Page 16 of By His Side

“I wouldn’t call it a fight.”

“People should kiss and make up after a fight.”

Alarm bells rang, allowing Felix to trap me this way a rookie error. “You should sit down.”

“Should I? Why?”

“Because… I could report this as threatening behavior. Do you realize that your parole could be revoked and you could end up back in prison?”

“I do realize that.” Felix’s voice was soft and free of the strain I might have expected to hear in it.

“So… back off and we’ll say no more about it.” I’d been in tricky situations with clients before. All I needed to do was stay calm and bring logic into the equation. And there’d definitely be no more home visits. The office was safer. A shout in the office would have someone come running. Here, there was no one.

Why had I let myself end up in this situation instead of listening to my gut? Wrongly assuming his mother would be here? Or just a stubbornness to admit that I couldn’t handle him? Whatever false bravado had brought me to this point, it had left me trapped beneath him, with goosebumps on my skin that had absolutely nothing to do with being afraid of him.

“Kind of you,” Felix said. He lifted one arm, but instead of backing off, he plucked at the lapel of my jacket. “I like this suit. It looks good on you.” His fingers drifted to my tie. “This is overkill, though. This is a parole meeting, not a wedding.” Sure fingers without a hint of a tremor to them unknotted it before dragging it off.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking your tie off. Making you more comfortable. I don’t see you stopping me.”

Right. I wasn’t. I might not be able to get up without shoving him out of the way, but I still had the use of my arms. I should grab his hands. It was too late, though, the strip of pale blue material already being held aloft by Felix like it was a prize before he dropped it and it spiraled to the carpet. So he’d removed my tie. Big deal. Not exactly the crime of the century. I would have removed it myself when I got home.

His fingers returned to my collar to undo the top button. Two more followed. “Stop.” That word should have come out sooner. Why hadn’t it?

Felix’s finger stilled, and he cocked his head to one side. “Why?”

“What?”

“Why do you want me to stop? Because you prefer women? You don’t have a wife. And you admitted to not having a girlfriend, so I don’t see why that matters. You can prefer women and still have fun with something harder. Something that can get into those hard to reach places.”

My cock was throbbing and my throat wasn’t just dry now—it was the Sahara Desert. “It’s nothing to do with me preferring women.”

“What is it to do with then?”

The question was so ridiculous that it almost didn’t seem worth answering. Wasn’t it obvious? “You’re my client.”

“I don’t mind if you don’t.”

“I do mind. I can’t…” I shook my head to clear it, Felix having wound a seductive spell over me without having done anything more than remove my tie and undo a few buttons. What was I, a Victorian damsel? I’d be swooning next, because he’d shown me his ankle. “We can’t do this.”

“But you want to.”

I struggled to pull in oxygen, my chest unwilling to cooperate and make the necessary movements. Maybe because one of Felix’s hands still rested there, right over my heart, his fingers burning a heated brand through the thin fabric. I should have worn something else to come here. Like a suit of armor or a full hazmat suit. Or maybe a straitjacket would be more apt.

“Seven years is a long time,” Felix said as his fingers started moving again and another button fell prey to their movements to leave my shirt open to mid-chest.

“Do you expect me to believe you were celibate for seven years?”

He lifted his head from his examination of my bare skin, a shadow crossing his face in another hint of vulnerability before he masked it. “Not celibate, no. But it’s not the same. Its snatched moments with someone it’s doubtful you’d look twice at on the outside. Making do, if you will.” His lips curved slightly as he slid his hand inside my shirt. Fingers brushed my nipple, my body betraying me as the nub immediately peaked, even though the touch hadn’t been much of one. It might even have been accidental. “Now I get to choose.”

“I’m not on the menu.”

“No? So why haven’t you pushed me off? Why are you letting me do what I want?”

It was the same question I kept asking myself. Knowing it was time to bring this madness to an end, to show him he wasn’t the master of me, I convinced my arms to move and pressed my palms against his chest, intending to shove him. Only the feel of all that muscle under my hands had my brain short-circuiting. In a last gasp attempt to keep my sanity, I dredged up the worst thing that could come from this. “I could lose my job!” My voice sounded thin and desperate, the amount of pleading in it embarrassing. I don’t know what I’d hoped for—Felix recoiling and apologizing, maybe. But it wasn’t a smile like I’d told a funny joke. “I could!”

“What time do you finish?”

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