Chapter 14
~
June
I stepped into his office with my heart in my throat.
I knew what I’d asked for, and I knew what I was getting into. At least I thought I did.
But all of my recent decisions were like a torrent of built-up reckless choices that I was now shamelessly living out without the fear that had kept me paralyzed in my own life for so long.
Maybe this was too much too soon. I knew that if anyone were to find out about what I was doing, the judgement would be valley-deep and probably rightfully so. But I’d spent my whole adult life already thinking I was both too much and not enough.
I was tired of rules. Well, not rules as a whole. Oren had given me a particular set of them to follow for today’s coaching session. We discussed things beforehand, but there was a lot of information that I had no idea was pertinent to what he had planned for me today.
I’d followed all the instructions to a tee, though. Old habits die hard.
“Come in, Miss Price,” his baritone voice called from the other side of the closed door.
It was office hours, meaning that whatever was going to happen inside this office, was going to need to be as silent as possible. Oren watched me as I came in, seated behind his desk.
There was something different about him, something that seemed to change. It wasn’t that he’d ever been shy or a wallflower. But between Lucas’s extroverted idealism and Ronan’s charming sarcastic banter, Oren had always been more reserved.
I could see how all three of them fit together, how their distinctive personalities cemented their bond and held them in balance. Oren was the grounded one, the one who quietly watched when no one else noticed things.
He’d done that with me, offering me comfort in what had been one of the darkest times of my life. He’d seen through parts of myself I didn’t even know about, and it was his words that had helped set me on the path I was now currently exploring.
If Lucas was a fire that fed my own passion, and Ronan was a roguish charmer who brought out a playfulness in me, then Oren was like a steady rock that withstood even the most chaotic of storms.
Steadfast, reliable. Someone I trusted to push me beyond what I was comfortable with because I knew that he was deserving of that vulnerability. But now, there was something else in his countenance. Something more dominant that I hadn’t picked up on before.
“Business first,” he said, gesturing to the chair in front of him. I nodded, a relatively thick folder in hand. “Did you follow my advice about tailoring your portfolio?”
I nodded, sliding it over to him. Oren paged through everything, stopping at certain sections to really read through what I’d included and breezing through the rest. When he was satisfied, he gave it a nod of approval and passed it back to me.
“One big determining factor in how they view prospective employees is their dedication to regional turnovers. Have you researched the local development context?”
We continued on for some time, going through all the points he’d told me to cover. But in the midst of all that business talk, the atmosphere between us began to shift. He moved closer to me, leaning over to take a look at some of the concept documents I’d printed out.
His body formed a cage over mine, something I was sure wasn’t entirely unintentional. He was so close that I could feel his body heat, smell his scent. I could feel his breath at the back of my neck as he spoke, his low voice a siren call in my ear.
“You did such a good job,” he said, voice barely above a whisper now. The tip of his nose ran down the length of the back of my neck, and I was grateful for my choice to put my hair up this morning. “You followed all my instructions so far. Tell me, did you do the rest?”
He didn’t have to specify what he was referring to. I nodded, my face burning with desire and a small bit of embarrassment.
“Good girl,” he said.
I briefly recalled that Ronan had called me “his girl”, and for a moment I wondered what would happen if I told them about each other. Sure, there may have been no commitments or even open conversations about what was actually happening between us. But would they be pissed off?
Would they be intrigued?
Attagirl. Lucas’s praise had sent my pulse racing. And when Ronan had made his own claim, I’d been putty in his hands. But now it was Oren calling me good, and for the moment that’s all I wanted to be for him.
He started mouthing my neck, alternating between kisses and nips of his teeth. I put a hand on the side of his face, tilting my head to give him better access as small sighs of pleasure escaped my lips.
His hands came around to the front of my blouse and began playing with the buttons, popping them open one by one until he could reach inside and cup my breasts.
“No bra,” he commented. “You really do listen well.”
“Do you include this in your mentoring fee?” I teased.
Oren laughed against my neck, the sound rippling across my skin and causing mini shockwaves of pleasure. “No, but maybe I should.”
