Page 34 of Hale Yes (Highway to Hale #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Late nights

Helix

“It’s so quiet after everyone leaves,” Nicolette muses six days after our discussion at the coffee shop. She’s across the lab table from me, holding a sample jar to her nose and inhaling. “This one is better.”

“I like when the lab is quiet,” I say, taking the jar and giving it a sniff. “Yep, definitely less pungent than the last one. We’re on the right track.”

After finishing Jordie McNamara’s campaign, which has been received quite well by the public, our team has been working on the men’s skin care line and have started on hair products for kids.

That puts Nicolette and me staying late at the lab to develop her formulation for the fragrance enhancement.

We decided to keep the idea for it between the two of us until we have it nailed down.

There are no windows in the lab for security reasons. It’s not unheard of for other companies to spy and steal ideas, so the security at Hale Cosmetics is top-notch, especially in the laboratory building. Despite the lack of a view to the outside world, I can feel the darkness settling outside.

“It’s getting late,” I note, and Nicolette lifts her head, seeming surprised when she looks at the clock and sees it’s after nine.

“Time flies when you’re analyzing formulas,” she quips, and I laugh. Biochemistry jokes are the best.

Her eyes look especially green today, and I round the table to get a closer look. “What eyeshadow are you wearing?”

Her hand flutters near her temple. “Oh, it’s from Jordie’s palette.”

“May I?” I ask, lifting my hands to the sides of her glasses. When she nods, I remove them and set them aside before peering at her, seeing the expertly blended browns and greens. “So this is Gridiron Green and Pretty Pigskin?”

“Yes,” she replies, and I think her voice is slightly more breathless than it was a minute ago.

Taking her jaw gently in my hand, I tilt her face to the side.

I’m doing my best to focus only on the makeup, but I can’t help but notice the soft gusts of her breaths on my hand.

The filthiest part of my mind works its way to the forefront and wonders what her breath would feel like on my cock after she took me into her mouth.

Warm air against wet, thick flesh. Fuck.

The cock in question begins to take notice of Nicolette’s proximity, and I feel the tip begin to slide against the inside of my boxer briefs as it grows.

I have absolutely no excuse for what happens next. My dick and my hand seem to be in cahoots because my fingers slide down a few inches until my hand is wrapped around Nicolette’s throat.

Her rapid inhale is followed by the slow exhale of a sultry moan, and it unravels any rational thought in my head. With a slight shift of my hand, I angle her face to mine and search her eyes. But this time, I’m not looking at eyeshadow. I’m looking for the consent I so desperately need.

My fingers and thumb tighten the slightest amount on the sides of her beautiful, slender neck. Her skin is warm and pliable, and I can feel the quickening beat of her pulse as clearly as if I were holding her bare carotid artery in my hand. She’s excited.

“Is this what you like, Nicolette?” My voice has reached a timbre I haven’t heard from myself in quite a while, deep and commanding.

Her reply is instantaneous and clear. “Yes, that’s what I like.”

“Are you sure?”

The corners of her lips journey upward into a bit of a smirk. “Everyone knows women like jewelry, and hand necklace is my favorite.”

Mother of god, she is fucking perfect .

I yank her forward by the neck, our lips crashing together like the strongest of magnets, the laws of physics and lust combining to make them unable to stay apart.

The kiss is not tender, and it’s not hesitant.

There’s no seeking entrance into her mouth with a soft stroke of my tongue against her closed lips.

No. I take. I devour. I claim.

When my tongue pushes into her mouth, Nicolette responds by wrapping her tongue around mine and driving her fingers into my hair. I wonder if she somehow knows how much I love that… the pulling and tugging on my hair.

Releasing her neck, I drag my hands down her body and grip her waist, hauling her hard against me so she can see what she does to me. She groans and flexes her hips forward in a needy plea. I plan to satiate every single need she has.

My lips finally release hers, and I trail kisses across her cheek and to her ear. “This is what you want?”

Nicolette sighs when I punctuate my question with a hard suck of her earlobe. “If by this , you mean fucking me on this lab table, then yes, Helix, I do want this .”

Hale. Yes.

But I need her to understand the way I am, so I lift my head and meet her gaze. “We work together, and I don’t want there to be any misunderstandings or hard feelings between us. This can only happen once, okay? I can’t give any more than that.”

She doesn’t appear to be offended by my conditions. In fact, she grins wickedly. “I understand. You have an extended rebound time and can only get it up once a day.”

