Chapter 5 #2
‘Do that,’ I say with a nod. ‘And I’ll get back to you with some thoughts as soon as I can.’
‘Thanks, Ben, that would be really great.’ She quirks an eyebrow. ‘You can be totally honest with me about it, you know. I can take it.’
‘I know.’ And I feel as if I do – as if I’m beginning to get her.
‘Ben?’
To my annoyance, my head developer has come over to interrupt us. He’s shuffling from foot to foot, looking thoroughly agitated.
‘We need you. There’s a problem with some of the code,’ he says tetchily.
‘I’ll be there in a minute,’ I tell him.
He gives me a tight smile and bustles off.
‘I’d better go,’ I say to her, backing away reluctantly. I’m frustrated about having to cut our conversation short, just when I’m starting to get to know the real Maya. ‘See you on Monday.’
‘Yeah, have a good weekend.’
‘What weekend?’ I say with a wry smile, knowing I’ll be working all the hours here in the office till the launch on Monday.
She grimaces in sympathy. ‘Well, we’ll just have to find a fun way to celebrate once the product’s gone live,’ she says, tipping me another saucy wink.
I groan low in my throat, wishing I had a time machine so I could skip forward to Monday, when I’ll be stripping off her clothes, grabbing that reward firmly in both hands, then picking up this conversation where we left off.
The temptation to suggest we slip off to my office right now is so strong I can actually taste the tang of need in my mouth. But I’m not going to give in to it.
Business has to come first. I’ve not worked this hard for this long to let my standards slip now.
‘Looking forward to it already,’ I say, frustration making my voice rough as I turn and force myself to walk away from her.
* * *
The weekend drags like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.
It’s not uncommon for me to work through both Saturday and Sunday.
I did it for years whilst building up my business to the position it’s in today – pulling all-nighters to get proposals written and completing projects to deadline – so it’s strange to actually feel I’m missing out on something by being in the office.
Not that I actually am missing out on anything.
I’ve not made any plans to see friends this weekend, and this fling with Maya has been entirely confined to office hours, but I still have the strangest craving to be anywhere but here right now.
It’s almost as if I need something other than work to fully engage me for once.
So on Monday morning, as soon as the software’s gone live, I go straight to find Maya and scratch that itch.
‘I guess congratulations are in order,’ she says with a knowing smirk as I stride towards her desk.
‘They are,’ I say with a firm nod. ‘In fact, I’m just off to get a celebratory brunch. Fancy coming, Maya?’ I ask, giving her a meaningful look.
‘I absolutely do, Ben,’ she says with a grin, getting up and hurriedly pulling on her suit jacket.
I’ve booked a room in a hotel a couple of streets away, because the thought of inviting her to my house made me uneasy. It felt too intimate, somehow, too personal – and the last thing I need right now is for my private space to be invaded by something I don’t want to attach any meaning to.
We’re barely through the door of the hotel suite before we’re tearing each other’s clothes off and kissing as if we’ve not seen each other for weeks.
It’s as incredible as I’ve been imagining it will be all weekend.
The woman knows how to push all my buttons, both with her words and her actions, and I lose myself in her, pressing her hard into the bed as I thrust inside her, feeling her nails bite into my back and welcoming the pain along with the pleasure.
I take my time, taking her to the brink of orgasm then pulling back, teasing and testing, changing position to hit new highs of pleasure until we’re both reeling with the need to come. Only then do I let myself go and give in to the raging need I’ve been bottling up for the last couple of days.
* * *
‘So, have you always had a penchant for pushing your sexual boundaries?’ I ask with a smile as we lie in a sweaty, sticky heap the next lunchtime, after a fun and filthy session in which the fruit platter she ordered from room service had taken a starring role.
‘Well, I’ve always loved sex, and I’m a very creative person, so I guess it was inevitable,’ she replies, rolling on top of me, her naked body hot and slick against mine.
Her grin is infectious.
‘How about you?’ she asks, sliding down my body so she can rest her head on my chest.
I stiffen, uncomfortable about revealing too many personal details to her. While I don’t think she’d go talking to all and sundry about my private life, I do feel an innate instinct to protect myself. It’s always been like that for me, after growing up in such an unstable environment.
‘I’ve had my fair share of sexual experiences,’ I say, hoping that will suffice.
She raises her head and gives me a look of impatience. ‘Go on – tell me more. You can’t tease me with that, then leave me hanging. It’s pure cruelty.’
I sigh, realising she’s not going to let me wriggle out of this conversation.
‘I was a bit of a late bloomer, because I didn’t have a lot of time for socialising when I was in my teens or early twenties.
I had to work all the time to cover both the rent and my college fees, so there wasn’t a lot of time or opportunity to explore my sexual fetishes. ’
‘That’s too bad,’ she says, idly running her fingertip around my nipple. ‘So what kind of job did you have? Please say pool boy or tennis coach and bring all my teenage fantasies to life.’
‘I was a caretaker at Tinderly,’ I say, distracted by the way the merest touch from her can make my dick spring fully to attention, even though we’ve only just had sex.
‘I bet those pubescent girls loved you,’ she teases.
‘Yeah. A little too much sometimes. And, no, before you ask, I never succumbed. I like to think I have more pride and better taste than to take up with one of those types of girls.’
‘So, what? You’re slumming it here with me?’ she says glibly, though I catch a note of challenge in her voice.
‘Hardly,’ I reply, keeping my tone level and flippant, though I feel a sting of shame about how I originally lumped her in with my opinion about those girls.
‘I’m guessing you’ve had plenty of opportunities to get down and dirty with an array of willing women since then, though, being such a hotshot business tycoon.’ She looks up and waggles her eyebrows suggestively.
