And twice as arousing.
I could feel the heat building inside me again, and shivered the tiniest bit.
After we’d disposed of the trash, he unscrewed the bottles of water, handed one to me, and drank deeply of his. Then he laid down next to me, his warm, muscular frame pressed against my side.
His hands grazed my belly, gently cupped my breasts, played over the little landing strip of hair between my legs. I returned the favor, entranced as I traced the shadowy swells of his muscles beneath his brown skin.
“Turn over,” he growled.
I began to get a little worried. I’d seen just enough porno clips to be concerned about where this might be headed.
“Uh… why?”
The corners of his mouth turned up. “Just trust me.”
I wasn’t sure it was such a good idea… but I flipped over onto my stomach.
He began to caress my ass, to brush his fingers across the inside of my thighs, and to kiss the small of my back. He licked lightly from the base of my spine all the way up to between my shoulder blades, then kissed his way back down.
Aaaahhhh.
I closed my eyes and just let him do whatever he wanted. The post-orgasmic glow was still washing through my entire body, and Connor was slowly stoking it up into a rising flame again.
My brain was mostly mush at this point. I was totally in the moment, enjoying myself more than I could ever remember – and totally not thinking about what I’d just done.
Well, no, that’s not exactly right. I
was
thinking about all the pleasure and how amazing it had been.
I just wasn’t thinking about
where
I’d done it.
So his next words were like a punch to the gut.
“I bet when you came in this morning, you didn’t think you’d be having sex in the company boardroom.”
I could hear the grin in his voice, the naughty side I’d seen at play earlier.
But that’s not what hit me like a sledgehammer.
My eyes flew open and I bolted upright like I was in a horror movie.
“OH MY GOD!” I cried out, and not in pleasure this time.
Connor looked like I’d given him a heart attack. “What?! What is it?!”
“Oh my God, I can’t believe I did this!” I choked out as I jumped to my feet and gathered up my clothes as fast as I could.
He started laughing and lolled onto his back, his hands folded behind his head, like he was enjoying a lazy day at the beach.
Even in my state of panic, I couldn’t help but notice how incredible he looked – that broad chest, the rippling abs, his very large… uh, member lolling on his thigh.
“Stop. Come here,” he said, putting his hand up in the air and trying to catch my hand.
I wouldn’t allow myself to be caught. “I’m
so
going to get fired,” I whimpered as I pulled on my panties and then my bra.
“Nobody knows we’re here.”
“There are cameras!” I snapped.
He raised his eyebrows and smiled, like he
liked
that. “Reaaaally.”
“Well… not in here, but out in the receptionist area! Somebody could have seen us go in, and – ”
“And we’ll tell them we were drinking coffee. Come here,” he said, grabbing my ankle and trying to pull me to him.
I stepped away and slipped on my skirt. “It’s going to smell like – like sex!” I hissed, as though I were afraid someone might overhear me.
Then I went over and felt the floor. There was a wet spot.
“Oh God,” I moaned, and closed my eyes in pain.
“What?”
“It’s… it’s wet,” I said, barely able to bring myself to say it. “Where we had sex.”
Glug glug glug.
I looked down to see Connor very deliberately pouring out his bottled water on the carpet.
“Ooops,” he said. “Look at that. Spilled my water.”
“Cut that out!”
Connor grinned. “Where’s the woman I just had sex with? The wild and crazy one? I want her back.”
“She’s
gone
,” I snapped. “She just got replaced with the woman who realizes she’s probably going to get fired for this, and she still has three hours of reports to – ”
Oh no.
I pressed my palms to my eyes.
I still had to do all of Klaus’s crap and send it off to him.
I was already freaking out; there was no way I was going to be able to concentrate.
This was going to be a nightmare. I was going to be here all night.
Connor sighed, got to his feet, and looked around for his pants.
Even despite how miserable I was, I was able to at least take a moment’s solace in the play of shadows on his muscled body. And how other things… dangled… tantalizingly.
