Jeanie

We leave the living room and head back into the entry hall. Gavino pulls me to the main staircase, but a staff member tries to direct us from the steps with hurried motions. Gavino stares him down.

“There’s a big bathroom up there, down the hall and to the left. I intend on using it.” Gavino tilts his head, eyes narrowed. “Want to tell Malcolm you kept me from availing myself of his wonderful home?”

The young guy’s jaw works and he quickly backs down. His face is pale and I can only imagine what it must be like to work directly for a man like Malcolm.

“Good,” Gavino says. “Make sure nobody follows us. She’s not quiet.” He winks, grinning.

“Gavino,” I say, not having to fake my outrage, and slap his arm. He laughs and I hurry after him up the steps, giggling stupidly like we’re really about to have sex, until we reach the top and turn down the hall.

I pinch his arm. He sucks in a breath and grimaces.

“Don’t say shit like that.” I shove him away, shaking slightly with adrenaline. “Now what?”

“Last door on the right,” he says. “Hurry. I’ll wait outside the bathroom door and pretend like I just finished fucking you senseless and left you alone to put yourself back together.”

“Right, okay.” I’m too nervous to call him a prick.

He grabs my wrist before I can leave. “Don’t be stupid,” he says quietly. “No risks. Understand? In and out.”

“In and out.”

He releases me reluctantly and I walk fast, staring all around me at the paintings on the walls, the sleek wood and glass and tile, until I reach the final door. The knob turns with a click, and I’m in.

Malcolm’s office is austere. I’m surprised by its simplicity. Fireplace with an elk skull above it, a massive desk, huge glass windows overlooking the desert, a closet on the left, and a few filing cabinets and shelves. There’s not much more, everything kept to the bare necessities, which makes it easier in some ways. Fewer places to look.

I rifle through his drawers, and just like his office back in the city, I find nothing. I open each filing cabinet, one after the next, and it’s all paper stuff. I could try to take some of it, but I don’t know what’s useful and what’s a waste, and I’ve got a limited amount of space in my bag. There’s no desktop computer to check and no laptop, and I’m panicking when I turn toward the small closet set in the wall to the left of the desk. It opens with a hard tug.

Inside is filled with networking equipment. Racks of wires, a big monitor, boxes that I’m pretty sure are servers, and a bunch of stuff I don’t recognize. But I do know what an external hard drive looks like, and there are six of them lined up next to each other, each of them linked by cables. I start ripping the cables out, doing my best not to make too much of a mess, but I’m on a clock.

I manage to free four of them and shove them into my bag when the door opens and footsteps approach.

I turn from the closet, ready with a hundred different lame excuses, panic spiking up into my chest. I can see a thousand scenarios, but only one replays again and again: Benedict finding me alone, cutting me up with a knife, and leaving me for dead.

Instead of that psycho, it’s Gavino coming at me. His face is hard and he holds up a hand, silencing me before I can ask what the hell he’s doing.

“Benedict’s coming,” he whispers in my ear and I strangle a scream. “I heard him talking to the staff. We’ve got ten seconds.”

“Shit,” I say and close the computer closet door. I turn around, panicking. Benedict’s going to search us when he catches us in here and I don’t know what’s going to happen when he finds the hard drives. Gavino won’t let Benedict hurt me, but if the two men get into a confrontation that means the whole game is finished.

Gavino moves fast. He grabs the bag from my shoulder and runs to the windows. He unlatches one, shoves it out, and drops the bag down. It lands with a clatter and I stare in horror as two of the hard drives lay on the rocks below, likely broken. He yanks the window shut again and before I can speak, he’s on me.

His hands rip my dress down. I moan as he kisses me and throws me up onto the desk. It happens so fast and with such an intense force and I can barely think. My legs wrap around his middle as his hands tease my breasts and his tongue invades my mouth, dominating me, and my heart’s a stuttering wreck when the lights suddenly turn on.

I yelp and cover my bare chest, looking over my shoulder. Gavino’s got an easy smirk on his lips, his mouth smeared with my lipstick, his hair tousled like I was pulling at it—when did that happen?— and Benedict stands in the doorway, his face grim.

“What are you two doing in here?” he asks, not moving, blocking the exit. He stares with pure, utter malice.

“What’s it look like?” Gavino cocks his head and glances at me. “You should get dressed.”

“Right.” I quickly get my dress back into position, acutely aware of Benedict watching the whole time, but there’s nothing sexual in his gaze.

I finally turn around, blushing furiously. He does not seem convinced.

“This is the second time you two have been caught in Malcolm’s office doing something like this.” Benedict’s head tilts. “It’s more than a little suspicious.”

“It’s my kink,” Gavino responds and puts an arm around me protectively. “I get off on fucking in places where I shouldn’t. And Malcolm’s office is extremely off-limits.” He shivers like he means it, and I have to wonder if he’s at least telling part of the truth.

Tags: B.B. Hamel Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net