Chapter 5

Adrianna’s POV

Five years ago

I felt him freeze. He was like a statute, unmoving and unresponsive. I deepened the kiss, letting my tongue trace his, eager for a reaction.

Nothing.

I moved away, my face burning. “I… I think it was the wine.”

He moved suddenly, his hand cupping my nape and pulling me to him. The kiss was fast and urgent, almost desperate. His fingers fisted in my hair and tilted my face backward so he could spread slow, drugging kisses along my jaw and my ear. I bit back a moan, scared that any sounds I made would ruin this moment.

His hand pressed at the small of my back, bringing me even closer to him. The hand in my hair let go, brushing the buttons of my blouse and I felt his lips against my neck.

“I’ve wanted this for a long time.” He whispers close to my ear, his voice low with desire. “Everyday since you became my assistant.”

His low, deep words sent heat pooling in my belly. His fingers made short work of my buttons, easing me back so I lay on the carpet, bared to him. His hands cover my breasts in my bra, easing my straps down and freeing me to his hungry gaze.

“I've wondered what you’d look like on my desk with your skirt bunched up…” He reached for the hem of my skirt, pulling it up so my skirt stayed bunched up at my waist.

I dug my hands in his hair, pulling him in for a kiss. The urgency I felt both scared and exhilarated me. I had never known that skin could feel so wonderful against mine. His fingers brushed the hem of my panties and paused.

“Listen…” he said, looking into my eyes. He sounded like he was in pain. “If you’re having doubts about this. Or if you feel like you don't want this, you can leave. At any point…”

I brought his lips down to mine. I wanted this. I wanted him. I just didn’t want us to come back to reality and think of all the reasons why we shouldn’t be together. He slipped my underwear off.

He parted my thighs, smiling as he swallowed my gasp in his kiss. His fingers moved in strokes at the juncture of my thighs, finding a spot that turned my legs to jelly and made my back arch in response.

The world seemed to dissolve around me, narrowing down to the mind numbing pleasure of his hands. I moaned out in ecstasy as the first waves of a climax hit me. My mind went blank, almost like I had dissolved into a thousand, boneless pieces.

I looked up in a daze to see him undressing with urgency. He shrugged his shirt off and freed himself, coming back down to me. I heard him whisper in my ear as he kissed my neck, murmuring about how beautiful and desirable I was.

I had never felt desirable before. He made me feel like I was the most beautiful woman he had ever met.

“Progress?” Daddy asked as I settled into the back seat of his car and his driver shut the door securely behind me. My father was a pudgy man with brown hair and blue eyes. Everyone said I looked like my mother, which seemed to annoy him more then my presence did. He was always dressed impeccably as he was now in a black suit and handmade shoes.

“He… he won’t be doing the Canyon investment anymore.” I said. Daddy had only let me intern at Houston investments on the condition that I report everything Lance did to him. He had suspicions that Lance was growing ambitious and was buying shares of Houston Group secretly. He has even, according to Daddy, begun gaining the trust of board members so he could be appointed as CEO of Houston investments, taking over from Wade, my brother-in-law who was the current CEO.

For the past two months, I had done that once a week. At first, I hadn’t cared much about it and I had done as Daddy asked. I got to know Lance over the course of the two months I had worked with him. I knew that though he was ambitious, he wasn’t grasping. Also, if the board decided that Lance would make a better CEO than Wade, it was probably due to common sense, rather then Lance trying to gain their trust. Now, giving these reports make me feel filthy.

I didn't want to tell him about the fact that Lance and I loved each other. I felt like telling him would taint the memory.

“I heard he called it off because of you.”

I swallowed. “It’s nothing…” I began.

“Considering the fact that you've been sleeping with him for almost a month now,” Daddy said coldly, his hard gaze settling on me. “It would be rather safe to say that our respective understandings of the word “nothing”  differ substantially.”

My eyes snapped to his, a chill running up my spine. How had he found out?

Lance had wanted to make it relationship public, but I had chickened out. I didn't want other people at Houston Investments to think I was unprofessional and just using my father's name to get whatever and whomever I wanted. Also, I didn't want Daddy or anyone in my family to find out about it because they would cheapen what we felt for each other and make it feel wrong or dirty.

“Oh, I didn't put any detectives on your tail.” He said flippantly. “But surveillance cameras are set aside for safety purposes, not so I get to see my daughter having sex at work. With a man I told her to keep tabs on.”

My face felt blotchy and hot and a tear rolled down my cheek. I brushed at it stubbornly.

“Well I suppose that's for the best.” He said, smiling down at me. In that moment I realized how much I hated his smile. “You're probably better at sleeping with him than scoutinginvestments.” He sighed. “The things I get for having such a beautiful daughter.”

He motioned to Willis, his bodyguard, who held the door open for me so I could get out. Normally, I would have felt hurt and insulted, but I guess I wanted to be away from Daddy as much as he wanted to be away from me. He flung a manila envelope out the window and it landed with a thud at my feet.

“Get him to sign those, and hand in your resignation.”