He pulled on his clothes. “You shouldn’t worry so much.”
“Easy for
you
to say. Your job isn’t on the line.”
“It’s a crappy job, Lily.”
“It’s the only one I’ve got.”
“You should get one you like,” he advised.
I wanted to strangle him. Here he was, advising me on a situation
he’d
created.
Well… we
both
created.
But still.
He was so relaxed, so unconcerned – so damn smug!
While he was finishing up, I washed our coffee cups in the sink, dried them off, and prayed no one would notice anything was amiss.
“Lily.”
I turned around to see him slouching sexily in the doorway, his jacket slung carelessly over his shoulder.
“What?”
He looked at me for a long moment, then shook his head. “Never mind.”
“What?!”
“Walk me down to my car?”
I crossed my arms and hugged myself, trying to keep away the panic.
I had been happier than I could ever remember just five minutes ago.
Now I was dealing with a rising tide of fear.
I had just had sex at work…
…in the company boardroom, where I wasn’t supposed to be…
…with a complete stranger I’d only known for two hours.
Not
even
two hours.
A gorgeous, charming stranger… but still.
Two hours.
On the boardroom floor.
For which I was absolutely, definitely, positively, without a question going to get fired.
This wasn’t me.
I couldn’t believe what I’d just done.
On the other hand… it
had
been incredible…
I think a little smile crept onto my face without my realizing it.
“What?” Connor asked.
I came out of my reverie and looked at him.
“What were you thinking?” he prodded.
I sighed.
“That I wish I wasn’t freaking out, because…”
I paused.
“Because what?”
“…because I was having the best night of my life.”
I probably shouldn’t have said it.
He wasn’t going to call me.
I was just going to be a story he bragged about to his ‘bros’ at the gym. The chick he ‘banged’ in some other company’s boardroom after hours.
I knew I shouldn’t have told him.
But it was true.
A smile slowly crept onto his face as he stared into my eyes.
He held out his hand to me.
“Walk me down to my car?”
We walked out to the penthouse reception area. Before we stepped into the elevator, I looked at my reflection in the glossy black of the marble walls, and tried to put myself together so I didn’t look like a girl who’d had crazy, wild sex.
I probably looked alright, but to my mind at that moment, anybody who saw me would instantly know. Like there was a blinking neon sign over my head: Just Had Sex On Boardroom Floor.
Oh God, I was going to have to do the Walk of Shame in front of Stanley, and it wasn’t even morning.
I sighed and got in the elevator with Connor.
“Still freaking out?” he grinned.
“Yes.”
“Let me see if I can take your mind off it.”
Then he raked his fingers down ever single button for ever single floor. They all lit up.
Not exactly what I was expecting.
“What did you do
that
for?!” I cried out.
“So I’d have a little more time for this.”
When they say ‘sweep a girl off her feet,’ I always thought it was an expression. I mean, it
is
an expression.
Except when it happens literally.
Which it did in that elevator.
He pulled me into his arms and leaned me back and kissed me – soft and slow at first, then more and more passionately.
As far as taking my mind off things, he succeeded.
I barely even heard most of the
dings
as the doors opened and closed in the empty building.
I wasn’t entirely sure if the butterflies in my stomach were caused by the kiss, or by the stop and go of the elevator – because even when the elevator was stationary, I felt giddy and off-balance.
Finally I realized that the door was going to open on the main lobby, and we were going to be in the middle of a lip-lock. I broke it off and pushed him away.
“We have five more floors,” he growled, and came in for another kiss.
I yielded – because I really,
really
wanted another kiss – but then I struggled out of his arms, giggling as I went, and straightened my clothes.
Just in time.
The door opened, and the empty lobby stretched out in front of us. I walked out fast, head held high, not looking back at Connor.
“Hi, Stanley,” I called out nervously – from across the cavernous lobby.
