Boss I Love To Hate Page 11

  Eventually, the meal comes to an end, and as the waitress takes our plates away, she seems to take the good vibes along with her. Berlin’s expression grows serious, and the smile that has charmed and dazzled me all evening fades away as well, leaving a hollow feeling in the center of me. Hopefully, this is a temporary condition.

  “So, I guess we should talk business,” I say.

  She nods and gives me a small smile. “We should.”

  The waitress comes back and offers coffee and dessert, but Berlin declines, so I do as well. She gives me a smile and lays the check down on the table then disappears again, leaving Berlin and I sitting there with a growing sense of awkward tension in the air.

  “So what did you want to talk about, Sawyer?”

  “The first thing I want to do is tell you that I appreciate your passion,” I tell her. “I admire how willing you are to fight tooth and nail for these people.”

  “Why do I get the feeling you’re about to tell me something I’m not going to like?”

  Berlin braces herself for what I’m about to say, her body tensing up like she’s expecting to take a physical blow. I give her a small grin, knowing this is not going to go the way she thinks it will. But I need to make some things clear to her first.

  “One thing I need you to know is that I’m running a business,” I begin. “I know you think I’m the devil incarnate, but I have a responsibility to everybody I employ to do right by them as well. And believe it or not, my company provides a lot of jobs. Hundreds, if not thousands.”

  “And are you telling me this as a justification for kicking hundreds of people out of their homes?”

  “Honestly, I don’t need to justify anything,” I tell her. “I’m a businessman, and all I’m doing is earning a living.”

  “Sawyer, you are –”

  I hold my hand up to cut her off again. “Hear me out before you pass judgement,” I interject. “Because of you, I’ve had to do a lot of thinking and soul searching about the Atwell project. Because of you, I had to take a fresh look at it.”

  She opens her mouth – no doubt to deliver me a scathing rebuke – but then seems to think better of it. She closes her mouth again without saying anything, apparently understanding this is going to go her way and wanting to hear me out.

  “I’ve run the financial impact delaying the Atwell project will have on my company and let me say it’s significant – I’d be taking at least a ten million dollar hit,” I explain. “But I’m going to delay the project for two years. Once that two years is up, though, the Atwell will be coming down. This is a delay, not a cancellation of the project.”

  Berlin stares at me wide-eyed, her mouth hanging open. There’s a long moment of silence between us. Then, the expression on her face shifts. She looks like she’s waiting for me to drop the punchline on her. And when I don’t, her expression shifts yet again – this time to one of utter joy. Her eyes shine with unshed tears, and she clasps her hands over her mouth.

  “Are you serious?” she gasps.

  “I am.”

  “This is for real?”

  I nod, chuckling softly. “It’s for real, Berlin.”

  She jumps out of her seat so suddenly; she tips it over. It hits the ground with a clatter, drawing the gaze of everybody around us in the restaurant. But Berlin comes flying around the table and throws her arms around my neck, squeezing me tightly. She giggles and plants a sloppy kiss on my cheek.

  “You don’t know how much good you’re doing, Sawyer.”

  I take her hands and hold them, forcing her to stop bouncing on her heels, and look her in the eye.

  “I need you to really understand this is a temporary delay,” I tell her earnestly. “The project will proceed once the delay is up.”

  She nods eagerly. “I understand,” she confirms. “But giving the residents two years to figure their situation out is huge, Sawyer. You are doing such a good thing here.”

  “Yeah well, let’s keep it between us,” I mutter with a wink. “The last thing I need is for everybody and their uncle to come around asking for favors.”

  Her smile is wide, and the look on her face is one that’s nearly rapturous. It’s not everything she wants – I’m not going to cancel the project – but it’s more than she hoped to get, which is a win for her and the residents of the Atwell. And seeing how happy it makes her makes me feel good. That smile on her face, and that bounce in her step fill me with a deep and profound feeling of happiness. It’s well worth what I’m going to have to eat because of the delay. Besides, I’ll still make my money back; it will just be further down the road than I’d projected.

