Chapter 6 Dante
DANTE
My office smelled like Harper. And sex. I’d cleaned up last night, but the scent lingered in my nose, in my head. I’d worked half the day with a semi thanks to the smudged ass print on the front of my desk.
Every time I saw it, I thought of Harper. The sounds she’d made last night, the way she accepted us, hell the way she let me choke her and begged for more were enough of a turn on to make me hard.
I stood and stretched my arms over my head, twisting my torso on my way to the wall of windows. Night had fallen half an hour ago, and the last of our employees filtered out of the building.
Harper walked among them, her honey-blonde hair bouncing with every step. She headed to a modest, gray sedan and slipped behind the wheel. I stayed at the window, keeping watch over her until she left the parking lot and disappeared from view.
“Nice view?” Julian appeared beside me, a broad smile and cackling laugh bringing joy to an otherwise boring day.
Alexander knocked once and walked in, his strides long and purposeful. He marched straight over to the liquor cabinet and took out my oldest Scotch. He poured a full glass, much to Julian’s amusement.
“What the fuck, Alexander?” I marched over and took the decanter from him. “This is a thousand-dollar bottle and you’re drinking it like cheap beer. Do you want to be knocked on your ass? Because this stuff packs one hell of a punch.”
“I do believe our friend is having a mental crisis.” Julian crossed his arms, his smile growing wider by the second. “Thinking about last night?”
Alexander flipped him off and gulped the Scotch. His throat worked in a series of swallows that took down half the glass before he lowered it. “We need to talk about last night.”
“When can we do it again?” Julian arched a brow when I swiveled to face him. “Don’t give me that fucking look. We had the time of our lives with Harper. One night is not going to be enough. We all know it.”
“It has to be.” Alexander ripped the decanter from my hand and topped off his glass. Once he filled it to the brim, he slammed it back, refilled it again, and marched over to the couch. He sat on the edge, his gaze tearing around the room. “She’s fucking everywhere.”
“It was a hell of a night.” I poured myself a drink and raised the decanter toward Julian.
He nodded and pushed away from the window. “So when do we see her again?”
“We don’t.” Alexander stopped gulping Scotch like it would save him and took a leisurely sip.
He leaned into the sofa and draped his arm over the back, in the exact spot where he’d bent Harper over the edge.
“We need to stick to the rules. No in-office relationships. We made those rules, and we need to uphold them. If we don’t, how can we make anyone else?
” He shook his head in a slow side to side motion.
“We never should have broken them in the first place.”
“The hell with that.” Julian took the whiskey I’d poured for him and dropped onto the couch next to Alexander. “Did you see her last night? Did you hear her?”
“I heard everything,” Alexander growled through clenched teeth.
I’d never seen him like this. Not once in our long friendship.
“We’re supposed to be setting an example for our employees. Do you have any idea the repercussions, how this would tarnish our reputation if word got out that we”—he circled his finger to include all of us—“the CEOs are screwing our staff?”
“Just one.” Julian held up a finger and clinked his glass against Julian’s. “We’re screwing one employee. And you’re being a fucking goody two-shoes.”
I stayed out of the exchange long in favor of watching Alexander’s reactions. They were too hot, too emotional, and they didn’t match the fact we’d broken a rule that we created so we had an excuse to brush off too-eager employees who wanted to make names for themselves by sleeping with us.
“Alex.” The nickname punched through the silence and brought both men around to stare at me.
He turned the crystal glass around in his hands. “What?”
“What’s really bothering you?” I paced the room without really seeing any of it.
I’d spent enough time here to know every nook from the slightly off-center bookshelf in the corner to the tiny crack in the drawer of my desk from the day I’d kicked it so hard I broke my toe.
This room was more home to me than our penthouse.
“Nothing.” He took another swig of Scotch.
“Bullshit.” I swirled my drink around the glass and perched on the windowsill.
“We’ve known each other since college. We’ve lived together for years.
I know you. We’ve shared women before, so I know that’s not the issue.
And we all know we’re not above breaking the rules whenever we fucking well please. So…what is this really about?”
Julian shot me a confused look but settled into the couch, crossing his ankle over his knee as he waited for Alexander to break.
Because he would. Alexander was a lot of things, but he never kept secrets from us. The world, yes, but not Julian or me.
I sipped my whiskey and remained perfectly still. Images of Harper danced through my head. I tried to push them aside to focus on Alexander, but she’d worked her way under my skin and it was all I could do not to shatter the glass in my hand with my need to touch her again.
Alexander palmed his mouth and sat back with a frustrated groan.
“This is more than some forbidden office romance.” He sat forward and smacked his knees.
His sudden inability to control himself said more than his words.
Frustration reached a boiling point and tipped over.
“She’s Peter’s daughter.” He spat the sentence at us like it was the worst kind of curse.
Julian’s foot bobbed up and down, concern digging a trench between his eyes.
These were their tells. Familiarity with them after years of friendship gave them both away within seconds. Julian ached to say something sharp and sarcastic, but he realized that wasn’t going to help Alexander.
I waited, patiently sipping my drink and giving Alexander the chance to speak the rest of his truth.
He dragged in a heavy lungful of air and stood, running a hand through his silvering hair over and over again.
His gray eyes went distant and dark. “Is it an insult to his memory? What we did last night?” He paced toward me then turned on his heel and marched away.
“We slept with his daughter. That has to break some kind of code.”
“Harper’s a grown woman.” Julian joined the conversation with a solid defense that Alexander might not be able to comprehend in this state.
I crossed my ankles and let the window bear the brunt of my weight. “Do you think we were wrong to have sex with Harper?”
“No.” Julian exploded upward in a single motion that didn’t even disturb his drink. “She made the decision to sleep with us. We didn’t coerce her. She had full control.”
“We’re twenty years older than her and her bosses.” Alexander pointed out the obvious with a twist to his lips. “As much as I want her, I can’t shake the feeling that we’ve betrayed Peter.”
Julian and I noted the present tense want at the same time and nodded at each other. We were on the same page.
“We all chose this.” I chose my words carefully and said them with gentle clarity. “No one forced anyone. Harper chose us, and we all went in with our eyes wide open.” I took a breath to steady my racing pulse and forced out the rest. “It was a one-time thing.”
Wrong. The words were wrong. I hated every single one of them. I was not done with Harper. Not by a long shot.
“She begged for more.” Julian slapped Alexander’s back with enough force to knock most men to their knees.
Alexander barely swayed. Julian’s smile bloomed into one of pure chaotic excitement.
“Fuck, Alex. She took all of you and asked for more. You know how exceptional that is. Even Dante got to have a little fun and it didn’t scare her off. ”
Yes, and the memory of her pulse beneath my thumb drummed into my blood with a heady rush that went straight to my cock. I’d had a taste of her, a glimpse of her desire, and I wanted more. So much more. I would have what I wanted. Rules be damned.
Reputation and loyalty be damned.
Alexander ran a hand through his hair again and again, until it stood in sharp spikes and his chest heaved with his indecision. I was going to hell for my desires, whether my friends followed me into that abyss or not, I had no choice but to satiate myself with Harper.
Next time, there would be more. Of everything. More foreplay. More sexual exploration.
Julian was right. She’d taken Alexander’s cock and begged. She’d allowed me to choke her and gag her with my cock, and she’d craved more.
I would give her everything.