Chapter 13
“Again.”
I was in the kitchen at work, surrounded by dishes on all sides, but I wasn’t paying them any attention.
The man in front of me drew my focus away from everything else.
His bare chest and broad shoulders rose and fell with each soft breath he took, his silver chain glimmering under the fluorescent lights.
Before I could protest, James wrapped his arm around my waist, his left hand flirting with my hip.
“Are you—”
“I said, ‘again.’”
Music was playing, but I couldn’t make out the words or even the tune.
The only thing I could hear was my heartbeat in my ears.
My knees threatened to give out, my fingers digging into James’s shoulders to keep myself standing.
The mysterious music played on. His hands wandered down, fingering the hem of my shirt.
I hissed as they slid underneath the fabric, his icy fingers biting my skin.
“You all right?” he muttered into my ear, sending a chill straight down my spine.
“Mm-hmm.” I strained. “Y-your hands are cold.”
His low, seductive chuckle was the nail in the coffin: my knees buckled, and his hands dug into my skin to keep me upright. “Better warm them up, then.”
I pulled my head back from where it rested on his shoulder. My eyes met his mouth. His tongue darted out and licked across his full bottom lip, and I ached to do the same. A physical ache—the pressure below my belt was enough to make me do anything he wanted.
“Ryder?”
“I know. This is a really bad idea. Just let me have these few seconds. Please.”
The corner of his mouth kicked upward. “That’s not what I was going to ask.”
Before I could ask for any further clarification, James’s hand left my hip, gripping me by the back of my neck and pulling me in like he was holding onto me for dear life.
Our lips crashed together, my tongue begging for entry.
His grip tightened, as if I’d want to do anything other than kiss him back.
I ran my hands down his hard chest, coming to rest on his belt.
I tugged his hips forward until they pressed against mine.
I sighed into his mouth, which seemed to flip some sort of switch that kicked him into overdrive.
My back hit the counter, and before I realized what was happening, James lifted me onto it.
He nudged my legs open, slotting himself between my thighs.
He hooked his hands behind my knees, hitching my legs up and around his waist. I rutted against him, but felt no relief from the tight urgency between my legs.
My chest burned, I needed air—but I didn’t want to breathe.
I dropped my head back, letting James move against my hips while his mouth trailed along my jawline. My eyes fluttered shut.
“I can’t take much more,” I panted.
He chuckled. “Better hold on tight, sweetheart.”
I forced my eyes open as I felt him take a step back. My breaths became quicker and shallower as he lowered himself to his knees…
Blood-red eyes stared back at me.
I awoke with a gasp, heart racing as the annoying alarm chirped through the room. I was drenched from head to toe. I silenced my alarm, squirming against the other uncomfortable feeling that stemmed from that dream. I laid back down in the middle of the bed.
I was hard—painfully hard. It wouldn’t take much to send me right over the edge. The feeling of my boxer briefs against my skin was almost too much to bear. I kicked the blanket off, hoping the lack of warmth combined with deep breaths would make it go away.
I closed my eyes, focused on my breathing. Though with my eyes shut, it only made room for the image of James between my legs to form in my brain once again.
I couldn’t take it.
A groan turned into a sigh as I gave in, pushing my hand underneath the cotton. My brain filled in the parts of the fantasy that had been interrupted. I imagined how it would’ve felt.
What would that pouty, bottom lip feel like between my teeth?
What would he taste like? A loud moan pushed its way out of my mouth.
I brought my hand up, spitting into my palm before wrapping it around my shaft again.
With the other, I removed my briefs. My hips moved on their own, shoving my cock through my fist at a pace that meant I would be done way too soon.
My breathing picked up, the knot in my stomach tightened, and my orgasm zipped down my spine, barely giving me a chance to brace myself before I was bathing my chest and stomach. I sighed with each pulse, stroking until there was nothing left.
Though I felt relieved, I was also… embarrassed. My body flushed, and not in a post-orgasm way. I’d just gotten off to the image of my boss.
I hadn’t even gotten far enough to completely undress him.
I’d never been shy—ever. Walking into work that day, though, my stomach flipped. I dreaded the thought of facing James after our dance last night—and after my jack-off session at home. He’d never know, but it felt like I was walking in with a sign on my forehead.
