He filled her body deeply with his orgasm; his burning release flooding her as they trembled and held tightly to each other. He buried his face in her breasts once more and tried to slow his breath and everything in his body.
"I'm not letting you go. I'm never letting you go. I can't." he whispered, and then he looked up at her, and saw a strange sadness in her beautiful eyes. She shook her head and lowered her mouth to his, kissing him sensually.
"Someday you'll have to. You'll just have to. We won't have a choice," she breathed as she kissed him again. She hugged him and held him to her heart tightly for a long silent minute, and then she let her arms fall away from him. She slid off of his lap and stood up, redressing herself as he watched her with an intense gaze.
He did not say anything else to her, and she walked out and went to her office, partly in bliss over the passion they had shared, and partly heartbroken, because she knew that she would have to tell him that she was in love with him, and she knew that telling him that would end the heated affair they loved so well.
She sat at her desk and covered her eyes with her hands, wondering what in the world she was going to do about the predicament she had put herself into. She wanted nothing more than to be able to see him and keep spending time with him, no matter what kind of time it was, but she also knew that their bond would have an end date. There was no way it could continue when he found out how she really felt about him, and there was nothing she could do to delay the inevitability of what she knew would come.
Her phone rang and she sighed and looked at it. Reaching for the receiver, she answered it with a smile and a friendly tone. "This is Naomi, how may I help you?" she asked lightly. She didn't feel nearly as light as she sounded.
"Hello, Naomi, this is Justin Drake. I'm from Jupiter Inc. How are you doing today?" he asked in an airy voice.
She blinked. Jupiter Inc. was a direct competitor of Cross Corp, and Justin Drake was a young senior vice president at the company. She couldn't begin to imagine why he might be calling her.
"I'm good, thank you Mr. Drake." She answered him politely. "How are you doing?"
"Fine, fine, thank you. Please, call me Justin." He offered in a friendly tone.
She sighed and nodded. "Okay, thank you, Justin. What can I do for you today? Are you looking for Jonathon Cross?" she asked, sure that that was why he was on her phone.
He chuckled. "No, I'm not really." He answered her and she could hear the smile on his face. "I'm actually looking for you. I am well aware of your work. You have a reputation in our industry that has no peer. No one works the way that you do, and I know you are working hard at Cross, but I would like to offer you a job here, at Jupiter."
Her heart skipped several beats and she blinked in surprise.
"I understand that it may seem a little unorthodox to offer you the job like this, calling you up and talking to you about it while you are there at work, but I have given it a lot of thought and done some research on you, and I am interested enough in hiring you to be here that I am willing to forgo standing on ceremony with this.
"I'm going to email you an offer, and I want you to take a good look at it, and let me know what you think. If there are any changes in my offer that would make you want to leave Cross and come to work for me, then just let me know. I'm willing to make some compromises to get you over here," he told her with blunt honesty.
Her lungs were frozen and she could barely get a breath in. "I … I can't leave Cross." She told him shortly.
He chuckled again. "I thought you'd say that; I know how loyal you are, but all the same, please look at my proposal and consider it. You are just the kind of team member that we want here; and you'd be in a position to become one of our leaders here, not just a worker who supports the leaders. You are innovative and sharp, and I like that. I'd like you to join us, and when you get a look at my offer, you may just change your mind. In any case, have a look at it at least, and give it some careful consideration before you respond. Is that a fair request?" he asked hopefully.
She knew that it was, though she could have told him right then that there was no deal in the world that would make her leave Cross Corp.
"I'll take a look at it, and thank you so much for thinking of me and sending it over. I appreciate the offer and your time, Justin."
He thanked her and hung up, and she shook her head as she replaced the phone in the cradle. It was true that she did do a lot of work that had been noticed by not only Cross, but by other companies around the city as well, and she was fast becoming a valuable commodity, but she was having the affair of her life with her boss and somehow her career, which had been her first priority since she was old enough to know what she really wanted to do, had taken a backseat to the passion she experienced with Jonathon.
Five minutes later, Justin's email arrived, and she left it in her inbox, without opening it.
Jonathon gave himself a last glance in the mirror and saw that he looked up to par for dinner with his father, Vincent, and Susan, and then he walked into the dining room to join them. He had arrived as late as he could without being rude, after their leisurely visit in the drawing room before dinner, and yet before anyone had been comfortably seated in the dining room.
All of them looked up at him when he entered, and each of them had a motive in their gaze. His father's was intense. There were unspoken expectations in his eyes and he made it clear that they were to be heeded. Vincent's gaze was much the same, though his smile was broader than Phillip's was.
Susan's gaze was different. Hers was sheer adoration; filled with happiness and longing. Unabashed longing for him, right there in front of their fathers. She went right to him and threaded her arm through his, looking up at him and batting her eyelashes as she gazed dreamily at him. He clenched his jaw and nodded at them.
"Good evening. I hope I haven't kept anyone waiting." He said briefly, knowing that he almost had and not caring.
His father leveled his eyes at him, but Vincent walked toward him and held his hand out. "No, not at all, son, not at all. Glad to see you and have you join us tonight. I know Susan has been especially looking forward to this. She's been so anxious to see you." He said in a loaded voice.
Jonathon pretended not to catch the strong hint, and shrugged. "Well, father and I are always pleased to see such old family friends here at the homestead."
Both of the old men chuckled, and Susan grinned up at him as if he was the only person on the planet.
Dinner was announced just then, and a grateful Jonathon walked quickly over to the dining table and pulled Susan's chair out for her, depositing her into it and taking his expected place at her side, but moving his chair just a bit further away from hers than it had been before he sat in it. She reached for his hand and held it as her eyes stayed on him, and her smile beamed at him. He tried not to look at her too much, not wanting to encourage her at all.
Dinner passed politely, and after what felt like an eternity to Jonathon, it was over and the two old men agreed on cigars and brandy in the library. Just as Jonathon was going to join them, Susan tugged at his arm and smiled up at him.
"Couldn't we go for a walk in the garden? There's a lovely moon out tonight. Come with me. I've missed you so much." She cooed at him, batting her green eyes at him. He looked from her to Phillip and Vincent who both turned their backs slightly to him.
Vincent locked his gaze on Jonathon. "You'd better take my little girl for a walk in the garden, if that's what she wants," he stated with a firm and unyielding smile.
Jonathon sighed. He knew that there was no way out of it for him. "Of course." He turned and walked to the garden with Susan at his side, her arm linked through his, her body as close to him as she could get it while he walked a little more swiftly than he needed to.
They reached the garden and he stopped beside the fountain in the courtyard. She turned to stand before him and face him, slipping her arms around his waist and pulling herself close to him. "Isn't this romantic?" she asked, staring up at him happily. "You know, it could always be like this for us."
He sighed and put his hands on her shoulders, giving her a little push as he stepped backward, trying to free himself from her grasp, but she held him tighter and lifted herself up onto her toes, bringing her face close to his.
"Wait!" she whispered with a smile. "I want to kiss you." She said quietly, and then she pressed her lips to his and closed her eyes, kissing him softly and holding him tightly.