Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Opal
I suck.
I've botched this.
I've screwed it up before it even started.
I'm toast.
I stand up, legs like jelly, my pussy still aching and wanting more, and make the sad trip from my office to his.
I knock softly three times and put my ear to the door.
His powerful voice carries. It's as if he's right here on this side of the door with me.
But he isn’t. He’s locked away. Just where he belongs.
"Come in."
I hover at the door, one foot in and one foot out. The air inside his office is thick with energy. I feel like I have to wade through it. Wade through his power.
It's safe and solid in here, as though the world has stopped spinning and there's nothing to care about outside of this room. It's like pure heaven. Paradise. A paradise that I am about to be ejected from.
He focuses his eyes on mine, and my already-soaked pussy clenches and jumps under his gaze.
"Please." He nods at me. "Don't make me ask you again."
I shuffle inside, and the door clicks shut behind me. I put my back against it, fingers twisting in front of me until I can gather the monument of courage that I need to get closer.
I walk toward him gingerly, trying to not make my heels click too loud, and slip into one of the big leather chairs facing his desk.
I cross my legs. I can feel the wetness between my thighs.
I'm going to get this chair all wet. The dress is too short to sit down in.
That was all fine and good when it was just me in my office, but with him, it feels like crossing a line.
He looks at me. Regards me from a distance. Sizes me up. Tries to figure out what to do with me.
"Opal," he says with surprising tenderness in his voice, standing up and coming around the desk. "We need to talk."
The energy coming off of him is hot. So, so hot.
"Talk about what?" I squeak out.
"There are a few things about our arrangement that I'm no longer satisfied with."
My heart deflates. I thought I was doing an okay job, but he wants something different, evidently.
So I do suck at this. Of course I do. Everyone back at the call center could talk a big game. They knew what to say. I don't know what to say. I never have.
Especially with a man like Julian Lennox.
My body goes cold. It feels like every vein inside me has burst and every drop of blood inside me is pooling at my feet.
"Is there anything I can do differently?" I venture timidly. "What can I do to make you happy?"
"You can move into my house. You can stay by my side. Constantly. Permanently ."
My brain vibrates inside my skull.
I feel like I am on the verge of tears. On edge. Aching .
“I have to come clean with you, Opal,” he says.
“I never spoke to you before we met. I only saw you coming out of work the night before. And when I saw you, I wanted you. I wanted you more badly than anything I’ve ever wanted in my entire life.
You were so perfect and so beautiful. Like a flower breaking through concrete. ”
His thumb traces a line from my collarbone to my throat. His touch is everywhere, like a whisper on the verge of becoming something stronger. So much stronger, energy vibrating around me, waiting to snap.
"I wanted you for myself…and I wanted everything. Not just a phone call. Not just a few words spoken in secret. I needed all of you. In person. In every single fucking way imaginable.”
He gets closer and slips his arm around my back, pulling me close.
Oh my goodness in heaven. His hands are on me.
Julian Lennox's hands are on me, firmly and decisively.
It's a choice. A decision . I don't think I've ever tasted a bigger dose of danger and excitement than I am right this second.
The thrill of it all…it's too much. I can't take it.
I press my fingers against his beautiful chest. The strength within him is staggering.
No wonder I didn’t recognize his voice.
"I want you, Opal. All of you. I want my arms around you and I want your lips on mine and I don’t want anything between us.”
My head is spinning. The thing I want the most — the man who saved me, who pulled me out of that place — wants me all for himself.
I want him all for myself, too.
The moonlight slanting into the room through the blinds is making everything in here glow. It feels like another realm entirely, like we're not in the real world.
He takes in a deep breath. It's intense and disarming. It's like he's stolen all of the air in my lungs and taken it for himself. I love it. I want him to have it. I want him to have all of me.
"I thought you were going to say that I'm awful at this.”
"Nothing you ever say or do will be anything less than perfect."
"No," I say, shaking my head and biting my lip.
I press my fingers to his chest, about to confess, ready to throw myself at his feet, to beg for his mercy if he demands it, but resigned to shutting the hell up if he asks me to.
