Chance on Love (23 page)

“Back to...” She sat back and gave Stephanie a dreamy sigh. “Chance.”

“What about him?” She hoped she sounded nonchalant because she surely didn’t feel that way whenever that man’s name was mentioned.

“I mean, what a bastard, right? Thank God he’ll be out of here soon.”

“Yeah...” She tilted her head as she thought about it. “I’ll kind of miss him, though.”

Amber lifted an eyebrow. “You’re joking.”

“No.” She smiled at the incredulous expression on her friend’s face. “He has a few good qualities I guess.” She sat back in her chair. “He’s smart and funny. He’s charming, you know, in an infuriatingly smug way. He has a good heart...when he, ah, wants to.”

Clearing her throat, she made a point of thumbing through a small stack of papers on her desk.

“Oh my God,” Amber said slowly. “What the hell happened this weekend?”

She kept her eyes averted. “What do you mean?”

“It sounds as though you more than like the boss now. Hmm... Have you slept with him?”

Her entire body grew hot. “Maybe.”

Amber’s mouth dropped open. “Maybe, hell. Details, woman! Is he as good as he looks?”

She looked her right in the eye. “Better.”

Amber made a purring sound and Stephanie laughed. She regarded her friend closely. Though she appeared to be as cheerful as ever, Amber’s brown eyes were a bit less sparkling than usual. “What’s up with you?”

Amber frowned. “Huh? Nothing.”

“Amber,” Stephanie said, narrowing her eyes. They shared a long, silent stare-down.

Amber finally caved. “Carly’s being Carly. She said some crazy stuff about taking the anchor position from me.” She waved her hand. “Whatever.”

Shit. Having Amber worry about this had been the last thing Stephanie wanted. She fought the urge to hunt Carly down, and do enough damage to send her plastic surgeon’s kids through college.

Stephanie might give Amber a hard time, but she’d be damned if she sat around while anyone else did. “What did she say?” she asked calmly.

“‘Enjoy being morning co-anchor while you can’ or something like that.”

Stephanie laughed. “She’s so full of it. Don’t worry, girl. Your job is safe. Chance knows there’d be no end to his pain if he allowed that woman anywhere near the morning spot.” She smiled as she thought of various, sexual ways she could hurt him.

“Look at you, Steph. Laughing and smiling... I haven’t seen you this happy since, well....” She frowned. “I’ve never seen you this happy. I think you’re falling for the sexy schmuck.”

She waved the comment off. “Please.” She wasn’t worried. The only way she’d succumb to love would be if it were genuine and everlasting. And since, for her, that only existed between the covers of books and in movies, she was safe.

****

“Come in,” Stephanie said without raising her head from the paperwork she was filling out.

“Is this a bad time?”

She looked up to see Chance peeking in and gave him a little smile. “No, what’s up?”

“The dance.”

She looked at him blankly.

“The Valentine’s Day thing, woman. You asked me to be your date, remember?”

“Oh,” she said slowly as she sat back, crossing her arms. “I remember that now. I thought you’d agreed, but then you considered dumping me for Carly. Nice.”

Smirking, he walked in, closing the door behind him. “Who told you?”

“I overheard you, you asshole.”

He sat down in front of her desk. “I’ve reconsidered.”

She peered into his eyes. “Yeah?”

“I’d rather go with you.” Chance licked his lips. “You still want to come with me?”

She gulped. Hell yes. She instantly wanted him right there on her desk. “Should I?”

He gave her a sly smile. “I don’t think you can help it.”

She rolled her eyes. There was that arrogance that made her stomach do its weird flip-flop thing. “I may want to...come with someone else now.”

“I doubt you would,” he said, leveling a steady gaze her way. “Or could.”

She suppressed a smile. “Shut up, Valentine.” There was something she needed his okay on, and there was no time like the present. “I have an idea that may help Kenny—if you give me the go ahead, that is.”

He sat back, folding his hands behind his head as he listened to her idea to hold a fundraiser. The bastard had the gall to look uninterested.

Stephanie raised her hand and snapped her fingers. “Hello. This is important.”

“Yeah,” he said casually, “I’ll consider it.”