He kneaded my breasts experimentally, his hands not quite as deft as Ronan’s but no less eager. I wanted so badly to turn around and touch him, but he’d made it very clear what I was and was not allowed to do.
“Clothes off,” he said, his hands suddenly pulling away and I already mourned the loss of them.
But I quickly stood to my feet, unbuttoning the rest of my blouse and wiggling out of my skirt until I was naked in front of him. No panties either. Oren bit his lip, watching me in silence.
I could practically see the gears turning in his head.
He lived off of numbers and observations. I was eager to find out how that played into the way he took women to bed. Or, his office table in his case. He walked toward me, tentative almost. A hint of that old reservation slipping through.
But when we kissed, I could practically feel the fire ignite inside of him. His hands slid up my bare hips, sliding up the sides of my waist. I wrapped my arms around his neck, my bare breasts pressing into his clothed torso..
My body was sensitive in the slight chill of the office, and I moaned in a mix of discomfort and pleasure as my hardening nipples rubbed against the material. I wanted more of him. I wanted him naked too, giving me access to explore him until I knew what sounds he made in the throes of pleasure.
Like I was building some sort of collection.
But I promised that I would stick to the rules for now. His hand drifted between my legs, fingers slipping through the slick that had already started pooling there. I shuddered against him.
“So wet,” he commented in what sounded almost like wonder. “So wet and we haven’t even started yet.”
He gently pushed me back until I was laying on the empty desk, fully exposed to him. It was such a vulnerable experience, and a bit of a mindfuck given that while I was completely naked, he hadn’t removed so much as a stitch of clothing.
But for some reason he wanted it this way and oddly enough, there was something rather erotic about it. He rolled back his sleeves, pinning them at the elbow. Even though there was a hunger in his eyes, it was always tempered by gentleness.
It was that detail that made me okay with doing this in the first place.
He climbed on top of the desk and leaned over me, lowering himself to kiss the valley of my breasts. His kisses trailed down, my hands tangling in his hair; the only allowance he’d made for what part of him I was allowed to touch.
I made a pathetic mewling sound when he reached my stomach, dipping his tongue into my navel. It was a strange but arousing feeling, and my toes curled slightly. The entire time he kept his eyes on me, watching every single reaction.
Probably committing them all to memory to torture me with later.
Then he finally reached his destination, his hands sliding up my thighs and gently pushing them apart. He kissed the side of my knee.
“So pretty,” he murmured, his eyes fixed to the most intimate part of me. I held my breath. He continued alternating kisses between each thigh, lower and lower until finally his mouth latched onto my clit and I practically howled as my hips surged up.
Oren grabbed hold of them, keeping me pinned down to the desk. Lashes of white-hot pleasure struck every nerve-ending as he went to work between my legs, sucking and licking until I cried out, already overstimulated.
I could feel myself dripping, but instead of lapping it up the way Lucas had, he simply dragged a finger through my wetness, then slowly pushed the digit inside me. I adjusted around the invasion, but I was so turned on that it wasn’t uncomfortable.
In fact, he barely gave me time to get used to it before adding a second. It took every ounce of self-control to remember that I was supposed to be quiet. I bit into my palm, trying to muffle the sounds that were clawing their way up my throat as he began to relentlessly suck on my clit.
“So pretty,” he mumbled against me, his eyes heavy-lidded as though he was getting drunk off my pleasure. When he’d had his fill of my pussy, his mouth travelled lower still. The first prod of his tongue at my ass had my eyes fly open and a startled moan escape me.
He only chuckled, then slapped my butt cheek. “Turn over.”
Calm, direct, authoritative. Anyone else and I wasn’t sure I would be able to do this.
But I obeyed him, turning over and propping my ass in the air like he’d instructed me to do, back arched.
His tongue went right back to finish the job, as low, surprised moans spilled out of me at just how good it felt.
No one had ever done this to me before and it had never crossed my mind to even try. Why hadn’t I ever wanted to try this? Oren’s hands were gripping fistfuls of my ass, holding me still whenever I tried to squirm away from the pleasure.
And then I felt it.