Nice. Way to play it cool, Lily.
Stanley looked up, puzzled, from behind his desk. He lifted one hand hesitantly.
Connor walked up beside me, a huge grin on his face. “Very slick. Very under the radar,” he teased me under his breath.
“Oh, shut up,” I whispered back, then turned towards the elevators that led to the parking deck.
“I’m this way,” Connor said, and gestured towards the front doors of the building.
“You didn’t park in the garage?”
“No.”
“But… there’s no street parking out front after seven,” I said, suddenly frightened for him – and imagining myself in the same situation. “They might have towed your car!”
“I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”
“But – ”
“Lily. Calm down. Just walk out with me.”
I got a hold of myself, nodded, and we proceeded to walk across the lobby. As we went, Connor pulled out his smart phone.
My heart skipped a beat. Maybe this was where he was going to ask for my number?
But that was bad – not in front of Stanley! –
…and then he tapped out a text on the screen, sent it, and popped the cell back in his pocket.
So much for him getting my number.
My heart sank.
“Night, Stan,” Connor said as we walked by.
Stanley smiled and raised his hand again.
Then we walked out of the lobby doors and onto the street.
Downtown Los Angeles is a ghost town at night. During the day, it’s a bustling metropolis with people walking through the canyons of glass and steel. Once the sun sets, though, it’s like all the pedestrians are afraid of vampires, and they mostly just vanish. (Not the cars, though. Cars are omnipresent in Los Angeles, no matter where you go.)
We stood out on the almost-deserted street. I looked in both directions, but the towing people had apparently worked their evil magic.
“Oh no, your car!” I cried out, scanning past the rush of traffic to the empty curbs.
“Quit worrying about it. I have a question to ask you.”
“But – ”
“Lily. Focus,” he said, and touched his fingers to my chin so that I had to look at him.
I suppose I should have been worried about Stanley seeing Connor make such an intimate gesture, but the warmth of his touch – and the memory of what he had done to me earlier – made me go all limp inside. I stared into his crystal blue eyes.
“Did you mean what you said earlier about this being the best night of your life?” he asked.
Oh God.
Lie, Lily – he’s just looking to inflate his ego – LIE, dammit –
“Yes,” I whispered.
He leaned forward and kissed me.
I flinched for a split second –
Stanley’s going to see! I’m going to get fired! –
and then I thought,
Screw it. This is probably the last time I’m going to see this guy.
I want to savor every last second.
So I kissed him back.
It was soft, sweet… and romantic. The whole world fell away, leaving only the two of us.
He pulled away first. As I gradually opened my eyes again, I became aware of a shape moving off to my side. A car pulling up to the curb beside us.
“Come with me,” Connor said.
“What?” I asked, still dreamy from the kiss.
“You said this was the best night of your life. So let’s keep it going. Maybe even make it the best weekend of your life. Come with me.”
Two different emotions wrestled inside me: panic… and elation.
“I… I can’t… what are you talking about?!” I asked, confused. My head was spinning.
He took both my hands in his, his skin warm against mine.
“Come with me,” he repeated, more urgently this time.
“But – the reports – ”
“Are crap. A fake test Klaus didn’t pass anyway. Forget them.
Come with me.
”
This is crazy!
I wanted to protest, but I was slowly drowning in his sparkling blue eyes.
“The office – I left everything on – ”
“Who cares? Leave it and come with me.”
I couldn’t.
I was already going to be fired for unbecoming conduct, or whatever you call it when you have wild sex on the boardroom floor.
If I didn’t get those reports to Klaus, I might as well leave a letter of resignation on his desk.
I had to finish those reports.
Those reports on a fake account…
…for a boss who belittled and hated me, and went out of his way to make me miserable…
…while the most gorgeous man I’d ever been with was pleading with me to join him.
To do what he asked, I’d have to risk throwing away my job.
A job I hated, true, but the only one I had.