Authors: Jade Allen
Suddenly she was
pulling back, and Damian felt like he’d been hit by a truck. He was gasping
slightly, not caring that the bartender was staring.
“Sorry,” Becca was
saying as she tugged on her skirt. “Sorry. Oh god—”
She hopped down from
her stool and wobbled toward the door, hooking her purse under her arm as she
wrenched the door open.
Damian closed his tab
out and ran after her, hoping he wasn’t too late. He was nearly as drunk as she
was, but he spotted her in the parking lot as she was walking toward the bus
station.
“Becca!”
Amazingly, she
stopped. Damian ran until he caught up with her, and was alarmed to see that
her eyes were swimming with tears.
“I don’t do that
anymore,” she said softly. “I don’t go home with pretty boys on the first night
because they buy me drinks—not anymore.”
“Then don’t,” Damian
said earnestly. “I’m not asking you to.”
Becca looked
suspicious.
“Really,” he
continued. “I’m not. Becca, you’re beautiful, but that’s not what I want in a woman.
I want strength, intelligence, humor…” Damian paused, dropping his eyes. When
he pulled them up again, he took a chance and grabbed hold of one of her soft,
warm hands. “Becca, I want you, and I want to get to know you more, if you’ll
let me. And I know you feel the same about me…I can see it. I can feel it.”
Becca was watching him
silently, her eyes unreadable. Damian thought she might walk away, or even
laugh in his face or slap him—but she smiled, and it was like the sun slipping
out to burn away the clouds.
“Okay,” she said.
“Give me your phone. I’ll put my number in it.”
****
“Mr. Wyles? Mr.
Wyles?”
Damian looked up to
find Alexis standing over him, a look of concern on her face. “Sorry?”
“I asked if you wanted
lunch?” Alexis repeated. “Something from the bakery—”
“No,” he cut in,
smiling. “That’s fine, thank you.”
Alexis hesitated, but
she backed away, nodding. It wasn’t the first time in the last four weeks she’d
found him daydreaming, and it wouldn’t be the last—not if he kept seeing Becca
as frequently as he did. Hell, even if he stopped seeing her, he’d probably
continue to think about her uninterrupted until the day he died, because
nothing on Earth was better than being with her.
It wasn’t an
overstatement or a delusion. Spending time with Becca made him happier than
anything had in years, and it showed. He was more productive while he was
working, but when he wasn’t, he was reliving the previous night’s date or heavy
physical encounter with eyes wide open, sometimes even with people around.
Becca continued to
keep sex off the table, but Damian was more than happy with where they were at
presently. She really was the most striking woman he’d ever seen, and though
she was small, she was strong and passionate and seemed as enthralled with him and
he was with her. Because it sometimes took her an hour to get to his place, he
sent a car for her and sent one back so she wouldn’t worry about falling
asleep. They both worked early and had long hours most days, so their few hours
were either languorously sensual or crammed with activity.
Their first week, he
took her to Chinatown and they had a private dinner on the rooftop of his
favorite restaurant. The second week, he flew her to New York to see her
favorite play on Broadway. They stayed in a swanky hotel on Fifth Avenue where
he’d spent all night exploring her supple body with his mouth and tongue,
kissing over her pale nipples and nibbling the mounds of her breasts as his
fingers ran over the slowly dampening triangle of cloth between her legs. While
he kissed her, she tugged on his throbbing shaft while he struggled to keep
from exploding, not wanting the moment to end before it had to. She only let
him caress her until she got close, and when his breath came too fast, she made
him back off. Still, they lay together for hours, and by the third week, Damian
was sending Becca roses at work every day.
His own employees were
giving him grief for it, but he didn’t mind—until something happened to bring
him under a microscope.
“Have you seen this?”
Victor, his security
expert, was showing him reports of a data breach. Their software, which was
supposed to protect sensitive information and alert its users of credit
changes, had somehow glitched and made thousands of customers vulnerable.
Damian stared at the report helplessly, trying to understand how this could
have happened. He triple checked all the code himself before it was
implemented, and it was run through security walls. They’d done tests with the
best hackers available, and everything had checked out.
This isn’t possible,
he thought, even as his eyes told him it was.
It’s not happening.
“This is bad, boss,”
Miles said gravely. “People are upset. They feel exposed, upset, like we messed
up—and I feel like we did.”
Gary was nodding, but
his eyes had a nasty glint. “Not trying to point fingers, but you’ve been very
strict with who’s allowed to go over that code before it was implemented. Maybe
if you hadn’t…”
Damian bristled, rage
flashing through him. “What are you saying, Gary? That you’re a better coder
than I am?”
