14. Holland
CHAPTER 14
Holland
T hough I had been out, I knew I hadn’t missed much. I’d caught up on email Monday afternoon, so there couldn’t be anything I really needed to give my attention to today besides making sure Trey knew I was working. And that left me free to focus on the turmoil roiling around in my mind. I was still buzzed with adrenaline—any time I had to present in front of a group I got that rush, and it took a while to wear off. This one was more potent because of what it could mean for my career. If I’d managed what I set out to do . . . if we’d managed it . . . it could change everything.
I stared at the list of emails on my screen, not really seeing it, as my mind moved on to the other major development in my life . . . Oliver Cody. He was right, he hadn’t exactly lied to me. Though I didn’t appreciate omissions of truth much more than lies. Still, I understood why he hadn’t been up-front, at least I thought I understood a little bit. He’d been away from work for a long time, and had certainly spent the last part of that time reeling from the tragedy that had taken his parents from him, and from what he’d discovered. I could understand why Oliver might have been happy to have someone in his life who didn’t know him as the CEO for a while. And he had told me in the end.
Of course now that I knew, I needed to put a stop to the warm feeling that spread through my limbs at the thought of his name, the memory of what those dark eyes looked like as they lidded with lust. I needed to forget all of that. He was the CEO of my company, and therefore my boss, which made things extremely complicated at best.
My phone rang, distracting me.
“Hello, Holland O’Dell.” I pressed the cool receiver to my ear.
“Ms. O’Dell, this is Scott Crea, in HR. Is there a time today when we might be able to meet?”
Fear swirled in my stomach, and I wondered if Trey had already decided I wasn’t taking work seriously, had already pulled the trigger on his threat. Scott’s words made me search my mind for whatever infraction might have put me in trouble with HR. Sleeping with the CEO seemed like a potential ding, but there was no way he could know about that, could he? “Sure,” I said. “I could come now.” Whatever this was, I figured it was better to get it over with. If I scheduled something for the afternoon, I’d worry about it all day.
By the time I’d crossed the plaza to the executive tower where Scott’s office was, I’d calmed myself, convinced I hadn’t done anything to get me into trouble—or nothing anyone could possibly know about. I wondered if this might be related to the analyst’s demotion, the one Oliver had orchestrated after I’d told him about the way the guy had gotten the job over me, but I doubted that could be traced back to me, either.
“Ms. O’Dell,” Scott said, waving me into his office. Though we weren’t on a high floor, he had glass windows at his back, letting in light and making the space feel expansive and open. One day I wanted an office like this. One day, I told myself, I would have it.
I sat, giving Scott a weak smile. “Can you tell me what this is about?” I asked, unable to wait any longer. If I was in trouble, I wanted to know it.
He smiled and sat down. “I wanted to be the first to congratulate you,” he said, grinning at me. “You’re being promoted.”
I let that news sink in. A promotion in my department meant moving up from account executive to account supervisor, a position that still had me in sales. Nothing in the way Trey had spoken to me yesterday indicated he’d put in a call to have me promoted. “Oh,” I said, trying not to sound disappointed or confused. The promotion made no sense at all, since Trey had been at my desk literally one day ago, basically challenging me to step up.
“It’s unusual,” Scott continued. “But moves between departments aren’t unheard of. You’ll be taking on a new role as director of analytic application.”
“What?” I asked, sitting up straight.
“It’s a position that’s just been created,” he said. “A go-between that straddles sales and analytics. Here’s the job description I received this morning from Mr. Cody’s office. You were appointed by name.”
As I scanned the paper he’d handed me, everything snapped into place. Oliver had made this happen. I couldn’t decide if I was angry or elated, but I was definitely leaning toward the latter. Still, something didn’t feel right about having this handed to me on a silver platter. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t worked my ass off for it, but I also knew no other candidates had been given a chance at the new position. I’d won it by sleeping with the CEO. With that cheery thought in mind, Scott led me to the eighth-floor office that would now be mine, and I entered it as one might reenter a church after years of living a secular life—with extreme reverence, and hounded by guilt.
The space was open and bright, and the windows afforded a view of Santa Monica and the Pacific beyond. I stared out at the blue horizon, my mind spinning wildly.
