Bad Behavior (2 page)

♀♂

Antonio’s was a small bistro in the heart of the city that boasted outdoor seating that wasn’t directly adjacent to the everyday foot traffic that made up Boston. Instead its iron wrought tables and chairs were placed beside a small outside oasis, trees forming a protective canopy from the sun and flowers inviting a colorful host of insect life to come and investigate.

When necessary, Justin often used Antonio’s to conduct business meetings. It was good neutral ground and the food was both delicious and inexpensive. It made the decision about where to meet with Bethany an easy one.

He had just given his order to the waiter when he looked over to see her step onto the outside terrace. She still wore her dark brown hair in the same pageboy cut he remembered and her light blue eyes were just as free of laugh lines as they had been
when he first met her. He suspected that much of her agelessness came from the fact that she was a firm believer in Botox, but he wasn’t rude enough to speculate out loud.

When her eyes landed on him she beamed, speaking enthusiastically to the host at her side as the young man led her over to Justin’s table.

“Justin Reese.” She said, looking down at him and shaking her head in mock pleasure. “It’s so good to see you.” She raised an eyebrow when he simply glared up at her in reply. “What’s this then? You used to stand when in the presence of a lady. Have you really changed so much? Or was that southern courtesy you were always going on about just a load of bull?”

Sighing he took a sip of water before he spoke. “It wasn’t bull.” His grin was lazy, “It’s just that ‘Lady’ isn’t exactly the adjective I’d use to describe you.”

Color riding high on her cheeks, Bethany nodded her head and quickly took her seat.

“I suppose I walked into that one.”

“What do you want Beth?”

He wasn’t really in the mood for pleasantries, and if she thought she’d make him sit here for an hour exchanging barbs then she was sadly mistaken. Sensing this, she waved the waiter away when he would have taken down her order, and leaned across the table.

“I heard you’re going under.”

She sounded pleased, and Justin felt a muscle jerk in his temple.

“How did you find that out?” especially since he hadn’t even known until a few hours ago.

Her shoulder lifted in a delicate little half shrug. “A little birdie told me.”

“What else did this birdie say?”

“That this isn’t something you can fix by just throwing money at it.”

That was something Justin had figured out all on his own. The only reason some of his investors had stuck with him for so long despite his age and inexperience was the fact that he always managed to come out on top. With this loss he wasn’t just losing money, but trust, and shoving money into the failed investment was about as useless as trying to staunch a leak in the titanic with toilet paper.

He needed influence, and he needed another investment. One that would make up for his losses. Something that was a sure deal so that he could gain back all of the people who had fled after they’d seen his numbers start to plummet.

The sad truth was that, handling stocks was sometimes all about how many people liked what. If enough businesses stood behind a single idea, they could make it rise from the ashes like a phoenix.

But Justin was losing support, and if he didn’t move fast it wouldn’t be long before the men and women who had backed him before began to doubt his reliability concerning other ventures as well.

“Is this why you wanted to meet?” he asked, trying and failing to keep the heat out of his voice and his hands from clenching in his lap. “So that you could gloat?”

“Of course not.” She waved away his ire as if it were nothing more than a pesky insect.

“I came to offer you a deal.”

It galled him to ask, but it couldn’t hurt to at least hear her out.

“What sort of deal?”

“Something mutually beneficial I assure you.”

“Is there a point in all of this somewhere or-?”

“Marriage.”

“No.” The word came out of his mouth before she’d even fully formed the word.

“Think of it more along the lines of a merger.” She said, ignoring the way he was shaking his head in a constant and all too visual show of denial. “As you know my father is on the Board of Directors of Jensen Medical. I have it on good authority that Jensen is preparing to join up with Hilton medical research.”

Interesting. “So?”

“So, why do you think Jensen would risk getting into bed with a relatively unknown corporation like Hilton?”

“Let me guess. One of their lab techs made some innovative breakthrough

That will change the course of medicine.”

She grinned, nice and slow. “In a nutshell.”

“What does this have to do with me?”

“Well, you need backing right now. Not only would getting in on this deal ahead of time give you that, but my father would be willing to let slip a few more…investment tips if he thought such information would benefit you. Or rather,” she paused and smiled, “us.”

