Page 42 of Puck
“Oh yeah? Like what?”
His hand snuck under the hem of my skirt, and I held stock still, barely breathing. “Like the fact that you’re totally cool under pressure. No hysterics, no howling, no freezing, you just do what’s gotta be done and don’t whine or bitch or argue.”
“That makes you horny?”
“What it says about you does. The fact that you’re tough.”
I laughed. “Oh I’m tough, all right. Most guys find it intimidating. I don’t take bullshit, I take charge, and I get shit done. I started as a PA at the firm where I work, and now I’m in charge of several of the biggest accounts we have in China and Russia. I got there by being tough, by never taking anything sitting down. And the guys I work with make no secret of the fact that they think I’m an ice queen bitch.”
“Then they’re pussies.”
“I agree. The hypocrisy is astounding, though. They call me ice queen and bitch and butch and all sorts of names because I refuse to put up with misogynistic horseshit, and because I’m focused and determined and all business at work. Yet if I show so much as a hint of cleavage or wear a skirt that’s anything less than business length, they’ll go out of their way to hit on me and act like I must obviously be hankering to ride all of their dicks.”
“On the basis of a little cleavage and leg?”
I nodded. “Pretty much.”
“Sounds like you work with a bunch of pieces of shit.”
I shrugged. “Not gonna hear too much argument out of me about that. Some of them are okay, like the four or five guys I play poker with. But they’ve accepted me sort of like you have Layla, as one of the guys. If I show up for poker night, it’s in jeans and a T-shirt, with a baseball cap on.”
“I’d think you’d dress to kill, just for distraction value,” Puck noted.
I laughed. “I’ve done that, actually. Wore a killer push-up bra and a low-cut dress, teased my hair out to look all just-fucked, did a lot of leaning over.”
“Bet you cleaned up that night.”
“Hell yeah, I did. Didn’t even have to count cards, and it was still a slaughter. They were so busy staring at my tits and daydreaming that most of the guys in the game forgot how to hold a poker face.” I grinned, remembering. “I made twenty grand that night.”
“Damn, babe.” He eyed me. “If I got to see you like that, I wouldn’t mind losing all my money to you.”
“Something tells me you’d stare the whole night yet still win.”
He chuckled. “Got that right. Although I did lose two grand in one hand to a chick once, because of something like that.”
“And all she did was show some cleavage?” I teased.
“Takes more than cleavage to distract me, sweetheart. No, she went full-on intentional nip slip. I watched her do it. She kept wiggling her shoulder all weird, and the strap of her dress kept drooping lower and lower, and I knew exactly what she was up to, but it still worked. Eventually the strap fell completely, and her tit fell out right as I was about to win on a ballsy fucking bluff. She called my shit, swept the table, and pulled her strap back up. Walked away with eight grand, and my eternal irritation. I don’t like being played, especially when I can see the play coming and yet still fall for it.”
“I’m gonna say that’s mostly on you, although that is a dirty trick to play.”
I realized then that he’d used the distraction of the conversation to work his hand most of the way up my skirt. His fingers were passing midthigh, and I was suddenly hyperaware of his touch, of how close his fingertips were to my core.
I reached up and tugged on his beard. “What’s your plan with that hand, Puck?”
He smirked at me. “You aware of what you do to me when you tug on my beard like that?”
I smirked back. “Let me guess . . . it makes you horny.”
He flicked his gaze away from mine and down to his crotch. “I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?”
My gaze followed his, and I could clearly see the ridge of his erect cock outlined against the material of his pants, thick and angled slightly to one side. Goddamn, what a cock. I swallowed hard, and forced my eyes to his.
“Jesus, Puck.”
He winked. “Tug on my beard like that, you’ll end up tugging on something else.”
My breath caught, because now that I’d seen the outline, I wanted to see the rest. Hell, Iwantedto end up tugging on his something else. I wasn’t about to let him know that, though.