Unable to form words, I leave him alone, walking past Jane’s empty desk again back to my cubicle. He’d said we could still work together, but I’m starting to doubt that.
While I wait for lunch to roll around, I attempt to work through a few more aspects of the design, but I hate everything.
I even venture down to Reece’s floor to scope out the newest guy in IT. It might be my mood, but he was about as interesting as the pencil holder on my desk and looked like the guy who wears the Dickie on The Big Bang Theory.
As I ride back up to my floor, I feel little hope for the rest of my day. I might as well go home sick, hit restart, and pray that tomorrow has a better outcome. The whole idea goes out the window when I see Pierce standing by my desk. His expression hasn’t changed much from earlier which leads me to expect an empty cardboard box and a security escort.
“Where have you been?” he asks when I’m within earshot. He leans against the cubicle wall, his tie slightly loosened.
“I had to run down to IT for a minute.” I rub my palms against my black trousers, nerves so high it almost feels as if I’m meeting Pierce for the first time. It’s weird how quickly we’ve gone from lovers to strangers.
“Problems with your computer?”
“Something like that.”
“Look,” he starts, “I just wanted to come over and tell you that I’m sorry for blowing you off earlier. You don’t have to make an appointment to discuss projects with me.”
I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. “I shouldn’t have barged into your office like that. To be honest, someone told me you were out of sorts this morning, and I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
He laughs. I’m not sure what to think. “The building won’t crumble if a guy has one bad day in ten years.”
“Where did you go last week?”
“I have a house in Michigan. I go there when I need to think.”
I nod, not wanting to delve any deeper. “Did you come to look at my board or do you want to talk about it later?”
“Let’s see what you got.”
My stomach ties in knots as I flip the board over. Pierce has been critical but helpful. Hopefully, the change in the way he sees me doesn’t change how he views my work.
He leans over my chair to get a better look. “I like where you’re going, but why so modern?”
The knot gets a little tighter. “I paid attention when we were in Wade’s apartment a couple weeks ago, and I tried to create somewhere he would like to stay.”
“Okay,” he says, tracing his finger along the drawn penthouse walls.
“You don’t like it?”
“It’s not that I don’t like it.” He pauses, studying it for a few more seconds. “Think about the rest of the hotel design. If you walked in front of the building or into the lobby, is this what you’d expect?”
That’s why he’s had the success he has. He thinks from every angle. “This is why you were hired for the project.”
“If the client wanted to use his style, he wouldn’t have a need for us. Our job is to hear his vision and insert our expertise. That’s what we’ve done with every room in that hotel.”
I nod, letting it all sink in. Making notes on what is salvageable and what needs to change.
“You’ve been back for a few hours, and you’re already moving in on her.”
We look up in unison, to see Blake standing there, a tight expression on his face. This morning has been so screwed up, I almost forgot about lunch. From the look of it, I’m probably going to regret it.
“Lila is my employee, and the last time I checked, working on a project together isn’t equivalent to rolling around in bed,” Pierce snaps back.
“It’s happened once,” Blake shoots back.
“She was just as much a part of it as I was.”
Blake lurches forward, but I stop him, curling my fingers around his collar. “Don’t.”
Our eyes connect, and his whole expression softens.
“Let’s go to lunch. Pierce and I can wrap this up later.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I watch Pierce walk away. This is one of those forks where the path is easy. I’ve already made my choice. One man’s heart is mine. One man holds my happiness in his hands. Even if I’m worried about the other, this is where I belong.
I loosen my grip on Blake and grab my things off my desk. Without a word, I lead us through the maze of cubicles not oblivious to all the stares. I’m the wrong type of fish to be stuck in this fish bowl.
Just before we reach the elevator, his arm wraps around my waist, pulling me into a dark room. The door closes. The lock clicks. My back is against the wall, his breath against my ear.
“I can’t do this. I can’t stand knowing that you’re going to work every day side by side with a man who had what should have always been mine.”
“You left,” I remind him. “Just because you decided our life was over doesn’t mean mine stopped.”
“I hate him.”
“I know,” I whisper, wrapping my arms around him. “Were you with anyone else? While you were gone.” I don’t want to know. I need to.
“I didn’t touch another woman. I couldn’t because all I ever thought about was you. I left hoping that some day I would learn how to be with you.”
“You already know.”
His fingers deftly work the buttons of my blouse until the tops of my breasts are exposed. His hot mouth covers me as he unbuttons my pants and slips them down over my hips, falling at my ankles.
He places his hands under my thighs to free my legs. With one arm wrapped around me, he uses the other to free himself from his jeans.
I’ve heard that having sex in public heightens arousal ten-fold, and I was never a believer.
Now, I am.
A worshipper in the religion of it, actually.
Blake spins us around, carefully laying me back against a hard, cold surface. My legs are spread wide as he impales me over and over again. There’s no lovemaking, kissing or sweet words. Every time he penetrates, he’s reminding me who he is … who he owns. He damaged me for anyone else the first time we were together; it just took him coming back for me to realize it.
Some people try to tell me he’s no good, but what’s good for them might not be good for me. This is for him. No matter how much I tell him, this is how he solidifies his place.
If only he knew how he commands my heart.
How he hugs it.
He’s my anchor. Where he goes, I go. What he feels, I feel.
I lift my hands to his sweat-soaked t-shirt, yearning to feel something more as I lose all control. His hand covers my mouth. I bite down hard on his finger to muffle my screams. He’s not far behind, grunting as he explodes into me.
He tugs my arms, folding them around his waist. His heart pounds against my cheek as I work to calm my trembling body.
“There’s no one I want if I can’t have you.” His voice is horse, his breathing heavy.
“You have me, Blake. I don’t know what else I can do to prove that to you,” I say softly, tracing circles on his stomach.
“Don’t spend your days with him.”
“We talked about this.”
“That doesn’t mean I accept it.”
For a few minutes, we hold each other, climbing off the high. It’s only then I realize we’re in the same conference room where he walked in on me with Pierce. My life has come full-circle.
I rest my chin on his chest, looking up into his eyes. “We missed lunch.”
He smooths my hair and runs his thumbs under my eyes to help mask the after-effects of sex. “I’ll run and get you a sandwich since it’s my fault we didn’t make it out of the building.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll grab a bar from my desk.”
“The hell you will. You need to eat, Lila. Take care of yourself.”
“You’re pretty bossy for someone who just got his way.”
He kisses my forehead. “Maybe someday you’ll learn, Lemon Drop.”