Chapter Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Seven
We were not professional. In fact, we were the furthest thing from professional. I had no idea what it was about being with Danuwoa, but he unlocked this carefree, joyous side of me that threw caution to the wind. On Monday, we tried to keep things PG. We ate lunch in the break room and kept our hands above the table. We waited until we made it to the parking lot after work before we started making out in his truck.
By Tuesday, I was ravenous for Danuwoa. It was his fault—his rumbly voice in my ear before bed inspired sinful dreams. With Sage still on the couch, we had no repeat performance of our sex marathon in California. Something had to give to relieve me from the aching desire for Danuwoa.
This morning was perfect, sunny, and wonderful. Moody Mr. Stevenson was tolerable, staying behind his foggy glass office until he left for a meeting. And I had an opportunity. I was alone and it was my chance to get some much-needed and very legitimate IT help.
My fingers shot off a message.
Ember Cardinal: I am having a technical issue on floor 17.
Dan Colson: Hardware or software?
My heart sank a little that he had changed his name back from Native Daddy without telling me, but my mischievous and emboldened side perked up.
Ember Cardinal: Definitely hardware.
Dan Colson: All right, I’ll come up.
I undid the top three buttons of my shirt. My cleavage wasn’t much, but it was all for him. Minutes passed by and I tapped my fingers along my desk, impatient to taste his lips. I twisted back and forth in my office chair until Danuwoa finally strode out of the elevator and down the hall toward me.
“Good morning,” he said, his knowing look making the butterflies in my stomach flutter. I knew my cheeks were pink.
“Morning,” I said and stood up, hesitating over whether I should do what I was planning on doing. I was not the most versed in seduction. I mean, I read a few naughty romance books, so how hard could pulling off a clandestine rendezvous in a supply closet really be? He approached me, his fingers lightly brushing mine. My mind was made up; I wanted to try this. The thrill made me feel powerful, desirable. “There is something wrong with the shredder in the closet.”
I slowly walked toward the closet that housed the shredder and extra office supplies, making sure to give Danuwoa a show behind me with the exaggerated sway of my hips. Once he walked in, I closed the door.
If he was shocked at my boldness, he didn’t show it. He just stuck his hands into his pockets and looked at me through his eyelashes. Then he bit his lip and grinned. “Hardware? A bit on the nose,” he teased.
“And here I thought I was being very creative.”
“The moment you got this promotion, I fantasized about this exact situation. Though you were always wearing fewer clothes, but oh, the dirty things I would do to you.” I was in his arms, lightly biting his earlobe. The way he talked nearly made me come undone.
“What about what I would do to you?” I snaked my arms around his neck and kissed him.
Whatever control I thought I had of this situation was gone. Danuwoa pushed me up against the closed door. His hands slithered down my body, sending ripples of electric current in their wake. My nipples hardened and strained against my bra. His large hands cupped my ass and lifted me. I wrapped my legs around his waist. My stretchy skirt rolled up my thighs, exposing more of myself.
Danuwoa’s possessive hands gripped my thighs, holding me in place as he ground his hardened length against my core. Our layers of clothes were a torturous barrier.
I took his face in my hands, deepening the kiss. His right hand moved up my leg and came around my thigh, and then I felt his thumb brush my clit.
I bucked and bit his lip.
“Fuck yeah,” he groaned. He kissed my neck before he whispered in my ear, “I’ve thought about nothing but getting back in this pussy since we checked out of the hotel room in California.”
I whimpered and shivered. Danuwoa made me feel . His finger moved my panties to the side of my slick slit. He groaned in approval. “So wet for me, god, gvgeyui, Ember. You drive me crazy.” His finger filled me, but it wasn’t enough. I demanded he give me his mouth again, and our tongues danced as he continued to circle my clit with his thumb and pump his finger in and out.
“Danuwoa,” I breathed. I was getting close.
“I want my name on your tongue when you come,” he growled.
“I want you to come on my tongue.” I kissed him from his jaw down to where the collar of his shirt met his neck. What I said unleashed an animal. Danuwoa was relentless as he pinned me to that door, one hand working me as his other desperately grabbed my breast.
There was a distant ding outside the door.
