She was in front of his chair by then, trapped between him and the desk, and she knew the expression on her face couldn’t be described as anything other than pouty.
“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”
“It’s not fine if it has you so worked up. Tell me what he did so I can ensure he’s punished accordingly.”
Vanessa smiled, huffing out an aggrieved breath.
“Why does it matter? I’m just a mid-level associate. What I think doesn’t matter.”
“It matters if I say it matters.” He crowded her against the desk, gripping her chin and tilting her face to meet his eye. “And it matters if he upset you. And if you want him punished, he will be. What my baby wants, my baby gets.”
She dissolved into giggles against his shirt front.
“Oh yeah? Since when? Do you think we might get a break after the holidays? Is there ever a point when things slow down?”
“So we can go to Tahiti?”
“Bora Bora,” she corrected. “I don’t know what the point in dating a rich asshole is if he’s never going to take me to theoneplace I want to go. Your shoe shine guy would probably be a better sugar daddy.”
“Did you come all the way up here to bust my balls for no reason? Did you just want to complain about someone without really complaining? What do you actually need?”
Vanessa pressed her lips together, unwilling to admit that shehad, in fact, been coming up to his office to engage his balls, only not in the way to which he was alluding. She wanted to lean over his desk, let him slide his cock home, and help her stop squirming in her seat. She’d had the dream again early that morning, had woken with slickness between her thighs and an ache in her core that only he could diminish. Grayson must’ve sensed her true motivation, smelled it on the air, more likely, as he gave her a shark-like grin. Sure enough, he lowered his nose to the side of her neck, inhaling deeply.
“Mmmm . . . Did you come up here just to make my cock hard, rabbit?” He buried his face in her hair, breathing her in, rubbing the silky strands between his thumb and forefinger, groaning as he did so, keeping her locked in the steel cage of his arms. “You smell good enough to eat.” His whisper made the hair stand up on her neck, a shiver down her back. “You’re making my balls ache, Vanessa.”
She gripped the front of his shirt, needing him desperately, refusing to admit it.
“Tell me what you need, babydoll.” He palmed her jaw, his hand engulfing her head, thumb sweeping over the apple of her cheek. Vanessa leaned into the pressure for the space of several heartbeats, wanting nothing more than to melt against him, before snapping herself out of it.
“I don’tneedanything,” she insisted peevishly, his sly smile causing her to stiffen. She didn’t like admitting that sheneededhim for anything, and certainly not for this.
He’d long been relocated to his executive suite by then, the glass-walled cube in front of her desk empty for several days before a senior associate moved in. The first time she’d stepped off the elevator on the upper floor, she had exclaimed over the frigid temperature, and Johanna had shrugged, tugging her heavy cardigan a bit tighter.
“I’d rather have to bring a sweater every day than listen to him throwing up all afternoon at least once a week. The cold helps with the headaches.”
Vanessa told herself that the cold air was the reason her nipples pebbled beneath her shift dress. It had nothing at all to do with the dream she’d had and the heated state she’d woken in. The restless state she wasstillin, if she were being honest with herself, which she didn’t actually feel like being at that moment. The dream was one she’d had repeatedly, owing to the full moon activities that had taken place the prior month. She disliked having it, for the previous month had beenterrible. She hated the way he’d made her feel, hated that what they’d done had been the byproduct of their argument, and the fact that it had become a recurring fantasy made her blood boil with more than just arousal.
Going to court the week of the moon was unorthodox, and most of the time, opposing counsel worked with them to make arrangements, but that month she’d not been so lucky. She had been on heat suppressants since puberty, but she’d only needed to take the wolfsbane suppressant one other time in her life, in her university days. The pills had a chalky, artificial taste going down, and she’d gagged as she’d swallowed them. Her wolf would be in agony. A different sort of ache lay in store, along with low-grade nausea and an itchiness in her skin, but she would be in court. She would remain in her human skin as the moon reached its zenith, her muscles and bones staying exactly as they were, and she would show up to court as scheduled.
He had been furious.
“I already tried to have it changed. Counsel understands, it’s their clients. They’re just being dicks because they can. It’s fine. I’ll get through it.”
“It’snotfine, Vanessa. It’s absolutely unacceptable. We’re filing an injunction and making a complaint with the bar against this firm.”
She listened as he paced and raged, citing every bit of legislation he could argue in her favor, every case that had previously been won, his annoyance redirected at her when she remained steadfast.
“I don’t want you getting involved. This ismycareer, Gray. We all have to make sacrifices; we’ve all made sacrifices before and will have to make them again. This isn’t any different.”
“I wouldneveraccept this. These are not the sort of concessions that should be asked of us,anyof us. We shouldn’t have to —”
“Maybeyouhaven’t. You,” she spat in frustration, “but the rest of us normies have to make those sorts of sacrifices. Most people don’t have daddy to call to snap his fingers and make everything work out in our favor. This case has nothing to do with you, and I don’t want you involved!”
“Vanessa, that’smyname over the door, not yours.Myreputation in our community. And I’m not going to tolerate this sort of —”
“Idon’twant you getting involved!”
Her voice rattled in the corners of the room, rising in volume and pitch until he finally stopped talking. His mouth pressed in a flat line, and his dark eyes narrowed at her until they were little more than black slits in his face. She didn’t want to have to make the accommodation, but she didn’t want him stepping in for her. She’d already known then they were the source of gossip, and it wouldn’t do to fan the flames.Like he said, his name is over the door. You have nothing except everything to lose.
