Steeling her guts for the altercation that was no doubt to come, forcing a bravado that she wasn’t feeling, she rolled her eyes and stomped in his direction.
She arrived at his office door, glanced inside and saw that he was waiting for her, his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned back against the front of his desk. He’d taken his suit jacket off, and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows.
“Yes?” she questioned as serenely as possible.
“Come in and shut the door,” he snapped, obviously pissed.
Son-of-a-bitch.
Maria stepped inside and shut the door, but didn’t walk any farther into the room. She tried to breathe even as she waited for the explosion she knew was about to happen.
Lifting his hand and slashing it downward, he indicated her. “What’s this all about?”
Damn. That had been quick. “I’m sorry. What is what all about?” she asked, stalling.
He shifted position slightly, not coming to his feet but not leaning back quite so much anymore. “I don’t want any shit from you right now, got it? Why the fuck are you dressed like that?”
Her spine stiffening, she asked, “Dressed like what, exactly?”
“A fucking sex siren, that’s what.”
“I’m sorry, what?” she screeched. Come on, really? Mascara and high heels? Please.
“You think it’s entirely smart to come to work showing off your goddamn cleavage like that? And what’s up with the fuck me heels?”
Maria about lost it. Her mouth flattening in lines of anger, she crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re so stupid.”
He came off the desk in an instantaneous show of fury. “You want to say that again?”
She didn’t back down an inch. “You need to get your head out of your ass,” she clarified. “How much is the Rule Corporation worth, exactly?” She spit the question out, and in two seconds flat, he was stalking toward her, but she kept talking. “So. Stupid,” she bit out. “Do you know the meaning of sexual harassment? I’m going to find a lawyer and own your fucking corporation.”
He reached her in four quick steps and grabbed her by the shoulders with hands of iron. “I’m not sure you understand what happens to women who make empty threats—”
She lifted her chin and glared. “I’m not sure you understand what happens when men let their cocks do the talking for them in the work place—”
His hands tightened into bands of steel. “If you ever flirt with that motherfucker again, so help me God—”
She kept up with the change of subject without batting an eye. “I didn’t flirt with him, but I can and will flirt with whoever the hell I want—”
“Not if I have anything to say about it, you won’t.”
“What are you going to do about it?” she threw out the challenge, ignoring the trace of heat trickling along her nerve endings and focusing only on her anger.
His fingers bit into the flesh of her shoulders. His gaze dropped to the tiny hint of cleavage that was on display and his eyes lit with impressive fire. His torso came a few inches closer, obliterating the last bit of personal space she had left. He bared his teeth, and an uncontrolled look of rage filled his features.
His eyes lifted to her lips, and he began lowering his head. Just when she thought that his lips would land on hers, he startled her completely with the downward swoop of his head. Holding her shoulders in place against the door, his mouth landed on the top swell of her breast, which was plumped up by her push-up bra. Pushing the material of her blouse aside with his jaw, his lips came back to her naked skin. He began sucking with a force that sent shooting tendrils of heat down her spine, all but wiping out any vestige of brain power she might have had left. Heat, instant and liquefying, shot through her breasts, straight to her nipples, pebbling them into hardened points.
He moved one hand from her arm down to her neglected breast, and he found her nipple as quickly as a missile finding its target. He began manipulating it in time with the suction of his lips, causing fire, all-encompassing and urgent, to land at the juncture between her thighs, softening her to a trembling mass of feminine need.
Her thought process splintered; she began to drown under a wave of lust unlike anything in her previous experience. Nothing had ever felt like this; nobody had ever felt like this. In the back of her mind, she knew she was playing into his hands and should put a stop to it. But for the moment, at least, she was unable to do anything except feel.
Maria was rudely awakened from his erotic spell by the low vibration coming from his chest, and the feel of his hand dropping to the enclosure of his pants, his intent evident.