Stipulation (2 page)

“They don’t
talk, you know,” I tell him sarcastically, and he finally has
the grace to look back up at me.

He’s grinning
when he says, “Yeah, but I bet I could make them sing if you
gave me a go at them.”

Okay, that’s
it. I’m calling it a night.

Dropping the napkin
on the bar, I grab my purse and try to stand up from my barstool.
Apparently, Brian doesn’t understand that he’s just
royally pissed me off because he reaches a hand out, completely and
utterly oblivious to the fact that he’s in a public place, and
actually squeezes my right boob. “Come on, baby… let’s
go back to my room and get it on.”

Ew, that’s
just fucking gross. I’m momentarily shocked that he actually
fondled me, but it lasts only a second. I knock his hand off and try
to push my way past him, but he has the gall to reach back out and
try to grab me again.

All out of patience,
and apparently not concerned myself with the fact that we are in a
public place, I cock my arm back and get ready to punch him square in
the snout. Before I can let my hand fly though, another hand reaches
out and grabs Brian by the shoulder, slinging him away from me.

Brian is too drunk
to fight against that kind of momentum and he goes sailing across the
room, crashing into an empty table and chairs, where he falls to the
floor.

And there’s my
knight in shining armor, standing over him with fists clenched and
murder in his eyes.

Matt Connover.

Matt reaches down
and grabs Brian by the lapels of his jacket, hauling him off the
floor. No one makes a move to intervene because Matt looks to be in
control, although he seems to be vibrating with the need to do
violence.

Putting his face in
Brian’s, he grits, “It will do me no good to beat your
ass or tell you how reprehensible your conduct is, because you won’t
remember it in the morning. Rest assured… I’ll be by
your hotel room first thing in the morning, and then I’ll
decide which part of me you’ll get.”

Brian stares at Matt
without any comprehension of what he did… yes, he’s that
drunk. Matt is disgusted and he gives Brian a solid push while
releasing his grip, causing Brian to stumble backward a few steps. He
doesn’t fall down only by the grace of a few of the other
lawyers that catch him.

Spinning away, Matt
walks past me out the bar, growling, “Let’s go.”

Grabbing my purse, I
hurry to catch up to him.

Once the doors on
the elevator shut, I have the nerve to look up to Matt. He’s
pissed, and I’m not sure if it’s at Brian, me, or both of
us.

“I’m
sorry,” I say, because the silence is awkward, and because I
think that’s what he’s waiting for.

“For what?”
he asks in surprise.

“I don’t
know,” I offer lamely. “I thought you were pissed at me.”

“Mac…
you have nothing to be sorry for. That pig was drunk and
inappropriate with you. He’s lucky I didn’t kill him.”

“Well, that’s
a little overboard,” I say with a laugh. “I’m sure
he got the message how very wrong it was.”

“No,”
Matt says, his voice icy. “He didn’t get the message. But
he will tomorrow morning when I pay him a visit.”

“What will you
do?” I ask, wondering if Matt would truly beat his ass. I don’t
want him to do that, but it sure would be awesome to know that
someone wanted to do that on my behalf.

“He’s
off the case. I’m sending him packing.”

“What?”
I say, now feeling extreme guilt that Brian would lose his job. “You
can’t do that. He was just drunk.”

Matt pushes away
from the wall of the elevator where he’d been leaning, and
stalks up to me. He gets all in my personal space, but I don’t
step back from it. Unfortunately, I’m a bad, bad girl, because
damn it… I like him in my space.

Leaning down, Matt
practically growls at me, “He had his fucking hands on your
breast, Mac.”

I wish I could tell
you it was the violence in his voice, or even the absolute menace he
was portraying, that got me excited, but it wasn’t… it
was the pure, flat-out jealousy that was practically dripping off his
lips that got my motor running.

Matt-Fucking-Connover
is jealous another man was touching me.

I’m so going
to milk this for all it’s worth.

“So what if he
was touching me?” I whisper.

The golden tones in
Matt’s eyes turn a deep shade of amber, and he steps in even
closer, now only a mere inch or so separating our bodies. “Because
it should be my hands that are on your body… only mine.”

I think the bells of
Heaven have rung, but sadly, it’s just the chime from our
elevator that we’ve reached our floor. Matt steps back from me
but grabs my hand as he exits. I have no choice but to follow along.
He pulls me swiftly down the hallway, right to my hotel room door.

He doesn’t
even wait for me to get my key. Taking my purse from my hands, he
roots around in there like a pig looking for a truffle. He pulls the
key out, slips it in the reader, and opens my door. Then he’s
pushing me inside, his hand on my lower back. Following me right in,
he propels me all the way into the center of the room, throwing my
purse on the floor.

When I turn around
to look at him, it’s all over. The instant our eyes connect, an
almost palpable spark leaps between us. In that instant, we launch
ourselves at each other.

“Fuck, I can’t
believe I’m doing this again,” Matt grumbles, just before
his mouth starts to ravish mine. I groan instantly from the contact.
We are so ferocious in our need to mate our tongues, our teeth clack
together in an almost painful way. It doesn’t stop us though…
we keep kissing and kissing and kissing.

My hands immediately
go to Matt’s shirt, trying to swiftly undo the buttons, but
making no headway whatsoever. Never one to be worried about finesse
or decorum, I grip the material tightly in my hands and jerk as hard
as I can, expecting buttons to spray all around us and his glorious
chest to be exposed. In my mind, I even see it happening in slow
motion, because yeah… that’s how it would happen in
those steamy, romance novels I like to read.

