The Boss (12 page)

Chapter Seven

We were in the
soft, comfy hotel bed, my head on Neil's shoulder as he lazily
stroked my hair. The only light in the suite was the fluorescent
glow of the New York night outside the window, and the pale blue
from the alarm clock's stupid, stupid face.

"It's one o'clock," I groaned. I didn't want
to leave the bed. I wanted to stay snuggled up with Neil, warm skin
pressed to warm skin, and sleep until we woke up to fuck again.

I hadn't meant to stay so late. I really
hadn't. Especially since this was technically his place at the
moment, and staying over seemed a bridge too far for our first
night. I lifted my head and rested my chin on his chest. "I have to
go."

"Right, you have work tomorrow." He grimaced
as he moved his arm. I'd been laying on it for a while. "I suppose
you've got some horrible prick of a boss who won't let you have the
morning off?"

I sat up and frowned down at him. "Is my
horrible prick of a boss giving me the morning off?"

"No." He laughed and held up his hands
defensively when my jaw dropped. "No, actually, I really need you
there in the morning. I'm interviewing someone, and I want you to
sit in. I just wanted to see your face when you thought I was
giving you the morning off."

"You asshole." I laughed and leaned down,
brushing my lips across his. I meant it to be quick, but his hand
splayed at the small of my back, and his other hand rose to the
nape of my neck. As long as I was being held there, I thought I
might as well let him kiss me thoroughly.

"Are you sure you won't stay?" he asked, but
we'd been over that between the second and third time. He really
hadn't been kidding about having the sex drive of a
seventeen-year-old. I was twenty-four years younger than him, and I
had serious doubts I could keep up consecutive nights of this.

I shook my head and forced myself to actually
get out of the bed. If I stayed much longer, I'd be too tired to
make my way home. "Friends with benefits don't sleep over. I
explained all this."

"You did, I'm sorry. I'm being greedy." He
sat up and switched on the bedside lamp. "Let me help you find your
things."

Picking up the sheet we'd accidentally kicked
to the floor, I wrapped myself in it. It wasn't that I was bashful,
but I figured the less naked we both were, the less likely we’d end
up fucking again. Neil apparently agreed, because in addition to
the flannel sleep pants, he donned the Led Zeppelin t- shirt I'd
been wearing on and off all evening.

My bra was on the steps, my dress downstairs.
I was just tugging down my skirt when a thought occurred to me.
"You still have my panties."

"Oh, do I?" He had stooped to pick up the
shoe I'd kicked across the room earlier in the evening. "Yes, I
suppose I did take them."

He was acting a bit too innocent. He was up
to something. "Can I have them back?"

"What if I said no, you can't have them
back?" He carried my shoe with him to the couch and sat down.
"Would you like to play a game, Sophie?"

"What kind of game?" I walked toward him
slowly. Once he got his hands on me, I might be powerless to leave.
My body came to full, quivering attention with every step I
took.

"I don't think it's a secret that I like to
be in control during sex." He held up my shoe and patted his thigh,
and I raised my leg cautiously. He grasped my ankle and slipped the
toe of my shoe on, then the heel. But he didn't release me. I stood
there, my foot braced against his hard thigh, the already short
skirt riding up to my hips, exposing me completely.

"I did notice," I quipped. And oh, had I
ever. The first time we'd been together, I'd assumed his dominant
nature had been about guiding me through my inexperience. Tonight,
though, he'd been just as commanding, and I was a little
embarrassed to admit how much I liked it. There was something
incredibly freeing in not having to guess at what he wanted.
Especially when it had seemed like the only thing he'd wanted was
to make me come as hard as possible, as many times as possible.

I shuddered as his fingers slipped up,
caressing the back of my calf. He seemed totally unaffected, even
as his hand travelled higher. "Have you ever experimented with
Domination and submission?"

My high hopes sank. "Yeah, I have."

"Were you the Dominant, or the submissive?"
His fingers curled over my knee, then swept under, tickling the
bend.

"One of my exes wanted me to tie him up and
do stuff to him." I shook my head. "It really wasn't my thing. It
felt like he was telling me, 'here, do all the work.' Not really
appealing."

