Chapter 22
ALEX
Risk | Gracie Abrams
‘Larsson, I’ve hit a dead end with the Fletcher account. I told you I need your report.’ Pete’s voice oozed through the gap in his office door, and either Alex was hiding his emotions better than normal or Pete really couldn’t read the room, because it was not the fucking day.
Alex’s head was throbbing, his chest felt tight, and he was at that uncomfortable meeting point of being hungry enough that his stomach ached, but he couldn’t bear the thought of eating.
He also hadn’t seen Sarah in four days, hadn’t done anything beyond kiss her in five, and that lack of contact was wearing on him. They’d been texting more. Some explosively hot. Others holding mundane thoughts on art or sharing bits of their day. On Monday, she’d sent him, unprompted, a picture of Maurice’s completed portrait. When she’d asked him if he was free the previous night and he’d texted her two hours later when he was only just getting home, she’d actually asked what he was having for dinner. And of course, there’d been the video call on Sunday. The one she’d initiated, where she’d let him talk her through it twice before flipping the scene and telling him to come.
That night in the bar felt like it had been a turning point for them. A chance for her to see him underneath the many layers of masks. She’d been asking for more ever since, and he was only too happy to provide.
And when it got late and he was depleted from work, and they lay in their respective beds, miles apart in the same city, while he would give anything to have her next to him, having her seduce him with her words and photos was a decent consolation prize. On Tuesday, she’d sent a breathy voice note that’d he’d listened to three times since.
‘Larsson,’ Pete said again.
Alex’s eyes snapped back into focus, then narrowed at the lanky frame attempting to fill his doorway. ‘I told you—’
‘Rogers wants us to work on this together.’
Rogers could go fuck himself, as far as Alex was concerned. The old crone had obviously never worked with Pete on anything. But a glance at the clock confirmed that it was the latest he’d been at the office all week. It was a long shot that Sarah would still be up, never mind open to his company. But it would be the balm he needed to make his shitty week better.
‘If I give you the file, will you shut up and let me go home?’
Slouched shoulders perked up, Pete hauling himself into a more attentive position, a leer growing on his face. ‘Going to see your girlfriend? You’ve had a lot of late nights this week, Larsson. Maybe she should find someone who can make more time for her.’
Alex turned back to his laptop and dragged the right file into an email to Pete, mainly because if his hands were busy, he couldn’t walk over and deck him. He was always insufferable, but he’d been even more so after finding Sarah in Alex’s office—smirking at him across conference room tables and making lewd comments just suggestive enough that Alex would understand without tipping anyone else off.
‘Maybe,’ Alex said, hitting the shutdown button for the first time in fourteen hours. ‘And maybe your PA would be interested to know that you’re sniffing around other women.’ He looked up just in time to see the colour drain from Pete’s face, his already pasty face turning sallow. The satisfaction in that moment alone was enough to make this whole painful encounter worthwhile. ‘You ever hear that saying “Don’t shit where you eat?”’ Alex continued, slowly packing up the day’s mess. ‘It’s solid advice.’
‘What are you suggesting, Larsson?’ Pete’s voice was even more nasal than normal.
‘I’m not suggesting anything,’ Alex said, finally standing and sliding his bag onto his shoulder. ‘I am telling you, in no uncertain terms, that if you ever disrespect Sarah again, I’ll tell your PA every single thing you’ve said about her. I think she’ll particularly enjoy the comment about how great my girlfriend’s tits are. Then, I think I’ll tell the whole company you’re fucking your PA. Next time, do it in a room without cameras.’
Alex genuinely liked Kevin, but access to a new tier of office gossip had certainly been an appealing perk to their acquaintanceship. Two Wednesdays before, he had called Alex to his desk the second his loafers hit their building foyer to show him the footage of Pete and his assistant kissing frantically in one of the conference rooms. The one that, thankfully, Alex took great pains to avoid. It hadn’t been renovated in about twenty years, and smelled like it hadn’t been cleaned in as long. They’d stopped watching when Pete’s hand disappeared under her pencil skirt. But if Kevin was to be believed, it had happened three times since then.
‘You’re applying for Anders’ job, right?’ It meant a fancy new title, a slightly better office, and barely more money, all for an even bigger chunk of your soul. Alex had considered it for all of five seconds. He shouldered his way past the annoying pest standing between him and peace, pulling his office door shut behind him so quickly that Pete all but jumped backwards. ‘You wouldn’t want a pesky rumour about gross misconduct or abuse of power ruining your shot at that promotion, now would you? Goodnight, Pete.’
