Chapter 28
Riley
“Riley, did you hear?” Farah grinned at me as I sat beside her in the lunchroom. “Lina had her baby late last night.”
“Amanda told me this morning,” I said. “I’m so happy for her and Mr. Wright.”
“Me too.” Farah scrolled through her phone. “Lina’s already sent me a picture. Look at this sweet baby.”
I stared at Farah’s phone. It was a picture of Aiden holding a tiny baby wearing a pink hat. The look of love on his face made my throat tight. “She’s beautiful.”
“Isn’t she?” Farah said. “I’m stopping at the hospital tonight to see her. I can’t wait - I have baby fever like you wouldn’t believe.”
I smiled at her before stirring my soup and eating a spoonful. Farah studied me. “Hey, are you okay this week?”
“I am, why?” I said.
“I don’t know. You seem sad.”
“I’m not.”
“Mr. Cross isn’t being awful, is he?”
“Not at all,” I said. “Honestly, I haven’t seen much of him this week. He’s been holed up with the financial department as they make the final push to finish the financial statements. He’s not really giving me work, so I’ve been helping out with the admin pool.”
“Yeah, Amanda mentioned you were helping them out,” Farah said. Her phone dinged, and she read the message before laughing and typing rapidly.
I ate another spoonful of soup. It was Wednesday afternoon, and I was a little sad despite what I’d told Farah. Which was annoying as fuck. Being unhappy because I’d barely seen or spoken to Deacon for the last three days was frustrating. Despite everything I knew, I still acted like we were in some kind of relationship.
“Any plans for tonight?” Farah asked.
“No,” I said. Deacon hadn’t booked me for tonight. I wasn’t surprised. He’d been at the office late on Monday and Tuesday, and I expected tonight - hell, the entire week - to be no different. I’d offered to stay late every night to help with any admin work that might come up, but he’d waved me off with a distracted smile.
There wasn’t a need for me to stay, but I’d still been disappointed by his dismissal. I sighed and stirred my soup again. I needed to get the hell out of this funk I was in. It wasn’t doing me any good.
Gary walked into the lunchroom and made a beeline for our table. I groaned and hid my annoyance with a faint smile as he stopped beside us. “Riley, the spreadsheet is wrong.”
I set my spoon down. “I double-checked the numbers.”
“The formulas are fucked,” Gary said with a scowl, his gaze dipping to my breasts. “You didn’t do them right.”
“I didn’t do the formulas. You did,” I said firmly.
His scowl deepened. “I didn’t do them.”
“Yes, you did,” I said. “I can show you your initial email acknowledging that you had done the formulas and just needed me to input the client information.”
Gary sighed and ran a hand through his hair before staring at my tits again. “I don’t have time to redo the formulas, and all three of my girls are busy.”
Farah rolled her eyes. “Don’t call them your girls, Gary. They’re admin staff and work for all the advisors, not just you.”
“I’m happy to help with it,” I said.
“Good. I need them in half an hour,” he said.
“I’m not finished my lunch for another half hour,” I said, “but I can work on them after lunch and have them to you by two.”
“That’s not good enough,” he said.
“That’s what I’m offering,” I said. “But if you’d prefer to do them now yourself, I understand.”
His face reddened, and he said, “I expected more from you, Riley. I’d hate to have Aiden hear about you not being a team player, especially after that nasty business with Rainer.”
I gave him a cool look. “Go ahead and speak to Mr. Wright about my lack of team spirit. I’ll be sure to share with him how much work I’ve done for you and the advisor team this week, and I know the rest of the team and the admin staff will back me up.”
Gary ran his hand through his hair again, making it stand up in stiff little spikes thanks to the gel slicked through it. “You can have it finished by two?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll put the file on your desk.”
He left the lunchroom, and I rolled my eyes as Farah stared at me.
“What?” I asked.
“Riley, that was… I mean… what happened to you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’ve never seen you so confident. I don’t mean that in a bad way, but you’re usually very timid and go above and beyond to help the advisors.” She scrutinized me. “You want to be liked, and you don’t want people upset with you, and you go out of your way to make sure that doesn’t happen even when it negatively affects you.”
I laughed. “Man, I am an open book to you. Or I’m just really pathetic.”
“You’re not,” Farah said. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to help others or be liked. You would not believe the crap I do to get my boyfriend’s mother to like me, but you’re not even upset by what Gary said or that he’s pissed with you, are you?”
I thought about it before shaking my head. “No, I’m not.”
“Why not?” Farah asked. “What changed?”
Deacon’s face popped into my head. Was it because I had his approval that I didn’t care what other people thought of me? I decided that was part of it, but it was something more. Something had changed inside me, and while I would always crave acceptance and approval, I no longer felt quite so… desperate about it. Personal growth brought on by my weekly good girl sessions with Deacon? Maybe, but I would take the growth, no matter how it happened.
“Riley?” Farah prompted.
“I’m not sure,” I said.
“Well, I like this new badass version of Riley,” Farah said.
