THIRTEEN YEARS AGO _______________________ -NINA- I've thought a lot about us recently, and I feel we should break up. You and I are too different, and I don’t think we should be together anymore. I read the message Chris sent me for the hundredth time. At first, I thought it was a joke. After all, it came only two days after my birthday, the best day of my life. So, I answered with another joke. Oh, no. I'm devastated. So now I'm free to ask your friend Kyle out? But he didn’t reply to that text or any other one that I sent afterward. I tried to call him, but it went directly to voicemail. After a while, he blocked me. Over the next week, he disappeared from school. I started to grow anxious, suspecting that his evil uncle might have been involved. I even told my parents about our break-up. Not all the details, but the general idea. My mother was trying to convince me to report his disappearance to the police when I finally saw him at school. One lo
-NINA- A few days after going to AMR group headquarters, I still couldn't forget about Chris. It didn't help that I left his office in a hurry, without underwear, with a tingling sensation in my core that lasted for hours. Once again, I was sucked up in that whirlwind of lust. The attraction was too strong for me to go against it. I know it was wrong, and I shouldn't have done it, but I don't regret it. By sleeping with him, I was able to get it out of my system and finally move on. As I told him, it was just s.ex, nothing more. But God, it was so good. Actually, it was spectacular. He knew my body better than myself, giving me exactly what I wanted, the way I needed. Our bodies connect like magnets. I squeezed my eyes shut, shaking my head in an attempt to brush away the images flooding my brain. The only way to keep my mind far away was to bury myself in work. And that is precisely what I am doing. At the end of the week, there will be an online meeting to present
-CHRIS- "The numbers in the graph do not reflect last quarter's dividends. They show some profit when, in reality, there are some losses here in this other spreadsheet." Ben, my assistant, was trying to explain the discrepancies he found out in Hayworth Pipelines' book. After the last encounter I had with my uncle, I couldn't shake off a nagging feeling in my gut. He sounded far too desperate to have simply lost a contract. Sure, it was a huge deal, but the company has thousands of other revenues, and it shouldn't have impacted him so much as it did. For him to come out of his hole and threaten Nina, who has nothing to do with our business, it had to be something important. So I asked Ben to dig for some information and he found it. It was deeply hidden, but my sources managed to uncover the real numbers. My uncle had been embezzling company funds into his personal offshore account for years. It was easy for him to cover it up when profits were booming. But now, with the
*Warning: Explicit content -CHRIS- Nina was kissing me. This time, she slanted her lips against mine as if her life depended on it. From the moment she stepped into my office looking gorgeous in a tight knee-length light cream dress, I was struck by her beauty. Her long, wavy dark hair cascaded over her shoulders, her big forest green eyes shone with a burning fury, and I wanted nothing more than to take her in my arms. But I restrained myself. Every time we've met recently, I've been the one to initiate the physical touch. This time, I had to be sure that this was what she wanted. And right now, it seemed, she desired it deeply. This kiss was nothing like the one we shared on the rooftop. That kiss was soft, tender, a glimpse into our memories. We were exploring each other, reconnecting to old perceptions. This one was the opposite. It was a blast of sensations, a whirlwind of passion and heat. My palms slipped from her waist to the curve of her
*Warning: Explicit content -CHRIS- Nina was kissing me. This time, she slanted her lips against mine as if her life depended on it. From the moment she stepped into my office looking gorgeous in a tight knee-length light cream dress, I was struck by her beauty. Her long, wavy dark hair cascaded over her shoulders, her big forest green eyes shone with a burning fury, and I wanted nothing more than to take her in my arms. But I restrained myself. Every time we've met recently, I've been the one to initiate the physical touch. This time, I had to be sure that this was what she wanted. And right now, it seemed, she desired it deeply. This kiss was nothing like the one we shared on the rooftop. That kiss was soft, tender, a glimpse into our memories. We were exploring each other, reconnecting to old perceptions. This one was the opposite. It was a blast of sensations, a whirlwind of passion and heat. My palms slipped from her waist to the curve of her
-NINA- "I'd like to see Mr. Hayworth." I told the receptionist as I approached her desk. When Mark told me about his conversation with the client, I could barely contain my rage. That jerk! How could Chris steal my idea like that? Especially after all that smooth talk about me being an amazing architect, that sweet moment that made me let my guard down. It was all a load of c.rap. That is his M.O. He comes with his honeyed words, charming smile and unbelievable hotness, passing smoothly though my defenses. And then, he attacks. And I fall for it. Every. single. time. It doesn't help that my body has a mind of its own. I have such a strong physical response to him that it makes it almost impossible to restrain myself. But this time, he went too far. I dashed from the Triad office to the AMR Group headquarters. Thankfully, their office was not too far away from ours, and less than half an hour later, I found myself facing a young guy with short black hair that worke