Indecent...Desires. Jane O'Reilly

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СКАЧАТЬ I would have had more control of things. But given that it’s his fault I was masturbating in the toilets in the first place, perhaps my irritation is justified.

      I do not know how I am going to survive two weeks with him hanging around the office. This was not part of the plan. Still, Martin Banks will be in soon, and that is part of the plan. Martin Banks is in his late thirties, appropriately older than me, with an appropriate level of income (I checked) and, as far as I can tell, no inappropriate sensibilities. I also know that he is single and has appropriate ideas about marriage and children. Oh, I know what they say about workplace relationships, but where else am I supposed to meet a man I can vet properly? I don’t want to end up in another disastrous relationship.

      Today Martin Banks is going to ask me out to dinner, I’m sure of it. We will go to the Italian on Bridge Street, I will accept dessert but not drink more than two glasses of wine, and he will kiss me firmly but politely at my doorstep. I’ve got it all planned.

      Thinking this through, I open my bottom desk drawer, pull out my makeup bag and proceed to fix up my face. A touch more blusher, some powder, a neatening of my lipstick. There. I do not need to worry about twenty four year old exhibitionists. Even if they are in the office at the end of the hall.

      I welcome the other staff as they come in, then the first couple of clients. Today is going to be a good day, I can feel it. I refuse to feel the hot ache that persists between my thighs. I refuse to think about Lucas Brady. Only I can’t stop thinking about Lucas Brady. He has been in the office at the end of the hall with the door firmly closed for what seems like an impossibly long time. Perhaps he would like more coffee. Perhaps more biscuits are in order. Perhaps he needs someone to keep him on track.

      Before I can talk myself out of it, I pour the coffee and arrange some biscuits nicely on a plate and walk towards that office door. I knock briskly and then I push the door open. ‘I brought you some more coffee,’ I say.

      His head jerks up. He’s sat behind the desk, which is black, in keeping with the tidy, modern theme of the office. He’s stripped off the baby-blue jumper, revealing a striped shirt that fits indecently close. It is open at the collar, giving me a casual flash of skin, and I find my heart suddenly pounding, my mouth suddenly dry. I should put the drink and the plate on the desk and leave. I should not linger, or talk. But I do both. ‘Are you making progress?’

      ‘Yes,’ he says.

      That’s when I realise he’s watching me. He’s watching me with the wary eyes of someone who is about to be caught doing something they shouldn’t. And that makes me wonder what that something is. I walk towards the desk, carefully put the coffee down. ‘Two sugars,’ I say.

      ‘Right,’ he says. ‘Thanks.’ He lifts a hand to the screen and carefully angles it away from me.

      ‘Any idea how much longer it’s going to take?’

      ‘For this one? Or for all of them?’

      God, he is beautiful. His skin is tanned and smooth, his eyelashes long. He is quite possibly the loveliest man I have ever laid eyes on. But it is ridiculous that I am letting this thought take up space in my brain, because a pretty young man is not part of the plan. I have no use for a man like this, and it is distinctly unlikely that he has any use for a woman like me.

      And yet there is electricity in the air when I look at him, a tension in the room and in his dark, dark eyes that I cannot ignore and I cannot deny. I should leave the room now. I have work to do, and so does he, and I have nothing more to say, and yet I can’t. His gaze remains steady on my face. I’d like to say that he’s looking at me, that he sees something in me that he can’t look away from, but I am not that stupid.

      He is looking at me so he can avoid looking at the computer screen.

      I take a deep breath, breathe in the moment, breathe him in. And then, for some reason, a reason I can’t fathom, I put my hand on the corner of the monitor and jerk it round. There on the screen is an exquisitely beautiful woman, with dark glossy hair and generous breasts, sitting on the face of a naked and thrillingly well-endowed man.

      Silence stretches between us, long and heavy. The image is almost hypnotic, the woman arching her back in ecstasy as the man lowers a hand to his erection and starts to fondle himself. I know what I’m supposed to say in these circumstances, how I’m supposed to react. I know I should be disgusted but I’m not, and I cannot stop myself looking at the screen. What they’re doing is just so…delicious, and oh, he’s stroking himself harder, and…

      Lucas’s hand shoots to the mouse and he closes the window. It vanishes instantly, as if it had never been there, as if the past thirty seconds had existed only in my imagination, but I continue to stare at the screen, shocked to find myself willing the image to come back. ‘Please don’t tell anyone,’ he says.

      I straighten up, smooth down my blouse, Unflappable Meredith, though inside I’m shaking. What is wrong with me? ‘I will be keeping an eye on you,’ I say. ‘This sort of behaviour is not acceptable at work. I’ll let it pass, just this once, but don’t let me catch you again, Mr Brady.’

      ‘Of course not, Ms French.’ His attempt to look contrite falls flat. He doesn’t look sorry at all. He looks…excited, and what disturbs me the most is how much I like it. How much I want to close the door and tell him to put that video back on so that I can straddle him in that generously-sized swivel chair and smother him with my wet pussy as I watch it.

      I can’t be in the room with him right now. I shouldn’t be thinking this way. I turn on my heel and stride out of the room, back to my desk, where the phone is ringing and the emails are piling up and the coffee pot is empty and Martin Banks is waiting.

      I greet him with a smile, and make small talk as I pour him coffee and ask about his weekend. I know I am exactly the sort of woman he needs, organised and sensible. I would be an asset to his life. I smile and laugh, and he is on the verge of asking me out for dinner, I just know he is, when Lucas Brady comes walking up to the desk. Not only is he still not wearing his jumper, he’s rolled up his sleeves and untucked his shirt. He looks faintly dishevelled, as if he threw on the first thing that came to hand when he got up this morning.

      My stomach flutters. ‘Yes?’ I know that comes out rudely, but the stomach fluttering is annoying, and Martin Banks was about to ask me to dinner and Lucas Brady spoilt it.

      ‘Can you tell me where you keep the stationery?’ he asks.

      I am so flustered that I don’t even think to ask him what he wants or what he wants it for. I have an ample supply of stationery in my desk drawers and could easily give him a pen or whatever it is that he needs. I pick up my keys and ask Martin Banks to excuse me, then I motion to Lucas Brady to follow me.

      He walks a little behind me, so that I can’t see him but I can feel his gaze on me as we walk along the corridor. Outside the stationery cupboard, I stop, then select the correct key and push it into the lock. Before I turn it, I glance back over my shoulder at him.

      His hands are back in his pockets, his hair falling into his face, and I know this is wrong, I know I should just open the door and let him in, but I don’t. ‘I can’t believe you were using our computer system to look at porn.’

      His gaze slides to the ground, and a faint blush hits his cheeks. ‘I know,’ he says. ‘I’m sorry about that. I don’t know what came over me.’

      I am so irritated that I can feel it growing inside me, taking on a life of its own. I open the cupboard door and usher him inside. But СКАЧАТЬ