Chapter Ten
CHAPTER TEN
Saff
I knew it was a terrible idea even as Soren’s fingers were drifting up under my skirt.
But I couldn’t bring myself to care with his lips teasing the shell of my ear, with his scent overpowering me, with his touch teasing across my inner thigh.
We were both adults.
We could still be professional after things got spicy.
At least that was what I was telling myself as my legs spread to allow his hand to finish its path upward.
His fingers pressed against the material of my panties.
A low, rumbling sound moved through Soren, making a shiver course down my spine even as his touch had a throaty whimper escaping me.
“Told you,” Soren said, teeth nipping my earlobe as his fingers shifted up and under my panties to tease up my cleft without the barrier. “So wet for me,” he murmured.
The depth in his voice had my heartbeat tripping into overdrive as his thumb found my clit and started to circle. Lazily. Like he was enjoying the teasing.
My hand rose, grabbing his forearm, holding on as he drove me slowly up.
It wasn’t long before my hips were rocking and my soft sighs were becoming little moans.
His head shifted, gaze holding mine, the flames licking in their depths. His own desire was a sizzle sparking off of him, but he demanded nothing.
Two of his fingers slipped back down my cleft, then slid inside me. Slowly. Dragging a low, needy moan out of me.
“Shh, darlin’,” Soren said, his forehead pressing to mine as his fingers settled deep. His fingers thrust, dragging another moan out of me.
His lips curved up into a wicked little smile as his fingers thrust again, but this time, my moan was muffled by his lips as they crashed down on mine.
While his fingers stayed lazy, almost gentle, he kissed me hard and deep. Not quite with urgency, but almost… reverence. Like he was terrified he’d never get another chance, and wanted to commit each sensation to memory.
My hand slid up, grabbing the back of his neck, as I became acutely aware of every part of me at once. The ache low in my stomach, the trembling sensation up my spine, the rush of my blood through my veins.
I’d never been kissed like this before.
Like it was all there was in the world.
Like it was all he wanted there to be.
When his tongue traced the seam of my lips, they parted with a soft, involuntary sound, and he groaned—low and deep—as his tongue teased over mine.
My body felt overwhelmed with sensations, nerve endings firing off all at once, everything too intense to process.
My body was trembling as I held onto him, silently trusting him to take control, to take care of me even as I lost control of myself.
Soren’s kiss deepened, lips bruising into mine as his fingers started to thrust harder, faster, his palm flattening on my cleft to engage my clit.
My own hips were rocking, desperate for release from the clawing ache deep in my core.
Even against his lips, my moans were growing louder, more frantic as he drove me ruthlessly toward that precipice.
Then he threw me over.
My whole body shuddered as the orgasm spread through me, leaving me shaking and clinging to him as the pleasure rolled over and over again.
Soren’s lips silenced most of my cries as I clung to him.
I was the one to break it, leaning forward to press my face against his chest, comforted by the quick thump of his heart against my cheek as my body slowly came back down.
I was always the one to recover first. Hell, to recoil first. Like everything in me wanted to get away as quickly as possible once the sweat was dry and the orgasm had settled.
But there I was, my face pressed to Soren’s chest, my hands still holding onto his sides. And no part of me wanted to let go.
Soren’s hand was still against me, his fingers still inside me, but his other arm had also raised, his fingers around the back of my neck, holding me against him. Like he also didn’t want to let go.
And in those stolen moments of post-orgasm clarity, I could see just how dangerous this was. Not just to want him. Desire was easy. Even, if you were both being mature about it, not messy.
The problem was, I didn’t just want him.
I liked him.
Respected him.
Wanted more of him.
Before I could make the decision to move away myself—and I was totally just about to do that—there was a quick rap on the office door that had my whole body jolting.
Oh, God .
Bastian was right outside the door.
Ten feet away.
Could he have suspected?
Or, worse yet, heard ?
Soren recovered first, yanking away from me and turning to look out the window, likely trying to hide the fact that while I’d gotten some relief, he had not.
“Yeah?” I asked, moving off the desk and making sure my skirt was in place.
“Just a reminder that you have a four o’clock,” Bass said, ducking his head inside the door.
I definitely didn’t have a four o’clock. Since, well, this was a fake office where I conducted business with Soren only.
Was he interrupting because he knew I’d crossed a line?
“With R.L.”
R.L.?
Renzo Lombardi.
Shit.
The boss was on the way in. While I still felt like I was buzzing from letting the guy I was going to be secretly screwing over in business finger me in my fake office.
“Oh. Right. Thanks,” I said, giving him a nod. “We will, uh, just finish up,” I said.
Bass ducked out of the room, seemingly unaware of what had just happened a few feet away from him.
As soon as Bastian left, Soren turned back from the window, looking calm and collected. While I felt like both my mind and my body were buzzing and pulled apart at the edges.
Soren went to the desk, collecting his tablet.
I made my way to the door, knowing I needed him out before Renzo came up.
Soren walked closer, then stopped, reaching out with his free hand to grab my chin, tilting it up, his touch firm, maybe a little possessive.
There’s no way, so close, that he didn’t see the way my lips parted and my eyes went heavy-lidded.
“I keep trying to tell myself to stay away,” he said, his thumb teasing across my swollen lower lip. “But then you look at me like that, and I forget every reason I had.”
His words, and the meaning beneath them, had my belly flip-flopping.
