To Catch A Rook (All The Queen’s Men #1)

24. Chapter 21 – Hillary

“ M s. Lane!”

Gabriella popped up from her perch just outside of Aaron’s private suite, her deep red curls bobbing in time with her enthusiastic smile.

I liked Gabriella. She was kind and genuine like a soft kitten, but a fierce tiger whenever someone attempted to go against her employer’s wishes. She rivaled Marty in efficiency and tact, and if Aaron downsized anytime soon, I’d snap her up faster than any of his business assets.

I return ed her beaming smile with a measured one of my own. “He’s not expecting me, Gabby, but I’d like to see him, if he has the time.”

“We’ll make the time.” Her bubble-gum pink lips set into a determined line as she buzzed through the intercom.

“Ms. Lane to see you, sir.”

After a few minutes of idle chatter about Gabby’s family and a shared love of hot yoga, Aaron appeared in the double-glass doorway. A tight smile overshadowed his sunken eyes.

“Come on in.”

I followed his firm backside into the office, enjoying the way his tight gray dress pants lifted each muscular cheek. The crisp, tucked-in white dress shirt he wore lightly wrinkled along his back, hiding the landscape of honed shoulders beneath.

While my office was a bright contrast of white and glass, Aaron’s workspace was floor-to-ceiling black lacquered wood and plush dark carpeting.

“For comfort,” he’d once told me when I’d teased him about the dust mites collecting within its tufted fabric. “Dust mites are not my enemy.”

Thick blinds covered the wall of windows overlooking Carlisle’s cityscape, and only a dim light at his desk shone downwards to a pile of scattered papers.

He turned a knob next to a panel of switches, and the windows within the doorframe turned opaque, giving us complete privacy.

Aaron walked toward his desk, only fully acknowledging my presence once he’d turned around and leaned against its hulking frame.

Dark tendrils of tousled hair hung loosely behind his ears, and there was a sallow tinge to his normally deeply tanned skin.

I c ocked my head, assessing him fully. Aaron Rodriguez might still command a runway and a boardroom, but he looked like shit.

“You’ve been avoiding me.”

The crinkles lining his tired eyes did nothing to make him look better.

“I’ve been preoccupied, Mi Reina . Do not take my absence as a dismissal. How are you?”

Folding my arms across the silk fabric of my blouse, I mirrored his stance.

“I don’t think we need to talk about me at the moment. Have you looked in a mirror lately?”

“I’ve been busy.” He ran a large palm through his hair, dropping his caramel eyes from mine. “I have no need for mirrors.”

In the years I had known him, I had never seen Aaron as a lost little boy. Despite our recent issues, he had always been a faithful friend, self-assured and never lacking confidence while I was still building my own. He was commanding and direct, and much too literal at times.

But never lost.

The distracted faraway stare into a stack of books on the edge of his desk caused a sharp pang in my twisted heart, and I couldn’t help reaching for my old friend.

I stepped into his space, and wrapped my arms around his tapered waist, rubbing a soothing hand down the ridge of his spine. When I rested my ear on his warm chest, the pounding rhythm of his heart drummed against my cheekbone a roiling stampede of torment.

He blew out a slow, deep breath onto the top of my head, ruffling my hair.

“Talk to me.” I switched into Spanish, softly crooning the words into the delicate fabric of his shirt. “Tell me, Aaron.”

He brought his muscular arms up to my torso and locked me into his embrace. We stood in silence for a few delicate moments before the bass resonance of his voice broke through it.

“I have been given an ultimatum that I do not wish to speak about.” His arms tensed around me, forcing me deeper into his chest. “Let me hold you, Mi Reina . I want to do nothing else.”

The soft plea gave me pause. Busting Aaron’s balls was almost a side hobby—the revolving door of sexual tension and shifting power was the very essence of who we’d become to each other—but this moment held a somber need I had never heard him utter.

I wouldn’t push him, not today. Tomorrow, we could go back to our usual dance.

I dipped my chin in acknowledgment, digging it into his sternum. He moved his hand up, and caressed my jaw with the pad of his thumb, before tipping my head upward to bring his lips to mine.

He tasted of bourbon and sin, and his mouth manipulated mine in a slow, thorough branding of my body. I’d savored the sweetness of Aaron more times than I could ever count, but this kiss held its own—a drugging claiming instead of the prelude to a fast fuck.

His tongue crept in, slowly wringing every drop of moisture from my mouth and depositing it right into my panties. The bulge of his cock grew between our bodies, pressing hard into my lower belly.

The kiss turned hungry. Soft nips along my neck turned into hard bites against my heated skin, and each grab of teeth filled my insides with molten need. I brought my hands up to his scalp, raked my nails through the silky strands of his mussed hair, and gripped him harder when he ripped the buttons off my blouse with a quick snap of his jaws.

He buried his head between my breasts, the straight line of his nose nuzzling into my cleavage in teasing strokes.

“I need to fuck you, Mi Reina. ” His muffled command hung in the air between us, and his attention stilled on my skin. “I need to feel you wrapped so tightly around my cock, my demons will leave me for just one night.”

My body responded, arching into his whispered words as he buried his face back into my chest, biting each nipple through the lace of my purple bra. He impatiently ripped away the rest of my blouse, frantically pulling it off my shoulders and throwing it to the other side of the room.

When he stepped back, eyes glazed with lust, and his cock stiff as steel, I was ragged with want.

In one fluid movement, he turned on his heel and locked the door, then he spun back around wearing a familiar look of determination.

“Will you let me fuck you bare? I have abstained from my employees and my testing is negative.”

