Eruption (The Hunted Series Book 3) (9 page)

"Geez, no." He grabbed my arm and started laughing.
"Were you seriously going to jump out the window?"

"You said you did it all the time. And you dared me."

"There's a trellis." He stuck his head out the
window and pointed to the right. He started laughing again.

"Don't make fun of me for trusting you." I poked
him in the middle of the chest.

"I'm lucky you said something before you jumped."

"Mhm." I rolled my eyes at him as I stood up on the
ledge. "Who were you running off to see in the middle of the night growing
up?"

He held my waist as I grabbed the edge of the trellis. It
took every ounce of restraint not to look down. I slowly stepped onto it and
was relieved to see it was as sturdy as he remembered it being.

"Not someone. Something," he said. "That's
what I want to show you. Don't look at me, watch your footing."

I had slipped slightly when I started my decent, but I
quickly regained my footing.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm a jungle gym master, James."

"I don't doubt that at all."

I laughed. I wasn't even sure what he meant by that. A few
moments later I heard the creak of the trellis. I didn't look up to see him
coming down after me. The last thing I needed was to be distracted by him.

I tried to focus on my hands, but every now and then I looked
down at my feet, reminding myself how high I was. When I was finally close
enough to the bottom, I jumped. The grass was sleek and I slid as soon as my
feet touched the ground, landing hard on my ass. "Shit."

James laughed as he jumped down gracefully beside me. He put
his hand out for me, but instead of taking it, I grabbed my shoes, got up by
myself, and started running.

"You don't know where we're going!" He called after
me.

It was only a matter of seconds before I felt his arms around
my waist, lifting me in the air. He twirled me around and then pulled me
against his chest.

"You have a huge grass stain on that perfect little ass
of yours," he whispered in my ear.

I laughed and put my hand on his chest so I could lean back
and see his face. "Why is it that I can't picture you here at all? I mean,
I can out here. But this is the first time you've seemed like yourself all
night."

"None of this is me. I don't belong here anymore. I'm
not sure I ever did."

"Did you spend a lot of time outside when you were
younger?"

"I keep trying to show you." He let go of my waist,
bent his knees slightly, and tapped his back. "Hop on."

I laughed and jumped onto his back. I never minded running
around barefoot, but it was sweet that he didn't want me to have to.

He alternated kissing the crook of my elbow and pointing out
things in his mother's garden as we walked farther away from the house. Soon
all the lights from the house were barely visible and only the moonlight and
stars were guiding us.

"Where are we going?" I whispered.

"You don't have to whisper, we're all alone. There it
is," he said, pointing in front of us.

I squinted my eyes. It was hard seeing in the dark. "I
don't..." I stopped when I saw it. "Is that a tree house?"

He kissed the crook of my elbow again. "Of all the
things here, this was the only thing that was truly mine. Jen and Rob never
even came up unless I invited them to." He stopped at the base of the tree
trunk and let me slide off his back. "I was barely ever in my room in the
house. I used to come here all the time. You have no idea how many times I
nagged my parents to let me get a zip line from my window to the tree
house."

I laughed. "So why was this your special place?"

"Hmm."

"What? Is this where you used to fantasize about kissing
girls and plotting evil little boy pranks?"

He wrapped his arms around me and kissed the back of my neck.
"For not having any brothers, you have it spot on."

I laughed. I thought he might say something else, but when he
didn't, I looked back up at the tree house. "Am I allowed to come up? Or
are no girls allowed?"

He laughed. "Let me see if it's still stable." I
watched him climb up the steps that were nailed into the side of the tree. The
boards creaked when he stepped up into the house, but nothing broke. He put his
hand down. "Penny Taylor, I'm officially inviting you up into my tree
house."

I laughed and climbed the little ladder. I grabbed his hand
and he helped pull me up inside. This was more what I was expecting his room to
be like. I laughed as I looked around at all the toys and comic books on the
floor. There were actual windows in the little tree house, which had somehow
preserved everything despite the hole in the floor. There were even pictures
that lined the wall. Photos of James as a happy little boy. He had the same
facial features, in an adorable little boy kind of way. "You're so cute.
Is this you and Mason?"

