Chapter 25
Colin
I rub my temples for the millionth time today, and it’s barely ten o’clock in the morning. There are three mugs of lukewarm tea in front of me; green, chamomile, and lemon zinger, and I hate all three of them. The smell of the green tea makes me particularly sick. Heath’s been here about half a dozen times, checking my temperature and bringing me more tea. He’s admonished me from taking any medicine because even one over-the-counter painkiller is the gateway to addiction.
It’s been a hell of a twenty-four hours, and I haven’t stopped thinking about what happened in my office yesterday. I wish it would happen again. My dick has had a hell of a time behaving. Every time I look at the couch, it wants to pop up. Every time I remember her touch, smell, and the feel of her lips on mine, my body acts like it did when I was fifteen.
My date last night was a complete disaster. I forgot about it until I got a flirty text ten minutes before I was supposed to show up at her door. It said she couldn’t wait until I tasted what she had to offer.
At that point, I still had Brynne’s smell on me. I was loathe to shower, but I did it just the same and knocked on Francesca’s door fourteen minutes later. Saying dinner was awkward would be an understatement. It started going downhill when I walked through her front door and smelled her cooking. It was like a combination of burned cabbage and dog. Three steps into her apartment, a huge Saint Bernard ran to me and humped my leg.
That was preferable to the kiss Francesca tried to plant on me. I moved my face just in time in the pretext of looking down and petting her dog, Deuce. She led me to her kitchen, where there was a mess of pots, pans, and what I’m sure was supposed to be food. The only thing edible was a charcuterie board filled with cheese, fruit, and deli meat.
My head starts to pound just thinking about everything I went through last night. I went from one of the best sexual experiences of my life to hell, all within a few hours.
The pounding between my ears worsens, and I dig through one of my drawers for a bottle of aspirin to get myself together for a staff meeting. That’s another thing I need to change around here. There are too many damn meetings, but the good thing is I’ll get to see Brynne.
“Finally,” I say as my hand wraps around the bottle. I take one out just as my door opens, and Heath comes in with another mug. Whatever’s in it is hot because I see steam coming from the top. “Unless that’s a hot toddy, I’m not interested.”
Just as I open a bottle of water and start to put the pill in my mouth, it gets knocked out of my hand. In the process, he also hits the bottle, and water splashes out, hitting me in the face.
“What the hell, Heath?” I practically growl.
“Pills are the gateway to addiction. It’s literally the portal to hell.”
“Literally?” I ask. This would typically amuse me, but not today. Today, I need a damn pill to kill this headache, not a lecture on the dangers of over-the-counter medication.
“Have you not been paying attention? Every time your sister needs to step outside, she takes a pill. I don’t know how she functions.”
“You mean your mother?” My sister means well, but the kid is right. She’s a mess and is probably scared of the sound of her own voice. “And one aspirin for a headache won’t hurt.”
“Well, not on my watch, Uncle Paddy.” He whispers Uncle Paddy like we’re not the only two people in the office. He puts the mug before me, and it’s another tea. One that smells even more disgusting than the green tea. He comes behind the desk and rubs my temples. I groan, but I lean back and let him do it.
“Your hands are incredibly soft,” I say.
“That’s because of my hand cream. It’s from Paris,” he whispers. He runs the back of his hand on my cheek. “You need a facial. The pores on your nose are huge.” I knock his hands away and sit up. He picks up the mug of tea and hands it to me. I hold my breath and take a sip. It’s disgusting.
“Do you know that Uncle Milty has a discretionary fund called Office Funsies? I called him about it last night, and he says it’s for office parties or lunches. I’m going to use it to order lunch every Monday and Friday. I’m also getting lunch today after the meeting. And for Valentine’s Day, I’m getting a dessert buffet.” I nod as he tells me how else he wants to use the money. I admit that his ideas aren’t terrible, and according to Heath, they will make the office a more fun place to work. I tell him he has my permission to use it however he wants. He gets so excited he stands and claps like a five-year-old.
“The meeting starts in fifteen,” he says. “Remember what Uncle Colin the First always says. Be the first to arrive to establish dominance,” we both say together.
Twenty minutes later, Brynne is the last to arrive, and I wonder if she’s just getting in. She’s still in her coat. Unlike yesterday's long, black wool coat, she’s in gray today. She unbuttons it and hands it to Ernestine. She’s wearing a navy blue pantsuit and an off-white button-up shirt with a navy blue silk scarf around her neck.
She avoids eye contact with me at all costs as I review last quarter’s numbers as well as current and future projects. I expect her to question me, but she doesn’t. She doesn’t even look my way.
