37. Jax
Jax
Locking the door within three seconds of my entering the room, he had me naked from the waist down and straddling him on his office chair.
His long, thick cock slides into me as I groan, losing myself in the rhythm as I hear the rumble of voices outside from people arriving for the day.
I make a low cry of surprise as Gray grabs my hips and pushes himself up from the chair, struggling to balance my weight as he crab walks to the desk, his pants around his ankles.
His lips cover mine as he kisses me, long and deep, his hands running over my legs as he lays me gently down on the desk.
My head hits his coffee mug, which tumbles to the floor.
“Couldn’t you have chosen the carpet?” I grumble as he pushes into me again, and I arch into his chest.
“Too far away.”
“The floor is too far away? Seriously?”
“Yes,” he says, a hand running up to my throat as he grips it gently, making me shudder. “And you need to be quieter,” he murmurs as he pushes back inside me to the hilt, groaning.
His hand tightens on my neck. It’s gentle at first, then harder, my lungs straining before he lets me go again.
“Alright?” he whispers, rocking his hips into me in a maddening rhythm which is just on the edge of too slow.
“Yes,” I breathe out, loving the feeling of pressure as his fingers tighten around my neck again, his other arm moving beneath my shoulder as he grips me tighter.
The hand around my neck moves to just beneath my jaw as his thrusts speed up, and my legs start to shake as he pulls me off the edge of the desk, keeping me suspended, pounding his cock into me as I struggle to breathe.
“Okay?” he asks again, and all I can do is nod as he licks a long, wicked path up my neck between his fingers.
“You’re fucking hot when you’re desperate for it,” he murmurs in my ear as I arch beneath him, my body writhing uncontrollably as we both come, Gray’s body freezing over me, sinking into his release.
I’m panting, trying to catch my breath, waiting for him to pull out as he usually does, but instead, he collapses on top of me. He’s breathing heavily, just like me, and I lie beneath him, enjoying the weight of his body for several minutes.
I run my fingers through his hair without conscious thought, scratching my nails against his scalp as he groans, pushing against my fingers with obvious relish. At the little purring sound of contentment he makes, my stomach turns over, and I pull my hand free, glancing at my watch.
“You have a meeting in fifteen minutes,” I say as he pulls his head up, resting his chin on my chest.
“Who scheduled that?” he grumbles.
“You did. Because you love to rearrange your calendar without asking me, and you were pissed at Chase, so now he’s coming back to try and impress you.”
“He’s never impressed me in his life,” he mutters, pushing himself up on his hands and looking down at me as he thrusts his hips one last time.
“Oh fuck,” I moan as he gives me a wicked grin, pulling away and grabbing tissues from the drawer beside him.
That’s another thing about Gray Jones, he always cleans me up before he sees to himself, helping with my clothes before he deals with his own.
I sit up, pulling my panties back into position and straightening my skirt.
“What a way to start the day,” he says happily, and his eyes are hooded and content as he looks at me. It’s a look I find hard to process, happiness spreading through me, an unwelcome and addictive feeling as I hop off the desk.
We both take a minute to right our clothes, and once he’s done, he raises one eyebrow at me as I assess him critically. He does a little spin for good measure, tugging at his jacket and making me laugh.
“Will I do?” he asks.
“You look mildly professional,” I mutter, as he chuckles and I head toward the door.
“Was that okay?”
I turn back, surprised by the question and the worry in his eyes as my fingers encircle the door handle. His bright gaze meets mine as he tucks in his shirt a little tighter. He’s wearing a new suit today, and the pale gray color suits him perfectly. His skin is glowing.
Or maybe that’s just because of the sex.
“It was great,” I say honestly as his eyes move to my neck.
“I didn’t hurt you?”
“No.”
“You didn’t feel… scared or anything?”
I could never feel scared with you.
“Not at all,” I say hurriedly, opening the door so I don’t have to hold his eye contact. My heart is pounding and I feel a little out of breath, and I just need to get out of there.
