Boss Lady: Boss #1, page 8
Her lips suddenly became immobile, unable to kiss me at all. Her nails dug into me, and her breaths became strained. Deeper and deeper they went, hoarse and quiet.
I rocked into her harder, staring at her face as I prepared for the show. She was shaking underneath my touch, her body prepared to fire off an orgasm that would make her moan louder than she wanted.
She gripped my biceps for balance and then came, panting against my mouth with a quiet moan accompanying it. My cock hardened at her pleasure, pressing against her harder. Her climax stretched on as long as it did when I was buried inside her. Her cheeks flushed bright red, and her eyes closed as she restrained herself from screaming in orgasmic relief. My mouth against hers seemed to be the only thing keeping her quiet.
She rocked her hips against me until the climax passed. She slowly drifted back down to reality, the ache between her legs gone now that she was satisfied. She pressed her forehead against mine as she caught her breath. Once it was over and we could hear the sound of the waves licking the sides of the yacht, we were back to the real world.
Her hands remained on my arms, and she looked down, avoiding my gaze.
It was the first time I’d seen her do that. “Titan.”
“Yes?”
“Tell me what you want, and I’ll give it to you.”
She kept her face down, her hands resting on my arms.
“Titan.”
“You can’t.”
“Try me.” What did this woman want that I couldn’t possibly give? She wanted a strong man to fuck her, and that’s exactly what I could offer her. There was no stipulation that I would mind. If she had weird kinks, I was okay with that too.
“Trust me, you can’t.”
“No, trust me,” I pressed. “I can.”
Nine
Tatum
The girls left with the guys, going back to their apartments even though they’d spent the entire afternoon screwing on the yacht.
I was jealous.
Hunt handed the keys over to his crew, and they took care of docking the ship and putting it back in the slip. We didn’t clean up the mess we made, so I assumed that was being handled too.
We were alone again, and I knew exactly what conversation we were going to have.
Hunt came to my side, and like he had every right in the world, he grabbed my hand. His muscular hand overwhelmed mine, and he led me to the car he left in the parking lot. He stared me down like he dared me to object.
After my little performance on the boat, I didn’t have the confidence to do anything.
He opened the passenger door to his red Lamborghini and got in the driver’s seat. He didn’t ask me if I wanted to be taken home before he started to drive, heading to his penthouse, I was certain.
We didn’t speak on the drive.
I was still in my soaked bottoms and dress. My hair was a mess from the wind, and my nose was a little red despite all the sunscreen I’d put on. It was nighttime now, so my sunglasses were stowed away in my bag.
Hunt pulled into the parking garage of his building then killed the engine.
“Your car is beautiful.” I broke the tension with a simple compliment, knowing the best way into a man’s brain was through his toys.
“Thank you.” He got out and took me by the hand again.
I felt like a couple going home after a long double date.
I didn’t like that feeling.
We rode the elevator directly into his penthouse, the doors opening to a perfectly designed living space with classical music playing in the background. It must come on automatically as soon the doors opened.
“Something to drink?”
“Water, please.”
He grabbed two glasses from the kitchen and handed me one.
I took a long drink, dehydrated from all the wine, whiskey, and hormones I’d indulged in all day.
He drank his water as he watched me, his masculine throat shifting as he consumed the entire glass effortlessly. He set the glass on the coffee table.
I did the same.
I assumed he wanted to get off since he did all the pleasing that afternoon. Getting rid of his blue balls sounded appetizing to me, not selfish on his part at all. He was one of the few men I would gladly get on my knees for and suck his enormous cock—even if it made me gag.
Instead of taking me into the bedroom, he continued to stand there in front of me, his eyes two smoking guns. He suffocated me naturally with his firmness, the authority he always exerted over me anytime we were in the same room together.
I felt like I was looking at a different version of myself. “Did you bring me here to stare?”
“Among other things.” He stepped closer to me, his gaze cold and warm at the same time. “We’ll get to the good stuff in a second. But first, we’re going to continue our conversation.”
“What conversation?”
“The only conversation we’ve been having since we met.”
I brushed it off, wanting to avoid the truth as much as possible. “I’m not selling my company.”
“We’ll get to that at another time.”
“Really?” I cocked my head to the side, challenging his assurance.
He stood in front of me, the smell of cologne and sunscreen wafting into my nose. “Let’s agree on one thing. We’re gonna keep crossing paths, and every time we do, we’re gonna end up in bed together.”
Despite my previous mistakes, I wouldn’t allow that to continue. I’d already crossed too many lines as it was.
“Every time I pursue you, we’re just making it more obvious to the people around us that we’re screwing. I don’t want that, and neither do you. So let’s come up with an arrangement.”
“There’s no arrangement that could work for us.”
“I disagree.”
