Page 9 of Free Fall

I sighed, running my hands over my face. I’d fucked up. She could be in there right now telling Henry everything, but I knew if she had, he wouldn't wait a second before hunting me down and ending me. We were close, but he would destroy me before letting me touch his daughter like that.

She was impossible to resist, and walking around with the knowledge that it wasn’t just my little secret anymore, that she knew what we’d done... it made me blind with the need to do it again. Fucking in her bed, with her eyes firmly on mine, proved it to me. She wanted it as much as I did.

Having stayed where I was, at the edge of my office, my ears perked up when I heard Henry’s office open across the hall a few moments later, and for a moment I thought it was him about to bust in. But hasty footfalls fading away made me curious, and I had my door ajar and my ass in the hall right on time to see Zelda disappear round the corner.

My legs moved with no thought from me, and I followed her, needing to know what happened, trailing at a distance and listening as she crashed through the building. She was heading to the staff room, a small space we kept with a coffee machine and a fridge full of snacks. Zelda and all the other kids had spent half their childhoods in there during school summers. At one point, they had it kitted out with a TV and a games console.

Now it was sparse, and as I walked in behind her, my eyes zeroed in on her frame, no other distractions.

She was leaning against the sink, her head hanging down and her back to me, sucking in deep breaths. She stiffened when I shut the door and dragged a chair against it, movements slow and calculated.

“Can’t I get a minute’s fucking peace?” she asked, not turning to confirm her suspicions on who’d followed her in, her voice sounding resigned.

“Look at me,” I demanded, taking measured steps toward her. She shook her head. “Zelda, look at me.”

When I was at her back, she whirled around, fist raised, anger twisting her face. Tears made her eyes shine as I grabbed her wrist, stopping her punch. Her eyelids shuttered, her shoulders slumped as she visibly gave up.

“How can you think this is okay?” she asked in a quiet voice.

“I don’t think this is okay,” I admitted. It was far from fucking okay, but when it was just me and her, I found it hard to care.

“So why do it?” She laughed with no humor. “Why keep coming for me? My dad is in the building, Luca. He's right there.”

I grasped her chin. “I can’t stop myself, Zelda. You’re like an obsession, an addiction. As soon as I have a sniff of you, I have to have you.” I ran my nose above her ear, through her hair, enjoying the way she shivered. “How do you do it?”

“Stop it.” She tried to shove me back. “You’re lying, you just enjoy the game of it all. You’re all twisted and sick in the head.”

I leaned away from her, smirking at the look on her face. Little to no conviction in her words. She was horny, her pupils looked blown and her breathing was shallow pants. “Will you get on your knees for me?”

She scoffed. “Will you get on your knees forme?”

We stayed frozen, glaring at each other, daring the other to make the first move, to cave and sink down. The need to possess her flooded through me, and I wanted to shove her, to force her, to slam her knees to the cold linoleum and fuck her face until her throat was bleeding raw.

Her eyes were icy, determined. Firm.

“We can’t do this,” she muttered, though her back was curving to push her tits toward me, and her body was opening up, unclenching, relaxing. My hand grazed her waistband, danced fingertips along her stomach. Her breath stuttered.

“Zelda, I won’t stop—”

The door handle turning, followed by a grunt, and the rattling of the wood broke the tension. It wasn't Henry, I could tell that just from the grunt, but Zelda leaped out of her skin. I didn’t move. Instead, I ran my fingers from her belly to her jaw, skirting over her tits and her collarbone.

“Get away from me,” she hissed.

“Hello!” a voice called from the hall. Dana, our receptionist, looking for her hourly coffee fix. “Why’s the door locked?”

My gaze danced over her as my hand moved into her hair, gripping a fistful of the strands to tilt her head back, force her to look at me. Confront me.

I leaned down while she fought against me.

“Luca,” she admonished.

I kissed the tip of her nose and chuckled before stepping out of her orbit, turning for the door as she took an unsteady breath.

The chair returned under the table, and I turned the lock over, pulling the door open to find Dana about to call someone.

“Hey,” I said. “Sorry, it was jammed, I think. Need to get that looked at.”

Dana prattled on at me about some stock issue as I turned back into the room, heading toward the coffee. Zelda muttered pleasantries to Dana and dipped out, ignoring me and making me grin at how flustered she was.

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