“Mr. Cody has requested that you make the transition over the next week or so, but that you do it from this office so you are accessible to your new department as needed to get up to speed.”
I nodded, struck dumb as I turned to take in the broad wooden desk in the center of the room. There was another impressive bouquet of lilies and roses set in its center, with a card peeking out that was addressed to me.
“I’ll drop some paperwork off this afternoon, and we can schedule time to go over the compensation package and additional benefits,” Scott continued, seeming to think nothing of this enormous change coming out of the blue. “Congratulations,” he finished.
“Thank you,” I said, standing behind my new desk as I watched him leave the room. I pulled the card from the flowers, and was unsurprised to find they were from Oliver.
I choose you.—Oliver
I dropped into the chair behind the desk and turned, staring out the window as I tried to sort through the wild thoughts flinging around inside my mind.
I let the blue expanse of the sky calm me a bit, and leaned back, working to accept that I’d earned this. Maybe it had come down a different path than I’d expected it to, maybe it had happened a little faster, but I’d still earned it. I pushed down the guilt that was threatening to ruin what should be a major achievement in my life.
“Hello, Director.” Oliver’s deep voice came from the doorway and sent my skin tingling as a warmth washed over me, unbidden. I took a deep breath and turned in my chair to face him, steeling myself.
He stood in the doorway, his broad shoulders filling it completely. With just one foot over the threshold into my office, he dominated the space, making me feel like I was visiting him here instead of the other way around. I realized he commanded every room he walked into. Especially dressed as he was today, in the tie and dress shirt, his hair perfectly messy and a light stubble covering that grave jaw. His shirt was rolled up the thickly corded forearms. I pushed down a flush of heat and took a deep breath.
“I’m not sure what to think about this,” I said.
He stepped in and closed the door behind him.
“I can tell you exactly what to think.”
“Of course you can.” I raised an eyebrow. Only someone as arrogant as Oliver would believe it was okay to tell people what to think.
He ignored me, twisting the lock on the door handle and striding to stand before my new desk. “You should think that you worked your ass off, devising the biggest technology modification to an existing Cody Tech device ever, and that your analytic chops make you a perfect fit for this position.”
“I don’t want a promotion because I happen to know the CEO.” I put emphasis on the word “know,” though he certainly knew what I meant even without it.
“You’re the one who made me realize this position is necessary. I created the position and appointed the best person to fill it.” He gave me a frank look, those dark eyes pinning me into the leather chair as he leaned over the desk. “Doing what makes sense for this company is the definition of my job as CEO. It has nothing to do with what goes on between us outside of work.”
I had a hard time believing him, but his eyes suggested it wouldn’t be wise to argue. His face was inscrutable as he straightened and came around the desk, reaching out a hand for mine and pulling me to my feet. He slipped an arm around my waist and turned me to face the view I’d been admiring before he’d come in. Oliver pulled me tightly against his side, the sheer heat and size of him threatening to reduce me to steam, and then he leaned his head down and said in a low growl, “You earned this. Don’t think for one second you didn’t.”
His breath hit the side of my neck, sending shivers through me, and before I could compose myself, he followed his words with his mouth. His soft lips touched my earlobe, and his teeth nipped it roughly, sending sparks of pain and arousal through me. My mind flashed a warning that too much had happened already, that we were at work, that this was wrong. But my traitorous body responded very differently, my nipples hardening against the fabric of my shirt and my breath escaping on a tiny moan.
That was all the encouragement Oliver needed. His hand cupped my breast as he moved his big body in front of me, pressing my ass against the edge of my desk as he dropped his head to the other side of my neck. He nipped and sucked the tender skin beneath my ear, leaving a trail of ecstasy down my throat and across to the hollow of my collarbone.
My head dropped back, exposing my neck to him, and my breath was coming fast as I pushed myself shamelessly against the iron-hard erection I felt at my hip.
