Crossing the Line (22 page)

He gasps and grabs my wrist, yanking me
onto his naked lap. “I love you too, Millie.” His lips cover mine, and he very
slowly and very gently lifts me up and pushes inside me. I tilt my head back
and close my eyes as he fills me. The feeling is out of this world.

“God, Millie,” he hisses and thrusts harder
but still slowly. He’s holding my hips, stopping me from going faster. The pace
is maddening. I cry out as I feel every inch of him slowly side almost all
the way out and then back in. It’s too intense. I arch my back and grip the
sides of the chair.

He leans forwards taking a nipple in his
mouth and rolls his tongue around. I feel it down to my toes – how?
– and gasp loudly. “Aden!” He doesn’t move faster like I want, but he
thrusts deeper. My knuckles turn white around the arms of the chair. Every
nerve ending in my body is alive, dancing.

I moan loudly as he holds me down and
grinds his hips in a circular motion. My blood sizzles in my veins as Aden starts
to pant harshly, gripping my hip. My heart is beating wildly, and I can’t keep
still. I struggle against his grip, losing control as I’m rocketed towards my
orgasm.

“Fucking hell, Millie,” he hisses as his
other hand grips my hip too, and I can see in his eyes he’s lost control.
Aden’s on his feet, crushing me to his chest. I whimper and cling to him, wrapping
my arms around his waist.

“What’re you doing?” Why the hell has he
stopped? I grind myself against him, and he hits the spot deep inside me.

“Sofa,” he bites out, and then we’re
falling onto the leather. He slams into me relentlessly, pinning me down and
kissing my neck. I tighten my legs around him and bite down on his shoulder,
making him grunt in my ear.

“Aden!” I mumble against his skin as I shatter
and into a million pieces.

His hips move harder, harsher and then he
stills, slamming his mouth down on mine and kissing me through his orgasm. When
he’s spent, he slumps on top of me, breathing hard.

“I wonder if we’ll ever get though one day
of work without doing anything sexual?”

He sits up, pulling me with him, and I’m
straddling him again. Not a bad place to be, I have to say. “Not if I can help
it.” Good.

“We’re doing that again,” I say, laying my
head down and sighing into his shoulder.

A low chuckle rattles through his chest.
“Whatever you say, baby.” His hands leave my hips and he holds me close,
running his fingers through my hair. “Stay at mine tonight? I love waking up
beside you.”

“Okay.”

A knock on the door makes me jump up. Aden
flinches as I pull away too quickly. Oh fabulous. No condom mess is so gross.
Usually I’m able to dash to a bathroom straight away, but this time I have to
pass someone. I don’t have long. Aden presses his mouth together as he watches
me pull my thong on carefully.

“Never again, this is messy,” I hiss. Thank
God I’m on the injection because we’ve had a few condomless incidents. Okay
toilet, I need a toilet quick.

“Amelie?” someone calls and knocks again.

Aden presses his finger against his lips,
telling me to stay still and be quiet. Are you freaking kidding me? His
swimmers are swimming in the wrong effing direction right now, and he wants me
to stay put. Shouldn’t they be going up anyway! I cross my legs and Aden
presses his fist to his mouth, laughing.

Chapter Twenty-One

After the best office sex I’ve ever had I go
home to relax and hopefully get the feeling in my legs back. Aden is going to
some boring dinner with someone his dad knows, and for once I’m glad we’re not
too public or I’d have to go too. Tonight I just want to relax.

“Hi, Mum, Dad,” I call and slam the front
door behind me.

“Amelie, for goodness sake!” Mum scolds
from somewhere in the house. Where? I look around and see no one. I don’t like
when I can’t see her, its unnerving. That woman’s voice travels. I’m sure she
was burned at the stake in a previous life.

“Sorry,” I mutter.

“Never mind. Now, I’ve spoken to the Fords
and dinner is planned for Friday night. Are you planning on going to Aden’s
after work and arriving together?” she says and appears from the living room.

I shrug. “I don’t know.” Who thinks that
far ahead? I bet she knows what pyjamas she’s wearing tonight too. “I’ll speak
to Aden, I guess.”

“I think that would be best for you to go
to his and arrive together. Make sure you take an appropriate change of clothes
to work with you.”

“Not the cat suit then?”

Mum sighs in discouragement. “I’ll see you
at dinner, Amelie.”

Looking
forward to it.

“Oh, and please remove your shoes before
you go upstairs. I’ve just had the carpets cleaned.”

“Of course,” I reply, smiling far too
sweetly.

“Why does it have to be Friday,” I whine,
slamming my handbag down on Aden’s desk. He looks up from his computer.

“Please, make yourself at home,” he says
sarcastically.

“Dinner is going to be hell. I might do
some coke before. Want some?”

He snorts laughter. “It can’t be that bad.
I don’t think you’ll need to turn druggie.”

“Can’t be that bad?” I sigh. “Have you got
amnesia?”

“You want to know what I think?”

“No,” I reply and smile.

He cocks his head to the side and smirks.
“I think you secretly love it.”