  “Happy?” I ask.

  “Ecstatic.”

  “Good,” I respond. “Then let’s go celebrate.”

  She chews on her bottom lip for a moment as if she’s having an internal debate. She looks into my eyes, and I feel that same sensation I felt before jolt me again. I have to fight off the urge to kiss her. As if she’s reading my mind, Berlin takes a step back, a knowing smile upon her lips. But rather than leave, she surprises me.

  “Let me make a call,” she tells me. “I’d love to go celebrate.”

  “Excellent,” I state. “I know just the spot.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Berlin

  I lean against the railing and look out over the lights of Manhattan, spread out below us. Sawyer took me to up to the rooftop lounge of a swanky boutique hotel called The Midtown. The place is lively and looks like the kind of place you’d see in a movie or something. It’s glamorous and filled with people who look like they all stepped straight out of the pages of a fashion catalog.

  Honestly, I’ve never seen so many absolutely beautiful, flawless people in one place before – and at the same time, I’ve never felt so out of place before in my life.

  “What do you think?”

  I look over as Sawyer steps to the rail beside me, handing me a flute of champagne.

  “It’s amazing up here,” I tell him. “It’s not often I see the city from this vantage point.”

  “I love looking out over the city.”

  I scoff. “Yeah, because you own half of it.”

  He shrugs. “I just think it’s beautiful,” he responds. “I think it’s the most beautiful city in the world.”

  I look over at him, hearing the sincerity in his voice. “You really love it here, don’t you?”

  “Yeah. I can’t imagine being anywhere else.”

  I shiver as a cold wind breezes past us – a reminder of the cold season that’s coming. I hadn’t thought to bring a heavy jacket since I didn’t expect to be out this late. When I left the house, I figured the light sweater I brought with me would be sufficient. But now that the sun is down, with winter bearing down on us, I wish I’d had the foresight to have a coat on hand.

  I take a sip of my wine as Sawyer pulls off his suit jacket and wraps it around my shoulders. I look up at him and smile as I pull his coat down around me.

  “Thank you,” I smile. “That was very thoughtful.”

  He waves me off. “What kind of man would I be if I didn’t offer a cold woman my coat?”

  “I appreciate that,” I respond. “Your mother raised quite the gentleman.”

  “She did her best,” he laughs. “Can’t really say all of her lessons took though.”

  “I tend to think the important ones did.”

  A small smile on his lips – as if talking about his parents opened some inner wound that hasn’t quite healed yet. Sawyer raises his champagne flute, so I follow suit. He taps his glass against mine, the musical ping floating off on the evening breeze.

  “To – new beginnings,” he announces.

  I give him a smile and raise my own glass. “To doing the right thing.”

  We spend the next couple of hours talking – and drinking more champagne than I should. But I have to say I’ve enjoyed his company. He’s been charming. Sweet. Funny. I’ve had such a good time with him, I’ve almost comple
tely forgotten about the fact that he lied to me. Almost.

  I’m doing my best to see things from his perspective. He was right when he said if he’d told me up front that Compass was his company, I would have shut him down right then and there. But the more time I spend with him, I see a different side to him than the one he presents to the world. He’s not just the cold, hard, cutthroat, and ruthless businessman he projects himself to be. He’s got a lot of layers and depth most people don’t see.

  And if I’m being honest with myself, I find that I’m incredibly drawn to Sawyer. It would be easy to say I’m drawn to his money, influence, and what he can do to help with some of my pet causes. It would be easy to let myself believe that’s the reason I’m here tonight. But one thing I’ve realized is that it’s not that. Our philosophical differences aside, there is something about the man that really resonates with me. Deeply. And I know he feels it too.

  I don’t know how to describe it, or what it is exactly, but I’m glad I didn’t just write him off. Or at least, I’m glad I rolled the dice and came to dinner with him tonight. Not just because of the delay on the Atwell project, but because I genuinely enjoy my time with him. And the more time I spend getting to know him, the more I want to know.

