Working Stiff: Casimir (Runaway Billionaires #1) (28 page)

SERIOUS

Once Rox and Cash were inside his corner office, she said, “The DiCaprio meeting starts in two hours, so we should—”

Cash slammed the door, locked it, and grabbed her into his arms. His biceps bulged under his suit jacket. “There’s only one reason I came into the office today.”

“Cash! Everyone’s right outside!”

He chuckled, his face already against her neck. “I know.”

She reached behind him and slapped the horizontal blinds on the slot window closed. “I cannot
believe
that you would—”

“I have thought about this for three years,” Cash whispered near Rox’s ear, and she went shock-still. He grabbed her ass with one hand but kept the other wrapped around her waist. “Every day that we leaned on this desk to look over those damn contracts and curse about them, I wanted to bend you over it and bury myself in you.”

Three years?
“Cash!”

“I have wanted to see that luscious ass of yours in the air.” He gathered her skirt, lifting it, and slid his hand over her butt. The new lingerie left most of her buttcheeks bare, and Cash palmed her flesh. He groaned, “Oh,
God,
Rox.”

Rox glanced at the wide windows streaming across the two walls, but the glass was silvered on the outside. No one should be able to see in.

Should.

She grinned.

Cash whirled her around, pulling her across the office, but her knees shook when she tried to follow him. One of her heels caught on the carpeting, and she stumbled.

He was there, his arms around her. Cash picked her up, his hands behind her knees, and carried her to the desk. He set her on the edge and leaned between her legs, his arms braced around her on the desk, and kissed her.

When he broke off for air, she whispered, “You were serious?”

He grabbed her butt again and glanced down at her body.
“Absolutely.”

“I mean, every day? For three years?”

He backed up for a second and looked her in the eyes. “I have never been so serious in my life.”

Rox blinked for a moment, finding it hard to breathe, and reached out to touch his face on the side without the bandage. “But you never—”

Instead of the kinky fun that had twinkled in his emerald eyes just a moment ago as he told her that he was going to screw her on his desk, a deep desperation made him look haunted.

She didn’t have time to try to say anything else before he grabbed her, threading his fingers into her hair and crushing her to him, his mouth devouring hers. He was shoving at her clothes, bunching her skirt up around her waist and fumbling with the buttons on her blouse.

Rox wiggled, wrenching her arms behind herself and peeling her suit jacket off in back of her. It slithered over the far edge of the desk and landed on the floor. Cash’s breath was rough in her ear as he ran his teeth over the tendons of her neck and, pulling her blouse aside, on her shoulder.

He grabbed her, yanking her closer to himself, one arm tight around her waist but the other hand on her breast, thumbing her nipple through her blouse and the thin silk of her bra, as he locked his mouth over hers again. His tongue pushed into her mouth, rubbing along hers, as his hand caressed lower. He groped her ass again, pushing her sex against the hard rod of his erection. Rox made a sound deep in her throat, something near a moan, as his hardness pressed her clit.

Cash growled.

Rox pushed off the desk behind her and grabbed his belt, unbuckling him and unhooking his suit pants.

He pulled her suit skirt up farther around her waist and dragged at her panties. He stole a quick glance at the pale blue silk and lace. His fist tightened on the lace on the side, and she thought he was going to rip them off of her for a moment but he yanked them out from under her butt and down her legs.

His zipper jumped out from between Rox’s fingertips, and it took two tries for her to catch it. She unzipped him and pushed at his underwear. His cock sprang out, hard and pointing toward his navel on his flat, rippled stomach. A bead of moisture leaked at the top. Rox shoved him back with one hand. He arched, surprised, and she crunched forward and licked it off. A hint of salt on her tongue and the faint scent of earthy musk from his body thrilled through her, and she grabbed one of his belt loops to pull him closer.

Cash sank his fingers into her hair and pulled her head back. His green eyes narrowed, and he watched her as his fingers dipped lower.

Rox closed her eyes and dropped her head back, each swipe of his fingers over her folds and nub sending shivers up her body. His fingers were gentle at first, finding her slippery center and sliding the moisture on her skin, then firmed as she bit her lip. Her core started to tighten, and she whimpered.

