A Break in Communications

Chapter 19

Anna

Turned out, Rickety Rick actually just got more annoying when I had the executive office to myself. Hadn’t realized he’d been asking Dobbs for a step-by-step how-to guide to do his job every damn day. My “figure it out yourself, Richard, you’re a smart man” set a bad tone with him, but… he’d be retiring before long anyway. Either he'd be disillusioned with Dobbs gone, or nature would gently coax him to retire as it always, inevitably, did.

All things considered—the executive trial spot didn’t change as much as I thought it would. Maybe it just didn’t have the time to settle in. I’d already been the department’s go-to person when something was wrong, either me or Lucy to solve any given problem, and if anything, having my own office just made people more intimidated to approach me, so I ended up supervising people’s direct work less than I had before. Poor Lucy was probably bearing the brunt of the extra work from people who were suddenly too scared to ask for help.

But with Lucy back in the office on the regular, I was able to focus again. She strolled into my office like she owned the place, and I knew there was no point trying to call her out on it, so I let her. Got better work done with her there, anyway, and we had everything sorted out for the press release a full day ahead of schedule, even with working around everything else. Managed to work out a temporary solution for her grandmother’s insurance and got the medications covered for now—having two top-performing communications directors on their case was enough to make anyone roll over at least a little, since nobody knew the art of the passive-aggressive reminder email like we did—and Lucy and I took turns checking in with her grandmother, at least until my family caught wind of it.

I’d been mortified that first time I’d walked into the room to find my mother there with Lucy’s grandmother—wasn’t even sure how she’d gotten into the hospital, let alone the room, but apparently they got on like a house on fire, because of course they did. Mostly talking about how Lucy and I were going to get married and live happily ever after and have the best wedding ever, although I’d felt strangely in line with Charlotte for once when I found out Mom had started going on about how maybe Lucy and I would raise a family and Charlotte had shut her down with, the woman’s smart enough not to do any of that nonsense, children are little scourges on this world and you know it. Mom had relayed it to me like it was a scandal, and I’d just shrugged and said hey, I’ve told you I don’t want kids.

I’d just had to convince Mom on a story about the secret family chili recipe to cover Lucy’s and my tracks.

Apparently Charlotte was a big hit with my family, for some reason. Before long, everyone was vying to take turns looking after the woman, which confused me to no end, but it freed up me and Lucy to work on the press release, so we weren’t complaining. Everything coming up roses, I guess. Including the roses in my office, because Lucy had complained about how I hadn’t put any heart into my office decorations and brought some flowers in to brighten it up.

It wasn’t lost on me, the obvious subtext of Lucy bringing me flowers. I just… wasn’t ready to accept it. Even though the night at Lucy’s house, we’d nestled close together in a soft little dream, and even listening to one of my favorite books, I couldn’t focus on a thing other than the feeling of Lucy close to my side, and how I just wanted her there forever, just…

Dobbs had made it clear—we were looking for a promotion over the other. But this was unsustainable, and not just because of the fact that both Sean Dobbs and for some godforsaken reason my mother both knew the key player at our upcoming event, and one way or another, word was bound to cross that threshold between home, where Lucy and I were basically already married, and at work, where we’d been a fling that had finished cleanly.

It was also unsustainable because of the way my chest tightened every time the door opened, hoping it was Lucy coming in. Because of the way my throat felt tight every time it was Lucy coming in, and how my mind replayed that stolen kiss in her house the other night a million times, thinking of a world where I could have kept going, kissed her again…

At what point in this process had I fallen in love with Lucy Masters, anyway? I knew she’d grated on me at the start, and that I’d been so annoyed trying to get her out of my way. And I knew that by now, I was so deeply, desperately in love with the woman that I couldn’t work unless I had her there with me, couldn’t get her out of my mind every waking moment, couldn’t stop looking at her in the pictures I had in the office—pictures from company events that Sean had left in the office and I hadn’t gotten rid of because it was the only acceptable way to keep pictures of Lucy in the office.

So desperately in love with her that I only really liked Guatemalan coffee by now.

