STORY EXCERPT

Calm yourself, girl.

Ellie Matthews looked down at the platters of food she was carrying, took a deep breath, straightened her back, and walked into the conference room. The meeting was apparently over, as everybody was chatting casually and leaning back in their chairs. For that, she was very thankful, because if she had walked into that room in the middle of the meeting and everybody had stopped and turned their heads to stare at her like some kind of intruder, she probably would’ve had a heart attack and fallen right down on the floor.

As she walked towards the center table, she tried her very best to avoid making eye contact with anyone, which turned out to be exceptionally difficult given the fact that she could feel several pairs of eyes staring straight at her. She cringed, knowing they were all looking her up and down. Appraising her. Determining her worth. And, of course, everybody in the room just had to be a man. There wasn’t a single woman—not one potential ally that could deflect some of the testosterone.

Why aren’t there more women in engineering? Somebody should really do something about that.

She quickly set the platters down on the table, then spun around, reminded herself that it might be inappropriate to break into a run, and walked out of the room with what she proudly considered to be a very reasonable speed. As soon as she was through the doorway and out of sight, she leaned against the wall and sighed in relief, reaching up to touch her cheeks and knowing from how warm they were that she must look extremely flushed. She winced when she thought of how all those engineers must see her—a shy little caterer who couldn’t help but blush every time she’s in their presence.

She was shy—she would give them that. But that didn’t mean she was a coward. In fact, she liked to think that she was rather feisty. A couple of her friends in high school had even called her scrappy, and she had very proudly borne that label ever since. And besides, she had never even met any of these hotshot engineers before. This was her first time catering for Novum Energy. Maybe if they hired her again, she would be more confident. Maybe they’d all take back what they initially thought of her and be amazed at how calm, cool, and collected she was. Maybe she wouldn’t even blush.

Doubt it.

Ellie sighed and made her way back to the office kitchen. When she saw her partner standing there waiting for her, clearly displeased, she smoothed her fingers over the black apron tied around her waist and tried to prepare herself for whatever complaint was coming.

“Christ, Ellie, what took you so long? It’s not that difficult of a task. You walk to the conference room. You set the platters down. You come back.”

Ellie gritted her teeth. She had to work very, very hard to restrain herself from calling him a bastard and telling him to go to hell. The unfortunate fact of the matter was that she needed him. He had paid for all the catering supplies and found them the client. That was the deal. He would set her up with the equipment she needed and advertise their business, she would prepare the food, and he would give her a cut of the money. And she needed the money. So for that reason, a mental image of decking him in the face would have to do.

“Look, Marcus, I waited outside for a minute or two because I wasn’t sure that the meeting was over. I didn’t want to interrupt. Because, I don’t know, that would be rude.”

“It doesn’t matter, Ellie. I don’t pay you to think about what would be a polite time to give the clients their food. I pay you to give them their food when I tell you to give them their food. The client requested that the food be brought into the conference room at noon. So that’s what you do. Stop being so goddamn stubborn and do what you’re told.”

Ellie dug her fingernails into her palms, furious. “Why don’t you just deliver the food yourself, then?”

Marcus folded his arms over his chest and smiled. “Because you are part of the service. My clients will come to expect their food to be delivered to them by a decent-looking woman. I like to think that they’ll appreciate it as a display of traditional gender roles. You’re the woman. You serve the food. It’s that simple.”

Ellie looked down at herself. She was wearing a red, satiny dress that fell to her mid thighs and showed an uncomfortable amount of cleavage.

“So that’s why you have me wearing this ridiculous dress?”

He smirked. “Correct.”

“I’m not a piece of meat, Marcus.”

“Oh, I beg to differ. Not the best-looking piece of meat, but a piece of meat nonetheless.”

Ellie swallowed hard and willed herself to hold back her tears.

Hold yourself together. Do not let him see you cry.

She grabbed her sweater and threw it around her shoulders. “Well, now that I’ve delivered the food I hope I’m allowed to put on a sweater and go to the bathroom.”

“Fine, go,” he said, flicking his hand at her contemptuously. “But you better be sure to return to ‘uniform’ when you go back in to collect the trays.”

ADULT EXCERPT

“You want it hard, don’t you?” Nick asked in that low, deep voice of his as he continued delicately kissing her breast, closer and closer to her nipple.