Oliver’s mouth found mine as his hand gripped the back of my head, pulling me to him. His lips crushed mine, his tongue demanding entry and sliding against my own. I felt myself respond, pulling him deeper into my mouth hungrily as my arms twined around his neck. His finger and thumb pinched my nipple through my shirt, and then with a growl, he released me and deftly swept my shirt over my head, unfastened my bra and dropped his mouth to the nipple his hand had just left. His other hand dropped from behind my head, found the curve of my back and pulled me into him, so that every inch of my body was met with the hard, heated muscle of his.
It was almost impossible to speak; the sensations flooding through me were so intense. “Oliver, we shouldn’t . . . not here,” I managed, but there was no conviction in my words. The fact that I moaned them more than spoke didn’t add weight to the force of my resistance, and I had to admit I didn’t really want him to stop. I just felt like I needed to be the one to point out that standard office protocol probably prohibited this sort of employee-boss interaction during office hours. Or at all.
“You’re right,” he ground out, his mouth moving to my other breast. His arm swept down beneath my butt and a second later he was lifting me, setting me onto the edge of the desk. “This is better.” He raised his head and smiled at me, his eyes heavy with lust. And then he pushed my skirt up my thighs, tracing the skin with the rough palms of his huge hands and wrapping them around my ass, pulling me until I was perched at the brink of the big desk.
My hands moved without direction from my brain, unfastening the belt that held Oliver’s bulging erection captive inside the expensive trousers. He watched my fingers move, a low groan escaping him as I slid my hand inside his pants, palming his thickness through his briefs.
I couldn’t help the fire that blazed through me as I glowed with realization of the power I had over the most powerful man I’d ever known. The fact that I could hold him here, that I had the ability to make his mouth drop open, to make his eyes cloud and his breath come faster—it was heady. And more than that, I hoped I had the power to make him happy. Even if he could be an arrogant ass, I’d learned enough about Oliver Cody in the past days to understand a bit about how much weight he carried on those broad shoulders and how much pain hid behind his gleaming eyes.
Oliver met my eye, and for a long moment we were frozen there, my hand stroking him through the soft fabric of his briefs. A faint smile crossed his lips, and then he reached down and pushed his pants to his knees, freeing himself.
His erection stood at full mast before me. I wrapped my hand around the shaft and leaned down to dart my tongue out to trace the underside of the tip. I lowered myself onto the leather chair so my mouth was level with his cock, my eyes fastened on Oliver’s. His eyebrows rose as I licked him, and when I wrapped my lips around the head and sucked, a groan escaped his lips and his hands flew to bury themselves in my hair.
Feeling heady with the power I had in that moment, I experimented eagerly, licking and sucking, taking Oliver as far back into my mouth as I could. He cursed under his breath, encouraging me, and when I took him in so far he hit the back of my throat and I swallowed against him, he uttered a long, low curse and then pulled himself out of my tongue’s reach.
“One day soon I’m going to let you finish me that way,” he promised, his face flushed and his voice a rasp. “But right now I want to be inside you.” He ducked to remove a condom from his wallet and rose again, his eyes on me as he ripped open the foil.
I slipped the packet from his fingers and gave the tip of his head one more solid lick for good measure before rolling the condom down the length of him, my insides burning with anticipation.
“You’re killing me,” he moaned, his voice like gravel grinding against every nerve in my body. I felt like a live wire, as if there was an energy pooling deep and low inside me that had to be released.
Oliver reached down, sliding a palm up the inside of my thigh, his fingers dancing lightly over the fabric of my panties, teasing and gentle, and then increasing the pressure until his fingertips were a steady pulse on my clitoris. I gasped and heard myself whimper as I shimmied around, trying to simultaneously press myself closer to him and escape the intensity.
I had the sensation that my entire body might actually explode if something didn’t happen soon, and though I was beyond words, my body instinctively knew what it needed. Oliver lifted me up then, and I wrapped my legs around him as my eyes glazed at the sight of his bulging muscles, straining against the fabric of his shirt as he lifted me like a feather onto his cock.
I held his shoulder with one hand and slid the fabric of my panties aside with the other, guiding just the tip inside me, where I could feel myself slick and wet, ready for him. I moved my hand to hold his other shoulder and he thrust up into me, impaling me as he held me in his strong arms .