James laughed and unpinned the picture from the wall.
"Yeah. That was taken at summer camp one year."

I laughed and snatched the picture from him. They both had
braces and looked so scrawny, nothing like either of them did now. "I have
to show this to Bee." I looked up at him and he was smiling at me. "I'm
gaining the best family I could possibly ask for, you know. Not your parents,
obviously. But your siblings and your friends. I love all of them so
much."

He scratched the scruff along his jaw line. "You have
such a positive way of thinking about everything."

"That's what they are. Our family."

He turned away from me and gazed at the other pictures on the
walls. I would have perused the other pictures too, but I couldn't tear my eyes
away from his face. Even his favorite place growing up seemed to make him sad
now. I wanted to joke around with him about how he barely even fit in his old
tree house. But I didn't want to push him. It seemed like he had something to
say. So I just waited, staring at his perfect features in the moonlight.

He sighed and leaned his head against the wooden boards
behind him. "When you asked me why I preferred here over my bedroom, I
just..." His voice trailed off. "It was the only place where I felt
like I could breathe."

He had said that to me before. That he felt like he could
finally breathe again when he was with me. I moved onto his lap, straddling
him. "So, now I'm your tree house?"

"I wouldn't put it that way." He placed a soft kiss
against my lips, cradling the back of my head in his hand.

"How would you put it?"

He grabbed my lower back and rotated us so that my back was
against the wooden floor and he was on top of me. "You're my life, my
heart, my soul, my everything."

He was so sweet. But for some reason all I could seem to
focus on was how handsome he looked with the moonlight streaming in through the
branches of the trees, dancing across his face. I spread my legs even wider and
pulled my dress up my thighs.

There was an intensity in his eyes that hadn't been there
before. And any trace of sadness had suddenly disappeared.

"You must have had fantasies of bringing girls up here,
James." I reached out for the button of his dress pants.

"I never thought I'd be this lucky."

I grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled his lips down to
mine. This was always the best way to know if we were okay. We both had this
internal need that was constantly clawing at the surface, ready to escape. And
tonight had been a complete disaster. We both needed this.

He pressed down on my clit through my thong and I moaned into
his mouth. I needed all of him.

"James," I panted. "I need you. All of
you." I reached down and grabbed his erection through his dress pants. I
had only managed to unbutton them and my fingers fumbled with the zipper.

I yelped as the elastic in my thong snapped against my hip as
he tore it off of me. But the sensation was quickly replaced by pleasure as he
thrust himself deep inside of me.

Fuck.

He groaned into my mouth and grabbed my thighs, pulling me
even closer to him. He didn't wait for me to adjust to him. His fingers dug
into my hips as he fucked me just like I needed him to. Intense. Raw. Perfect.

It felt like I couldn't get close enough to him. I hooked my
ankles behind him, drawing him even closer, and wrapped my arms around the back
of his neck. I couldn't get enough. "More," I said breathlessly.

He lightly bit my bottom lip and kissed me hard, completely
consuming me. His mouth claimed me just like his cock, making me feel full in
the most satisfying way.

I moaned again as he tilted his hips, hitting a spot that
usually made me lose control. But I wasn't ready to let go. I never wanted to
let go of him. I grabbed a fistful of his hair, deepening our kiss.

We should have been clumsy in the darkness, but I knew his
body better than I knew my own. I had explored every rippling muscle and every
inch of his skin. I felt the fire building in my stomach and I could feel
myself clenching around him.
Not yet.
I wasn't done with him.

"God, Penny." He grabbed my hands, pulling them
from his neck, and pinned them against the floor of the tree house. He thrust
his hips faster and harder, driving himself deep inside of me.

I didn't want to come, but I could no longer think straight.
I moaned again, trying to resist the building tension. I could stay in this
elevated moment forever.

"Come for me, baby."

