He chuckled, and whisper-rumbled, “Well, that’s because you’re a naughty assistant with a dirty, dirty mind.”

“Ace! I amnot,” I protested as I fumbled with his belt and pulled his zipper down.

He paused, his eyes on my hands. “Oh, yes,yes, you are,” he rasped.

“So, you didn’t set up the note like that to fool me?”

38

ACE

“Of course I did,” I growled.

A mischievous grin spread across her face. “Just to prove how grateful I am,” she began in a sexy whisper, “I won’t even ask for a promotion for what I’m about to do.”

I knew a lopsided smile meant trouble when the person wearing it was Stella Copeland.

She dropped to her knees, her hands back on my belt.

“That’s what I call a good assistant,” I praised, knowing exactly where this was going, but my smile was stolen from my lips by a groan. No woman had ever made me feel the kinds of things that Stella could invoke in me.

Within seconds, she did something fantastic with her tongue, and my knees almost buckled.

“Fuck,” I moaned, cupping both her cheeks and caressing them tenderly while pushing in and out of her. “Holy fuck.”

She held onto my thighs and dug her nails into my skin and did the tongue thing again.

Holy fuck.

Holyfuck.

“Baby,” I groaned, my thumbs stroking her cheeks, “I’m going to—”

I pulled away from her right at the moment that I most desperately did not want to.

“Open your mouth. Wider. Stick your tongue out.”

And sweet paradise, if she didn’t obey right away.

A second later, I orgasmed harder than I ever had. I moaned as more of my come jetted out of my cock, all over her sweet small tongue, and into her mouth.

“Swallow…atta fucking girl.” Fuck… Once I was done, I stared down at the most beautiful face. My Stella.

Picking her up, I set her on my desk and spread her legs wide. My lips crashed against her sweet pussy. It was a good thing she wasn’t wearing any underwear, because I would have torn them off to get to her if she had been.

“The only man’s name you’re going to scream from now on is mine.”

A few moments later, that’s exactly what she did.

39

STELLA

It had been twodays since I’d helped Ace “prepare” for his presentation and “unwind” thereafter. We’d spent the days that followed making out—and possibly hooking up—in his office (on his desk), the copy room (on the color copy machine), the archive room (behind the third shelf), the executive boardroom (yep, there’s that too), and at my apartment (bed, clawfoot bathtub, on top of myrunningwashing machine) every chance we got.

Bonnie took note of the fact I’d become something of a recluse and promptly invited me out for cocktails.

The restaurant she’d chosen was a small Italian-looking place with a charismatic waiter named Giovanni and a bunch of white tables nestled in a green and red garden. The sound of bees and other animals buzzing around the tiny flowers surrounding us was almost deafening, but it was a pleasant type of white noise that was comforting to me.