6. April 10, 2023
Cherry
When she walked into the break room to get her tea, his back was to the door, and he had just thrown back two pills and started washing them down with water. An involuntary gasp flew from her mouth, and when he turned to see her, she spun on her heel and speed-walked back to her desk.
Teeth clenched to keep the tears at bay, she sat in her chair, staring at her computer screen, trying to regroup.
It was bad enough that she knew he took them, but seeing it was a slap in the face.
The drugs truly meant more to him than she did.
He wasn’t even trying to stop. With a deep breath, she sat up straight, resolved not to give him another moment of her time nor a single thought.
Maybe he’d cared for her in the beginning, but he clearly didn’t care for her now if he was so blatantly disregarding her one tiny, completely reasonable request.
She must have been sitting, lost deep in thought, for a while because suddenly, a hand reached around her from behind and set her teacup on her desk.
Tension filled her entire body when he placed both his hands on her shoulders, smoothing the silk over them and down her arms. She wished she hadn’t taken her jacket off, but the office was overly warm this morning, with the sun streaming in the glass doors and windows despite the tint.
Now she felt chilled as his hands kneaded her shoulders, his thumbs sweeping across the top of her shoulder blades.
“Don’t.” She shrugged his hands free from her.
“Why?”
Lucky Lucifer, this man’s voice! Even just one word caused another shiver to pass through her.
She desperately wanted to reach for her jacket that hung over the back of her chair to put more barriers between them, but that would let him know how unsettled he made her.
He needed no more weapons in that arsenal.
“You’re angry.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because when you walked into the break room and saw me, you couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
I brought your tea to you, since you abandoned it after seeing me, and you were sitting here staring at a blank screen.
You were so far in your head, you didn’t hear the phones ringing.
Plus, you’re so tense right now, if I so much as breathe on you, I think you’d shatter into a million pieces. ”
Desperately, she moved to find something to do. Anything. Even if it was just addressing an envelope—something to distract her from him.
“I’m sorry, a chuisle . I didn’t mean for you to see that. I got lazy and didn’t bother to go somewhere private.”
She shrugged, trying in vain to make the situation seem inconsequential. “None of my business.”
He grabbed the headrest of her chair, pulled it back from the desk, and turned it to face him. “It most certainly is your business. Everything about me is your business.”
“Well, I don’t want it to be. Not anymore. ”
In a fit of pique, she swiveled her chair back toward her desk, reached for a stack of folders on its corner, and stood from her chair, pushing it back hard with her legs so that it connected with his front.
Heading for the conference room, she couldn’t help but grin at hearing the grunt of pain as the chair wheel rolled over his boot and the exhale of air from where the chairback hit his stomach.
It was too much to hope that he would just drop it and leave her alone to sulk.
Demon, unfortunately, was the most tenacious of the entire group, absolutely refusing to give an inch in an argument or to back down on an opinion when he felt he was in the right.
However, when he finally began moving in her direction, he didn’t rush.
He casually strolled behind her, knowing he’d catch up with her.
It wasn’t as if he didn’t know where she was going.
They had a meeting later this afternoon, and since there were no clients on the schedule, she’d be setting up the room early.
He entered the room moments after her, and he leaned against the door to shut it.
She felt his eyes on her as she circled the conference room table, laying out the project folders.
She hoped she projected an unaffected demeanor, but the precise way she was lining up the pencils, pens, and highlighters above each folder probably gave away that she was working to keep her equilibrium.
He was also stubborn. He just stood against the door, waiting her out. In some ways, he was worse than TB, whose interrogation silence technique was legendary.
“What’s the occasion?” she finally asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Usually, when you come back from your ‘sabbatical,’ you’re still in your beach gear. Today, you’re in normal people's clothes.”
“If they make you uncomfortable, I can always take my clothes off,” he suggested with heat.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him stand up straight, drop his hands to his sides, and walk up behind her.
Moments later, his hands gently took her biceps in his grip as he stepped in tight to her backside.
