Chapter 24

twenty-four

. . .

Henley

Easton and I had been spending every single day together at the office, and every night together at my place or his, for the last month.

He definitely did not hold out on me, as we’d been having more sex than I’d ever had in my life.

I appreciated that this had been kept between us so we could give this an actual try without anyone on the outside getting involved. I knew his family was aware something was going on, because I’d gone to the final pickleball tournament and cheered them on, and I’d also been to several Sunday dinners.

But we’d kept our hands to ourselves in public, aside from him grabbing my thigh beneath the dinner table this past Sunday night.

No one in the office appeared to suspect anything, but we were definitely playing with fire. We worked long hours because this case was all-consuming.

My phone vibrated as I sat in my cubicle.

Easton

I can still taste you on my lips from this morning.

I chuckled at the text, as he did this all day long. And I loved to feign irritation.

Highly inappropriate to send during work hours. eye roll emoji

Easton

And you love it, Princess.

You do keep the day exciting.

Easton

Do you want me to make it more exciting?

How would you do that?

Easton

You could meet me in the janitor’s closet. It’s Friday, and it would be a nice way to end the week.

Easton.

Easton

Henley. You know you’re thinking about it. eggplant emoji

There are people working in the file room who could hear something. It shares a wall with that closet.

Easton

That means you can’t make even the slightest noise. I could keep you quiet by putting my tongue in your mouth.

We shouldn’t.

Easton

We’ve got to work late tonight, and we have my mom’s party tomorrow, which means you’ll insist that we pretend we aren’t together. So, I’m following the rules, but I need to have my hands on my girl now.

My girl.

I’ll go in there first. You better not get us caught, Chadwick.

I didn’t know why our relationship was even a secret anymore. He’d been completely all in since the moment he’d said he wanted to date me.

No whiplash.

No mixed signals.

I didn’t know why I was hesitating. I was head over heels for this man, so maybe it was fear.

Fear that he’d change his mind.

I pushed up from my desk and made my way around the corner. The closet door was easy to sneak into, as the file room was on the other side. I could hear the chatter of the people working in there through the thin walls.

Not two minutes later, the door opened and closed. I heard the lock click behind him, and he moved toward me slowly with a wicked grin on his face. He held up a finger, as if to remind me not to make a sound.

My heart thundered in my chest.

This was risky. I’d insisted on keeping our relationship a secret, and here I was, locked in the maintenance closet.

Loud laughter came from the other side of the wall. Another reminder of how risky this was. Easton raised a brow and smiled.

He liked it.

He leaned down and kissed me.

The minute our lips touched, it was like a fire lit inside us both. This is how it always was with us.

Fiery. Passionate. Explosive.

He tugged my skirt up as I quickly unbuttoned and unzipped his pants, shoving them down as his dick sprung free. He had the foil packet in his dress shirt pocket, and his lips left mine as he tore the top off and quickly rolled the latex over himself.

His gaze was heated as he reached for my hands. He placed them both on the edge of the shelf above my head and gave me a knowing look, letting me know to keep them there. I nodded.

My skirt was bunched around my waist, and he reached for the sides of my hips and slowly lowered my panties down my legs as he bent down and lifted my stiletto-covered foot one at a time and removed my panties. He leaned forward and pressed his nose to my center and breathed me in. I gasped the slightest bit, and his head shot up, and he raised a brow.

Quiet.

He ran his fingers through my slit and then slipped them into his mouth as he pushed to stand, then tucked my panties into the pocket of his dress shirt.

His mouth covered mine as my feet lifted off the floor. His arms moved beneath the backs of my thighs, and the tip of his erection teased my entrance. Without hesitation, he thrust inside, and my head fell back at the sensation.

So good.

Too good.

I wanted more.

My hands gripped the shelving unit as he pulled out and then drove back in.

I flexed my hips, meeting him thrust for thrust, as we found our rhythm.

Faster. Harder. Desperate for more.

I focused on controlling my breathing, and Easton’s mouth never left mine.

The sensation of him. The pace. My hands gripping the shelves. The fact that we couldn’t make a sound.

It was so erotic.