Gary shrank back into
his chair, but his eyes remained defiant. “I’m just saying. You’ve been
understandably distracted. We dropped the ball on this one, because you always
say we’re a team—but maybe we wouldn’t have dropped it if we were
more
of a team. Do you know what I’m saying?”
Damian did, but he
didn’t respond. The rest of the men sensed his anger and fell silent, dropping
their eyes one by one.
“Get back to work,”
Damian said coldly. “All of you.”
The shock of their
faces was worth his sudden change in tone. He watched them stand and start to
filter out, but their motion was stopped by Victor standing and raising his
hand.
“Just got word,” he
said, peering at his tablet. “I ran a sweep, because I don’t think you’d make a
lazy mistake,” he shot a look at Gary, “and it paid off. Looks like we have
evidence of a bug being planted from our side that weakened our defenses, then
the hack occurred.”
Damian swallowed, his
heartbeat speeding up. “Wait. You mean…it was an attack? And someone planted
the bug from within
our
systems?”
Victor nodded, then
frowned as he realized the implications. His eyes swept over the men, and
smiled a predatory smile that held no warmth.
“Looks like we’ll be
working late tonight, boys.”
Damian sat in his
office and called Becca from his cellphone.
“Hello?”
“Hey,” he said. “I
have bad news.”
“No!” Becca said.
“You’re cancelling on me?”
“Yeah.” Damian sighed.
“It looked like we were hacked, and someone helped them from our side.”
Becca gasped. “What?
One of your employees?”
“Probably a higher
up,” he confirmed. “Victor is doing some questioning now, and he’s also trying
to find out more about the bug.”
Becca made a
thoughtful noise. “Hey, why don’t I come visit
you
? You sound super
stressed. I bet I can help with that.”
Damian laughed.
“Becca, I highly doubt what you’ll do to me will
relieve
pressure.”
He could hear the
smile in her voice as she spoke again. “Are you sure about that?”
Damian started to
respond, but her velvet tones made him pause. “Are you saying you want to…”
“Yeah,” Becca chirped.
Damian let out a
startled laugh. “Here? Now?”
“No time like the
present,” she confirmed. “I’m putting on my shoes now. But no pants,” she said
softly.
The front of his
slacks were straining at the zipper when he hung up, and Damian passed a hand
over his erection, his mind buzzing with thoughts. He had no idea what had made
Becca decide she was ready to have sex with him, but he was incredibly grateful
she was finally comfortable enough. She used sex as an ice breaker in college,
she explained, but she tried to make it more personal now.
****
Damian heard her lock
the outer door behind her as she came in, and his heart leapt to his throat.
He’d taken off his shirt and belt in anticipation of her arrival, and he was
standing when she strode in, red hair floating around her like a burning halo.
She was wearing his own tan-colored trench coat belted tightly around her
waist, and her eyes were alive with fire as she looked into his eyes.
Becca unwound the belt
and let the coat fall to the floor, revealing her naked body in all its glory.
Her tear drop shaped breasts swung as she stepped toward him, and he started to
push his pants to the floor just as she reached his side of the desk.
Becca met his eyes and
smiled, flashing him her dimples as she stretched up on tip toes to wrap her
arms around him. Her stomach brushed his erection, and she giggled. “Someone’s
happy to see me.”
Damian slid his palms
against the warm curve of her ass and pulled her soft body against his. “I’m
always happy to see you, Becca. I want you, and I love you.”
Her mouth fell open,
and Damian realized he’d never said it aloud before now. He wondered if he
should take it back, but he couldn’t do it without feeling like he was lying,
so he waited for her to speak with his heart hammering in his chest. There was
fear in her eyes, but something else, too—and it was slowly taking over and
warming her gaze until her dimples returned, and she smiled again.
“I love you, too,” she
said softly, and Damian saw at once that she meant it. His heart cracked open,
and he lifted Becca with both hands and lowered her body to the desk, raking
his eyes down the curve of her body as he pressed his engorged cock against her
already slick folds.
Becca pressed her hips
upward as Damian leaned forward, sinking himself inside her slowly, so that her
walls quivered as they swallowed his shaft. Damian leaned his body against
hers, relishing the press of her round breasts against his hard chest as he
hilted himself inside her. He gasped and thrusted again, grinding his weight
against her clit as he moved.
“
Oh,”
she
breathed against his ear. “God, Damian. You feel…perfect.”
Becca’s strong thighs
locked around his waist as he slowly drew back and pushed his shaft inside her
again. His body was on fire with pleasure, but he fought to pace himself as he
slipped inside her over and over again. Damian gazed down at Becca’s face, her
features a picture of rapture as he slipped out of her and surged forward
again, pressing against her g-spot as his strokes grew harder and faster.
