The Stand Off (7 page)

“You changed the dynamics of this
business relationship the minute you started snooping into my sex life. You saw
all the nasty things that I did to the governor’s wife so don’t play innocent
with me. I know exactly what you saw, nothing I say could shock you more than
what is on those pictures.”

She was suddenly overwhelmed with
the images she had seen in the pictures. The ropes, the clamps, the crazy
contraptions… and that whip. She tried to mentally stall her nipples from
hardening.

“You’re perversity runs deep,”
she said in a soft tone.

“It does. You should stop looking
at the pictures. If you want to know how I fuck, then you should just let me
show you.”

“You’re so vulgar,” she spat,
although the thought was interesting.

“Am I? Then why are you so turned
on?” he asked.

It was at that moment that she
realized that he knew the truth. She knew that he could see exactly what she’d
been trying to hide. She wasn’t shocked; the man thrived on sex. He was
probably well schooled on the signs. She was busted, caught with the smoking
gun in hand. But she wouldn’t be Lux Hart if she didn’t try to fight her way
out of it.

“Don’t mistake my shock and
repulsion for stimulation,” she barked at him.

“I’m not; I know the difference
very well.”

“Obviously not,” she retorted.

“Why would you come back to my
office?”

“To return your road block.”

“You could have sent someone else
to return that. Tell me why you’re really here?”

“I told you already!”

“I think you came to see me.”

His eyes were relentless, and she
was beginning to feel the heat from his untamed stare igniting her body. Could
he tell that her nipples had hardened? Could he see the steam that she swore
was billowing from between her legs?

“You’re too cocky. You’re so used
to women ripping off their panties and sliding to home base on your face, that
you assume all women feel the same. Sorry to have to be the one to mutilate
your fucking ego, pal, but not all women want you… I certainly don’t.”

She tried to walk away, but he grabbed
her and held her in place.

“That’s not being cocky, that’s
reading the signs. I’m confident enough to know if I yanked up that skirt and
slid my hand in your panties, I would pull back wet fingers.” He said in a tone
that made her clit hum relentlessly. He was right, but she would be damned if
she let him know how deeply she was affected by his words.

“If you slid your hand in my
panties you would have no fingers left to pull back,” she hissed, refusing to
succumb to his effective vulgarity.

“Is that a bet?” He slid his hand
down her belly and rested his fingers against her sex.

“Don’t touch me.” She tried to
grab his hand, but he grabbed both of her wrists and held them tightly.

“Why not? You’re in
my
office making demands, why can’t I make a few of my own? I warned you how it
would be if you came back here.”

He pulled her closer, and she was
overwhelmed by his presence. He smelled so fresh and so appealing. She could
once again feel his muscles working against her skin. She wanted to yank up her
shirt and rub her breasts against his bare chest.

“Stop it!”
her inner voice
echoed through her head. She had to get the hell away from him… immediately.

“Let go of me!” she hissed and
tried to pull away from him, but he refused to let her go.

“You’re even sexier when you’re
mad. You’re eyes spark, you yell,
and
your nipples get hard.” He held
her tightly as the side of his mouth curled up into a smug smile. “I’m betting
you get wet, too.”

“If you don’t let go of me…”

“What are you going to do? Struggle
some more? I wish you would, I love the way your tits bounce under your shirt
when you struggle. If you struggle hard enough, maybe you’ll pop that top
button.”

She instantly stopped struggling
and glared at him.

“Or I could pop it for you,” he
said as he grabbed the top of her shirt and yanked it apart until just the top
buttoned popped off.

“Asshole!” she yelled and pushed
against his chest.

He let go of her, and she
promptly drew the top of her shirt together. She took a generous step back as
he grinned.

“You disgusting, over sexed,” she
began, but he cut her off.

“If you let me fuck you for the
next 24 hours, I will make sure that your business is not disturbed until the
final destruction date.”

She stood silently for a moment
as she fought the stimulation his words had brought. His aggression was
hypnotic and overly intoxicating.

“There won’t be a destruction
day.”

“It’s set in stone; you couldn’t
stop it if you wanted to,” he reminded her.

“We’ll see.”

“There’s nothing you can do,
baby.”

He ran his hand down her cheek,
and she slapped it away.

“Don’t look so smug; you’re not
going to win this. I will dedicate all of my time to finding out every bit of
dirt on you.”

“You’re wasting your time. That building
is coming down, slander or not. But you could make the time in between much
easier for yourself. All that you have to do is bend over my desk and pull up
your skirt.”

“That fact that you think that I
would trade 24 hours of sex for a temporary peace treaty is astounding to me. Hubris
has pickled your brain,” she began but immediately closed her mouth when the
fire alarm suddenly screeched through the building.

Although she felt relief when she
heard the sound, part of her wished she had a few more minutes to continue her
conversation with Dean. Nevertheless, her time was up.

Dean, on the other hand, was so
focused on Lux that he didn’t seem to notice the loud alarm.

“Well thank you for the
unenlightening conversation; I’ll see you soon.”

With that she turned and rushed
over to the door.

“We’re not done; get your ass
back here!” he demanded as he headed towards her.

“We’re done,” she said before she
sprinted out of the office and slammed the door behind her. As she rushed past
his secretary, she could hear him turning the door handle. She sped up even
though she knew that she was safe; she’d made it out in the nick of time.