When James was nowhere to be found as I walked in, I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or disappointed. Dani was behind the bar, wearing jeans and a cropped band tee, hair piled on top of her head. She glanced up and gave me a sly smile as I snuck in next to her. “Did you get some rest?”
“Sort of.”
Goosebumps rose over my arms as I handed her the coffee I’d bought on the way in.
I shivered as my spine tingled. I scanned the room.
James leaned against the wall next to the bathrooms, arms crossed over his chest. When he noticed me looking, he grinned and gave me a once-over.
Heat washed through me as he seemed to undress me with his eyes. It was almost as if he knew.
Then, as if he realized where he was—or who I was—he sobered, retreating down the hall toward his office with his hands in his pockets.
“You’re staring,” Dani said.
“Am not.”
“And blushing,” she snickered. “Have been since you walked in.”
“Shut up.” Heat prickled under my collar.
I tried my best to ignore my discomfort for the rest of the night.
I tried not to look over my shoulder. When I felt his eyes on me, I tried not to meet them.
I kept my head down, running food and dodging the teasing Dani threw my way.
Luckily, with how busy the bar was, I hardly had time to think about what had happened last night.
It provided a nice distraction, but ended too quickly.
At closing, I wiped down the tables and swept the floors while Dani took care of everything behind the bar. I was filling the mop bucket when she came over with a stack of receipts in her hand.
“I’ll take over,” she said. “Will you take these back to James?”
Suspicious, I cocked a brow at her. “You need me to take these to him?”
“Well, I don’t need you to.” She snatched the mop from my hand and replaced it with the papers. “But you’ve been staring at him like a lovesick puppy all night, so I thought I’d give you a reason to go back there and talk to him.” She wheeled the mop bucket behind the bar, ignoring my stare.
I sighed and looked down at the stack in my hand.
I guess I couldn’t avoid him forever. I started down the hallway.
His office door was cracked open. Dim light and soft music spilled out from within.
I raised my hand to rap gently on the door, but—wait.
I recognized that song: it was Luke Combs.
Warmth spread through my chest, and I lingered outside the door longer than I probably should have.
As the song neared the end, I shuffled and my toe scuffed the linoleum. The music cut off instantly. “Ryder?”
I nudged the door open with a guilty grin plastered to my face. James sat behind a modern wooden desk with his laptop open in front of him. Papers cluttered the rest of the surface, leaving only enough room for a small lamp that cast a warm glow over the room.
A bookshelf lined the left wall, and I couldn’t find a single empty space on it. I noted some of the classics: Dracula, Frankenstein, and Pride and Prejudice. A couch rested against the opposite wall beneath a framed landscape of historic Salem.
“Ryder, are you coming in? Or standing in the doorway all night?”
I started. Moonlight streamed in from the window behind him, sparkling off of his silver chain. I cleared my throat and held up the receipts. “I… Dani sent these back for you.”
“Oh.” Did he sound disappointed? “Thank you.”
I was forced to step into the office to put the papers in his outstretched hand. Our fingers brushed, and I flinched at the jolt that passed through my body. He dropped them onto the desk amidst all the paperwork there.
I didn’t understand what was going on with me. I’d had crushes before—a lot. I’d never felt my knees buckle with a single touch, never been able to sense someone simply existing in the same room.
I didn’t want to talk about the night before. I could ignore it, right? I turned to leave.
“Please wait,” James called after me.
I paused by the door and faced him. He stood and strode across the room, long legs easily closing the distance. He eased the door closed and slid the lock into place. My pulse started to race again.
Inches separated us. I leaned back against the wall, James in front of me. I itched to reach out and touch him, to finish what my dream started. I was just gathering the nerve to do so when he spoke.
“I won’t keep you long,” he said, dropping his voice to a pitch that made me shiver. “I just want a chance to speak with you alone. A-about last night, I wanted to apologize.”
His words pulled me out of my admiration. He was sorry? “What are you sorry for?” I asked.
He took a deep breath. “I’m your boss, and my behavior was inappropriate, to say the least.” Despite his words, he wasn’t watching my eyes—he was watching my mouth.
