Page 27 of Too Good to Be True

Rowan

“ A re you still here?” Paul tells me, sitting down on my desk.

“I have work to do.”

“You’ve been locked in here all day. You didn’t even go to lunch.”

“George brought me a salad.”

“And this morning you arrived very early.”

“How do you know I came early if you came late as usual?”

He laughs. “George found you already here.”

I ignore his tacit question and return my eyes to my documents.

“Should I ask or…”

“I can’t even come to the office when I want to?”

“Are you nervous?”

“I wasn’t before your arrival.”

“I get it. I’ll get out of your hair.” Paul gets up and walks to the door.

The anxiety I have been holding in my stomach, and the memories of last night, the kisses, the caresses, the unexpected craving for his gentleness and contact, together with the fact that this morning I practically slipped away at dawn so as not to have to face him and my confusion, mount up in me unwanted and suffocating all at once.

“I kissed him,” I tell my friend.

Paul turns around.

“Don’t make that face. You know exactly who I'm talking about.”

“You kissed your client?”

I look at him sideways. “Has he suddenly become ‘my client’?” I make air quotes with my fingers. “I was just thanking him, you know, and then… he was the one who kissed me!”

“And you care so much about form, don’t you?”

“I’m just trying to make my point…”

“Do you really want to tell me what's going on, or do you want to keep spouting random bullshit?” Paul blurts out, which is unusual for him.

“What's going on, Paul? I’m fucked. We’re fucked. All of us. You included. In fact, especially you, because it’s only your fault I’m in this situation. And if I go down, I will take you with me.”

“If blaming me makes you feel better,” he spreads his arms, “go right ahead.”

“Of course it doesn’t make me feel better, Paul. Nothing would make me feel better.”

“Sleeping with him would definitely make you feel better.”

“A smack on your fucking face. That would really do me good right now.”

“You want him. We all know it by now and I think he knows it too. You want him from that night. The one we were at the club. The shorts, the makeup…”

Don’t make me think about those damn shorts now, for goodness sake!

“You’re talking a load of crap.”

“But in my opinion, something was ignited in you even before that. I’m not saying from the first meeting…”

And good thing he doesn’t say that! Also because I’m afraid that something has happened there too. I don’t know what and I don’t even want to wonder. Besides, what good would it do to know the exact moment when my world woke up? I’m screwed anyway!

“Something in him attracted you right away. Obviously I’m unable to understand what, as you well know, I do not have of those desires…”

“You done?”

“It depends.”

“From what?”

“From what your next move will be.”

“Next move? I have no moves or intentions or…” I take my head in my hands to keep it from exploding. “I have to win this case.”

“The case, you say?”

Case, case. I repeat in my head. As if that were enough to believe it.

“I’m going crazy, aren’t I?”

“Probably.”

“Why are you never helpful?”

“Because you don’t want to see things from the right perspective.”

“Which is?”

Paul gives me a knowing look.

“I don’t… I have to…”

“Get out of here and go to him?”

“Fuck off, Paul.” I grab my jacket from the chair and slip it on quickly, heading for the door.

“Say hello to Seth!”

I give him a middle finger without even turning around and quickly leave the office.

WHEN I ENTER the club, it takes me exactly ten seconds to spot Seth at a table, his hands resting on a customer’s shoulder, his ass wrapped in those damn shorts, and the lust I have been holding in all day bursts through me in the form of something very dangerous, something that looks so much like blind, painful, unbearable desire.

In three steps I’m on top of him, my hand on his arm. He turns away, disbelief on his face.

“I need to talk to you. Now.”

“What… what happened?”

“Not here.” I move closer to his ear. His smell makes all my senses quiver.

God! What the hell is happening to me?

“Let’s go outside.”

I need air and I need clarity, or it will be just the two of us going down, and sooner than expected.

Seth nods in confusion, then gestures to a waiter before following me out of the restaurant.

I don’t even know why I’m here, what I’m going to do or say. I don’t know how to get out of this situation without dragging him into it.