Damn, I adore her bite .

With a chuckle, I slide my hands around to cup her bottom, something I’ve been thinking about doing since I felt it in that hallway when we kissed. Nicolette has a fantastic ass.

“You know that’s not what I meant, smartass. I’m younger than you, remember?” I point out, earning me a narrowing of her eyes. “So my rebound time is excellent. I just?—”

“I know what you meant, and I’m good with that,” she interrupts. “I’m not looking for anything, especially something that could get messy with my boss.”

Dammit. I forgot for a second that I’m her boss. There’s no way I want to stop this, but I also don’t want an HR disaster on my hands. Yes, I’m part owner of Hale Cosmetics, but I’d never do anything to hurt my family’s company, no matter how great the temptation.

So I grit my teeth and say, “I should probably check on the company policy regarding things of a sexual nature between coworkers.”

Again, Nicolette smiles. “Have you forgotten I was hired recently? I read the entire employee handbook cover to cover, so I know what it says.” She taps the side of her head, which houses that brilliant brain of hers.

“There’s nothing forbidding any kind of relationship between employees at our level.

If I were an assistant, yes, that would be a problem, but I’m in a managerial position. ”

“Thank fuck,” I say, my mouth back on hers while I’m still uttering the last syllable.

We shrug out of our lab coats and drop them wherever-the-fuck. With our mouths still fused, I go to work on the buttons of her shirt with one hand while cupping her pussy with the other. The heat is evident even through her pants, and it makes my dick throb.

Nicolette, on the other hand, is not quite so dexterous. After a couple fumbling attempts to get my shirt off, she curses and rips the damn thing open, sending buttons pinging to the floor.

It’s undoubtedly the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. She’s as anxious for this as I am, and there’s nothing that turns on a man more than a woman who is feral for him.

We pull our mouths apart long enough for me to pull my suspenders down and for us to remove our shirts, and I stare down at her blood-red bra trimmed in lace.

“This is sexy as fuck,” I tell her, dragging a single finger along the scalloped edges that barely cover her breasts. “Did you wear it for me?”

Her mouth quirks. “No, I wore it for myself. It’s the one thing I splurge on because?—”

“Pretty lingerie is your guilty pleasure,” I finish, echoing what she told me in our shared room at her parents’ house.

She nods, seeming surprised that I remembered. I flick the clasp open and slip her bra straps down her arms before tossing the garment onto the floor. Her body is fantastic. Her breasts are full and pink tipped, and her waist tapers in before flaring again at the hips.

I haul her against me, loving the feel of bare skin to glorious bare skin. Her tits are soft against my chest, other than the firm peaks of her nipples. I enjoy the contact for a while until I have to touch her cunt. It’s not a want; it’s an undeniable need .

After undoing her pants, I slide my hand inside and groan.

I feel lace against the back of my hand, and my fingertips brush against silky skin and a tiny stripe of hair.

I think it’s called a landing strip, which makes sense because it’s directing me exactly where I want to be like an aircraft controller waving a 747 toward its destination.

Not that I need guidance. I know my way around a woman’s body.

Kissing my way down her chest, I look up at her and circle her nipple with the point of my tongue.

Wetness meets my fingers as I continue to tease those pert tips, one after the other while my other hand pets her pussy with soothing strokes.

I don’t touch her clit yet. I’m enjoying the tease too much.

My voice comes out as a soft warning. “I like being in control, Nicolette.”

Closing her eyes, she whimpers, “Yes.”

“Do what I tell you, and I’ll reward you. Now keep your eyes on me.”

Her lids snap open, and I graze my middle finger over her clit. Her hips jerk, and the nipple I’m currently occupied with hardens against my tongue.

“Yes, Helix. More of that. Please. I’ll do anything you tell me to do.”

“Hmmm, you’re a goddamn good fucking girl if I’ve ever seen one,” I purr, allowing another featherlight brush against that sensitive bud in her panties.

She nods, and her eyes go half-mast, though she keeps them on me like I directed. Her hips squirm and attempt to get more friction against her pussy, but I don’t allow it. Not yet.

“I need you, Helix. Just tell me what to do.”

Taking one nipple into my mouth, I give her a single, hard suck before releasing her with a pop. “I want to hear you beg.”

“Please,” she whispers, jutting her hips forward. “Please make me come. I promise I’ll be so wet for you.”