“Oh God,” I cried, surprised to hear my own voice break and fragment, sounding exactly like I was seconds away from falling to pieces—and I was. With Oliver’s hands under my ass and his thick hard cock inside me, filling me totally, I had the sensation of completion, and I cried out, overwhelmed by it.
“Yes, baby,” Oliver was crooning gently in my ear. He pumped his hips, moving me up and down over his length with an easy strength that made me feel small and protected at once. I used the muscles inside me to grip his length, trying to fight for an ounce of control as he pushed into me hard, over and over again. “Good girl,” he crooned.
“Come for me, baby.” Oliver slowed his pace, sliding in and out in an erotically lazy motion, every part of me gripping him as he moved, creating a delicious friction that pushed me closer and closer to the brink.
“Fuck,” Oliver groaned, setting me down on the edge of the desk again. I braced myself with my elbows and took in the sight of Oliver’s chest, his mouth open as he ground into me, his strong arms flexing as he gripped my hips and pulled me into him. He cursed again and my head dropped back, my back arching to let him in farther, to give him more access. I wanted every last inch of him inside me, and I wrapped my legs around him again, pulling hard to take him all in, to hold him there, to hold on to that delicious sensation of fullness.
My mind had taken flight. I was no longer thinking about our meeting with MLB, or about the fact that this was my boss buried deep inside my slick wetness as I gasped and moaned for more. I wasn’t worried about whether I might be doing anything unethical, whether my plan was going to suffer, or if anyone might walk in on us in this very inappropriate use of company spaces. I just knew that I felt complete, with Oliver buried deep inside me. I was complete, and beyond that, I was happy.
I couldn’t get enough of him as I pulled my legs against his thighs, trying to pull him closer, to swallow him whole. “God, that feels good,” I moaned, both wanting to make the moment last and much too close to the edge to try to prolong things. I wrapped one arm around Oliver as he leaned over me, pulling his mouth down to mine as he began to pound into me harder, bracing himself above my head with one arm.
I gave in to an urge to reach a hand around to land on Oliver’s firm ass, and slip it around far enough to reach my fingers to cup his balls as he moved above me. My legs were around the small of his back now, and he was pounding me into my desk in a very literal way, over and over.
“Fuck, duchess,” he moaned, and he froze for a split second. I actually felt him harden inside me, his iron-hard cock turning to pure stone as he retook his rhythm, moving harder and faster than before. “Fuck,” he groaned again. “God, you’re fucking amazing, Holland,” he whispered in my ear as I moved my fingers over his balls, feeling them drawing up close to his body as his breathing increased to match my own desperate gasps. “Such a good girl, so fucking good.”
The steady pressure that had been building inside me was close to exploding, and I could feel every muscle in my body tighten in advance of the eruption I knew was coming. “Oliver,” I whispered, “Oh God, Oliver!”
And then it happened. I felt myself shatter into thousands of pieces as Oliver continued the hard pounding rhythm, each stroke pushing me higher and higher as I felt myself spasming around his taut body. And within seconds of me letting go, I felt him go rigid as he cried out, “Fuuuuuck!” He thrust into me a few more times, grunting with each movement, and then he collapsed over me on the desk, his face turned to me with a broad smile on the beautiful full lips. “You. Are. Fucking. Amazing,” he said.
I wasn’t sure I could form words, so offered him a smile instead, as I felt like I slowly came back to myself, returning to my body from a great distance.
Oliver kissed me once more, a slow languorous kiss that was both sweet and passionate at once, and then he eased himself up to his feet and returned me to a sitting position. “Welcome to your new office,” he said, grinning and looking at me from underneath those thick lashes.
“That was quite a christening,” I told him. “I hope you don’t celebrate all employee promotions this way, Mr. CEO.”
“Only yours,” he promised, kissing me again.
I spent the remainder of a very surreal week trying to learn the responsibilities of my new job. I’d still be working with the sales department, but instead of making fearful reports to Trey about the accounts I was trying to land or keep, he’d be making reports to me. It was a strange turnabout, but I couldn’t pretend to be unhappy about it. Trey and I would basically work as a team, matching potential sales opportunities with developers who could help iron out the technical aspects of applications and new implementations. It was a formal solidification of the way Oliver and I had worked together. Minus all the sex.