Once outside, I walk a few steps away, hands in my hair, eyes closed, afraid to look at him and realise that there is no solution to this mess, except to just have him, for me, without thinking of the consequences.

“Hey, you’re making me worry, and you know if I start to worry, we’re all fucked.”

Seth touches my hand and I completely lose my mind.

I turn around, grab his face in my hands and slam it against the wall.

“Rowan, what?—”

My mouth presses against his before I have a chance to overthink or be consumed by chaos and madness again.

My hands are on either side of his head as I devour him, while his fingers run frantically through my hair, as if they had longed for nothing more than to get lost in it.

The excitement and thrill coursing through me ignite a heat inside, bursting forth like a ray of sunshine, giving rise to a series of raw sensations that envelop me completely and mercilessly.

I pull away from him to catch my breath after holding it all day.

“I got up at the crack of dawn this morning just to get out before you woke up,” I confess to him quickly, breathless.

Seth curls his beautiful lips.

God, they are. So beautiful. And sensual. And soft. I want to bite them. I don’t think I’ve ever lingered on a pair of lips for so long.

It’s confirmed. I have lost my mind. And everything else.

“I know. I was awake. I pretended to be asleep because I didn’t want you to have to deal with it.”

Now I smile. “Really?”

“I didn’t sleep much. Not… with you beside me. I could still feel your lips on me and your warmth around me.”

I press my mouth to his again. Seth responds to my kiss with the same urgency and desire, in the same breath. His hot tongue envelops mine in a dance of pure pleasure. I rest my forehead against his, his back against the wall, my hands on his neck, electric fingers caressing his shaggy jaw.

“I’m messing everything up, aren’t I?” I ask over his wet mouth.

“At least for once it’s not me.”

I laugh, then bite down, slowly, with my teeth, then with my lips.

“Rowan…” Seth whispers sensually.

“When you say it like that, I…”

“What?”

“I can’t resist. I’m losing my mind.”

“And I don’t mind at all.”

I laugh again.

“What did you expect? That I would apologise?”

“Absolutely not.” I stare at his pulsating lips and caress them with my fingers. Seth opens them seductively, and I kiss them again. I press myself against him, my erection pressing against his, excitement taking over, my hands sliding over his firm ass. “I have to get out of here now, or…”

“Or…?” He provokes me.

I bite his lips greedily, and Seth lets out a little cry that only adds fuel to the fire.

“How can I leave now?”

“Don’t.”

“You’re working.”

“So what?”

“I could get you fired.”

He laughs. “You’re covered in glitter.”

“I want your fucking glitter all over me.”

He moves away from the wall and practically throws himself on top of me. His legs are wrapped around my hips, my hands on his ass, his on my face; his mouth demanding and asking, his tongue exploring, his erection rubbing against mine.

This man is pure sex. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so attracted to anyone, man or woman. It’s as if my whole body is aware of his warmth even as he passes me by, as if it had done nothing but wait to merge with his.

“If we weren’t outside this club, you’d already be mine,” my words resonate deeply within me, carrying all their weight and truth.

“What are you saying…?”

“I’m saying I can’t resist you. I’m saying you’ve messed with my head.

I’m saying that I can only think of you.

” I look at him, hoping to see the same intensity in his eyes that I feel in my desire for him.

“I’m saying that I want you. But only if you want me too.

If you don’t want me, I’m willing to step back and… ”

Seth covers my mouth with his.

I breathe heavily, then look at him again. “I’ll wait for you at home.” Seth places his feet back on the ground, and I reluctantly pull away from him. “And… don’t take off that damn uniform.”

Seth laughs smugly. “Anything you want. Consider it a late birthday present.”

The only thing I truly want as a present is to have him under me all night: to touch him, to kiss him, to claim him as if it were my right.

As if it were real.

As if he were mine.

“Just don’t make me wait too long.”

He still wears that smile, and there’s a glint of lust in his eyes. “See you at home, Mr Kennedy.”

I gaze at him for a few more moments before turning and walking home, where I know I’ll spend the rest of the night under a stream of ice-cold water.