“Seraphina.” There’s a low lazy tilt to my name. His upper lip tugs upward, and my eyes continue their path down the length of him. A slight smattering of hair leads below the towel, to a perfect outline of the biggest and longest bulge I’ve ever felt or seen before.
“Rafe.” I breathe his name, unable to stop the desire seeping into the two syllables. He pushes off the counter and takes a step toward me, his towel dipping dangerously low on his hips. His arms drop, revealing more of the jagged, silvery scars across his ribs. Fierce, beautiful, utterly lethal, exactly like the man wearing them.
“Say it again.” He crosses the tile floor with a slow, predatory force. My brain isn’t catching up to the fact that his sights are set on me. For weeks, he’s kept me at arm’s length
“Rafe.” He doesn’t give me another moment, not to speak, breathe, or retreat. Before my brain can register what he is doing, his large, warm hands clamp around my waist. Then Rafe pulls me forward, lifting me slighty until I’m flush against his chest, then shutting the bathroom door behind me with a soft, distinctive click.
“Fuck,” he mutters, his chin dipping before his lips land on mine.Senselessis the only word that comes to mind. Our kiss is bruising, possessive, and breath-stealing. Rafe tangles one hand in my hair at the nape of my neck, tilting my head back to angle his mouth perfectly over mine. When I gasp, his tongue slips inside, a demanding stroke, tasting me fully and quieting my whimpers of surprise. My heart hammers as he deepens our kiss, turning feral and hungry.
My hands slide along his damp skin until I’m digging into his chest. He molds me tighter against his body, and I feel him,all of him.The undeniable hard length of his cock burns through the towel and the thin fabric of my pencil skirt. A desperate ache burns low in my belly, and instead of pulling back, I move against him. One of his hands catches the back of my thigh, lifting it to wrap around his waist. I roll my hips forward, chasing the much-needed friction, desperate to be closer.
“Sera.” My shortened name is a low growl. He pins me against the heavy wooden door with the weight of his lower body, making sure I can feel every delicious inch. Jesus, what I wouldn’t give to tug his towel off, slide my panties to the side, and feel him deep inside of me. And he knows what he’s doing. While my hips may be working, his are doing much the same, grinding himself against me, not holding back in the slightest.
My fingers grip his shoulders harder, nails digging into his skin as a helpless gasp slips from my throat. Much like earlier, he drinks the sound down greedily before his lips leave mine to trail a path down my jawline, and he buries his face in the crook ofmy neck. Rafe’s hot breath makes me shiver harder as he shifts his hips against mine once more, a silent, tortuous promise of an orgasm right on the surface.
“Hate like hell to leave you hot and bothered, Sera, but we’ve got a meeting to kick ass in.” He pulls back just enough to look down at me. His deep emerald-green eyes flash with untamed heat. His breathing is just as ragged as mine, his chest heaving against my breasts and his thumb dragging along my swollen, wet lower lip.
“Rafe, please.”
“Want to hear you say that more than anything, and the absolute second we lock the doors after that meeting, I’m taking care of you, Seraphina. Just like you took care of me while I was in the shower by myself. I’m finishing this, and I’m gonna take you further than you’ve ever been before. One taste isn’t enough. I want more. Understand?” Rafe whispers, his voice dripping with a dark, heavy promise that has me arching into his body once again.
I can’t answer, can’t find my words, so I do the only thing I can. I nod, completely undone, reduced to a pile of ash by the raw, explicit intent behind his words. Rafe gives me a lingering press of his lips against my jaw before he lets me go. The sudden loss of his body heat makes me gasp. He helps me move away from the door, holding me steady in order to get my bearings, unlocks the door, and saunters into the main office.
“Rafe, wait.” I stumble after him, legs trembling as I desperately try to mend my nearly shattered composure. I smooth down my skirt and make a beeline for his office door, my hands shaking as I do a shimmy along the way. The door was left wide open, by me, and while we don’t get a lot of foot traffic this early in the morning, the last thing he needs is people talking about his lack of clothing.
“Didn’t think about that,” Rafe says, unbothered by his state of undress. I turn the lock in place and turn around. “Keep an eye on the clock for me, Sera,” he says as he casually walks to the small sleek wardrobe in the corner, where he keeps extra tailored suits hung at the ready. Then, with an agonizing, deliberate slowness, his hand goes to his hip, one slight tug, and the towel drops to the ground.
I should turn around. I should look the other way. Maybe pretend to watch the clock. Instead, I stand frozen in place, gawking at his muscular form, from his back to his ass to his thighs. Rafe doesn’t look back to see if I’m watching. He knows I am. He reaches into the wardrobe and pulls out a pair of charcoal-gray boxer briefs, then steps into them, pulling the fabric up his cut calves and powerful thighs.
