Left of the Slash, page 11
“Girl, I was so annoyed, but it was more than just annoyance. Nobody talks to me like that. Even Jon and his minions would back down if I got upset. That’s what I'm used to. I'm the goddamn CEO of the company, you know? So I reminded him that I'm his boss, and he told me that he was the one who was actually in charge, because I was the one who needed him. I was ready to punch him in the face, but it also did something to me internally because he was standing up to me, and everything he was saying was true. I did need him, and I did want him to protect Obsidian from whatever was happening, and I had faith that he would be the one to do it.”
“My god. I wonder if he knew how steamy all of this was beneath the surface of the conversation,” Eden says.
I scoff. “Oh, he fucking knew. Because after a long-winded rant about me needing him to protect me, he went on to say that he wants to protect me, and that he wants to take care of me. I was stunned, but then he pushed me over the edge when he said, ‘And you want to be taken care of. Don't you?’”
“Oh shit!” Eden chirps with a wide-eyed stare.
“Oh shit is right!” I exclaim with a laugh.
“Wait. So then what did you do?”
“Well, believe it or not, I told him to get out of my office.”
“What?” Eden nearly screams, and I think her eyes might actually pop out of her head. “Why on Earth would you do that?”
“Because he's my goddamn subordinate, Eden,” I snap. “We've been over this. I can't fuck somebody who works below me, and he's nearly a decade younger than me. I knew I was hot for him and that I was ready to cross the line, so I tried to stop myself by kicking him out. And he started to leave, but then he turned around and said he wasn't going to leave unless I fired him. He said to either fire him or admit that I wanted him to take care of me.”
“Sweet holy mother of baby Jesus.”
“My thoughts exactly,” I reply, and both of us fall into a fit of laughter that lasts an entire minute. “After that, I was undone. I told him I wanted him to take care of me, and that was the last thing that was said before he nearly knocked over both of my chairs to get around my desk and kiss me.”
“For the love of god. This is like a fucking movie,” Eden says, beaming as bright as the sun.
I shake my head, remembering the scene while still in disbelief. “I know, girl. Then it was on. The next thing I knew, his hands were all over me and the temperature spiked. I was terrified someone could walk in, but too into it to stop. It was so goddamn erotic, and the moment he dropped his pants, my eyes nearly fell out of my head and rolled out of the office like marbles.”
“Oh, it was like that?”
“It was very much like that. He slid it in and I gasped so hard I thought my lungs collapsed. He proceeded to go all out, and I touched my clit for about five seconds before losing all control and being swallowed up by an orgasm as big as a tidal wave.”
“Oh my word!”
“Then he came, long and hard, and we ended up on the floor behind my desk. It was hot, raw, passionate, sexy, terrifying, intense … all the damn adjectives. My mind was blown. Still is, right here, right now. These memories are going to live with me for an eternity.”
Eden finishes off her wine and gives herself a refill. “My god. Well, good for you, girl. I’m so proud of you for going for it. I know how hard it must've been for you.”
I follow her lead, knocking back the rest of my Chardonnay and pouring a refill that empties the bottle. “Yes, it was. But I have no regrets. Good dick will do that, won't it?”
“So true,” she answers, smiling big and shaking her head. Then she adds, “Okay, then let’s not forget the other question I asked.”
“What other question?”
“You better stop playing. You know exactly which other question. Now that you went there with the boy wonder eight years your junior, what’s next? What does this mean?”
“Ugh, you just made my wine taste bad with that question.”
“Olivia!”
“What? I don't know what’s next,” I admit with an exaggerated shrug. “There really is no next. I was brutally upfront with him. I told him that I'm not looking for love, and that if he tries to go there then it’ll be over.”
“Seriously?” she asks with a frown, almost like she's disappointed. “So you're just going to be fuck buddies?”
“Basically,” I reply, shrugging. “I don't have time for anything else. I just need his very skilled help at relieving stress from pursuing my ambitions. That’s all. Obsidian is my husband, Quinn can be my sneaky little mistress on the side that fucks me senseless when Obsidian pisses me off. Other than that, there is nothing. I don't want anything else.”
