The Boss (14 page)

He lifted a slice of roll, and I had to
physically restrain myself from snapping at it like a starving dog.
The second the cool rice and soy paper hit my tongue, I groaned
gratefully.

"I'm sorry to make you wait so long," he
said, truly apologetic. "But I wanted to have lunch with you. I was
hoping to spend some time with you this weekend, but Emma is going
to be in town this evening through Monday morning. I'd like to be
able to see her as much as possible while she's here."

My heart sank. I'd secretly been hoping he
would want to hook up again on the weekend, but I hadn't pressed.
We were keeping it casual, and I figured since I wasn't the one
going through a messy, stressful divorce, I'd let him take the
lead. Still, it wasn't like I thought he should put me above his
daughter. I swallowed before answering. "No worries. Isn't delayed
gratification supposed to be a turn on?"

"Delayed by six years?" He poured some
steaming hot sake from a ceramic carafe and handed me a cup,
clinking his own against mine before sipping his.

Are we really drinking at work?
I
asked myself. Oh well. When in Rome.

He fed me two more slices, both with
distinctly different tastes and textures. As a meal, it was better
than the salad I'd been planning on getting from the building's
commissary. As a sexual experience...

Every time he moved, he brushed against my
bare legs. When he reached past me for something, his bare forearm
grazed my thigh. The backs of his knuckles swept up my knee as he
took food from the plate. The entire process was an exercise in
frustration. All I wanted was for him to push my panties aside and
plunge his fingers into me, something he seemed not at all inclined
to do.

I noticed the plate of sashimi, and the cold
slices of ruby red, raw tuna. Then a very bizarre association
connected in my mind. "I don't know if I want you to eat tuna from
between my legs."

Neil had been sipping his sake. He choked on
it. He covered his mouth with his napkin, coughing and laughing at
the same time. I couldn't help but laugh, too, and quipped, "Was
that on purpose or something? Was this all a setup for a bad tuna
joke?"

"No!" He'd recovered from his violent
coughing, but his face was still bright red, and his eyes sparkled
with humor. "No, it was not. I forgot I was dealing with a depraved
individual. I'll try to plan our encounters with an eye for
avoiding anything you might spin into juvenile humor."

"Good luck with that." I leaned down, as his
hands came up to dive into my dark hair.
I'm so glad I left it
down today
, I thought as his mouth covered mine and his palm
cradled the back of my skull. It might not seem like it would be
terribly sexy to kiss someone who's just been eating sushi, and
okay, maybe it wouldn't be my first choice without a toothbrush,
but in the moment I would have kissed him if he'd just been eating
limburger cheese. Every "accidental" touch had set my body on fire,
and the intimacy of being so exposed to him had only ramped up the
sensations about a thousand percent. He kissed me slowly and
thoroughly, and pulled away with obvious regret.

"As much as I would like to sweep all of this
onto the floor and climb on top of you, that would create a bit
more of a mess than I would be capable of explaining when Rudy came
to our meeting at three." He brushed his lips across mine once
more, briefly, then pushed back in his chair. "I have something for
you, since we won't be seeing each other over the weekend."

He turned in his chair and grabbed the iPad
he'd lent to me before.

"There's some reading material I hoped you
might look at. I've made notes in the margins." He passed it to me,
the screen already illuminated.

I looked down. There were indeed three books
loaded in the ebook app.
The Submissive's Handbook. The Big Book
of Kink. The Dominant Mind.

"I felt that before we moved forward, you
might want a primer. Then you'd be better equipped to tell me what
you'd like to do, and what you're comfortable with." His voice was
soft and low, like a caress, and I shivered. The cover of one of
the books showed an artistic black and white photo of a woman on
her knees, her back arched, breasts high, her body held in the
position by the intricate binding of ropes. Her eyes were
blindfolded with a pale sash, her mouth parted as if in
anticipation. My pussy flooded with renewed heat at the thought of
Neil doing such a thing to me.