“Chase is on his way in,” I say, seeing the bullish man walking up to us from the elevators.
“Fuck. Of course, he’s early. Stall him. I need a minute to come back down to earth.”
I smirk as I pull the door almost closed behind me and wait for the inevitable explosion as Devan Chase marches toward me.
Just before lunch, I’m on the phone with Fran Morgan, who has sent several presentations outlining the recruitment drive and interview process through to me.
She is stressed, snippy, and absorbed in year-end, but every document she sends through makes me want to grind my teeth in frustration.
She uses an archaic system, with separate spreadsheets for everything. I can tell she manually plugs in all the numbers instead of bringing them in from other sheets, and I could make her life easier with a simple set of formulas.
Against my better judgment, I’ve offered to help, yet again, adding more work to my plate.
“You’re seriously saying you can get this automated?” she asks, sounding annoyed, but I’ve learned that’s just how she is. Even when she’s happy, she sounds pissed.
“Yeah. I can build you a dashboard from Excel, unless you’re already using Python. But even then, I sometimes find the apps and software outside of Excel lose a lot of the most useful features.”
“Do you even have time to do that? I know Gray has a million meetings coming up.”
“His schedule is pretty much fixed today; he’s been shouting at everyone nonstop anyway,” I say, glancing up at Gray behind his desk. He’s just visible through the door, and he looks up, narrowing his eyes at me as I say that.
“Look, Fran, I don’t want to tell you how to do your job, but I’m pretty sure with a few tweaks, this could all produce itself each month. You wouldn’t have to slug through this manual process every time.”
“Okay,” Fran says, sounding harried. “Well, if you can make a start on it and then run me through it, that would be good, but if it delays things, it’ll have to wait until next month.”
“Don’t you have people on your team who do this for you?”
“I have a lot of business analysts and HR folks, sure. But these numbers feed into finance because of the personnel data, and no one on my team is good at it. And if I steal Devan’s finance guys again, he’ll take away all our budget.”
“Well, I’m glad he’s a dick to everyone and not just me.”
“He’s a complete asshole,” Fran says, surprising me with her candor, and I snort. “Thanks, Jax. I owe you lunch for this.”
“No problem. Give me a couple of hours.”
I hang up and open Excel, trying to ignore Gray as he rises from his desk and saunters over to me, leaning against the doorframe and raising an eyebrow.
Jesus, the man has a good tailor.
“Are you helping other departments again?” he asks irritably.
“Just Fran.”
“She has a team of her own. Why is she poaching my assistant?”
I smirk up at him. “You’re sounding a little territorial there, boss.”
“Damn straight I am. What is she making you do?”
“A dashboard for the staffing analysis,” I say, not looking at him. “And she’s not making me do anything. I offered.”
“It’s her job, Jacqueline.”
Fuck, I love the way he says my name.
“Yes. And I can help with the setup. It’s fine, it won’t take long.”
“To build an entire dashboard?”
I glance up at him. “Yeah. I am really fucking good with Excel.”
“Oh, god, don’t tell anyone else that, they’ll all be after you.”
I chuckle just as my cell starts to buzz on my desk. Ordinarily, I would have it in my bag, but with everything happening with Scott lately, I’ve kept it close by, just in case.
“No personal calls at your desk,” he mutters darkly.
“Is that an order?” I ask in a low voice as he pushes off the doorjamb.
“It can be. Why don’t you come in here after you’re done, and I can make sure you remember for next time?”
I pick up the cell as he goes back into his office, undoing his tie as he goes.
Fuck.
I finally look at my phone screen, and my stomach drops at the sight of eight missed calls from Scott. I push answer immediately.
“Scott? You okay?” I ask, standing and walking away from my desk, keeping my voice low.
“Jax? Thank God.”
