Rendezvous with the Billionaire: A Billionaire Workplace Romance (8 page)

The next time I took a break from my work, the sun was already setting, and since it was summer that meant it had to be getting late. I looked at the clock on my computer and winced. As if just realizing that the only thing I'd had to eat all day was a yogurt, but my stomach chose that moment to revolt, growling loudly into the empty office space. At least I was alone. All of the other associates had gone home long before me. But I still had just a little bit more work to do. I decided that if I just finished up one last report, about thirty minutes of work, I could pick up a sandwich and eat it before I got home.

"Are we starving you now?" Evan asked, standing in the doorway of his office.

I swiveled my head around to look at him. I'd thought that he'd long since gone home, but he was here with me, burning the midnight – well, 8PM – oil. "Can't you see they chain me to the desk?" I asked.

He smiled, "Are you sticking around for a while? I was going to order some food, they'll deliver if I order enough for two." He said it casually, but there was something about his tone that made me pause.

My first instinct was to turn him down. Eating with him would add at least an hour on to my planned time to leave, but on the other hand, it was – presumably – a free meal, and there was a growing part of me that wanted to get to know him. Just a little. So I said, "Dinner sounds nice," and tried to get finished up with the rest of my work before the food arrived.

About twenty minutes later he walked out of his office and returned with a bag full of steaming boxes. I couldn't tell what it was, but it smelled delicious. Only as he set it up in his office did I realize that he hadn't asked me what I wanted to eat. Oh well, I wasn't too picky so I didn't think it would be a big deal.

"It's ready," he called out.

I took one final look at my latest spreadsheet and decided that I'd done enough for the night. I saved it and shut down the computer. As I walked into his office, I asked, "So what are we eating?"

Evan had set the food and plates on a little table against one of the walls where he had two guest chairs set up. "Chinese, I hope that's all right?" He paused for a moment, "You're not allergic to anything, are you?"

"Beestings, but I unless you were really adventurous I think I'll be fine." I sat down in the chair that looked out over the city, taking in the bright lights of the office buildings and the zooming lights of the cars down so far away on the street. "It's a nice view."

He sat opposite me and threw a quick glance over his shoulder, "I suppose."

"You can see the Empire State Building from your office, and you just suppose?" I laughed and spooned out some rice onto my paper plate. Fine dining indeed. "So what's keeping you here so late?" Not that I paid attention to his usual schedule or anything, but he wasn't known for keeping long hours.

Evan grinned, "Did you know that if you take two weeks of vacation and ignore your email the work keeps piling up? My father threatened to disown me if I ever did that again." There was a tiny laugh in his words so I assumed that he wasn't serious.

"You didn--" I stopped myself from asking. There was teasing and then there was overstepping.

He raised an eyebrow, "I didn't what?"

But I shook my head and he let it drop. "This is good," I said a few minutes later, looking to fill the silence.

"I should hope so, I had it flown in from this tiny place in Boston." He sounded completely serious, his face blank.

I nodded, "Of course." I picked up the bag and showed him the label, "It's just strange how they must have stopped at Mr. Chan's China House on 34
th
to bag it up, don't you think?"

He put his hands over his heart and made a tiny sound of hurt, "You don't believe me? I'm distraught."

I threw the bag at him, one of the soy sauce packets still inside whipped around and hit him on the cheek.

He laughed and tossed it back towards me, but I batted it away and it landed on top of the white rice. Luckily we'd made such a dent in that container that only a grain or two spilled out.

An alarm went off on his phone and he had to rush across the room to shut it off. I just watched him and didn't try to fight the smile that was blooming on my face. On his way back to the table he quietly closed the door. "The cleaning people come in at 9:00, I don't like to make it weird for them."

"Weird how?"

He shrugged, settling back into his seat. He loosed his tie before he spoke, "I don't want them to think I'm watching them or will report them for whatever." He grabbed his tie once more, pulling it over his head and tossing it on the desk. That left him in just his white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to show some very nicely tanned forearms, and dark gray trousers. Working late chic. And despite how long he'd been in the office, he didn't look tired.

I could feel my hair falling out of place and was sure that half of my makeup had smudged off as I swiped at my face in absent frustration while I worked. But it wasn't his look that was doing things for me, it was his words.

"Did something happen when you were in England?" I almost covered my mouth, why did I say it like that? At least the last time I said something bad to him I had alcohol to fall back on.

But Evan didn't look offended, just a little confused. "Why would you think that?"

I'd already started, so there was no point in backing down. "You seem...nicer." But I couldn't just leave it at that. "I mean, okay, I'm going to be completely honest here." I waited for a moment, wanting to see if he would try to stop me, try to interrupt. But he just looked curious, anticipatory. "The whole deal we made? Your attitude then? You kind of seemed like a dick. An incredibly attractive dick, obviously, but not someone who I would ever sit and have dinner with. And enjoy myself."

His face grew serious and I was afraid I'd overstepped. But I wasn't afraid of him, or of any negative consequences. I'd come to understand, or at least believe, that he wasn't petty. Not when it came to small shit. "I don't always do well with people I don't know well," he finally admitted. "And it may surprise you, but what we did? That doesn't happen all too often."

Something within my chest, something dangerously close to my heart loosened. I hadn't even realized that I cared. "Yeah?" I tried to sound cool, but probably failed miserably. "Well, neither have I." A one night stand with a billionaire was pretty much a once in a lifetime thing.

Our confessions hung in the air between us. Neither of us quite knew what to do with that little bit of honesty, but it felt like it changed everything. I didn't expect Evan to get down on one knee and profess his love for me, but sometime in the last week he'd stopped being the aloof man who offered me an indecent proposal and had become something nicer, someone who could become a friend.