Justin could feel his heart racing. Aside from the fact that her plan bordered on illegal, Justin couldn’t help but admit that this was the very thing he needed. It would solve his current dilemma, but he just couldn’t wrap his mind around the idea of having to sell himself to Bethany in order to accomplish that. 

“What do you get out of all of this?”

Because there had to be a catch. There always was with women like her.

“Your money for one. My father is rich but not quite as well off as you are. In addition to that, I wouldn’t be able to touch a dime until he died, and God knows when that’ll be. On top of that, I’d also have the benefit of your last name, and with that comes influence.”

He almost got up from the table and walked away then and there. But then he thought about all he could lose if he didn’t go through with it. All the people he would let down. This wasn’t just about him. He’d known that from the beginning, it had been the reason he’d agreed to the meeting in the first place. What she was offering wouldn’t kill him; in fact it would only benefit him in the long run. And Bethany was a clever woman, if nothing else she may be an invaluable resource down the road. If he could stomach her as a person, she may just turn out to be a good partner.

Besides, it wasn’t as if he had any other prospects lining up. He was almost 36. A little late in the game to start thinking true love and whirlwind romance. He’d missed that train a long time ago.

When he replied his words were without the emotion that made the phrasing special, but lacked none of the ceremony.

“Bethany Marcus,” he began, nodding his thanks to the waiter as the man set down his plate. “Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

Taking a sip from her own glass of water she smiled, eyes sparkling with triumph.

“Nothing would make me happier.”

He drank more than he should have that night. Justin had never been a big fan of alcohol. It dulled the senses and made rational men lose their way. But he’d already lost his, so there wasn’t much else that could go wrong. He’d done it. Sold out as it were, and there didn’t seem to be an alternative as to how to make it all right again.

Bethany Marcus was going to be his wife. He’d be stuck with her until death parted them, and that thought was enough to send any sane man to the bottom of a bottle. He made his stumbling way back to Reese Enterprises, not because he wanted to be there, but because he had nowhere else to go. It was around 10:00 pm, and most of the staff had already gone home. The only ones there to see him make his broken way to the 12
th
floor were those who had nothing to go home to.

They were just like him, and they turned away rather than speculate about what could have brought him so low. When he finally reached his office door he was surprised to see light streaming from beneath the heavy oak. At this time of night it should have been dark, especially since he’d called to send Stan home hours ago when he realized that he wouldn’t be coming back in that day.

Too busy making wedding preparations and finalizing the details of his contract with Bethany and her father. As of 3:00 that afternoon, with just the flourish of his pen and a handshake, his company had been saved. He’d gotten the information he’d needed to keep everything from going all to hell and in just three months he’d be a married man.

The reminder was enough to make him wince.

Opening the door, he stepped into his office, half expecting to find it empty. He was pleasantly surprised when he realized that she was there. Sitting behind his desk as if she owned it and reading through a stack of papers.

“Rei Donovan.” Her name was like candy in his mouth, round and sweet. “What are you doing here so late?” He grinned at her and watched in amusement as she scrambled to her feet, the papers clutched to her breasts.

“Mr. – Sir – Justin.” She stumbled over the words and her face flushed dark in embarrassment. “Hello.” She said finally, clearly determined to behave normally. “I was just going over some of your old files. Trying to get a feel for how things worked.”

His brows rose, and leaning against the doorframe he nodded his head in mock solemnity.

“Admirable.”

She blushed again and not for the first time, he found his gaze roaming over the lithe figure. She wasn’t a tall woman, but she boasted a sensual grace that caught the eye. Her eyes were a deep, dark brown framed by a thick fringe of lashes. There was a small beauty mark on the side of her face, right below her eye that gave her an old school glamour that he liked. He was as fascinated by that mark as he was by the plump curve of her bottom lip and the flawlessly rich caramel color of her skin. Her hair was a mass of curls, lustrous and dark, that fell to her shoulders and his hands curled into fists at his sides. Hungry for the feel of them. He wanted to sink his fingers into her hair, jerk her head back, and explore that mouth. It had been the only clear thought he’d had since the moment he’d met her, and now he couldn’t help but think that she was even further out of his reach now than she’d been before.

Or…was she?