Even despite all of that, I cannot help the smile tugging at my lips.
I think he might like what I'm going to say.
I certainly do. "I'm a liar and a fraud. A scammer. A total bait-and-switch."
He tips his head back and huffs out a chuckle.
"I don't think any of those things would faze me in the slightest."
"Julian, that place…"
“Is irrelevant," he says. "As far as I'm concerned, my life began the day I saw you. Nothing else matters. It's just you and me now. Period."
"But I want…" I swallow and pat my hands lightly against his chest, asking him to let me finish.
"No. I want to tell you this. I think you have the right to know that you've been swindled.
That I have never done anything like this before.
That I was ill-suited for that job and that the proof is standing right here in front of me.
" I swallow thickly as I look up at him. "You're the only one."
A growl rumbles through him as he pulls me against his body. His hot body. His huge body. He grabs my ass and hitches my leg up and plants himself right between my legs. I hold onto his shirt for dear life, with a breathless hum between us.
"More," he says against my lips, squeezing my ass, his fingers digging hard enough to bruise. "Tell me more."
My voice dims to a thin whisper.
“I’ve never talked to a guy like that. I’ve never wanted to. And when you took me from that place, I finally knew that I wanted to. With you .”
"So you've never…" he ventures, trailing off.
“I’ve never done this," I say, melting in his arms. "I'm all yours."
I slide my hands through his hair, holding him close. He exhales, a groan hissing through his bared teeth, sliding his mouth up my neck and nipping at my earlobe.
"Your lips…" he rasps, tracing kisses along my collarbone.
"Yours," I whisper.
He crushes his lips down on mine and we kiss. Hard . He kisses me like the world is burning down around us. Like airplanes are falling out of the sky.
He spins me around, grabbing me by the waist and sitting me on the table. Some papers go flying, spinning to the ground. Others cling to the sticky arousal on my thighs.
He lowers himself into the chair and yanks my shirt down.
"These tits…"
He attacks them ravenously, squeezing, groping, pinching, grazing with his teeth, yanking the cups down so they pop out, as though being served up for him. He spanks them. Pinches my nipples so hard that I scream. Licks up and down them slowly, making my pussy pulse, looking for release.
My white gold clip comes loose from my hair and clangs as it hits the hard surface of the desk. I look down at him through my lashes, eyelids thick, new blood coursing through me.
His tongue slides a path down to my skirt. Before I even have time to take a breath, he's clawing at my panties and hooking his fingers around them. As he peels them down to my knees he inhales deeply.
"And this…" he growls, pushing my skirt up. "This is mine."
He pushes my skirt higher and dives between my legs.
My hands fall flat against the smooth, cool desk as he slides his tongue along my folds, already wet from his words. My parted knees lock my panties into place, making them rub up against his perfect, crisp shirt. It's hot. It's so fucking hot. He's going to smell like me.
I gasp when he grabs my hips and brings me closer, his lips closing around my clit, making little circles, one finger sliding lower. I brace for it to penetrate my soaking wet pussy, but he slides it along my seam, gathering my juices as he goes lower.
A long moan slides from my lips and I fall back onto the desk as he reaches lower, to my back hole. He doesn't put his finger inside me, just applies a little hint of pressure as his fingers split my lips apart to suck on my clit.
My back buckles and arches, my fingers grasping at the edge of his desk as the release flows through me, big tidal waves sweeping through me, gaining speed, mass, momentum as they go on, my brain now unable to process the sweet, sweet feelings of pleasure inside me.
I'm breathing heavily, panting, as I hoist myself up onto my elbows. Julian is sliding my panties the rest of the way down my legs, caressing my calves as he goes, a bit of the lace snagging on the heel of my black patent stilettos.
I laugh as he yanks them away, smiling up at me.
He stands, pouncing on me, wrapping me in his strong arms and crushing his lips to mine.
"Come on," he says, finally pulling away. "I'm getting you out of here."
I laugh.
"Again?"
"Yes." He picks me up bridal-style, which makes my ovaries twitch. "There's someplace far more important for you to be."