Chapter 6
SIX
Tav
I lasted another two weeks. After a fight where I’d barely gotten a black eye.
No concussion. No memory loss. Or maybe a punch had jarred something loose.
That was the only explanation I had for the utter insanity of my actions.
Actually, no, it wasn’t the only explanation.
The real reason was because today was my sister’s birthday, and I hadn’t been able to see her.
Grief had dug its claws in me. If I didn’t see Con, I wasn’t sure what I’d do.
Con worked at a high rise downtown, his business on twenty-seventh floor.
I knew this because when I’d spied on the contents of his fridge, he’d had a photo stuck to the door with a magnet.
He’d been in a full suit with two other men who I didn’t bother to look at too closely because I didn’t care.
And behind them was a sign that read Stafford Acquisitions.
And there’d been a plaque in his entry hallway awarding Conrad Stafford some sort of charity award.
A charity award. Further proof that he was good.
I was not. And yet I was still slinking into his office like a criminal.
The sun had gone down when I found the door that the janitor had left open a crack. I slipped through and let it shut behind me. There might be cameras around, but I wasn’t sure it mattered anymore. My hands shook with the need to see him.
I got lost a couple of times on his floor before I found where his office was.
I knew he hadn’t gone home yet because I’d seen him go into his building after lunch and he hadn’t left.
I’d never done a stakeout, and it was boring as shit.
But I was heavily invested if it meant I got to see Con at the end of it.
If he didn’t kick me out. Which was a damn good possibility.
He had never, not once, indicated that he wanted to see me again.
He said I was his until morning. Well that morning had been over a month ago.
He might have decided I was a low-life piece of shit—he wouldn’t have been wrong—and would turn up his nose at the sight of me again.
Maybe the rejection was what I needed, to finally end this insanity and obsession I’d developed for him over the last month.
I didn’t think too hard about how badly this could go wrong.
I was aware showing up unannounced at his workplace was a pretty shitty idea.
But I couldn’t make myself go back to his apartment.
Something about returning there felt way more intense than his office.
I didn’t think too hard about that either.
I just… had to see him. I would risk the rejection just to see his face and hear his voice. If I was lucky, maybe he’d touch me, a hand in my hair, his lips on mine. I hoped I was fucking lucky.
I didn’t want to drag Con into the mess of my life, but I hadn’t had something that was mine is so goddamn long. Con was for me. For Tav. And now that I had him, I thought I would go out of my mind if I didn’t see him again. Just one more time. Then I’d quit cold turkey.
The light was on his office, I could see it filtered through his drawn blinds.
His name was on the door with a brass nameplate.
Conrad Stafford, CEO. Fancy shit, my Con.
I pushed down the lever, and the door opened.
Conrad stood with his back to me, looking through papers on his desk.
“I was just leaving,” he mumbled, then turned around when the door closed behind me.
He went very still. He wore a light blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, grey dress pants and shiny shoes. A gray tie hung loose around his neck.
Fuck, I’d missed those blue eyes, which were now wide at the sight of me. I’d missed those lips, that straight nose. I missed his voice and the way he touched me. How had I let myself get this attached after one fucking night?
I didn’t speak. I let him take me in, his eyes starting at the top of my head and traveling down to the boots on my feet.
Something flitted across his face, a decision.
He dropped the papers on his desk and stuck his hands in his pockets, taking a step toward me.
He cocked his head. “What are you doing here?”
There were a lot of reasons, but I went with the most obvious. “I wanted to see you.”
“You wanted to see me? Or you wanted more of what we did?”
I thought about that one before I answered. “Can’t it be both?”
He snorted and looked to the side, his tongue probing the side of his mouth. I waited, thinking if he didn’t tell me to get the fuck out right away, then maybe I had half of a fighting chance.
Then he looked back at me and walked forward, continuing until he stood right in front of me, our chests brushing. He reached up and cupped my face. My eyes closed. Those warm hands on my skin were heaven, so was Con’s smell, the sound of his breathing.