“But what about him being dominant, and smart, and perfect for you?”
“What about it?” I shoot back. “Don't get me wrong. I love how dominant he is, and I have some deep, dark plans to pull that out of him so that he can use it on me, because we both know that I want to be dom-i-nat-ed. So I plan to use everything that’s already inside of him and just add to it until he's the literal Dom of my dreams, but there will be no falling in love. That’s completely off the table and he knows that. I made it very clear.”
“Did you?”
“Yes,” I respond quickly. “Crystal clear, so there are no excuses.”
Eden shakes her head, sipping her wine and looking at me over the edge of the glass again. “You are something else.”
“I don't see why,” I say. “I was open and honest with him. What else am I supposed to do?”
“So let me get this straight,” she begins, ignoring my rolling eyes. “You two are going to fuck whenever you want, and you—my little sapiosexual submissive—are going to basically teach him how to be your Dom, even though he hasn't hinted at being into BDSM. The sex will be kinky as fuck and out-of-this-world-amazing, but neither of you is going to develop any feelings whatsoever. That’s what you're expecting me to believe?”
I nod my head proudly. “Exactly that.”
Now it’s Eden who rolls her eyes. “Yeah, right. I'll believe it when I see it.”
“Then get ready to believe it, because that’s how it’s going to be.”
“Whatever you say, Olivia. The guy is only twenty-seven, and he has probably never been with anybody like you before. Don't go breaking his heart.”
“Well, as long as he keeps it light and doesn't try to get serious,” I say, bringing my glass back up to my mouth. “He won't have anything to worry about.”
SIXTEEN - Quinn
“You did what? Say it again, because there is no way I heard you right the first time.”
Rob’s exclamation is filled to the brim with both excitement and utter disbelief. He sits to my left in a plain white tee, with wide eyes and an open mouth that has fallen so far down it threatens to crack the wood of the bar we’re seated at. I understand his response, because I can barely believe it myself, and I'm the one who did it.
“You heard me right. I fucked Olivia,” I reply candidly. “In her office a few hours ago. It happened.”
Seated to my right with a brand new Corona, Marcus shakes his head, seemingly just as dumbfounded as Rob. He's rocking a white tank top, showing the muscles he has been working so hard to build up to help his dating life.
“Un-fucking-believable,” Marcus says. “I spend all day surrounded by stunning women at my job, and not a single one of them has tried to fuck me in their office, let alone the CEO. What you have accomplished, my dear Q, is truly something special. You deserve the Presidential Medal of Freedom … well, from someone other than … him.”
“Thank you, sir,” I reply with a proud smile. “But, for real, that wasn't what I expected when I walked in there. I was just trying to make sure she was okay, and the conversation just took a sharp turn. Every time I responded to her in a way she wasn't used to, I could see how it changed her. Her body language gave her away, and once I saw that, something in me just couldn't let it go.”
After I left Olivia’s office, I was entirely too hyped up to just go home like it was a normal day. There was nothing normal about it. Calling out Jon in front of everyone, which led to him trying to attack me and getting his fucking face punched in and subsequently arrested and fired. Then finding Olivia in a sad little trance in her office, and having it lead to us having passionate sex on her desk. If that’s typical, I need a typical day every single day, and my life should be made into a movie. No, this was far from typical, and I had no choice but to get on the phone with my boys and have an emergency meeting at the bar. I was the first to arrive, and I felt like a kid with a juicy secret to tell as I waited for the two of them to show up. I ordered a Crown and Coke and had half of it in my belly before Rob arrived, but I chose to wait for Marcus, too. When the sex is that good, the story has to be shared, which makes me wonder if Eden and Olivia will be exchanging extra suspicious glances across the room at work tomorrow.
