Page 12 of I Love You, I Hate You
It wasn’t that Victoria was a stranger to chemistry. She’d had boyfriends and flings in the past, and she still thought very fondly of a summer hookup after her 2L year with an intern who’d ended up in Milwaukee after graduation. But nothing compared to the force of nature that was what she had with Owen. It was propulsive, explosive, and incredibly distracting. Throughout the deposition she’d fixated on his lips, remembering what they felt like on her skin. When his eyes sparked with righteous anger she remembered how softly he’d looked at her after they both came, like she was something precious to him.
She had just managed to pull herself out of a very dangerous reminiscence spiral when there were two sharp raps at her door. It was almost seven, the sun sinking behind the horizon and painting the sky outside her window pink and gold. She slipped her high heels back on under her desk before standing, touching her hair to make sure it was securely in place. “Come in,” she called, certain she knew who was on the other side.
She was right. Owen opened her door, already rolling his eyes. “It’s not enough that I have to come fetch things from you, Your Highness?” he snarled. “You couldn’t just leave it at security?”
“I was busy,” she said with a shrug.And maybe I wanted to see how far I could push things, a traitorous voice in her brain whispered. She took a moment to smooth out her skirt because she knew it would bug him, and picked up his phone. “This is yours. Don’t forget to respond to Ashley,” she added archly. “And I’m just curious, how many of us do you have in rotation?”
“Don’t,” he gritted out.
“Oooh, have I found a sore spot?”
His eyes flashed. “Don’t,” he said again, a muscle in his jaw ticking.
Victoria wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that, whether it meant he didn’t have anyone else or he simply didn’t want to talk about her, but either way her mouth went a little dry at the way he was looking at her.
“Tell me,” he said with a dangerous glint in his eye, “are you like this on purpose?”
“Like what?” she asked primly. He plucked the phone from her hand, his fingers brushing against hers, and electric sparks raced unbidden up her nerve endings, crackling through her skin.
“Cold. Robotic. Inhuman.”
“Just because I don’t melt at your pathetic attempts at charm doesn’t make me cold. It makes me a functional human with a brain,” she said haughtily.
He snorted. “You might have a brain but you’re sure as hell heartless. You’d have to be, working here.”
“Smorgasbord’s philanthropy—”
“Smorgasbord’s entire business model depends on keeping your employees in poverty and you know it,” he snapped.
“Save it for the courtroom, counselor,” she said evenly. Nothing bothered him more than seeing her unruffled so she made sure to keep her words clipped even if her heartbeat picked up several paces when he stepped towards her.
“How can you?” he said, voice almost strangled. “What you have—and you workhere?”
“Better than a dilettante who only chooses cases where he can play the savior,” she said nastily. She held out her hand and he slapped her phone into it angrily. Victoria stalked past him to the door and gestured wordlessly out into the deserted halls. “Well? Was there something else?”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” he sneered, once more standing toe to toe with her. Victoria lifted her chin and arched a brow. Owen smirked at her, his blue-green eyes dropping to her lips.
And just like that, they were kissing. They crashed into each other and she blindly slammed her door shut, grateful that the rest of her coworkers had already left for the evening. Like in the stairwell, Owen quickly pinned her against the door, and she hated how much she liked that feeling. His teeth nipped at her lower lip, just this side of harsh, and her nipples tightened in response.
This time, when his hand found the hem of her skirt, he didn’t torture her. He slid his palm up her thigh to the place where her stockings met bare skin, and the moans they made into each other’s mouths were identical. She tunneled her fingers into his hair and drew his head down, first to just under her jaw and then to her collarbone, his kisses a potent mixture of teeth and tongue. His hand worked busily under her skirt, palming her ass and teasing the lacy edge of her stockings, and she jerked his tie loose. His coat fell to the floor with a soft rustle and he nearly ripped her blouse open trying to undo the buttons one-handed.
Owen gave up when her bra was visible, nudging it down just enough to reveal her breasts. And then his mouth was on her again; hot, wet suction that made her stuff her fist into her mouth to muffle the noises she desperately needed to make. Owen’s hand under her skirt skated up to trace the seam of her panties. He straightened, her nipples now exposed to the cool air, and nuzzled against her jaw. “What color are they today?” he growled.
“Why don’t you see for yourself?” she gasped, because his fingers were touching her lightlyeverywhereexcept for where she wanted to be touched.
His hand slid down her inner thigh to her stockings again and he pinned her wrists above her head with his other hand. “I’ve been thinking about these fucking thigh-highs all damn day,” he said in that same rough, needy voice. “Did you wear them on purpose to wreck my concentration?”
Obviously, as “nearly getting fingered in a stairwell” hadn’t been on her to-do list, she hadn’t. “Been thinking about me, have you?” she said, and captured his lower lip between her teeth.
“All fucking day. Couldn’t stop thinking about what they’d look like against your skin.”
“There’s nothing stopping you from finding out now.”
His dark grin sent shivers down her spine. For the space of a heartbeat they looked into each other’s eyes, heat rising between them. He nipped at her lips, his touch like a brand on her skin, and waited for her nod before he moved.
Her office phone rang, shattering the tension between them.
Owen seemed to come back to his senses first, shaking his head and backing away. Victoria felt the loss of his warmth keenly but then she realized what she’d been about to do.Again.She kept her eyes averted from him as she hurried across her office, hastily rebuttoning her shirt as she answered the phone, privately wondering what the hell was wrong with her brain.