When he didn’t move or push for a kiss. I opened my eyes. He held my gaze. “What’s your name?”
I frowned. I’d already told him that. “Tav.”
“Your full name,” he added.
I didn’t speak. He didn’t know how much it took for me to tell him Tav. That alone was more than I’d given anyone in years.
He watched for a long while. I resisted squirming under this gaze.
“No?” he queried, and there was something about his tone that raised alarm bells in my head and made my cock thicken. I didn’t trust myself to speak.
His jaw ticked, and he blew out a breath.
He ran his hands through his hair, and it was then I noticed he was less put together than I expected.
His golden blonde strands were ruffled, his fingers trembled, and one of the buttons on his shirt was askew.
The thought of him as anything less than perfect made my breath hitch.
Fuck, this was a bad idea. What was I thinking?
I didn’t know anything about his life. And I had just showed up to his office, where he was the chief executive fucking officer.
I opened my mouth to excuse myself, to get the hell out, to run and run as far away as I could—
“Pull your pants down and bend over my desk.”
I blinked at him. His hands were on his hips, not a tremble in sight now.
His hair had fallen back into place with only one stray lock loose at his temple.
Even that button was righted. He waited for me to follow his command.
Back at the club, I had thought he spoke and directed like a man used to getting his way.
But today, as I studied him, I no longer thought that was the case.
He spoke of someone who knew what it was like to be powerless.
And now that he had power, he knew how precious it was. How fragile.
I no longer had the desire to flee. I wasn’t sure I could leave the office now if the fire alarm went off. I likely wouldn’t move my feet unless Con told me to. My cock ached as it pressed painfully against the front of my jeans.
Pull your pants down and bend over my desk.
Yeah, okay. My gaze shifted to take in his office in order to follow his command.
The space was massive, one wall was all windows, just like his apartment.
A large bookcase held official-looking books and plaques.
His desk was a dark wood monstrosity, a slim laptop in one corner.
Without further contemplation, I did as he asked.
I walked behind his desk and lowered my jeans and boxer briefs down to my ankles.
Cool air hit my ass. My hole. I rested my weight on my forearms, and I looked over my shoulder to see what he planned to do next.
And because I just didn’t want to take my eyes off him now that he was suddenly standing in front of me after too many weeks of daydreams.
As he walked toward me, his slender fingers lifted to loosen the knot of his tie. He rounded the desk and stopped behind me. His palm pressed between my shoulder blades. “All the way down. Put your hands behind your back, wrists together.”
Yes, absolutely. This was all easy, and I could do this.
Peace descended over me like a warm blanket.
I closed my eyes and rested my cheek on the dark wood of his desk, clasping my hands at the small of my back.
Fabric rustled, and then a smooth cloth wrapped around my wrists.
I suspected it was his silk tie. With a yank, he cinched the knot tight, binding my wrists.
I couldn’t move, and I relaxed into the table as the tension bled from my muscles.
He ran his hands over my shoulders and down my spine. “Why did you leave my apartment in the middle of the night?”
I went with the simplest answer. “I had to be somewhere.”
His hands left my body. Something creaked, and when I heard the wheels, I realized it was his office chair. When he spoke again, his voice was coming from a lower angle, like he’d sat down behind me. “If you didn’t have to be somewhere, would you have stayed until morning?”
I would have stayed forever. “Yeah, I would have stayed.”
His hands ran over my ass, down the backs of my thighs and then up.
My nerves lit up like wildfire as his nails dragged along the sensitive skin of my groin.
Then they shifted higher until they vanished completely.
Then suddenly he closed his hand around my balls and squeezed.
I opened my mouth on a soundless moan on his desk.
I shifted my weight, unsure if I wanted him to squeeze harder, let me go, torture me more, or put me out of his misery.
But his hand stayed where it was, tensing and relaxing around my sensitive balls until I was panting.
“Did you clean before you came here?”
I came with the intention of getting fucked, so hell yeah. “Yes.”
“Spread your legs as far as you can,” he said.