And just like that, I lost control. "James!" I felt
my back arch and my body shudder beneath his as I came down hard. I immediately
felt his warmth spread up into me and heard his satisfied groan. His breath was
warm on the side of my neck and the comforting feeling made a lingering chill
run down my spine. His chest rose and fell against mine, pressing against my
taught nipples. Everything he did was perfect. Everything.

I grabbed his face and held it a few inches above my own.
"You're everything to me too. Everything, James. I'll never get enough of
you."

He lightly kissed the bruise under my eye. "I hope
not."

Monday

"Strictly professional, huh?" asked James.

"You know what I mean." I squeezed James' hand as we
crossed the street.

He ran his other hand through his hair and looked down at me.
"Not really. Will you at least eat lunch with me?" He flashed me a
smile.

"Of course I'll eat lunch with you."

"So you're fine with everyone knowing that you're my
fiancée?"

"Yes. I've already met a bunch of your employees. But
the interns are new. They won't know who I am. Of course they'll find out, but
I want them to know me first you, know? So I just mean like, don't make out
with me in my cubicle in front of everyone."

He laughed and squeezed my hand back. "I'm the boss. I
can do whatever I want."

I shook my head. "Exactly. Which is why I'm asking you
not to."

"So you draw the line of professionalism at PDA?"

"Precisely." I smiled up at him.

"But you're holding my hand on the way to work." He
raised his left eyebrow.

"I'm allowed to hold your hand outside of work."

"Anyone from the office could see us though. You're
sending me mixed signals."

"It's my first day, I'm nervous. I need your hand."

He looked satisfied with my answer.

And I did need his hand. Despite what he said, I knew
everyone could see the two small bruises on my cheekbone. Foundation wasn't
meant to conceal bruises. Hopefully no one would say anything to me. But it
wasn't a great way to start a new job. My only real job before this was at a
retail store during summers of high school and my first summer of college. I
hadn't worked since I had met James. He had insisted that he wanted my free
time to be spent with him. And since I had been so busy during the school year,
the summers had quickly become my favorite.

Now when I looked up at the sky rise building in front of me,
it suddenly hit me that I'd never have a real summer again. But I didn't dare
say that to James. If it was up to him I'd never work. Even just thinking about
that made me bored out of my mind. And now I wouldn't even have any friends to
hang out with during the days while he was at work like I'd normally have in
the summer. Everyone around me was suddenly a grown up and I refused to be left
behind.

"You ready?" James asked. He dropped my hand and
opened up the door for me.

"As ready as I can be."

I had been inside the building countless times. Lunches, late
dinners, just to stop in and say hi. Even a few late night rendezvous, which I
hoped he wouldn't want to repeat now that I was going to be coworkers with all
these people. James owned the whole building, but he rented it out to lots of
businesses. His company was located on the top two stories. At one point I
thought his office had the nicest view of the city, but now I thought that
title belonged to our apartment.

He smiled at me as he pressed the button for the elevator.

"Stop looking at me like that." I smiled back at
him.

"Like what?"

"In that way you do."

He leaned forward. "You mean, in that way where I'm
undressing you with my eyes and wishing I was about to fuck you in the
elevator?"

My face had turned redder with each word that came out of his
mouth.

"I'm not sure this not touching you thing is going to
work out so well," he said.

I laughed and quickly stepped into the elevator.

He leaned against the elevator wall next to me. His arm
brushed against mine. "Sorry," he whispered.

He was going to try to be distracting all day. There was no
way he was actually going to try and keep things professional. I was starting
to wonder why he really hired me.

I followed him out of the elevator and up to the reception
desk. His office was to the right. The blinds were drawn along the glass walls.
He usually kept them open during the day. I could feel my face blushing again.
Now that I thought about it, I was pretty sure the last time I had been here we
had to close those blinds.
Geez, no one's going to take me seriously here.

"Good morning, Mr. Hunter. Good morning, Penny,"
the receptionist, Nita, said. She was already busy typing something on her
computer.

"Good morning, Nita," James said and tapped on the
desk. "Penny's joining the marketing team with the new interns. Can you
take her over? I need to hop on a conference call."

Nita smiled. "Of course. I didn't realize you accepted
the position."