Rob strokes his beard while Marcus chugs his beer, and I sit between the two of them with a satisfied smile pulling my lips up. I can still smell her on my skin, even though I went home and washed up. I wonder if she can still smell me on her. I hope so. I want the memory of today to drive her wild every time she sees me.
“Alright, I know this might be a bit forward,” Marcus starts. “But you have to tell us how good it was, bro.”
I grin. “Well, I'm not the one to kiss and tell,” I lie, and the boys don't even let me finish before they erupt.
“What?” Rob says, already laughing.
“Q, you are literally the one to kiss and tell,” Marcus says, finishing for Rob as he continues to laugh to himself. “We knew everything about your relationship with Linda.”
“Whatever! You tell us everything about the people you hook up with, too,” I yell at Marcus, who is the world’s biggest hypocrite when it comes to telling sex stories. Rob and I have known every disease Marcus has contracted, who he got it from, and the day each one was cured, so he's one to talk.
“Right,” Marcus says, gesturing with his hands. “But I'm not the one denying it though. Man, quit stalling and tell us about it.”
I let out a sigh and try to figure out exactly which details I want to give these two fools. “Anyway, I can't even lie, bro. It was surreal.”
Rob gasps. “Surreal? Not even unreal. This man said it was surreal, so you know that shit was spectacular.”
The three of us laugh together then pause to sip our drinks.
“I’ll keep it real,” I say. “It was even more than I expected it to be. Rob, you and I know that Olivia is gorgeous.”
Rob cuts in to add, “An absolute dime. Yes, please continue.”
“Right, so just based on the way she looks, you assume it’s going to be great. Then, you factor in that she's like a predator stalking around the office with that glare that looks like it could turn you to stone, then you're not sure how it will be because it looks like she might not know how to have a good time. She's a bit of an enigma. But then, when it all went down, something happened that I never expected.”
“Ooh, do tell,” Marcus says, leaning in closer.
I clear my throat and sit up straight just to get the words out. “It was like she submitted to me.”
Both of my boys frown and tilt their heads like puppies.
“What do you mean?” Rob asks. “Submitted, how?”
“Alright look, both of you know my issue with Linda was that I wasn't getting everything I wanted from her … sexually,” I say.
“Oh, both of us know?” Marcus asks, jokingly. “But you don't kiss and tell, though.”
“Oh my god, you're insufferable,” I reply, shaking my head as I laugh. “Yes, you both know because I do, in fact, kiss and tell. So shut up and let me tell you. I wanted more from Linda. Like, some … kinkier shit, I guess. It’s like I have an itch she couldn't scratch. I was able to be with her, but that itch was always there. But when I was with Olivia, she scratched it.”
“Oh shit,” says Rob.
“Be more specific, man,” Marcus snips. “How am I supposed to know what scratching the damn itch means?”
“Choking,” I blurt out, glaring at Marcus before realizing a few too many people heard me. I glare at them—because, what the fuck are they looking at—then lower my voice and add, “My hands were close to her neck because, well … there's this side of me that likes that kind of shit. But I didn't know if she would be into it. I was just losing myself in the moment, my body was going with the flow. But then, she grabbed my hand and placed it on her throat. I was like, what the fuck? But then, she goes, ‘Do it,’ and I nearly lost my mind. I had to double check to make sure it wasn't a setup, and not only did she tell me to go for it, she literally showed me how to choke her. I guess I was pressing on her windpipe or something, and she told me exactly where to squeeze like she has been into it for much longer than me. So, what was I suppose to do except fucking do exactly the way she said to? She gave me this little invite into her world, and I did a swan dive into it. And that’s how she scratched the itch.”
“Oh, Miss Lucero is a freak,” Rob says.
“If she is, then so am I,” I reply, shrugging as I sip my cocktail. “Fuck it, we’ll be freaks together.”
“Uh-oh. Our boy is about to fall in love. You know those freaks end up having boys wrapped around their finger,” Marcus says, looking past me to joke with Rob.
