I closeted myself inside my office—two doors down from his—and booked Rosie a plane ticket to San Diego. I wanted her to spend Christmas with our parents. Truly, there was nothing I wanted more than to tag along with her and make it an epic family week, but one last-minute ticket was expensive enough, and I needed to be financially cautious. In any case, I was certain Vicious wouldn’t give me the time off.
Sending Rosie to the other side of the country had nothing to do with her warning last night. Right.
After I sent her a text with the surprise ticket, I sorted through Vicious’s email. I responded to requests from charity organizers, cleaned up the junk and flagged messages from investors that he needed to answer himself. His inbox was so career-focused it was almost sad. There was nothing personal except some banter with Jaime and Trent and a clipped question about the merger from Dean. I wasn’t snooping. It was part of my job description to keep his inbox in order.
It wasn’t a part of my job description to check out his Facebook interactions and read through every single exchange he’d had with a female in the last six months, but I took the liberty of doing that too because…well, because I was just hard-working like that.
I yelped and jumped to my feet when I realized he was standing at my door, staring me down like I was his breakfast.
“Trying to watch porn in the office again?” he said while I blushed. “We have security measures for that. Those websites are blocked.”
I let out a nervous laugh and brushed my hair from my forehead. He looked too good to be so evil. Vicious was in another one of his dark suits, but he’d discarded the jacket and rolled up his shirtsleeves, exposing muscular forearms peppered with a smattering of that LA sun and those scars that made my heart beat erratically.
The only thing I could think about was how we’d almost kissed last night and how I’d silently cursed Rosie while I fixed her soup for her in the kitchen after I’d had to pull away from him.
I quirked an eyebrow at him and leaned back. “Your IT people are doing a terrible job. I’ve been watching snuff all morning.”
He laughed, and his amusement looked genuine. Rare and brief like cherry blossoms in the spring. But just like the flowers, it died quickly.
“I didn’t peg you for a kink girl, Emilia.” He tucked his hands in his pockets. “Whatever floats your boat, I’d be happy to be captain.”
“Tacky.” I pretended to gag. “And now I’m ninety-nine percent sure you are a virgin.”
I was teasing him, and I didn’t care anymore. Yes, he was a damaged person, but I now knew there might be reasons for that. No, I wouldn’t ever forgive him for what he’d done to me. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t have some fun with him until I dug out of my financial mess. Might as well take him up on every single thing he offered while I could. Because that’s essentially what we were doing. Using one another.
Vicious’s eyes licked my body head to toe, slow and taunting, then landed on my face. “Have your ass in my office in ten minutes. We need to tie up a few loose ends with the merger.”
With that, he left, closing the door behind him. I didn’t have time to catch my breath before my phone rang. I answered it with a grin.
“Please tell me you’re coming with me!” Rosie exclaimed. I was glad she was feeling better, and even happier that she was so excited about seeing our parents again.
“Sorry, Little Rose. I have a ton of work and besides, I’ve wanted the new apartment to myself ever since I walked in. I’m going to put Panic! At The Disco on full blast, dance naked, eat pizza, and paint while you’re gone.” Despite a pang of sadness at not being there with my family, this actually sounded like a great idea. It would certainly top our last two Christmases, one of which ended up with me giving Rosie a half-empty bottle of perfume, though she pretended it was brand new.
“I’m not going anywhere without you, you crazy ho. Not on Christmas.”
“Rosie…” I sighed, pushing my office chair back from my desk and standing up.
I spent the next ten minutes in the bathroom, multi-tasking, trying to convince her and brushing my hair with my fingers, trying to look good. “You’re being ridiculous. I just saw Mama and Daddy. It’s been two years since you’ve seen them. Please.”
“Come with me,” she insisted again.
“I want to save some money.”
“You make a fortune!”
“Now, maybe, but who knows what’ll happen in a month or two?”
Silence fell. She knew I was right. I was still looking for another job, knowing this one was only temporary. Vicious said so himself. He didn’t even live in New York year round.
I gave her the final push. “Seriously, do you realize how long it’s been since I’ve had a place all to myself? I’ll actually hold it against you forever if you waste the ticket. It’s non-refundable. I don’t need to see your sorry face all through Christmas anyway. Go.”
“I love you,” she said with a sad chuckle.
“Right back at ya, sister.” I smiled. “Now go pack. You have a flight to catch in a few hours.”
“Okay, but did you tell Mama about Rat? I thought I’d mention I’m adopting a pet snake with him.”
“Rat?” I scrunched my nose.
“My biker boyfriend!”
I laughed. “Oh yeah, she knows you’re seeing him. Said she’d love to meet him sometime soon, and that there’s vermin in the Spencers’ attic anyway, so the snake will feel right at home.”
On my way to Vicious’s office, I desperately tried to regulate my heartbeats. What was I doing, wanting to have a fling with the man who’d ruined my life? It was inexcusable. But I wanted him, and I was tired of depriving myself of what I wanted.
I knocked on his door, as was expected of me, and rubbed my hands over my thighs, throwing a glance at the glass reception desk at Patty, who sent me a warm smile. I smiled back.
“Come in,” Vicious growled. He was standing behind his own glass desk, his palms flat against it.
“About the merger?” I clutched my iPad to my chest. I felt pretty proud about being able to form coherent sentences, considering my physical reaction to him. “You wanted to go through a few things?”
“Turn around and face the door,” he ordered, completely ignoring my question. He was still reading something on his laptop screen.
I frowned. “Excuse me? Why?”
“Because I’m your boss and I tell you what the fuck to do.” He lifted his head from the screen, his gaze piercing the thin layer of faux-confidence I wore.
His face was expressionless, but his hooded eyes gleamed. The way he looked at me, with his dark-blue irises undressing me item by item, made me want to throw myself at him, like all the other shameless girls from high school. Slowly, I spun and looked at the door, my heart galloping, filling my ears with violent thuds. I was just glad that, unlike the rest of the offices down the hall, his had only a single glass wall. The door in the center was made of solid black wood.
“Is this about last night?” I asked.
“No.”
I felt each and every one of his footsteps, shaking my core from the inside. My womb clenched, and a hot wave of lust crashed against my pelvis. In seconds, his body was flush against mine from behind, and it was warmer than I remembered. Larger. Even more intoxicating than when he was eighteen. His lips found the sensitive spot on my neck, brushing—not kissing—teasing me with the promise of something more.