  “Thank you for everything tonight,” I say. “It really means a lot.”

  He favors me with a smile that melts my heart. Standing side by side against the railing, as close as we are, I can feel the warmth coming off him. His presence is so substantive; he doesn’t even have to be touching me to provoke a physical reaction in me. As his brown eyes sparkle in the rooftop lights and bore into mine, I feel my stomach turning and roiling. I feel the fire inside of me smoldering – and I feel myself growing wetter by the second.

  The silence between us is strained. Anticipatory. Expectant. And when he takes me by the shoulders and pulls me to him, it feels like the most natural thing in the world.

  I look into his eyes, and he looks into mine. We inch closer… closer…

  Our mouths crash together in a sudden soft frenzy. And as his tongue pushes past my lips, it sends a sizzling current of electricity down to my very toes, lighting up everything in between.

  Sawyer wraps his arms around me, pulling me into his hard, toned body, and I suddenly feel very small as he engulfs me. Our tongues dance together in my mouth in a kiss so passionate, it comes close to stealing my breath. I can honestly say I’ve never been kissed like this before. It is so intense; my panties are completely soaked through.

  He pulls back and looks down at me with pure, raw hunger in his eyes. My body twitches, and I’m swept away on a current of desire that leaves me breathless and trembling. It’s a feeling I’ve never known before. One that’s threatening to swallow me whole.

  “Stay the night with me,” he whispers.

  I know I should say no – I’m letting my emotions get the better of me, and that usually leads me to making bad decisions. Or at least slight lapses in judgment. But his words, spoken in that deep bass that rumbles so deliciously through my body, tears away the usual iron grip I have on my self-control. There’s a small voice in the back of my mind screaming at me to stop, to think, to not react on my carnal desires. But when I open my mouth to say no, I silence that voice.

  “Yes,” I nod, my voice breathy.

  A salacious smile upon his lips, Sawyer takes my hand and leads me to the elevators at the far end of the rooftop lounge. We go down one floor, step into the office of the night concierge, and quickly arrange to get a room. That done, Sawyer leads me back to the elevator, and when the doors slide closed, he immediately presses me up against the side of the car.

  His mouth finds mine, and as he proceeds to steal my breath with another kiss, I feel the hard length of him pressed flush against my stomach. The feeling of his long, hard cock sets fire to my every nerve ending. It has me wetter than I’ve ever been before in my entire life.

  Sawyer slides his hand beneath my skirt. I shudder as he touches me through my panties. His smile is languid as he finds just how wet I am for him. He slips his fingers beneath my panties, and I tremble as he runs them along lips that are swollen and sensitive to the touch.

  As my desire swells within me, a thread of fear wraps itself around my heart and squeezes me tight. I reach down and grab his hand, pulling it away from me. He looks at me questioningly, and I turn away from him for a moment, an embarrassed flush creeping into my face.

  “I – I should tell you that I’m a v – virgin, Sawyer,” I stammer, all my self-confidence leaving me. “I – I’ve never been with anybody before.”

  I pull away from him and press myself harder against the wall, closing in myself. I don’t know why, but I feel certain Sawyer will somehow be turned off by my revelation. That he’ll reject me as being some sort of freak or something. It’s not that I don’t have desires or wants. It’s not that I’ve never wanted sex – I just never felt strongly enough about anybody to consider giving myself to them.

  But it’s different with Sawyer. I feel so strongly for Sawyer that giving myself to him feels natural. It feels right. My body is yearning for him in ways I’ve never yearned for anybody. It’s crying out for release, and I want him with every fiber of my being.

  “I – I understand if that turns you off or you don’t want me,” I whisper.

  Sawyer takes my hand and squeezes it gently. The look in his eye is both passionate and kind all at the same time.

  “I don’t care about that, Berlin,” he says softly. “But if you would rather not –”

  I shake my head quickly. “No. I want to,” I say. “I really want to.”