But I couldn’t pinpoint the moment things had changed, other than that every time I thought about it, I’d started placing it further and further back. And I was too afraid to follow that line of thought.

So I focused on my work, threw myself fully into it, just for something to focus on other than Lucy’s annoying smug smile and how it made my heart melt every time she did, which went well enough, except for when I shut my laptop, looking up at where, of course, Lucy was in my office, well past five. She’d started staying late again, of course. Something about catching up to me, beating me no matter what. Whatever she wanted to call it.

“Larson’s finished,” I said. “Invoice is closed and everything’s in Operations’ hands.”

She looked up from where she had her laptop on the other side of my desk, and after a second, she looked back down, tapped a few more times, and I saw her with that signature shift-enter tap to send an email, and she shut the laptop, looking at me. “So the event’s ready, is what you’re telling me,” she said.

“Ready as it’ll ever be,” I said. “When was the last time we were ahead of task on something in this office?”

“Probably only when the inimitable Anna Preston is in charge of something. Or better yet, her mortal enemy Lucy Masters.”

“Uh-huh. Well, the latter will remain to be seen, because this has been my project.”

She smiled slyly, standing up and pushing her laptop aside, and I got a nervous flutter in my chest as she walked around to my side of the desk, leaning against the dark wood right in front of me. “So eager to get rid of me, Preston?”

I turned to the window, pretending to be very busy with the sight of the city at night, lights in windows glowing across the streets below us like stars in the sky. “No… perish the thought. Don’t think I could live without Lucy Masters in my life, sitting on my desk.” I said it dry, sarcasm dripping from every word, even though I couldn’t have meant it more. Which only terrified me a little.

Didn’t give Lucy a second’s pause, though. She slid up to sit on the desk, hooking her shoe on the arm of my chair and rolling me closer. I gulped at the sudden movement—being taken and pulled in, a brief release of control that shook my cool. “You can try to play it like you don’t mean it,” she said, her voice a low, playful whisper. “I guess we can all just play along with that, can’t we, Preston? I mean, we play along with a charade so well…”

I didn’t need the veiled reference to the weekend at my family’s house. Or all the things we did there. Or maybe I did need it and I just didn’t want to admit it. I wasn’t thinking about that. I looked away. “What are you still hanging around for, anyway? Pretty sure our work’s wrapped for the day.”

“I’ll go if you tell me to,” she said, practically purring. I huffed, pulling into myself, focused squarely on the window.

“Always so difficult…”

“If that’s what you consider difficult, I don’t know how you’re so good at your job, darling. Just one little word and I’ll go. Wouldn’t be that hard to say it, would it?”

Sure shouldn’t have been. But I couldn’t make my throat form that sound. I bit my lip without realizing it. “What are you after this time, Lucy? I’m not in the position formally enough yet to oversee whether you get a raise.”

She laughed, and a shiver raced down my spine when she laid her fingers gently on my jaw, turning my head to face her. “I think you know what I want, Anna. ”

My insides twisted. Was I really supposed to do this? Push her away and tell her we couldn’t? My body ached for her as much as my heart did. And not just this time, but every time she came into my office ever after if I actually did get this promotion?

I didn’t have that kind of strength… not when Lucy cupped her fingers into my jaw, tilting me up to meet her eyes.

“You just have to tell me that you want it too,” she whispered, and I swallowed, hard, my face burning, body prickling.

“Lucy… you know this isn’t…”

“Just said it yourself, you’re not in the position formally enough to have any conflicts of interest.” She licked her lips, and I let out a soft noise in my throat.

“And—and after that?”

She smiled wider. “This isn’t after that. This is now. And right now… I want you to stand up from that chair.”

I didn’t even think about it—my body acted for me, and I stood up, feeling my legs prickling with awareness, pantyhose suddenly feeling coarse against my skin. “Lucy…” I said, trying for a warning tone, but it came out weak. She bit her lip, her gaze hungry as she dragged it slowly down over my body and back up to me.

“Turn around,” she said, voice murky. I did—didn’t think about it. Didn’t have any say in the matter. I turned around, slowly, arching my back without meaning to, and Lucy made an appreciative noise behind me. “Good girl, Anna.”