I raise my hands. “Whoa, we’re not going there. In fact, the first thing she told me after it was over was that she wasn't looking for love. She said all she wanted from me was relief.”
“What?” Marcus nearly screams. “All she wants you for is relief? How is it possible that you have that much luck? So your CEO, who’s fine as shit, wants you to be her sex slave to relieve the stress of being a boss all day?”
“She doesn't want me to be her sex slave,” I reply, shaking my head. “In fact, I got the feeling that she wanted to be mine.”
“Oh my fucking god, that's even better,” Marcus blares, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “My dream date. Cute.”
Rob leans forward to add his two cents. “So this wasn't a one time thing? You're going to keep hooking up with her?”
“Of course I am.”
“Can you blame him?” Marcus says, the volume of his voice growing louder the more dumbfounded he becomes.
Rob shakes his head as his eyebrows raise. “Bro, do you even know how good you have it right now? You get to hook up with the CEO, you're probably in line for a promotion after the Jon fiasco, she wants you to choke her and god knows what else, and she doesn't even want to fall in love or complicate the situation. Just go over, give her what she wants, get what you want, then leave with no questions asked.”
“He's living the dream,” Marcus chimes in.
“Like a motherfucker,” I reply with a bar-wide smile.
“Alright, it’s time for a toast,” Rob says before turning to the bartender. “Excuse me. I need three shots of Crown Apple, please. We’re celebrating over here.”
The man behind the bar grabs three shot glasses and fills them with the dark liquid before handing them over. Rob puts it on his tab, then angles his body toward Marcus and me.
“Here we go. Raise those glasses,” he says. Marcus and I follow his lead. “This is for our boy, Q. Here’s to breaking the law, solving crimes, earning promotions, great sex with the baddie CEO, and no fucking strings attached. To living the dream!”
Marcus and I shout without regard to anybody around us. “To living the dream!”
We knock our shots back and let them burn all the way down, and I don't even try to wipe the smile from my face. My boys are right. This is what every unmarried man wants—a steamy situationship that’s one hundred percent sex and zero percent drama. It’s perfect.
What more could I possibly ask for?
SEVENTEEN - Quinn
“Hey.”
I look up from my computer and find Olivia standing in my doorway holding a stack of red folders against her chest. Her hair is pulled into a curly ponytail, and the cleavage on display via her white button-up top is so distracting I have to force myself to look somewhere else. Nobody wants to be the guy getting caught staring at cleavage, but fuck. She's draped in all-white today—a little devil wearing an angel costume—and it looks so good on her. I even find myself glancing down at my own white pants and beige Polo shirt from Alessandro Veneti to see if I measure up. I smirk as a thought enters my mind. Yeah, we look good together.
“Hey,” I answer with a smile, because I've been thinking about the last time I was in her office since the moment I left it. “How you doin’?”
“Fine,” Olivia says as she steps into the room like she's in a rush and certainly in no mood for small talk. “I need you to look all of these over and provide me with a summation report in the morning.”
She drops all of the red folders on my desk with a loud smack, then turns on her heel like she is going to walk out without looking back. I quickly glance at the folders then speak up.
“Hold on,” I say with a furrowed bro. I know we said we’d keep it light and never involve our emotions, but damn. This isn't exactly how I expected our first day to start after I just made her come. “What is all this?”
Olivia stops at the threshold, and when she turns around, I can see that she's already in the middle of rolling her eyes. She clearly wasn't lying when she said she wasn't interested in love, because I feel like simply asking a question is already annoying her to the core.
“They're analysis reports on every one of our remaining clients,” she answers on an exasperated exhale.
“Okay,” I say, stretching the word out. “And you want me to review them?”
Olivia’s eyebrows raise. “Yes. We need to do an evaluation on all of our clients so that we can chart a path forward. Make sure that every client still on the books is secure, then evaluate their part of the overall budget.”
I frown so hard I feel like I’ll give myself a nosebleed. “Alright. Isn't this on a spreadsheet somewhere? It would be a lot easier on Excel or something.”
