I took a sip and narrowed my eyes at him over the rim. “I have a lot of work to catch up on.”

I’d been so distracted since we started dating that I wasn’t ahead by two weeks like I usually was. I was on schedule, which was unacceptable.

“It’s lunchtime, and Jillian said you don’t have any meetings until two.”

“Jillian needs to stop telling you my schedule, and I’m not hungry.”

“No.” Xavier’s voice turned to silk. “But I am.”

I didn’t get a chance to react before he picked me up and set me on the desk in one smooth, swift motion. He shoved my skirt up around my hips and slipped his thumb beneath the edge of my underwear to find me already slick and wanting.

“Xavier,” I hissed, glancing behind me at the unlocked door. “Someone will hear.”

Despite my protest, my clit throbbed with need. Heat gathered like a firestorm in my lungs as those strong, deft hands caressed me, molding to my hips and thighs, stoking the fires higher and hotter until they incinerated my reservations.

“Good.” Xavier sank to his knees and pushed my knees wider, granting him an unfettered view of my soaked arousal. His eyes gleamed up at me, dark and bright as volcanic glass. “Then they’ll know exactly who you belong to.”

A humiliating little whimper left my mouth when he bent his head and closed his teeth around delicate silk. A woozy, breathless second of anticipation sent my pulse skyrocketing, followed by something between a cry and a gasp when he ripped my underwear off and dived in.

Bursts of light exploded behind my eyes at the sudden switch from lazy sensuality to feral, untamed hunger. My brain couldn’t catch up, so it ceded all power to my body. The buck of my hips; the grasp on his hair; the arousal that raced through me, so fast and potent it was almost painful.

I tried to close my legs, scoot backward, do anything that would let me catch my breath before I exploded from pure pleasure, but Xavier’s iron grip forced me to stay in place. He was merciless in his assault, his mouth and tongue and teeth pinpointing every sensitive spot with devastating accuracy.

I wasn’t sure if I was screaming or sobbing or utterly silent. I wasn’t sure if my staff was standing at the door right now, watching him tongue fuck my brains out while I lost all semblance of control.

I wasn’t sure of anything at all, really, except for the fact I never, ever wanted this to end. Not with him, and not with us.

The firestorm inside me finally erupted, and this time, I heard my cry before a hand clamped over my mouth, muffling my scream. My orgasm was so intense that I disintegrated immediately, bits and pieces of me falling, floating, burning until the smoke cleared, and a hazy shadow of my senses returned.

The hand over my mouth dropped, replaced by a punishing kiss. I tasted my arousal, and my nipples tightened again like I hadn’t just come so hard, I couldn’t breathe properly.

“That was a preview. The next time you doubt how much I want you…” Xavier drew my bottom lip between his teeth and nipped. The sting traveled straight to the emptiness pulsing between my thighs. “Remember this.”

He gripped my hips again, pulling me off the desk and bending me over so I was bared to him. My skirt was still bunched around my hips, and my underwear lay in tatters on the floor.

I heard my desk drawer open, followed by the rasp of a zipper and the distinctive tear of tape.

My mouth dried. “What—” A piece of duct tape sealed over my lips, cutting me off.

“In case you scream again. You don’t want people hearing, remember?” Xavier’s dark velvet reply promised all sorts of wicked intent. “And I need my hands for something else.”

Lust and fear surged through me in equal measure, one indistinguishable from the other. He’d left my hands free, so I could easily tear off the tape—but I didn’t.

I lay there, legs spread, mouth taped, wetness dripping down my thighs at the obscene picture I must’ve made.

My fear didn’t stem from what he was about to do to me; it came from how much I wanted it. How much I liked the tiny loss of control because it meant I didn’t have to think; I could just feel. “Hold on to the desk.” Xavier’s warning shivered down my neck.

I barely had time to obey before he slammed into me, my back instinctively bowing from the force of his thrust. I tried to scream, but the duct tape prevented me from making anything except incoherent moans as he fucked me senseless, one hand holding me down, the other delving beneath my blouse to play with my breasts.

I clung to the edge of the desk, reduced to one giant raw, exposed nerve. Sweat coated my skin, and my clit throbbed in time with his thrusts, each pulse so powerful that it sent dark clouds across my vision.

Every time my pleasure seemed to plateau, another pinch, another squeeze, another thrust drove it higher to the point of being unbearable. My brain could no longer process the overwhelming sensations racking my body, and I seemed to slip out of myself for a second, seeing the filthy scene we presented to the world.

My hair had fallen from its bun. Wisps of it stuck to my flushed skin, and drool leaked from beneath the duct tape as Xavier pistoned in and out of me, his deep groans sinking into me as deeply as anything else.

I loved the sounds of his pleasure. I loved the way I felt right then, helpless and ravished yet so very safe. I—

My entire body tensed. Pinpricks of light dotted the drifts of black clouds, and I shook uncontrollably as I climaxed, bucking and jerking against his cock. My pussy spasmed again and again, sending lightning bolts of pleasure through my stupefied brain. I heard Xavier give a final, guttural grunt before he came too, but the waves kept coming, rolling through my body like a ceaseless ocean of electric, mind-numbing pleasure.

I didn’t know how long we stayed there, me sprawled bonelessly across the desk, him still buried inside me, but when we finally moved, it was almost two.

“Just in time for your meeting,” Xavier teased. I was a mess, but other than his ruffled hair and ruddy cheeks, he looked like he’d just stepped out of a magazine. Bastard. “I have impeccable timing.”

He cleaned me up and fixed my clothing with gentle hands before pulling the tape off my mouth.

“Hilarious.” My voice didn’t sound like mine; it was too hoarse from…A blush worked its way over my skin, and Xavier’s satisfied grin widened. “I’ll have to postpone my meeting. I can’t discuss media strategy looking like I’ve…”

“Been freshly and thoroughly fucked?”

My blush deepened at Xavier’s smoky drawl. “I wouldn’t put it quite that way,” I said with as much dignity as I could muster considering my underwear was in shreds.

What I’d done—what we’d done—was so out of character for me that I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it.

I wasn’t the type of person who mixed business and pleasure, which…well, okay, that horse had left its gate weeks ago. But I was hyperaware of my surroundings at all times, and I never engaged in compromising activities at the office.

Xavier was the only person who could make me forget about my rules and like it. It was disturbing.

God, I hoped no one had heard us. Everyone should be at lunch, but you never knew when an enterprising assistant chose to stay in and catch up on work (and catch her boss having sex in the process).

“You can put it any way you want, Luna, but it’s the truth.” Xavier’s lips touched mine. “For the record, you look beautiful when you’re freshly fucked.”

“How charming.” I should pick up the phone and reschedule my two-o’clock meeting, but I wanted to stay in his arms a while longer. “They should create a makeup tutorial for it.”

“I’m sure one already exists.” He drew back, examining me. “How are you feeling?”

“Good. A little sore, but…good.” I couldn’t find a better term to describe the weightlessness I felt. Good wasn’t adequate, but unlike other words, saying it didn’t freak me out.

“Good,” Xavier repeated.

His palms braced the desk on either side of me, and as we smiled at each other, the silence soft with contentment while we savored our last moments before reality intruded, another word surfaced in my mind.

Happy.

Simple, basic, but no less true.

CHAPTER 28

Sloane