  He cups my chin in his hand and forces me to look him in the eye. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. Absolutely.”

  “Good answer.”

  Sawyer presses me against the wall of the elevator car, holding me up beneath his solid frame as his mouth locks against mine. He slides his hands down and cups my ass. I giggle as he lifts me up and wrap my legs around his waist. My moan is lost in his mouth as I grind myself against the hard cock pressed to my hot, wet center.

  The car stops. I feel a sudden bolt of nervous fear shoot through me, and I tense up. But there’s nobody waiting for the car as Sawyer carries me out and down the hall. I plant a line of kisses down his neck and grind myself against his rigid length even harder, the anticipation inside of me growing by the second.

  We get to the door, and Sawyer puts me down to fish the key out of his pocket. He quickly slips the keycard into the slot and throws the door open, grabbing my hand and dragging me in behind him. He closes the door behind us, then pushes me up against it as his jacket slips off my shoulders and pools at my feet. Our mouths collide, our tongues swirl together in my mouth, and I gasp as his large, strong hands roam my body.

  Sawyer slides down to his knees before me, pinning me against the door as he runs his hands up my thighs. I look down into his dark brown eyes that are alight with a mischievous glint.

  Sawyer lifts my skirt up to my waist and slides my panties down in one smooth, swift motion. He raises my leg and sets it down on his shoulder, his eyes still riveted to mine as he leans in, his warm breath sending embers of lust crawling along my skin.

  The moment the tip of his tongue touches my clit, I cry out, my entire body clenching up tighter than a drum. I draw in a stuttering breath as he runs his tongue along my lips, slick with my desire. My hands clasp onto the door behind me for dear life, clawing and grasping at the overwhelming sensation. He teases me ever so softly, eliciting gasps and moans from me. My legs are shaking. He finally plunges his tongue into my center, and I reciprocate by grasping his hair. Pulling on his hair, I grind myself against Sawyer’s face as he licks and laps at my hot, molten core furiously.

  He nips at my swollen bud and slides one, then two fingers deep into my pussy. I yank his hair viciously, my body shuddering. He slides his tongue back and forth over my folds, his grumbles of pleasure lost within my quivering thighs, his deep, ru
mbling voice vibrating against my clit. His fingers and tongue working on me in unison have me hurtling toward the brink of ecstasy faster than I’ve ever managed to get myself there before.

  Sawyer grabs my ass, his fingers pressing hard into my flesh, and pulls me down on his face even harder. The scruff on his chin tickles the insides of my thighs, and his tongue, probing deep within me, sets off a bomb of sensation that rocks me to the core. My entire body vibrates as he laps at my wet pussy, and with just a few sharp nips at my clit, I explode.

  Gripping his hair tightly, I pull his face deeper between my thighs. A scream erupts from my throat. My body shakes as Sawyer continues to finger and lick me, prolonging and intensifying my orgasm. Slowly, the ecstasy coursing through my body loosens its grip, making my body go numb, and my legs feel like rubber. Sawyer catches me before I topple over, a wide, goofy grin on my face.

  “Jesus,” I pant. “That was incredible.”

  Sawyer gets to his feet, matching my smile as my juices glisten on his lips. He picks me up and carries me over to the bed, throwing me down on my back. I quickly sit up, never taking my eyes off him as I strip out of my shirt and bra, then toss them to the side. Sawyer leans down, taking my breasts into his hands, and I let out a sharp gasp as he roughly pinches one of my nipples as he sucks on the other.

  I reach down and start to slide my stockings off, but Sawyer’s voice stops me and pulls my attention back to him.

  “Leave them on,” he demands, his voice gruff.

  I bite my bottom lip and watch as he quickly unbuttons his shirt and shrugs out of it. Sawyer raises his head and leans forward, our teeth clicking together as he kisses me with a ferocity that fuels my own passion. I reach out and fumble with his belt, doing my best to get it undone. But my nervousness and inexperience show as Sawyer reaches down, getting his belt and slacks undone in the blink of an eye.