’ll meet you out there. I have two things I have to do before I can head out.” He sniffed himself. “Namely shower.”
“Okay then.”
Adam left him alone and he rolled his shoulders, wishing this tension would leave him in peace. He snorted. It hasn’t left me since she sashayed her tight little ass into my life, why should it go now?
Tossing the towel over one shoulder, he jogged to the stairs leading up to the first floor and took them three at a time, needing the burn to remind him just how tired and worn out he was. A logical idea, right up until he stepped into the main part of the building and saw Karen.
His breath left him in a rush as he stared at the vision in the floral dress. All it did was highlight the curves God had given her. She had her back to him as she made her way up the hall to the janitor’s closet, her hips moving with each step she took.
No, the dress wasn’t inappropriate for work, not at all. However, it didn’t make him think about work. At least, not as he should be. Working his cock into her. Having her work on top of him, all kinds of those thoughts streamed through his head.
He gave into the hunger gnawing at his heels and strode across the floor and cleared his throat seconds before he stepped into the closet with her and shut the door.
Wide-eyed, she stared up at him, not as much of a height difference given the heels she wore, but he didn’t care if she had them on or was barefoot.
“Karen.” Her name rolled off his tongue, drenched in need and passion.
“You left,” she said. “Just upped and left.”
“I’m here now.” He kissed her. Reached out and sank his hand into the warm waves of her hair spilling down over her shoulders.
She moaned, canting her head to the side and opening for him.
When she nipped at his lower lip, he drew back and stared at her in the lone light above them.
“Tell me to leave, Karen. Right now. God help me, I’ll find a way to do so.”
She spread her fingers over his sweaty chest, nails slightly raking over his nipples, making them harden farther. “If you do, I’ll never forgive you.”
His eyelids fluttered at her admission. “This isn’t right, I’m one of your bosses.”
“I’m an adult and well aware of what I’m doing. Christ, Rhodi, are you going to make me go home and play with myself once more because you’re too scared to take what I’m offering?”
His cock pushed against his zipper. He swallowed.
“I’m trying to be a proper boss.”
“I’ve got three others who are proper bosses. You, I want to fuck me.” She cupped her hand over his dick and squeezed. “I don’t know how else to tell you this.”
“I got the message. And tonight, we’ll do it right and slow.”
“What about now?”
He lifted her dress and backed her against one of the shelves. “Now, I fuck you.”
Rhodi slammed his mouth over hers, taking her with a ferocity that stunned him. Then again, perhaps not, as he’d been in this state from the time she’d entered his life. Thanking the fates that had him only in workout pants, he pushed them down. His penis, hard and thick, sprang free.
“Fuck, you’re wearing a thong?” He skimmed the fingers of his left hand over her ass cheek.
“Works best with the dress.” Her voice’s breathy quality pushed more steel into his cock.
He drew it down until she could step out of them. Taking possession of her mouth once more, he bent his knees slightly until he could push into her pussy. Her sharp gasp had him slowing even more until he had finally sunk his length inside her.
“Shit, you feel good,” she mumbled against his lips.
“So, do you.” And she did. Her snug channel walls held him tight and he could feel her rippling around him. “God, so do you.”
Rhodi began to move. Slowly at first, giving them both time to adjust to the experience. Then he picked up speed. Things rocked and fell off the shelf they were against, crashing to the floor.
He didn’t give a damn, and from the way she moaned and bucked against him, neither did she. Back and forth, fast and slow, shallow and deep, he stroked within her. Face buried into the side of her neck as he pumped, he wished so much he had a bed where he could enjoy her and take his time exploring her body. Her naked body.
She wrapped her hand in his hair and yanked as she cried out, coming hard around his shaft. Her gripping him like that damn near pushed him over the edge as well.
“What the hell is going on in here?”
The door slammed open and Karen froze in his arms.
“Derek, shut the fucking door on your way out.”
“Christ, man, I don’t want to see your bare ass. You do know you have an office, right? Or a house?”
“Derek!”
Rhodi didn’t move aside, giving Karen more shelter from his brother’s gaze.
“All I know is that damn well better be Karen in there with you, given how much of an ass you’ve been to us.”
“Hi, Derek,” she said without looking at his sibling.
“Get. Out.” His voice was low and vibrated with warning.
“I’m going, I’m going. About damn time, you two.” The door clicked behind him, leaving them once again left alone.
When he tried to back away to look at her, she tightened her hold on him, keeping him by her neck, their eyes not on each other. Rhodi nipped her skin and began moving once more. He wasn’t finished with her. And soon the room once again was filled with his grunts and her moans.