“Lucy—” I didn’t mean to say it, just—the spike of heat inside me when she said that, it ripped itself up out of me, maybe intended as a protestation but coming out as a plea. A plea that she answered, putting her hands on my sides, under my jacket and feeling where my shirt was tucked into my skirt, and down to hold me by the hips.

She stood up, slipping off the desk, and I felt her press up against me from behind, her hands slipping around to my front. I felt heat surge up through me, speckles at the edge of my vision, as my mind replayed visions of that same movement back at my family’s house…

“You’re so beautiful, Anna,” she whispered. “Tell me you want this.”

“I—I can’t… we shouldn’t,” I pleaded, but I was mostly pleading with myself and losing against the overwhelming awareness of Lucy’s hands on my body.

“I didn’t ask whether we should,” she whispered in my ear, her voice barely a breath but enough to fill my whole mind. “I asked whether you want this. Tell me, Anna.”

My eyes fluttered shut, and I heard myself let out a meek sound of need, and heat blossomed through me when I heard myself say, “I do… want this…”

“Good girl.” She turned me around to face her, and I lost my breath when she kissed me, lips crashing up against mine, capturing me in a swell of heat.

I didn’t know how to breathe, how to do anything other than want her. I slipped my hands around to the back of her head, all this hungry, aching need that had been building up since we left that weekend behind us coming crashing into me all at once, and I moved my lips with hers, parting to give her access—give her anything she wanted—as her hands explored my back, roamed over me, feeling every part of me. She could… I was hers to do as she wanted with. I just existed for Lucy.

She parted breathlessly, bending down and kissing the dip of my collar where my collar was undone, and I fumbled, my knees buckling at the sudden intensity of the touch. She turned us around, a hazy dream of movement, and backed me up against the desk, pushing me up onto it and spreading my legs around her, stepping in between them, and I submitted to every movement. Wanted her to claim me. Her lips on my collar, unbuttoning my shirt and kissing lower, over the front band of my bra—she was an intoxicating drug, poison in my veins, or maybe sweet salvation.

“God, I’ve needed this,” she growled against me. “I’ve been watching you all the time just thinking how much I want your body…”

That tone—the way she talked about me—it should have been crude, almost objectifying, but it was the exact opposite of it somehow, like I was some sacred artifact and she was having a religious epiphany getting to experience me. Made me feel like a goddess she wanted to worship… I rolled my head back, gripping her hair on the back of her head as she dipped inside my shirt, taking my nipple in her mouth, sucking lightly. Even more perfect than I remembered… “You can take it… however you want,” I breathed, my voice catching.

“Mm.” Lucy popped off of my breast, dragging her tongue back up to my neck. “Good girl, Anna. I will. I wish I could take my time with you, but I need you too damn badly. I’m going to bend you over your fancy desk and make you my pretty little doll and fuck you from behind until you scream my name begging me to let you come. Tell me you want it, Anna.”

I’d never, ever have been able to resist this woman. Even if everything was on the line, I needed her—needed her in every way—needed her to make me hers. “Please, yes,” I gasped, whole body melting at her soft touches, the heat of her mouth on my neck and back down to where my nipples were so sensitive to her touch… “Please—take whatever you want from me.”

“I know, darling. And you’re going to let me have all of it…” She slipped her hands up my skirt, returning her mouth to sucking on my nipple, and I bucked my hips against her hand with a soft, crackling cry as she pressed her palm flat against my center, moving her fingers slowly, precisely, against my pantyhose. Grinding on me, rubbing coarse fabric on my clit in a way that sent twitches through me, body aching in a way more primal than I’d ever realized it knew how to.

I did let her have all of it—let her suck my nipple in that way that was so electric it felt like I could have come just from that while she pulled my pantyhose and underwear down together, trailing a hand up my thigh and finding where I was aching, dripping wet for her. I clasped a hand over my mouth, covering up my aching, needy cries while she teased her fingers around my entrance, pressing inside me just a little, lighting up all the sensitive heat of my entrance, her thumb playing over my clit. Kept my skirt on, and I knew I was getting it soaked right now, but I didn’t care—wanted her to ruin my clothes, ruin my hair and face, ruin my body and ruin my life if it meant I got to have her fuck me, use me.