She stiffened again. This was how all their private altercations had gone in the past. Like it was some sick little game they played of who could rattle the other one first, getting them to give in to a passionate kiss.
Unfortunately, since the bomb scare with Gem, those altercations had changed and now were more like two rival sharks defending their territory—biting, snapping, and tearing at each other.
“I like you like this,” he whispered. “All prickly and full of sass. You’re always so cool behind your designer clothes, coiffed hair, and perfectly applied makeup.
You can be as stone-cold as the rest of us, letting no one see your emotions that you hide under your sleek surface.
But when I get a rise out of you, you’re the most genuine person I’ve ever known.
So let it out, fireball. If you’re going to judge me, give me all your fire. No more holding back with me.”
“I just asked why the sudden change in appearance.”
With one finger, he pressed a kiss behind her ear. “Spent last night in my apartment, which you would have known if you’d come home after your date.”
“Why would it matter to me? I couldn't care less where you were or what you were doing or with whom.”
Clicking his tongue against his teeth, he brought his mouth down next to her ear, his lips barely brushing against the shell.
“Liar. You can’t care less unless you care in the first place.
” He kissed her again as he wound his arms around her waist to pull her impossibly closer to him. “So. How was your date?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I wasn’t on a date. I was over at Flame’s helping her put away things for the baby.” Internally, she rolled her eyes at herself. Why was she bothering to explain herself to him? It wasn’t any of his damn business.
“And you stayed the night?”
She shrugged. “It got late. I was drinking wine. I didn’t want to drive. Pick your reason.”
“Another lie. You hate wine. So you didn’t stay out because I was staying in last night?”
“Nope. ”
Slowly, he turned her to face him. He kept one arm hooked around her waist and then took her chin between his thumb and forefinger, raising it to meet his gaze.
She let loose an involuntary whimper, trapped between him and the table.
“What’s the matter, Cherry?” He spoke low in her ear. “Uncomfortable?”
“Yes. Please step back, Demon. You’re crowding me.”
“Your words say one thing, but your body is arching into mine.”
His hands cupped her arms, his lips caressed the shell of her ear, and his hard length made a bruising impression on her hip. She might have whimpered again. She wasn’t sure.
Why was she mad at him again? In just a few seconds, he had made her forget.
All she could think and feel right now was that their arms fit around each other perfectly, like no one else could be the pieces that fit together in the puzzle that was them.
She was the perfect height for him to hold tight, her temple perfectly at height for his lips, and when he pulled her tight to his chest, her head lay comfortably on his shoulder.
She felt secure there. Like nothing bad could touch her. He was her perfect match.
With a cry of surrender, her hands threaded through his hair, causing the sunglasses to go flying off the top of his head.
She felt herself pulled into a vortex of lips, tongue, and teeth.
One hand curled to support her neck and tilt her head so he could slant her mouth to better meet his kiss.
When his tongue swept into her mouth, her senses went into overload from the overwhelming scents of the ocean that always surrounded him.
It was intoxicating, something ineffably Demon.
Before she could protest, he lifted her to place her on the cool wood of the conference table and pinned her underneath him.
His mouth moved to her jawbone, then down her neck.
Returning his lips to her ear again, he whispered, “What would you do if I took you on this conference room table right now, Esme?”
The whimper now became a moan .
He answered it with words. “Please, fireball. I’m dying here. Tell me you want me.”
Something in his words caused the image from the break room to reappear and remind her of where they were, who they were, and why this was all so, so wrong.
She retracted her arms from around him and gently pushed at his shoulders.
Turning her head from his kiss, she said the one word needed to end this craziness. “No.”
He helped her to sit up but then immediately backed up two steps.
“I may want this. Want us. But nothing’s changed, Demon. You know why I won’t do this.”
“You ‘won’t’ do this. At least you admit it’s a choice.”
“Argh!” She slid from the table and made for the door. When she got almost all the way there, she turned back to him. “It’s always been a choice! Just like it’s always been a choice for you to ignore my request!”