Ten minutes later, Alex sat at a red light, pondering his next move. Straight would take him home. To dinner and his dog and his bed and a high-pressure shower head that would help work the kinks from his back.
Left would take him to her.
As the light went green, he flicked on his indicator.
***
Alex: You up?
Sarah: Yeah, but I’m sure as shit not getting a train to Holland Park now.
Alex: I’m down the street from your place.
Because sitting right outside and texting her would have felt a touch too creepy. And because, in his haste to get to her, he hadn’t thought to check where her flatmates were.
Sarah: Sorry, I have company.
Did she?
They’d never discussed whatever this was being exclusive, but…he’d assumed. He hadn’t exactly been leaving her much time for dalliances with other people.
But it had been a few days, and given the rate they’d been going at, he supposed she could have started looking elsewhere for physical contact. Then again, if she was responding to his texts, her company was either poor or battery-operated. He could work with either.
Alex: Pretty sure I’m better.
Sarah: It would be rude to replace them now.
Alex’s smile grew as he exited the car. She was definitely messing with him. Payback for leaving her high and dry all week? Whether she was bluffing or her company was actually a toy, he’d make it up to her.
Alex: They can join.
Alex: Outside. You have two minutes to decide if you want me to come up.
He would have waited longer—after another week from hell, all he wanted was to lose himself in all her softness and the dizzying smell of sandalwood that always surrounded her—but he had to maintain some pretence at self-respect.
Mercifully, at the one minute-fifty mark, the entrance in front of him buzzed.
Sarah opened her front door only a crack when he knocked. Seeing him, she pulled the door further, keeping her body hidden behind it.
So when he crossed the threshold and rounded on her, his mouth went dry at the sight in front of him. She wore that damn purple underwear again, this time with a sheer black gown over it. Her hair tumbled over her shoulders in dark, loose waves.
‘You look… You’re… Fuck. ’ He wasn’t used to being at a loss for words, and ordinarily he wouldn’t have cared for it, but he was too stunned by how utterly gorgeous she looked to care. ‘Were you already wearing that when I texted?’
Raised eyebrows crinkled the smooth, pretty skin on her forehead. ‘Are you asking if I dressed up for you?’
Alex shrugged. Yes.
Sarah rolled her eyes and said sweetly, ‘I told you—I have company.’
For the first time, Alex truly considered that she might be serious. That there might be a half-naked person on the other side of her door. Since he was pretty sure that was the only fancy set she owned, she didn’t exactly seem the type to lounge around the house in lingerie. So if she hadn’t dressed up for him…
It wasn’t as if he’d never had a threesome before. But she wasn’t a random girl in a club—not anymore, anyway—or a couple looking to spice things up.
He didn’t want to share her .
Relief washed over him when she led him into her room and the only things on Sarah’s bed were her laptop and a vibrator. He flung himself against her pillows and reached for her, then tugged until she fell onto his lap, knees on either side of his left thigh. He’d never thought of a sex toy as pretty, but the one he picked up now—a sleek, almost elegant design in a soft lilac colour—certainly fit the description.
‘This your friend?’
‘Why? Jealous?’
Alex exhaled a laugh. ‘I already said they could join, Princess. You want me to fuck you with this?’
‘Maybe’—her voice was shaky now as he lifted a hand to her chest, one of his thumbs going to graze a nipple—‘maybe I should fuck myself with it and make you watch.’
As if that would be a punishment. ‘If I’m seeing you get off, I’m still winning. Would you look at me while you do it? Or go back to what you were watching when I got here? Let’s see what you’re into.’
He reached for her laptop and hit the space key to bring the screen back to life, as Sarah quickly said, ‘Don’t—’
‘Oh shit,’ he breathed.
The freshly lit screen revealed twelve thumbnails of Sarah in the same maddening set she was wearing now—the one he’d been thinking about all week—hands roving her body and running through her hair. Eyes smouldering into the camera in one shot and looking coyly away in the next. He scrolled through more pictures and found her unclasping her bra, then holding it delicately to her chest with one hand while the fingers of the other brushed her inner thigh.
‘Were you seriously getting off to pictures of yourself?’ He had trouble getting the words out. If he’d been crazy with wanting her before…
Sarah looked slightly embarrassed before her face filled with a defiance he’d never imagined could be so attractive before she came along. ‘Yes. I look hot. And honestly? It’s been a while since I felt that sexy.’
He swallowed hard before stroking the soft skin above the waistband of her underwear. ‘You should always feel that sexy. You are that sexy. Whether you’re in this’—he snapped the band against her hips, and she shivered—‘or that white cotton bra I took off with my teeth last week.’
