Maddy Collated: The Complete Trilogy (7 page)

Sam smiled to himself as the elevator
dinged.
He'd go downstairs, whisk her away from her desk—never mind what her boss... Randy? Rich? Oh, didn't matter—never mind what her boss thought about it. She was a great lay and easy to talk to, and as far as Sam was concerned that was enough for him.

The elevator doors slid open.

Chet stood there, glowering.

He always glowered. It was part of his brooding mystery. But Sam had known him long enough to know that this was a glower of considerable inner turmoil rather than general universal disgruntlement.

Knowing this didn't really help matters, and when Chet turned his icy glare on him, Sam felt the blood rush to his face.

Memories from last night, actively suppressed, rose up unbidden. Chet above him as he buried himself inside
Maddy's
warm, inviting body. Chet's fingers slicking over the base of his cock. Chet's thighs brushing against his own as he took
Maddy
from behind. Chet's finger, coated in cum, pushing into his ass as he blew his load over beautiful, bountiful breasts.

Their cocks sliding together, separated only by
Maddy's
inner walls.

Sam tried to ignore the weakening of his knees as he jerked his eyes away from Chet's and stared pointedly at the potted plant that stood next to the elevator doors. It looked dusty. Was it even alive? Was it a fake plant? That would explain why no one ever seemed to water it. How gauche. They should have real plants.
Real plants, for a real company, staffed by real men.
No wonder last quarter's gains weren't as good as he would have liked. In fact, he should get on those numbers, figure out what went wrong. Right after he took
Maddy
out to lunch.
Or for a quickie.
Lunch and a quickie.
Two quickies?
Quickie, lunch, quickie.
That would be good. Allow for the refractory period, perhaps...

Chet's shoulder clipped him, hard, as he passed, and Sam spun. He opened his mouth to call Chet an asshole—a reflex born of years of being on the receiving end of Chet's bad moods—but the words froze in his mouth. He didn't want to bring up assholes in front of Chet. It might remind Chet of last night.

Fuck. It was reminding
him
of last night.

Red-faced, Sam dove into the elevator and shut the doors. He didn't dare look at Chet again. He was afraid of what he would see there.

*

Maddy
had been at her desk for literally five minutes avoiding the stares of everyone else in the office and trying to calm her racing heart when Sam Lake materialized next to her and said, “Lunch!” Which sent her heart skipping double-time again.

“Jesus!” she said. “Don't sneak up on a girl like that.”

“We agreed to lunch, and here I am.” He spread his arms wide, a huge smile on his face, as though he were genuinely delighted to see her. Chet's warnings came back to her mind.

She glanced at the clock on her computer. “You... you know it's not lunch time, right?”

“We can do some catching up before lunch,” he told her. “I want to discuss that memo you took yesterday.”

Maddy
stared at him, then at the pile of work on her desk. Then she stared at him again. It wasn't hard. He was a damn fine thing to stare at. Which was why she was about to say something that no doubt was going to have her kicking herself.

“Don't you rich guys realize other people have actual work to do?” she said. She wasn't entirely certain Rick wouldn't dump at least one more project on her as punishment for leaving his stupid meeting. And then more projects for skipping out early for lunch. And then even more projects just because he was a small-minded prick, and then she would have to go on a shooting spree. And that would be bad, because then her prospects for getting another job would go down the toilet.

It wasn't that getting courted by billionaires was unpleasant, but like her father had always said, best to go for the sure money first.

...Come to think of it, that was probably why
they
were the billionaires and not her.

Thanks, dad.

A look of confusion passed over his face, and it was almost endearing. “But I'm your boss,” he said. “I'm
his
boss. I can pull you away to discuss business whenever I want. That's the
point
of being the boss.”

Maddy
rather thought the point of being the boss was because it made you lots of money and you never had to get your own coffee, but she didn't say it out loud. What the hell did she know, anyway? “Okay,” she said, gathering her purse—again—and standing up. “It's only eleven in the morning or whatever, but sure, let's do lunch.”

He smiled. “If it's too early for you, we could begin our discussion upstairs in my office. I believe I have something that belongs to you anyway.”

Maddy
swallowed and licked her lips. “Okay. Sure.”

And back they went, through the maze of surreptitious eyes and hushed voices.
Maddy
tried her best to keep her head held high and act as though this were just another business meeting, but she knew what everyone was thinking: what sort of business would
she
have with the owners of the company?

The sad thing was they would probably never guess that Sam or Chet wanted her sexually. Or if they did, it would be a joke.

The thought hardened
Maddy's
resolve, and as they stepped into the elevator and the doors shut behind them, she turned to Sam.

“So I'm guessing we're going up to your office to fuck?” she asked.

Sam's eyes widened in surprise, and for a moment she was afraid she'd offended him. Her hatred of beating around the bush might backfire on her here.
Which was ironic, because beating around the bush was exactly what she needed after Chet's bone-melting kiss.
But then Sam smiled at her.

“That's what I like about you,
Maddy
,” he said. “You aren't afraid to tell me what you think of the situation.
Even when you aren't temporarily fired.”
He reached out and cupped her cheek in his hand. His palm sent
a sweet
warmth over her face and down her throat.

“I don't remember getting hired back,” she said as gently he stroked the sensitive skin of her mouth with the pad of his thumb, robbing her of breath. Her eyelids fluttered, a bolt of heat striking through her body like lightning, straight down to her core.

