Crazy, Stupid Sex (7 page)

Her stomach crushed in on itself, like it was a soda can Caleb had wrapped his fist around. “Can I see you in my office, Mr. Anderson?” she asked.

“Am I in trouble?”

“Of course not,” she said, ignoring the sensual shiver his words sent over her skin. “Why would you be in trouble?”

“I’m slacking on the job.”

“You’re my boss, aren’t you?” she asked, regretting the words when they came out.

“On select projects,” he said, his words heavily laden with double meaning. Dear Lord, how did everyone in the room not hear the subtext? It was enough to make her overheat. She wished she’d brought her cup of ice with her.

“Yeah, fine, in my office,” she waved her hand and headed back into the room, waiting for him again, before closing the door behind them.

“I’m having déjà vu from this morning,” he said.

“You’re a nuisance, Mr. Anderson.” Her lips twitched. “I’m sorry, I can’t say that without laughing.”

“What?”

“Mr. Anderson.
The Matrix.
”

“Okay.”

“You know what, that makes you even worse. How do you not know
The Matrix?
”

“When did it come out?” he asked.

“Ninety-nine.”

“Oh yeah, I was getting laid.”

“You’re a nuisance, Anderson,” she said again, irritation spiking through her blood stream.

“Am I?”

“Yes. You’re out there being all…friendly with my staff and they have work to do. Much like for me, a job isn’t a little game they try to amuse themselves with for a couple weeks at a time before they go back to a slothful existence of sleeping till noon and taking Jell-O shots off the stomachs of coeds.”

“You must have been at last year’s spring break event down in Puerto Vallarta.”

“I don’t want to know if what I just said was true!” she wrinkled her nose. “The point is, this is serious business to us.”

“Yes. Weaponized unicorn horns and some ridiculous space-themed TV show on repeat on all the monitors on the walls. Serious business, I get it.”

“It’s our passion, Anderson,” she said. “You get off on picking up random chicks at bars. We get off on this. More than that, we need it. It’s our livelihood and our future. So don’t come in here and screw with it. With your suits and your…your shoes and your expensive hair.”

“I didn’t come here to mess anything up.”

“No, you were here for the nooky. Sorry I ruined your plans.” She was just annoyed now. Which was kind of nice because it made her feel less stumbly and awkward.

“Oh, I’m still here for nooky,” he said.

“What?” The stumbly and awkward was back.

“That’s why I’m anywhere, Evie.”

She coughed. “You have a problem.”

“Is it really a problem if you’re totally happy with it? Though, I did tell you I’d help with the flirting stuff. And I will.”

“Fine.” She opened and closed her hands. “Have a seat. I have app crap to show you so pay attention.”

“I think ‘Unicorn Strike’ is probably more to my taste level.”

“Too bad, bitch,” she said, “you signed yourself up for this project, now you’re going to help. You’re a manwhore, you ought to be able to help me figure out just how to lay out all this pertinent info. And you can tell me if any of the tips are BS. In that regard, your role as consultant makes perfect sense.”

“I think I’m flattered. Let me see what you’ve got.”

She handed him her phone. “Okay, what I’m working on right now is some kind of interactive features for the lists so they don’t seem stagnant. But the problem with the sex tips is that everything I think of is pornographic.”

He laughed. “Really?”

“Yes, really. Okay.” She sat at her computer. “Scroll through. I’ve got the most up-to-date beta version on my phone.”

“Yeah…” he said, “I think including pictures of women licking popsicles on your blow job tutorial section is a touch overboard.”

“Well, I couldn’t put them licking actual penises. I have standards.”

He actually laughed at her. “I like it when you talk dirty.”

“This is an issue, Caleb. And it is now your job. Oversee.”

“It’s a no on the popsicles. I mean, if you’re concerned about people being offended, which is sort of funny considering the content of the article. But strange things offend, trust me.”

She leaned back in her chair. “I imagine you’re an expert at offending.” He shrugged. “I’m okay at it.”

“Any other ideas?”

“I think we should call the geek squad in for a consultation.”

“No. There’s a reason I’ve been doing most of this project on my own.”