He came deep within her and yelled his release into the curve of her neck before kissing her once more, dueling with her tongue and willing her to open her eyes so he could see them. She didn’t.
“Karen,” he whispered once his heart slowed down.
“I should go. I was just getting a few things that were needed in the front for tomorrow. But as you’re in here now, I can come in early tomorrow and get them. That way I won’t be in your way.” She dropped by his cock, her breath making it jump once more as she scooped up her panties and balled them in her fist.
Rhodi watched her. She captured her plump lower lip in her teeth, looked everywhere but at him, then ran out the door. Towel back over his shoulder and pants up, he opened the door she’d just scampered out of, swearing when he laid eyes on his brother.
Derek sat on the desk, legs swinging and a shitty ass grin on his face.
“Fuck off, Derek.”
“I’m just sitting here. She’s gone, bolted like a cheetah.”
“What are you doing here?”
“You’re my ride to Emma’s, we’re late.” An evil glint flickered. “But don’t worry, I told everyone why we were running a bit late.”
He swore and bolted for his bathroom, where he showered and changed in no time flat. Derek still sat in the same spot.
“Why do you look like the cat who ate the canary?”
“No reason.” He hopped off the dark counter. “Ready?”
“Sure.” His skin still hummed with the electrical pulses he got from touching Karen. Not just touching.
That damn grin stayed on Derek’s face the entire drive to Emma’s. As soon as he opened the door, he realized why. His mother had returned and, from the expression on her face, she, too, knew about him and Karen in the janitor’s closet.
“I’m going to kill you,” he uttered to Derek.
αβ
Karen walked into her new favorite place to eat and claimed her usual booth. She didn’t want to stay at her place, worried and fearful that he would show, as well as that he wouldn’t. if she wasn’t there, that wasn’t an issue that even had to be addressed.
“You’re early,” Lila said, bringing over the coffee and pouring her a mug.
“Worked up an appetite.”
“Sex will do that to you.”
She jerked her head up to meet Lila’s gaze. “What?”
“Baby, that’s not a birthmark on your neck suddenly. We call that a hickey or a love bite. Either way, I’m glad you worked up an appetite.” A wink and she was gone.
Karen longed to sink beneath the floor. Instead, she took her hair down from the clip and made sure it covered the mark on her neck. A mark she held mixed feelings about. One, it was like his mark on her, and two, how dare he? She had to work there with his family and didn’t need that there.
Not like I needed Derek popping in the closet while his brother’s dick was in me, either.
In her mind, everyone in the diner watched her. It was nearly ten at night, but she swore the lunch crowd was there and all of them were watching, judging her. Lila arrived with a plate of food and placed it down, then topped off her coffee.
“Anything else, honey?”
“She’s fine,” a deep voice interrupted. “I’ll take a coffee, though, and what she’s having.”
Her insides trembled from that baritone as it moved over her skin, touching places no voice should have the right to do. Rhodi slipped into the booth, sitting across from her, and held her gaze.
“You weren’t home.”
Was it a bad thing—perhaps pathetic would be a better word— the thrill that zipped through her at his statement. He’d gone there looking for her.
“I was hungry and I’m willing to admit I’m an addict for this place.” She popped two fries in her mouth.
“I’m addicted to something at this table too.”
Yeah, that was a bit panty-soaking.
Swallowing as if he hadn’t just released a flood of hormones into her body, she grunted and reached for her strawberry malt. The moment the bite of fruit hit her tongue, she closed her eyes and groaned. Her weakness was strawberries.
His gaze, dark and swirling with passion, awaited hers.
“How did you find me?” She kept the straw in her mouth, suddenly having this desire to keep something there.
“Tracked your phone.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What did you say?”
He leaned back and took the plate from Lila, who sent her another exaggerated wink. “Thank you,” he said to her.
“Anything else you two lovebirds need?”
“Not right now,” Rhodi said with a sexy half grin.
Karen drank more of her malt, wanting to kick him in the shins for flirting. Yet, at the same time, she figured it was just him given how all of the Wilder boys were.
The moment they were again alone, he speared her with that damn gaze. She shifted in her seat, wishing his cock could be between her legs where that damn incessant throbbing had begun once more.
“What gives you the right to track my phone?”
He stretched his legs out beside hers, making sure to touch her body. “The fact that you’re my woman.”
She shook her head and her heart seized up for a moment. She had to take a deep breath and calm herself down.
“Don’t say no, Karen. It’s fate. From that first day we were together sparks and heat flew between us, you can’t deny that. Well, you could, but not honestly.”