“Brynne, can I see you in my office, please?” I ask once the meeting ends and people start walking out. She has her back to me and freezes. “In ten minutes,” I add. “Alone,” I say for Ernestine’s benefit.
I’m the last to leave the large conference room, and when I notice Heath and Ernestine arguing in front of the break room, I ignore them and go to my office. There’s an email from Raven Bennett in my inbox. The only Raven I know is Brynne’s friend. Curious, I click it open and skim the message.
Brynne knocks on the door promptly ten minutes later, just as I hit send on my return email to Raven. That’s the exact moment my phone buzzes, and I get a text from Francesca.
Francesca: I’d love to cook for you again.
My stomach churns. There was dog hair on my plate, and I spent the meal sneaking food to Deuce. I put the phone down.
“Is that Tigerlilly?” Brynne asks. She’s standing as far away from my desk as possible.
“Who?” I ask, having no idea what she’s talking about.
“Tigerlilly. You know? Your little girlfriend.” She pretends to toss her hair and rubs her thighs together. “How was your little date last night? Did you taste what she has to offer?”
I stand, and she steps back, putting her back against the door.
“Are you jealous?” I ask as I walk closer to her.
Her eyes dart around the room, and I can tell she’s trying to figure out where to run next. Then, she decides to be brave. She stands tall and juts out her chin.
“Jealous? Over you? Get over yourself.”
“And how do you know I had a date last night?” I ask. “Did you read my messages while I was being accosted by that tuna fish sandwich?”
She stands still, but I can see the slight widening of her eyes. She must have read my messages while I was out of the office. I should be upset about her breaching my privacy, but I don’t mind at all.
“Why would I care about your stupid messages?” she asks. “I mean, can she even spell?”
I stand in front of her. Close enough that I can feel her breath. She doesn’t look away when our eyes lock, but I do. I pull at the scarf around her neck and take it off. I move her neck to the side, and that’s when I see it. There are two noticeable love bites on the left side of her neck and one on the right. I lean down and lick along the two on the left. She moans. I roughly grab one of her breasts and squeeze. She purrs like a feral cat.
“Tell me to stop, and I will,” I whisper in her ear. She shivers but offers no words. I lick my way from her neck back to her lips. She opens her mouth and breathes deeply. When I put my hand on her throat, she moans and writhes against me. I add a little pressure and she purrs. “You like that, don’t you, Honeybee?” When all she does is moan, I add a little more pressure to her throat. “Answer me.”
“I like it,” she croaks. I slowly move my hand from her throat down her body until I cup her pussy over her perfectly tailored pants. She writhes against me, throws her head back, and moans. I release her pussy only to reach around her and lock the door.
I lift her off her feet, walk us to the couch, and sit with her on top of me. She immediately straddles me, and her mouth lands on mine. We kiss like it’s the very air we breathe. She starts to shrug out of her blazer, and I help pull it off. I pull her shirt out of her pants and unbutton it this time.
“This will be the last time this happens,” she says against my mouth. She undoes my belt and sticks her hand in my pants. I pull them down so my dick can spring free, and when she looks down at it she licks her lips.
“I know you want to. Go ahead.” She gets off my lap, drops to her knees, and takes me in her mouth. “Oh, yeah,” I groan. I throw my head back, and she wraps her hand around my shaft while teasing the tip with her tongue.
She swirls her tongue around the top before she takes it all the way to the back of her throat, and then teases me mercilessly with her tongue while squeezing my shaft. She does it until my eyes roll to the back of my head, and I’m on the cusp of erupting in her mouth.
“Fuck me,” I say. “I want to be inside of you.” She takes me to the back of her throat one more time before it pops out of her mouth. She stands, kicks off her heels, and pulls off her pants and underwear.
She straddles me, and I lift her on top of my dick where she slowly sinks down. Once I’m fully inside of her, she stops, throws her head back, and calls my name. I almost come just from that, but I find the strength to take her shirt off and unsnap her bra.
She starts to ride me, and I know I won’t last very long. I grab one of her nipples and start to suckle while I caress the soft curve of her spine. Her soft moans spur my desire, and when her carnal noises start to get louder, I leave her breast, put my hand on the back of her neck, and direct her mouth to mine so I can swallow those sounds.
“Oh, God,” she moans into my mouth. “I’m coming.”
“Let go, Honeybee.” She writhes, and I wrap both arms around her so I can hold her through her orgasm. I grunt into her mouth while I come inside of her, jerking my hips upright so she can get every last drop of my release.
I continue to kiss her desperately, and she kisses me back. Her back is now soaked with sweat, and once her moans stop, I leave her mouth only because I want to give attention to her other nipple.
“So good,” I mutter. “So fucking good.” She stays on top of me, and I stay inside of her until I soften and slide out.