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Chapter Thirteen: Third Party

Sienna

I wake up in the morning to the light from the bay window blaring me in the face, forcing me to blink my eyes open and squint at the brightness. My sheets are disheveled, my naked body underneath the comforter. It's not until the faint blaring of an alarm echoes in my ears that I instantly shoot up in bed, frantically grabbing the clock that reads eight in the morning.

I'm late.

So late.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Shoving the sheets away from my body, I pad across the cold, hardwood floor and throw open my closet. I refuse to think about what happened last night, because the minute that I do, I'm going to overthink it, and I can't do that right now because I'm fucking late. I'm never late. Not that it matters since I make my own schedule, but I like consistency. Having my employees see consistency makes them consistent, too.

I trip over my own two feet as I tug on a pair of black dress pants and a pink floral button-down blouse, hardly even noticing my reflection when I stumble groggily into the bathroom. My head is pounding from lack of sleep when I stick my toothbrush in my mouth, groaning when I see the girl staring back in the mirror. Despite the few hours of sleep, she looks...well-rested, which is something I'm not used to. Normally I toss and turn throughout the night, waking up once every three hours, but last night I slept like a bear in hibernation.

And my cheeks have color in them. My eyes are a light brown, and despite my hair going in a million different directions, I look beautiful and happy, and it's all because Lincoln Nash made me orgasm again.

Stop thinking about it!

Pushing the images of his huge cock out of my mind, I rinse my mouth out and tug my hair back into a tight bun, slimming down the stray pieces with a little bit of gel. My face doesn't need makeup today. I'm fresh-faced and glowing, and it bothers me so fucking much as I slide my flats on, put food in Muggle's cat dish, grab my purse and fly out the door.

My driver, TJ, takes only five minutes to arrive, and I think it's because he was already waiting for me. I'm out the door by seven every single morning Monday through Friday, and I know I don't need to apologize to him since he was just getting paid to sit and wait for me, but I do it anyway, embarrassed from how out of character I'm being today.

"No apologies necessary," he says as he pulls away from the curb, "I take it you slept well?"

My eyes meet with his in the rearview mirror, and I can't be certain, but it looks as if he's...smiling with his eyes. TJ rarely ever shows emotion, he's strictly professional so maybe I'm reading too much into it. There's no way he saw Lincoln come over last night. Did he?

"Yes," I reply. "I hope you did as well."

He nods as I sink back into my seat, closing my eyes and heaving out a sigh as the memories from last night slowly sink into my head. The son-of-a-bitch won last night. I threw myself at him, yet he didn't even touch me. He made me come just from his words.

Was it a test? Maybe, a small part of me was hoping he'd fail it so that these feelings would stop. I wanted him to try and sleep with me so that I would forget this lust and we could go back to being professional, but he was nice and caring...and he made me feel safe again. Damn him.

Damn him and his stupid toned body. Damn his tattoos that looked like a work of art. I wish I hadn't been so drunk so I could have remembered every single one. Damn his sexy words and damn his breath on my nipple that made me come harder than I had that night in my office with him. I hadn't been able to get myself to orgasm before I texted him, and maybe that's because it'd been so long since I tried, but two minutes with Lincoln Nash pushed me over the edge. I hate him for that. Hate him because he's supposed to be a client. Hate him because I shouldn't feel this way about him. Hate him because that can't happen again. It can't.

TJ pulls up outside my office building, and after a quick goodbye, I rush inside to find Rachel at the reception desk with a coffee in her hand. God bless my decision to hire her as my assistant. "I was about to call you," she says with a laugh. "You had me worried."

"Sorry," I mutter and practically rip the cup of coffee from her hands, chugging down three large gulps of the hot caffeine that almost makes me moan in pleasure, "I had a long night and overslept."

She shrugs. "You're allowed to show up whenever you want. I was just going to call you because Lincoln Nash is in your office. He got here about five minutes ago."

I stop dead in my tracks at the mention of his name. "What? Why?"

Rachel twists around in her black heels, blinking once before she replies, "The contract was emailed to him this morning. He brought over the completed copy."

"He couldn't just fax it?"

Obviously, this isn't Rachel's job to decide what clients choose to do, but I'm frustrated as hell. I know he came here in person for other reasons than to just drop off the contract. He wants to talk about last night, and I'm not ready to. He's not going to like the answer I'll give him.