"I'll read these," I said, a little out of
breath from the vivid flash of fantasy that had assaulted me. I
tore my eyes away from the picture to meet his amused expression.
“Definitely.”

"I'm glad to hear it. Although, I don't
expect you to learn everything on your own. I'll be more than happy
to give you some hands-on training." He moved the plate between my
legs aside and helped me down from the desk.

"How selfless of you." I smiled sweetly at
him as he stood.

"I prefer my partners to be as informed as
possible."

The plural reminded me of something I knew I
would have to ask, eventually. I supposed I should ask it right
then. "Speaking of partners..."

"I think I know what you're going to ask." He
scratched the back of his neck, looking sheepishly away. "I know
you're not looking for a serious relationship, so please, don't
misinterpret my intention when I tell you... I would rather we kept
our sexual relationship monogamous."

Okay, not the answer I was expecting
.
Not that I minded. "I'm fine with that. If one of us meets someone
and we'd like to pursue things we can just... end this." My throat
closed up a little at the prospect. I’d just found him again; how
would I feel if Neil suddenly ended things a few months down the
road to date somebody? That would be horrible.

I pushed those feelings of insecurity aside.
I couldn't expect that he remain available to me if his needs
changed, just because I wasn't ready for something more. He
couldn’t expect the same thing of me, either. I added quickly,
"Besides, that's really safer."

"Ah, another point we do need to cover before
we go any further. I saw my doctor on Wednesday afternoon and had
some tests done, the usual, you know." He waved a hand
dismissively. "The results will be in on Monday, but I have to
apologize for not broaching this subject sooner. That was
irresponsible, and disrespectful of me." He cleared his throat and
added, "If you wouldn't mind -"

"I actually just had my yearly physical about
two weeks ago. Still haven't gotten my results, though." I
shrugged. "I assume you have much better insurance than I do."

"Yes, one of the benefits of being
embarrassingly rich is that you find out if you have syphilis much
earlier than the average peasant would." He sounded mildly
exasperated by the fact that I'd referenced his wealth again, and I
made a mental note to not bring it up anymore. I was about to
apologize, when he added, "Contraception is another concern. I'm
perfectly happy to continue using condoms. Please don’t feel the
need to – "

"I'm on the pill." I shrugged.
"Endometriosis. If we both get an A+ on our tests, I guess we could
try it without. You know, eventually, down the line."

There was a weighty silence between us, just
for a moment, and then a knock at the door interrupted us.

"Yes, one moment," Neil called, checking his
watch. "Damnit. That will be the editor... I've forgotten his
name."

"One of our editors?" I squeaked.

"Don't give anything away," he warned
confidently, as though he knew I was capable of playing this game.
He reached for a plate on the desk. "Here, take this with you, if
you're still hungry."

Put entirely off my game by the unfinished
erotic encounter, and the fear of being caught, I stumbled away in
a daze. I popped the lock as quietly as I could, but when I opened
the door, Jake stood there with a peculiar expression.

"Locked door lunch?" he asked, his gaze
dropping to the square black plate.

"I ordered a bit too much," Neil answered for
me, cool and casual as ever. He was back behind his desk, eating
his lunch as though I hadn't just been sitting in front of him with
my legs wide open. "Please, come in... Jake?"

I saw the annoyance at not being remembered
flash across Jake's face, and high-tailed it out of the room.

* * * *

I started reading
The Big Book of Kink
on the train home.

I missed my stop and had to backtrack on
another train.

Most of the stuff, I knew about already - God
bless the internet - but I'd never considered actually doing any of
it. And true to his word, Neil had added notes to the margins.
Copious notes. It was one of those that had caused me to miss my
stop.

Beside an essay about spanking, he'd
practically written an essay of his own:
Have you any idea how
many times I've jerked myself off fantasizing about you, and this?
I can still feel my palm smarting from slapping your cute, tight
little ass. The way you licked your lips before asking me to spank
you. I'd like very much to do it again.