“Are you embarrassed?” he asked, swiping his finger over the screen.

“Are you…are you perving on the animation?”

“Yeah.” He looked up at her. “Did you…did you do the art for this?”

She blinked. “Yes.”

His focus went back down to the phone. “It’s really good. You could transfer this skill.”

“To what?”

“Drawing me dirty cartoons.”

“It’s tempting. Especially considering that your general affluence likely means you could set me up for early retirement if I did something dirty enough.”

He continued messing around with the phone screen. “But you were in
Forbes.
I heard, somewhere, that you were kind of a big deal.”

“From me. You heard it from me, and the sadness of that is completely noted, just saying.”

“Okay, I’ll be honest with you. It’s going to be hard to do classed-up graphics for this.”

“So what do I do?”

“You’re over thinking. It’s not a game, right? It’s imparting information.”

“Sure. But I just think some Easter eggs would be fun.”

“I think the content is the star.”

“Well, you’re a guy.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? That for women this stuff isn’t interesting? I call bullshit, Evie. I know it’s interesting to you.”

Evie shifted in her seat and looked very determinedly at the computer screen. “Sure. I mean, obviously I’m a sexual being.”

“I like that. It sounds very elevated. And above common, sweaty, base desires like the rest of us have. Though, I know you aren’t opposed to getting a little sweaty.”

“Inappropriate workplace conversation.”

“Sorry. The lines are blurring since we’ve already discussed the merits of animated penis licking.”

Evie arched a brow and bit her lip, trying to keep from giggling like an adolescent. “That’s business.”

“I never planned on keeping things strictly business with you. Remember? I’m utterly without shame. My sole purpose of coming here was to try and lure you back into my bed. That, in a sense, is my business.”

The statement, like so many that Caleb made, should have pissed her off, and yet it just made her feel warm. And languorous. Like melted honey was spreading from her stomach out to all of her limbs.

“Yes, well, you should have consulted me on your plans.”

“The thing is, Evie, my plans sort of went ahead without even consulting me.”

“What does that mean?”

“I want you,” he said, so simple, like it was obvious. Easy to admit.

She swallowed hard. “So you said. But I don’t get…”

“I’m not the kind of guy who thinks about a woman after we have sex. I don’t really mean it that way, I do think about women after. I have nice memories of hot times. But I don’t…ache for them. I don’t feel like I need them again. And you…I couldn’t sleep Saturday night. I kept thinking about how you felt. About how good it was. I burned for you and that…doesn’t happen. And so I figured I would put myself in your path again and you would say yes because…because…”

“Women say yes to you.”

“Yeah,” he said, his lip curling up slightly. “I am a bag of dicks.”

“I don’t know if I’d go that far. You’re…entitled. But that, I guess, is what comes from having an easy life.”

He laughed, and there was something bitter in it. Something not entirely authentic. “Yeah. That’s my problem. Life’s been too easy.”

“Back to the issue of my sex graphics.”

“Yes, let us not forget your sex graphics.”

“Typography?”

“What?”

“Maybe it’s just about playing with the typography for these particular sections. Maybe I was going too elaborate. Or rather, too literal.”

“Though, nothing says you can’t go a little naughty,” he said. “People like that.”

“Okay, sure. So what if there’s a naughty and nice version? Oh! And then like…the kinkier stuff can be in the naughty part. And you can pick if you’re feeling nice or naughty and then…well, in the naughty version you can watch girls suck popsicles and read about getting bent over your desk and taking it from behind while your coworkers are only a thin, shoddily built wall away.”

Caleb froze and dropped the phone on the desk. “I see. And…which section would
you
pick? I’m asking for beta-testing reasons.”

She could see, from every taut line in his body, that this was not a hypothetical question. And she knew that the way she answered it would have a lot to do with what happened next.

Her breathing quickened, her heart pounding hard. The thing was, she wanted Caleb. Of course she did. She’d practically been aerial silk dancing in her sheets every night trying to get to sleep. And mainly she’d ended up sweaty, and horny and dragging out her vibrator.

