“Try me,” Duke says, giving away no emotion as he delivers his threat. He takes my silence as confirmation that I won’t. “I’m going to inform Noah that the office downstairs is to be your base, and as of now, you answer directly to me.”
I turn enough to rest my cheek on the mahogany door and cool my flaming skin. “I’ll make your life hell,” I promise.
His mouth moves over my cheek to the corner of mymouth. “Angel, you already have,” he whispers, pressing harder into me. And he is hard.
“Out of interest, what floor is your HR department?” I ask, refusing to acknowledge his body’s response. Or mine. “There must be a shit ton of policies you’ve breached in the last ten minutes.”
“And I’ll be breaking a ton more,” he promises. “But speaking of lists… You should work on adding more items to the one you started back in Philadelphia.”
“Not. With. You.”
“That’s OK. I’ve been making a list of my own,” he says keeping up the pressure of his body against mine. “Would you like to hear how I plan on bending you over that conference table and fucking you? Or spreading your legs on my desk so I can eat you out?”
“Not. Interested.”
His hand slides around me and he palms my breast. “Right now, I’d settle for undoing that fucking bow and…”
He tugs at the satin tie on my blouse, but it doesn’t give into him easily. Neither will I. I can’t.
“You’re going to rip it,” I hiss.
“In which case you can wear my shirt,” he says, still working on the knot. “It’s the same one you were wearing when you were on all fours on my bedroom floor.”
The groan I try to swallow escapes as a whimper and I don’t have the strength to object as Duke loosens my blouse just enough to slip his hand inside and beneath my bra. When he rolls my already peaked nipple between his finger and thumb, it sends a jolt of pleasure so strong that Duke’s body jerks with mine.
“How many times have you thought about me fucking you?” he asks. “How many times have you played that recording we made?”
Too many times. “It doesn’t matter,” I insist. “I’ll never listen to it again.”
“Yes, you will,” he says with all the arrogance I now realize comes with the privileged life he’s led. “You’ll listen to it tonight. You’ll pump your fingers into your sweet pussy and you’ll want more.” He withdraws his hand from my blouse to press it against my stomach, pushing me against the roll of his hips. “You’ll want me.”
Heat pools in my belly and I release a whimper before I can stop myself. Duke responds by dipping his body with his next thrust so his erection presses against my ass.
He kisses the corner of my mouth. “Turn around, Grace. Don’t make me come in my goddamn pants.”
I have no intention of giving him what he wants, but I turn anyway. When our mouths collide, I tell myself I don’t want to kiss him, but my lips part and Duke plunders my mouth. He swipes his tongue across mine and I swallow a moan as our kiss deepens. Duke was the last man I kissed and I need him more than I wish I did. I shouldn’t want him at all.
Twisting my head away, I break the seal of his mouth over mine. Duke’s heavy breaths blast against my ear. “I will fix this,” he promises.
I wriggle some more to create some distance. He’s talking about fixing a problem that involves a third person. The woman he’s engaged to.
“You think that kiss changes anything?” I demand. “I hate to spoil your fantasy, but I guess your prediction was right.” I shrug like my heart isn’t shattering all over again. “The kiss… It was a bit… meh.”
I’m not sure what reaction I was expecting, but the growing smirk on Duke’s face makes me uneasy. His hand slips beneath my skirt and my stance widens before I thinkbetter of it. His fingers slide along my soaking wet panties and he applies just enough pressure against my clit to have my back arching.
If Duke keeps rubbing the way he is, I’m going to do something that I’ll hate myself for later. I say the one word that will quell the flames flickering between us. “Katarina.”
Duke’s hand stills. “What about her?”
Heated desire is eviscerated by burning fury and I slap his hand away. “What about her?”I repeat. “Will you just listen to yourself? Do you want to hazard a guess how many cheating husbands have used that line. Including mine? Katarina is a human being with feelings, Duke. She deserves better. So do I.”
Duke doesn’t stop me when I step aside to create some much-needed distance.
“You do deserve better,” he agrees. “And if we need to draw lines, fine, we can do that. But when I’m free–”
“Stop!” I say as the truth of our situation hits me like a shock of cold water. “We’ve both fallen victim to our own imaginations. The fantasy version I had of you doesn’t exist. Nor does your version of me. I’m never going to be the other woman,” I tell him in no uncertain terms. “Nor would Ieveraccept a man who’s willing to cast aside his fiancée like she was yesterday’s news.”
Duke’s jaw works as he processes what I’ve just said. “My fantasy version of you is just as principled as you are, Grace.” He moves closer and starts retying the bow on my blouse. “You’re everything I imagined and more.” Before I can scream in frustration, he continues, “But I do accept that I need to work on convincing you I’m not the asshole you think I am.”