“Then you must be at the office for something else entirely,” he murmured, and his face descended.

This time
Maddy
was ready for him. Their first kiss in the limo had been startling, breathless. Now she had tasted his lips, and she wanted more. As his hands fastened themselves in her hair, she reached out and hooked her fingers over his belt and pulled him to her. He inhaled sharply in surprise at her boldness—in truth, she was surprised too—then groaned into her mouth. His hands abandoned her hair and slid down her back, grabbing her ass and pulling her to him roughly while their tongues tangled together. She wondered, vaguely, if this was somehow unfair to Chet. She wondered if the flavor of Chet's mouth lingered on her tongue. She wondered if Sam could taste it.

Chet had said Sam wouldn't look at him. The thought stopped her. Sam felt her hesitance and pulled away.

“Is everything all right?” he said.

Maddy's
mind raced. She couldn't be the one who had helped cause a rift between these two. Their friendship was legendary across the business world, a partnership that could not be broken.

Except from within.

She stepped back and licked her lips. “Sam...
are
you okay with what happened last night?” she asked him.

Only the barest hardening of his eyes told her the truth. “Of course I am,” he said. “Why wouldn't I be? That was... honestly, that was one of the best nights I've had in a long, long time.”

She raised a cynical eyebrow at him as the elevator deposited them on the top floor. “That's not what I mean and you know it.”

“Oh,
Maddy
,” he said, taking her arm and leading her past the front desk receptionist—a blonde size zero who gave her an assessing look, found her wanting, and dismissed her—“
Maddy
,
Maddy
,
Maddy
.” Together they went left down a hallway. The right hallway,
Maddy
could only assume, led to Chet's office.

“I assure you,” Sam said loudly, “last night's merger,
er
, discussion has been duly noted on the record, but I don't believe we will be returning to it any time soon.” The hallway emptied into a grand waiting foyer with another receptionist, or possibly an assistant, nearly identical to the first, waiting behind a desk. This one gave her a sharper eye, but Sam hustled her into his office and shut the door before any further wordless assessment could happen.

“No more mergers?”
Maddy
said, and though she was chiefly concerned with getting Sam and Chet to talk to each other again, she couldn't keep the disappointment from her voice.

Sam caught it and chuckled. “Why, you think I'm not man enough for you?” he said.

Maddy
quirked a corner of her mouth and looked around, taking it in. “No,” she told him, “but I like to have many assets at my disposal, if you get what I mean. And besides...” Might as well come out and say it. “I met with Chet this morning for coffee. Just so we're being honest with each other. He said you can't look him in the eye.” She shrugged. “I just wanted to make sure I didn't make things weird between you guys.”

Sam's face softened. “Don't you worry about
us.
Things are just a bit awkward right now.
Wine?”

She nodded, and Sam crossed to a small cabinet.
“White or red?”

“Red,” she told him, then, taking in the creamy walls and carpet beneath his desk. “Wait, make that white. I'm a sloppy drunk.”

He looked over his shoulder and let his eyes travel down her body, sending coils of heat through her limbs. Slickness gathered between her thighs and she had to take a deep breath to keep herself from whimpering.

“I'll say,” he told her at last. He drew a bottle of white wine from the small refrigerator hidden in the dark wood cabinet and set about pouring two glasses. He brought one over to her and together they sat on the couch. The air between them was charged with electricity, with the knowledge of what was going to happen any moment. Her fingers itched to reach out and grab him, and his warm brown gaze had grown hot as he watched her pour wine down her throat in an effort to calm her nerves.

She wasn't nervous about fucking him, though. She was nervous about not fucking him.
Which was a possibility given that she didn't want to let this Chet thing go, in more ways than one.

“So, you and Chet haven't spoken yet?” she asked.

She saw his lips thin. “Must we talk about him?” he said. “Can't we just have a good time?”

Maddy
rolled her eyes. “You are so fucking high school,” she said. “You work together. You need to address this like an adult.”

Sam shifted and sipped his wine. “Did Chet ask you to talk to me?” he said.

“No. He kind of told me to forget it.”

“But you're not going to?”

She shrugged. “Please. How could I forget last night? Besides, I've already single-handedly solved your marketing problem.
Which you have yet to thank or pay me for.”

He smiled at that.
“Fine.
What do you suggest?”

“Why am I the one who has to suggest something? You're
his
best friend.”

“Yeah, but this is unexplored territory. Throw me a line, here.”

Maddy
glanced around his office. It was lush and beautiful. Sunlight streamed in from the windows, and he even had a balcony.
Maddy
wished briefly that she had a balcony to go to, but then changed her mind. There was probably a reason peons didn't have balconies.

“You met in college when you were both going to business school and you've built this place from scratch. Why don't you just call a meeting with him?” It seemed to her the most natural thing in the world.
We need to discuss the contacts we made last night.
Specifically, your balls against mine.

Sam barked a laugh. “We don't call meetings with each other, my dear. We just open the door between our offices.” He indicated a heavy wood door, currently closed, on one wall.

“Well then, why don't you?”

“Because...” Sam couldn't seem to think of an answer, so he swallowed his wine instead. “This is complicated for me. I didn't... it's not that I didn't like it. It's just that... Look,
Maddy
, this isn't really any of your business. Can't we just have some fun?”