"Understandably, if that was how it was
presented." He continued stroking, and every brush of his fingers
hitched my arousal higher. “I like to think of it as a game; for
myself, and for you. How can I make you feel and experience things
you never have? And the challenge for you lies in giving up
control, testing your own limits.”

I swayed on my feet. "If you keep doing that,
I'm never going to get out of here."

His lips tilted in a small smile. "Have you
ever been the submissive in a sexual relationship?"

"Only with you."

"Does it bother you?" His hand stilled, and
he studied my face for the answer.

Should it? I was a strong, independent young
woman, right? I wasn't supposed to enjoy having a man boss me
around. But every time Neil had given me a command in his low,
serious voice, I'd fallen apart.

"Honestly?"

"No, Sophie, I want you to lie to me. I find
communication terribly overrated." He bent his head and kissed my
knee.

I shrugged. "It bothers me less than it
should."

"Why should it bother you?" His mouth slipped
down to the curve of my calf, his hand squeezing and stroking
there.

"Because I'm not supposed to like being told
what to do by some man." I took a shuddering breath.

He raised his head and looked me in the eye.
"I think you and I are alike in that we don't worry about what
we’re suppose to do. Within reason."

That was very true, I'd give him that.

"I'm not looking for a twenty-four-seven
submissive," he clarified. "I have enough to worry about in my own
life; I don't need the added responsibility of telling you what to
do every moment of your day. Taking control during sex, some light
bondage and sensation play, that’s the sort of thing I enjoy. And
if you don’t want to try it, that won't change my mind about our
sexual relationship. I'd be perfectly happy either way. If you were
willing to explore the possibility, though, I certainly wouldn’t
object."

"Well..." I pretended to consider, letting my
knee fall slightly to the side, to give him a better view. "I'll
try anything once."

"I'm very glad to hear it." He playfully
brushed my foot aside and stood, his hand sliding up my leg, under
my skirt. He pulled me sharply to him as he pushed two fingers into
my pussy. I clenched around him and groaned. He swallowed the
sound, his lips forcing mine apart as his fingers slowly withdrew
and pumped in again. "Would you like to try something now?"

"I have to go," I giggled against his mouth.
He backed me up a step at a time, his fingers still inside me,
until my shoulder blades hit the cool surface of the mirrored wall.
He kissed me, sliding his other arm along mine, to lace our fingers
and hold my hand captive.

"You'll go," he murmured, his mouth sliding
to my jaw, my neck, his fingers still wriggling. "But you'll go
home just as you are. Naked under that very short skirt."

I whimpered as his thumb circled my clitoris
in slow, heavy strokes. I squeezed my thighs around his hand.

"And as you go, with nothing between your
bare cunt and the world, I'd like you to remember why you’re doing
it. Whom you’re doing it for.” His hand stilled, and he looked
down, into my eyes. The intensity in his gaze swept like fire
through me. He found my g-spot and pressed hard. "Remember how it
felt, waiting for me to arrive, touching yourself while I watched.
Remember that it was all for me, that when we're together,
this
is all for me."

Unbelievably, after a night of nonstop
pleasure, I still had another amazing orgasm in me. My muscles
tightened and I rose on the balls of my feet, holding him for
support. I tipped my head back, but he caught my chin and forced me
to look at him, ordering, "Open your eyes."

I did, and our gazes met as I climaxed, from
just the pressure of his fingers. I squealed and squirmed, shocked
by the magnitude of the release that suffused me with heat and
paradoxical shivers of cold.

He slipped his fingers from my body and
pressed them against my mouth. I opened obediently and sucked them
clean, never taking my gaze from his. My pulse beat so fast, I was
sure he could see it in my pupils.

"I’ll call you a car. If that’s all right?"
he asked, taking my hand and drawing it to his mouth. He kissed my
knuckles one by one.

"Well, it's that or put my bare ass on a
subway seat." I pulled away, disentangling our hands. The moment
had skirted a bit close to a line I didn’t care to think about. I
didn't want to get anywhere near intimate. At least, not
emotionally. Not yet.

Excuse me, Ms. Scaife, what’s this
“yet?”
I scolded myself.

