Page 19 of Mr. Big Stuff

He swallowed a smile as Necole’s eyebrow rose. “I am not a stripper.”

“I couldn’t tell. Anyway, my apologies,Mr. McCullough.”

I turned to go back to my office, smiling bitterly at hearing Necole’s voice asking him,” You let your assistants talk to your clients that way?”

I didn’t get a chance to hear his response over the pounding of my heart.

“You want to talk about why you’re mad at me?”

I took a sip of water and glared across the table at my boss that I had a thing for. It was irrational to be upset that Ms. Summers had made a move on him. He was a fine ass man. Women would try. Besides, he wasn’t my man. But he was.

“I’m not mad.”

He chuckled and I rolled my eyes at him. “Oh no? Then I’d hate to see you mad.”

“’I’m never mad.”

“Now why don’t I believe that? Something tells me your wrath is no joke.”

“You got that right.” We grinned at each other, and it served to smooth my ruffled feathers, but only by a little bit.

“If I were to admit I was upset, which I’m not, mind you.”

“Right. You said you weren’t and far be it for me to tell you what you are and what you’re not.” His amused expression told me he was teasing me.

I cut my eyes at him as he shrugged and leaned back into his chair.

If it wasn’t for the clink of silverware tapping plates and the soft murmur of voices, you’d think he was sitting on a throne. He looked that in control of his environment and everything around him. It was part of his sex appeal. That ownership of space that so many people lacked.

“Like I said, if I were mad, it would be because all these professional boundaries you preach about—and I respect it, I do. I admire it even. I think when it comes to people like you and me, it’s automatically assumed that we don’t mean business, serious business, and that we’re operating a social organization all the time. But setting boundaries makes it clear that you are serious about what you’re doing.”

He nodded with understanding and as his eyes turned serious, I realized by reminding him of the boundaries he was hell bent on keeping up in the beginning, I zapped the mood that allowed him to relax this way with me. I could have kicked myself if I thought it would make any difference which I knew it would not.

“You’re right. I shouldn’t have allowed myself to relax those boundaries for any reason.”

My heart sank. Swallowing hard, I nodded and looked down at my watch. My hour was almost up, and I needed to get back to the office to wrap up the reports on The East End earnings for 2022. It was another project Vanessa dropped the ball on.

“But just so you know,” his voice rumbled as he leaned in, making the rest of the world disappear. Without thought I leaned in closer to hear his next words.

“I wish it had been you in my office with me instead but that isn’t okay to say, right? Boundaries and all.”

I gulped. “Right. Boundaries.”

“Maybe we should put all boundaries back in place.” His eyes held a challenge that was as arousing as it was disappointing. His determination and everything else he’d accomplished told me he could keep this up as long as he wanted.

“Maybe we should,” I said lifting my head up in challenge. If he wanted to play this game, I would play it.

And for the rest of the week, following the Necole scandal, we barely spoke and since sex was definitely outside the boundaries, I wasn’t getting any of that big dick. So my toy Raymond was back in play and let’s just say, he was starting to conk out like Derrick had.

Chapter12

Raymond

“You have a meeting with Mr. Rawlings and Mr. Reed in five minutes.” Tracey’s voice was syrupy sweet. I wanted to tell her to cut the shit but we were playing a game and part of that game was acting like nothing we were doing was getting to the other.

“Thank you, Ms. Copeland.”

I watched the sway of her perfectly formed hips leave my office and had to shake my head at how stubborn she was.

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