She gave him a hard look. “Well, consider it sooner rather than later. Kenny doesn’t have forever to sit around waiting for Chance the Magnificent to take his sweet ass time reaching a decision.”

“All right, all right.” He smiled before pausing for a moment. “Don’t you want to know why I dropped by to see you?”

Stephanie squinted at him. She was curious. Normally, he barked at her via intercom to get to
his
office. The idea that he’d missed her and just wanted to see her crossed her mind, and she immediately pushed it away. “To be a pain in my ass?”

He cocked his head. “Oh, I can be a pain in your ass, Love,” he said with a low, seductive voice. “Just say the word.”

She bit her lip as they sat there staring at each other. She’d never even considered anal sex before, but damn it, she knew he’d given her just one more thing to fantasize about. Her stomach tightened. “What did you want to see me about?”

There was no way she was acknowledging his naughty allusion. There was no way she could without it being obvious that he’d piqued her interest.

He raised his eyebrow. “What? No comment about what I just said? Scared?” He smiled when she flipped him off.

Since she had his attention, there was another matter to clear up. Again. “About Amber’s position as morning co-anchor...”

He rolled his eyes. “It’s still safe, Love.”

She grunted. “It better be. I swear, Valentine, if you give that spot to Carly or anyone else, I will—”

“Hey, you may want to be nice to me. I could throw some of that god-awful music you like into the evening’s rotation.”

“Since when does the general manager have say over the kind of music that’s played at the annual party?”

“Since
I
became the general manager.”

“And you’re going to play a bunch of sixties music?” She wrinkled her nose. “I can’t really see the board members shakin’ their groove things to Hendrix and Joplin.”

“Oh, but you can see them dancing to the classy sounds of the eighties.”

She held up her hand. “I didn’t say that. It’s just,” she shrugged, “well, we usually have nothing but a jazz band.”

Chance pretended to yawn and patted his open mouth. “Snooze.”

She laughed. “Yes, actually.” Leaning forward, she narrowed her eyes. “So I get at least a few eighties songs, right?”

He scoffed. “One, if you’re lucky.”

“Come on, Valentine. I’ve been nice to you.”

“Ha.”

“I’ve been...as nice as I
could
be to you,” she amended. And because she still had visions of his cock dancing in her head, she said, “I could be extremely nice to you right now.”

“Watch it,” he said, his gaze sliding to her chest. “I’ll take you up on that.”

Her pussy began to throb. “That’s what I was hoping,” she said softly as she stared at his mouth.

He lifted his eyebrow. “Here?”

“Now,” she said, standing. She walked over to lock the door before turning to him.

He smiled as he stood up. “You can’t get enough of me.”

“Shut up.” She was pushing everything on the desk aside when she felt his hands on her breasts. Her head fell back as his cock, stiff and ready, pressed against her ass. Putting his lips next to her ear, he growled. It was enough to send her spiraling out of control.

Chance bent down to lick and suck on her neck as he slid his hands up her thighs, pushing her skirt up.

After fumbling with the buttons on her blouse, she took it off. He unfastened her bra, and it fell away. She rubbed her nipples as she moved her ass slowly against his dick.

“Mm,” he said, caressing her through her damp panties, “I want this.”

She gasped when he circled her clit with his finger. “Then take it.” She turned her head. “Please tell me you have a condom.”

“Shit.”

“What?” she cried.

Chance laughed against her neck as he moved one hand up to knead her breasts. “Kidding.”

“I should kick your ass.”

“Maybe...but not right now.” He stepped back and a few seconds later, he reached around to hold a condom up to her face.

She frowned. “Where’d that come from so fast?”

“Let’s just say I was prepared.”

“Arrogant. So sure I’d want you.” She heard the rustling of clothes as he dropped his pants.

“I was hoping.” He brushed her hair away from the back of her neck before pushing her down on the desk. “And I was right.”

“You’re such a—” She moaned when she felt his cock pushing into her tight, wet pussy. Chance leaned forward as he began to thrust. “Oh my God...” He was hitting some really fantastic spots from this angle.

Groaning, he began thrusting into her harder. “This won’t last long, Love. Sorry.”

Smiling, she reached back to pull one of his hands to her breast. “You’ll make it up to me,” she said breathlessly.

