powerful society families, and he’s getting a lot of help from the Old Boy Network.
Which is where Maxim Darlington-Hume comes in. I may not have a rich and powerful family of my own to call on, but Maxim’s backing is as good as, if not better than, the next best thing. Word of mouth and personal recommendation are powerful beasts, and if Maxim will agree to play his part in convincing the majority of companies to go with us the rest will hopefully follow.
So, much as I hate it, Maxim Darlington-Hume has the ability to make or break the company I’ve built with my blood, sweat and tears over the last ten years, and I need to play the game in order to gain his benevolence.
That’s the only reason I agreed to let Maya work here for the next few weeks—not that I’ll be trusting her with anything important.
Unfortunately, it seems she’s determined to make it impossible for me to ignore her until her time’s up, and deciding how best to deal with her obvious cry for attention now puts me in a real quandary.
I know what I’d like to do—put her over my knee and give her a wake-up call she won’t forget in a hurry—but of course I’m not going to do that.
I scowl at the tall, willowy temptress standing before me in my office, who gazes back coolly, her full lips pursed and her bright blue eyes meeting mine with a fortitude I feel all the way down to my cock—which twitches disobediently. She’s clipped back her long, chocolate-brown hair today, and is wearing a sky-blue skirt, which skims the edge of decency with its mid-thigh hemline, and an almost see-through silk blouse under a figure-hugging jacket.
She’s the very picture of an executive’s wet dream.
I was acutely aware of the tense, sexually charged atmosphere between us in the room earlier—how could I not be?—and it had become glaringly apparent to me that she was going to be a real distraction whenever she was around. She has a palpable presence—a disrespectful, carelessly sexy confidence that I seem to be innately drawn to.
I’m going to have to use every reserve I have at my disposal if I’m going to keep this woman from causing me trouble I really don’t need.
‘Do you think that’s an appropriate way to behave in a business setting?’ I ask her calmly, folding my arms and frowning, determined not to let her deliberate ploy to get a rise out of me work as she backs slowly up against the desk in the middle of my office.
‘I’m sorry, Mr Chivers, I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
She’s all innocence and big eyes, and the sheer bloody audacity of it makes my cock twitch again. She knows damn well I understand what she’s up to. The woman is clearly a pro at getting what she wants and has a lust for trouble.
An awe-inspiring combination, but also a dangerous one.
‘Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing, Maya,’ I say quietly, imbuing my voice with terse authority.
She just blinks at me, but I sense the smile behind her mask of naivety.
‘You were sitting in an inappropriate way in that meeting,’ I say, keeping any expression in my voice to a minimum. I don’t want her to know how much this chemistry between us affects me.
‘You mean like this?’
Without a second’s pause she sits down on my desk and raises her right leg, propping her foot on the back of one of the visitor chairs in front of it. The movement forces her legs open and her skirt to ride up her thighs, exposing her pussy to me again.
I try not to look.
Really fucking hard.
‘You should wear underwear to the office.’ I force the words past my suddenly dry, constricted throat. A pulse beats hard in my head and my vision swims as she gives me a wide, secretive smile.
‘But I don’t like wearing underwear,’ she whispers huskily. ‘Is it an office rule, or something?’
‘No,’ I say, wishing at that moment that it was, so I’d know exactly how to deal with this brain-melting situation. ‘But it’s indecent,’ I add, which unfortunately sounds ridiculously inane when said out loud.
I silently curse myself for letting her see my obvious stumble from dispassion into prudishness.
Her eyebrows shoot up. ‘Indecent? Well, perhaps you should punish me for it, then,’ she suggests, with amusement in her voice.
She’s laughing at me—and the knowledge makes me drag in a ragged, incensed breath.
Something wicked flares in her eyes and I feel the control I’ve been determinedly clinging on to for the last week start to slip.
‘What are you expecting to happen here?’ I ask her, fighting for nonchalance.
She shrugs, completely unapologetic. ‘I have no idea. I just wondered what you’d do if I misbehaved. Perhaps you’ll just stare meaningfully at me again. You seemed to enjoy doing that the last time my pussy was on show.’
I swallow hard, but don’t rise to her teasing provocation. I just continue to look at her steadily. This woman has danger written all over her. I’m going to have to be firm here—let her know I’m not going to put up with her shit.
As if she’s read my mind she says, ‘Perhaps you should discipline me so I don’t do it again.’
I raise an eyebrow, determined not to give her the pleasure of an emotional response to that. ‘Discipline you how?’
Her chest is rising and falling rapidly now, as if the idea of it thrills her. Which, of course, thrills me right back.
‘I don’t know. How would you like to do it?’ she says, as if she’s asking me how I take my coffee.
Clearly she’s enjoying playing with me. Like a cat would play with a mouse.
I can imagine how sharp her claws might be if she got me cornered, though, so I say, ‘Perhaps I should send you home for the day. To think about the consequences of your actions.’
Surprise and disappointment flash in her eyes. She doesn’t like it that I’m not playing the game.
‘But I’ll just come back tomorrow and do it again.’ Her mouth lifts in a crooked smile, her bright, intelligent eyes boring into mine. ‘Perhaps you should take your frustration out on the thing that’s most disturbing you.’
She lifts her other leg, putting her foot onto the chair to her left, and her skirt rides further up her thighs, fully exposing her beautiful pussy, glistening with arousal. She has to brace both hands on the surface of my desk to keep upright.
‘Right here,’ she says roughly, narrowing her eyes.
Something dark and compelling takes over me, and before I can check myself I take two deliberate steps forward so I’m standing between her spread legs.
I could touch her right now if I let myself. My right hand is hovering only inches away, as if magnetically drawn. My heartbeat thuds in my ears as I breathe in the sweet, arousing scent of her. I wonder fleetingly how she’d taste and feel against my tongue,
