AdamsObsession (12 page)

It was amazing.

He untied her afterward and hid the straps under the
cushions of the easy chair. It gave him a little thrill to know they were
there, just waiting for the next opportunity he and Kat had to be alone. He sat
in the chair and pulled her onto his lap and he held her as they both came back
to earth.

“That was nice,” she murmured after a while.

“Nice?”

“Mmm-hmm.” She stretched. “I’ll need to tie you up
sometime.”

A sudden spark of interest flared. “What would you do if you
had me all tied up?”

“I dunno. Maybe what I did to you in the shower last night?”

God. In a breath, he was hard as a rock. Again.

“Only, if I had you tied up, I wouldn’t let you come so
quickly.”

“Jesus.” The memory of her taunting little mouth on him—all
over him—swamped him. “That nearly killed me.” And then purely out of
curiosity, he asked, “How long would you tease me?”

“If I had you tied up?”

“Yeah.” You know. Just out of curiosity.

She smiled. “All night long.”

He barked a laugh. “You’re definitely not tying me up.” At
her frown, he explained, “You see, my dear, the difference between men and
women is that men are not patient in the least, especially when they have a
pussy right there in front of them, all wet and swollen and waiting for a hard
cock. There’s no way you’ll truly suffer with me because I can’t hold out that
long. Women, however, can hold out forever. You’d kill me.”

Kat chuckled. “I’d still like to try it.”

“Yeah, I’ll just bet you would.” And to end the discussion,
he added, “We should go join the others now.”

Reluctantly, she stood. “Why don’t you go first? I need to
freshen up.”

After a quick kiss that lasted a little longer than he
intended, Adam complied. He headed to the computer lab, where he found the
others split into groups of three at the 46-inch screens, running an instance
with the new software—a virtual reality MMORPG, a multiplayer, online
role-playing game. No one—save Tristan, who shot him an annoyed frown—noticed
he’d been missing.

Adam ducked past his brother and wandered over to join the
group made up of Jack and his interns.

“Oh my God,” Kenny said under his breath as Adam sidled up.
“That is so awesome.”

“I know.” Jack preened.

“Oh my God,” Kenny repeated, this time with a giggle.

“Awesome,” Billy grunted. “Fucking awesome.”

This piqued Adam’s curiosity. As far as he knew, the
software was pretty standard except the graphics were generations ahead of the
current market and the game had expanded features for customizing avatars. A
player could actually make his avatar
look
like himself.

So what could the interns be finding so interesting? Adam
leaned closer to see what had them so excited. He peeked over Kenny’s shoulder
and blanched.

A figure that suspiciously resembled Kat was on the screen.
She was wearing the same blue suit and high heels Kat had worn today and—his
blood began to boil—a red vest. And her hair was down.

Adam’s left lid began to twitch.

Billy shifted from one foot to the other. “Can you make her
move?”

“Can you make her dance?” A large Adam’s apple made its
torturous way down and back up the length of Kenny’s stork-like neck.

Jack opened his mouth to respond, to agree, to
make
Adam’s Kat dance
for the little maggots. Before he could, before he could
open his mouth or nod or—God help him—apply that revolting little filter, Adam
shoved past the nerd herd and switched the monitor off.

This caused a chorus of dissent to echo through the lab.
Adam ignored the interns and turned on Jack. “What the hell was that?”

“What was what?” Jack backed away from the bear snarling in
his face.

“Don’t give me that.” Adam continued to advance, backing
Jack into a corner.

“Aw, come on, Adam. It’s just a game.”

“Not acceptable. You work with the woman, for Christ’s
sake.”

“That doesn’t keep me from fantasizing about her. We all
fantasize about her.” Jack’s words squeezed into tiny little peeps as Adam’s
fingers closed around his throat.

Red. Adam saw nothing but red.

Wait. That was probably Jack’s face.

“Adam!” Tristan called from behind them. “Let him go.”

Jack fell with a thud as Adam complied but he kept the
little worm pinned with his glare. Jack grabbed his neck and glared back. “I
don’t see why it matters to you that we used her in our beta.” Jack pouted. “I
mean, what do you care? It’s not like she’s your woman. She’s no one’s woman.”

“She has a boyfriend.” This, Sara sang from the other side
of the room.

