She shakes her head so hard several strands of . “No. Nothing. Everything’s normal. Work-normal.” She grabs her coffee and bolts.
I stand there long after she’s gone, staring at the spot where she stood, replaying the way her breath caught when I touched her. What the fuck doeswork-normalmean?
She’s too skittish. She must have found out how I feel about her. And it’s torturing her.
My gut twists again. I need to get back to my buddy right away and tell him I’m taking that job. I can’t continue making this a toxic work environment for her.
The rest of the morning passes in a blur. I mechanically answer emails and update budgets, but my mind is fully occupied with thoughts of Liz. I’ve never seen her this clumsyand nervous around me. It’s obvious she’s not interested in me the way I am in her. I’ve entered creep territory, and being around me really bothers her.
Every task takes twice as long to complete, and it’s well into the afternoon before I take my lunch break. I’m not hungry, but I need a break from my aquarium office and depressing thoughts, and the weather outside has turned from cold to frigid.
Walking past one of the fake walls the company thinks creates privacy between tables in the cafeteria, Liz’s voice, saying my name. I stop in my tracks. The tray in my hands completely forgotten.
“I can’t look at Ethan, can’t speak to him. I can’t even pretend to be a normal human around him.”
Her friend Sara’s voice follows, amused. “You’re being dramatic. This is how every workday is for you.”What the fuck? I have made her miserable for a while?I thought this was a recent development. It’s worse than I thought.
“Not like this,” Liz hisses. “Now it’s much worse.” My stomach drops.
“What do you mean by now?” Sara asks. “How isnowdifferent?” A pause. Long enough that my chest tightens. “Oh,” Sara says as if they’ve had some kind of silent communication that I can’t see. “Because of the Secret Santa thing.”What Secret Santa thing?It takes all my willpower to not bust out behind the wall and ask them what’s going on. Instead, I keep quiet, looking around the cafeteria to see if anyone’s noticing me eavesdropping, but it’s deserted except for the food staff cleaning up.
“No, it’s not that.”
“Then what’s happened?”
“I had a dream,” Liz whispers. My pulse spikes.What kind of dream?I want to shout.
“Abouthim?” Sara asks.
There’s another long pause.
“That kind of dream? Like hot-sweaty-call-me-daddy kind of dream?”
Liz groans, the sound making my cock harden. I wouldlovefor her to call me Daddy. Images of her naked ass bent over my lap invade my mind, and I almost drop the tray I’d forgotten I’m holding. Luckily I balance it in time and nothing clatters.
“Yes.” Liz groans. “Well, I didn’t call him ‘daddy,’ but it was very hot and sweaty. And now every time I see him I feel like he knows. Like it’s written on my face.”
“Was there dirty talk?” Sara wants to know.
Liz snorts. “Again, you’re focusing on the wrong part, but yes.” I’m so turned on I have to hold the tray with one hand as I adjust myself. Again I glance around the cafeteria, but we’re still the only people in this section, and the only staff in the dining area are on the other side, busy wiping down tables.
Sara laughs softly. “Liz. You didn’t do anything. It was just a dream. There’s no need to be embarrassed.”
“But I did. And there is,” Liz says, voice dropping even lower. “After I woke up. I was so flustered I couldn’t just… go back to sleep.”
There’s a beat of silence.
Then Sara: “Oh.”
“Oh,” Liz echoes miserably. “In the dream, he made me come, but when I woke up I hadn’t…you know.”
“Finished,” Sara fills in.
“Yeah,” Liz agrees. “So I got my vibrator out and…you know.”
“Finished,” Sara says at the same time as I silently mouth the same word. The world tilts. Heat rushes through me, followed by shock, desire, and something dangerously close to triumph. Not because of what she did,that is so fucking hot. The thought of her working her toy on her pussy as she thinks of me has me so hard my zipper will leave a permanent imprint.
She didn’t figure me out. She doesn’t think I’m a creep.
