BWWM Interracial Romance 1: Professional Relations (5 page)

“You turn me on,” Regina said, blushing at how true it was. Bradley pulled her panties away from her body, down over her hips, and Regina whimpered as he teased her with his touch. Bradley slipped his fingers along her slick folds, gliding against her skin until he found her clit. Regina cried out as Bradley’s fingertips brushed and then rubbed against her pleasure center.

“I hope to turn you on even more,” Bradley said, his voice a low growl in her ear. He nipped sharply at the sensitive skin along the column of her throat, lapping at her neck with his tongue. Regina moaned as Bradley’s fingers dipped down to the well of her pussy, stroking and probing her slowly. “God, you’re tight,” he said, moaning against her skin. He pulled back, his bright eyes intense as he stared at her, never pausing in his teasing attentions. “When was the last time… never mind. Don’t answer.” He kissed her once more, making Regina breathless.

She managed to finish removing his pants, her mind fogged over with desire, her hands moving automatically, out of instinct. She felt him shift as he stepped out of his trousers, and Regina reached down to seek his hard cock, brushing against the thin fabric of his boxers. He was hot and rock-hard to the touch, his erection twitching when her fingers came into contact with it, a low groan escaping his lips. Regina broke away from the kiss to nibble at his neck, her hips twisting and rolling as Bradley’s fingers played away at her, driving her completely mindless with desire.

Regina hooked her fingers in the elastic waist of Bradley’s underwear, tugging them down over his slim hips. She felt them fall away and sought his cock by touch, her eyes closed and her body reeling from the intensity of her need. Bradley moaned long and low as she wrapped her hand around him, finding him thicker than she would have expected. The weight of his erection startled her, and for a long moment all she could do was squeeze him carefully as she arched into his touches. She forced her eyes open and looked down at him—he was, as her touch had suggested, bigger than his aggressive and arrogant personality would have made her think. She licked her lips, thinking—in the part of her mind that was capable of thought—that she wanted to taste him, to feel him between her lips.

Before she could put the desire into action, however, Bradley pushed her carefully onto her back, leaning in and kissing the tops of her breasts slowly. “Tell me to stop if I hurt you,” he murmured. Regina wrapped her legs around his waist, steeling herself against the pain; instead, she felt humming, deep pleasure as he thrust into her slowly. Her walls tightened around him as he penetrated her inch by inch, letting her feel his length and girth as he filled her up. Regina cried out as Bradley pushed deeper and deeper into her.

“Oh, oh Bradley, yes, god yes,” Regina moaned, gasping and panting for breath. Bradley’s hands danced over her body, teasing her breasts and moving down gradually towards her hips and down between her legs. He began to pick up his pace, and Regina moved in counterpoint to his thrusts, twisting and shifting her hips, pushing down against him. Bradley’s fingers found her clit once more, and Regina almost choked on the cry that wrenched out of her throat as pleasure jolted through her, electric thrills dancing up and down every nerve of her body. She trembled as she came closer and closer to climax, touching everywhere on Bradley’s body that she could reach, kissing him wildly.

In a matter of moments, it seemed, she and Bradley were crying out as one, their bodies tensing as they came to the edge of orgasm and then over it. Regina clutched Bradley against her tightly, needing the sensation of his body against hers as pleasure wracked her, wave after wave of sensation crashing through her. She was only vaguely aware of Bradley’s climax, the sticky-slick sensation of his pleasure shooting into her.

They collapsed to the table, panting and struggling to catch their breath as aftershocks worked through them. Regina couldn’t remember the last time she had felt so thoroughly satisfied; her legs were remote, not quite real to her, and her arms were shaking as she draped them around Bradley. It had been years since she had experienced any real pleasure out of sex with her ex-husband, and the moment she had just shared with Bradley had been like a feast after steady starvation.

