“We have an image to keep up in this office, Sasha, you can’t be parading around in yesterday’s attire. Either change your clothes or don’t come back.” I hear her inhale sharply, so I look up. “I mean it.”
“Nick, you’re not mad at me for last night, are you? You said you weren’t in the mood.” She gives me a pouty lip and tries to stroke the side of my face but I dodge her.
“I wasn’t in the mood then, and I’m not in the mood now.” She can’t seem to take a hint. The more I avoid her, the harder she tries.
She’s never been this clingy. That’s the reason I’ve kept her around as long as I have. I never had to worry about commitment issues with her. The way she acted in the club last night, you think I had glued her to me until I refused to dance with her.
I also hope she resolves whatever issues she has with the girl quickly because whether I like it or not, Sasha is a vital part of this mission. I can’t have her getting her feelings in the way.
I’ve never seen her react to another female that way. When I take her out for business functions, there’s never a shortage of beautiful women hugging on me or even trying to kiss me when they think they can get away with it. What makes it worse is Sasha believes Maya to be related to me.
She walks around to the edge of my desk and drops to her knees. “I can tell you are super stressed. You’ve got to be with all this stuff going on and having to send your niece in. Let me just help you take a load off. I promise I will leave after.” She reaches for my zipper.
“I’ve been jerking off since I was twelve. I think I know how to take a load off.” I push her hand away and she looks absolutely stunned.
“Ok,” she gives me another pouty grin, “but please let me know if you change your mind. No strings attached, I promise.” She stands and walks out the door.
I take a deep breath and lay my head back. I know exactly who I want to take a load off and it’s the one I need toleave alone. It’s what’s best for her and I can’t let what happened last night happen again, but god do I want it to.
It was easy watching and obsessing over her from afar. Since she’s been back, I find it almost impossible to keep my hands off her. This can’t happen. I’m smart enough to know a beautiful woman like her is going to attract lots of attention, it’s stupid of me to try and keep her under wraps knowing I’m no good for her.
I should’ve never let myself step between her and Marcus on the dance floor. Things might’ve had a completely different outcome. She could’ve stayed in her room texting him, and I could’ve remained alone on the porch—stalking her on camera like normal.
There’s only one way to fix this, and I’m not going to like it. I have to let her go out with Marcus if that’s what she wants. Even if he is a player, she needs to be able to make her own choices.
I will give him an ultimatum though—if he hurts her, he’s a dead man.
Chapter 25
Maya
“Ouch! Dammit, Squeak!” I kick the furball off my bed. Heaven forbid I move in my sleep without this little shit trying to murder my foot—that’s now bleeding.
I limp from the bed, careful not to get blood on the bleach-white bedding. Drops of blood leave a trail to the bathroom. I grab a towel and apply pressure. Thankfully, her claws only got the top of my foot and not the bottom.
I can’t imagine trying to wear shoes like I did last night with a cut. I could barely walk as it was.
Last night. The hot tub. Nick. Fuck. It all comes flooding back into my now sober mind, and I want to crawl under the sink and hide. I tried to come on to him, and while he didn’t totally shut me down, I still let him spread me open where anyone could’ve saw what was happening.
But his tongue, oh my god his tongue felt so good between my legs. There’s a reason a man is so good at doing that—he’s had lots of practice. I push the thought into the back of my mind. I’m not going there right now. I need to distract myself.
I pick up my phone and there’s a text from Nick. So much for distractions.
9:23 a.m.- Sasha will be by to start your lessons this afternoon. I have meetings all day and won’t be in until late tonight.
My heart sinks. I know he has to work, and him already being there will save me from dealing with the next day awkwardness. I don’t expect him to have feelings for me, butwhat happened last night was very intimate and I’m terrified he’s going to be standoffish with me now.
It might’ve been a one-time thing for him, but I’ll forever have the image of his naked body reflected in the mirror, the feeling of how hard he was between my legs, and the memory of him devouring me to savor for the rest of my life.
I’m so confused right now. On one hand, I want to jump up and down and shout from the roof tops that I had an intimate moment with Nick Ryker last night, and on the other hand, I know that I don’t fit in here and he probably just had a moment of weakness and gave me something to get me off his dick.
Did he actually mean what he said about hoping I would say I wanted him to kiss me? He devoured my lips with his. He seemed to enjoy everything he did to me but wouldn’t let me return the favor.
He was probably regretting what we did by then. My heart sinks again. I was foolish to think that this job would be easy, that for once in my life things would go smoothly. I banked on a few roadblocks here and there, but I was not banking on sexual encounters with my boss to be one of them.
I’ve done favors before with Trevor, my ex-boss’ son, and was able to keep things professional—well, professional being for a lack of better word. A blow and go is more like it. Then we worked like nothing ever happened. There was no chemistry there.
With Nick, it’s different. It’s like he has his own gravitational pull, pulling me into him. Not to mention he’s ten times hotter than the sun. I’m going to get burned for this, I know it.