"It was kind of a last minute decision," James said
for me. "See you at lunch." He kissed my cheek and walked over to his
office.

My face was going to be red all day. I turned around and
quickly followed Nita into the expanse of cubicles. Even though there were
cubicles, it wasn't like other offices I had seen since moving to New York. It
was more laid back, but still professional. The dress code was business casual,
but the tech guys pushed it a little. Some of them wore t-shirts underneath
their suit jackets. And there was always a hacky sack being kicked around the
break room. The first time I had come, I had been surprised. James was always
so professional. But maybe he just had to be since he was the boss.

The walls were bright colors and they changed depending on
the department. And the smaller departments had desks in quadrants instead of
cubicles. Each pod of desks didn't have any separations between them except for
the employees' belongings and computers.

The marketing department was huge and its color scheme was
lime green. The walls were lime green, the desks were black with lime green
chairs, and even the staplers were lime green. It was made up mostly of
cubicles, but Nita walked me over to one of the few desk pods.

"This is going to be you." Nita winked at me.

There was nameplate on my desk and beside it was a huge
bouquet of flowers.
Oh my God.
It wasn't PDA, but it was still
ridiculously inappropriate. And I couldn't even hide them anywhere since my
desk was open to everyone.
Crap.
Maybe I can put them under my desk?
None of the other interns were there yet.

"Everyone else is in the conference room," Nita
said. "You're a few minutes late, but I'm sure they didn't start without
you."

Shit.
"Thanks, Nita!" I hurried over to the
conference room she pointed to and quickly went inside. "Hi, I'm so sorry
I'm late, Andy." The three other interns were all staring at me, but my
boss smiled.

"It's fine, Penny." He scratched the back of his
neck awkwardly. "And most people here call me Anderson."

"Oh, sorry Andy...erson." I coughed awkwardly.
James always called him Andy. And when we had met during my interview he hadn't
corrected me. This wasn't exactly a great start. I could feel the interns
staring at me like I was an alien. I pressed my lips together. Maybe I just
shouldn't say anything else.

"Penny, this is Tavon, Zach, and Sierra," Anderson
said and pointed to the two guys and one other girl in the room. Tavon had
tight braids that ended right above his neck and he seemed really laid back. I
would have guessed he belonged in the tech department if I had just run into
him in the building. He didn't attempt at all to hide his yawn. Zach was the
opposite of him. He looked super intense and super serious. He had dark hair
almost buzzed right against his scalp. I could see a tattoo peaking out the top
of his dress shirt. And Sierra looked as nervous as I felt. She had curly
blonde hair and she was holding her purse like she thought a mugger might
snatch it. Maybe she was new to New York. Either way, I thought we might get
along pretty well.

"Hi, guys." I waved awkwardly. They all said hi to
me.

"So this is our new marketing team, full of fresh ideas.
We're going to be bouncing off all our pitches on you guys. And you'll even be
getting an account of your own that I'll supervise. I think we can all learn a
lot from each other, and hopefully this will be the experience that you've been
seeking. Or if you're looking for a more permanent position in the future, this
is definitely the way in. There's an orientation meeting in a few minutes. All
the new interns from the different departments have to go. Let me show you to
your desks so you can drop off your stuff first."

Great. No time to hide the flowers.

Anderson walked us over to our desks. "I'll be right
back. I have to grab a few notes for the meeting."

As soon as he walked away, Tavon plopped down in the desk
next to mine and put his hands behind his head. "Damn, your boyfriend
doesn't wait long to make sure everyone stays away."

"No, he doesn't." I tried not to look embarrassed
as I sat down.

"Well, I guess your fiancé," Sierra said.
"Your ring is amazing." She sat down on the other side of me.
"Can I see?"

God, I didn't want to have to be doing this right now.
"Thanks," I said and put my hand out for her to see. "Yeah,
we're getting married at the end of the month actually."

"This must have cost a fortune," Sierra said and
looked back up at my face.

I just shrugged. I didn't know how much it cost and didn't
want to know.

"How old are you?" Tavon asked.

"22. Same as all of you I assume."