“We need to get to work,” Bradley said ruefully. Regina sighed, knowing he was right.  Bradley slipped off of her and began to pick up his clothes, barely looking at her. Regina admired the milky-pale shade of his skin as he moved, the ripple of muscles, and then told herself firmly to focus on the task at hand. She couldn’t quite stifle the regret that the interlude hadn’t lasted longer, but she also knew—with a sharp sense of guilt—that she should never have let it happen in the first place. She smoothed her hair and reached for her bra, taking a deep breath to dispel the lingering lust she felt for the man who only moments before she had thought was the most annoying and frustrating coworker she could ever encounter.

After her confrontation with Bradley— which had ended so unexpectedly in a tryst— Regina decided that as much as she had enjoyed the outcome, she couldn’t let the same thing happen again. She hesitated to tell her sister about the situation; she wasn’t sure whether Abigail would be more amused or appalled at what her younger sister had done. Regina had staked her career on professionalism, and to have engaged in an elicit fling right in the office with a coworker was enough to make her feel incredibly guilty and ashamed of herself.

Regina’s solution to the trouble was to attempt to pretend as though it had never happened; she didn’t mention it to Bradley, even though he gave her more than one knowing glance. She avoided being alone in the same room with him, and when she did have to work late, she made sure to keep her office door locked or to take one of the desks in the open, where Bradley wouldn’t be tempted to make a pass at her. She knew that he was interested in another go—Regina was put in the position more than once of having to come up with a hasty excuse for why she couldn’t work in the conference room alone with him after the end of the day.

It would have been easier, Regina thought over the weeks that passed, if Bradley hadn’t been such a good partner. Regina reminded herself that even if he had been a great lay, he was annoying and arrogant and demanding. She had stood up to him, and while he didn’t seem as prone to trying to outshine her as before, she wondered how much of that was due to the fact that they’d had sex and how much of it was that she kept her time around him to a minimum, even when it came to their joint responsibilities.

At first, Regina’s heart pounded every time she heard someone in the office talking and laughing over gossip; she blushed whenever someone mentioned her name. Regina had a deadly certainty that there was absolutely no way her tryst with Bradley could possibly remain a secret. She knew that office gossip spread like wildfire—Bradley had only to tell one person what they had done and the entire office would know about it before lunch was over. Regina waited with dread to hear the knock at her office door, to see Talitha’s solemn face saying that they needed to have a conversation.

After a month had passed and Regina hadn’t been fired for her indiscretion, she began to relax. While she still didn’t question that her fling with Bradley had been a horrible idea, she had to conclude that he hadn’t mentioned it to anyone, either. She began to relax into the demands of ongoing projects, even managing to go into meetings with Bradley without feeling constantly on edge. Regina thought that he had accepted her lack of interest in continuing the relationship beyond a one-time fling gracefully, and respected the fact that after a few attempts to get her alone, he gave up on the idea.

Regina wished that she could as easily put the tryst out of her mind. While she was certain that she didn’t want to pursue anything with her coworker—or with anyone else, for that matter—she also became uncomfortably aware that Bradley’s prowess had reawakened her sexual appetite. When she had been going through the divorce and dealing with the abuse that her ex-husband dealt out, it was easy for Regina to forget that she had ever truly enjoyed sex; after all, Richard had constantly berated her about her flirtatiousness, and when they had been in bed together everything had been about him. Regina had gradually gone from a woman who loved her body and enthusiastically participated in sex to one who examined every trouble spot, magnified every scar. She felt a sinking in her stomach whenever she saw her breasts in the mirror; Richard had picked on them especially, calling her a cow because of the slight droop that their fullness caused, “playfully” pretending to milk her while he laughed and she felt mortified.

In spite of herself, Regina could hear Bradley’s words in her mind whenever she caught sight of herself naked in the mirror.
“God, woman, these are so gorgeous.”
She didn’t know if Bradley had really meant it, but she appreciated the compliment anyway—and ruthlessly used it to suppress the lingering self-doubt Richard had infected her mind with.

There was also the fact that Bradley had been—for as short a time as their tryst had lasted—utterly fascinated by her body, interested and enthusiastic in turning her on and giving her pleasure. Regina hadn’t been with a man who had legitimately wanted to get her off on years; she wasn’t sure, when she really thought about it, that she ever had. She dimly remembered partners she had before Richard, but when she thought about it, while those men had wanted the accolades for having gotten her off, they didn’t seem to want to put in the effort, the way Bradley had. Bradley had seemed to genuinely get turned on by her arousal, his desire growing as she moaned and writhed.