He would always disagree until he got his way. I crossed my arms over my chest, blocking him with an invisible rope. “Tonight is the last night this is going to happen. I say we enjoy it before we forget about it.”
He cocked his head to the side, downplaying my words without making a single argument. “How many times have you said that now?”
Asshole. “I only let you have me again because I thought that would be enough for you to forget about me.”
“Forget about you?” he questioned. “Actually, you have the opposite effect on me. Now that I’ve had some of you, I want all of you. I haven’t even fucked that pretty little mouth of yours yet. And don’t get me started on that ass.”
The blood drained from my face because it was headed in one direction—south. No man had ever spoken to me that way—and pulled it off.
“You’re hiding something from me.”
A lot of things, actually.
“You want me. I know you do. I made you come by dry-humping you. So let’s not pretend otherwise.”
I wasn’t.
“And I want you too. There’s no reason why we can’t keep doing this—until one of us gets bored.”
The more he pursued me, the more I wanted to be honest about my intentions. The more I wanted to come clean about the monster I was. But I would put my entire career on a platter in front of him—and a butcher knife in his hand. “Hunt, there’s a lot more to me than meets the eye. I enjoy things that you don’t understand. I have a life that resembles the underworld. There are things about me that I could never share. You want us to keep doing this, but honestly, I don’t. If we stayed together, I’d want to make a lot of changes. And trust me when I say you wouldn’t be into them.”
His eyes were glued to my face. “How will you know unless you try?”
“Because I don’t trust you, Hunt.”
“You should.”
“Why? You’re my competitor and a stranger.”
“But I’m also a man, the kind of man who would respect the wishes of his partner no matter what. Above all else, I believe in honesty and loyalty. If you ask for my loyalty, all I ask is you give me yours too.”
My eyes shifted back and forth between his, sizing him up.
“Titan.” The bite of his tone faded when he said my name. “Tell me exactly what you want. If you’re right and it’s something I’m not willing to do, then we’ll forget the whole thing. But you shouldn’t throw this away because you think you know me. You say I’m a stranger. If that’s the case, then you have no idea what my opinions are. I won’t make assumptions about you if you do the same for me.”
Somehow, he softened my hard edges, making me smooth underneath. I didn’t see him as a threat anymore, even somewhat of a friend. He did it so easily, said it with such pretty words. I felt like I could trust a man I didn’t know.
How did he do that?
“Titan.” He stepped forward, completely invading my personal space. His face was just inches from mine, the smell of his body soap still noticeable under the sunscreen. “Trust me.”
Trust was the most prized word in my dictionary. I was lucky enough to have a few people whom I trusted with my darkest secrets, but that kind of comfort didn’t come easily. It took years, decades, to earn that kind of loyalty.
But he was already asking for it.
There was nothing I adored more than being with someone I trusted completely, to have the kind of relationship that was beautiful because it was unknown to the rest of the world. It allowed me to be me—in all my true colors. But loyal men were hard to find. “I’ll think about it.”
Hunt held his breath as he looked at me, approval in his dark gaze. That was the most cooperation he would get out of me, and there was no point in pushing it. I’d given him something I hadn’t given to anyone else. Every person I’d been with had been thoroughly investigated before I’d bothered.
But I was going into this blind.
Ten
Hunt
I finally got a different answer out of her besides no.
Maybe.
It wasn’t a yes, but it would be soon.
I just had to be patient.
I didn’t know what skeletons she was hiding in her closet. I didn’t know what kind of kinky shit she enjoyed. And whatever sinful stuff she was into, I was surprised she was embarrassed about it.
She didn’t seem like the kind of woman who embarrassed easily.
I wondered if she was into whips and chains, being tied up while I fucked her with a mask on. If that was her thing, that was fine by me. The kinkier, the better. I’d whip her ass as many times as she asked.
I’d dominate her like she’d never been dominated before.
Piece of cake.
But if it were that simple, she would have just told me.
Natalie spoke through the intercom. “Sir, I have Pine Rosenthal here to see you.”
I made sure my assistants understood he couldn’t just barge into my office anymore. Even if we had been friends since grade school, that didn’t matter. He could wait like everyone else. “Send him in.”
Pine walked inside, glowering at me like I stabbed him in the gut. “What the hell? Why do I have to wait?”
“You aren’t special. That’s why.”
Pine fell into the chair and rolled his eyes like a child.
I did feel like the adult in most situations. “How’s Isa?”
“Gorgeous and flexible.” He winked. “I can’t tell you how I know that.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“So…did you fuck Titan yet?”
I was fucking her, but the question annoyed me. The basic question almost seemed disrespectful toward her. Pine was my friend, but he obviously saw her as something that should be conquered, as if bedding a strong woman like her was some kind of special accomplishment.