Instead, the buttons
hold firm and my hands fly outward, holding nothing but air. Matt
pulls away from my mouth to look down at me, taking note of the
failed attempt to strip him bare… and I’m sure the way
my mouth is hanging open in disbelief.

His eyes crinkle in
amusement, and then he starts laughing.

Hard.

I mean gut-busting,
belly-clenching, pee-your-pants hard. Pushing away from me, he
actually has to put his hand down on the dresser to hold himself up
while he laughs. “That was probably the funniest thing I’ve
ever seen,” he says between gasps, tears pooling in his eyes.

Glaring at him, I
say, “Is your shirt made of like steel or something?”

And that causes him
to succumb to fresh peals of laughter.

I merely cross my
arms over my chest and rain down my most displeasing frown upon him.
He finally gets control of himself, letting out a few stray snickers,
and then he’s standing straight in front of me. Holding his
hands out in front of himself, he says, “I’m sorry…
but that was funny.”

“Yeah, not so
much for me,” I tell him. Walking to the door, I open it. “I’m
sort of not in the mood now.”

Matt’s lips
quirk at me, and he grins at me in sheer amusement. “I’m
not going anywhere.”

“I told you
I’m not in the mood.”

The irritating fool
walks over and sits down on the edge of my bed. “Yes, you are.
Now get over here,” he says as he unbuckles his belt. “I’d
kill for you to take me in your mouth right now.”

I’m weak.
That’s all there is to it. I close the door and walk back into
the room, but I’m not convinced that this should evolve into
sex.

“What are we
doing, Matt?” I ask in a tired voice.

He gives me a
devilish grin as he pulls his belt off, tossing it on the floor. “I’d
say you’re getting ready to give me a blow job, and then I’m
going to make you come more times than you’ll be able to
remember tomorrow.”

Well, oh shit…
that practically just made me have an orgasm right there. Shaking my
head to clear the sexual fuzziness away, I say more firmly, “I
thought we both agreed this was wrong. Besides, you got your jollies
off again at
One Night Only
this weekend and…”

I stop, because I
almost admitted that his sleeping with someone else is a deal breaker
for me. But is it? And do I really want him to know that knowledge
affects me? He’s been pretty clear about the fact that I’ll
only ever be a fuck for him, and I sure as hell don’t want him
having power over me… thinking that it hurts my feelings.

So I quickly say,
“And besides… I slept with someone else, too, this
weekend. Remember… most amazing weekend ever.”

Matt pushes off from
the bed and comes to stand in front of me. He takes his finger and
thumb, gripping my chin so I have to meet his eyes. “I lied. I
wasn’t with anyone this weekend. And you lied for that matter,
too. You didn’t sleep with anyone else.”

I start sputtering,
jerking my chin away. “What makes you think I lied?”

He’s having
none of it. Drawing me into his arms, he wraps himself around me. He
kisses me then, so very softly, and whispers. “I know you lied
for the same reason I did. We don’t want to admit this
attraction, yet both of us are obsessed by it. You can’t get me
out of your mind, just as I can’t get you out of my mine. I’m
tired of fighting it, and I’m tired of jerking off when I’d
rather be sunk deep inside of you. So I’m not fighting it
anymore.”

He kisses me again,
just a light grazing of his lips against mine, and I sigh. While this
relationship is still so very wrong, his words to me are so very,
very right. I can handle that there will not be a relationship out of
this, and that this will only ever be sex, because damn if it isn’t
the most powerful, fulfilling, and mind-blowing sex I’ve ever
had. Yeah, I’m jumping in if he’s on board.

I know this will
come to bite me in the ass one day, but I’m still not able to
walk away. I can foresee all types of problems cropping up just
because I’m powerless to stop myself from banging my boss.

Pushing out of his
arms, I drop to my knees in front of him and unzip his pants. I peek
up at him, and he’s staring down at me with dark eyes, his
lower lip stuck between his teeth. He’s holding his breath,
watching to see what I do, and it makes me feel invincible.

He must see the
power radiating off me, the quiet confidence I have in my stare,
because he’s compelled to say, even as he gently strokes my
cheek, “This is just sex, McKayla… nothing more.”

Taking him in my
hand, I squeeze him gently, loving the way the air hisses out of his
lungs. I lean forward and lick him from base to tip, looking up at
him once more. “As long as it’s nothing less.”

“Fair enough,”
he grits out, before grasping my head and urging my face toward his
dick.

I then proceed to
give him, what I’m betting is, the best blow job he’s
ever had. Yeah, I know that sounds cocky, but the sounds he’s
emitting, the curse words he’s dropping, and the way his body
cannot seem to stay still under my ministrations… it’s
all adding up to be one hell of an inexplicably magical moment for
the great Matt Connover.

“God…
Mac… that feels good,” he groans. I purr in approval,
not wanting to remove my lips from him to thank him for his praise.

Intent on making him
scream my name out, I pull him in deeper than ever, straight to the
back of my throat, and give an extremely strong suck. His hands grip
my hair, and he tries to pull me off. “Fuck… I’m
going to come if you don’t stop.”

I think I snarled at
him. I might have even released him long enough to gnash my teeth
like a feral dog fighting over a bone, but it was enough that he
released my head. I latch back on, intent on bringing Matt the same
pleasure that he has doled out to me on more than occasion.