Vindication and satisfaction slashed through Adam’s gut.
“Yeah. She has a boyfriend.”

“But haven’t you heard?” Kenny—unwisely—added. “It’s some
internet
relationship.”

Adam snarled. Kenny wilted.

Jack wisely slipped farther away. “What she needs is a real
man.”

Acid churned in Adam’s gut.
She has a real man.

But none of these idiots knew it.

Bloody hell. He was trapped between outing their
relationship and letting these drooling little worms think she was free game.

Hands on his hips, he glared at his brother. “We need to
talk.” He turned to Jack and barked, “And you! Erase that damn beta.”

Chapter Thirteen

“I’m going to kill him.” A raw, seething desire for violence
scored Adam to the core.

“Well.” Tristan calmly closed the door to his office. “You
can’t kill him. We need him to write brilliant programs.”

“That,” Adam snarled, “was not a brilliant program. That was
disgusting.”

“Actually, it is pretty brilliant. You’d see it too if you
weren’t so annoyed.”

“Annoyed?” Annoyed didn’t quite seem to describe his
feelings at the moment.

“Imagine a virtual reality game that lets you include
characters based on people you know. It’s genius. It will sell like mad.”

“Genius? Bah! You should have seen what he did. He put her
in the beta!”

“Did he have her permission?”

“No. Kat would never agree to something like that.”

“Okay. That was out of line then.”

“Way out of line.”

“But you don’t get to kill him. I’ll talk to him.” Tristan
sighed. “He wouldn’t have done it if he’d known she was your girlfriend.”

“Are you sure about that?” Jack, after all, was a horny
little shit. “He’s probably done the same with Jenny or Sara or Shannon. God.
Who knows?” Tristan paled but Adam didn’t give him a chance to respond. “Just
imagine. Trillo–Maris being slapped with the very first class-action sexual
harassment lawsuit in history. Now there’s genius for you.”

“I said I’ll call him in. He can’t be using his employees in
his beta. At least not without their knowledge.”

“Don’t be nice.”

“I won’t. Using female coworkers as sexual playthings is
never acceptable.” Tristan grinned at Adam’s surly reaction to his jab. “I
mean, unless they want to be sexual playthings. Jesus, Adam. Relax. It was a
joke.”

“Not laughing.”

“I’ll talk to Jack and set him straight. But Adam…” Tristan
drummed his fingers on the desk. “You really should think about ending it with
Katherine.”

“What?”

“It’s starting to affect your work.”

Adam frowned. “Only because we have to keep it a secret.” It
was true. If their relationship were out in the open he’d be spending a lot
less time and energy trying to keep his feelings under wraps. A lot less time
fantasizing about throttling interns.

“Why don’t you just come out then? Tell everyone and to hell
with the consequences.”

Adam stilled. “What about your rule?”

Tristan scrubbed at his face with his palm. “No rule is as
important as your happiness.”

Adam blinked. Well, hell. This was a huge step for Tristan.
And knowing he had his brother’s blessing—sort of—made the prospect of
revealing their secret even more appealing.

But he shook his head. “I appreciate that, bro, but I can’t.
I promised Kat no one in the office would know. She’s got this big thing…”

“Oh. Yeah. She told me about her last job.” Tristan blew out
a breath. “What a mess.”

Oh yeah. It was a mess. Adam had only two choices. End the
relationship, which he was not willing to do—frankly, the thought gave him the
cold shakes—or maintain the status quo, with the other men in the office
lusting after Kat and making passes at her and writing macros where she danced
the funky chicken and gave them virtual blowjobs. That option made him want to
blow his top and not in a good way. No. There had to be some other solution.

Tristan shook his head and muttered, “God help me if I ever
fall in love.”

Adam opened his mouth to insist he was not, in fact, in love
but the words wouldn’t come. Because just then, a crushing realization dawned.

He was in love with her.

He was in love with Katherine Hart. Couldn’t live without
her. Couldn’t contemplate the possibility of breaking up with her without
feeling sick to his stomach.

God help him. She’d become more than an online flirt, more
than a stupid fling, more than a passing fancy. Over the years, he’d come to
know and respect her as a person. Then he’d come to desire her. And then
somehow this attraction, respect and passion bloomed into something deeper.
Something lasting. Something rooted in his soul.

Aw, hell.

