Page 5 of Secret Desire (Sapphic Billionaire Club #3)

Maeve

I took a long sip of my gin and tonic while I debated how to answer Ashley’s question.

“Come on,” she encouraged. “I told you my story. What did your parents think when you came out?”

“It’s funny how the coming out story is part of every get-to-know-you conversation in the queer community,” I mused.

“Yeah.”

She waved her hand, silently encouraging me to stop stalling.

“My parents didn’t really care either way, so I was lucky there.

When we were in high school, everyone assumed that Ariel, Grace, and I were lesbians because we spent all our time together and didn’t date that much,” I explained.

“I think none of us wanted to admit to each other that those rumors were true, because even though we were best friends, we were all worried about what the others would think.”

“That’s so sad.”

With how tight those three had been all their lives, I was surprised that they’d hesitated to come out to each other.

“Well, back then people weren’t quite as open about sexuality and gender norms like they are now,” I reminded her. “So we were all questioning, trying to figure out what was behind the confusing feelings we were having.”

I paused to take a drink of my gin and tonic as I remembered hiding what felt like such an important part of myself from my best girlfriends, scared to death they’d have a problem with it.

“Our freshman year at Northwestern we all went to a party together, and Grace and I wandered into a bedroom and saw your sister making out with a woman. That kind of broke the seal on talking about it,” I explained.

“Grace and I were intensely curious about it all and Ariel – who told us that she’d liked kissing that woman better than anything that had happened with a boy -- was like, ‘just try it, you only live once!’ That made it okay for me and Grace to admit we were having the same feelings as Ariel had. ”

I smiled, almost able to hear my sister’s exuberant encouragement.

“You know how it is in college, there’s a lot of experimenting, so there was no shortage of girls for us to kiss. And boys too, but it wasn’t long before we realized that as unlikely as it was, all three of us were lesbians.”

“I don’t think it was unlikely at all,” Ashley said.

“Probably something inside each of you realized the other two were kindred spirits, that you’d be a safe space, and you became friends because of it.

Although it’s good that you didn’t get with each other, because that would have really messed up your friendship. ”

I must have had a weird expression because she paused. “Wait, did any of you…?”

“No,” I said quickly. “Over the years we had many conversations about how it would be easier if we were attracted to each other. We would have made a great throuple, but our feelings for each other have always been strictly platonic. Like sisters, but closer.”

Ashley winced a little and mumbled, “Sisters.”

I decided to change the subject. “If you’re comfortable, can you tell me more about what happened with your last boss?”

Hopefully hearing the story would help me avoid acting like him.

Ashley took a deep breath. “I was hired at the company not long after I moved back to Chicago after college,” she said.

“For several years it was great. I learned a lot and built up my own clientele. Eventually I was promoted and started working for this guy Johan. Things started going downhill after that.”

“How so?”

“I loved the work and having more responsibility, but every time I was around my boss, he gave me the creeps, you know?”

I felt a flash of anger as she continued, “He was always staring at my breasts or my ass. Making ‘jokes’ that were really sexual innuendos. Brushing against me whenever he could. Coming up with excuses why we had to meet alone or stay late. But never around other people of course.”

“Jesus.”

She nodded. “Yeah. The first time he asked me out I told him in no uncertain terms that I don’t date coworkers.”

She doesn’t date coworkers, I told myself helpfully.

“But then he started joking he was going to fire me so we could date, although it didn’t feel like a joke.

It felt like a threat. I wasn’t out at work – mostly because it’s a pretty conservative firm and also because it’s no one’s business what I do in my personal life – but finally I told him I was a lesbian, thinking that would make him realize I wasn’t kidding when I said I wasn’t interested in him.

Unfortunately that only seemed to turn him on more.

He kept asking me to pick another female coworker so we could have a threesome. ”

“Did you go to HR?” I asked, trying to tamp down the fury I was feeling on her behalf.

“No. I thought it would go away, like he’d get tired of bugging me when he wasn’t getting the response he wanted, you know? And I didn’t want to be that woman who was labeled oversensitive, some Millennial snowflake.”