I shrug. ‘I’ve had a few sexual relationships over the years, but nothing long-term. I’ve been too busy with the business to give my personal life the kind of attention it needs in order to conduct a serious relationship.’
‘So just kinky flings, then?’ she prompts with a grin.
I let out a snort. ‘No. You’re my first kinky fling.’
‘Really?’ she says, her surprise evident.
‘Yeah,’ I admit. ‘My sex life’s been pretty straight up till now. I like to be in charge – as I’m sure you’ve noticed – but that’s about the extent of it.’
‘Oh, goody – that leaves lots more for us to explore, then,’ she murmurs, her eyes shining with excitement.
I smile back, but I’m actually a little uncomfortable with the direction this conversation is heading – it implies that this thing between us could become more serious than we agreed. But I don’t want to wreck the mood, so instead I roll over, flipping her onto her back and kissing her hard.
When we come up for air she smiles at me, her eyes hazy with desire.
‘Have you ever had a serious relationship?’ I ask, feeling an urge to know more about her, to even things up.
She pauses for a few moments and wrinkles her nose as if seriously considering my question. ‘Yeah, one – in my teens. I thought I was in love with the first guy I ever slept with.’
‘Oh…?’ I prompt, noting a strange sinking feeling in my gut, but not able to pinpoint exactly what’s bothering me about that statement.
‘It didn’t last long, though. My father found out and basically ruined him, so he had to leave the country and get a job in America.’
‘Jesus!’ I say, shocked by the thought of Maxim doing something so extreme to someone who must have been just a kid. It makes me wonder what he’d do to me if he found out what we were doing right now.
‘Yeah, well, my father’s protective like that. He doesn’t take well to his friends fucking his daughters.’
I gape at her, feeling more rattled by the second. ‘His friends?’
‘Yeah… Jack used to come over to our house all the time, to hang out with my father. He was really kind to me, and I guess I fell for him because he was the only person who was nice to me at that point in my life.’ There’s a short pause while she stares up at the ceiling, then she adds, ‘I was a bit of a bratty teenager.’
‘Was he the same age as your father?’ I feel sickened by the thought of the guy taking advantage of a young, vulnerable Maya.
‘Nah. He was in his mid-twenties. He was a real financial whizz, and my father basically headhunted him from one of his rivals and took him under his wing. I think he thought he’d be his protégé, since we Darlington-Hume offspring had all failed him by turning out to be female.’
Her focus becomes distant, as if her thoughts are being sucked into the past.
‘I didn’t sleep with him until I was seventeen, though.
Well, I basically seduced him. He wasn’t that keen to do anything behind my father’s back – and for good reason, as it turns out.
He never contacted me again once he’d left the country.
I think he’s doing well in the States, though.
I hear he’s running his own multi-million-dollar business over there, so I guess I wasn’t all bad for him.
I like to think I actually gave him that opportunity. ’
She lets out a low chuckle, but it doesn’t have any real joy in it.
My heart goes out to her as I consider how difficult it must be for her to conduct relationships with the threat of an overbearing father like Maxim looking over her shoulder all the time. The guys she dates must be really reluctant to get too close to her.
It’s a good job she’s so spirited, otherwise she’d probably never have any fun at all.
The heavy feeling of foreboding this thought conjures in me makes my gut tense, so I try to distance myself from the story she’s just told me, reassuring myself this thing between us isn’t the same situation at all.
Even so, it brings home to me once again that I really shouldn’t be risking the future of my business for a fling.
Even with someone as captivating as Maya.
As if she’s thinking the same thing, she suddenly says, ‘Hey, did you hear? My father’s going to be back in England next week.’
I turn to look at her, my stomach doing a strange, uncomfortable roll.
We both agreed this would only last until she stopped working at Ergo-i, and I wonder whether she’s now hoping he’ll not want her back right away.
Am I, too?
But instead of addressing this troubling question I say, ‘Yeah, I know. He’s invited me to his birthday party next Wednesday.’
‘Are you going to go?’ she asks, sounding suspiciously as if she’s pretending she doesn’t care one way or the other.
‘I thought I’d make an appearance, yes. He’s keen for me to attend, and it’ll be a good networking opportunity.’
The mention of her father has killed the mood, so I sit up and swing my legs off the bed, feeling jumpy and agitated.
‘We should probably get back before we’re missed,’ I say, getting up and making for the shower.
‘Yeah, we wouldn’t want to be the subject of salacious office gossip,’ she teases, but I sense a sting of hurt in her words.
I turn back to see that she’s now sitting with her knees pulled in towards her chest and her arms wrapped tightly around them.
‘Look, it’s nothing personal, keeping this quiet,’ I say gruffly. ‘I just have a thing about keeping my sex life away from the office.’
She just shrugs. ‘Well, don’t worry – nobody will hear a thing about it from me.’
A strange sort of lightness lifts through me as I see genuine honesty in her face. Something inside me warms my chest – a deep sense of relief, perhaps – and I realise it’s because I believe she really means it. We’re in this together.
‘You can trust me,’ she says, as if wanting to absolutely confirm it for me.
‘I know I can,’ I say, returning to sit on the edge of the bed. ‘I hope you feel you can trust me too.’
I raise my hand to her face, smoothing the pad of my thumb over her cheek, and I’m gratified to feel her lean into my touch.
‘I do,’ she says, moving forward to kiss me lightly on the lips. ‘Your overactive sense of decency is too bloody strong for you to deliberately do anything to hurt me anyway.’
I give her a tight smile, thinking again about where all this might lead, and wondering whether we should call a halt to it now, before things get too messy. But looking into those astute, captivating eyes of hers, I know for damn sure that that’s not going to happen.