This morning he never would have touched her. She was his secretary, a subordinate, and therefore off limits according to pretty much every sexual harassment class he’d ever taken. But now…now things were different.

He felt reckless, almost wild.

He hadn’t thought he’d mind it, planning his life around other people. It had always been his goal to be successful, to be influential, and to touch lives. He’d been blessed over the years to be able to do just that. His employees were like his children, his company his wife. These people, this job, was his family and when it came to protecting it he’d never felt cheated.

Until now.

Once again he’d been forced to give something up, to sacrifice his wants for the good of the many. He could never love Bethany. She was too cold for that. Even if he could grow to feel some type of affection for her, that didn’t change the fact that she’d be incapable of returning the sentiment. She’d lied about having breast cancer just to keep him around all those years ago when he’d first wanted to break things off. The only reason he’d found out any different was because he’d overheard her talking to her doctor over the phone one day.

Knowing that he’d have to spend the rest of his life with that sort of person made him view things a little differently. He only had a few months left before he had to live up to his end of the contract. A few months and then he’d be back to doing his duty. Back to living for other people. Just once in his life he wanted to do something unpredictable.

Unplanned.

Something just for himself.

Just to see what it felt like.

Why not start with a little interoffice affair?

Why not start with Rei Donovan with her wide hips and perfectly rounded ass?

She was still talking, and with a conscious effort Justin pulled himself from his inner thoughts to focus on what she was saying.

“-just doesn’t make sense.” Holding up one of the graphs she scowled at it. “Your numbers just don’t add up. It could be that I’m not doing the math right, but your return is much lower than what was projected, especially considering the deals you made this year.”

He’d stopped listening again. What did any of it matter now anyway? Yes his returns had been lower than projected. So low that the company had been spiraling towards bankruptcy without him even realizing it.

But things were fixed now.

Saved.

All hail, the conquering hero.

Justin’s smile was a bitter twist of the lips and coming fully into the room he closed the door behind him, and locked it. Rei didn’t notice. She was too busy shaking her head at the papers in her hands in rising disbelief.

“With these numbers you should have started laying off employees months ago, not hiring new people and paying for retirement packages. You even gave some of these people raises, and I don’t even want to get started on the donations.” She looked up at him and her brow was furrowed in an odd mixture of approval and reprimand. “Do you have any idea how business works? How money works? You can’t spend what you don’t have.”

He shrugged, crossing the room in a few long strides as he spoke.

“At the time, I was under the impression that I
did
have it Ms. Donovan. All the evidence pointed to it anyway. I’m not sure what files you’re looking at, but I assure you they aren’t the ones my accountants and board members provided for me.” He snorted, “I’m not nearly as incompetent as you seem to think.”

Confused now, she blinked down at the files in her hand. “Oh. Then…these must be for something else. Or maybe their examples? Dummy files even. But why would he…?” her voice trailed off and she bit her bottom lip.

That, as they say, was that.

He watched the way her teeth sunk into the plush flesh of her lip, and the rest of his common sense went right out the window. He covered the last of the distance between them in the span of a breath. Then his hands were in her hair, fingers lost in the weighty mass of curls as his lips sought and found her mouth. She was stiff at first but then softened beneath him soon enough, lips parting beneath the demanding press of his tongue. She moaned into his mouth and his hands fisted in her hair, using it like a tether to hold her still so that he could trail his lips from her mouth and down her throat. His free hand fumbling with the buttons of her blouse until, with a growl, he simply ripped the delicate material from its moorings.

She jerked against him, gasping as the cooler air of the office caressed her flushed skin. Her breasts were small enough that she hadn’t bothered wearing a bra and Justin found himself glancing down at the pert peaks of her breasts, dark nipples hardening like pebbles beneath his gaze. His mouth watered and he pushed her back, back, back, until her hips met the edge of his desk, until he could lift her onto the surface of it and watch her back arch as his tongue lapped and teased first one nipple and then the other.

Her mewling little sounds of pleasure filled his ears and he couldn’t help but sink his teeth into the turgid flesh in his mouth. Listen to her cry out as sensation shot through her at the contact. She trembled under him, tits jerking with the movement so that he punished her just a little bit more. Rolled her nipple between his teeth and laved the surface of it with his tongue. Pulling back all at once so that he could blow his breath, hot and moist, over the sensitive nub and hear her sob his name.