“Did you hear—Danuwoa!” I shattered against his hand. I bit into his shoulder to silence the uncontrollable ecstasy.
“Ember!” There was no mistaking who that voice belonged to. There was no time to savor the moment.
“Is that—”
“Put me down,” I whispered, cutting Danuwoa off.
He gently lowered me, and thank goodness for the door, because my legs were like jelly after that. I pushed my skirt down and buttoned up my shirt all the way. I looked to Danuwoa for approval, but he was adjusting his hard-on.
He looked like he had just fucked in the closet, which meant I looked like I had just been fucked.
Fuck!
“He wasn’t supposed to be back for at least an hour,” I whispered, already panicking.
Danuwoa got down on the floor on his hands and knees.
“What are you doing? We are about to be caught,” I hissed.
“No, we’re not.” He held up the black cord to the shredder. He had unplugged it. Genius.
“Is my hair okay?” I asked, self-conscious and a little scared that this was the end of our Technix careers.
Danuwoa stood and took my hair and put it all in front of my shoulders. “That should be fine.”
“Ember?!” Mr. Stevenson’s voice boomed with impatience.
I took a breath to steady myself and then I opened the door. “Yes, Mr. Stevenson?”
“Oh, there you are! Have you seen my thermos?”
“No, sir. I didn’t see you bring it today.”
“Oh, that would explain it. Well, let’s get to it,” he said, looking past me. I turned my head, and Mr. Adams was waiting by the elevator.
Then Danuwoa exited the supply closet. “Good morning, Mr. Stevenson, Mr. Adams.” He nodded his greeting.
“Dan, what are you doing up here?” Mr. Stevenson asked.
“Oh, I had problems with the shredder, and he fixed them,” I jumped in. “Thank you,” I said to Danuwoa.
“It’s my pleasure.” He waved his goodbyes and escaped toward the elevator.
Mr. Stevenson waved Mr. Adams to his office. The door closed, and the glass walls turned opaque. My heart was hammering, and my blood was rushing in my ears.
That was too close.
Danuwoa smiled and gave a small wave as he stood in the elevator waiting for the doors to close. His eyes said, This isn’t over.
I wished I had a flirty comeback, but I’m sure the last thing Danuwoa saw before the doors closed him in was me looking like a deer in the headlights.
What the hell had I done? We were moments away from being caught. It was stupid and could never happen again. I had a car payment now and needed to keep this job. If I was fired after less than three months, who would hire me? My track record would be shit, on top of the fact I had to lie to get my foot in the door. Joanna couldn’t keep pretending to be my past employers.
I sat down at my desk, my head in my hands. There was an ache of unsatisfied lust, and now my brain was in overdrive. I had to tell Danuwoa that we could only see each other away from Technix, like miles away and hours after work and on the weekends. No more secret sexy hookups in the office.
I worked on autopilot, coding receipts to create a travel and expense report, highlighting the ones I needed more details on. I would get to see Danuwoa again during lunch in the break room. We shared this dirty little secret, and I was going to have to find a way to break it to Danuwoa that he needed to lower his expectations. I didn’t think he would mind, but how could he not fantasize about what we would do next? My dirty mind fantasized about him bending me over this exact desk.
Lunch. I needed lunch.
Phoebe was still at her desk when I exited the elevator with my lunch to head to the break room.
“Hi, Phoebe.” I smiled and waved.
“Hi, Ember ,” she said, drawing out my name. Her tone was overly nice, like those fake friendly voices people have as they try to ruin your life. I braced myself for what was coming next. “How was the conference trip? I heard you and Dan got friendly . How does Ron feel about that?”
“What?”
“A little birdie told me you were seen getting cozy in Santa Barbara. Is it over with your boyfriend, Ron?”
Shit. Right. My boyfriend.
“No, Ron and I are very much going strong. I’m not sure what you heard, but it must have been vastly exaggerated.”
I added fake boyfriend Ron to my ever-growing list of little white lies. That one was harmless, and I doubted Danuwoa would care. Now that we were dating, I’d have to come clean and tell him that I didn’t actually play in the Little Big Horns league. I’m sure he was just gonna love that.
Phoebe held up her lunch pail. “Let’s go eat,” she said, smiling as if she were letting me off the hook easily about the Dan thing just this once.
