Chapter 16
Sixteen
“What? What do you mean you aren’t going to come? Aww, come on. We worked so hard. Mr. Benson always came and had a great time.” Molly from accounting pouts in Lawson’s direction, sticking her bottom lip out in a way she probably thinks is sexy but makes her look like a child.
The boardroom has nearly emptied after today’s meeting.
Molly is on the planning committee with me, though she’s barely done anything besides complain about decorations and food.
But did she offer up any other suggestions?
No. It’s par for the course for her, though.
Always complaining, never helping, and trying to ride whatever new alpha male comes through the office.
Since Lawson is the new stallion in town, she’s been after him all week.
And I don’t know if he’s actively trying to piss me off or if this is just how he is now, but the easy smiles he sends her way and husky words of gratitude for the excellent job she’s doing make me want to shove my pencil right into one of her bright blue irises.
You sound like a psycho, Lucy. Get a grip .
Lawson laughs—a deep, throaty chuckle that sends every woman who’s still crowded around the table swooning. “I don’t think so, Molly. The morale parties are for employees. How will you all talk about me behind my back if I’m there?” he jokes smoothly.
A loud crack audibly interrupts the conversation. The sting of wood and lead striking my fingers is sharp and slightly painful, but does nothing to diminish my annoyance. If anything, it heightens it as all eyes flick to me and the pencil that now resides in two halves in my grip.
“Besides. I’m not one for costumes,” Lawson finishes, focusing his attention back on the blonde sitting across from me.
“That’s funny,” I muse in a tone I know will grate on his nerves. “I remember you used to love dressing up for Halloween.” I gather my things as my coworkers share knowing glances.
It’s common knowledge now that Lawson and I know each other, but since I dated his son, no one would ever suspect we have a past that was anything other than platonic.
When I swing a saccharine smile towards him, he clenches his jaw. “That was a long time ago, Lucy.” He turns his attention back to the rest of the women. “You all have a great time. Be safe.”
A round of sighs follows us out the door, and I can feel the tension radiating from Lawson in hot waves of energy that wrap around us as we return to his office.
“You just won’t let up, will you?” he says under his breath, careful not to pick a fight too loudly.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mr. Morgan,” I singsong.
“You know damn well what I’m talking about, Lucy. Is this how our time here is going to go? With you pressing my buttons every chance you get?”
We stop in the space between his office door and my desk, peering at each other as casually as we can muster, though the tension in our eyes is hard to conceal. It dances over my skin, prickling like static electricity wrapping around my limbs.
“If you weren’t so easy to get a rise out of…” I lower my eyes slowly to the buckle of his belt, making my double meaning crystal clear. “…it wouldn’t be a problem, would it?”
His nostrils flare, and heady desire makes his pupils dilate. “Lucy…”
“Lawson…” I draw out his name the same way he does to mine, batting my eyelashes up at him expectantly.
A shrill ring from my desk breaks the moment. Without a word, he turns away, and I pick up the company phone from its cradle.
“Lawson Morgan’s office, how may I help you?”
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The timer to remind me about Lawson's phone conference interrupts my concentration. Checking the time, I inwardly curse. I worked straight through lunch .
“Shit, Lucy. This is why you need to go to the damn grocery store,” I mutter to myself, slipping into my heels and smoothing down my emerald silk shirt dress.
There’s no time to run down to the café, so I head to the break room’s snack bar. I’m a picky eater because certain ingredients set off a weird skin rash I’ve developed over the last year. But surely, there’s a piece of fruit or something that will hold me over until dinner.
If you hadn’t eaten all the cookies Lawson made you already, you could have snacked on one of those.
Cookies of any sort don’t last that long in my apartment, though, let alone my favorite kind.
“...and it was the sweetest thing, I’m telling you. He got me a gift card to this swanky spa in The Radford and told me he was impressed with my work on the morale party,” Molly gushes to a few women as they sip iced coffees in the break room.
Instantly, my skin prickles with irritation.
Is she talking about Lawson?
“Wow, Molls. That didn’t take long,” Jordanna, a middle-aged woman who works in her department, says.
“Of course, it didn’t. Rumor has it that Mr. Morgan has a thing for blue-eyed blondes,” Jennifer from Rentals whispers.
My fingers drum along the granite countertop while I decide on a selection of granola bars. Grabbing one to read the label, my attention pulls back to Molly’s gaggle of geese.
“I asked if he was interested in getting dinner this weekend. Told him that I could use the card to make myself all pretty for a night on the town,” Molly lilts with a laugh like it’s already a sure thing .
Don’t say a word, Lucy. Don’t say a word.
“Oh, Lucy? Will you be a dear and clear Mr. Morgan’s schedule for Friday evening?”
My left eye twitches, fingers clenching around the granola bar. Slowly, I turn to see her grinning at me like the cat that got the cream.
“Better yet. You should probably make sure Monday morning is slow, too.” She laughs.
I think of one of my mother’s favorite quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson, “For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.”
I can sacrifice sixty seconds to put this cow in her place.
Lawson
“Lucy, are you com—” My words die in my throat when she’s not at her desk.
Checking my watch, I see there are only about two minutes before my conference call with New York. Usually, Lucy is ready before I am.
“There’s about to be a catfight in the break room,” a guy announces as he heads back to his cubicle. “Molly is on one again today.”
“Is it Lucy? She looked like she wanted to rip out Molly’s hair earlier,” a woman whispers.
Before my brain catches up, my feet are already taking me toward the break room.
Molly’s voice filters from the open door halfway down the hall as I round the corner. “...probably make sure Monday morning is slow, too.”
I make it three steps before I hear Lucy.
