Chapter 18 #2
His buckle clicked. His button released.
His zipper went down. And slowly, Hazel dropped to her knees.
She pulled his pants and briefs with her, but held his gaze, which darkened with every inch she descended.
“Is your control really that good?” she inquired, licking up his shaft with the flat of her tongue.
His cock twitched against her lips, and she heard him exhale shakily.
“Because I don’t think so,” she whispered, taking him in her mouth.
She sucked the tip in until it touched the roof of her mouth.
“Fuck,” Gareth breathed, digging his hands into her hair.
He held her in place as he thrust into her mouth.
Hazel continued to look at him as she licked him, gently using her teeth, until Gareth’s legs trembled beneath her palms and his cock twitched uncontrollably.
Only then did she abruptly break away and calmly stand.
“So?” she asked quietly. “How’s your contro…”
Gareth’s mouth crashed hard against hers as he pressed her against the door, his hands on her waist, on her breasts, and on her neck.
“You’re evil,” he informed her. “God, I spent the last few minutes before I caught up with you thinking about all the reasons I could fire Simon…but I should have thought of this.”
“You shouldn’t fire him. He’s hardworking! In all areas of life.”
“Shut up, Hazel. You’re making me mad again.”
She stroked his strong shoulders. “You had a damn girlfriend until recently and you slept with her. So stop pretending you’re a virgin.”
“I last slept with her months ago. Our schedules were a nightmare.”
“Months ago?” Her pulse fluttered.
“Yes. So tell me you won’t sleep with anyone else but me.”
“No. I can do whatever I want.”
He smiled broadly before kissing her deeply. “By the time I’m done with you, you’ll only want to do what I want!”
“Well, our interests happen to overlap right now,” she gasped. “What a happy coincidence.”
He laughed hoarsely. “God, I’ve missed you.”
“You haven’t. You’ve missed this.”
“No. This is just part of it.”
Her heart wanted to expand, but she wouldn’t let it.
Sex – it was only sex. She tugged at his shirt, ignoring the fact that one of his buttons flew off, while Gareth ripped the hole in her hose wider, and the next moment, lifted her into his arms. He pressed her against the door, pushed her panties aside, and thrust into her in the next breath.
Hazel moaned and bit his shoulder as he began to move inside her.
She was so wet and so damn close to her release that he slid in and out of her easily.
But every time her first contractions began, Gareth pulled out and slowed his thrusts until the initial waves subsided and he could start torturing her all over again.
“Stop it!” she whimpered, desperately thrusting her pelvis toward him. “I need…I have to…”
“I’m staking a claim, Hazel,” he whispered against her ear and thrust again, pinning her against the wall. “Sole claim to this.” He pulled out of her before entering her again with a violent thrust. “So say it.”
“Gareth…”
“Say it. Loudly.”
“Oh God, okay. Fine! I won’t sleep with anyone else, Gare! Not while we…while we…” Gareth pressed his thumb to her throbbing core, and she came, as if he were directly rewarding her for her words.
“Good,” he whispered. “And I’ll take that in writing.” Then he drove his cock into her wetness one last time and, groaning, spilled inside her.
It felt like an eternity until Hazel regained her senses. Until the sweet heat in her lower abdomen was nothing more than a tingling sensation. Until her breathing had calmed down again.
She had missed him too.
No – it was this. She had missed this.
“I can’t move,” she whispered helplessly. Slumped over, she kissed his neck, his jaw, his cheek, his forehead, everything she could reach.
She hadn’t had enough. He held her in his arms, his lips pressed to her pounding pulse, his half-naked chest against hers, still deep inside her…
and yet she still longed for him. For more.
She wanted to crawl into his body and set up a vacation home there.
Wanted to be enveloped by his scent forever, his voice in her ear.
“God, I think I passed out for a moment,” he whispered.
She laughed and wrapped her arms tighter around his shoulders. “I’m glad you’re still standing.”
“I can’t let you fall. You’ll hurt yourself and sue me.”