“And in case this wasn’t already abundantly clear,” he said, leaning down to press a quick, deep kiss to my lips, “we’re nowhere near done.”
With that, he pulled open the door and strode out, leaving me to rely on the wall to keep myself upright.
I loved the concept of girls in books getting all weak-kneed and swoony. But I’d always figured it was, you know, fiction. Just something to get people to keep turning pages.
I’d definitely never felt anything even akin to swooning or wobbly legs from a man.
Until Soren.
“The fuck you doing?” Renzo’s voice asked, appearing suddenly at my side, making me jerk hard and gasp.
“I, uh, have a headache,” I lied, turning away from him as I did it, so he didn’t see the guilt.
Sure, there were times I maybe withheld some truths from my boss. But I never actually lied to him. And now? Now, there was going to be a lot of lying.
Which gave me all the more reason to not allow things to continue on with Soren outside of professional interactions.
“You getting sick? You’re… red,” he said, gesturing toward his face.
Of course I was red.
I just had an orgasm that let me see through time and space for a moment.
Then I… snuggled the guy who gave it to me.
I was not a snuggler.
I was a ‘that was fun, now get off me’ kind of woman.
“I think I’m allergic to these stupid business casual outfits,” I said, going behind my desk to sit down.
“I dunno. They’re kind of nice,” Renzo said, shrugging, then dropping down across from me.
“Are you here to check up on me?”
“Didn’t realize you had Vale here.”
“We were discussing design plans.”
“The papers signed yet?”
“Still with the lawyers. But I think before the end of the week.”
“Good. I want it official. No backing out then.”
“There’s no reason to assume Soren is going to back out.”
Except maybe if I kept letting him put his hands on me and it all blew up in our faces.
“Soren, huh?”
“We’ve seen each other a few times now. It’d be weird if I kept calling him Mr. Vale.”
“Heard you went out with him last night.”
I hadn’t exactly been forthcoming with that information with Bastian or Serano. How did he know then?
Had someone seen me?
And, if so, how much had they seen?
“The bouncer,” Renzo said. “He’s one of my associates. He said he thought he saw you, but your hair was different.”
He had been giving me a weird look, come to think of it.
But if Renzo had someone working at that club, I guess it was a good thing that it was someone who was outside. There was no way the bouncer could have seen what happened on the dance floor.
He could have seen—
“He said you stormed out at some point. And Vale chased after you.”
“We had a disagreement,” I said, shrugging it off.
“About what?” Renzo asked, those keen eyes pinning me.
Crap.
“You know me,” I said, waving a hand, trying to play it down.
“That I do. And, Saff, I thought I made it clear that you can’t go fucking this job up just because you can’t control your temper.”
Yeah, it wasn’t my temper that was the problem.
“I’m not fucking anything up. We had a perfectly amicable meeting and got most of the design plans hammered out.”
“Luckily, once the papers are signed, you don’t really need to be seeing Vale. At least not until the club is open.”
“Don’t you think it would be weird for me to be hands-off, then suddenly all over the place when it opens?”
“Yeah, maybe.”
“Besides, don’t you want me to have some of our people hired there? I can’t do that if I’m not involved in everything.”
“Alright. But if you start butting heads with him, I need to know you will take a step back and de-escalate the situation.”
“When have I ever given you a reason to doubt my ability to handle my job?”
“We both know your temper can—”
“Renz, don’t.”
“You once lit a man’s tie on fire.”
“Well, he was never late again on a payment, was he? And his beard grew back.”
“My point is, you can—on occasion—go the nuclear option when all the situation calls for is a little nudge, not a scorched earth policy.”
Alright.
Well, he had me there.
Even if he didn’t seem to grasp why I needed to handle my crew and our business with a firmer hand than he did. Why I often had to do something unhinged to get the same result that he might get with a few firm words.
“Fine,” I said, choosing my words carefully. “But this isn’t some asshole who tried to fuck over the family for three months in a row. This is just a businessman. I’m not going to light any part of him on fire.”
“Or sever anything. And his balls stay uninjured.”
“You drive a hard bargain,” I said, getting a chuckle out of my boss. “I know how important this is. I haven’t even raised my voice to him. And he was thoroughly un-kicked in the balls when he walked out of here.”
“Glad to hear it. Now, I got a message from my wife.”
“Which must be about books.”
A much safer topic than Soren’s balls. That had left un-kicked, sure, but likely quite blue.
“She wanted me to remind you that the ‘alien’ book came out today, so you need to get a copy so she has someone to talk to about it.”
“Oh, right. I completely forgot.”
“Is this one of those books that she’s gonna want to reenact?” he asked, eyes bright.
“Oh, definitely. It’s gonna be a complete fuck-fest.”
“Better go get myself some electrolytes on my way home,” he said, rising from his chair. “Let me know when the paperwork is signed and filed.”
“Will do.”
Renzo made his way out, and a few moments later, I walked out of my office, depositing the two mugs on Bass’s desk. “These mugs are too heavy.”
“They hurt your delicate wrists?” he teased. “Didn’t I hear you once dangled a man over a roof?”
“Well, I was only holding one leg,” I said, getting a little chuckle out of him. “I’m heading out.”
“Where to?”
“To buy a book.”
And lots of batteries to put in Mr. Good Vibrations.
Maybe if I gave that thing a real workout, I wouldn’t be so susceptible to Soren’s charms next time I saw him.
Or, at least, that was the lie I was telling myself as I walked to the bookstore.