By the time I got back to the apartment, my
blood was pounding in my veins, and I hated, hated, hated the real
world for intruding on my sex life. I opened the door and Holli
called, "Hey!" from the couch. She was watching and old episode of
Blind Date
. "There's a package for you."

I went to the little dinette set against the
wall, where a medium-sized shipping carton sat. I didn't recognize
the company that had sent it.

Frowning, I opened the envelope in the
plastic bag sealed to the outside of the box. There was a packing
slip with a personal message:
A little something to congratulate
you on the new job. Do let me know if you find a use for them.
Neil.

Maybe it should have bothered me that he was
spending so much money on me. But I love presents. Shamelessly, and
without reservation. I used my apartment key to break through the
tape on the box as Holli came to stand beside me. She picked up the
note. In a dementedly cheerful sing- song, she said, "Someone's got
a sugar daddy."

"Oh, shut up." I was grinning like an idiot
as I pulled out a black box with a picture of a makeup bag, brushes
and product arrayed around it.

"What new job?" Holli asked, looking up from
the note, her brow creased in confusion.

I was equally confused. I had no idea what
the hell Neil had sent me. Makeup? Was this some kind of test for
the beauty department? And then my eyes fell on the product
description on the box.

"Oh my god," Holli giggled. "Are those sex
toys?"

I opened the lid and pulled out a facsimile
powder brush with thick, rubbery bristles. The base twisted open
for a battery. I couldn't believe how something so funny could also
be so sweet, and so sexy.

"Yup." I laughed as I held it out to her.
"Vibrators, the lot of them. Oh, no, wait..." I dug through the
box. "No, there is also naughty stuff to put on your junk to make
it tingle."

"I need somebody to make my junk tingle,"
Holli sighed, carefully dropping the brush into the box. "Tell me
about this new job!"

That took some of the wind out of my sails.
Despite the promotion, I felt more success in my sex life than my
working life at the moment. In fact, I wasn't entirely comfortable
telling Holli the truth about my new job, now that she was already
as excited for me as if I had gotten it on my own. "Neil offered me
assistant beauty editor."

"That's fantastic!" Holli caught me up in a
celebratory hug that was almost too enthusiastic for my weary
bones. “When were you going to tell me?”

Laughing, I stepped back. "It's not a big
deal, it's kind of a consolation prize for being left behind by
Gabriella. She put me on a candidate list, and Neil doesn't feel
right keeping me on as an assistant when we've slept together. So
don't get too excited."

Holli's expression fell at my evident
disappointment. She held out her arms and hugged me. "Oh, Soph.
That probably means Gabriella was going to give you the job,
anyway. If she had stayed. And Neil is smart enough to see that."
Leave it to Holli to put a positive spin on what felt like a
falsely gotten gain. In a last ditch effort to cheer me, she
snapped her fingers and her jaw dropped. "We should have a party to
celebrate!"

Holli lived for parties. She once bought hats
and streamers to decorate for the couch's birthday, just to have an
excuse for cake. But we hadn't had a get together in a while now,
and with my entire life in upheaval, it would probably feel good to
blow off a little steam with friends.

"Fine," I conceded. "But hold off until next
Friday, at least. And don't invite a bunch of people from
Porteras."

"Fine. Non-work friends only." She frowned.
"God, you don't seem happy about this promotion like, at all."

She'd caught me. I sighed guiltily. "I just
feel like maybe Neil gave me the job because... you know."

Holli knew better than to try and push that
off with platitudes. She was an optimist, but not to the point that
she believed she could bend reality with her positivity. "Well,
you'll have to just work extra hard to prove yourself. But just to
yourself; you don't have to prove anything to Neil. Remember, no
one else knows you've slept with him. As far as everyone in your
office is concerned, you're just getting promoted, without all that
other stuff attached.

"You know you can do this job, Sophie." She
gripped my shoulders and gave a firm squeeze. "You know you're
right for this, no matter what someone else might think about how
you got the job.”

It's ridiculous how easily a hug from your
best friend can make your self-doubt vanish.

* * * *