Her laughter grew louder. “So, if your first aid looks like the last ten minutes, I’m going to deliberately get a lot of bruises. Hey, I could play hockey with Fox and Moreau.”
“You can’t skate.”
“Exactly, I’d have a lot of injuries!”
His chest vibrated against hers, and she felt his smile against her neck. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself. There’s no need. I’m already at your mercy.”
Warmth flooded her entire body, and her chest felt as if someone had filled it with cotton candy.
She felt soft and incredibly sweet. “I don’t want you to be at my mercy,” she whispered.
“I like your will. I don’t have to worry about running over you.
That you’ll only do what I say because you want to get me into bed. ”
He chuckled softly. “Was that a problem with your ex-boyfriends? That you could boss them around too easily?”
Yes. A pretty big one, in fact. They had never argued with her.
They had wanted to make her happy by submitting to her, which had been incredibly exhausting.
She constantly had to consider their desires because they never told her what they wanted, for fear of upsetting her.
She had rarely allowed herself to get angry or raise her voice, even though that was her damned way!
“You know…” she whispered, leaning back, and stroking Gareth’s face with her fingers, “...most people find arguing exhausting.”
“But you find it exhausting to hold back instead of arguing.”
She smiled. Sometimes she forgot how well Gareth knew her.
“Yes. People confuse discussion and argument.”
Gareth kissed her gently on the lips. “Ah, so you haven’t been arguing with me for the past few years, merely debating.”
Her smile widened. “No, no. I’ve argued with you. And you were a worthy opponent. This, on the other hand? Pure discussion. No argument.”
“Ah, I don’t know. I was a little angry.”
“Because of Simon?”
“Because you ignored my texts! Well, my anger could have been the cause of an argument.”
She laughed. “Are we arguing about whether we were discussing or arguing?”
“No,” Gareth said earnestly. “We’re discussing it.”
She laughed louder, and the feeling of cotton candy in her chest was accompanied by a new tingling sensation when she noticed Gareth smiling broadly. She felt him gently brush a strand of hair from her face.
“Okay, I’ll let you down now, okay?” he murmured, still amused, and she almost shouted no.
She didn’t want the moment to end. She just wanted to stay in the utility closet with Gareth and argue about silly things. No, discuss.
But Gareth slowly pulled out of her, and she had no choice but to put her feet on the floor and separate from him.
Her thighs were sticky and the whole room smelled of sex.
She loved everything about it. Oh God, she was definitely too naughty.
But Gareth was to blame! The guy gave her incredibly dirty thoughts.
She adjusted her clothes — her hose were beyond repair, but thankfully, her skirt hid that — and watched Gareth button his shirt… but there was a gap in the middle.
“I demand a replacement,” he muttered, frowning at the missing button.
She grinned. “Our contract doesn’t say anything about replacements. Sorry. Besides, I like the shirt like this. This way I can see more.”
He snorted, cupped her face in his hands, and kissed her hard. “Okay, I’ll leave it on. I don’t have anything else planned today except to meet you.”
Oh, she liked that.
“Do you want to go first?” he asked, nodding toward the door.
“Gareth, there won’t be anyone lurking out there hoping to catch two employees having sex.” She pulled the door open. “We can both just go and…”
She stopped abruptly.
She should have listened to Gareth.
“Oh my fucking God,” Austin Fox exclaimed, standing open-mouthed and wide-eyed outside the women’s restroom door, looking back and forth between them in disbelief. His gaze flicked to her hair, to Gareth’s missing button…
Okay, shit. The scene was clearer than a neon sign. “Um…it’s not what you think?” she tried saying, anyway. “We couldn’t find Gareth’s office and were fighting each other?”
Gareth made a noise she couldn’t clearly identify as either a laugh or a snort.
Austin ignored her. He was too busy rubbing his eyes with his fists, as if he could erase the moment from his sight. “God. Of the ten things I never wanted to see, this is number three! What the hell, Hazel?”