I shook my head. “I’m the one who should apologize. My drunk daughter showing up here was what was inappropriate. I left you when you needed me. It won’t happen again.”
James’s eyes remained on my lips, unwavering. Just kiss me already.
Fuck it.
I stepped into his space, eager to find out for myself what he tasted like.
James leaned in and I closed my eyes, preparing to finally feel his lips on mine.
My advance was interrupted by a clang, then the sound of the fire alarm ringing out across the silent bar.
I jumped back, clapping my hands over my ears to reduce the piercing sound—it didn’t work very well.
James winced, yanking open his office door and stomping toward the fire exit at the back of the building.
I followed him, noting that the door stood wide open.
I could barely hear the door shut over the wailing of the alarm. James pulled his keys from his pocket, opened a panel next to the doorway, and finally silenced the ear-piercing noise. I pulled my fingers out of my ears, but my heart still pounded.
“What the hell was that?” Dani said, appearing behind us, voice muffled by the ringing in my ears. “Are you two okay?”
“You didn’t open this door?” James asked.
Dani shook her head. “I thought it was Ryder.”
“Ryder was with me.” James stiffened, then he was ushering me down the hallway by a hand on the small of my back, doing the same to Dani when we reached her. “You two need to go.”
We both protested. For someone so small, Dani was a firecracker, and wrenched her way out of James’s grip to spin around and face him.
I’d seen her throw a man twice her size out of the bar without breaking a sweat, so I couldn’t say I was surprised.
“Not until you explain what’s going on,” she said.
I didn’t miss the way James kept his hand on me. “Those doors can’t be opened from the outside without a special device. If none of us opened it, then someone else was back here.”
It was my turn to speak up. I stepped out of his arm and faced him, but I found myself craving his touch again. “And you want us to leave you here alone? Not going to happen.”
“I agree with him,” Dani added, planting her feet and crossing her arms.
I opened my mouth. “I can—”
James cut me off. “I’ll deal with it. Both of you need to go home.”
The two of us started talking at once, the words lost as they clambered atop one another; I was telling him that I wasn’t going to leave him alone, and Dani—well frankly, I couldn’t decipher what Dani was saying.
James silenced us both with a single hand. “I said I’ll deal with it. What I won’t do is put you two at risk. I’ll stay here and check things out and if it makes you both feel better, I’ll call the police to Mae sure.”
“James—” Dani started.
“Dani,” James warned, voice dropping an octave.
To my shock, she clamped her mouth shut. In the short time I’d known her, I’d never seen her back down.
I cautiously looked back to James. My breathing was starting to even out, but my heart still pounded, each beat sounding off in my ears.
“Get in your cars and go home. Text me the second you get there. I’ll call you if I need anything else. I’ll let you know whether you need to come in tomorrow. Have I made myself clear?”
Dani and I looked at each other, then nodded.
But I waited for her to step into the hallway before turning back to James.
“That applies to you too,” I whispered in the most commanding tone I could muster—which couldn’t have been very impressive, considering how badly my voice shook.
“Text me the second you’re safe, or I will come back. ”
I could see the way his lips twitched and his eyes brimmed with mischief—he liked that I was challenging him. At least they weren’t red again. “Is that a threat, Clark?”
“It’s a promise.”
Dani and I walked to our cars together. Safety in numbers and all that.
I fired it up, but instead of going home straight away, I circled the block and parked across the street, turning my lights out.
The street was the kind of quiet that would’ve been peaceful, but was eerie following an unexpected event.
The kind of quiet that made you hyperaware of everything because something wasn’t right.
I waited for the police to show up, but they never did.
Instead, the lights turned off one by one.
James exited the front of the building, locked the door, and got into his own car.
I was confused—maybe even pissed off. Why wouldn’t he want to involve the police?
Fire exits didn’t open themselves. Someone had been in the bar with us.
I stayed in place and watched the building for another ten minutes after James left.
I wasn’t sure what I expected to see. I didn’t even know what I’d do if I saw something, but I waited nonetheless.
I jumped when my phone chimed, ringing out in the silent car.
If I’d really been on a stakeout, I would’ve been really bad at it.
I’m safe. You can go home now.