“Ah, shit...” He bit back more curses while he slid his other hand in front of her to rub her clit.

Gasping again, she fondled one of her breasts while Chance handled the other. “Yes, fuck me,” she panted. “Harder.” His husky grunts and groans pushed her closer to the edge. “Oh, shit!”

“Quiet, Love,” he ordered as he continued to ram his cock into her. “This is a place of business.”

She began moving her hips in a circular motion and soon had him cussing up a storm. “Shh!” she scolded.

She smiled when she heard him mutter, “Fucking brat.”

Chance pushed into her even harder and, at the same time, increased the pressure his fingers applied to her clit. Their breaths grew choppy and shallow as they careened over the edge.

She felt his body go rigid just as her own tensed in preparation.

“Shit,” he cried. Grunting, he jerked against her.

“Yes, yes... Oh my God,” she yelled as she came, rocking her hips against him as hard as she could.

Stephanie finally found the strength to stand up straight after he got off her. She heard the rustling of clothing again behind her as she put her bra on and grabbed her blouse.

He put his lips next to her ear and rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip. “See? If I say you come with me, you come with me. That’s just how it is.” He slapped her on the ass before leaving the office and closing the door behind him.

Stephanie smiled.
Fucking cocky bastard.

Chapter 28

As Chance strolled into work the next day, he knew he had to face it. He was way past being sexually addicted to the brat. Seeing her was the first thing on his blasted mind when he woke up in the morning—and the last thing as he fell asleep. Things were getting too risky now.

He’d gone to her house that night with every intention of firing her rude, grumpy, insubordinate ass. She’d finally pissed him off enough for him to take his grandfather’s advice. Then she’d started to cry, and it had damned near killed him. Well, the
shock
of seeing her cry had damned near killed him.

A vulnerable Love wasn’t one that was put on display so it had taken him aback. More than that, it had hurt
him
to see her like that. All he’d wanted was to kill whoever had hurt her, which he thought was good ol’ intoxicated Frank. Turns out, no one had hurt her—not directly anyway—so there was no one for him to go after. It was a helpless feeling and he hated it. There was no way in hell he was firing her after that. Logically, he knew he still should, or his grandfather would only do it himself, and he wouldn’t be at all nice about it.

Instead of trying to come up with the best options for breaking her heart, he’d been too busy worrying about her, lusting after her, bantering with her, and sleeping with her.

Smart.
No, it wasn’t just a twisted side of sexual addiction on a heaping plate of hate anymore. He liked her. Could he actually...love her? Chance brushed the thought away. Even if he did love the pain in the ass, he certainly wasn’t foolish enough
or
masochistic enough to be
in
love with her.

He wasn’t an “in love” kind of man. He had perfected the love ‘em and leave ‘em routine. Why abandon that now? And for
Love?
Shaking his head, he unlocked his office. He could just imagine the two of them married. That would be a nice life of absolutely zero peace and innumerable spousal homicide attempts.

The knock on the office door snapped him out of his reverie and he spun around. “Love?”

“Sorry,” Carly said as she peeked in. “It’s just me.”

He offered her a tight-lipped smile. The brazen brunette was due for some serious job counseling. Ever since becoming News Director, she’d had the power go directly to her head. She may be in a good mood now, but he wasn’t looking forward to the shift once he reprimanded her. “Carly, hi. Please, come in.”

She strolled in with a radiant smile in place. “I thought I’d come check on where we were exactly.”

He frowned. “I’m sorry?”

“With the party,” she said, eyebrows raised. “You were going to consider being my date?”

“Oh,” he said slowly. “I’m already going with someone—sorry.”

Nodding, she folded her arms. “Stephanie, by any chance?” When he didn’t respond, Carly shook her head. “Why? I mean, why
her?
The woman is horrible.”

Chance smiled. “She’s not that bad.”

Her eyes widened. “I beg to differ.”

“She’s tough, but she’s smart as a whip. She’s got horrible taste in music and movies, but she’s funny. She’s honest and...sweet.”

Carly’s jaw dropped.

“When she wants to be,” he added quickly, “which is, uh...very, very rarely.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, she’s gorgeous, and she’s just...something else.”

Carly studied his face.

He cocked his head. “What?”