I hated the feeling of condoms only slightly less than I hated strep throat, but I’d stick to my guns if Aaron was still dabbling with Club 7. I wasn’t catching crotch rot, at any cost, from a Rodriguez sex business.

Still, I believed him. In the heat of the moment, I did need to feel the silky heat of his cock spurting inside of me too.

I leveled my wanton stare at his fully dressed body and issued a command of my own. “Fuck me, Aaron.” I tilted my head in heated consideration. “Or would you like me to fuck you?”

The rabid glint in his eyes couldn’t be misconstrued. He paced the three steps until he once again stood directly in front of me. “Strip me, Mi Reina.”

I peered up at him through soft eyelashes before darkening my gaze with a sultry smile. “Yes, sir.”

I t ook my time unbuttoning the crumpled dress shirt, sliding it off his molded arms and gliding my fingers across every inch of skin. I unzipped the dress pants and pushed them down thick thighs until they rested on the floor at his feet. I bent to lift each foot and took them out of their cloth encasement. I rubbed my palms up the crisp hair of his legs before stopping at the hem of his silk boxer briefs to gently squeeze his sac.

His eyes closed and he shuddered beneath my touch as I worked him over until the head of his cock peeked out over the elastic band, glistening with a dewy drop of pre-cum.

Aaron got off on being in control, just as I did. But even more, he loved to be pampered.

I suckled his head into my mouth, licking the drop dry before dipping my tongue into his slit and relishing the demonic shiver as he fisted my hair to maintain his composure. The sharp tingle of pain raked across my scalp, but I wouldn’t stop until I had him completely writhing at my mercy.

I peeled the fabric down his legs, continuing to lick down the underside of his cock. Though thick thighs trembled, I held them in place and worked him over until he fully submitted.

“Lay down,” I ordered. Unclasping my bra, I tossed it behind Aaron’s desk. I shucked my skirt and panties lazily as he watched me from his new place on the carpet, his eyes hovering on the swollen hood of my clit.

I spotted the necktie hanging loosely from a hook and sauntered over. Grabbing it, I brushed the smooth fabric tauntingly across my bare stomach. Molten desire widened his pupils and beckoned me to join him on the downy rug.

He’d done as I asked, displaying his powerful naked body, nestled in a soft cushion like an offering to a goddess.

“Good boy,” I purred. Bending over his head, I slid the delicate noose around his neck. I tied the other end to the leg of the nearby coffee table, and cinched it just tight enough to press against his bobbing Adam’s apple with a tiny bit of wiggle room.

Aaron’s rough palms gripped my thighs as I hovered over him, and my wetness dripped onto the angry flesh of his cock. A stilted grunt escaped his greedy lips just before he yanked me down on top of him.

The friction against my clit shot sparks through my lower belly and up my spine. Our version of foreplay had always resulted in a very satisfying burst of orgasms in quick succession; the throbbing feel of his length between us told me this time would be no different.

I thrust my hips and rubbed myself down the column of his shaft without mercy. The pressure on my clit was the perfect amount to soak his skin.

I grabbed the makeshift collar and slipped a finger underneath to tighten it against his throat.

“I will use you, Caballero. ” It was a nickname I only dared whisper when we were in this position—when I was riding him and holding him captive within the prison of my thighs.

“I will use you until I can’t possibly come anymore. Then, you’re going to fill me up so deeply with your massive cock, you’ll prove me wrong until I scream again.”

His head lolled back, his breathing becoming shallow and measured as he bared his body and neck to me to take as mine to own.

Only Aaron could give me this thrill—this submission—even if I knew it was a test of his own limits of control, not because he enjoyed bowing to me. The underlying reason didn’t matter. In this moment, I owned him like he was only worth the human feel of a sizeable dick against my core, and it was all I needed.

I rubbed back and forth, teasing my clit against the swollen head of his cock and then back down again. His cock grew s licker and slicker with each pass. At the crest of my orgasm, he stuffed his palm between my teeth and muffled my screams of ecstasy for only his ears to hear.

I tugged at his collar, tightened my hold, and rubbed harder and faster, until I came for a second time. Before my orgasm was complete, he shoved his cock inside me and thrust upward so hard and so deep I could feel it behind my eyelids.

“Fuuuuuuuuuuck.” I sobbed as he pounded harder and harder, driving my orgasm to impossibly higher heights even as I shattered around him. Within seconds, his cum flooded into me, jet after hot, explosive jet, and I milked him to empty.

We lay within the tangled, sweaty, sticky heap far longer than we ever had, cradled within each other's arms.

The sex was frantic, aggressive, rough, and incredible, as always.

But today felt different.

Aaron wasn’t a man who followed his whims. He’d cornered me at our ribbon cutting to make a point, but I had been certain never in a million years would he follow through with his promise.

He liked order and planning. He liked predictability.

This? This frenzied fuck? In his office, no less? Without even a shower to clean his body once we were finished? And cuddling?

Something with Aaron was really, really off.

“Talk to me,” I whispered into the scruff of his neck. I’d removed the necktie and positioned myself across his body, snuggling into his warmth and seeking answers from this mystery of a man.

He brought his arms around me, holding on tighter than I’d ever felt him do before.

“I will talk to you tomorrow. Tonight, let me hold you, Mi Reina .”

We forgot the outside world for another twenty minutes. The dim sounds of office phones and people speaking just feet away from us filled the space between our beating hearts.

When Joey brought me a change of clothes and took me home for the evening, I couldn’t stifle the nagging fear Aaron was in trouble.

If we didn’t speak tomorrow, I’d be putting Blackbird to good use.

Aaron wasn’t mine, but he was min e , and I protected my own.