I think Neil picked up on my discomfort.
"I'll call the front desk. It will only take a moment."

He went back upstairs, but I stayed where I
was. Getting close to a bed with him was not a great idea. My legs
trembled as I turned to check myself out in the mirror. I looked
recently fucked, no doubt about it. My lips were swollen, my eyes
bright, my cheeks pink. My hair was tangled, and my attempts to
comb through it with my fingers only made it look stringier. I’d
sweated all the curl out.

I would have no problem staying focused on
our little “game.” I already felt naughty, and I hadn’t left the
hotel room yet. A thrill ran through me. Every step I took, I would
be thinking about Neil, thinking about the fact that I was doing
something “bad,” and I was doing it because he’d
told
me to.
All the anticipation I’d felt earlier in the evening crashed over
me again. Was this how it was going to be between us?

You might be in trouble, self.

Neil came back downstairs just as I had
collected my garment bag with my work clothes, and my purse.
"They'll have a car in five minutes."

"I think I'll go and wait in the lobby." I
certainly wouldn't sit down, and god help me if I dropped anything,
but it would keep me from falling back into bed with him.

He came to my side and put his arms around
me, for a surprisingly sweet hug. "Thank you, I had a wonderful
time tonight."

"Me too." I rose on my tiptoes and kissed his
cheek. "We'll do this again soon?"

"I hope so. Oh, and bring that iPad back to
the office, will you? I have some things I'd like to add to
it."

"Will do," I assured him, and then, when I
couldn't think of any other way around it, "I'll see you in the
morning."

"Yes, see you in the morning." He grinned
almost bashfully as I closed the door behind me.

* * * *

Being with Neil had
overwhelmed me to the point that I forgot what day it was. Or was
about to be. Or technically was, since it was after midnight. I got
home, changed, scrubbed my makeup off, and crawled into bed at
two-thirty, never thinking to check my phone's alarm.

I woke to the shrill beeping at five-thirty,
and almost had to manually peel back my eyelids. Holli sat at the
end of my bed, her huge brown eyes wide above her coffee mug. She
was wearing her pink running suit over a gray sports bra. "Someone
forgot her morning commitment."

"I remember now." I sat up, wincing at
soreness in all my limbs. Thursday morning was usually our morning
to work out together, but I'd gotten enough of a workout with Neil.
"Do I have to?"

"Yes. You told me I wasn't allowed to let you
make excuses." A truly naughty smile crossed her face. "And you
have to tell me what happened last night."

Some friendships have clear-cut boundaries,
wherein all relationship talk ends strictly at the bedroom door.
That is not our friendship. I pulled on my sweats and blearily
climbed out of bed. "Give me ten minutes."

Holli and I have memberships to the
twenty-four hour gym down the block from our apartment. It's a
small facility, and one of the best things about it is that it’s
usually pretty empty early in the morning. Which might not bode
well for the place staying open, but for now, it suited our needs
just fine.

The need for privacy, for example, when
you're laying out all the tawdry specific details of wild sex with
your boss while you're also trying to get your cardio in on the
elliptical.

"No, he did not!" Holli gasped, taking a sip
from her pink aluminum water bottle. Her exclamation was in
reaction to my whispered recounting of Neil wanting to put his face
exactly where he’d ended up putting it.

"He totally said that," I made the scout's
honor sign and crossed my heart. "Remember how I used to go on and
on about the night in L.A., and how it was the best sex anyone ever
had, ever? He topped it by, like, ten." A shiver went up my spine
just remembering it. "The sick thing is, I want to do it all over
again, like right now. We had sex three times last night. He made
me come right before I left. I should have reached my yearly quota
of partner-assisted orgasms by now."

"Is he going to want to do it again?" she
asked, hitting a button on the display.

I nodded. "From every discussion we've had,
I've gotten the feeling that he wants to make this a regular thing.
And get this..."

My speech halted. I didn't know if I could
actually utter the next part out loud. I was worried about what she
would think, which was silly, considering how open she was about
kinky stuff the rest of the time. I was surprised at how much I
cared whether she liked Neil or not, and I worried she might make
some kind of judgment about him before ever meeting him.