Danuwoa was sitting at our usual table, spooning soup into his mouth and scrolling on his phone. Phoebe swooped in and took the seat next to him. I sat across from them with a hint of a smile on my lips, and his smile mirrored mine. We shared a dirty little secret. One that couldn’t be repeated, but sharing our private rendezvous was a thrill.
“We need to do another happy hour. It’s not fair y’all got to go party in California,” Phoebe lamented as she licked the strawberry yogurt off her spoon.
“Sure, where do you want to go? O’Connell’s?” Danuwoa asked.
“No, it’s boring. I don’t want to watch the guys play darts or pool and wait forever for a turn. We need something fun and exciting.”
“What about bowling?” Danuwoa asked, giving me the most mischievous look.
“I love bowling! You have a place in mind?”
“I do—a fun place with cheap beer.”
I kicked his shin under the table, and he tried to hide his grimace and continued anyway, “Bobby Dean’s Bowling Alley and Bar.”
“Sounds perfect. I’m gonna send an email. Let’s all go tomorrow. Ember, you should bring your boyfriend.”
Danuwoa’s chest puffed up.
“I want to meet this Ron fella,” she finished before floating happily away.
“What now?” His face looked like he’d sucked a very sour lemon.
“Nothing,” I said, wadding up my napkin.
“What the fuck, Ember?” He looked concerned.
“Not here and not now. I’ll explain…later.”
A hand clamped down my shoulder. It made me jump, and I turned around to see who it was and why they thought it was okay to just come up and touch someone like that. It was Kyle. Of course it was Kyle.
“Done with lunch?” he asked me.
I nodded, pointedly looking at his hand, waiting for him to release me.
“Great, follow me and we can discuss that project I mentioned.” He massaged my shoulder as he said it, and it had my hackles rising.
I looked at Danuwoa from the side of my eye. He was frozen, glaring at Kyle’s offensive hand on my shoulder. Before he could do anything to add further speculation that we were in a relationship, I shot out of my seat, and Kyle had no choice but to release me.
Kyle smiled and carried on as if nothing uncomfortable or awkward had just happened. “California was a blast, wasn’t it?” It was a pointed question at Danuwoa.
“Let’s go. I have to do some work for Mr. Stevenson and don’t want him missing me for too long.” I ushered Kyle toward the exit, giving Danuwoa an apologetic look.
His return glare said, You have some explaining to do.
I rolled my eyes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Phoebe strode in, carrying a pack of paper towels, and winked at Kyle. “Happy hour tomorrow?” she asked.
“Hell yeah, first round is on me,” he said as he left the kitchen.
Kyle led me to the glass conference room. He held the door open, ushering me in before shutting it to join me at the table. He leaned back in the swivel chair, arms behind his head, and he flexed his biceps. There was only one man on this planet who could do that and have it not be totally cringe, and he was currently sitting in the break room very confused.
“You know the history of Technix, right?” Kyle said, beginning the conversation.
“Uh, no.” I was thrown off.
“I appreciate your honesty,” he said with a laugh. “The website is vague, and that was intentional.”
“Okay…”
“Mr. Stevenson is my uncle. My mom’s brother,” Kyle clarified, moving to lean forward in his chair, as if we were co-conspirators.
“That must be nice.” I mean, what was I supposed to say? Yeah, I got it. He was rich and smart. Did he need a nepotism plaque?
“Our CFO was fired before you came on—he got on my uncle’s bad side. You know from cleaning up the accounting with the Portland office closing that it was a nightmare. Things weren’t adding up on the accounting side, and the situation was hush-hush.”
I had no idea why he thought I would care about this.
He continued, “Uncle Dearest keeps his cards close to his chest, but without Natalie here, all the expense approvals have been piling up, and we need to recode the expenses for the executives.”
Ah, okay, now we were back on track with what was relevant to me. “So, this is the expense project?”
“Yup. I need you to go in and approve some expenses. I’ll send you receipts and what department to bill them to, then you can just approve on Mr. Stevenson’s behalf so we don’t have to bother him with it.”
“Did Natalie do that?” That was one thing we hadn’t gone over in my quick training. She showed me where to submit expenses and what program to use, but we never went over the hierarchy. I’m sure there was a subfolder about it.