And it had not been Benedict Cumberbatch on her mind during those late night sessions. Which made her feel a little guilty for cheating on her fantasy boyfriend—since he’d basically been the man assigned to said device back when she bought it—with fantasies of a man she’d actually slept with. And that was stupid.

But that was the state of things. Caleb was all she could think about. Caleb was all her body wanted. And why shouldn’t she have him again?

He wanted her. Hell, he’d stormed into her building to…take her. Like a marauding pirate, which…no guy had ever done for her.

Jason was more the reluctant wench who would lie there and think of merry old England while he consented to her advances. Which did not do a hell of a lot for her ego.

What was holding her back, anyway?

Probably the fact that she’d decided it would only happen once. And that Caleb was around looking to make it more than one night was…not something she’d bargained for.

And, probably, because she was a little afraid that he’d somehow tricked himself into thinking she’d been awesome in bed, and a repeat performance, in the cold light of day and sober, would prove she was more what Jason thought, than what Caleb seemed to think.

That any illusion she had of being some sort of sexual tigress would be put to rest when she and Caleb touched again—it would be like trying to start a fire in a pile of damp driftwood.

And her moment of empowerment, her sexual triumph, would be destroyed.

So that was bullshit, because who cared? This had nothing to do with Caleb and what he thought of her. He wasn’t her boyfriend. And what did some mythical triumph have to do with anything? It was only triumph if she was happy.

That was her whole problem. It was why she’d stayed with Jason. She got married to ideas, and she put them above her actual wants.

Her actual needs.

And here she was, bent on making her experience with Caleb a magic one-night deal, when she wanted more magic. When she wanted…and just wanted, because she was afraid of making a fool of herself. Afraid of wanting too much.

Well, no more.

She had nothing to lose here. She didn’t love this guy. She could demand whatever she wanted, and if he didn’t want to give it, he could march back to his cubicle and play “Unicorn Strike.”

“Me?” she asked. “I’m naughty.” Her voice cracked on the word, which sort of undermined her point. But oh well.

“How naughty? Popsicle-licking naughty or…”

She tried to swallow past her dry throat and she just felt like it ended up kind of…stuck together. “Bent-over-the-desk naughty,” she said, feeling a little dizzy.

She’d never been that kind of naughty before. She’d never been any kind of naughty before Caleb. And now she wanted to try. To have him, here and now. During work hours. With people nearby. It was the perfect time. She had a guy who’d said he’d do anything she wanted, and a list that had given her all kinds of good ideas.

She was done resisting.

“You want me to bend you over your desk?” he asked, standing, planting his hands on the hard wooden surface, his palms sliding gently over it, like he was priming himself. And her.

“I didn’t…say that…” She was backtracking. She was being a coward. “Yes,” she said. “I do.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Who gives the orders around here?”

“You,” he said, loosening his tie, “you’re the boss, last time I checked.”

“But someone has to keep me in line.”

“I see. Are you interested in transferring power?”

“You’re from the corporate offices, after all. A minion of the evil overlord of the company that paid me a lot of money to create this app.”

He tapped on his chin with his forefinger. “I suppose that does put me in charge.” She saw the moment that it all flipped around. The moment he took her request and made it his command.

He walked over to her door and turned the lock, making his way back over to her desk. “Come here.” She obeyed, rounding the desk and standing in front of him, her hands crossed and clasped in front of her, as she’d done their first night together.

She didn’t know why she was doing this. She didn’t know why she wanted it. She only knew that she did. There was a strange kind of freedom in it. In letting go and giving Caleb the power, even if it was only the power she’d given him.

But then, that was what made it a safe game. The rules. Rules she’d laid down. And she knew he’d respect them. He had the night they were in his house, completely separate from anyone else, and he would certainly do it here, in her office where she could easily scream for help.

Oh my…
in her office.

That added more fire to her arousal. Only made her hotter.

“Take those leggings off,” he said.

“I should have chosen something better than leggings to wear today,” she said, pushing the elastic-banded pants down her legs and pausing when they encountered her Toms. She flicked off her shoes and pushed the stretchy black fabric the rest of the way over her feet and onto the floor.