“Sometimes good requires bad.”
He nodded a few times as he stared at me staring at him. I swear he was dissecting me, like he could find every hidden answer. Like the algorithm would show him something nobody else could see.
Then he took a deep breath, and with it, he stepped back, ready to walk away.
Instantly, my body missed the tension and the proximity of him. The closeness of Cade was dangerous. I knew I could end up reliant on someone like him, and that I couldn’t afford. Not when I’d come this far on my own.
“You’re right.” He cracked his knuckles in front of me as if he was readying himself for his next words. “What’s the bad in us that will bring the good, Izzy? Is it indulging so we can get it out of our systems? Is it me firing you quickly, which would be bad but end up good for everyone in the end?”
“Don’t you dare.” I stood up ramrod straight. “I deserve to be here.”
He chewed on his cheek before running one tattooed hand over his jawline. I read the letters that were on each of his fingers as he did it.
CHAOS.
And I thought, as his smile creeped up again, I was about to witness it.
“Dare? Is there something else youdodare me to do?” He waited for me to give him permission, to step over that line. We’d danced around it for years, and I knew if we took the jump now, it’d change our dynamic forever.
“Would you even take a dare?”
“Try me.”
“I dare you to do what you want to me. What I know you’ve been wanting to do.”
He didn’t even wait a second before his tattooed hand shot out so fast, I barely saw the blur of ink as it flew to my neck and pushed me up against the wall where he held me captive as his mouth descended on mine.
He didn’t kiss me. He consumed me.
He commanded my mouth to open with his, pushed his tongue in and tasted every part he could of me. I met his kiss with the same passion, like I was ravenous for him, like I’d been starved of him for too long. I clawed at his back and moaned into his mouth as his other hand went into my shorts. I didn’t care that we were in a hallway where our coworkers might walk in, I didn’t care about my job. I didn’t care about anything but having him.
He squeezed my neck harder along with my thigh and shoved me high enough up the wall for my pussy to settle against his cock. My legs immediately wrapped around him, and I rocked my hips forward, letting my body take over. He encircled my waist with his arms and walked me back into his office, shutting the door on the way and locking it behind us.
I took my lips from his to say, “Maybe we should leave and—”
“I’m not waiting another minute for you, baby doll. I’ve had to endure your bad attitude for long enough. Now, I’m going to fuck it out of you.”
“Jesus,” I murmured. “I shouldn’t love your mouth as much as I do.”
“You’re about to love it more when I taste you.”
He slammed me down on the desk, and I moaned at the intensity of it.
No more time was given to me to prepare. He shoved my shorts down and grabbed hold of my panties.
“Hurry,” I demanded.
“Hurry?” He cocked his head, and then he straightened, stepping between my legs and towering over me. I pushed up on my elbows to see him taking his sweet time as he slid one hand up from my thigh all the way back to my throat. Leaning close, he whispered, “I’m the boss, remember? I tell you what to do and you listen.”
The instinct at this point in our relationship was for me to fight him. I swear he knew it too as I said, “If you’re the boss, try to make sure you establish that here tonight, because I might have forgotten.”
His hold on my neck increased as he pushed my back flat on the desk, his thick length pressing against my entrance. “Breathe when you’re told, dollface or you’ll pass out.”
“What? Like I’d forget—” His grasp completely cut off my oxygen—he didn’t waste time warming me up to the idea—as his other hand worked my clit in earnest.
Instantly, the fear of not breathing kicked my adrenaline into gear while I simultaneously writhed against him. I’d never experienced pleasure with the fear so acutely. I tried to cling to rationality and told myself this wasn’t special. It was simply the thrill of hooking up with my boss, the guy I’d lusted over for so long.
I was riding his hand, lost in my desire for him, holding his wrist for leverage, not paying attention to the lifeline that was breathing.