I was gasping for breath by the time she slid me off the desk and up to my feet, and I cried out with a small, desperate noise as she spun me around and shoved me forward, bending me over the desk. Her one hand reached up my skirt, gripping my ass firmly, and I clutched at the desk struggling to lift my head enough to look back at her as she slipped her other hand up to my folds again, pressing her fingers inside me.

“Lucy—” Her name tore itself from inside me with the little breath I had, and I collapsed against the desk as she pushed her fingers deep inside, crooking inside me, holding there, pulled out and thrust back inside. And again, and again—fucking me—using me, claiming me. I let out a chorus of broken shouts, calling her name, cursing, gasping and moaning loud enough they might have heard me on ground floor, but I didn’t care—just needed Lucy fucking me.

I also wished we could take our time, but my body wouldn’t have it—I found myself grinding my hips back against her, desperate for her fingers filling my pussy, heard myself begging to come just like she’d promised, and when she slipped her other hand to my clit, rubbing in quick, tight circles, I lost it, throwing myself into an explosive orgasm on her fingers, screaming her name. Everything melted into the haze of throbbing pleasure, and it was so unbelievable because I—it was so fucking good and so lurid, dirty, but at the same time I just—I just loved her so much, loved her so much and wanted to be hers, forever, in every way, and just—

I collapsed against the desk, breathing hard, and when Lucy pulled her fingers out, I looked back to where I got a flush of heat between my thighs again seeing her licking my… my wetness off of her fingers. “Good girl,” she whispered, stroking my thigh. “There’s a good little fuck toy.”

“Lucy…” I couldn’t help it—reached down with the littlest bit of energy that I still had, hand between my thighs, and I found myself playing with my clit, idly, not really trying to go anywhere but just indulging seeing Lucy licking me off her fingers. “God, you’re… so…”

She bit her lip, hard, looking me over. “I am dripping wet for you right now, Anna,” she whispered. “I’m going to sit in your chair, and you’re going to get on your knees and eat me out like a good girl.”

I would. I’d do anything she wanted—it wasn’t even a question. I was on my knees in front of her before I knew it, looking up at where she was so perfect, so sexy, above me silhouetted in the low glow of the ceiling light, her hand in my hair as I opened her pants, pulling them down reverently. Took a second just taking in how perfect she was, her folds glistening wet, the lines from the folds of her skin when she sat down, the short, coarse hairs growing sparsely, just… all of it… I slipped my fingers up along her, savoring in the way she twitched, the hungry noises she made, and I couldn’t help it. Buried my face against her, playing with my pussy while I serviced hers, sucking her clit while I looked up into her eyes, let myself drown in Lucy’s pleasure. I’d make myself come again, I could feel it from the aching buildup between my thighs, the electric sensation as I touched myself. Going to make myself come while I licked Lucy’s pussy… nothing could have been more right than that.

∞∞∞

All things considered, when I got home that evening, the last thing I needed was to meet my sister. Which meant, of course, that I met my sister, standing at my front door leaning against the corner, staring at her phone.

My head was still flooded with the filthy, hot sex Lucy and I had just had in my office, the way we sweet-talked like lovers afterwards but didn’t actually address the logistics of the situation. I was on a million different topics, and Veronica wasn’t supposed to be one of them.

I pushed my keys into the lock, trying to just walk past her without acknowledging her. She turned and shot me a look.

“There you are. I texted you and you ignored me.”

She thrust the phone in my face, too up close for me to ignore it. I’d been ready to dismiss it as another text to Grandma, but I stopped when I saw it actually was to me… I’d just had my face between Lucy’s legs when she’d sent it. I’d dismissed the notification when I’d fumbled for my phone to check the time after the whole thing was done. Guess I could forgive myself for forgetting it.

“Oh,” I said, stopping with the door half open. “How about that? I guess I dismissed the notification by mistake. Let’s respond to this now. Anna where are youuuuuuuuuuuuu with… what is that, thirteen Us? I’m here at my apartment. Leave me alone.”

