Temp

We’re in love.

I would walk across an ocean of broken glass for her.

I’d give my life.

She would crawl inside of me if she could and never leave. That’s the message she sends to me with her eyes right now. We love each other, goddammit.

And yet, the needs of her father might come first.

She might still fuck me over, despite loving me.

Don’t I know so well the lengths a person will go to to appease a parent? To honor them? It’s a deeply ingrained hunger we’re born with, this need for affection and approval from our makers. This whole company was built by a need to avenge my mother and father, wasn’t it? Even though, in the end, they couldn’t muster enough emotion for me to answer my phone calls. There is every chance Kaylee will forsake love to earn affection from her father.

I have no choice but to await my fate. See what she will do.

If I inform her right now that I know she’s Kaylee Hale and force her to side with me, I’ll always wonder what she might have done today. If she would have betrayed me.

Kaylee hangs up the phone and crosses her legs, that skirt tugging up nearly to her hip.

We agreed there would be no sex in the office, but my body is vehemently opposed. Everything she does makes my ball sac tighten up like a fucking drum. The way we made love in the park this morning has left me reeling. Made me almost sick for more. More. More. I could kidnap her right now, take her to some remote destination where our names and families don’t matter. I could take her in that brutal, desperate pace that leaves us both lathered in sweat and nail marks. Take her until neither one of us remembers our own names.

But this damn conflict would linger. It would hang over my head forever.

Please, baby. Choose me.

I open my desk drawer and turn on the recording device. It came installed with the desk—a tool meant to be used to record meetings. I’m using it for much darker purposes. I’m leaving it running while I go to my fake meeting, praying I don’t hear the love of my life betraying me on the other end. My computer will record every action that is taken while I’m gone and her voice will be captured thusly. I’ll know everything that takes place here in my absence. After one final hesitation, I straighten my tie and stand.

But I find I can’t talk. Not with this vise around my throat.

“Time for your meeting,” she murmurs from her desk.

When I don’t answer, she glances over and raises an eyebrow, her smile soft. Beautiful.

I nod firmly, reaching for the briefcase under my desk. “Yes,” I manage. “I should be back in an hour.” Coming around the desk, there is nothing I can do to stop myself from leaning down and kissing her. And Lord, she blooms open for me, her mouth gasping beneath mine, her legs uncrossing, hands lifting to clasp the sides of my face.

I drop my briefcase, sinking into her, my fingers spearing through her hair, the pace of my breath racing out of control, along with my heart.

“Matthew,” she exhales, shaken.

“I’ll give you everything.” I look her in the eye. “Everything.”

She doesn’t seem to take a single breath while she stares up at me, moisture clouding the gold of her eyes. I don’t give her a chance to respond, however. I only pick up my briefcase and go. Her actions over the next hour are what matter now.

Kaylee

When the office door closes behind Matthew, it takes me a few minutes to fill my lungs again. They’re totally depleted. That’s what he does, that’s what we seem to do together. Suck the oxygen straight out of the room. We’re using every ounce of it to exist around each other under the weight of feeling. Of love.

“What am I going to do?” I whisper, swiping at my damp eyes.

Turning in my chair, I look at his computer where it sits silently on his desk. No password engaged. Everything is right there. All I need to do is find some evidence that Matthew has been bleeding corporations dry financially so they will have no choice but to sell him their property in exchange for being bailed out of debt. Once I have that evidence, I’ll finally be brought into the family fold. No longer on the outside.

I stand up and approach his desk, sitting down carefully in the leather executive chair, still warm from his body. After several deep breaths, I begin going through his files. Long minutes pass while I open and close documents that have no relevance to my mission. Old pitches. Proposals. Employee contracts. Nothing here is pertinent.

Until I find a file marked Vacation Photos and I know it’s a decoy.