"Right. So aren't you a little young to get married?
Geez, I can't even imaging dating a girl for more than a few weeks. And you're
going to marry someone in a couple of weeks? Aren't you worried you're going to
get bored with him?"

"Don't freak her out, Tavon," Zach said. He sat
down at the desk diagonally from mine. "I'm sure she's not marrying a guy
like you."

"Yeah because I'm not whipped. I wouldn't send a girl
flowers on her first day of work. It's kinda desperate."

"I think it's romantic." Sierra gave me a small
smile. "I wish a guy would send me flowers."

"Then you probably shouldn't date Tavon," I said.

Sierra and Zach both laughed.

I ran my thumb across my engagement ring. I wanted to think
James had given me flowers to be sweet. But I think Tavon's first thought was
more accurate. James wanted to make sure no one flirted with me. He didn't have
anything to worry about. I don't know why he didn't realize that. Or maybe he
was just trying to embarrass me because I was giving him a hard time about the
PDA thing.

"So, who's the lucky guy?" Tavon asked.

Before I had a chance to answer, Andy came back over and said
it was time to head down to the meeting.
Anderson.
That was going to
take some time to get used to.

I didn't want to lie to anyone, but I was glad I didn't have
to tell them yet. I wanted to make friends with my coworkers and it was going
to be hard once they knew I was engaged to the boss. There was no reason why I
should be treated differently just because of my relationship with James.

***

Zach leaned on the armrest and whispered in my ear. "So
what happened to your eye?"

I immediately removed my arm from the armrest and nodded to
the person standing up in front of the large conference room. It was the head
of the human resources department and he was talking about all sorts of rules
and regulations. "Pay attention," I whispered back.
Pay attention?
Zach was going to think it was something crazy if I avoided the question.
"I mean nothing," I whispered again. "I'm clumsy. I hit my face
on a doorknob when I bent over to get something the other day."

"Really? It kind of looks like someone hit you."

"Well, no one did. And what would you even know about
that?"

"What, you think I haven't been in my fair share of
fights?" He looked back up at the director of human resources.

Just because he had a tattoo and a buzz cut didn't make him a
tough guy. He was a marketing intern probably from some prestigious school. I
rolled my eyes and tried to listen to the sexual harassment policy. I knew my
bruise was still visible despite what James said. I lightly touched my cheek
but immediately dropped my hand when I could feel Zach's eyes on me again.

"Oh my God, there he is," Sierra whispered from the
other side of me.

I looked over to where she was pointing. James had just
walked into the room. As soon as I made eye contact with him he smiled.

"He's so dreamy," Sierra whispered.

Yes, he is.
"I'm pretty sure he's engaged,"
I said instead. I had become just as territorial as him. Other girls thought he
was dreamy, but he was mine.

"Of course a guy like him is engaged. Do you think we'll
get to meet him?"

I didn't have to answer, because the human resources guy had
just introduced James and all the interns had started clapping. There were
about four interns for every department in Hunter Tech, which meant there were
about 50 of us.

James walked up to the podium and raised his hand to silence
everyone. "Welcome to Hunter Technologies," James said. It was
strange seeing him up there. It felt like I was back in school listening to one
of his lectures. He was completely in his element and I felt a pang of guilt.
We hadn't talked about it much since moving here, but I wondered if he missed
it.

"Even his voice is sexy," Sierra said.

I wasn't sure how much I liked her anymore. I silently
laughed at myself. Surely Sierra wouldn't be saying those things if she knew I
was engaged to him. I just needed to ignore her until I finally told them. It
wasn't like I hadn't experienced the way other women were around him. He had
this magnetism that no one seemed to be immune to. Everyone loved him. If only
his parents would open their eyes. I realized I was so in my own head that I
was missing his speech.

"Each one of you is going to become a vital part of
that. But since each department is part of the whole, I think it's important
for us all to work together. We're extremely goal oriented here. And right now
our goal is growth. So when working on your individual assignments, make sure
to keep the main goal in mind. I know that together we can grow this company to
be larger than Blive Tech International."