He pressed his hand flat against her, covering her, and massaged her folds all the way from her tip to her ass, overwhelming her.

She gasped, “Cash, please. Oh,
please.”

His fingers opened, and the tip of him pushed inside her.

Her fingers still clutched his belt loop, and she jerked him toward her, sliding him deep into her.

He gulped air and crushed her against his body, straining to push himself farther inside. Rox grabbed the edge of the desk, dragged her body a few inches closer, and wrapped her legs around him.

His ragged breath was hot on her neck as he plunged into her, pumping hard, every thrust rubbing over her clit. Rox shoved him, trying to get away from him a little because the sensation ground into her, tightening her so fast, so hard, knotting her inside. She writhed, and he crushed her against his chest and shoved up into her, growling and grinding against her.

One more hard thrust deep into her shattered the tension. Passion flowed from her center outward, rocking her on waves all the way to her fingertips and toes, silencing the world around her for long moments.

The first thing she heard was Cash’s breath, harsh and warm on her neck as he groaned her name, his deep voice hoarse with passion. His cock still throbbed inside her, pulsing heat.

She clung to his neck and shoulders, panting, too emotional to let go of him.

Dang it, tears were burning in her eyes.

One of his hands stroked her hair, the other one braced behind her on the desk to keep them both from falling backward, and he murmured,
“Lieveke,”
again and again.

She rested her forehead against his strong shoulder, the fine fabric of his suit smooth against her face.

When she could breathe, when she could
think,
she loosened her arms around his neck. He backed up a little, but he rested his forehead against hers, his eyes still closed. “
Lieveke.”

“Casimir,” she whispered.

His open lips rose in a slight smile. “Yes.”

They stayed there for another minute, still breathing hard, until Rox sighed and pushed his shoulder a bit to tell him to get off of her.

He stepped back, reaching for a tissue from the box on his desk and mopping himself dry before zipping up.

Rox realized the problem.

Panic.
“Did you use a condom?”

“Oh, shit.” His emerald eyes widened. “I’m
sorry.
I
meant
to. I have some right here in my desk.” He opened a drawer. “I meant to grab one, but once I got your panties off, I couldn’t think straight.”

Rox could have gone forever without knowing about the condom stash in his desk—

He pulled out a long ribbon of joined foil packets, more than a dozen of them.

—and she could have gone way longer without knowing how damn many he had in there. “Are you
serious?”

“Oh, my God,” he said to her, his eyes wide and honest. “I am so sorry.”

“It’ll be okay,” she said, freaking out inside but not shaking too much. “I’m sure it’ll be okay. Nothing will happen.”

He grabbed her again, holding her to his chest. “I just had a check-up. My blood tests were all clear. If anything happens—”

“Nothing will,” she said again. “I’ll pick up one of those morning-after pills on the way home. It’ll be fine. Really.” She snuggled closer to him anyway. “I should go on the pill anyway.”

Going on the pill for a month or two seemed stupid, a long-term solution to a short-term problem, but she could probably just call her GYN and have them phone in a prescription.

Cash said, “I mean it. If anything happens—”

“Nothing will,”
she told him again, putting some courtroom steel in her voice. “I’ll make sure of it. I wouldn’t trap you like that. Or cause problems like that. Or whatever.”

“Is that what you think it would be?” he asked, his voice soft near her ear. “A problem?”

“Of course. We’re just playing around.”

He stood and looked down at her, a soft smile playing at the edges of his mouth. His lips were still swollen from kissing her. “I’m not playing around,
lieveke.”

“Oh, Cash. I’ll bet you say that to all the girls.”

GIRLFRIEND-ZONED
 

Ten minutes later, Rox had straightened her clothes, pulled her underwear and jacket back on, and could reasonably pass for a professional woman in an office who had not been freshly fucked.

Probably.

Cash, meanwhile, had tucked himself all back together and was going over the notes for their meeting with the DiCaprio people in fifteen minutes. As usual, he looked perfect. He hadn’t even wrinkled his suit.

