Chapter 13 Jace
JACE
“So, tell me about the guy.” I traced my fingers along her spine, admiring how her blonde hair spilled across my chest like liquid gold.
“The guy?” Scarlett lifted her head, one eyebrow arched. The sheets were tangled around us, evidence of our latest round of passion. The city lights filtering through the windows cast a gentle glow across her skin.
“Revenge list guy.”
“Pass.” She dropped her head back to my chest, but I caught the tension in her shoulders.
“Oh, come on,” I coaxed, threading my fingers through her hair. “The curiosity is killing me.”
She chuckled, but remained silent, her fingers drawing lazy patterns across my tattoos.
“It might feel good to get it off your chest,” I suggested. “And you’ll never see me again, so what does it matter if you tell me?”
“That’s fair.” She seemed to consider this for a moment, then propped herself up on her elbow, her hair cascading over one shoulder. Her eyes met mine, and something in them made my chest tighten. “So, I’m in my boss’s office, right? And he literally puts his hand on my thigh.”
“He what?” I shifted up, the muscles in my jaw clenching.
“I know, right?” Her laugh was bitter. “I can’t believe stuff like this still happens. At first, I tried to handle it with professionalism, but he just got more aggressive.”
Anger began to simmer in my veins at the thought of someone touching her like that.
Witty, funny, charming Scarlett. Scarlett, who made me laugh for the first time in forever and who my instincts said didn’t have a mean bone in her body.
Scarlett, who had kept my mind off work and had given me the best sex of my life.
Who had been ravenous in bed, then sweet when she’d washed my back in the shower. The thought of someone violating her …
My hands fisted in the sheets.
“When I finally got up to leave,” she continued, her voice tight, “he threatened to hurt my career if I didn’t come back and sit down.”
“Fucking hell.”
“I know.”
“So, what did you do?”
A dangerous smile played at her lips. “I told him if he ever touched me again, I’d break his fingers. Then I went to the bar and made a revenge list about him.”
“Jesus. You need to report him.”
Her eyes flashed, and she pulled away slightly.
“What?” I asked, though I already knew I’d stepped in it.
“Respectfully,” she bit out, “I’m perfectly capable of handling the situation myself. I didn’t confide in you to get your advice. I told you because you were curious, and, yeah, maybe it would feel good to get it off my chest. But I don’t need to be told what I should do. I’m very aware of that.”
“Yikes.” I trailed my fingers through her hair. “I really hit a nerve, didn’t I?”
Her features softened into something like regret. “I’m sorry,” she said, dropping back onto the pillow. “Hairpin trigger. I don’t like men trying to control me.”
Men trying to control me. I filed that phrase into my mind, wanting to dissect it and uncover its source, but resisting the urge. The last thing I needed to do was hit another nerve. I was having far too much fun with her to send her running for the hills.
I brushed a strand of hair from her face.
“In my line of work, people come to me with problems every moment of every day, and it’s my job to give them solutions. Knee-jerk reaction. Please disregard and accept my apology.”
Relief softened her expression. Her fingers found their way back to my chest, tracing the lines of my tattoos.
“So, what are you going to do?” I asked carefully.
“I’m going to report his ass.” After a moment, her voice softened into something that bordered on despair. “He’ll probably just say it was consensual.”
“Does your office have a no-fraternization policy?” I shifted to look at her, CEO instincts kicking in despite myself.
“Yeah. Why?”
“There’s a reason many companies strictly ban relationships between employees and enforce it,” I explained, careful to keep my tone neutral. “Fraternization causes too many problems.”
She stiffened slightly. “This wasn’t a relationship. It was harassment.”
“Exactly my point.” I caught her gaze. “That policy will work against him and in your favor. He can’t use breaking one rule as an alibi for breaking another. The moment he claims it was consensual, he’s admitting to violating company policy. Either way, he’s screwed.”
A slow smile spread across her face, and something in my chest tightened at the sight.
“Okay, that’s actually a really good point.”
“Thanks. I have them from time to time.”
But after a minute or two, her smile faded, and she sighed. “But he might claim I’m the one that came onto him. He’s the superior, so he might claim I was doing it to get something.”
I raised an eyebrow, but before I could offer any thoughts, Scarlett was already thinking out loud.
“If he does that, I’ll ask HR why I, an employee with a spotless record, would suddenly do something so out of character and appalling. I’ve worked there for years and should have significant credibility.”
“Good.” My voice dropped lower, more intimate. “And for what it’s worth, I believe you.”
Something shifted in her eyes: relief, gratitude, and a flicker of something warmer. She reached up to cup my face.
I leaned down to kiss her, and within moments, the kiss deepened, sparked into a flame. We tumbled to the floor in a tangle of sheets and limbs, and I lost myself in her all over again.
An hour later, she stood up and got dressed, pulling her purse strap over her shoulder.
“Stay,” I said, my voice low and urgent. “For the weekend.”
She’d done an excellent job of keeping my mind off work. Off everything except her, in fact. My fingers ghosted over her arm.
She turned to face me, her expression caught between amusement and wariness.
“I don’t do relationships,” she stated flatly.
“Who said anything about a relationship?” I countered, stepping closer until her lingering perfume wrapped around me like silk.
Her eyes narrowed. “Staying implies it’s more than what it is. This is fun—that’s it.”
There was a firmness in her voice, confidence in her posture. Scarlett was a woman who knew what she wanted and was beautifully emboldened enough to say it. There was something about her assertiveness that made me respect her all the more for it.
I held up my hands in mock surrender. “No relationships. I promise I won’t fall in love. It’s only two days.”
“Fall in love?” She arched an eyebrow, that delicious smirk playing on her lips. “Now you’re being dramatic.”
I grinned, thoroughly enjoying our verbal sparring. “It’s two days. After how much fun we had, do you really want it to end?”
“Fun,” she echoed with a mischievous tilt of her brow. “Is that what you call this?”
“Sex is fun.” Mind-blowing, earth-shattering fun.
Her laugh was pure melody, but when it faded, I saw the truth in her eyes: she didn’t want this to end any more than I did. Maybe this was the best sex of her life too. The thought sent a thrill through me.
“Come on,” I coaxed playfully. “Midnight on Sunday, you can turn into a pumpkin. I’ll even arrange a carriage ride home.”
My own personal Cinderella.
She wavered, fingers toying with her purse strap.
I seized the moment, closing the distance between us to graze her jawline with my knuckles, thrilled when her mouth parted, her chest rising and falling faster than it had been a moment ago.
Sensing she needed a nudge, I moved my hand to the fabric of her pencil skirt.
She didn’t stop me.
Nor did she stop me when I lifted the hem of it slightly, grazing her bare skin with my fingertips. Instead, she locked her gaze with mine, as if challenging me to continue. Daring me even.
I didn’t know what game we were playing, but I wanted to win if she was the prize. So, I slid my hand higher, tracing the inside of her thigh.
“I promise to give you the best two days of your life,” I murmured, finding that sweet, slick heat I craved. That I needed to bury myself in, to feast on until she screamed my name.
Her gasp was victory itself. I couldn’t hold back my smirk as I circled that sensitive spot, daring her to stop me.
“Stay.” This time, it was a command, firm and resolute.
And this time, she dropped the purse to the floor. Surrendering to me.
I told myself I wanted her to stay because she was gorgeous, because this was the best sex I’d ever had.
Who wouldn’t want more of that drug before it was gone?
That was what I told myself because it wasn’t possible to fall for a woman this quickly.
That didn’t happen in the real world, let alone in mine …
“We need rules,” she said.
I smiled and pushed two fingers inside of her.