Illicit Affairs by Holly Dixon

Fourteen

“What haveyou done to my office?” Nate gaped, walking back inside his office carrying the Thai takeout he had gone out for. One section of the floor was covered entirely in pieces of paper, Ava sprawled out across the files on her stomach, heels off as she swung her legs in the air behind her, a highlighter pen in hand.

“I’m finding and securing all of Mr. Forbes’s assets,” Ava chirped, pulling her earphone out with a proud grin on her face that made Nate struggle not to smile in response.

“It’s a mess…”

“Yes, but an organised one,” Ava challenged, pointing her pen up at Nate and shattering his icy demeanour as a small chuckle escaped him.

“Just come and get something to eat.” He shook his head with a simper, sitting down on the two-seater and unloading the takeout cartons onto the table in front of him.

Ava jumped to her bare feet and made her way to Nate’s computer to save her progress when she noticed his screensaver of an impressive white yacht named… “Natalia,” she said aloud causing Nate’s head to snap up in surprise until he saw the image on his monitor. “Nice boat.” She shrugged, not fazed by expensive things as she switched the screen off.

The red haze from the aircraft warning lights sitting atop other skyscrapers oozed into the office in a series of red stripes through the slits in the blinds.

“Do you like dumplings?” Nate asked as he loosened his tie and undid the first two buttons of his shirt.

“I love all Thai food.” Ava beamed, joining Nate on the leather sofa and tucking her legs underneath her as she admired the spread of food on the coffee table. “The only thing missing here is a bottle of vino,” she sighed softly and balanced her noodles on her lap.

“You mean this bottle?” Nate smirked, producing the bottle of wine as if by magic and causing Ava’s eyes to widen.

“Where did you get that?” Ava gawked with a mouthful of dumpling, her eyebrows raised as she pointed a chopstick at the bottle of red. “Are we even allowed to drink that in the office?”

Nate’s expression darkened into one of mischief, a cocky smile on his lips as he pointed at his face and bragged, “Boss.” He watched Ava’s head tip back as melodic laughter bubbled from her rosy lips. “As long as you don’t go telling your pops, my ass ain’t gonna get handed to me for this, and I can do whatever I damn well want.”

“Are all Americans this overly cocky?” Ava teased with her lips pursed playfully and her eyebrow raised.

“Only the good ones, ma’am.” He winked, making Ava’s breath hitch in her throat as her thighs tensed slightly. It was perhaps the first time that his New Yorker drawl had enticed her in such a way.

The night continued with banter and laughter, the bottle of wine nearly finished as half-eaten takeout cartons scattered across the coffee table.

Ava removed her hair from its high ponytail, her roots sighing in relief as she ran her nails through her golden tresses and allowed the unruly and voluptuous waves to tumble down her shoulders.

Nate stared at her as she did, envious of the mug she placed to her lips and in awe of how someone could be so beautiful and not have been snatched by a proud, adoring man. He knew it had to be her doing, that the bold Ms. Archer surely had men lining up at her door, but she refused to be tied down to any of them. Some birds weren’t meant to be caged. She wanted her freedom, and for that, he admired Ava, even if he was envious that he didn’t have the same flexibility in life as her. She was a red moon during a starry night sky.

“Thank you for this,” Nate professed, his plastic coffee mug of wine sitting on the arm of the sofa as he rested his feet on the coffee table.

“For…?” Ava frowned, sweeping her long hair over one side of her head as spirals of silk curtained one half of her face.

“Well, for one, staying back and helping me out, but mainly for this.” His finger waved between the both of them sat comfortably on the leather chesterfield. “It was nice to not think about work for five minutes.” He chuckled, leaning his elbow on the back of the sofa and dragging his nails through his hair, making it softer and less refined.

“Don’t mention it.” Ava smiled sweetly, her back against the arm of the sofa as her long legs filled the space between them. “I guess being the boss has its disadvantages, hm?”

“Yeah, you could say that…but stress is just part and parcel of the job.”

“You should hire Mrs. Forbes to sort that stress out for you then,” Ava uttered, inspecting the ends of her hair, internally berating her bitchy mouth and the wine’s influence on it.

“And what exactly is that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, come on, let’s not pretend that I didn’t see what you were both doing in that empty meeting room today,” Ava scoffed with an eye roll as she teasingly prodded the side of Nate’s thigh with her toe.

