Chapter 33 Broken rules
There's a specific, lethal brand of courage in the way Kaden's looking at me. A total lack of hesitation in both his gaze and his words that makes my skin hum. My body, ever the traitor, reacts instantly. My cock throbs painfully against my zipper, a demanding, heavy heat that I don't bother fighting.
I slide my chair back, the rollers whispering against the hardwood, giving him a clear, unobstructed view of the wreckage he’s made of me. Then, without breaking eye contact, I reach down and begin to stroke myself through the fabric.
His gaze flicks down, and for a fraction of a second, the mask slips. His breath hitches, a needy little sound that tells me I’ve successfully knocked him off balance.
But he’s fast.... he hauls the iron shutters back up, though his pupils remain blown wide, dark with a hunger he can’t hide.
"Did you like the attention back there?" I ask, my voice dropping into a dark register.
"Liked how they all looked at you?.... Like they wanted to find out exactly how loud you could make them scream? How they touched you like they were imagining you bending them over one of those barrels?"
My hand doesn't stop, the friction of the fabric only fueling the fire.
"How they wanted to put their hands on something that doesn't belong to them?"
His eyes dart up to mine, burning with a volatile mix of defiance and raw heat, before they drop back to my hand as if he’s physically incapable of looking away.
"And who exactly do I belong to, huh?" his voice is thick.... daring "You?"
"I'm not sure why you've phrased that as a question."
I stop the motion of my hand, leaving the tension screaming in the air. I place both hands on the armrests, watching as he blatantly stares at the ridge in my trousers.
I live for the way his throat works as he swallows.
"Since you're suddenly so bold," I murmur, "why don't you walk around this desk and take what you really want? Prove that you're more than just a smart mouth and a pretty face."
Something defiant flashes in his eyes, a flicker of the guy who won't be caged. He shakes his head, taking a single, measured step back, trying to reclaim the room. "What happened to being professional?" He shoots back, tone sharper now, like he’s trying to regain ground he already lost.
A quiet breath leaves me. Almost a laugh.
“I was.”
A beat.
“Yesterday.”
My voice drops an octave
“Nearly killed me.”
I stand up, the movement fluid. I don't rush, I don't need to. I start to walk around the edge of the desk, my eyes locked on his.
He watches me, his stance widening slightly, that familiar mix of wariness and sharp, electrical anticipation radiating off him.
When the desk is no longer between us, the only thing left is the distance he’s too proud to close. I watch his eyes dart toward the door.
"Want to run, Kaden?" I ask. "The door's not locked."
He snaps his gaze back to me, his jaw set in that pissed off line of defiance. "I’m not going to be some walking stereotype! I don't fuck the boss. Go find yourself some high-priced executive to roll around with. I'm not your fix."
I shrug, a slow ripple of amusement spreading through me as I close the final distance. I start walking him backward, forcing him to retreat toward the desk. "Technically, you won’t be fucking the boss," I murmur, my eyes locked on his. "The boss will be fucking you."
I take another step, crowding into his space until he’s forced to lean back. "Hard," I add, the word a promise that makes the air in the room feel even heavier.
His thighs hit the edge of the desk with a dull thud. I press in, my body flush against his, and I feel the instant throb of his erection. My smirk is involuntary. I let my gaze drop for a fraction of a second to the tension in his jeans before returning to his eyes. Wide, heated, and absolutely lethal.
"I’m thinking of replacing this desk with something custom," I breathe, my face inches from his. "Just for you. For when I finally get to bend you over it and take you from behind."
I reach out, my palm sliding up the heat of his back, the muscles tensing under his shirt until I fist my fingers deep into the hair at the base of his skull. His eyes flutter shut for a heartbeat, his lips parting as a ragged breath escapes him.
"I'm flattered," he says, though his voice is wrecked. "But you'll be wasting your cash."
I lean in closer, my mouth hovering just a breath away from his. "Nothing I spend on you is wasted. And I’m prepared to use whatever it takes to break you."
He licks his lips...a quick, unconscious dart of his tongue that nearly snaps my remaining thread of sanity. His chest is heaving now, his pulse visible in the corded column of his neck. He looks down at my mouth, his own hunger finally stripping away the last of his pretenses.
"What makes you think I'll ever let you live out your little power-trip fantasies?" he asks, the words blunt. "I’ve got a mile-long list of people who’d crawl through glass just for a text from me. They don't need a contract to know how to get on their knees. Why should I give you the satisfaction?"
The mention of anyone else, the mere idea of another hand on his skin, makes my blood spike with a sudden, violent surge of possessiveness. Anger settles into my bones, cold and sharp.
Kaden sees it.
I watch the flicker of realization in his eyes, he starts to lean further back as if he’s finally realized I'm someone who has nothing to lose.
I tighten my grip on his hair, tilting his head back until he has no choice but to bear the full weight of my gaze. "You have a very loud mouth, Kaden," our lips are almost touching, we're sharing the same frantic air. "Especially for someone I could silence with a single touch."
"Try it," he warns, his voice a breathy challenge, even as his lips part in invitation. "I bite."
"I’m counting on it."
I don't give him another second to breathe. I yank his head forward, and our mouths finally crash together in a collision that tastes like everything I’ve been starving for since the second I first saw him.
My mouth crashes into his with a violence that should hurt, but the sting is lost in the blinding thrill of finally getting to taste him like this.
Kaden doesn’t just take it...he fights back. I feel the moment his self-preservation shatters, his resistance falling away like shards of glass. He reaches for me, his hands wide and frantic, one curving around the back of my neck to pull me deeper. He’s tugging at my shirt, his fingers hooked and desperate, until he finds the skin underneath.
His palms are hot, searingly so, and when they slide against my ribs, the contact stings. It’s a sharp reminder of how hard I tried to scrub him away this morning, but the memory is wiped away the second his skin meets mine.
I’ve never lost control like this.
I’ve never felt this wild, this tempted, this terrifyingly alive. My fortress isn't just breached, it’s on fire, and I’m the one pouring the gasoline.
I break the kiss just long enough to breathe, our foreheads crashing together as we gasp for the same air. I grab his thighs, my fingers digging into the denim, and heave him upward. He hitches himself onto the desk with a low, guttural sound, his legs instantly wrapping around me to lock me into place.
We crash back together, a messy, desperate tangle of tongues and teeth. His knuckles graze the belt I spent countless minutes perfectly centering earlier. He unfastens my trousers with a frantic efficiency and slips his hand inside.
When his palm finally closes around me, I let out a choked, broken sound against his mouth. He isn't gentle. He grips my cock with a territorial, bruising strength. His fingers wrapping tight as if he’s staking claim.
"You want that?" I ask, my voice unrecognizable, a shadow of its usual self. "Or are you just holding it to make me lose my damn mind?"
"Shut up," he instructs , his eyes snapping open. They're dark, blown, and lethal. He yanks my head down, forcing my mouth back to his.
It’s not controlled.
It’s not measured.
It’s not anything I recognize.
And that’s the first problem. Because I don’t kiss.
Not ever....
But I don’t pull away. I should. Every instinct that’s ever kept me in control is firing at once. That this is a mistake. This is reckless. This is exactly the kind of thing that spirals.
And still, I don’t stop it.
I know this isn't controlled risk, it isn't calculated damage. The warning bells are still blazing, but I ignore every single one.
Because I’ve already crossed the line.
Already broken the rules. And worse, I know, with a clarity that should concern me more than it does, that for him... I’m going to keep breaking them.