She finger-combed her hair in her reflection in the window. Men had it so danged easy. She looked as presentable as she was going to. “Ready?”

“Certainly. You’ve done an excellent job with the notes, as usual.” He gestured to his suite of couches by the door. “Why don’t you rest while I go to the meeting?”

Rox’s mouth fell so far open that flies might have gotten in. “I beg your pardon?”

He ran his hand down her arm as he walked by her, a caress. “Stay in my office. Relax for a few hours. I can run this meeting.”

“I
always
come into meetings with you!”

“But you must be tired.”

“I’m not
that
tired. You’re a great lay, Cash, but I am not unconscious.”

“I’ll have to try harder next time, then. But truly, you don’t have to come to the meeting. Stay here.”

“Have you been snorting those pain pills they gave you? I am not going to lounge around your office like some doxy with a sugar daddy! I am a paralegal. I am
your
paralegal.”

“Of course, you are.”

“I’m the only paralegal who will still
work
with you!”

“Well, you’re the only paralegal with whom I’ll work. The others all kept playing footsie while we were in meetings. It was mortifying.”

“Well, they all thought that they were your
girlfriend
then, didn’t they?” She gasped. “That’s it, isn’t it? You’re trying to
girlfriend-zone me.”

One of his eyebrows dipped in confusion. “That must be one of your American colloquialisms.”

Rox ranted, “That’s
it!
You’re treating me like a girlfriend instead of a colleague. Well, let me tell you something,
Casimir Friso van Amsberg.
I’m a
professional
woman in this office. You will not treat me like your
girlfriend
when we’re in here. Do I make myself
perfectly
clear?”

Cash blinked, his lush eyelashes closing over his dark green eyes several times. “I am doing that, aren’t I?”

“Way to go for the deep introspection, buddy. And what’s more: I am your paralegal,
first.
When you ghost me, when you lose interest in my chubby ass and decide to fuck somebody else, I will
still
be your paralegal. I am not going to give up my job just because you decide to poke your dick in some other hole. You got that?”

“Rox,” he said, his voice breathy. He reached for her. “I would never—”

She dodged. “You
will.
We
both
know it. And don’t you
lie
to me, Cash Amsberg. I will
whup
your ass.”

“I would never dream of—”

“Stop it.
Just
stop
it. We both know how this is going to go down. One day, you’ll find another chick that you want to boink, and then you’ll stop returning my calls and my texts and you won’t look me in the eyes when I talk to you. You’ll
ghost
on me. You’ll walk away, and it’ll be just like you
died.
Like you took a gun and pulled the trigger or you went over the side of your deck and didn’t give a
damn
about me or how I would go on afterward.”

He was holding out both his hands, palms up, and his emerald eyes pled with her. “
Lieveke
, I would never do that to you.”

Her teeth ground together in her skull, and she snarled through her clenched teeth, “I’ll bet that you say that to all the girls.”

He jerked backward like she had punched him.

She said, “Now pick up those notes, and let’s get to that DiCaprio meeting.”

She flounced out of the office.

That’s right. She damn well
flounced.

AMSBERG V. ARBEITMAN

Outside the door of the conference room where the DiCaprio people were waiting, Rox paused just in case Cash needed a pep talk or to process what she had said and damn well meant, but he smiled at her while he held the door for her, just like normal. They walked in together, wearing their bitch faces.

Inside, senior partner Valerie Arbeitman was already sitting at the conference table, a tablet and notepad in front of her.

Valerie asked, “What are you two doing here?”

Rox stopped, and Cash stiffened beside her. “We’re here for the contract discussion. What are you doing here?”

“When you weren’t back from your car accident, I took my clients back.”

“This case was shuffled to us when you had your stroke.”

“You didn’t call in to say that you were coming back today, anyway.”

“Rox notified people, and I haven’t missed a meeting.”

Rox nodded, confirming that she had notified them. Rox never missed confirming meetings. Missed meetings were horrendously expensive.

Cash said, “I’ve teleconferenced or moved them, but I’ve never left people waiting. We’ve prepared for this meeting for weeks. We’re ready.”