Now I understood why she didn’t want me to say anything. All the guys in our universe would talk about it. She would be seen as the woman who opened her legs for me, and she would lose respect because of it.
Bullshit.
“No.”
“Really?” Both of his eyebrows nearly popped off his face. “She won’t give it up, will she?”
“She’s not going to. We’re just friends.”
“Yeah, okay,” he said sarcastically. “And my cock is just friends with Isa’s pussy.”
I threatened him with a single look.
Pine finally shut his mouth. “Is she seeing someone, then?”
“No. I think she’s just picky about who she dates.”
“And Diesel Hunt didn’t make the cut?”
“Guess not.”
“She’s probably damaged goods anyway since her boyfriend died…”
My spine went rigid when that piece of information was laid out on the table. When I researched her, I found information about her professional career, how she started with nothing, and made it to the top on her own. There was nothing written about her personal life, not even a single boyfriend. “When did this happen?”
“A long time ago, in her early twenties. She wasn’t well-known at the time.”
“I didn’t see anything like that online.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. I’m sure she went to great lengths to prevent that information from circling. Most people don’t know about it because it happened so long ago when she was a nobody.”
“How do you know about it?”
“My dad told me.”
I wanted to know every little detail about this, but I didn’t want to sound too eager. “What happened to him?”
“They were living together, and there was some kind of break-in. She was beat up pretty badly, had to stay in the hospital for a while. The guy was killed by the robber, stabbed right in the heart. Brutal, man. Happened in Brooklyn.”
I stared at my friend with a blank look on my face, but there were a million thoughts circling in my mind. She lived through such a brutal attack, but the man she loved didn’t survive. He probably died trying to protect her.
No wonder why she was so closed off now. “Do you remember exactly when this happened?”
“I think she was twenty-one.”
That was nine years ago. She still hadn’t moved on? That night haunted her dreams? “Thanks for letting me know…”
“So maybe it’s better that things didn’t work out.”
“Yeah…”
Eleven
Tatum
A week passed.
I got a lot of work done, but every time someone walked into my office, I glanced up to see who it was.
To see if it was him.
Hunt gave me more space than he had before, knowing I was considering telling him everything I was hiding.
I went back and forth a lot.
Sometimes, I thought it would be fine and I should just tell him the truth. And other times, I realized it was a terrible idea with deadly repercussions.
So I decided to ask someone I trusted more than anyone else in the world.
Thorn.
He walked into my apartment and joined me in the kitchen. “Smells good.”
“Sirloin with asparagus.”
“I’m glad you invited me over.”
We sat together in my dining room, next to the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the entire city. The bright lights twinkled across the skyline, the lit-up bridge in the distance. Car lights could be seen everywhere, growing bright when they faced us head on, and then disappearing when they turned a different way.
Thorn ate quietly, a glass of red wine beside his plate. He was dressed down in a pair of denim jeans and a black t-shirt, the fabric hugging the prominent muscles of his body. He worked out religiously to maintain his body. I, on the other hand, just didn’t eat. I had everything I could possibly want, but I still couldn’t afford the luxury of time.
Thorn switched his gaze to me. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
“What makes you think I want to talk about anything?” I cut into my asparagus before I placed it in my mouth.
“Sweetheart, I know you.” He took a bite of his steak then immediately drank his wine afterward. “What is it?”
I held my glass wine before I answered. “Diesel Hunt.”
“What about him?”
“He’s been adamant about having something long-term with me.” The sex wouldn’t be like it was now, but that was because it would be better. He might disagree, but that was his own decision to make.
“And?”
“I’m thinking of telling him my preferences.” I drank my wine to mask the unease I felt in my stomach. Fear wasn’t something that grasped me often, but when it did, it felt like a rock in the pit of my stomach.
“Diesel Hunt doesn’t seem like the kind of guy you’re looking for.”
“I know.” But I wanted him anyway. I would love to strip everything away and just be who I was.
“Can he keep his mouth shut?”
“He says loyalty is important to him.”
Thorn continued eating, considering what I said. “Sounds like you made up your mind.”
“Just wanted your opinion about it.”
“As long as you keep my secret, I don’t care.”
“You know I always will.”
“But if this develops into something more—”
“It won’t.”
Thorn didn’t press me on it, knowing I always stuck to my guns. “What will you say if he asks about us?”
“Nothing. It’s none of his business.”
“He might want more of an explanation.”
“I’ll come up with something if I have to.”
He chewed a piece of asparagus before he nodded. “Make him sign an NDA.”
I did it with all my partners. No reason why I shouldn’t do it with Hunt. “I will.”
“Good luck,” he said. “I hope it works out for you, but I suspect it won’t.”
I expected Hunt to walk away once my offer was on the table. But even with low expectations, I knew how disappointed I would be if that were our last interaction. No one could make my thighs clench the way he did.