Once Regina decided that the ship had sailed on anything more happening between her and Bradley, about two months after their tryst, she told her sister about it, adding that nothing had come of it, and that she had thoroughly closed the door.

Abigail laughed. “Oooh, little girl, you’re blushing. There’s more to it than you’re telling me. But fine. He’s not coming after you in the supply closet, that’s good. Are you getting more respect out of him?”

Regina considered the question. “I think so. He doesn’t challenge me as much in meetings anymore, and we haven’t really gotten into any arguments. We mostly just avoid each other.”

Abigail hadn’t been entirely satisfied by the change, but, she said, she supposed it was better than nothing.

When Regina was called into Talitha’s office a few weeks later, she had no idea that anything was amiss. She expected that her boss simply had some details to convey to her, or a suggestion on how to take care of a bottleneck that Regina was experiencing with getting client approval on one of the preliminary design concepts her team was working on. Instead, Talitha gestured for Regina to sit down, her expression oddly solemn. “You can’t tell anyone about what I’m about to talk to you about,” Talitha said, sitting up straight in her chair and leaning forward. “This stays strictly between you and me.”

Regina, confused, nodded.

Talitha hesitated for a moment before she spoke again. “You’ve been here a few months now, Regina; you know how rumors fly around the office.”

Regina’s heart began to pound; had something come out of her dalliance with Bradley after all the time that had passed? She nodded again slowly, trying to keep herself calm. It wouldn’t do to get agitated—especially not before Talitha told her what the situation was.

“Some of the higher ups are concerned about your employment here. I have no idea where they got the notion, but it’s been suggested to me that you’re not pulling your own weight, that you’re not a good fit for the position.”

Regina blinked in shock, feeling her whole body go numb. “What are they saying that I’m doing—or not doing?” Regina asked, trying to keep her voice level in spite of her rising sense of panic.

Talitha shrugged. “Whenever I ask, they can never give me anything specific. It’s always ‘a hunch’ or ‘a feeling.’ Someone suggested at a meeting earlier this week that Bradley was likely carrying all the actual work on the project the two of you are on.”

Regina bit her lip sharply, taking a slow, deep breath. She felt her stomach churning with anxiety and instinctive anger. “Do you think… that it’s Bradley spreading that rumor?” Regina asked falteringly. She had thought that he’d given up on her—that he’d backed off gracefully! If he was disappointed, she felt for him; some part of her was disappointed as well. But was he actually such a vindictive person that he would take the personal issue of Regina avoiding him and turn it into an excuse to get her fired?

“If I did, I’d be talking to him and not you.” Talitha shrugged. “I know Bradley’s not always easy to get along with, but I’d hate to think that he was a bad enough person to try and throw someone else under the bus for no reason. Your project is moving along swimmingly, after all; what good would it do him to get you taken off of it?”

Regina forced herself to remain silent; Talitha didn’t know about the fling she’d had with her coworker. That, in Regina’s mind—and her refusal to continue it—was definitely enough to inspire a vindictive man to ruin her career. “Do you have any idea who it might be?” Regina asked, swallowing against the dryness she felt in her throat.

Talitha shrugged again. “I have no clue. You know how these things are—people repeat the bullshit they hear, and forget who said it to them, until it’s like chasing ghosts.”

Regina nodded. With Bradley’s seniority and connections with the upper level management, he could easily cast doubts on Regina’s work; he wouldn’t even have to directly complain about her to anyone, only make a few random comments to get the ball rolling. “So, where does this leave me then?”

Talitha sighed and sat back in her desk chair, looking at Regina with compassion in her eyes. “You’re going to have to prove that you’re a better employee than they think you are. I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to stay late more often, and be more visible in your role.”

Regina nodded, accepting the requirements. “I’ll make sure to track all my time, too,” She suggested. “And use emails as backups for meetings or anything else.”