“Okay, not amnesia, but you certainly have
some type of head injury.” The list of things I love does not have dinner with
my family on it. In fact, it’s at the top of the things Amelie hates list, in
big black, bold, permanent marker and it’s protected from the possibility of
ever being erased by a dozen fuck-off-huge, angry lions.

“You’ll survive,” he mutters. “Now since
you’re here, do you think you could do some work?”

“Are you asking or telling?” He deadpans,
so I pick up my bag. “Fine, Mr Moody. I’ll be in my tiny office.”

He laughs. “Sorry. Would you like an
extension?”

I open the door and spin on my
heels so I’m facing him again. “That’s just stupid, Aden. We’ll swap.” I
close the door just in time to see his eyebrows shoot up.

Sitting down at my desk, I switch the
computer on. Having dinner tonight has put me off doing anything work-wise. I
hate days like these. I like my job, usually. My phone rings as soon as I the
screen flicks to life. It’s an internal call from Aden. “Miss me already?” I
say into the phone.

“Come back in here.”

“Can’t, my boss wants me to work.”

He chuckles. “Well we both know that’s not
happening so come in here. Please?”

“I do work, you know.”

“Yes, you did very well on your first day.”

“You bastard. I’m not coming in there so
shove it.” I put the phone down and scowl in the direction of his office. I do
work, but I know he likes to joke that I don’t. At least I hope he’s joking.
Seconds later, my door swings open. “I’m busy,” I say.

Aden leans against the doorframe with his
arms folded over his chest and the biggest grin I have ever seen. “I can see,”
he replies, nodding at me doing nothing. Hey the computer has just turned on.
“Are you mad at me?”

“Yes.” Am I?

He walks in and sits on the chair opposite
me. “You love me, though?”

“Yes.” I really do.

“Why do you hate your family so much?”

“Wow, moving on.”

“Come one, Amelie.” Full name again. He
means business. I think my issues with my family are fairly obvious. I
mean he knows me, and he knows them.

“I don’t hate them, Aden. I love my
family; I just don’t like who they are.”

“That’s it?”

I nod. “That’s it. Nothing happened. I
wasn’t neglected or beaten. They think they’re above everyone else, and they’re
not. They want me to find some rich guy and let him ‘take care’ of me. I want
to take care of myself. I’m not an idiot.” I can see in his eyes he thinks
there’s more to it. He would love to send me to a shrink to get to the real
root cause of my family issues.

“What do you think will happen when we get
married?” My heart stops. What the fuck? “Don’t look too happy about it,” he
snorts.

Um. I don’t know what to say. He’s thought
about that? “No, it’s just... Married? Aden, that’s way, way, way off. I’m
twenty-one!” I’ve thought about it, but I don’t want to be married that young.

“So if I was going to propose right now,
you’d say no?”

What? Oh God don’t propose! “Are you going
to?” I ask, and I’m pretty sure my voice is only audible to dogs. It’s too
soon. Years too soon.

Laughter burst from his chest. “No, it’s
too soon for me too. I just wanted to see your face.”

My mouth falls open. Bastard! That was not
funny. “Oh laugh it up, but I hope you know if you ever do propose I’m going to
say no. In fact, I’ll sing it and do a little dance too.”

He stops laughing, and his face turns
serious. “Marry me.”

“Fuck off, Aden.”

“That just made my day.” He laughs again,
eyes gleaming. “Anyway there are a couple of things I need you to print and get
ready to be posted. I’ll email them to you.”

“No,” I say. He can bloody do it himself
after that.

“Millie, you do know you still work for me,
right?”

“I’m fully aware of that, Aden.”

He sighs and cocks his head to the side.
“You’re such hard work.”

“So fire me. Actually, screw it. I quit.”
He blinks in shock, and I stand up. Okay I really hope he stops me right now
because I’m totally bluffing and this could seriously backfire. “You’re so
annoying and if you want us to be professional at work you shouldn’t piss me
off so much.” I walk towards the door. Oh shit, stop me! His arm shoots out,
and I sigh in relief. “What?”

“You’re being ridiculous and as I remember
it was you that stormed into my office, sat on my desk and complained about
dinner.”

“That’s not the point.”

“Of course it’s not,” he replies dryly.

“See! This is why I can’t work with you. We
annoy each other too much. You’re an arse boss.”

He grins wide, his eyes lighting up in
amusement. “Well you’re an arse employee.”

“Then you will be glad I’m gone.”

“Amelie.” He groans. “You’re the most
frustrating woman I have ever met and when you’re like this I want nothing more
than to rip those clothes off and have you over the desk.”

I’m taken aback. Well I didn’t expect that
to come out of his mouth. He steps forward, and his chest is pressed against
mine. “I’m mad at you,” I whisper.

“You overreact too much.”

“No, I don’t, I just react.” He tilts
his head down, so his face is barely an inch from mine. His breath blows over
my face lightly, and I shudder. “We can’t work together.”

His fingertips brush my hair from my face.
“Yes we can.”