His expression softened and half a smile drifted across his face. "Do you dance, Amy?" He held out a hand, and it took me a moment to decide. But it wasn't a long moment. I reached across the table and put my hand in his.

He pressed a few buttons on his phone and the air was filled with the tinny sounds of an old fashioned big band. "I didn't realize you were ninety years old." I laughed a little as I said it.

Evan pulled me close, wrapping an arm around me as we swayed together. "If you're going to dance, do it in style."

The tune started out slow, but picked up after a minute. Evan followed along with it and I followed his lead, pressing close but picking up my feet to the beat. He spun me around, letting me go to dance back to him. I could feel myself grinning, impossible to resist just feeling good in his arms.

The tune picked back up and Evan spun me once more, and then dipped me unexpectedly. I let out a little squeak and clutched his forearms as he brought me back up. Unconsciously my leg had hooked around his to make sure that if I went down, he went down with me. He laughed at me and we readjusted ourselves.

The song came to a close, but we didn't stop dancing. We stood swaying, waiting for the next one to come on. And when it did, Evan practically vaulted over the desk to fast forward through whatever was supposed to play. The romance of the moment broken, I doubled over laughing. "Was that a boy band?" I asked.

Evan's cheeks flamed and I wished that I had a picture. "My sister borrowed it when we were in England, she must have put that on there."

But I couldn't stop. I was clutching my stomach and could feel all of the blood rushing to my head. I tried to calm myself down, looking out over the city and settling my breathing. But one look back at him and I could feel the laughter bubbling up again. "Aren't I the man you need?" I asked, trying to quote the lyrics and surely flubbing them horribly, and there was the laughter again.

His face was so harsh and yet so embarrassed. I couldn't help myself. I lifted up and gave him a light peck on the cheek, but my laughter died away when he grabbed my wrist, holding me gently but keeping me rooted in place.

He met my eyes, the bright green flashing with something I was scared to define. "I've been thinking a lot about our night together," he said, all trace of his smiles gone from his face. "Have you?"

How could I not? And while I wanted to be glib, I could feel that this moment was more important than any I'd ever spent with him. "I do." I said.

"And if I said I wanted another?" He asked, not quite offering.

A whole slew of thoughts ran through my head, filtering through in seconds. The truth was, if I wanted anything more from him I didn't want it in some regimented, nightly fashion given in dribs and drabs whenever he felt the least bit attracted to me. But I didn't need a relationship either. So I said the only thing that I could think to articulate it all. "I don't think we'll need all night," I leaned in, capturing his mouth and taking the kiss from him before he could think to deny me. But denial was the farthest thing from his mind.

Mindful of the food on the table, I backed him up so that he butted against the edge of his desk. I thought some of his papers might have gone flying, but I didn't care. His hands were on my hips, pulling me closer to him. This time it wasn't a mad stolen moment in the conference room or an impersonal night away from the world. Now we took our time, discovering each other, tasting, nipping, and licking in no hurry to end.

Evan explored me, his lips trailing away from my mouth and kissing the edge of my jaw down to my neck. He seemed to grow fascinated there, going so far as to run his teeth gently over that tendon. I jumped at the first instance, but moaned as he continued, my hand raising up to hold him in place before I could think. I didn't want to think.

At that angle I couldn't use my mouth on him, but my hands were free to do some exploration on their own. There wasn't an inch of him that I didn't want to touch, and so I let myself have free range of him. I let my fingers get between us and slowly, nearly painfully, undo the buttons of his white shirt.

He licked where he had been nipping and I let out an embarrassingly loud moan, but there was no room for embarrassment, especially when I could feel him smiling against my neck. And now it was his turn to work at my buttons, flicking them one by one. He cursed against my skin when the loose one fell off, landing somewhere on his desk. I couldn't even pretend to be mad. Both of us were wearing far too many layers and if my clothes had to be destroyed to fix that, then I would gladly sacrifice them for this cause.

I pulled back and just looked at him for a moment, saw a slight shift in his eyes as he tracked where I looked. I smiled at him and he mimicked the response. It started in his lips, as if he didn't even realize that he was doing it and then grew out from there, crinkling his cheeks and finally reaching his eyes. "I want to taste you." I said.

He moved in for another kiss, but I raised a finger, placing it on his lips, stopping him just inches from my mouth. "No," I said and reached for the band of his pants, "I want to taste you."

Fire lit his gaze as it dropped down to where my hand rested just over his swollen cock. "Well don't let me stop you," he said, his words a little breathless.

Just watching him watch me was leaving me wet, but he'd gotten to do this to me and now I wanted to return the favor. Sucking cock hadn't ever been a huge turn on for me, but the thought of having Evan Daringer at my mercy did things to me that I would never admit to in the light of day. I didn't get right to it, though I thought he was on the verge of telling me to drop to my knees.

I massaged him through the thick material of his pants, taking him well into my hand with only cotton between us. Evan let out a sound between a growl and a moan. I had a little mercy, unbuttoning his pants and carefully lowering the zipper. I let the trousers fall and pushed down his boxers to reveal the hard bouncing length of him.

For a moment I froze, still standing, my hand hovering over his cock. If he tilted his hips forward the tiniest bit I would be touching him, but as it was, except for where our legs pressed together, we were no longer touching each other. The tips of my fingers swiped against the silky flesh, feeling the heat.

I took myself down to my knees, but slowly. On my way I pressed kisses against his naked chest, licking the outline of his hard abs while I circled his cock with my fingers.

"Amy," he groaned. I smiled against his skin, I wanted him desperate for me, to beg.