“You shouldn’t jump to conclusions,” he stated with eyes down on her foot.

“Shouldn’t I? Oh, please, the woman was on her knees in front of you, grasping your thighs! I might be blonde, but I was certainly not born yesterday, Nate.”

“She intentionally spilt water down me,” Nate countered with a dismissive shrug of his shoulders. “Why she was using seduction as a tactic, and for what reason, I’ll never know.”

“Maybe there was no reason or tact involved,” Ava snipped as she crossed her arms, lifting her shoulders up to her ears as she theorised. “Maybe she was just seducing you for the sake of it.”

Nate couldn’t help but notice the change in Ava’s body language, the coldness of her tone and the lack of eye contact as he teased, “Why, Ms. Archer…are you jealous?”

“Jealous?” Ava scoffed with a sassy eye roll. “And why exactly would I be jealous, Mr. Brooks?”

“You tell me.”

Ava met his testing gaze but yielded first, her icy manner shattering as she giggled. She kicked at his thigh again, this time with a little more force, but yelped as Nate suddenly grabbed her foot and pulled it onto his lap.

Gasping, she tugged her foot and began to ask, “What areyou—”

“Your feet must ache wearing those heels every day,” Nate wondered aloud but didn’t require an answer as he trailed his thumb down the delicate curve of her instep. His grip tightened around the sides of her bare foot, his thumbs pressing deeply into the fleshy pads beneath her toes and eliciting a hiss from between her teeth as he massaged her worn out sole. When she resisted and attempted to remove her foot from his lap, he tugged harder and kept her in place as his thumbs pressed deeper and deeper into her tired tissue until she slowly surrendered and sank back into the sofa.

His intentions had been innocent, even if the wine was clouding his judgement, but as Ava began pressing her thighs together and soft whines left her wine-stained lips, those intentions steadily became more and more sinful. He found his hands moving of their own accord as he squeezed at her heels, his fingertips running up her calf beneath her work slacks and eliciting more of those delicious noises from her lips that were causing his skin to prickle with heat.

Ava’s lashes fluttered closed and she found herself submitting to his touch. Nate’s fingers expertly knew just where to apply pressure, his assertive grip listening to her body as her mind told her to retreat and her body begged her to stay. However, Ava knew this was like sipping fine red wine—one taste of that high and you wanted more and more. She felt like she was melting from the way his fingers brushed against her flesh, edging higher up her trouser leg. A steady pulse found its way between her legs, demanding attention that the pressing of her thighs could not tame this time.

“Fuck,” she moaned, biting down on her lower lip before suddenly remembering just who was giving her this intense foot massage, her leg abruptly recoiling with her knee bent up. “I don’t think this is a good idea,” Ava cautioned, glad that there was some sobriety left in her brain despite her erratic heart pumping the alcohol around her body. “I think I best go,” she announced, swinging her legs over the sofa and standing.

“No, wait—” Nate panicked, jolting upright as his hand reached forward and gently took her wrist. “I won’t stop you, it’s just that…I don’t want you to go…yet.” The amount of neediness in his tone made him feel uneasy, but he couldn’t deny the level of comfort Ava had brought him tonight, a type of solace that he hadn’t found in another for so long. However, as he looked up and saw the troubled expression on the young woman’s face, his stomach sank as he let her go and sheepishly looked down at his shoes. “I’m sorry, that was very rude of me,” he uttered, shaking his head and trying to come up with an excuse for his dishonourable conduct. “The wine,it’s—”

“A lovely bottle,” Ava interrupted, causing Nate to look up at her with dazed eyes. She was like a bee to honey in those eyes and couldn’t stand to see him upset, especially when she knew that his actions were not unwarranted. Ava could have any man she wanted with just a bat of her lashes, but with Nate, he was off-limits out of principle and that drove her insane. She had everything but she couldn’t have him.

To ease his feelings of guilt and to reassure him, she settled back down on the sofa next to him, her legs safely tucked beneath her as she diverted away from the awkward train wreck and asked, “You mentioned earlier that your family have a vineyard back home?” Nate was like a deer caught in headlights, staring at her as though she may well disappear into thin air. “Why don’t you tell me more about it?”