Her eyes turned shrewd. ‘You don’t think it’s weird?’
‘Maybe a little. Isn’t everyone into something weird? Who cares?’ He pulled her closer, until her knee was pressed to the junction of his thighs. ‘I think it’s pretty obvious how much it turns me on.’ He looked back at the photos, the date stamp in the file names catching his eye. ‘Was this the day you came to my office? Fuck , no wonder you were so ready for it.’
Her underwear had been soaked by the time he reached it, making it effortless to slide into her. And without any foreplay, just his fingers digging into her hips as he thrust deep into her, he’d made her come faster than he ever had before.
‘Can we stop talking and do something? You interrupted me, and if I don’t have an orgasm in the next ten minutes, I might explode.’
Needy was a good colour on her. ‘If you were having such a good time by yourself, why were you checking my texts?’ Alex asked. When Sarah merely glared at him, he smirked. It amused him endlessly that she tried so hard to be annoyed by him. Opening the drawer where she stashed condoms and lube to find only a collection of hair ties and old paintbrushes staring back at him, he asked, ‘Are you seriously out of condoms?’ He had, but in his car . And he was not prepared to waste the five minutes it would take to walk there and back.
‘They probably just shifted. Dig around in the back.’
‘There’s an ass play joke in there somewhere,’ he muttered, pushing his hand deeper into the drawer. As his hand closed around cardboard, it also brushed cold, hard metal. He used the box to push it forwards and found—
‘Handcuffs? I’m impressed, Princess.’
She wrinkled her nose, and even through the fog of arousal clouding his brain, he thought it was adorable. ‘My ex left them here. He seemed to think he was cut out to be a dom.’ She rolled those pretty eyes again.
‘You don’t seem like the type to enjoy that,’ Alex gritted out, trying not to think of her bound under anyone else. She let him push her around sometimes, but mostly she gave as good as she got. He suspected he was allowed to take charge more because he was so focused on making it good for her, and less because the act of submission itself did anything for her. The word likely wasn’t even in her vocabulary. Everything between them was a battle, and he fucking loved it.
‘There’s a reason he’s my ex,’ she deadpanned.
Suddenly grateful for every core workout he’d ever done, Alex lifted his upper body off the bed to whisper in her ear, ‘Wanna try them?’
‘You think I’m going to let you handcuff me?’ she scoffed.
‘Tempting as that sounds’—and it was tempting, good god —‘I actually thought…’ Alex dangled the handcuffs in front of her face.
Sarah went still, her breath hitching. ‘You’d want that?’
And yes, he absolutely wanted nothing more than to lie completely at her mercy while she took whatever she needed from him. But since they were still doing this thing where he pretended he wasn’t obsessed with her and she pretended she didn’t realise he was, he simply said, ‘Could be fun.’
‘I’ve never tried being in control like… that .’
Alex brushed his nose up her throat, trying to inhale as much of that heady mix of her as he could before she noticed. ‘Then try now.’ He was desperate to reassure her she was safe with him, his body constantly aching with the weight of all the things he couldn’t say.
But maybe Sarah didn’t need reassuring, as she pressed her fingertips to his chest and pushed him back onto the bed. ‘You should probably have a safe word.’
Alex smirked up at her. ‘Duchamp.’
Sarah huffed out a laugh as she closed a cuff around one wrist. When she shifted forwards on his thigh to loop the chain around a bar on her bed frame and click the other cuff shut around him, she let out a small moan.
‘What was that?’ Alex asked, eyebrows raised.
‘Nothing.’ Sarah’s face remained carefully neutral.
‘Nice try, Princess. I know that sound.’ He knew all her sounds by now, the part of his brain that knew how to observe and fixate and retain the facts that interested him becoming a catalogue of all the ways he could please her. ‘Roll your hips for me again.’
‘I thought I was in charge.’
‘Humour me.’
She didn’t moan that time, but she did bite her lip trying to hold it in.
‘Keep going,’ he said.
‘I’m going to have to gag you next time if you keep trying to give orders.’
‘That’s not the threat you think it is.’
She tilted her head to look at him, probably expecting a smirk. Surprise flickered across her face when she found him utterly serious.
Alex was fairly certain he’d let her do anything to him.
‘Let me take your trousers off—’
‘Ruin them. I don’t care. Just don’t stop.’
He was entirely overwhelmed by her. By her moans and exhales speeding up, pitching higher each time she ground down against him. By her hands on his chest, fingers ripping at his buttons until his shirt was hanging open and she could scrape her nails against his stomach. Her knee nudging him when her control slipped, making him harder each time until it was utterly unbearable—her heat and wetness soaking through his trousers.