Dean had watched the door slam
closed moments before he swung it back open. As he watched her rush down the
hallway he fought the urge to chase her and carry her back into his office. His
cock was painfully erect, and he felt deeply deprived. His body was demanding
that he chase after her, but his brain held him back. He walked back into his
office and slammed the door harder than necessary. He looked down at the road
block in the middle of his office and grinned despite his anger. She really was
something else, the likes of which he’d never encountered before. The likes of
which he’d like to encounter again… but more frequently.

Lux walked nonchalantly out of
the front doors before she bolted to the truck. Pixie had the car in drive by
the time Lux jumped in the passenger’s side. Pixie didn’t hesitate and drove
off before Lux’s door was fully shut.

“One of those security guards
spotted me pulling the alarm,” Pixie said with a grin.

“What did you say?”

“I told him I smelt smoke and
ran. So how did it go with Dean Blake?”

“I’m pretty sure I made things
worse,” Lux admitted.

“But you knew that before you
went in,” Pixie gave her
the look
.

“I did. Go ahead, get it over
with,” Lux pursed her lips as she looked at her sister.

“I told you so,” Pixie sang with
a smile before turning up the music.

Lux looked out the window and
tried not to think about Dean for the remainder of the ride.

When Pixie pulled up in front of
the music hall, Lux saw that her friends were removing the last of the road
blocks. They had lined them all up on the sidewalk down the street.

“You girls are amazing; thank you
so much.” Lux smiled in relief and hugged her friends.

“We started the second they left,”
Graves said.

“The main guy, Floyd, told us
that they were leaving for the night and would not be back until morning,” Kiki
explained.

“He just volunteered that
information?” Lux asked in skeptically.

“Yes.” Graves nodded.

“Floyd likes Kiki; I think that’s
why he told us… so adamantly,” Lolo said with a chuckle.

“He feels bad, he said so
himself,
that’s
why he told us,” Kiki corrected her.

“Yeah right,” Graves scoffed.

“You didn’t tell him about the
band tomorrow night did you?” Lux asked.

“It’s not like he would say
anything,” Kiki defended him.

“Of course he’s going to say
something; Dean Blake is his boss,” Lux retorted.

“Let’s just cross that bridge
when we get to it,” Graves suggested.

“
If
we get to it,” Kiki
interrupted her.

“Oh, I’m sure we will get to it,”
Lux mumbled more to herself, knowing that Dean would take any opportunity to
torture her.

“If we hurry, we can have
everything cleared and set up before the band gets here to practice,” Pixie
said.

They were all headed into the
building when Lux received an email alert on her phone. Her stomach dropped;
she already knew who it was.

To: Lux Hart

From: Dean Blake

Subject: Not finished

____________________

We will finish that conversation

-Dean

To: Dean Blake

From: Lux Hart

Subject: Finished

____________________

Don’t bet on it

***

The next morning, Lux awoke the
very second that her alarm rang. She jumped out of bed, threw on her robe, and
ran downstairs. She headed outside in the fresh morning air to see that her
prediction had come true. The front of the lounge had been completely
barricaded, and they had doubled the amount of roadblocks. To add insult to
injury, there were thick layers of red tape across the front and the do no
enter signs were back. All their hard work in removing the blockades had been
for naught, but she had known that before she began the task.

What disturbed her most was
seeing the workmen carrying out boxes of music equipment. She watched as Floyd
headed towards her with a rather large box.

“I wasn’t sure where you would
want the piano. Your sister Kiki told me that it is very valuable to you,”
Floyd said with a smile.

“What the hell are you doing with
our instruments?” Lux barked at him.

“Mr. Blake told us to pack up
everything in the lounge and give it all to you. He also said to make sure that
nothing got damaged in the process,” he informed her with a smile; obviously
thinking it would appease her.

“I want you to put
everything
back where you found it right now!” She was not the least bit pleased.

“I wish that I could, but I
can’t; I’m really sorry.” He shrugged and went back to work.

Lux took a deep steadying breath,
trying desperately to calm down. She even began to count to ten but
unfortunately she wasn’t able to make it past three. She cursed, called Dean a
few choice names, and headed towards her car.

She didn’t waste time; she drove
straight to Dean’s office. She parked her car in front, rushed into the
building, and headed to the elevator. She couldn’t get to him fast enough. She
felt her anger surge and her nerves rattle as the elevator stopped at the top
floor.

She stormed past the smiling
receptionist and headed down the hall to Dean’s office. She was greeted by
Dean’s smiling secretary.

“Mr. Blake is in a meeting, he
cannot be disturbed.” The secretary said.

“What’s your name?” Lux asked
impatiently.

“Amelia,” she answered
hesitantly.

“Hi, I’m Lux. Amelia, how many
times do we have to go through this? Every time I come here, I tell you that I
have an appointment, but you still deny me entrance to his office. Every time I
come, he lets me right in, why would you think today would be any different?”

“Um, because he’s in an important
meeting,” she repeated.

“Isn’t every meeting important?”

“Yes.” she nodded.

“Then why is this one so
special?”

“He’s really not in his office
this time, he’s in the boardroom,” she explained.

“Just point in the direction,
I’ll take it from there,” Lux urged her.

“Will you take full blame if he’s
mad?”

“I would love nothing more,” she
smiled wolfishly.

Amelia pointed towards the
opposite hallway. “Just keep going straight until you hit the large double
doors.”