Boost by Vi Summers

 

Chapter 15

-Greer-

 

 

Flustered wasn’t a word I would normally use to describe myself, but ever since Rox announced that Raf had called an emergency meeting, my resting body temperature settled degrees higher than it should be.

I paced my office floor for the untold time, completely and utterly unable to sit still and concentrate.

“Sit the hell down, you’re giving me anxiety out here!” Rox called.

“It’s past two!” I hissed.

She gave me a sassy look. “Yeah, and the guy was arrested last night, so he’s probably going to be a little off-center today. And your hair is fine!” she added when I started to fuss with it.

“Right, yeah. It’s fine.” I waved her off and pressed my hands flat on the surface of my desk.

Inhale deep, lengthy exhale.

Inhale deep, lengthy exhale.

Inhale deep-

“Mamacita…” Raf’s unusually roughed voice made me still. He drew in a large breath, which was chased by a throaty groan that sent ripples down my spine. “You smell fucking incredible.”

His cologne rose to consume my senses, giving me the languid feeling of melting at his feet. Fingers contacting with my hip made my breath shallow, and each breath fanning across my bare shoulder had my eyes drifting closed.

“I wonder if you taste as fuckable as you smell.”

The brazen words made heat pool at my core and my voice strained. “That is highly inappropriate, Rafael.”

I looked over my shoulder to see desire burning in his dark eyes. “Is that because I’m saying it in your office, or because it turns you on when I talk dirty?”

My eyes darted to where Roxiee talked on the phone at her desk, then back to Raf’s mouth. I forced a thick swallow as he rolled his tongue over his lower lip.

“You were there last night,” he murmured.

I turned and slowly pushed him to a safe distance away. “Where?”

Raf tried to restrain my wrist but let my hand slip through his as soon as I tugged.

“The meet. The cop ambush.”

I read uncertainty in the depth of his eyes, as if he was trying to assess just how much I knew before speaking again.

“I was.”

“But you got away?”

I nodded while the memories of last night spun like a hazy dream.

A relieved breath punched from his lungs. “I was fucking terrified you’d been locked up.”

He must have caught my surprise; the corner of my mouth twitched. “Yeah, I’m as baffled about that as you are, Boss Lady.”

“But you didn’t? Get away, I mean.” I studied him closely, trying to read him.

Raf’s eyes narrowed. “How much do you know?”

I perched on the corner of my desk, and while I was direct, I spoke softly. “Roxiee filled me in.”

He tipped his head back and looked down his straight nose. “And?”

“I’m prepared for damage control if it comes to that.” While I wasn’t thrilled about it, I at least felt I had a handle on things.

A pause pulsed between us. One filled with illicit temptations that created a shift around us. It was powerful and unexpected, and made me hyper-aware of Rafael’s close proximity.

As if feeling it, too, his breath came shorter, sharper, matching mine as if we fed off each other’s internal desires. Anticipation ached low in my abdomen, blinding me from everything in the world apart from Raf’s fingers touching down on my thigh.

He leaned in as his fingertips traced dizzying circles. “Let me kiss you, mamacita. I’ve been craving you for far too long and it’s fucking killing me.”

I warred internally, wanting to give in to the sweet, sweet ache that left me breathless, yet needing to resist for the sake of my professionalism. 

“We can’t,” I whispered.

“We can, baby.”

A single kiss pressed to my shoulder was almost—almost—enough to make me crack. My eyelids fluttered closed as Raf’s tattooed fingers grazed up my arm, so tantalizingly slow it made me weighted with need. His other hand lowered to snake around my lower back, coaxing it to arch and thrust my chest higher for him.

I inhaled a shuddering breath while shaking my head. A feeble attempt to talk myself out of wanting this, of succumbing to what he made me feel, instead of following my usually risk-adverse mindset.

“Let me make you feel good, Greer. Even if it’s just once; once is all I ask for.”

The trail of kisses Rafael butterflied across my exposed skin pushed me closer to breaking point.

“Just once, mamacita,” he murmured against the tender skin just below my ear, adding a nip that brought back old warning signs.

“No biting,” I breathed out.

“No biting,” he echoed, running lips over the shell of my ear instead.

My mind offered a million reasons to pull away, but my body gave a million more to arch closer. My pelvis brushed against his jean-clad erection and sent sparks scattering skyward.

I closed my eyes to steel myself, yet all it did was heighten every sensation. Could I give into temptation, just once, then ignore our chemistry?

With each graze of his fingers up and down my arms, the line that separated my morals and my actions grew narrower. As both of Raf’s hands tracked the curve of my waist and scorched their way up my torso, my breath deepened.

It had been too long since I’d had someone touch me this way. He effortlessly awoke dormant cravings, and I was torn as my mind wandered in never ending circles of wanting versus resisting.

Rafael smoothed a hand up my neck and tipped my chin up. “Don’t you wonder what it would be like to kiss a guy like me?” He chuckled, as if he’d been created purely for that purpose.

When I didn’t answer, his knuckles brushed along my jaw. “I bet you’re curious as hell, mamacita. Because I know I’m not like the others before me, and I know I’d have you on your fucking knees before I was done.”

He was right; I was curious to find out if he kissed as good as his honeyed words implied. It was, after all, ‘just once’.

I blindly shoved him away as I fought for breath.

“Wait. You’re turning me down?” He looked genuinely surprised after he stumbled back a pace.

Was I?

As if my body was nothing but a puppet guided by other’s actions, I ignored his incredulous tone and strode to my door. I took a deep breath and firmly closed it, acutely aware that I was willingly on the cusp between right and wrong.

Turning back to Raf, the burning heat in his eyes stripped away every status that stood between us; client, representative, money, background, education, careers, morals—they all disappeared until we stood face-to-face as simply as well could. As a man and a woman. No more. No less.

Once that realization sunk in, I let my deepest fantasies shamelessly speak for me.

“You can kiss me on two conditions.”