“You’re kidding yourself if you think he would ever be interested in you .
He might have gotten you a gift card to say thank you, even though it was me who did all the planning for the party, like I always do, but I assure you, he’s just being nice because Lawson’s a nice guy like that.
He probably got something for everyone on the committee. Trust me, you aren’t special.”
I stop just outside the room. Lucy sounds like she’s trying to convince herself just as much as anyone else of what she’s saying, her tone dripping with irritation and condescension. “And for the record, he is still very much married. So unless you want to be a homewrecker, I’d back off.”
I grin. She sounds jealous, and I can’t help the way it makes my heart skip a beat at the way she publicly claims me through the guise of my sham of a marriage. Lucy knows damn well there’s nothing but a piece of paper between Charlotte and me anymore.
“He doesn’t wear a wedding ring. I heard they’re separated, and his wife lives in Florida now,” Molly snaps back.
Deciding this has gone far enough, I enter the room and nearly run right into Lucy, who is just inside the door. Molly’s eyes widen, and everyone in the room looks between the three of us like we’re acting out a real-life soap opera.
“What’s going on in here?” I demand more authoritatively than I’ve ever spoken in this office.
Lucy’s body stiffens, while Molly’s mouth opens and closes like a fish out of water. “Mr. Morgan… I…”
“My personal life isn’t to be a topic of discussion in the office, do you understand?” I direct the question at her but meet everyone else’ s eyes as well. “Now, all of you need to get back to work and stop using company time to discuss your personal lives.”
They all jump to their feet as I lower my voice for only Lucy to hear. “Let’s go. I’m about to be late for my meeting.”
She whirls around, refusing to meet my gaze as we return to my office, her heels clicking against the floor with angry clacks. She swipes her notepad off her desk and rips the wrapper off the granola bar before shoving half the thing in her mouth like a rabid animal.
Instantly, I wonder how much of me she can fit down her throat before my length makes her gag. How much she can handle before tears stream from her eyes and she has to tap out. How her hair would feel wrapped around my fist as I fuck her fa?—
No. She’s too precious to do such devious things to.
As she grumbles incoherently around a mouthful of granola, she stomps into my office and answers the call ringing through. I close the door behind me as Cameron’s voice comes over the speaker.
While he talks about numbers and projections for next quarter, I stare at my computer screen and try to focus on anything other than Lucy’s jealousy when she was talking to Molly.
I’m giving myself damn whiplash. One moment, I’m amenable to staying away from her, and the next, I want her more than I’ve wanted anyone in my entire life.
Either fucking take her like you want to, or stop leading her on and let her live her damn life.
I know I’m being selfish by giving her hope and then taking it away all within a few seconds. My heart and head are at war with each other. All the bloody shrapnel flying from my eyes and mouth in the form of heated glances and things I shouldn’t be saying to her.
My eyes drift to her as she reaches over and mutes our side of the line before pulling her skirt a little higher and slapping the skin of her right thigh roughly.
Every part of my body freezes except my cock. He jumps at attention like an eager puppy, watching its master prep a treat for him.
She does it again, turning her skin bright pink. Little sounds escape between her parted lips—something between a moan and an exasperated sigh. I want to hear her make those sounds when she’s naked and quivering beneath me, moments from begging me to fuck her.
Would she let me strike her flesh in the throes of passion? Would she allow me to sensually assault other parts of her body purely for the pleasure of watching her writhe under my control?
Images of her spread out, baring herself to me before I sink my cock into her warm center. Hair fanned over my sheets, every limb tied to a bedpost, her wet?—
“Lawson!” A snap of fingers in front of my face yanks me out of my daydream. Shaking my head clear of my thoughts, I realize the object of my fantasies is staring at me with a concerned look. “Did you hear anything he just said?”
Not a damn word, rainbow. I was too busy thinking about what your reddened skin would look like painted with my cum .
I hit the receiver's mute button before discreetly rearranging myself. “Sorry, Cam. Can you repeat that?”
Lucy is still itching her skin, where several hives have begun to bubble up. Alarm rises in my chest, but when she notices I’m staring at her with worry, she shakes her head and mouths, It’s nothing.
By the time I’m off the call with Cameron, Lucy’s skin has evened out, and the hives are disappearing from her thigh completely. “What was that all about?”
She sighs, smoothing the emerald fabric back down. “It’s just something I’ve had for the last year. It only pops up when I eat certain foods.” She lifts the wrapper of her granola bar and inspects the content label. “I was looking at the ingredients when Molly started talking about… Never mind.”
“Lucy,” I call her name to stop her from leaving. Opening my desk drawer, I pull out a white envelope, sliding it across the desk with a knowing look. “I did happen to get something for everyone on the committee. Yours might be a little more than everyone else’s, though, so don’t tell anyone.”
Throwing her a wink, I hold her gaze as she reaches for the gift card.
Silently, she slides the envelope back toward me without looking at it, a delicate copper brow arching toward her hairline.
The corner of her raspberry-painted lips turns up as she leans over my desk, the top of her dress dipping low to reveal black lace that has my cock tightening all over again.
Her tone is throaty as she whispers, “Thank you, but no thank you. I don’t need presents, sir. I’m more into praise.”
The little tease straightens up and turns on her heels, strutting out of my office without another word and leaving me with a whirlwind of emotions.
As she sits at her desk, I adjust my cock again. I grab my phone, not allowing myself to think too long about what I’m about to do. Shooting off a text, I watch her pick up her phone, and I can see her cheeks turn pink all the way from here.
Lawson
You did a good job, rainbow. You’re such a good girl.
Lucy’s eyes meet mine through the doorway, and the heat in them is palpable as she licks her lips.
I am well and truly fucked.