Chapter 5
BENEDICT
The next morning, I have to drag myself out of bed after a night of hyper intense, gratuitously explicit sex dreams involving Maya that have left me exhausted.
I hoped that by giving in to the need that had been stubbornly coursing through me for the past couple of weeks I’d finally get her out of my head and be able to think about something else for a change.
How wrong I was.
I go through my morning routine, only deviating from it by having a wank in the shower to get my irrepressible hard-on to finally disappear. I don’t seem to be able to get the alluring scent of her out of my nostrils and it’s making me crazy.
I stride into my office with the blood pulsing hot through my veins in anticipation of seeing her again.
Despite it only being hours, it feels as though days have passed since we were alone together in the boardroom.
The memory of what we did in there comes back to smack me hard in the chest and I sit down heavily in my office chair as my whole body tightens with an acute desire to do it all over again.
Right fucking now.
Jesus. I’m really going to have to watch myself. If her father gets wind of what’s happening between us…
As if she’s sensed that I’ve been thinking about her there’s a confident knock on the door and Maya strides in, her head held high and her slender hips swaying provocatively as she walks towards where I’m sitting.
She’s wearing the barely decent skirt suit again.
‘Is there anything I can I do for you this morning, Ben?’ she asks me in that gorgeous smoky voice of hers.
I just look at her steadily as all the things I’d like her to do for me right now spin through my mind. But I know I shouldn’t be entertaining them – not with the rest of my staff right outside the door.
Not that it stopped me before, after the flashing incident.
And it is my company after all.
I’m the boss.
Something seems to break inside me as I think this, and a strange kind of lightness ripples through my body.
I hear myself say, ‘Lock the door, then come over here.’
She doesn’t hesitate. Turning on the spot, she strides back to the door and flips the lock, then saunters over to where I’m now standing with my arms folded, her eyes shining with excitement and her full mouth pulled into an eager grin.
‘Have I done something wrong?’ she asks, and from the tone of her voice I can tell she’s hoping I’ll say yes. It seems she’s just as keen as me to get right back to where we left off last night.
‘I don’t know, Maya. Have you?’ I demand, more than happy to play along.
‘I do seem to have forgotten to put on my underwear again,’ she says with a pseudo remorseful look on her face. ‘Look.’
And she slides her skirt up her slim, shapely legs to show me.
‘So I see,’ I reply with a suddenly dry mouth. ‘Well, I’m deeply disappointed in you.’ I take a couple of steps towards her, close enough that I can feel the heat radiating from her body. ‘You know I’m going to have to discipline you for that?’ I murmur.
She nods, sitting back on the desk and spreading her legs for me. ‘I was hoping you were going to say that.’
Oh, man, there’s no way this is stopping now.
Not a hope in hell.
* * *
Later that day I call one of my account managers in to the office and ask her to let Maya shadow her for a couple of days, with a view to her assisting with some of the projects and clients she manages.
After seeing how well Maya handled the situation with Hugo I’m determined to give her as much useful experience here at Ergo-i as possible.
She deserves it after using her initiative to help save that business opportunity.
Not that it’s an entirely altruistic move on my part; I’m pretty damn sure she’ll do a great job of project management – she’s most definitely a people person, and very organised – and she’ll be much more useful in that role than in aiding the other PAs who, in truth, already have all the bases covered.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many other opportunities for us to be alone during the rest of the week, because we’re busy getting ready for an important new product launch, and I find myself fielding constant questions from my marketing and PR team during the day, then ending up staying late each night with the programmers.
But I still manage to think of a couple of excuses to get Maya to come into my office.
One time it’s to bring in a paper copy of a contract, which I go over in detail, taking great pleasure in making her wait impatiently for me to sign it before getting up from behind my desk and pushing her into my chair, securing her promise not to make any noise before making her come with my mouth.
Afterwards she gleefully returns the favour by getting to her knees, dragging open my flies and sucking my rock-hard cock eagerly into her mouth.
She was right. I totally appreciate a woman who knows exactly how to make a man’s eyes roll back in his head.
It’s after seven o’clock on Friday when I come up for air after a ridiculously busy day, so I’m surprised to find Maya still sitting at her desk in her cubicle, with books and papers spread out in front of her.