Damian buried his face
in the soft curve of her neck, fingers pulling and twisting on the point of her
nipple. He’d never felt anything so incredible, and he was sure he’d never feel
it again, so he needed to make it last as long as possible. Becca’s sharp,
delirious cries spurred him as he drove his hips against hers, and Damian felt
controlled as he pounded her body harder and faster against the desk, but the
gentle squeeze of her body was too intense to resist for long.
“Becca!” Damian
called, digging his fingers into her breasts as his member rocketed between her
thighs, slick with her wetness. “Becca, I’m coming!”
“I’m coming!” she
screamed at the same time, throwing her head back as she shouted her pleasure
to the ceiling. “Damian! Oh, Damian!”
She bucked her hips
upward and screamed a final time, just as he exploded inside her spasming
walls. Damian saw stars as he slumped over her body, pushing himself against
her weakly as her cries softened and lowered in pitch.
Damian kissed her as
he pulled out, handing her a towel he’d kept by the desk for this occasion in
particular.
Becca giggled at the
gesture. “Thank you. You’re prepared.”
Damian pulled out a
towel of his own. “Damn right I am.”
The intercom chimed,
and Victor’s voice issued into the room. “Hey, boss? I need you. Alone.”
Damian raised his
eyebrows and laughed. “Wow, that sounds serious. Think we got caught?”
Becca smiled as she
pulled the trench coat over her body, but it was distracted. “What?”
Damian laughed. “I’ll
let you collect your thoughts.”
He finished dressing
and walked out to his outer office to find Victor standing near the door, his
expression grim.
Damian frowned. “Did
we hit the intercom button? Did everyone hear us?”
Victor shook his head
and held out a manila file folder. “Look at this.”
Damian was
disconcerted by Victor’s attitude and opened the folder without question,
flipping through the pictures and sheets of paper as he spoke.
“Looks like you were
targeted,” Victor said. “But not just in general—someone was trying to
embarrass you. Ruin you.”
Damian’s eyes skidded
over emails between someone named Falcon and a series of people who only went
by their initials. They were all discussing various plots to take his company
down, shame him publicly, and hurt him—but why? These people had personal
knowledge of him and his family members…as well as his old friends from school,
Jack, Roger, and Ian, who were mentioned there by name.
So someone is
targeting some tech brats?
Damian looked up, the
confusion clear on his face. “What do we do with this?” he asked. “It seems
like this is your arena. Find out motive, turn this in, that kind of thing.”
The door opened behind
him, and Victor looked uncomfortable. “One of the people conspiring against you
was actually someone they recruited, and they pulled out early. I thought that
was odd, so I did some digging…they only went by
B
. But there’s a series
of pictures there, of them meeting and handing over a small device that was
probably used to hack into the system.”
Damian went through
the pictures again, more slowly this time. Victor was watching him, so he
assumed he’d know it when he saw it—and he did.
It was Becca.
He turned around to
find her standing before him, tears streaming from her eyes. She already knew.
“Did you just fuck me
because you knew you were about to get caught?”
Becca winced at his
phrasing and took a few steps toward him. “N-no! Damian, it’s not like that—”
“Then what is it
like?” he spat. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
Becca held up her
hands, as if in defense. “They told me you had something to do with a human
trafficking ring,” she said softly. “A few tech giants are, they’ve proven it
to me and a few others—and they thought you were one of them.”
“So you
attacked
my company?” Damian shouted. “You planted that bug on my phone with that little
device, didn’t you? Used the moment to get what you wanted. Why not just call
the cops?”
“The police weren’t
cooperating!” Becca said, stretching her arms toward him. “They weren’t
listening to us! And Damian, I only planted that device because I thought you
were in on it, and they needed to make you vulnerable so you’d come forward—”
Becca sobbed. She pressed her hands over her mouth and took a deep breath
before dropping them. “They were going to use me to do it. But then… I fell in
love with you,” she said gently, resting a hand on his arm. “I did, Damian—I
love you so much.”
Damian was shaking his
head. “Fuck no.”
Becca’s eyes were wide
with terror and pain. “Damian, please, let me make this up to you—”
“You can’t,” Damian
cut in, and the finality of his tone made her stop short. “You betrayed me. I
don’t forgive after that.” He looked at Victor. “Get her out of here.”
The heartbreak on her
face was sharp enough to slice his veins. Becca screamed as Victor pulled her
back. “
Damian!”
He turned away from
her cries, stone cold from the feeling of betrayal that now wracked his soul.