My body started to tingle, and I knew I was close. My hands fell from the shelf, tangling in his hair, as I kissed him harder.

I stifled my groan as I squeezed my eyes closed and went over the edge.

The orgasm was still ripping through me as Easton thrust harder.

Once.

Twice.

And the slightest sound left his lips as he continued to kiss me.

And we rode out every bit of pleasure until he finally slowed. He pulled back and studied me, as if it were the first time he was seeing me.

His hand was on my cheek as he leaned forward and rested his forehead against mine.

He slowly lowered my feet to the floor and removed the condom before tying it off and pulling a handkerchief from his suit pocket, wrapping the condom inside, and slipping it into his coat pocket. He pulled up his briefs and pants as I just stood there, watching. I was still coming down from an amazing midday orgasm, and my legs were wobbly.

Easton startled me when he dropped to his knees and pulled out my panties, slipping them on one leg at a time, just as he’d taken them off. But then he turned me around so my backside was facing him, and he kissed each one of my butt cheeks, which almost made me laugh. I covered my mouth with my hand and gaped at him over my shoulder before he tugged my skirt down and smacked me on the ass. Then he turned me around, kissed me hard, and pointed to the door.

I patted my hair in place, let out a long breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding, and cracked the door open. I looked back at him, letting him know that it was clear, and I walked out.

I stopped in the bathroom to wash my hands and make sure I didn’t look like a woman who’d just had sex in the maintenance closet, when Katrina came out of the stall.

“Hey, Henley,” she said in her usual upbeat tone. Katrina Larson was Carver’s executive assistant. I didn’t see her often, as her desk was outside Carver’s office on the other side of the building, but occasionally, she’d come into the staff lounge for lunch. She had an air about her and had never been very friendly to me.

“Hi, Katrina, how’s it going?”

“It’s going. Do you have any fun plans this weekend?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m going to the Chadwicks’ party. How about you?”

“Me, too. I purposely found myself in the staff lounge with Easton this morning before most people arrived, so I could make sure he knew that I was coming to the party.” She was whispering now, and my breath hitched in my throat at the way she was looking at me. Like she had a secret, and my gut was telling me that I wasn’t going to like it. I had gotten here late this morning because I’d spent the night at Easton’s house, and I’d had to go home and shower and get ready. “I was flirting hard with him. I told him that his brother, Rafe, had invited my friends and me when we’d run into him at the country club last week. And I made sure Easton knew that I was coming, and I told him that I hoped he’d save me a dance. Apparently, they have a live band and everything out there.”

I wiped my hands off on a few paper towels and turned to look at her. “That sounds like so much fun. Did he say he’d save you a dance?”

“He did. I’ve had a crush on him forever, and I feel like this is my opening.” She shrugged and then dabbed on some pink lip gloss. “I know he’s a bit of a playboy, but I got the vibe that he was into me when I was talking to him.”

“Well, that’s really great,” I said, making every effort to sound genuine when I was seething on the inside.

This was exactly why I didn’t want to make things public. This man had just convinced me to have sex in the maintenance closet, and he’d been agreeing to meet up with Katrina tomorrow on the dance floor.

And since when did Easton Chadwick dance?

“It really is. I’ll see you there tomorrow.” She skipped out of the bathroom, and I could barely contain the anger boiling up inside me.

I marched down the hallway and whipped his office door open without knocking. He looked up, brow raised as if he were surprised. “You got a minute?”

“Of course,” he said, and I closed the door and moved to the chair across from him.

“Are you all right?”

“Am I all right?” I chuckled, and it was laced with sarcasm. “No. I’m not okay. What kind of game are you playing?”

He leaned back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest. “You’re going to need to be more specific. I don’t play games.”

“Really? You could have fooled me.”

“Didn’t we just have a really great time in the closet? I was not expecting this kind of hostility from you.”

“You’re unbelievable,” I hissed.

“I think so, too. And you seemed to think so just a few minutes ago. What could have possibly changed in the last five minutes?” He was making no attempt to hide his irritation now.

He probably knew that I was on to him.