There are lots of colourful hand-drawn designs in an open notebook to the left of her laptop, and a complicated-looking page of graphs open on the screen.
‘What are you working on?’ I ask as I walk up behind her to look more closely at what she’s doing.
She jumps in surprise, then turns to flash me a sheepish smile, as if I’ve caught her doing something illicit. ‘You’re still here?’ she says breathily, hurriedly closing her laptop and flipping her notebook closed.
‘Yeah, I’ll be working late again tonight and all weekend.
The team need more time to test the software before we release it on Monday morning and I want to be around to sign it off,’ I say, moving round to prop one elbow on the wall of her cubicle.
‘Is that something for Ergo-i?’ I press, though I know it can’t be.
She looks at me for a second without speaking, as if she’s weighing up whether she wants to talk to me about it or not. Her enthusiasm for the project obviously wins through, though, because she says, ‘No, it’s for my jewellery business.’
‘Can I see?’ I ask, nodding at the notebook, intrigued to see what she’s planning to do.
After a second’s pause she nods and hands it over.
I flip it open to a page of hand-drawn designs.
One is for an intricately woven silver necklace.
It looks like a web and has a red gemstone set into it, which I suddenly realise is the body of a spider, with delicate silvery legs.
The other is of what I guess is an engagement ring, which has very fine twisted silver strands making up the body of it and tiny shapes like hands holding the diamond in the middle.
They’re unusual, but strikingly beautiful pieces.
‘These are amazing,’ I say, genuinely impressed.
The pleasure I see in her smile – and is that relief? – makes my chest contract.
‘Thanks. I’ve been working on the designs for weeks now, and I’m nearly ready to start making them as sample pieces.’
‘You’re going to make the jewellery yourself?’ I ask, surprised again.
‘Sure am. To begin with, at least. I’ve already completed a couple of night class courses in silverwork and gem setting, and I’ve got another coming up soon for some more off-the-wall techniques.’
‘I can see these selling really well,’ I say, meaning it.
‘I hope so. I think there’s a market for them.
I’m still slogging away on my business plan at the moment, though.
I want to make sure it’s in as good a shape as possible before showing it to my father.
It’s going to have to be watertight if I’m going to convince him it has the potential to make money so he’ll finally let me have access to my trust fund.
Then I can invest in the materials I need and get it underway. ’
I’m surprised by her earnestness, though I don’t know why I should be. She’s shown a lot of dedication to the work she’s taken on at my company recently, and she’s clearly a smart and very driven woman.
‘Well, knowing how determined you are to get what you want, I expect you’ll be very successful at whatever you put your mind to,’ I say with a grin.
‘God, I hope so,’ she says, her expression turning a little beleaguered.
‘I don’t exactly have a great track record.
’ She leans back and crosses her arms, flashing me an awkward smile.
‘I wasn’t very focussed at school. My social life was more important to me than my education in my teens, and I kind of lost the plot and ended up flunking all my exams, so it’s been quite a steep learning curve.
’ She shrugs, her gaze not quite meeting mine.
‘It’s going to be a challenge, breaking into such a competitive market, but I’m going to give it my best shot. ’
‘You’ll do it if you keep working hard and refuse to give up. That’s what worked for me,’ I say.
She smiles at me now, the expression in her eyes more animated than I’ve ever seen it, and my stomach does a slow dive at the resolve I see there.
‘Yeah, well, I’ll be spending most of my evenings and weekends on it for the foreseeable future – when I’m not out living up to my wild child reputation, that is,’ she adds, tipping me a roguish wink.
Blood rushes to my head and the crazy thought that I want to be the only one to give her pleasure pops unwittingly into my head.
But I know I’m being an idiot. I’m probably only reacting like that because I’m knackered after such an intense week. Having to keep my sexual urges in check and my mind off her and on the job has been exhausting.
‘Want me to take a look at your business plan?’ I ask, in an attempt to refocus my thoughts – although I genuinely like the idea of being able to use my experience to help her if I can.
‘Really? Would you do that?’ she asks, sounding surprised, but gratified.
‘Sure. I’d be happy to once we’ve got this product launched.’
‘Okay. I’ll email it to you then.’