I laughed. “That might be going a little too far. I’m pretty sure I’d still burst into tears if Deacon or Mr. Wright yelled at me. But Gary and his ‘I won’t stop staring at your tits’ habit can go screw himself.”
Farah grinned and gave me a quick squeeze. “Baby steps, Ry. It’s all about baby steps.”
* * *
Deacon
I paced the foyer,glancing at my watch while I waited for Riley. I should have been working late tonight and reviewing the final numbers so that Richard could finish the statements for my review tomorrow, but I told myself we all needed a break.
The entire finance department had worked late all week, and we were all a little punchy and irritable. Making them - and me - work late on a Friday night wouldn’t make a difference in finishing the year end, but it would make a difference in our attitude. We all needed a break, and I could just as easily review the numbers from my home office tomorrow morning.
It was more important to give my team a break. To send them home on a Friday night and let them blow off a little steam however they needed.
Is that what you’re doing? Blowing off a little steam?
Honestly, I didn’t know what this was, beyond me feeling nearly feral with the need to see Riley, to touch Riley. She’d sat ten feet outside of my office all week, but I’d barely seen her or talked to her, and my cock strained at my pants at just the thought of being near her.
I took a deep breath, checking my watch again. Riley was already gone when I’d come out of my office at five. Every other night this week, she’d stuck around to see if I needed her to stay late, but not tonight. I’d been frustrated that I hadn’t gotten the chance to say goodbye, to see her gorgeous face before I went home.
I’d barely gotten in the door before I’d grabbed my phone and sent the sisters a message. It was late to book, and I was a tense ball of nerves waiting to see if Riley would say yes. The sisters’ confirmation that Riley was available and agreed to a last minute booking had turned my cock into a stiff spike and erased all of my tension in an instant.
The front door opened, and Riley stepped inside in a blast of swirling snow and cold air. She shut the door against the howling, yowling wind and leaned against it, releasing her breath in a low sigh. She looked pale and tense, and guilt swept through me. No doubt the roads had been a fucking nightmare, and I’d made her drive here in her piece of shit car with tires as bald as my Uncle Dennis.
“I’m sorry I made you drive in that,” I said.
She screamed and jumped about a foot before giving me a wide-eyed look of surprise. “What-what are you doing here?”
“I live here,” I said as I helped her remove her jacket.
“I meant - why are you downstairs instead of your office?” Her eyes went even wider. “Oh shit, am I late? I’m not late, am I? The roads were terrible, so I had to drive super slow.”
She tried to fumble her phone out of her purse, and I took her purse from her and set it on the floor before crouching and undoing her boot laces. “You’re not late, baby. Lift your foot.”
She lifted her foot, and I slipped her boot off, frowning at how cold her toes were even with the boots. “You need warmer boots.”
She didn’t reply, just lifted her other foot so I could remove her second boot. I straightened, and she smiled at me. “Why are you downstairs?”
She gasped, her legs automatically wrapping around my waist when I picked her up. I turned and carried her toward the stairs. She squeezed my shoulders. “Deacon, you are not carrying me up the stairs.”
“Sure, I am,” I said.
“No,” she said.
“Yes,” I said.
“You’ll put your back out, and then I won’t…”
“You won’t what?” I asked.
“Get to bang you,” she said bluntly.
I laughed and kissed her. “I promise not to put my back out carrying you up the stairs, good girl.”
Despite my assurances, her body tensed, and her face scrunched up in a cute, worried scowl when I started up the stairs. She held herself perfectly still until we reached the top of the stairs before she released her breath. “I wish you hadn’t done that.”
“Why?”
“Because girls like me aren’t meant to be carried around,” she said.
I palmed her ass as I walked down the hallway. “Girls with some delicious junk in their trunk, you mean?”
She giggled. “Girls with junk everywhere, not just the trunk.”
“I love your body, Riley. You know that, right?” I said.
“I know,” she said, but I could hear the doubt.
“It’s perfect and beautiful, and your tits are magnificent,” I said.
That made her laugh. “Such a charmer. You just walked past your office.”
“Did I?” I carried her to my bedroom. “Weird.”
She smiled as I set her down beside the bed and immediately unbuttoned her shirt. “No work for me this evening, Mr. Cross?”
I shook my head, pushing her shirt off her shoulders and reaching behind to unhook her bra. “We’ve worked enough this week. Although, I will admit you are super cute with your glasses.”
“I could run downstairs and get them from my purse,” she said with a cheeky grin.
“Later,” I said, pulling off her bra and dropping it on the floor with her shirt. I cupped her breasts as she made a soft moan and arched her back.
“I’ll miss being your good girl tonight,” she confessed.
I grinned wickedly at her before sucking lightly on one nipple. “There are plenty of ways to be my good girl, sweet Riley.”
“Is that right?” she panted as I tugged on her other nipple with my fingers.
“Yes,” I said. “Undress me.”
“Yes, sir,” she said and reached for my shirt.