Damn him for speaking the truth.
“Still no reason to track my phone.”
“It does in my world.”
“Odd laws in your world.”
He rubbed the inside of his foot along her leg and she struggled not to shudder from anticipation.
“I wanted you at your place, do you know why?”
She had a good idea but didn’t voice that. Instead she merely shook her head no.
He cocked an eyebrow. “Really? Very well, I’ll tell you.”
She couldn’t tear her eyes from his lips as they moved.
“I wanted to be able to pull you tight to my chest, thread my fingers into your hair, and kiss you. Push my tongue into your mouth, feel you tremble against me, and have the pleasure of relearning your taste all over again. Then I would have carried you to either the bed or the couch and laid you down.”
Karen squeezed her legs together and calmly ate another bite of her burger. One that nearly got spit out when he continued speaking.
“I would have stripped you down and put my mouth over that pussy of yours, stabbing my tongue and my fingers in until you came hard, all over me.”
“Stop,” she said on a shuddering breath. “Please stop.”
“You said you didn’t know, so I was telling you. Let me come back to your place with you, Karen.”
She would have had an easier time turning down a million dollars than refusing this man who did such things to her body. Not just her body, but also deeper than that.
“Yes.”
He stood and held out his hand for her after dropping some bills she assumed would cover the meal. One last draw from the malt and she placed her hand in his, allowing him to draw her up. Slipping an arm around her, he led her from the building and walked her to her car.
“Where’s your Jeep?”
“At your place.” He climbed in the passenger side. “Let’s go.”
The drive was silent aside from the motor and the soft sounds his hands made on her pant leg as he drew in tiny abstract patterns. He held the door for her and walked her in.
“You’re not quitting.” He framed her face with his large hands, extremely gentle for his size.
“We’ve known each other for a month, if that. I hardly think that puts you in the right place to dictate to me.”
He used a hand and yanked his shirt over his head, exposing her to that hard torso once more. Without missing a beat, he went for the button on his jeans and undid them.
“Okay, do you want to quit because of what happened today?”
“No, but it can’t happen again.” She gestured at his state of undress. “This can’t happen again.”
He dropped to his knees and undid his boots before kicking free of them. Not getting back up, he gazed at her. “Why not? I won’t blow smoke up your ass and say I’m in love with you, Karen. Not yet, but there is something strong between us. We both know it. I want to be with you, at your side, in your bed, in your heart.”
Shit, he’s good.
“I work for you.”
“You do know couples are able to work at the same jobs occasionally.”
“Now we’re a couple?”
He kissed her belly and she whimpered. How the hell did he move so fast on his knees?
“What would you call us?” He grazed his teeth along her exposed skin.
“Shit, I don’t know.” She gripped a handful of his hair and locked her knees.
He nuzzled her pussy through her jeans and that alone nearly made her come. “Rhodi,” she gasped.
“Yes, baby. Say my name like that. But I want it louder. I want you screaming my name.” He stimulated her through the material, using the seam to assist him in his mission. She had no recourse and no more desire to try and stop this.
“I need you, Rhodi.”
“I’ve been waiting to hear you say that.”
Five hours later she lay in her bed with Rhodi, sore and tired. She lay on him as he dragged his fingers up and down her spine. They’d been talking for a while now after they both woke up and had engaged in another marathon round of sex.
He’d told her of his time in the Air Force and what had gotten him and his brothers to start D.A.R.K. She, in turn, had shared why she’d come out here—after losing her parents she wanted a change. Their funerals had taken all her money and that was why all she had was the car and a few clothes.
He talked and her lids drooped again, she was exhausted and safe. His scent surrounded her, and she gave herself over to slumber that hounded her.
They fell into a routine, and it was the following weekend at his place when she woke, the smell of a lovely breakfast floating through the air as she lay alone in the bed.
Moving slow, she sat and rocked on the bed for a bit until she realized she couldn’t ignore her need to pee any longer. Slipping on a robe, she padded to the bathroom and closed the door behind her.
Twenty minutes later, she exited, wrapped in a towel, the steam from her shower following her out the door. Still not a peep from the front, and she hurried to change. This was her weekend, but she had some plans to get some more things at a few craft stores to make her place look more hers. She’d been unable to turn down the invitation from Rhodi to stay with him, however. The feelings he created within her were something she couldn’t even begin to explain.
Her quick stride faded the moment she left the hall and could see in the kitchen. It wasn’t Rhodi. The woman turned and, in a one-second perusal, made her realize who stood in her apartment, making herself at home in Rhodi’s kitchen.
His mother.
