I’d have known. Finn probably would have known. But Natalie wouldn’t have to worry about what I might think of her. If I could go back and spare her that, I would, and not just because it would spare me knowing about the fucking lace at the top of her stockings or her blue lace lingerie. I only caught the smallest glimpse as she jerked her skirt back down, but that color is written in my memory for life.
If I hadn’t opened that damned door, I probably would have stayed in my bedroom, where I can’t hear any sound coming from Finn’s. I wouldn’t know what she sounds like when she wants more, when she’s overwhelmed by lust. What she sounds like when she comes.
“Easy there, boss man,” says Finn, his knuckles white on the armrest. “If we end up in an accident, we’ll really be late.”
I huff at him but back off the gas pedal anyway as we approach the building. I pull into my spot, throw the car into park, and if I slam the door a little too hard, well, it’s my fucking car, and I’m allowed.
Finn trots up behind me, hustling to catch up.
“Do we need to have a conversation, Nic?”
“No.”
That shuts him up until we get into the elevator, which is mercifully jammed full of other people.
Finn is at my elbow, jostling just a little too close, when the woman next to him shifts her laptop bag. His arm grazes my stomach, and I stare at the numbers over the door as though, with enough focus, I might just be able to set them on fire.
“You sure?” asks Finn. His voice is low, hushed.
“I am. Don’t ask me again.” I meet his eyes.
Three orgasms ought to have been enough to tide me over. I’m thirty-four years old, for God’s sake. Still, a year-plus of celibacy combined with the dual powers of Natalie and Finn-fucking-Hale is driving me crazy. He holds my gaze as the elevator arrives at our floor.
It would be too much to hope he takes the hint and stays in the outer office. Nope. He follows me right through, closing the door to my private office behind him. I set down my things deliberately, raising a brow at him.
“Problem?” I ask.
“One of us clearly has one,” he says, his tone deceptively mild. “I need to know what yours is.” He folds his arms, bracing his feet in front of the door as though he’s going to keep me in here until I answer him.
Joke’s on him. I have no intention of stepping foot out of this room until I absolutely have to. There’s an en suite bath and everything. I could live here.
Bit dramatic, Nic. Rein it in. You’re the boss here, after all. They’ll follow your lead.
Using a trick from law school, I focus on a spot on the door just above Finn’s head and walk toward him deliberately.
“My problem is, this is my workplace. You are currently keeping me from doing my job.”
“So, this little tantrum isn’t about me and Natalie.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re awfully touchy today,” says Finn, backing off a little. The faintest hint of doubt creeps into his expression as I advance on him.
“Thank you for the observation.” I stop just that little bit too close. I don’t want to actually threaten the man—he’s got at least thirty pounds of muscle on me, not to mention the gun. “Anything else before you go?”
His lips quirk, the tiny action just enough to draw my attention to his mouth. His lips are a bit swollen today. Or perhaps that’s my overheated imagination. Certainly, they got a workout last night from the split-second I saw. And heard.
His murmuring and her cries. The pounding that couldn’t be explained by anything but hips thrusting against that table I saw in his hall.
I had closed my front door, intending to leave them to it, but my feet wouldn’t move from that spot in the hall. For a moment, the sounds vanished, and I thought Finn and Natalie had gone further into the apartment, beyond the reach of my ears. Before I could pull myself together to walk away, something thumped against the wall, and after that…
After that, I stood rooted to the spot, unable to move at all, blood thrumming, dick hard, fists clenching and flexing against the need to shut out the sounds or to hold me in place to hear it all. Her ecstasy, his desperation, their combined release, all of it. Quiet conversation I couldn’t make out. I was stunned when Natalie left.
He’d returned alone. After Finn let himself into his apartment, my knees wouldn’t hold me up anymore. I’d had to brace myself against the wall to keep from falling to the floor. I’d barely gotten my fly open, managed to get a desperate grip on my cock, and came so hard it shook me inside and out. I hadn’t been quiet about it.
It never once occurred to me that he’d heard me after all that.
Fucking idiot.