He swore he’d never let himself fall again. And here he was,
mooning over a woman who was so certain their affair would end—and badly—she
refused to tell anyone, even her best friend, that he was the internet lover
she’d been crowing about for months.

Somehow he had to convince her what they had wasn’t just
your garden-variety lust. It was something much, much more. Somehow he had to
convince her he was the one and only man for her, that their relationship was
perfect just the way it was and everyone in the office—everyone!—should know
about it. Like, right now. Today.

Deep in thought, making plans and practicing speeches in his
head, Adam left Tristan’s office and headed for his own, totally oblivious that
his brother was still talking.

“You’re passionate tonight,” Kat murmured, petting Adam’s
dark chest hair.

He stared down at her, reveling in her sated expression,
reveling in the knowledge that he’d put it there.

She had no idea what had happened in the lab, no idea why
his passion had been so inflamed. The thought of Jack and Kenny and Billy and
all the rest of them thinking of Kat in a sexual way made him want to rip
someone’s arms out of their sockets.

Oddly enough, this was nothing like the feelings he’d had
for Betsy, even when he’d caught her in bed with his so-called best friend. He
had no doubt Kat had a faithful heart. Trust was not an issue with them. He
just didn’t want any other man—on the planet—looking at her in a sexual way. He
didn’t want anyone thinking about her like that. He wanted her all to himself.
He realized his feelings were a little illogical but he couldn’t help it. It
was simply the way he felt.

He was going to have to talk to her soon about their
relationship and he knew it. But he dreaded it. They’d agreed they would
continue their affair as long as no one in the office except Tristan knew about
it. His fear was that if he demanded they tell everyone, she would insist on
ending it and that would devastate him.

But he couldn’t live this way any longer. He couldn’t go to
the office and watch other men
ogle
her. He couldn’t abide the idea that
those men were thinking she might be available. He certainly couldn’t allow the
assumption to persist that they—any fucking one of them—had the right to take a
shot.

The only way to convince them of that was to make his
position as her lover known. He needed to mark his territory. He needed every
man to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Kat was taken. Kat was his.

All he had to do was convince her.

“I’ve been thinking.” He ran his hand down her creamy flank,
reveling in the shivers he induced in her.

“Really?” She propped her arm on his chest and leaned
forward to lick a nipple.

He hissed in a breath. “Oh. Yeah. That’s nice.”

“What have you been thinking about?”

He chuckled. “I’m not sure I can remember when you do that.”

“Do you want me to stop?”

“Never.” He brought her mouth back to his nipple with a
gentle pressure to the back of her head.

“Then,” she said between soft nips, “tell me what you’ve
been thinking about.”

“Us.” He flinched as she nipped, perhaps, a little too hard.

She stopped nibbling altogether and lifted her head to
glance at him, uncertainty replacing the satisfaction on her face. A shaft of
regret danced through him with the realization that she was probably done
nibbling for a while. Especially if they had this conversation now.

But they needed to have this conversation now. They really
needed to.

“What have you been thinking about us?” Her gaze locked with
his.

He rolled her onto her back, covering her with his body. He
molded her cheeks with his palms and held her still as he consumed her sweet
mouth for a long, leisurely moment before pulling back to gaze into her eyes.
“I’ve been thinking how much I enjoy being with you.”

“Umm.” Her wary pose relaxed as she accepted his words. “I
enjoy being with you too.”

“But I hate keeping it a secret.”

There. It was out.

He waited for her to ice up, to reject his idea. But she
stretched languorously beneath him. “Umm. Me too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s a pain pretending we’re just coworkers when all
I want to do is rip off your clothes and ravage you.” She gave a small laugh.

Thank God.
“Then you agree. We should let the cat out
of the bag.”
Wonderful.
Extremely relieved, he dipped his head for a
kiss and missed. In fact, he hit the pillow. For Kat had eased out from beneath
him.

“What?” She sat up, her expression a dance of anger and
confusion. “What are you talking about? We can’t tell anyone about us. We
agreed.”

“Tristan thinks it’s a good idea too.” This, he added in a
helpful tone.

“Oh dear.” Kat rolled out of bed and hunted for her bra and
panties. Her clothing was strewn all over his bedroom.

“What are you doing?”

“We agreed we wouldn’t tell anyone about us. We agreed it
would be a disaster.”