My heartbeat roars in my ears at his voice. As far as I know, the deposit drop went fine yesterday, but maybe Monroe’s demanding more money again.
“What’s the matter? Do you need me to come home? I can leave right—”
“No, Jax, listen, something’s up with Flynn. I don’t know what’s going on, but he’s on his way to your building. I’ve been trying to call you for like an hour!”
“Flynn is coming here? Why?”
“He was ranting about something, some email he’d found or whatever.”
“What email? Scott, you’re not making any sense.”
“He said the name of something. Like British money? He went totally ape shit.”
“British money? What…” My fingers grip the phone tighter. “Was it Sterling?”
“Yeah! Do you know what that is? He was ranting about Sterling House, how he was going to kill your boss. What boss is he even talking about? Where the hell do you go during the day?”
“Scott, is he on his way now?”
“Yeah, I bet he’ll be there any minute.”
“Fuck.” I hang up and run toward the elevators. “Vince, Vincent!” I say, sprinting to the reception desk, and almost toppling over it.
“Whoa, where’s the fire?” Vince asks, looking up at me as he continues to type on his keyboard.
“Vince, have you seen a guy, 5’9, gray hair, looking pissed?” I ask in a rush.
“Uh. No. I would remember a silver fox like that.”
“That’s not really—”
I suck in a breath as I hear a shout from behind me, and my heart almost stops when I look around at the other side of the building, where the back stairs are situated.
They’re not generally used by the staff; everyone gravitates toward the elevators, but the rear access is kept open in case of a fire.
Flynn must have taken the back stairs so he wouldn’t need ID.
“Shit, shit, shit!”
“What’s going on?” Vince asks, blinking rapidly as he rises, looking in the same direction as me.
“Jones!” I recognize my brother’s voice instantly, bellowing from the stairwell.
“Fuck.”
I don’t think I’ve ever run so fast before, aware of eyes following me through the office as I sprint at top speed on four-inch heels over to where my brother has just emerged through the rear door.
I’m too late to reach him as he immediately clocks Gray’s office and marches over to it.
“JONES, you asshole!” Flynn’s face is bright red, and he’s striding toward the door like a madman.
I lurch around my desk, landing awkwardly on my ankle and stumbling to the office door just as Gray shoots up out of his chair, looking pissed.
“You can’t stop me, Jax, I’m gonna fucking kill him,” Flynn bellows, pushing at me to get to Gray.
“Stop!” I shout, mortified by the wide-eyed stares that are being aimed our way by every employee on this floor. “Calm down!”
“You fucker!” Flynn is like a bear, shoving against me with all his strength.
Mortified, I watch as Gray walks swiftly to the door, glaring between us like Flynn is some deranged lunatic.
“Would you calm down?” I hiss, trying to manhandle my brother away from my boss while the entire floor stares at us.
“Jacqueline, what is going on?”
“I’m just trying to—”
“I’m gonna kill you,” Flynn says, the gold chain around his neck flying up as he tries to hit Gray.
I grab both of Flynn’s arms in the crook of his elbow, yanking them back until he makes a little grunt of pain, and keep him pinned, my face flaming with embarrassment.
“Conference room. Now! This is my work, you asshole,” I hiss into his ear. “Calm the fuck down.”
He goes still, looking behind me, finally noticing every person in the office frozen in place and staring at him. I feel his muscles relax slightly, and gently let him go, just praying that he isn’t about to knock Gray out.
Pulling at his jacket, he tugs at his clothes, straightening as I see the fire leave his eyes, but he’s still glaring at Gray as he nods to me.
“Lead the way.”
“Be calm,” I snap, and glance apologetically at Gray. “Can you—”
“Get him the fuck away from me,” Gray says, his voice dripping with venom. He’s looking at my brother with an expression of acute rage I’ve never seen from him before.
Gray stalks out of his office and around to the nearest conference room, slamming open the door and marching inside as Flynn follows behind him.
Fuck my goddamn life.