I pushed the door open, and Veronica slipped in with me before I could shut it. Dammit.

“Veronica—I’m not making you a cappuccino.”

“That’s fine, I’m feeling a hot chocolate today,” she said, throwing her bag to the side and shrugging off her layers and layers and layers and layers of clothes. “I’m finally getting a chance to talk to you, so I’m taking it. Do you want a hot chocolate too?”

“Ugh… sure.” I’d need sugar to get me through this. I set about trying to ignore her as much as I could.

“Did you fix things with Lucy yet?”

I wasn’t ignoring her. I sighed, hard, taking off my shoes. I wasn’t taking off my coat… I didn’t know if Lucy and I had, uh, left marks on my skirt. Veronica would comment on it. I headed for the bedroom. “You know one of us is going to be the other’s boss soon. We couldn’t really be together if we wanted.”

She turned on the espresso machine, but she stopped to watch me, eyebrows raised as I headed for the bedroom. She didn’t say anything, though, and I got to take some clothes to the bathroom and spend a second cleaning myself up better than I’d managed in the office bathroom, changing into clean clothes, and I stepped out of the bathroom just for Veronica to say, raising her voice over the sound of steaming milk, “Guess things aren’t going too bad with Lucy, if you have to get back and get changed without letting me see your clothes.”

Of all nights for Veronica to be here. I sighed, pointedly, hanging my coat up. “My sex life is not open to the peanut gallery for comment, Veronica.”

“So that’s a yes? Jeez, I’m just checking on the health of your relationship.”

I put my hands up dramatically. “Yes, Veronica,” I said, trying to sound as sarcastic as I could. “Lucy took me aside and had a quickie with me in my office before I headed home. That’s what happened.”

“Ugh, god, I need that for me too.”

“Ew. Stop telling me. Also, how about Kelcey? Pretty sure you could have that, except that apparently you broke her heart. Like I fucking said you would.”

She hunched her shoulders, not looking at me. “Leave Kelce out of this.”

“Pretty sure that’s what I told you. She’s been moping all around the office ever since, and I guess I have to admit, she hasn’t been harassing me about you. She’s been too desolate to even ask me random inane questions. Honestly, I kind of miss her commentary, it’s just sad looking at her now. What the hell did you even do to her?”

“That’s not important. ”

“I told you not to go for Kelcey, because it would be wrapped up in my life and we’d have to address it whether you liked it or not. You went for Kelcey, and now it’s wrapped up in my life, and we have to address it whether you like it or not.”

She groaned, shutting off the machine after the second carafe of milk, pouring the milk into the second of the prepared mugs, and she went about dutifully wiping down the machine, muttering to herself. “You’re so pushy about my love life.”

“ I’m pushy about your love life? You’re the one barging into my apartment and trying to figure out what kind of sex Lucy and I had.” Son of a bitch, that kind of confirmed Lucy and I had had sex. Whatever. Veronica would have believed it even if I hadn’t said a word.

“Okay, you were right,” she sighed, taking the two mugs to the table, sitting down and sliding one mug my way. “Kelcey took it as more than casual. And it kinda got… I dunno, more than casual for a second. And that was weird, so I called things off.”

Dammit, this girl was an idiot. Were all us Prestons idiots? I dropped into the seat opposite her, pointedly quiet as I took a sip of hot chocolate. Took a while to say anything, but after a minute, I said, “So, she caught feelings for you, you started catching feelings for her too, but it freaked you out because you’re not ready to acknowledge that you’re into girls, and you panicked and took the only way you could think of to drive her away from you, which was to insult her and try to make her not like you anymore.”

She scowled at me. “I’m not not into girls altogether, just, you know. It’s just casual fun. Sex and shoe shopping together.”

“Sex and what—forget it.”

“Sex in the fitting rooms—”

“Veronica.” I closed my eyes.

“What? That’s one of the best things of hooking up with a girl, nobody bats an eye at you going into the fitting room together.”

