Page 44 of Sensual Games

Relax. You’re an adult, for Christ’s sake.

I knew he could see me if he checked his security camera, but I knocked anyway, resisting the urge to fidget as I waited for him to answer the door. I looked fine.

As it turned out, I looked better than fine, at least according to Lucian, once he opened the door and took one look at me. “God, you are gorgeous, Poison.” That was all he said before taking me by my arm and pulling me into the apartment, kicking the door closed while he kissed me like it was the last thing he would ever do.

At first, it was enough to let him kiss me, pushing up against the closed door, his hands running up and down my body and waking me up all over. And I asked myself,why did I get so weird and giddy and unsure of myself when it came to him?This was why. Because deep down inside, I didn’t want to lose this. The rush, the thrill, the chemistry. It had never been like this with another man, and I couldn’t imagine how it ever would.

Even so, after those first few breathless seconds, I softly laughed while he ran his lips over my throat. “What is this all about? I thought you were sick,” I breathed out, moaning when he cupped my breast. “You don’t feel sick right now.”

“If I were sick, this is the only cure.” He barely took time to come up for air, looking at me with so much fire in those endless, dark eyes. “You’re the cure.”

“There I was, thinking I was poison.” I could laugh about it now. There were so many things I would never have imagined laughing about, but I wouldn’t have imagined this, either. We had come so far.

Stop thinking like that. The man had his hand inside my shirt and his dick pressing against me, yet I still chided myself. I needed to get out of my head, or I would ruin everything, but then why had he almost ignored me for the better part of two days? There was no explanation, no nothing. He hadn’t even told me why he wanted me to come over here, though this could very well have been the reason.

“Let’s get rid of this,” he rasped. All at once, he pulled my sleeveless blouse over my head and buried his face between my breasts, still covered in a bra I was glad I wore. “So sweet.”

I closed my eyes and let myself go, let him take over. It was always so good when he did.

I squealed when he grabbed me by the hips and lifted me, pulling me in close to his erection. With my legs wrapped around his hips and my arms around his neck, I let him carry me deeper into the apartment.

There weren’t many things that could pull me out of a moment like this, but my phone ringing was one of them. My heart sank as I looked over Lucian’s shoulder to where I had dropped my bag on the floor. “Hang on a sec,” I murmured in his ear, nipping the lobe.

“It can wait,” he grunted out, walking faster, taking me to the bedroom.

“No, really. I’m sorry, but you know I can’t ignore a phone call.” That was the whole reason I left my ringer on in the first place, in case someone called about Mom. “Give me a sec. It’s probably nothing.”

He still hesitated for a moment, then placed on my feet so I could jog over to my bag and fish the phone out before the call got cut off.

“Oh. It’s Laney.” It was rare for her to call me, though. We usually talked at work, sometimes via text. “Sorry. I just wanna make sure everything’s okay.”

“Wait…” I heard the disappointment in Lucian’s voice, and it seemed kind of funny from where he was a minute ago. That was what was on my mind as I answered the call.

“Hey. Everything okay?” I asked. “I’m kind of in the middle of something.” I grinned at Lucian, who oddly looked like somebody had just killed his dog.

“Where are you?” she barked. “Did you know? Tell me you didn’t know.”

Another look at Lucian, this time searching for answers. Reassurance. Something. “Did I know what?” I asked. There was a sick feeling starting to brew in my gut, but I still didn’t know why. I only knew something felt wrong.

“They’re letting us go tomorrow. Maybe the whole team! Redundancies,” she spat, laughing bitterly. “Can you believe this bullshit? We’ve only been there for a fucking month!”

“Slow down.” As I spoke, I stared at Lucian, whose face was stony. “Start from the beginning. What did you hear?”

“Brad heard.” Laney’s voice was shaky, heavy with emotion. She had been crying. “There’s a list. All the divisions have a list. They decided which ones were actually valuable to the company and who could just be let go. They’re supposed to tell us about it tomorrow. He overheard it from one of the guys in marketing. All of the divisions. They didn’t intend on keeping all of us. They just wanted to see who they could use, like a tryout. Maybe it would’ve been nice if they fucking told us,” she huffed out.

“Okay, let’s take a step back.” Who the hell was I to talk? I was shaking, with nausea rolling over me. Everything was falling apart all at once, and there was nothing for me to do but stand back and watch it happen.

He wasn’t supposed to do this.

He toldmehe wouldn’t do this.

“Forget taking a step. We’re done! You know, they probably didn’t keep anybody. They were practically fully staffed before this fucking buyout. I knew I should’ve been looking for a new job all this time! What are we supposed to do?” she finished on a sob.

One thing I knew for sure. “I promise you… I didn’t know about this.”

“No, of course you didn’t. Because they probably don’t wanna keep you, either. You were there to teach the Crown Prince how to do his job, and now you can go. The heartless fucking bastards.”

My God. When she put it that way, everything was so clear. All this time, I was there as a tool, nothing more. Someone to use until there was nothing left to use me for. A wave of nausea threatened to knock me down while betrayal wedged a white-hot knife in my chest. I actually looked down, expecting to see it sticking out from my chest.

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