“What are numbers one and two?” Gareth asked, seemingly completely unfazed by the situation. At least it didn’t dampen his curiosity.
“Moreau and Anna having sex, and Leon doing a fucking dance of joy because he won at Mario Tennis!” he growled, his dark gaze landing on Gareth. “But apparently you’re not as uptight as everyone says, boss. Maybe if I tell Leon, he’ll finally stop juking and singing I’m the best."
“Okay, okay,” Hazel replied hastily, restlessness flooding her body much like the burning heat had ten minutes ago. Hands raised, she stepped forward. “Stop it, Austin. We’re two grown people. We can do whatever we want, and you’re going to keep quiet about it. Why are you even in this corridor?”
“Leon’s looking for you. You have a damn appointment, and you’ve been in the bathroom for twenty minutes, so I wanted to make sure everything was okay.” He gritted his teeth. “Now I wish I hadn’t cared if you had passed out on the toilet and drowned in the bowl!”
“That’s awfully caring of you,” Hazel said tensely, and she could have sworn she felt Gareth’s silent laughter.
“Yes! I hate how caring I am,” Fox complained. “Now, I have to keep another damn secret.” Groaning, he threw his head back. “Why is it always me? What have I done wrong in my life to deserve catching my friends having sex?!”
“Well, actually, this is your fault,” Hazel complained.
“Oh, this is going to be interesting,” Gareth muttered.
“Excuse me?” Austin snapped.
“Well! You wanted me to make up with him.”
“Yes. But fully clothed.”
She raised her chin. “You never said that. You should have been clearer.”
This time, Gareth laughed, which earned him a glare from Fox.
“It isn’t funny!” he hissed.
Gareth shrugged. “Depends on your point of view. I do think it’s better if I leave now, though.”
“Oh, really?” Fox asked mockingly. “It seems like you prefer to come.”
Hazel’s diaphragm clenched. Oh, shit. Austin should have known better than to make Gareth angry. Concerned, she turned to him, fully expecting to see purgatory burning in his eyes.
Instead, there was a deeply irritating smile on his face. “Doesn’t everyone?” he asked lightly before turning to Hazel. “Seven o’clock?”
She bit her lip, ignoring the fact that Austin’s mouth had opened a little more dramatically. “Seven o’clock. Are you bringing Chinese?”
“Indian?”
“Thai.”
“Deal.”
He leaned toward her, and for a second, she thought he was going to kiss her goodbye. But then he blinked and stepped back. “See you then,” he murmured, before adding loudly, “Always a pleasure, Fox.” Then he raised his hand and strolled down the hall toward the elevator.
Hazel stared after him, a sinking feeling in her stomach. Did Gareth care at all about being caught?
“What the hell are you doing, Hazel?” Fox asked tonelessly once Gareth was out of sight. “I thought you hated the guy.”
Oh, hate was a strong word. Sighing, she turned back to him. “It just happened,” she replied tensely. “We talked a lot and decided that we get along much better naked than clothed. So, it’s a compromise. It’s best for everyone.”
“It’s best…what?”
“The last few weeks have been pleasant, haven’t they? You got your contract. Devreaux got his, which Gareth and I will sign tomorrow. Blake will play splendidly tomorrow and be included on the roster.” God, she hoped so. “Everyone wins.”
Fox narrowed his eyes almost imperceptibly before asking softly, “Are you sure you haven’t lost something to him, Hazel?”
Hmm. She'd lost her mind, perhaps. But she had so much of it at her disposal, she didn’t mind giving a little of it to Gareth.
“I’ve got everything under control, Austin,” she stated firmly. “It’s only sex.”
“Is it?”
“Yes!” They had a damn contract, after all, that stipulated it was only sex. “So, calm down. It’s nothing serious. Where’s Leon? I have to talk him out of hiring that stupid agent.”
Besides, she didn’t have much time left until 7:00 p.m. and she wanted to be on time for that.
Because what had just happened could hardly be called foreplay.