Illicit

Chapter Sixteen

Neither of us moved for a few minutes while I caught my breath, my head resting on his shoulder. My body hummed with the remnants of my orgasm, my soul somehow floating above me while my body remained tethered to this beautiful, confusing man.

“That can’t happen again.”

I whipped my head up to look at him, searching his dark eyes.

“It’s inappropriate.”

I laughed, then quickly covered my mouth.

He’d said that with his fingers still inside of me.

As if following my thoughts, he slid them out and I gasped at the friction, both hands flying down to grip the desk.

Okay then. Noted. I was still sensitized as fuck in my nethers.

His eyes darkened as he held my gaze, then he tucked my underwear back into place and the brush of his fingers made my body rock forward.

My knuckles were white from my grip on his desk.

“Stop. Touching. Me.” I growled the words, even though the request was the opposite of what I wanted.

The Smirker returned as he pulled his pocket square from his breast pocket and cleaned his fingers. “So sensitive.”

I clenched my teeth, closing my eyes as I tried to ignore the renewed desire burning hot between my legs.

“Tell me about the manuscript.”

My eyes flew open. His voice was behind me now, so I slid off the desk, pulled my skirt down, then turned around to face him.

Reed sat in his chair, elbows on the armrests and his fingers steepled at his chin.

Oh Jesus. I don’t think I can do this. I swallowed and dropped my gaze to the floor. He’d just given me

The

Orgasm

Of

My

Life

And now he was back to being CEO of Reed Publishing as if I’d imagined that whole thing. As if he’d been completely unaffected by the sexual tension between us. I looked up at him again, trying to read his expression. Maybe he was unaffected.

He dropped his hands to his thighs and I followed the movement, noting the serious bulge in his pants and bringing my fingertips to my lips to cover the smile trying to break free.

He was definitely not unaffected.

He sighed loudly and I lifted my gaze. “The manuscript, Ms. Blake.”

I rolled my lips together and sat down, opening my bag to retrieve the manuscript he’d tasked me with reading on Friday. I breathed deeply, trying to steady my pulse and switch back into business mode, but it wasn’t easy.

Hell, it was damn near impossible.

Beautiful, sexy as sin, and fucking hard, Cabot Reed sat across from me, and frankly, all I wanted to do was settle myself into his lap and fuck us both silly.

“I don’t know if I can do this.”

“You have to.”

I lifted my head. “What?”

“I won’t jeopardize your future, Ms. Blake.”

“I don’t…” I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”

He leaned forward, resting his forearms on the desk. “Separate the two. Professional and personal, we have to separate the two.”

I sucked in a breath. Could I do that?

I lifted an eyebrow. Not if he accosted me every time I walked into his office. My gaze dropped to the edge of the desk where I’d just been sitting while he so deliciously accosted me and there was a smear of wetness on the top. Oh my God. I swiped at it quickly, then wiped it on my skirt, instantly regretting that choice.

“No,” I groaned.

Reed made a grunt of amusement as he rose to his feet, then walked to the bar set up in the bookshelves. “I apologize for my lack of self control.”

“That seems to be a thing with us.”

He turned to face me, a bottle of seltzer water in his hand and a dark cloth in the other. “Indeed.” He paused, then added, “It’s never been a problem for me before.”

I tried not to grin like a wild banshee, but come on. What a fucking compliment, right?

He shook his head as he walked toward me, then squatted and began to clean the snail trail I’d left on my skirt. “It won’t happen again,” he said, his voice low.

I didn’t say anything, just watched his fingers work the cloth, thinking back to the way they’d worked me.

“Rylan.”

I gasped at the sound of my name on his lips and met his gaze.

“We will only do this in the Rabbit Hole. Understand?”

I nodded.

“If this is going to work, we both have to follow that rule.”

I nodded again.

“I need a verbal confirmation.” His eyes searched mine. “Did you read everything I gave you?”

“Yes.”

“Then you understand consent.”

“Yes, sir.”

His chest rose and fell on a heavy sigh. “I have some work to do myself where consent is concerned.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry that I behaved that way. I don’t know what came over me.”

Me. I came over him. I rested my hand on top of his and he pulled it away and swiftly rose to his feet.

“Okay, now that we’ve settled that, let’s get to work.”

It took me a few moments, but as soon as he began asking questions about the manuscript, we fell into our easy way of working together.

This Cabot Reed, the CEO, challenged me to dig deeper, to see more within the lines of each story I read. He began to teach me how to see the story behind the story, the feelings behind the words.

He began to teach me how to dissect and digest.

If I could keep my legs together Monday through Friday, from eight o’clock to five o'clock, I would learn invaluable information from this brilliant mind during the next eleven weeks of my internship.

And, if I could behave during the day, I had no doubt that, starting soon, I’d be rewarded greatly each night.