Shut Off (Just This Once #3)

With her career and his reputation on the line, not to mention a looming court case that could decide both of their fates, Blaire and Joel run the risk of losing it all. The secret’s out at the firm, and Joel wants Blaire as far removed from the case as possible, but she may be just what he needs to win.

Was it doomed from the start?

Blaire’s the first person Joel’s ever had a real connection with, but if he loses this case, their relationship may be over before it even begins.

Nothing worth having ever comes easy, but just how far are they willing to go?

Shut Off is intended for mature audiences due to explicit language and mature themes.

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© 2015 Cee Smith

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Shut Off (Just This Once series, Book 3)

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Chapter One

Joel

I entered the room, the doors breaking open with a slight nudge of the tray I was carrying. Just like the last few days, Blaire lay curled up, with blankets tucked beneath her chin. She looked
so peaceful in sleep—a comfort I was happy to give her. After seeing those photos of her door splattered in some blood-like substance and her suspension at work, I knew she was rattled by what she inevitably became involved in—by no fault of her own. I wanted to do what I could to make her feel at ease, at least for a little while. Hence the tray laden with a croissant, coffee—just the way she liked—orange juice, bacon, eggs, and toast with some fig & blackberry jam that made her eyes roll back in her head like her taste buds were
orgasming
. If I was being completely honest, I got hard the last two days watching her eat the toast. Talk about morning wood.

As I neared the bed, I could see her feet twitch beneath the sheets. Slowly her body unfurled as if waking up limb by limb, until her eyelids fluttered and blinked like I imagined a baby seeing for the first time, taking in her surroundings. She pulled the sheet with her, and I mentally groaned at the missed opportunity to see her luscious body
—a body that begged to be adored. It
was what initially drew me to her, and after some pleading and her run-in with
Lara,
I finally had her right where I wanted her. Now I just had to find a way to convince her to stay.

“Good morning. Looks like I’ve got good timing.”

“Or I just so happened to wake up at the same time your chef was done preparing breakfast,” she replied with a disbelieving quirk to her eyebrow. So maybe she was right. This was the time that Dennis typically arrived in the morning to start preparations for the day. I didn’t usually eat such an elaborate breakfast; mine was usually a shake, jam-packed with all kinds of seeds, fruits, and veggies. It looked and tasted awful, but it gave me energy, especially on the days I could hit up the gym for a couple hours.

“But this was made just for you. With love,” I replied, smiling. I’d never met a bigger skeptic than Blaire, which made taunting her that much more gratifying.

“Are you finally going to tell me what’s going on?”

“I’m bringing you breakfast in bed, that’s what’s going on.”

“I see that.”

“So why don’t you shut up and let me feed you, unless you’re hungry for something else.” I grinned—not waiting for those glowering eyes to fall on me—piling a bit of scrambled eggs onto the fork and zipping them through the air before holding the fork pressed against her lips for entry. The expression on her face was one that was
unamused
by my flying fork or the fact that I was treating her like a toddler who needed to be entertained by the piece of silverware holding her next bite. I ignored this look, mainly because she looked adorable with those large, soft brown doe eyes that didn’t seem to convey anger or annoyance, despite how hard she pressed her lips together, or the clench of her teeth, or the lock of her jaw. One look at those eyes and I just wanted to wrap her up in my arms and dote on her like the precious thing she was.

And then I watched the tines of the fork indent her bottom lip and shift between her tightly pressed lips. I remembered the way those same lips looked sucking down my cock like a fucking Dyson vacuum and I forgot all about how sweet and innocent and precious she was. I remembered how sweet she tasted, how innocent she mewed like a cat while I sank into her, and how precious the walls of her cunt felt.
From the inside.

Just when I forgot about the fork full of eggs, she opened her mouth and closed down. I could have shot a load off just at the thought of that mouth opening up to receive me, slipping down my cock one inch at a time. God, she took me down like a pro. I’d never been so jealous of an inanimate object.

I watched her chew, like the fucking sap I was, but for once it didn’t seem to matter to me how lovesick I looked.
In my 27 years, Lara’s
was the longest relationship I’d been in, but even that felt like nothing more than having a semi-permanent fuck buddy. She wasn’t someone I imagined spending my life with, and looking back, we never had a conversation that had any depth to it, but maybe that was because she wasn’t complex enough to muster up a deep conversation.