“I’ll tell you what happened, you pompous ass,” I said, keeping my voice low so no one could hear us.

“I’m waiting.” He pursed his lips.

“I was just in the bathroom with Katrina Larson.”

Let’s see you weasel your way out of this one, Casanova.

“Carver’s executive assistant?” he asked, as if he barely knew who she was.

“The one and only.”

“Did she hear us in the closet?” He leaned forward as he folded his hands on the desk and suddenly seemed concerned.

“What? No. She didn’t hear us.” I squeezed my eyes closed. “This is exactly why I didn’t want anyone at the office to know what was going on with us, because I knew this would happen. I knew you weren’t ready for this. You just fed me a bunch of horse shit.”

He pushed to his feet and came around his desk, standing in front of me, as he leaned against the desk. His legs were crossed at the ankles, and he looked pissed off. “What are you accusing me of, Henley?”

“You tell me.”

“I can’t, because I haven’t done anything. I’ve been with you at work and at home every single day since we decided to give this a go. I’m the one who didn’t want secrets. I’m the one who wanted everyone to know that we were together, including your father. But I respected your wishes and agreed to the ridiculous rule of keeping things quiet. So whatever you think I did, you best go ahead and tell me, because I don’t have a fucking clue.”

“Katrina told me that you were flirting with her, and you agreed to save her a dance at the party at your parents’ house,” I said, and suddenly, I felt unsure about my accusation.

Because he wasn’t acting like a guilty man.

He was acting like a pissed-off man.

“Carver’s assistant? That’s what this is about? You think I flirted with her?” His lips turned up in the corners. “You’re jealous, aren’t you, Princess?”

“This is not funny. You’re playing me for a fool, and I’m calling you out.”

“This is fucking madness,” he hissed, and I pushed to stand because I was done listening. “Sit back down. You don’t get to accuse me of something and not hear the truth.”

“So, what’s the truth?”

“Well, you won’t believe me anyway, will you?” He moved to the office door, pulling it open before shouting. “Joey. In my office now.”

“Why are you bringing Joey in here?” I whisper-hissed, as I didn’t want to involve anyone else.

“Hey, Easton. What’s up?” Joey said, sounding a bit out of breath as if he’d run the short distance to Easton’s office.

“Take a seat, please,” my boyfriend said, as he closed the door and walked back around his desk to settle in his chair.

Joey glanced over at me nervously, and I shook my head as if I didn’t know what he was in here for.

“Joey, were you in the staff lounge with me this morning when Katrina came in there?” he asked.

“Yes. We were all getting coffee at the same time,” he said, looking between Easton and me with confusion.

“Did I hit on Katrina?”

He started laughing. “No. I felt kind of bad for her, because she was shooting her shot for sure.”

“Can you tell Henley here what happened? Because that’s not the story that she heard.”

Joey narrowed his gaze as he looked at me, like he was just now putting the pieces together to a puzzle he’d been trying to solve. He cleared his throat. “Katrina told Easton that his brother, Rafe, invited her to the party at his parents’ house. I chimed in and said I was going, too, which, by the way, thanks for the invite, Easton,” he said, glancing over at him.

“Of course. Continue,” Easton said, looking totally relaxed as he leaned back in his chair.

“Well, you know Easton is kind of… annoyed when people make small talk at work—” Joey winced. “Sorry. Just speaking the truth.”

“It’s fine. Go ahead.”

“So he was kind of short and said something like, yep, it should be a good day for a party . And she said she’d be looking for him there, and he didn’t answer, which isn’t really abnormal for him.” He glanced at Easton again, and he just nodded and used his hand to motion for him to keep going. “And then he walked toward the door, and she called out to him about saving her a dance. He just glanced over his shoulder like he was uncomfortable with the conversation and left the room. But don’t worry, I saved the day and said that I’d save her a dance.”

Well, this is a different version of the story.

A much better version.

Easton just stared at me, as if he were waiting for an apology.

“Well, thank you for clearing that up. We wouldn’t want an HR mess on our hands, would we?” I said, knowing that me brushing this under the rug was not going to fly with him.

And by the look my boyfriend was giving me, I was right.