“Making crude sexual remarks isn’t going to get you out of this.”

She glowered. “It wasn’t crude. We had very sweet fitting-room sex. Eye contact and lots of darling and everything.”

“Right, which kind of makes my point. You’re bisexual and just don’t want to admit it.”

“I’m bye-sexual like bye-bye because I don’t stick around, whether it’s a man or a woman. I’d have ditched Kelcey if she were a guy too.”

I shook my head, leaning over the table towards her. “You started having feelings for her. And it scared you in a way it wouldn’t have if it had been a man.”

She hunched her shoulders, shooting me a dirty look. “You don’t know what we were like.”

“No, but I know what you’re like. And I know what Kelcey is like. And I know what she’s been like, and what kinds of things you apparently said to her. Don’t you think you at least owe her an apology for the way you ended things? I know you’re used to hurting people and running away from your own fallout, but you don’t have that same luxury when you’re screwing with people in your sister’s life.”

“Shut up,” she bristled. “I’m not obligated to be all sweet and harmless with someone just because you know her. I live my own life. My way.”

“Veronica—”

“You’re just changing the subject anyway. Have you even mentioned how you feel to Lucy, or are you just playing around with her while you have the chance? Again?”

“Veronica, do you have to start a fight every time you’re here?”

She glared at me. “You’re the one getting on my case about Kelcey.”

“Because—because I don’t like you breaking my coworkers’ hearts, I’m starting fights? That’s the logic we’re going with?”

She sighed, hard, and she studied me for a minute—long enough that I started feeling itchy—before she smiled oddly. “I hear you found out about Granny Charlotte in the hospital and dropped everything in the middle of the workday to go take care of Lucy, make sure she was okay.”

“Ugh… where’d you hear that?” I looked away, feeling my face prickle.

“Put it together from various things I’d heard. You do know you’re in love with her, right?”

“Yeah… yes, of course I do,” I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose. She looked at me incredulously.

“ Of course you do? As if that’s normal, when you’ve been the most clueless idiot on God’s green earth about her for years?”

“Okay—shut up.” I hunched over my drink. “Yeah. So? Like I said… one of us is going to be supervising the other.”

She studied me a second before she said, uncharacteristically seriously, “That’s definitely a problem. But it’s just the temporary situation of things, isn’t it? You and I both know that the kinds of feelings you have aren’t going to just go away because they’re not in line with company policy.”

I stared down into my drink for the longest time before I said, in a far-off, quiet voice, “Yeah… I know.”

“So?”

“So… I don’t know,” I mumbled. “I’m still… figuring this out. There’s a lot going on right now.”

“Can’t use that as your excuse forever.”

“I know. But I’m using it right now.”

She laughed. “You and Lucy have something amazing. I’m serious. Don’t ignore it. She loves you like I didn’t know it was possible to love someone. I’m starting to think you actually love her just as much. Make it work out.”

“Easy to say from the sidelines. You make your thing work first.”

She looked away. “Ugh—everything with Kelcey is behind me.”

“It’s not behind Kelcey, though. And you care about that, don’t you? Despite your best efforts.”

“Fuck off,” she laughed, good-natured, sipping her hot chocolate. “I’m flaky. You and I both know that.”

“Uh-huh.” If that was what she needed to tell herself right now… I’d get her to at least apologize to Kelcey and smooth out some of the hurt. My sister would probably never find the maturity to ride off into the sunset with a woman at this point—she’d be lucky to have the maturity to stick with anybody—but I’d take what I could get. “Well, thanks for the hot chocolate, Veronica.”

“I’ll be out of your hair soon enough. Just wanted to say hi and steal your hot chocolate. I’m sure you want some privacy to sext your girlfriend.”

I wondered if Lucy would be down. But if that was on the table, maybe I could have just driven off to her place and made love to her well into the night, wake up slow and do it all over again together. “I absolutely do,” I said, mostly just because I was tempted by the offer of Veronica leaving.

Or maybe it was because I didn’t see the point of denying that I was in love with Lucy and every part of my life revolved around her.

But wanting Veronica to get out of my apartment already was still probably part of it, at least.