Ellie nodded vigorously, arching her back to force her breast harder against his mouth and crying out in frustration when he pulled his face away. But before she could even look to see what he was going to do next, he captured her nipple between his index finger and thumb and pinched hard, tearing a moan from Ellie’s lips.

He started rolling her nipple in between his fingers, and the resulting soreness was a delicious mixture of pleasure and pain that put Ellie in a frenzy. When he released her nipple, she almost descended into a panic, needing him to touch her breast, desperate to be relieved of the tight ache at the center. And then he wrapped his lips around the stiff peak and sucked hard. Ellie opened her mouth in a silent scream.

Her pussy was clamping down in a slow, steady rhythm that was making her go wild. Every time he tugged and pulled at her nipple, she felt her sex throb in response, and after a mere few moments of feeling his mouth on her breast she was so wet that her thighs were sticky with her juices.

“Please…” Ellie whispered. “I need…”

“What is it, kitten?” Nick asked, releasing her nipple from his mouth and licking the stiff peak with the flat of his tongue. Ellie moaned and squeezed her thighs together. “Your pussy’s aching, isn’t it?” Ellie nodded, biting down on her bottom lip. “You want me to get rid of the ache, don’t you baby?”

“Yes,” she breathed. “Please, yes.”

Nick sat up on the bed and hooked his fingers in the waistband of her panties, drawing them down her legs and tossing them aside. He grabbed her thighs and forced them wide apart, groaning when he looked down at her pussy.

Ellie blushed at being fully exposed beneath his gaze and tried to press her legs together, but Nick would have none of it. He held them firmly apart, barely even noticing her efforts to close them.

“You’re so wet,” he whispered.

When he let go of her legs so he could touch her pussy, Ellie reflexively clamped them shut. Nick jerked his head up and gave her a stern look.

“Spread your legs, Ellie.” She hesitated. “Now.” When she only opened them slightly, he reached out and gave her a sharp smack on the side of her ass. “Wider, Ellie.”

The way he commanded her made liquid fire shoot through her lower belly. She was hurting for his touch so badly that she abandoned her modesty and threw her legs as far apart as they would go, feeling deliciously naughty at completely baring herself under his gaze.

“That’s it, kitten,” he praised. “I’m just going to make you feel good.”

He slid his fingers between the slick folds of her pussy, and the pleasure was so intense that she almost clamped her legs shut again.

“Yes,” Ellie breathed. “Oh my God…”

She was clawing at the mattress as he continued working his fingers between her slippery folds, crying out with pleasure and begging him to keep going. She started jutting out her hips to try and force his fingers into her dripping cunt, but he made her wait longer. He was teasing her mercilessly, rubbing closer and closer around her opening until she was whimpering with need.

“I can’t take it… Please…I need it inside.”

“You want me to fuck you with my fingers, don’t you, baby?”

“Yesss…”

“How badly do you want it?”

“Real bad,” Ellie cried. She started grabbing at her nipples, desperate to ease her throbbing pussy. “Real bad. Real bad. Please, let me have it.”

Nick rammed his index finger all the way into her pussy. Ellie screamed. He pulled his finger out, added a second, and shoved both of them inside. Ellie screamed again.

She couldn’t remember anything feeling so good. Everything became fuzzy, and the only thing she could focus on was Nick’s fingers plunging violently in and out of her pussy. She wanted more, needed more, and started slamming herself down on his fingers every time he thrust them inside. She could feel something amazing building up inside her—a hot, achy pressure that she wanted to explode through her lower belly.

“That’s it, baby. Feels good, doesn’t it?”

He was finger-fucking her hard, and at a brutally fast pace. She could feel the walls of her pussy squeezing him, desperate to draw him further inside, desperate to be filled and stretched. She closed her eyes, losing herself in the pleasure, and all of a sudden felt Nick pry open her lips with his tongue and delve into her mouth. She was thrashing on the bed, moaning into his mouth and feeling herself getting closer and closer to falling off the edge.

Ellie came hard, screaming. She grabbed the back of Nick’s neck and forced his tongue deeper into her mouth as wave after wave of pleasure shot through her body. And through it all, Nick continued his relentless assault on her pussy, steadily thrusting his fingers in and out of her as the walls of her canal clamped down again and again.