“Yeah, all the time. It’s summer and he’s a busy guy. Plus, the fact that a lot of these are old will piss him off. It’s better this way.”
I already did all of Mr. Stevenson’s expenses, so adding Kyle’s wasn’t that much more work. He was a total creep, but accounting was something I actually enjoyed, so I liked getting more opportunities to do it. Plus, Natalie was a rock star and had been with Mr. Stevenson since the beginning of Technix, and if she did it, then I would too. I really didn’t want to bother her while she was on maternity leave to ask for dumb advice.
“All right, that sounds fine. When does this need to be completed?”
“Before the end of the week would be great for me and the team. Thanks, Ember. I knew I could count on you being a team player.”
I rode the elevator back to floor seventeen, wondering if being a team player in this environment really meant just doing a lot of shit work for other people to look good. I glanced at the supply closet and blushed. Had that really only been this morning?
As promised, my inbox was full of forwarded emails with scanned attachments from Kyle. I opened the first one. A $1,700 restaurant bill. Those sales guys really liked to schmooze clients. I immediately closed the window and wrote back, What was the purpose of this dinner and who else joined you?
My desk phone rang, making me jump. Kyle Matthews.
“Hi—”
“Listen, it’s best if you only call me to discuss this or come down to my desk. I don’t like my email being cluttered when it’s a simple question. Got it?” His voice, which was overly nice in the conference room, now sounded annoyed and entitled. I was doing him the favor, and he was giving me attitude? “I don’t have time to go over each expense line by line. Just know finance and sales have a lot of team dinners to discuss corporate strategy and to meet with clients. So all of these expenses are related to that. Uncle Tom and I talk about it all the time, you don’t need to worry, just flex that creative accounting muscle. Got it?”
The line went dead before I had a chance to respond. Creative accounting? All righty then, Kyle.
I began filling out the travel and expense documents. How I missed working with numbers. Even though this was a mind-numbingly boring task that included no formulas, I missed using a spreadsheet the way it was supposed to be used. We had department codes for the C-suite: general executive (GE), accounting (ACCT), finance (FIN), sales (SALES), information technology (IT), human resources (HR), and legal (LEGAL). It was fairly straightforward.
There were liquor store receipts, fancy restaurants (I had to look them up online, since never in my life had I heard of them), and sports tickets. This was a headache. I started compiling the charges in chronological order, but I did not feel right submitting a receipt for a new laptop computer without knowing the reason for the purchase. I hesitated for only a moment before I called Kyle’s extension again.
“What?” he snapped.
“Did you mean to include the laptop receipt? Is that a personal one that got mixed in? I just know IT hands out laptops—”
“Why don’t you ask our good friend Dan? I have a meeting to get to. This is a simple task that needs to get done.”
The line went dead, and my blood ran cold. Kyle mentioned Danuwoa too casually, probably to get me to shut up, and that was what I was going to do. No way was I going to drag Danuwoa into this mess. We couldn’t afford to draw more attention to ourselves, and I needed this target off my back with Kyle, the fucking prick.
As the interim executive assistant to the CEO, I had access to Mr. Stevenson’s signature stamp for approvals or letters, but I’d never used it. I saw Natalie use it one time for a contract she printed out. She didn’t even show it to Mr. Stevenson, just slammed that stamp onto the page, then scanned and sent back the contract within five minutes. So that was what I did. I printed the expense report and stamped Mr. Stevenson’s signature on the approval line. The ink was thick and blurred on the edges, but the signature was unmistakable. I then scanned and submitted it to the accounting department. Task done.
My phone buzzed.
Dan IT: Ready for round 2?
Just seeing his name on my phone made me forget all about Kyle and the expenses. They were behind me and it was already five. I turned off my laptop, giddy with excitement. I shot off a quick response: Your place or mine?
I was in the elevator when his message came in. Is your brother still on the couch?
My fingers fired off, I’ll meet you at your place.
Pack a toothbrush , he reminded me. I guess I would be sleeping over then.
What if I want to share? I cackled as it sent.
Dan IT: Is that where we are?
Me: You tell me.
I had to put my phone away in my bag as I drove home, clenching my thighs together.