She paused, her eyes stormy as she gathered her thoughts.

“But Johan’s harassment just kept getting worse and worse.

Then one day I was in a conference room with him, and he stepped right up to me, grabbed my ass, and tried to pull me in for a kiss.

So I kneed him in the balls just like my father taught me,” she said proudly.

“He dropped like a rock and just laid on the floor whining like the man baby he was.”

“Good for you,” I said. “I’m proud of you for standing up for yourself.”

“Fortunately some of our coworkers were outside and saw the whole thing through the window. They corroborated my story and Johan was fired,” she continued, “But I was soured on working there by then. Senior management was tiptoeing around me, waiting for a lawsuit, so when I told them I was quitting, they offered me a generous sum of money in exchange for me signing a non-disclosure and giving them a promise not to sue.”

“You accepted that offer, I assume?” I asked.

I was pretty sure Ariel didn’t know this part of the story, because all she’d told us was that Ash had quit due to sexual harassment.

“I had my lawyer negotiate a much more generous sum,” she said proudly. “I know my value, and I know better than to accept the first offer.”

“You are really something,” I said admiringly. “You’ve grown into quite a woman.”

“I’m not just someone’s little sister,” she said, and I sensed there was some emotion behind it, but I couldn’t say why.

“Well I’m looking forward to working with you,” I said. “I think we make a good team.”

There it was again, that brief flash of disappointment on her face, before she summoned up a smile.

“Everyone at AGM has been great. I really like working there.”

We spent the rest of our lunch chatting about hobbies and interests, avoiding the fraught topic of our dating lives.

Despite our seven year age gap, we had quite a few things in common, much to my surprise.

Our taste in movies, TV shows, and books was very similar, and we both liked to run and swim and do yoga.

“It’s funny, when you were a kid, your being seven years younger seemed like such a big age gap, like I was an entire generation older than you or something. But now that we’re adults, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal,” I noted.

“Well, I’ve always liked older women,” she said.

Then she clapped her hand over her mouth, eyes wide, as she realized how that sounded. I could tell by the flush on her face that she’d meant it exactly like it sounded.

“I’ve never worried too much about people’s ages,” I said.

“I’ve been with older and younger woman.

But I also haven’t dated that much since I got out of college, to be honest. With building the company and the way people get intimidated by who I am, dating is tough.

People either want me because I’m a billionaire and they think they can get something from me, or they assume that because I’m a billionaire I must be a selfish asshole. ”

“I know that you and Ariel and Grace give away a significant portion of your income to charity,” she said.

“Yeah, and since we’ve had Sadie around we’ve all committed to do more.

She opened our eyes to how easy it can be to fall into a bad situation that’s not of your own making,” I explained.

“We’ve all been fortunate, and while we like our limos and fancy restaurants and designer clothes, we also all feel a strong responsibility to give back, especially to other women. ”

“I think that’s admirable,” she said. “Truly.”

Her praise meant a lot to me. Our eyes met and held for a long, pregnant moment and I had to hold myself back from dragging Ashley across the table and kissing her.

She was sexually harassed by her last boss, I reminded myself. She literally just told you the story.

“I guess we should head back to the office,” I said instead, gesturing for the waiter.

They’d charge our meal to my account, but I wanted to give him a tip. I handed him a hundred dollar bill, ignoring the wide-eyed look from Ashley, thanked him and stood up from the table.

“The driver should be here any minute.”

With impeccable timing, the limo pulled up in front of the restaurant as soon as we stepped outside. I slid into one side, and Ashley sat on the bench seat across from me as the limo pulled away from the curb.

“Damn it.”

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing, I just got my skirt kind of twisted when I sat down and now I’m sitting on a clump of fabric.”

That was the problem with these plush seats, they weren’t very good for sliding.

Ashley stood up, straightening her skirt.

It pulled up so high on her thigh I caught a glimpse of her panties, but I tried not to notice.

She rearranged her skirt, bringing the hem back down to a professional length, but as she turned around to grab her briefcase that had fallen to the floor, the limo lurched to a sudden stop.

Ashley flew forward, managing to land on my lap.