She arches a brow as we step into the elevator. "Do you want me to ask him to leave?"

"No," I mutter and then let out a sigh, drinking another long sip of coffee. "Would you be able to grab me some ibuprofen, though? I have a terrible headache." And I think Lincoln Nash is going to make it ten times worse.

"Sure," she replies, a grin tugging at the corners of her lips. "I guess you really did have a rough night, huh?"

The elevator doors open, and I escape her before she has the time to ask more questions, smoothing out my pants when I reach my office. Lincoln is sitting in the leather chair, one leg crossed over the other, his usual position. He hears the door close and glances over his shoulder, a devilish grin on his face. My stomach clenches at the sight.

"Sienna," he drawls as I walk around to my chair, "you look well this morning. Well-rested I'd say."

Giving him a glare, I set my purse down on the shelf beside my desk and let out a huff as I plop down into the chair. Very un-CEO-like of me, but I'm not in the mood to deal with his arrogant self today. It makes me regret what we did even more.

"You have the contract?" I ask, ignoring him completely.

It seems like a flicker of pain flashes into his eyes, but he quickly replaces it with the same smugness he always has as he pushes the manilla folder containing the contract across the desk to me. "Right here," he says, eyeing me skeptically.

I nod, continuing to give him the cold shoulder as I scan the document over. "I'll file this and my assistant will be in touch with you this week about setting up a time to start going over the plans."

"Is this about me leaving last night?" he asks.

My eyes pop up to his, but I don't let them linger on him for too long. I can't even look at him without feeling my cheeks get hot. He seems to unbutton his shirt more every time I see him. Now I can see the complete serpent head and what looks like dark clouds poking out around it.

"You know after we..." He trails off, and I clench my jaw, glancing toward my office door. "Did you not enjoy it?"

"Lincoln," I seethe, closing the manilla folder with a loud slap on my desk, "this is not the time or the place to talk about what happened last night. If word got out about that mistake, my reputation would be trashed. I can't be caught sleeping with a client. Having a relationship with a co-worker was hard enough on me."

He laughs and cocks his head to the side. "A mistake?"

I nod, still furious.

"I don't think a mistake happens twice. Am I wrong?"

"It doesn't matter what it was, does it? We're not doing this. You and I aren't going to happen. I'm not mad about you leaving. Truthfully, I wouldn't have wanted you to stay. As I said before, I'm not looking for anything serious, especially with a client."

He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "You called me, Sienna, not the other way around."

"And I was lonely, which you quickly found out when you arrived. I wasn't thinking clearly, and that still didn't deter you from..." I trail off, feeling like shit as soon as the sentence comes out of my mouth. Lincoln didn't take advantage of me. Not in the least bit. It was all me.

He knows it though because rather than back down, his bright blue eyes become alive with humor as he says, "From what, exactly? I don't recall touching you."

A cocky grin follows his eyes, and it causes me to roll my eyes in return. He has every right to feel proud of himself, though. He didn't need to touch me. All he had to do was talk and blow on my nipple and I came a river for him. That annoys me even more.

"Whatever," I grumble, "I can't change what happened, but you're officially my client now, Lincoln, and from now on, any meeting we have is going to have a third party present."

"As if that's going to stop us," he replies, and my body stills when he pulls his arms behind his head, running his fingers through that perfect, silky black hair of his. "Three people can be very pleasurable, Sienna. Hell, invite a man to be the third person. I think you'd enjoy having two men please you."

I try to block out the images, but I can't. In seconds, I'm picturing myself on all fours on this desk with Lincoln's cock filling my mouth, another man railing me from behind. Lincoln is smiling broadly at me when I snap out of the fantasy, and my blood is boiling. I'm so mad that I'm feeling like this. So fucking pissed that a man is having this control over me again.

Rising up from my chair, I slam my hands on my desk and lean forward. "This is over," I reiterate, "and please don't forget that I have every opportunity to end this contract between us since we were intimate. Read the revision your lawyer wrote, you arrogant, prick. You need me to save your company, so I suggest you stop with the sexual innuendo and start acting professionally. Now get out of my office."

Lincoln is breathing heavily, and then he gulps, swallowing down anything he was just thinking of saying before he stands up and shoves his hands into his pockets. "As you wish, Ms. Stone," he growls lowly, and I instantly miss when he called me by my first name as he throws open the door and disappears.