‘Can you come like this?’
‘I-I think so.’
‘Use the vibrator if you need to. Just get yourself there.’ He needed it. Needed to see her fall apart and know she’d used him to do it.
‘I love your thighs,’ she whimpered. ‘I thought that the first night. At Neon. You kept putting a knee between my legs while we were dancing, and I’ve wanted to do this ever since. Sometimes I hate how pretty you are. Sometimes I think it’s dumb that you have such enormous muscles. But I love your thi— Fuck .’
She fell forwards, legs tensing around his thigh as she came, and found his lips. When he opened for her, she moaned into his mouth.
‘Aleksander…’
Fuck , the way she said his name. He’d never liked those two extra syllables until they started falling from her tongue.
‘Need you. Inside,’ she murmured, letting him taste the words.
I just need you . More words added to the pile threatening to climb out of his throat.
‘I’m not going to last long,’ he warned, as she undid his belt, then his trousers, before sliding him out of his briefs. Relief flooded his body as the pressure lessened. ‘Watching that… You’re incredible.’
‘Do you want me to take it slow?’ Sarah asked, rolling the condom onto him. And then he was wound right back up. ‘Try to draw it out?’
‘This is about you. Do what you need.’
Her face, always so full of sass when confronted with him, softened as she traced the lines on his stomach. It made him clench, and she followed the slight ripple of muscle with her finger. ‘This whole arrangement falls apart if it’s not good for both of us,’ she said.
No chance of that being a problem, he thought, as she sank onto him. This. This was what he’d needed for days now. To escape into her warmth. To shut off his brain, forget about work, and just feel .
For a fleeting moment, he was desperate for her to uncuff him so he could touch her. Stroke her face softly. The idea distracted him enough that his next words tumbled out more tenderly than he’d intended. Another slip of the mask, only for her. ‘It’s always good with you.’
Thankfully Sarah seemed to miss it, looking slightly pained at her slow, almost languid movements as her hips rocked against his. Meanwhile, his body felt like a live wire, primed to explode.
‘Don’t hold back for me. Either way, I’m going to come faster than I’d like. And you know I’ll take care of you after, if this finishes too soon. Just do what you need,’ he urged again.
‘I need you to fuck me,’ she said. ‘Can I uncuff you?’
Alex considered for a moment, then shook his head. ‘I think I can do it like this. Brace yourself on the bed frame.’
She leaned over him, clasping just above his hands. He bucked his hips once, experimentally, and raised his eyebrows at Sarah. She nodded, breathing heavily, and he increased his speed, thrusting up hard into her, his body a long, powerful line, anchored at the bars he was cuffed to.
He’d been right—he didn’t last long. But if the way her body pulsed around him was any indication—or the way she dropped her hands and leaned in to kiss him, raking her fingers through his hair, tugging at his scalp—she’d got there too.
Still, he planned to make good on his promise, if only because making her come was his new favourite hobby. One he was really fucking good at. ‘What do you want?’ he asked, as she uncuffed him. ‘My hands, my mouth, the vibrator?’ He was kind of hoping she didn’t say hands. He’d do it, obviously, but his wrists were aching from the metal cutting into them.
‘I’m good. Really. I don’t know if I can come again.’
He frowned at her defeatist attitude. ‘Two isn’t even close to our record.’ There’d been that single lazy Saturday she’d gifted him. An hour of making her wait for it, then six over the next hour.
Sarah laughed as she rolled off him. ‘Quality over quantity.’ A small, pathetic groan escaped her, one that made him feel at least ten feet tall. ‘I think your dick might be magic.’
‘We should have sex all the time. You’re so nice to me after.’
‘Aleksander, we do have sex all the time.’ And she was back to rolling her eyes.
‘Princess, it’s been almost a week,’ he reminded her.
‘Yeah, well, whose fault is that?’ She collapsed onto her pillows—which even with the confines of that mind-blowing bra did fantastic things to her tits—hands propped under her cheek as she yawned.
His. He knew it was his fault. Work’s fault, really. And he would have given anything to spend the previous few nights wrapped up in her rather than numbers and spreadsheets. She’d invited him over a couple of times while he’d still been at the office, and by the time he’d left, she’d been either asleep or no longer interested.
With a sigh he felt right down to his bones, Alex swung his long legs off the mattress. Even if the bed was slightly too short to be comfortable, the company made it worthwhile. He’d been wracking his brain to think of a reason to linger, but if he was done being useful, he was done, period. Sarah certainly wasn’t going to let him spend the night.
And then, she gave him a lifeline.