No
, Adam thought, propping up on his elbow to watch
her skitter around the room. It would avert disaster. For one thing, it would
keep him from killing Jack. A frown formed on his brow. “It won’t be a
disaster.” It would be frickin’ great.

She paused halfway into her blouse. “Adam. You don’t
understand what it’s like for a woman when something like this gets out. It’s
awful. The whispers. The rumors. The way people stare at you. The way they
treat you. I hated it, Adam, and I don’t want that to happen here. I love
Trillo–Maris.”

He leapt from the bed and hovered at her side. “Trillo–Maris
loves you.” It was as close as he could come to saying
those words
but
she waved the heartfelt comment away.

“What am I going to do if this costs me my job?” She buried
her face in her hands. “Two times in a row? I’ll be un-hirable.”

“You’re not losing your job.” His frustration rose as he
watched her dress, knowing he was losing
her
, at least for the night.
She was slipping through his fingers like a handful of sand and all he wanted
to do was grasp tighter. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Home.”

“Home? I thought we were going to the banquet tonight.”

She fixed him with an incredulous glare. “Together?”

Perhaps his intention to do just that shone in his eyes
because she growled and continued hunting for her shoes. “Men,” she muttered
under her breath.

“Kat.” He followed her around the room as she hunted. “Wait.
We need to talk about this.”

“Why? So you can get what you want and I can get screwed? In
more ways than one?”

“It’s not like that, damn it.”

“Really?” She glared up at him. “What exactly is it like?”

“I just want them to know you’re mine.”

Katherine stilled as her hovering heart completed its fall.

Adam knew how strongly she felt. He knew what it would mean
to her, the humiliation she would suffer if everyone in the office found out
about their affair. Yet still, he was pressing to tell them. To tell them all.
To have his own way. She glanced down at the hands gripping her shoes. Her
knuckles were white.

She forced a stoic expression though panic roiled beneath.
She didn’t want it to end. She wasn’t ready for it to end. But that’s what Adam
was doing. Ending it.

“I see.” She swallowed against the thick knot in her throat.
“We agreed not to tell anyone,” she said softly. “We agreed our affair would
last as long as no one in the office knew about it. I explained why it was
important to me and you agreed. Now you’ve changed your mind.”

“I haven’t changed my mind. I never wanted to keep this a
secret. I thought it was a stupid idea then and it’s a stupid idea now.”

The blood drained from her face. “What?”

Realizing his gaffe, Adam quickly backpedaled. “I didn’t
mean it that way. It’s just that, well, people need to know.”

“People do not need to know. This is a private matter.
Between the two of us.”

Adam’s brow darkened. “Things have changed. You don’t
understand.”

“Oh, I understand.” She did and it broke her heart. Adam
knew the quickest way to end their relationship was to broadcast it throughout
the office. She’d made herself more than clear. She had no intention of losing
her job this way. Not again.

But he was insisting on doing just that, which meant he
either didn’t value her concerns or he didn’t value their relationship. Neither
was acceptable to her. She grabbed her bag. “I think we’re through here.”

His nostrils flared. “What do you mean?”

She met his eyes with a hint of a tear in her own. “I think
you know what I mean.”

Adam frowned. “We’re not through.”

“Yes. We are. I have to go.” She scrabbled for the only
excuse she could think of—one that had always done the trick in the past. “I
have work to do.”

“Forget your work. We need to talk.”

“My work,” she said, “is my life. Obviously you don’t
understand that,
Mr. Trillo
.”

“Don’t call me Mr. Trillo!” He stalked toward her and took
her arms, forcing her to face him. “Kat, listen to me, would you?”

She turned away. “I think you’ve said all there is to say.
Now if you don’t mind, I have to go.”

Wrenching herself from his grip, she stormed from his house,
leaving him standing there, naked, confused and more than a little bereft.

By the time she arrived at her condo, Katherine had calmed
down enough to think through her dilemma with some element of logic but that
didn’t make her inner turmoil any easier to stomach.

Despite her adamant insistence that they keep their
relationship a secret, she had to admit the arrangement was starting to wear on
her. At first it had seemed a logical solution to their problem. They could
continue to see each other, continue to enjoy long, languorous lovemaking
sessions—as long as no one at the office knew.