‘
Yes’
, he thought,
‘I like that.
’

Her sensible pants suit was I the way. A hindrance, an unnecessary addition for what he had planned. Pulling away from her torso he grabbed the waistband of her slacks and began tugging them down. Ignoring the way the buttons strained when he forced them past her hips. Her legs worked, helping him slide the pants the rest of the way down so that she could kick them aside. Her panties followed and soon after he found himself gazing down at Rei Donovan in all her naked glory

She was all wide hips and coconut scented flesh. Strong thighs and a waist that would have given the impression of an hourglass if her breasts hadn’t been so delectably bite sized. Placing his hand on her abdomen he couldn’t decide what he liked better, the way she whimpered as his fingers trailed down to slip between the lips of her pussy or the contrast of light on dark skin.

As he slipped his finger inside of her and watched the digit disappear between the ripe pink folds of her cunt, he decided that both had their merits. She was tight around his finger; he could feel her inner walls working, clamping around him until she grew used to the invasion. When he felt liquid heat dripping into his hand he added a second finger and watched her teeth sink into her lip and bliss transform her face.

It was a pleasure, watching every sensation cross her face. Her features spoke more clearly than any words could have just how much she liked what he was doing, and just how much more she could take. It was a heady thing, having this type of control over a woman. The women he usually slept with were practiced creatures. Not whores so much as they knew what a man liked to see and hear in the bedroom. Maybe some men couldn’t tell the difference between artifice and genuine enjoyment, but Justin could. It allowed him to keep a certain level of detachment between himself and the woman in question. Made it easy for his thoughts to wander to other things even as he pumped inside the unfamiliar orifice of a stranger.

Rei however, was unchartered territory and he found his pulse racing and his mind going blank as if he were a teenager with his first fuck. Her hips lifted around his hand, the heels of her feet coming up to rest on the edge of the desk so that her thighs fell wide and her pussy was on full display. Burying his fingers deep within her, he bent his head and kissed her, feather light, on the bundle of nerves that made up her clit.

She shuddered, hands clenching at her sides and he rewarded her with a long, slow, swipe of his tongue.  He felt her thighs clench on either side of his head and placing his free hand beneath the rounded globes of her ass, he encouraged her to lift her hips, grind the center of her desire against his open mouth. He lapped her up, glorying in the feel of her skin and the dancing strength of her body as she writhed beneath him. And when the sultry musk of her excitement had pushed him to his limit, he pulled away.

Rei reached for him, but he slapped her hands away. Watching the expression on her face as he reached down to unbutton the clasp of his pants. One by one he undid them, and when he reached the zipper he grabbed her hand and pulled her
forward. Pleased when her head lowered and her teeth caught the small silver zipper so that she could undo it with her teeth. As she worked on his pants he slipped off his shirt, letting his clothes fall where they may so that he could press back against her, this time skin to skin.

Her nipples were tight little pebbles against his chest, her mouth and teeth like a brand against the corded muscle of his shoulder and neck. She was so soft beneath him and all of her dips and valleys fit perfectly against the natural rises and falls of his own body. They merged together like a puzzle and when she wrapped her legs around his waist it was like coming home to slip the rigid length of his cock deep inside of her.

She was tight around him, the flavor of her desire mixing with his own pre-cum to leave them both gasping before he’d even managed to push past her natural resistance and sink the rest of the way in.

He held her hips still, watched the way her face worked as he began to thrust home. The head of his cock finding the molten core of her, the center that heralded the mouth of her womb. Watching the intensity of her face he could almost feel it himself. The stretch of muscle, the push, the open mouthed gasp that meant he’d touched the end of her. It was like performing a song. Her body was an instrument, fine-tuned and trembling beneath his touch.

He pushed deep, thrusting again and again until she lifted her hips to meet him. He found his hand resting beneath her thigh, fingers digging in as he lifted her leg so that he could get better access. Deeper access. That was all he could think of at the moment. The need to go deeper, to go harder, faster, to fuck her so completely that she wouldn’t be able to tell where one of them ended and the other began.