Me: Don’t start. We have work to do.
Cade: I stopped working the moment you told me you were in our bed.
Me: Technically, one half of the bed is yours. The other half is mine. It’s very clear from the spray-painted line.
Cade: Line seems a bit blurry to me.
Me: Leave me alone.
Cade: Why did you change?
Me: Because we have a team-building event in ONE hour.
Cade: What are you wearing?
Me: Just a blouse and shorts.
Cade: Can your hand slip into those shorts easily?
Cade: If it can, be sure to let me know how wet that pussy is for me.
Sexting and digital play was something I thought would never turn me on but having Cade message me from the other room had me pretty much soaked. Especially when I pictured him sitting at that table with those strong fingers typing away, black ink under his rolled-up sleeves, and the veins protruding from his forearms.
I pressed the ignore button on my messenger app and tried to stay on task. But I couldn’t help myself once he’d put the idea there. My hand roved over my jean shorts, and I pushed the seam of the fabric back and forth between my legs.
He caught me like that, my eyes closed and a soft gasp escaping my lips. I jumped, and my laptop almost went flying. Cade had padded quietly down the hallway and leaned on the doorframe with those fucking glasses. “No need to stay quiet, Izzy. I like the sound you make when your pussy is being played with.”
“Jesus, I was not doing that!” When I chanced a look at him, he was smiling at me like we were breaking all the rules and he was going to bask in every second of it.
“Did you check your daily tasks yet?”
I chewed on my cheek and went to the daily tasks. There were a few left—one of which was to call Stonewood Enterprises and update the owner on our progress, and the last was what he wanted me to see.
Task: Unbutton your shorts.
“Hand in the shorts is going to feel better anyway, right?” He lifted a brow, not letting go of the fact that he’d caught me in the act.
“Unfortunately, I have to call the freaking owner of Stonewood Enterprises to tell him we are minutes away from finishing up JUNIPER for testing with the team. So I guess I won’t be doing that.”
“Izzy, the call can wait. Your orgasm can’t. Play with yourself for me,” he commanded, the last words low, an unspoken threat.
I waited, like I was going to defy him. I wanted to know my punishment.
“You wait another minute, and I’ll corrupt your whole computer, dollface. Then you won’t be able to work at all.”
Shit, he was good. It was the only thing I didn’t want. I would have taken him smacking my ass or getting his belt. It meant he wanted this; he was practically begging for it by actually threatening me with something.
That had my heart galloping with the rush of pleasing him, of seeing his desire for me, of him at my mercy.
Taking my time, I closed my laptop and set it aside. “Fine. You want this so bad, Mr. Armanelli. Let’s give you what you came for. Tell me what you want.”
He didn’t even hesitate. “Unbutton your shorts and push them down.”
I slowly pulled the button open on my shorts but stopped there. I wasn’t about to give him all of me by discarding my clothing simply because he asked. “This will have to do, Cade,” I snarked, and then I shoved my hand into my panties and moaned, feeling the nerves on my clit singing from receiving attention so quickly. This was me. I wanted it fast, raw, and with my clothes still on, like I could get it anywhere just thinking about it. He’d see how fast I could barrel into an emotion, into an orgasm, how fast I could be consumed. My eyes rolled back as I rolled my hips, but Cade didn’t let me get lost that quickly.
“Open your eyes, Izzy. And slow down.”
My eyes shot open, but I didn’t slow down. I went faster, my breath, my heartbeat, the heat rising on my body. “I’m taking it how I want it, Cade.”
I worked my clit, rolling it between my fingertips, and I watched as he fisted his hands at his sides, as his neck tensed, as he licked his lips. He was holding back, not coming to me, leaving me to chase the orgasm on my own. I loved how he stared at me with desire, how he wore those glasses still—like he was researching me, analyzing me, decoding me.
I slid a finger inside and moaned. There was no lasting when he watched me like this, when I felt like I was doing everything wrong, but it felt so right. I screamed his name when I orgasmed, and my whole body convulsed as I saw stars.
He pushed himself from the doorway and strode over to his side of the bed where he sat before grabbing the wrist at my shorts. He pulled my hand from my panties and sucked my fingers clean. “Jesus Christ, you taste so damn good when you’re being bad, baby doll.”
And before I knew what he was doing, he stuck his phone in my face and snapped a picture. “What the hell, Cade?”
“One for one, doll. You took mine, and now I took yours.” He slid his phone back into his pocket, and then his dark eyes, warm as molasses, roved over me.
“Oh no.” I shoved him back. “Stay on your side. We have a team-building exercise in twenty minutes. Heather said we’ll be doing a paddleboard relay race before I assign teams to work on the different parts of JUNIPER.”
“Well, you can be late.”
“No. You and I are not going to be late.” I poked him in the chest. “You have to come.”
“For what?”
“For people to see you and trust you and want to work with you,” I said as I grabbed my pink bikini.
He eyed it. “You’re wearing that for a paddleboard relay?”
“Yep. And I’m hoping it falls all the way off,” I threw back because I knew he was going to say something about it being too skimpy.
He groaned, padded over to his suitcase, and grabbed swim trunks, surprisingly without saying a word. Then, he went to his bathroom to change. I thought I was winning as I threw on my bathing suit and sucked on a candy cane in the living room, waiting for him.
My plan went completely off the rails when he walked down the hallway in nothing but dark swim trunks. I’d never seen the way his tattoos wrapped around his chest, how the black snaked over his skin. When he moved, each of his muscles flexed.
Caden Armanelli hid that perfect body under those tailored suits he wore, but not today. He had two towels hanging off one arm, and he grabbed some sunglasses from the counter to put on before he said, “You ready?”
The answer was no.
I leaned against the table for support. I knew I was drooling too.
How had I never considered that he’d look so good without a shirt on in the sunlight? “I don’t think . . .” How was I going to get around this? “Why don’t you have a shirt on?”
His brow furrowed. “What? Why don’t you have a shirt on, dollface?”
I glanced down at myself, completely forgetting what I had on. “I have a bathing suit on.”
“So do I.”
“But you are . . . You look . . . You’re the boss.”
“I don’t care what I am. If you’re getting in that water wearing a swimsuit you might lose, I’m getting in it with you. Now, let’s go.”
“Instead of focusing on what might be happening with my swimsuit, focus on being the boss, Cade. The team needs to see you.” I was telling him as much myself, goddamn it.