By Friday I’d moved my things from my cube and accepted the confused congratulations of my colleagues in sales. Pamela had been less confused.
“Totally deserved!” she had gushed, bursting with excitement as she flew into my office. “I’m so excited for you!”
“Thank you,” I said, still feeling overwhelmed. “You helped a lot, you know.”
She nodded and winked at me. “I’m sure it was all about the schematics I got for you.”
“It was,” I told her.
“Are you excited?” she asked. “Oliver seems to think the world of you.” She said it innocently, and for a minute I considered telling her everything.
“He’s . . .” I trailed off. It wouldn’t be right to tell her, and I didn’t know what I could say about him that wouldn’t reveal feelings I didn’t even understand myself.
“Let’s get a drink and celebrate soon,” she said, heading for the door again.
“Yes,” I agreed. “Oh, hey . . .” I called, and she paused in the doorway.
“How’s Kenner doing in school? How are you?”
She smiled and stepped back in. “It’s better,” she said. “He’s really happy, actually. And I’m doing better.”
“That’s good,” I said .
She left and I looked around me, feeling in many ways like I’d been dropped in the middle of someone else’s life.
When I had a quiet moment, I called Delia. We had missed our Wednesday dinner this week because of a conflict with a school event. I’d told her about the promotion, in a text and a couple of messages, but we hadn’t gotten to really talk. “I don’t even know where to begin,” I told her. “So much has happened in less than a week!” Over the next ten minutes, I told her every aspect of my encounters with Hale-slash-Oliver, and it was gratifying to be able to share with someone.
“So what happens now that you’re both back at work?” she asked.
“I don’t really know. I mean, I doubt we’ll be walking across the plaza holding hands. He doesn’t seem super concerned about keeping things quiet, though.” My mind flashed back to the way he’d taken me on my desk and a flush of heat washed through me.
“Are you dating, then?”
“We haven’t really tried to define anything yet.”
“Just go with it,” she suggested. “It’s about fucking time you let yourself be happy. Plus . . .” Her voice trailed off and she sounded thoughtful.
“Plus what?”
“You just crossed off number one. Time for number two on the Powerpuff Girls plan!”
I frowned, even though she couldn’t see it. “Don’t call it that.” There was something else on my mind. “Deel? ”
“Uh oh. I can hear your wheels clicking around over there. What’s wrong?”
I stared out my new office window at Los Angeles reaching toward the blue Pacific and felt like a jerk for being unable to fully appreciate it. “I don’t know if I can cross this one off yet.”
“You got the job. Task complete.”
“But I didn’t do it myself.” I hated that the success I’d just found was somewhat tainted by the way it had been handed to me. “It only happened because of who I know. I mean, I basically got promoted as a reward for fucking the CEO.”
“Girl, why do we do this to ourselves?” Delia sounded exhausted suddenly, her voice lowering. “Why is it that when a woman gets something good, something she deserves, she has to qualify the thing? Why do we have to pull our success apart to make sure it’s valid?”
“I don’t know, but it still feels like it came about the wrong way, like I took some kind of shortcut.”
“You worked your ass off to get that job, Holl. I watched you do it. Just because Mr. Hale-iver stepped in at zero hour and gave you a final boost doesn’t make it any less genuine.” She took a breath. “I hate putting things this way, but sometimes I think we’d be better off if we could think about things more like a dude would. You got the promotion, the new office, and the hot guy in your bed. You win. End of story.”
I let her words slide across my brain, examining their content closely. “You’re right,” I said. “It’s just hard to accept that I didn’t do it myself. ”
“You did do it yourself. And you know what else? People like to help each other. I know we don’t always believe that because of where we came from, but the older I get, the more I see it’s true. This is the way the world works—especially in business. You network and make connections—you never know when one of those connections will turn into a huge win, or when you’ll have a chance to help someone you’ve met. Don’t you dare let yourself denigrate your success just because you asked the right guy for help.”
I made a noncommittal sound, wishing my brain would believe as sincerely as Delia seemed to.
“Congratulations, Holland. I’m proud of you! This week we’ll celebrate your success.”
“Okay,” I said, feeling a little better about things. “See you at dinner.”