“We really need to stop running into each other like this,” I joked, putting my arm around her waist to keep her from sliding off again.

Ashley turned her head, looking up at me with her impossibly big eyes, and the breath whooshed out of me as I realized that her lips were only a few inches from mine. We stared at each other for a long, charged moment, then the limo started moving again, and Ashley braced one hand on my shoulder.

“Are you going to ride on my lap?”

I meant it to be joking, but my voice sounded breathy and rough. This close I could smell the scent of Ashley’s shampoo, something coconut. I felt a trickle of sweat move down my spine.

Instead of answering, Ashley moved her head closer, until only two inches separated our faces. Her eyes bounced between mine, and I could see the question there. I inclined my head in a tiny nod of approval, and then she closed the distance, pressing her lips against mine.

The kiss started off tentative, just a soft connection, but when I didn’t pull away Ashley slid her hand behind my head, fingers threading into the strands of my hair, and licked her way into my mouth.

Content to let her take the lead, I met her questing tongue with my own, as Ashley explored my mouth.

The slow burn of the kiss burst into a blinding heat, and the kiss deepened, turning rougher and sending sparks of excitement through me. I ran my hands down her back, squeezing the generous globes of her ass, pulling her closer so our breasts pressed against each other.

We kissed until we were both breathless, and when Ashley pulled away to take a shaky inhale, I grabbed the back of her head and pulled her back in for another kiss. I needed more.

I’d been with a handful of women – and a couple of men – over the years, although they’d been few and far between.

I’d never been one for one night stands like Grace and Ariel, always wanting sex to mean something, even if it didn’t mean everything .

But nothing in my life had prepared me for the riot of sensations flooding my body right now.

Kissing Ashley was like the thing I never knew I needed.

It was how I felt when I got my first iPhone, as if a world of previously unknown possibilities was opening up.

It was like the first breath of oxygen after coming up from under the water.

Cleansing and life affirming. I knew my thoughts were almost ridiculously poetic, but it was how I felt.

When we finally pulled apart again my heart was pounding so hard in my chest I could feel my pulse in my ears. Ashley’s lips were slightly swollen from our kisses, and I knew mine must be too.

I reached up and traced my pointer finger along her lower lip, and Ashley opened her mouth to suck the tip of my finger inside for just a beat, staring into my eyes the entire time. A rush of moisture flooded my core.

Somewhere outside the limo a horn blared, reminding me that we were in the back of a limo on a busy city street.

“I feel like I should apologize,” I said regretfully.

She cocked her head. “Why? I’m the one who started that. I kissed you first.”

“I’m your boss,” I reminded her. “And Ariel is my best friend.”

She raised her eyebrows in question. “What are you saying?”

“This was a mistake. It can’t happen again.”

I forced the words out against my instincts. The disappointment in her expression was an echo of my own feelings, but I had to be strong. No matter how right this felt, it was still wrong.

“Why?” she asked.

I looked at her in surprise. It seemed pretty obvious to me.

“What do you mean, why?” I asked.

“We’re both adults. We obviously have a mutual attraction here,” she said, wagging her finger between us. “I’ve felt it all month whenever we’re in the same room, and I think you have too. As long as we keep our personal lives separate from work, why can’t we act on this?”

“This?” I asked, stalling.

“Maeve,” she said patiently. “I want you. I’m assuming by your reaction just now you want me too. That kiss was hot as fuck. Let’s spend some time exploring this attraction and see what happens.”

What will happen will be me throwing her down on my bed and making her come so many times she forgets her own name, I thought to myself.

“But work…”

I was grasping at straws and I knew it.

“I can keep work separate from any physical relationship we decide to pursue,” she replied quickly. “Can you?”

I nodded, even though I had a bad feeling the answer was actually no.

“Let’s agree to be friends with benefits then. Either it will burn itself out, or we’ll figure out how to tell everyone else later. It’ll be our secret, just between us. What do you say?”

“I have a bad feeling that I’m going to regret this,” I said.

Ashley gave me a smile that was pure sin. “I can assure you that not one woman I’ve ever slept with has regretted it.”