Talitha smiled. “I take it this isn’t the first time you’ve faced some friction like this.”

Regina shrugged. “What can you do? Some people don’t even have the reason of thinking you’re not pulling your weight to want to get rid of you.” Regina thought of the times in the past when she had dealt with discriminating employers before coming to Pater-Gray; she had developed coping mechanisms, and had learned how to document anything she needed to defend herself on, out of necessity. It was a need that she regretted having in her new position, but she couldn’t avoid it. The new job and the independence it provided were too important to Regina. Without it, she wouldn’t be able to afford to live on her own.

“I just wanted to give you a heads up,” Talitha said regretfully. “I’m on your side. I know exactly how hard you work—and I’m glad to have you on my team. I just have to keep hammering into certain heads that you’re every bit as good a project manager as Bradley—as anyone, in fact, and better than some we’ve kept around for five years or more.”

Regina smiled at the defense and compliment. “Thanks, Talitha,” she said, standing. She needed to get out of the office and think. Talitha nodded and excused her, turning back to her own work, and Regina tried to rush back to her office without appearing to rush.

The urge to cry overcame her as she sat down heavily, her office door locked. Regina scolded herself for being such a baby, but it was no use; the tears came anyway, accompanied by heavy, wrenching sobs that twisted her abdominal muscles and made her head pound. She curled in on herself, turning on music to cover the sound of her crying, giving in to the hyperventilating that accompanied it. She had worked so hard, and she had come so far—and she was once more under the tyranny of some man, once more betrayed.

Regina thought about all of the times that she had been beaten by her ex-husband, all the times that Richard had told her that she was nothing without him—that she would never amount to anything, that she was talentless and an idiot to boot. She heard all of his scathing rants, every insult he had ever hurled at her, and shook as she relived the moments that she had tried so hard to tell faithfully in court without breaking down.

Regina felt her shaking begin to ease, her sobs quieting and her breathing gradually returning to normal. She couldn’t give in to her panic and fear for very long, she reminded herself firmly, wiping at her face with tissues she grabbed blindly. She had to fight for her job; she had earned it, she wanted it, and she needed it. She wasn’t about to let someone take it away from her.

As she began to calm down, Regina wondered what she should do about the situation, other than taking her own measures to demonstrate that she was working every bit as hard as Bradley was. Should she confront him? Ask him what he thought gave him the right to spread lies about her? Regina knew that her sister’s advice would be to do that. And she knew it would give her a certain amount of satisfaction to see the shock in his face when he realized that Regina was onto him.

But Talitha had said that she didn’t think Bradley was the source. While Regina couldn’t quite put it past any person to be vindictive, she thought that there was a possibility that it was someone else. She couldn’t think of whom—after all, Regina really only spent time with her team, with her boss, in meetings with clients, and occasionally, when she couldn’t avoid it, with Bradley. She didn’t have a social life outside of her sister, and she was too busy with too many projects to spend much time talking to anyone in the office in any capacity other than work.

But Regina knew that her lack of social interaction was in some ways just as damning as spending too much time socializing. When she had been with Richard, she had been motivated to isolate herself; Richard demanded that she be home exactly twenty minutes after the day ended—he didn’t even accept a traffic jam as an excuse. On top of that demand and his jealousy whenever Regina so much as mentioned a coworker’s name, she had kept herself to herself for so long that she wasn’t comfortable with the idea of getting to know anyone other than professionally.

So, she thought, wiping at her face and pulling out her makeup with unsteady hands, it could just as easily be someone else in the office who didn’t like the idea of a black woman in a position of authority. She didn’t think it could be one of her own team—but she didn’t know. Regina re-applied her makeup, taking deep breaths and doing what she could to calm her nerves. Or, Regina thought, giving herself a watery smile in her compact mirror, she could change tactics. She had avoided social contact with her coworkers, which was clearly a mistake; maybe if she started to cultivate something like a social life, if she became friends with some of the people she worked with, she could find out where the rumors were coming from. It was as good a plan as any, she thought; even if she was uncomfortable with the thought of putting herself forward, of going out on a limb.