I shake my head, staring into his
smouldering eyes, and I’m impressed that I still have coherent thoughts. “We
annoy each other too much, and I never want to do what you tell me.”

“So? I don’t want anyone else waking into
my office and talking at me.” At him, charming. “I don’t want a PA that will
come in first thing and make a coffee or perform any task without whining about
it.” Surely that’s all someone wants in a PA?

“That makes no sense, Aden. That’s what I
was hired to do.”

“By my dad,” he says.

“What do you want then?”

“You. Just you.”

“I wasn’t suggesting that we break up when
I quit.”

“Good, and you’re not going anywhere.” He
grabs my hips roughly, and I gasp in surprise. His lips cover mine, and he
kisses me with so much passion I feel like I’m going to combust. I should quit
more often.

I stuff a new potato into my month, avoiding
the teeny bird on the plate. What the hell is it anyway? It’s only the size of my
fist. Poor thing. It looks sad too; its head is gone but the way it is laying
in all that red wine sauce just looks desperately sad.

My parents and Aden’s are deep in
conversation. Isabel is picking at her food, looking like a teenager who’s just
had their iPhone confiscated.

I wonder if I’m going to be expected to
attend more of these mind numbingly boring dinners? I’m glad our family’s get
along, but it would also be nice if we could get a takeaway and eat on our laps
in the living room. I’d much prefer something casual.

Aden doesn’t seem bothered at
all; he’s chatting to everyone confidently. It’s almost as if he isn’t
bored too. The realisation hits me like a ton of bricks: he isn’t bored! Oh
God. Does he actually enjoy this type of thing? What does that mean for us if
he does?

“You said you didn’t want this life?” I
whisper to him when our parents are distracted talking to each other. I need to
know right now. He has told me it bores him but here he is happily chatting
away.

He frowns deeply and whispers in reply,
“What?”

“All this. You said you don’t want it.”

“Millie, this is dinner with our parents.
This is what normal people do.”

I sit up straight. “Why did you say normal
like that?” What’s he suggesting? My voice is no longer a whisper, and everyone
looks up.

Aden’s eyes tighten. “Amelie.”

“Don’t Amelie me.”

“Is everything alright?” Mum asks.
“Amelie?”

I smile sweetly though the thoughts of
murder. “Everything’s fine. Right, honey?” I ask Aden.

He grins, amused. “Absolutely, dear.” I
hate him. “Amelie was just telling me about her wishes for a big wedding right
here.” My eyes bulge. He didn’t just go there. Mum’s eyes light up. Oh fuck he
is going down.

“I do, but you said you would only marry me
if you could still sleep with other men,” I say to Aden, pouting my lip. Take
that. “Apparently it’s not cheating if it’s with the same gender, can you
believe that,” I add, talking to his parents. Beside me, I feel Aden’s horror.
Payback is a bitch. Aden’s parents look like they’re having synchronised heart
attacks.

“A-Aden,” Collette stutters.

“No, Mum.” He holds his hands up. “She’s
joking. Getting revenge.”

“Yes I am joking,” I say, backing him up.
“Don’t worry your son is all about the breasts.” Mum’s eyes widen this time and
to a point where I worry that they’re going to pop all the way out. The room
falls silent.

“Oh, things young people find funny these
days,” Dad says, laughing stiffly. “Was never like that in our day, hey,
Richard.” Richards nods, still a little in shock. “How’s the golf going? I really
should get back out there.” And just like that we’re back on safe territory. My
comments are forgotten, and I imagine that’ll last until the Fords leave. Then
Mum will turn psycho.

Aden leans over, and whispers in my ear,
“It hurts how little you know me. I’m an arse man.” I giggle into my glass of
wine. At least he found it funny. I bet the next time he speaks to his mum
she’ll be pleading with him to find someone else.

I can’t work out if Aden doesn’t want this
life or not. He says he doesn’t and he even left at one point, but he came back
and now he’s very involved. Can I be surrounded by these people and not turn
into one of them? For the last twenty-one years, I’ve done well, but I’m the
black sheep of the family. I hope I can keep my distance while still being
close.

After dinner, we sit down for more drinks.
I really do not need any more drink. The four glasses of wine I’ve had has gone
straight to my head, and I’m feeling warm and happy. I sit next to Aden on the
sofa, and he flops his arm is over the back. I like it when he does that.

“So, Amelie, you and Aden haven’t been
together long, have you?” Isabel asks, cocking her head to the side.

“Not really,” I reply. Where is the jealous
troll going with this?

“Hmm. But you’re already quite serious. You
have come a long way.” A long way from where? “I thought you were Miss
Independent and determined to go it alone.”

I sit up straight. All right, witch junior,
let’s do this. “You misunderstand me.” Aden stiffens. “What I’m avoiding is
being a high-class prostitute. I don’t want to be stuck at home popping out
children and panicking over whether I can get matching fabric for the curtains
while my husband earns the money to keep me.” And yes, I have just referred to
my mother, sisters and boyfriend’s mum as prostitutes. But high-class ones.
Isabel’s shock is animated. “Do you understand better now? I don’t need someone
to wipe my arse for me.”