“Nate,” Maya said, her voice unbearably gentle. “Victims of sexual harassment often deny that they were harassed.”
Rubbing a hand over his face, Nate grimaced. “I know. But trust me, I know what I’m talking about. I know him, okay? He didn’t even actually intend to use me that way. He’s straight. All he wanted was to scare me off into quitting and make me lose the bet. But then we got pulled into this weird game of chicken, and the rest, as they say, is history.”
She sighed. “Are you really all right, then? Really really all right?”
Nate shrugged, looking at his shoes. Shoes Ferrara had bought him.
Scowling, he toed them off. “I’m freaking out,” he admitted.
“You just said you don’t feel sexually harassed.”
“I don’t.”
“Then why are you freaking out? Why now? You said you’ve been sucking his dick for weeks.”
Nate felt his face become warm. He couldn’t look his sister in the eye.
“Oh my god,” Maya said.
Please don’t say it.
“You actually like it!”
Nate glared at her. “I didn’t like it—not at first. It was just a chore. But today I…” He trailed off, glaring at the cloudless sky outside the window.
“You what?”
Nate ran a hand over his face. Fuck, why was this so embarrassing to talk about? “I realized that it kind of turned me on—sucking him off.”
The resulting silence was one of the most awkward in his life.
“Let me get it straight,” Maya said slowly. “Sucking his dick was totally fine with you until you started liking it.”
Nate pulled a face. “When you say it that way it makes me sound dumb.”
“Because you’re a dumbass,” she said, throwing a pillow at his head.
Nate ducked. “It’s just weird, okay? I’m straight. More importantly, I hate the guy!”
Maya let out a soft snort. “Is he hot?”
Scrunching up his nose, Nate shrugged. “How would I know? I’m straight.”
His sister rolled her eyes. It was extremely annoying. “I’m straight, too, but I know a hot woman when I see one. Hot is hot.”
“You can Google him,” Nate grumbled. “Raffaele Ferrara.”
She pulled out her phone.
“Damn,” she said after a moment, looking at the screen.
Nate gave her an annoyed look. “He isn’t that hot.”
“He is. If it makes you feel better, sucking his dick would turn me on, too.”
Now that was a mental image Nate really didn’t need. Pursing his lips, he said nothing.
“So, what now?” Maya said when the silence lasted. “Are you quitting?”
Nate wanted to say yes. He couldn’t imagine being around Ferrara after what had happened. As dumb as it might make him sound, he’d never expected to get aroused from sucking his boss’s dick—it could never happen again. But…
His ringtone prevented him from having to answer.
Flinching, Nate pulled his phone out of his pocket.
Satan, the Caller ID said.
Nate’s heart started beating faster.
“Is that him?”
Nate nodded miserably and answered the phone.
“Why are you not at work?” Ferrara said.
His voice was so cold it could have frozen hell.
Nate bit his bottom lip, suppressing the ridiculous urge to apologize. “It’s almost six,” he said in the most neutral tone he was capable of. “My workday is over.”
“Your workday isn’t over until I say so,” Ferrara said tersely. “If I’m still at work, you are, too. You’re my assistant.”
“I don’t think that word means what you think it means,” Nate said. “It’s not actually a synonym for ‘slave.’”
“No, it isn’t,” the demon agreed. “Slaves don’t get paid for overtime. Get to work. Now.”
And he hung up.
Nate scowled at his phone before sighing and getting to his feet. “I have to go back to the office.”
“Seriously? Tell him to fuck off and quit.”
“Not yet. I can’t lose the bet.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Maya said, throwing up her hands in annoyance. “I can’t believe you care that much about that stupid bet.”
Nate glowered at her, deeply offended. “It isn’t stupid at all. If I win, Ferrara will have to remove the microtransactions from my favorite franchise and give me a great recommendation letter. I’ve come this far, I can’t quit ten days before I win the bet! I’m so close.”
“And what if he tells you to suck his cock again? You’ll say no?”
“Sure I will,” Nate said.
The first thing Ferrara said when Nate entered his office was, “Come over here and finish it.” His eyes were on his computer, but there was little doubt about what he meant.
Nate swallowed. “Seriously?” he said, stalling. “You told me to come back to the office because you wanted to get your cock wet?”
Ferrara still didn’t deign to look at him. “I told you to come back because I didn’t allow you to leave. Now get to work.”
Nate should have told him to fuck off. He should have; he knew that.
But his legs were already moving.
Before he knew it, he was on his knees before his boss and he was pulling his half-hard cock out. “You have a functional right hand,” he complained, licking the cockhead. Mmm. “You could have jerked off.”