There’s absolutely nothing left to the imagination. It hugs every delicious inch of his lower body, putting the prominent, heavy outline of his cock on full display when he turns around.
“Um…” The cat has got my tongue as he casually adjusts himself. The dark cotton is straining against his impressive length, and I have to hold on to the doorknob to stay vertical. He grabs a white undershirt and slips it over his head, winking at me when he notices my jaw is practically on the ground, and I’m sure there’s drool at the corners, too. Next comes the crisp white tailored-to-perfection button-down shirt. He still hasn’t bothered with pants, and I’m sure he’s doing that on purpose.
“Sera.” He says my name with a smug, knowing grin as he fastens the buttons of his shirt before finally rounding out the rest of his clothes: slacks, socks, belt, suit jacket, and cuff links. He doesn’t bother with a tie, a damn shame because I’d love to watch him take it off, maybe tie my wrists together and keep them above my head while he does what he promised to. “Let’s get this over and done with. You’ve got a date with my desk and my head buried between your thighs.” The pulsing betweenmy legs doesn’t lessen, neither does my heart that’s frantically beating against my ribs. I probably should double-check my lipstick isn’t smeared and get my head in the right frame of mine, but I’m finding it hard to do anything with the words he just spoke. God, this is going to be a long-as-hell meeting, I just know it.
8
RAFE
Seraphina pulled it off, not that it surprises me, but I’m left wondering when she had the time to do all of this. As it stands right now, the numbers on the projector screen blur with my tired eyes, a massive problem considering the numbers are representing a deliberate and highly illegal discrepancy. I lean back in my leather chair, steepling my fingers in front my face to mask the fact that I’m not paying attention to a single word Harrison from accounting has said in the last two minutes.
My gaze is locked entirely on my assistant. My mouth waters at remembering the moments we’ve shared this morning and how we’re going to move forward as soon as this fucking meeting is finished. Seraphina is currently moving around the perimeter of the mahogany conference table, handing out updated financial portfolios. I should be pouring over the data right alongside everyone else, but I’m not.
The pencil skirt she’s wearing is agonizingly tight, hugging the curve of her waist at the flare of her hips and ending just above her knees. Every step she takes is sheer torture. When she leans over Harrison’s shoulder to place the portfolio in front of him, the loose silk of her colorful blouse drapes open. My vantage point at the head of the table nearly takes my breathaway. The fabric parts just enough to reveal the swell of her breasts, the smooth skin glowing under the harsh fluorescent lights of the boardroom.
Jesus, I should be concentrating, I tell myself as I clench my jaw. I should at least pretend to look at the damn spreadsheet in front of me. Seraphina straightens, smoothing her skirt with a brush of her palms, and catches me staring. Her cheeks flush. The rosy color slides down her neck, and she doesn’t look away. I lick my lips, and instead of looking away, she offers a smile that has blood rushing to my cock.
“As you can see on page three, the duplicate sale receipts are buried in the third quarter invoices. It’s not a system glitch, these were manually entered, twice as transactions, effectively doubling the reported revenue on this specific business account,” Harrison starts the meeting.
“An internal skim,” I state. Seraphina takes a seat to my right, clicks the pen open, and takes notes a furious pace.
“Exactly,” Harrison agrees. I look up at him for a moment before my eyes return to Sera’s. Her brow is furrowed in concentration, her lip tucked between her teeth, a habit I’ve memorized all too well when she’s processing things internally. I want nothing more than to reach over and drag my thumb across that lip, then pull her in my lap, right in front of the entire finance team. “If we run a forensic audit during this acquisition, they’re going to flag it immediately. It compromises the integrity of the purchase.”
“They won’t look for it if we control the narrative,” I say coldly, forcing myself to look between the screen and the portfolio in front of me. I rest my forearm on the table, deliberately shifting my elbow until it brushes against Seraphina’s. She doesn’t flinch, if anything, she leans into the touch, never stopping her frantic writing on her pad of paper.
“What are you proposing, Rafe?” Marcus, the head of legal, asks, leaning forward. “We don’t want to back out of the sale, or we’ll lose it, and I know that’s the last thing you want.” He’s right. I want the business, and I’ll get it no matter what. It’s just at a cost.
“We alter our strategy, go into the negotiation with a lowball offer, drop it by twenty percent.” My eyes drift to Seraphina’s hands, long and elegant fingers wrapped tightly around her pen. I remember those same fingers digging into my chest earlier today, so hard I’m surprised she didn’t leave a mark. Those thoughts do nothing to lessen the way my cock flexes in my pants.