eyes widened a touch, right before his gaze dropped to my mouth. And locked, with blazing hunger flaring in his eyes. “Lily...” Hoarse anticipation thickened his voice.
“Will you let me, Caleb?” I lowered his zipper and slipped my hand beneath the waistband of his boxers. “Make us both feel good?”
He slammed his head against the headrest and groaned, long and hard and pained. “Do you really expect me to refuse an offer like that?”
I pulled him out, gasped and just...stared. God. He was huge. Thick and hard and insanely hot. Caleb’s cock was everything I’d dreamed it would be and more. “You’re beautiful.” Tentatively, I stroked his hard length.
A rough sound erupted from his throat. “Dammit, Lily...”
Trepidation threatened to overcome me as the difference between watching a few porn clips and giving my first blowjob hit home.
I stroked him harder, loving the velvet-steel feel of him, loving the way his teeth gritted and his cheekbones flushed with color.
Lost in my ministrations, I startled when he cursed, “Fuck, stop licking your lips like that and put your gorgeous mouth on me before I come.”
Heart racing, I slowly lowered my head and kissed his crown. A hiss flew from his lips as his hand slid up my back. I trailed kisses over his length, and then dragged my tongue up the underside of his cock, earning myself another deep groan.
Still sliding my hand up and down his glorious shaft, I flicked my tongue in rapid succession over his slit. His hips jerked against my mouth and frantic fingers dug into my hair. “Fuck!”
I sucked and pumped him with long, even strokes, establishing a rhythm that drew harsh pants from him.
“Yes! Fuck, yes, just like that,” he croaked, his other hand fumbling for my breast.
Sensation curled through me as he fondled me almost frantically, his movements growing jerkier as I kept up a relentless pace on his cock.
A glance up showed his eyes squeezed shut, his chest heaving as he sucked in desperate breaths.
I reached between his legs, stroked his balls, and his fingers tightened painfully in my hair.
“God, Lily, don’t stop. Don’t fucking stop.”
Impossibly, he thickened in my mouth. I drew him deep, right to the back of my throat and held still, glorying in his utter lack of control when he ground himself mercilessly against me.
“Take it. Fuck, take it all,” he panted, right before a pure, animalist growl rumbled from his chest, then erupted in a hoarse shout as he came furiously in my mouth.
I swallowed him down, the salty muskiness of him weirdly addictive. When his body sagged against the seat, I licked him clean, then allowed him to pull me upright.
“Jesus, Lily. That was sensational,” he breathed against my mouth.
The smile that curved my lips was pure feminine power. My first blow and I hadn’t sucked at it. A wicked little laugh broke loose before I could stop it.
“Enjoying your power, are you?” he croaked.
“Maybe,” I replied breathlessly.
He pulled me in for a deep, long kiss. When we parted, we stared at each other for several heartbeats, both adjusting to the shifting landscape beneath our feet.
His gaze scoured my face; then his thumb brushed my lower lip.
After he zipped himself up, he reached into the center console and handed me packet of tissues. I took one and reached between my legs.
He caught my wrist. “No. Not there. I want you to walk around the office today with a reminder of how good this moment felt. Each time you get anxious, remember this moment. Remember that you’re phenomenal. Okay?”
The huge lump that rose in my throat prevented me from speaking. After I nodded, he took the tissue from me, and gently wiped my smeared lipstick. Then he wiped his own mouth before reaching for my satchel and the small makeup bag I kept in there.
He watched as I repaired my makeup, his intense gaze fixed on my face. Only then did he zip me back up, button my jacket and let me slide back into my seat.
“You ready?”
I took a deep breath and let my gratitude show in my smile. “Yes.”
His return smile was gentle if a little dazed around the edges. “Let’s go.”
The morning presentation went without a hitch, with an eager audience comprising the tech media and bloggers, applauding when the two-hour event was done.
Over the years, Chance and I had perfected the art of being in the same room but speaking only the barest minimum to one another.
Afterward, I returned to my office with Chance. Caleb had grudgingly agreed to keep out of sight while I dealt with Chance but I knew he was nearby, and that gave me a layer of comfort I didn’t know I needed till it was time for the second presentation.
The beta test started off well, my tweaks making the algorithm as fast as I promised it would be.
Right up until the moment the compression sequence slowed to a crawl. My heart jumped into my throat. Seventeen excruciating seconds ticked by before it sped up again.
But the blip was the only thing that mattered when the screen turned black and the lights went back up in the conference room.
Lily
“I CAN FIX IT,” I blurted. “It’s just a small area of the code.”
Chance looked furious. “We thought these wrinkles would’ve been ironed out by now.”
“I still have three weeks of beta testing before the final deadline.”
Walter Green, the man Chance had brought with him, frowned. “You said it would be ready, Donovan.”
“I was assured it would be,” Chance responded.
I ignored the men and fired up my laptop. Scrolling through the code, I zeroed in on where the problem was. Heart pumping, I forced myself to analyze it line by line. After forty lines, I stopped. “It’s fixable,” I repeated. “But I’ll need time.”
“How much time?” Chance snapped.
I bit my lip. “A week. Ten days, tops.”
Silence greeted me.
Walter Green rose and left the room without saying a word. The other SDM executives also left.
Chance Donovan’s gray eyes lanced me. The rest of him looked as harmless as a middle-aged CEO with a wife and three kids could look. But from the moment we met, I’d glimpsed a layer of menace in his eyes that pushed all my self-preservation buttons. “This is disappointing, Lily,” he rasped.
I forced myself not to waver. “Who’s Walter Green?”
“He’s the guy who decides whether SDM sinks or swims. Delivering this algorithm, correctly and on time, and earning the freedom you claim to so badly crave, feeds directly into that. Is that clear enough?” he said.
“Yes,” I murmured.
“Good. Now, what’s this I hear about a new consultant?” he asked.
I struggled not to tense up as I trotted out the line Caleb and I practiced. “He’s from LA. He’s helping me with preliminary info on a possible gaming app my team is working on.”
Suspicion flickered through his eyes. “Why don’t I know about this? And why is he staying at your house?”
Why wasn’t I surprised he knew Caleb