Page 47 of Illicit Education
Rylan
Tuesday morning, dressed in a new, way too expensive velvet corset that I may or may not have worn last night–shhh–hidden beneath a simple black blazer and matching black, cropped slacks, I walked into Reed Tower with renewed confidence and a new spring in my step.
My boss might be an asshole, but I now knew things about him that no one else here was privy to.
And something about that thrilled me to no end.
It also made me want him more, but that was a problem I had to pretend did not exist.
I may or may not have worn this corset because of the way he’d looked at me last night, which was certainly playing with fire, but it was too late to turn back now.
Wouldn’t want to be late.
I stepped off the elevator onto the seventy-third floor ten minutes early, anxious to squeeze in a few minutes of catching up with Marisa before I headed up to the seventy-fifth floor and the man who’d completely invaded my thoughts for the past twenty-four hours.
I already missed Blanca and I hadn’t even worked with her yet.
At least she didn’t make me a hot mess of hormones and confusion.
Unlike a certain domineering man upstairs.
I couldn’t tell Marisa about seeing Mr. Reed at the Rabbit Hole, obviously–that would definitely cross a line, and I wasn’t about to make that mistake a second time–but I wanted to tell her about my new job at White Rabbit.
Practically bursting at the seams, I hurried over to her, grinning when she walked around the desk to hug me. I’d liked her instantly yesterday, and this small gesture made me feel like that hadn’t been one-sided. Until now, my closest friends had been Greer and her grandfather, although he basically just tolerated me living in the old brownstone with the two of them.
“I found a job!” I announced proudly when we broke our embrace.
“Ooh, yay!” Marisa’s eyes widened and she clapped her hands. “Where?”
“It’s this lingerie store called White Rabbit, have you heard of it? It’s down on–”
“Are you lost, Ms. Blake?”
The sound of his voice nearly brought me to my knees. How could I work for him when I wanted him so badly?
When I now knewthisabout him?
This private, personal thing?
This thing I wanted to be a part of.
I recovered quickly, meeting Marisa’s wide eyes before I braced myself and turned around to face Cabot Reed.
Master Creed.
I’d seen the man shirtless.
And liked it.
I’d seen him engaged in…activitiesthat were not workplace-appropriate.
And I’d liked that even more.
Dressed in head-to-toe navy blue with a crisp white dress shirt beneath his suit and a striking magenta pocket square peeking out of his breast pocket, Cabot Reed was just as intimidating and impressiveclothedas he was last night shirtless and barefoot.
Although I much preferred the latter.
His suits were clearly bespoke, and the way they hugged each bulge of his biceps, stretched across his wide shoulders…