Free Office Affair by Jess Dee Page A

Because you don’t want me to fuck you on my desk, in broad daylight, when everyone can see? Or because you do?”
    She skidded to a halt and slowly turned to face him. “I’m not running.” She looked oh-so calm, but the frantic pulse beating in her neck gave her away. “I made my intentions clear last night. We work, we fuck, we go home. Whatever happens between you and I happens in your office. Period. Outside of your office, we are work colleagues, nothing more.”
    “That’s bullshit. We’re out of my office now, and we’re a whole lot more than work colleagues. Deny it all you want, but that’s the plain truth. Hell, Alistair is a work colleague. I have no desire to push him against the wall and fuck him six ways to Sunday. You, on the other hand…” He took a deep breath. “You I’d take in a heartbeat, if you just gave me a sign.” He pointed. “Right over there. Against that wall.”
    Melissa turned to look at the wall, licking her lips nervously, gratifying Ben to no end.
    “The only reason I’m not pushing the issue right now is because I left the condoms in my desk upstairs.”
    “Ben—” Melissa spluttered. Fury darkened her eyes. Fury and desire. “I refuse to discuss this further.”
    “And I refuse to talk about work after what just happened between us.”
    “Fine, then we won’t talk. I didn’t want to talk in the first place. I didn’t even want to walk outside with you.”
    “That’s a lie, Mel, and you know it. You want to be with me. You just don’t want anyone to be aware of it.”
    She turned and marched off. He fell into step beside her.
    “Why?”
    “Why what?”
    “Why won’t you be seen in public with me?”
    “I’ve already told you.”
    They exited the building, jogged down the stairs and hit the footpath, both of them taking a right towards the car park. “And I’ve already told you that excuse doesn’t cut it. Do I embarrass you? Scare you, maybe?”
    “What? Don’t be ridiculous.”
    “Hardly ridiculous when you won’t acknowledge my existence outside of my office.”
    “Of course I acknowledge your existence. We work together.”
    “We don’t have to just work together. We could actually be—” he clutched his heart dramatically and gasped, “—friends.”
    Melissa almost tripped but righted herself just in time. She shrugged off Ben’s steadying hand. “I don’t want friends. I’ve already told you that. I want to make partner. I don’t have time for a social life.”
    “Partner or not, we all need friends. Life’s too short and too lonely to go without.” Man, had he ever learned that lesson from experience.
    “I’m doing just fine without, thank you very much.”
    Melissa wouldn’t look at him.
    “Are you? Really? You’re reduced to fucking a colleague in an office when the rest of the company has gone home. Is that what you want? Emotionless sex to tide you over until you make partner? And then what? Socially, your life is going to be perfect all of a sudden? Because you’ve succeeded in your business goals, you’ll miraculously have a life?”
    She turned to glare at him, but anger was not the only emotion he saw on her face. Hurt and pain framed her ire. It made Ben want to take her in his arms and hold her. Hug her. Protect her. Make everything better.
    “Making partner is my life, Cowley. Sex with you is a…fringe benefit.”
    Ouch! “Ah, so now I’m a fringe benefit. Nice.”
    “I never gave you any reason to think you would be more.” No, she hadn’t, had she? And yet there’d been moments, several of them, when they’d connected on a level that hadn’t been purely sexual. Or purely professional. And it was those moments that gave him reason to want more from her.
    “You never gave me reason to believe you wanted to fuck me either, until you stripped naked in my office.”
    Melissa shrugged. “What can I say? I’m full of surprises.”
    She looked so controlled, looked so together, but Ben suspected she was