Like I said, fuck buddy.

Blaire was different. I wanted to know Blaire, and I wanted Blaire to know me. Yes, I liked giving her a hard time, but she liked it. I could see it in the way she rolled her eyes or shifted her hands on her hips. Her sexual energy was potent. Like a tranquilizer dart to the neck, she infected me and I welcomed the loss of all logical thought and control.

“Joel, have you talked to your
lawy
—”

I brought the jam covered toast to her mouth, forcing her to take another bite. With eyes full of suspicion, she bit down, letting out a little moan as her jaws worked to chew the food.

The conversation continued that way—her trying to ask questions and me feeding her to avoid providing answers. When the tray was empty and placed back on the nightstand beside the bed, I realized I’d have to find another way to distract her.

If Blaire ever got that promotion she wanted, allowing her to present cases in court, I knew she would be formidable.
She was unrelenting with her questioning, but as much as I wanted to open myself up for her to read every chapter, every page, every sentence—that was the one area I didn’t want her to see. Like the hidden track of a record, I wanted this case to remain just out of reach.

“You know I’m trying to help you, right? Why are you avoiding my question?” she asked, aggravated with my evasiveness.

“I know all you want to do is help, but I don’t want you in any deeper than you already are. You don’t know Lara. Hell, I barely recognize the person capable of the things she’s done.”

“I worked, work—I don’t know anymore, but I have the experience to deal with these things. Use me.”

“Now that’s what I’m talking about.”

I gave her a sly wink as I practically hopped on top of her, pressing her into the sheets. Her legs parted around me and her breath hitched and nipples pebbled, showing me the full effect I had on her body. I grinned at the thought and pulled the sheet back, revealing her delicate white skin and
pinkened
rosebuds ready to be picked and plucked and licked and sucked. My cock was bruised from over-usage (believe me, over-usage is a thing, just like blue balls).

It was with Herculean force that I convinced her to stay with me, and I still expected she would up and leave at any moment. I was hell-bent on getting my fill of her in the event she decided to leave at the drop of a hat. After weeks of trying to get back into her good graces, I knew
how uncertain she
was about us being together.

“Now it’s your turn to feed me. Hold your tits just like this. Fuck.” I groaned as her hands replaced mine, pushing her tits together until her nipples
were
practically touching. She offered them up to me like a chalice to a king. Her eyes were heavy, and her chest heaved with want. I paused, taking stock of the way my mouth salivated at the vixen before me. Her skin blushed the color of California sunsets, and I wished I had my camera handy. I wanted to remember her this way—needy, full of desire and temptation, and ready for every
decadent promise I
had in store for her.

I descended on her, clutching her shoulders as if she would wiggle her way out from beneath me. The eighty pounds I had on her ensured she wasn’t going anywhere,
but it wasn’t the physical Blaire I was trying to hold down. I wanted to embed my talons so deeply into her heart that to leave me would rip her apart.

“You look so ripe for the taking, like a little piece of fruit ready to be plucked. You like it when I fuck you raw, don’t you, Blaire? You like being a dirty little girl with me. I’m exactly what you need, Blaire. You were waiting for me. Waiting for a man who would know what to do with this sinful little body. I’m not even close to showing you everything I can do with you. See, you still have some notion that you can actually live without this dick, and I’m going to show you how wrong you are.”

“Is that right? Well…show me what you’re made of.”

She gave me a devilish smirk. She had no idea what it did to me to see her like that—lying in my bed, with a spark of fire in her eyes, and her little hands clutching the fullness of her tits. It was hard enough to remember that I was a human and not a fucking savage when it came to pleasuring her, but the way she taunted me made me want to roll her off onto the floor and fuck her clean into the rug like a goddamn animal.

“You’re asking for it.”

Heat licked up my spine and squeezed at my balls, priming me for my inevitable release. I descended on her dusky nipples, taking them both into my mouth with the thirst of a desert-dweller and she was an ocean of perfect crystalline water. I lapped at her with vigor. Her eyes closed, but her hands still held her tits to my mouth while she moaned out her excitement. I licked around her nipples, tracing the curvature of her plump breasts while my hands moved down to her hips. I pushed the sheet the rest of the way down her body and moved her leg to wrap around me.
The other one followed suit, caging me into her embrace.