Double Dare (4 page)

“Yes, that’s it, sweetheart, that feels good doesn’t it? Now stroke your clit with the dildo as you finger yourself.”

Katy moaned, the sensations overwhelming. Between Simon’s deep voice in her ear, and the stimulation to her pussy, an orgasm quickly built. “Simon,” she moaned. “I—it feels so good.”

“I know it does, baby. And it’s going to feel a lot better in a minute. Take your finger out of your pussy, and slowly, slide the dildo in.”

She hesitated. Using it on the outside was one thing, but … “Don’t be shy, Kat, I promise you it’s okay. Sex is a beautiful thing. Don’t be embarrassed by how it makes you feel.”

She slid it in. “Oh, Simon,” she breathed.

“Ah, that’s it. That feels good, doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” she breathlessly admitted.

“Now work it in and out with one hand and stroke your clit with your other hand.”

Katy did as she was told, and let Simon’s voice and the pulsating dildo push her toward an orgasm. Her breaths became shorter, shallower. Simon’s voice, as he encouraged her to enjoy herself, became more stimulating than the dildo and her hand combined. “Simon,” she gasped as the wave began to surge.

“Faster now, Kat, harder. Imagine my lips sucking your sweet juicy pussy.”

“Oh, God,” she moaned, as her body liquefied at the thought.

“Tell me how it feels.”

“It feels good. No better than good, amazing.” Her back arched and her legs spread.

“That’s me fucking you, Kat. My cock pounding you. My finger strumming your clit. Thrusting, pushing. Fast and furious, you are so hot for me right now you can’t stand it.”

Katy could only gasp for air, her body so wrapped up in the sensual tone of his voice and the sensation of her manipulation.

“You’re ready to come, Kat. I can hear it in your gasps and your moans, the way you say my name. Say it when you come, Kat, scream it. Because it’s me and no one else.”

“Just you, Simon,” she gasped. “Just you.”

“Now, Kat, come now.”

Her body tightened painfully just before the last week of pent-up sexual tension exploded inside of her, in one amazing violent wave after another. “Simon!” she cried. “Oh, God, Simon,” she cried. Her body shuddered as the orgasm tore through her, leaving her limbs quivering and her breathing chaotic. Like a fish out of water, Katy gasped for air, and her body twitched and flailed.

“Was it good, Kitty Kat?” Simon’s deep rough voice asked. He was breathing heavily as well and she wondered …

“Better than good.” She turned the dildo off and flung it to the side of the bed, still trying to catch her breath. “Thank you.”

“You are most welcome. Now get some sleep.” He hung up, leaving Katy feeling alone and, despite what had just happened, empty.

aty woke the next morning feeling as sated as a well-fed cat. Still naked from her phone sex tryst, she stretched lazily, and smiling, reveling in the warm languidness of her body. The only thing that would make waking up better was if Simon was naked and warm beside her. Sighing, she closed her eyes and imagined just that. There she went again, living on Fantasy Island.

She had it bad.

That didn’t surprise her. She would bet her substantial savings account that every woman who crossed paths with Simon had the same ridiculous crush on him that she did. There was something so appealing about the man that it defied logical thinking. He was unleashed power. The kind of man a woman didn’t want to tame but claim and be claimed by. There was something exciting about knowing he was your man and yours alone. That he chose you above all others.

Was he, she wondered, as giving with all of his lovers as he had been with her?

Spending the night with her little battery-powered friend and Simon, a virtual stranger, was not anything she’d ever imagined doing. Surprisingly, however, she wasn’t terribly embarrassed about having done it. Simon had a way of making her embrace her sexuality instead of pretending it didn’t exist.

“Simon,” she sighed. “You’re going to break my heart. I just know it.”

Rolling over, she reached for her glasses and slid them on, then reached for her phone, hoping he had texted her while she slept. Nothing. But her disappointment was short-lived. Her heart kicked hard against her ribcage when she saw she had a voice mail from Simon. It was from last night.

“When I call you, Katrina, I expect you to answer,” his stern, deep voice dictated. “Do not disobey me.” Frissons of heat sparkled through her. The commanding tone in his voice turned her on. She listened to it again. And again. By the time she slid from her bed, she was hot for Simon. Again. As she took what was becoming her requisite cold shower, she wondered if she would ever be able to get him out of her system. He was becoming an obsession. Hell, there was no “becoming” about it; he
was
her obsession.

Although it was just physical, it was all-consuming, driving her to the point of complete distraction. Standing beneath the hard spray of cold water, Katy tried to understand why she was so consumed by this man she knew only on a carnal level. As a scientist, she understood the laws of attraction in the sense that her chemistry was organically drawn to Simon’s. Their energies were similar when they were near one another. Her body craved the orgasm that his could give her. He was her drug— the more she got of him, the more she wanted of him.

As she toweled off, Katy wondered what the protocol was, if there was one at all, for the morning after sexting and/or phone sex. Did one simply text a thank-you or did one call? Did one do both? Did one wait a day or two or did one send an immediate thank-you so as not to appear rude and ungrateful? Did one say thank you at all? Did one text for more sex or was that considered rude?

An hour later, still contemplating this bold new world she had stumbled into, Katy strode into her office. As she set her briefcase and purse down on her desk, her cell phone rang. Like Pavlov’s dog, she started to internally drool. Her hot-to-trotness came to an abrupt halt when she realized the call was from HR. What could they possibly want?

“Dr. Winslow,” Katy said, matter-of-factly.

“Good morning, Dr. Winslow, this is Ted Biel, HR Director at Genomtec—” the voice began. Genomtec was the pharmaceutical company that not only wrote her a hefty paycheck each month but funded her research grants.

“I know who you are, Mr. Biel, what can I do for you?” Katy had a mound of analysis reports to go through before lunch. If she started now, she’d be lucky to have them completed by lunch tomorrow.

“It’s imperative I speak to you in my office immediately.”

“Regarding?”

“It’s of a very sensitive nature, Dr. Winslow. Please, come immediately.”

A little warning bell began to ring in Katy’s belly. “Are you still located on the fifth floor?”

“Yes, room five-twenty-six. Just see yourself in, please.”

Katy tapped her phone to end the call. An unsettling feeling of doom skittered through her. If this had anything to do with Evan Scott, she was going to—what? Ruin him? If she did that, she’d reveal her bad behavior at the conference and stain her professional reputation. Kick his ass? Hardly. Tell his wife? It would serve him right, but it was not her business. Leaving her briefcase on her desk, she slid on her lab jacket, put her cell phone in the right-hand pocket, shut her office door, and proceeded to the appointed room.

The first person she saw when she opened the door was Dr. Veejay Shah, the brilliant CEO of Genomtec. Sitting next to him at the round table was a stern-faced wasp of a man, Ted Beil. Beside him was another man, dressed in a sober black suit, who didn’t make eye contact with her but instead raked her from head to toe with a withering stare as if appraising her mental assets by her physical ones. She immediately disliked him. But it was the man sitting on his left, Evan Scott, who gave her cause for pause. Venom radiated from him. He was a man on a mission to see her ruined.

Not one of them stood as a show of respect nor did any one of them offer her a chair. That feeling of doom intensified. Whatever she was there for, her fate was already determined, and it wasn’t looking good.

The word ambush occurred to her as she extended a hand to Dr. Shah. “Dr. Shah,” she said firmly, keeping her tone light but businesslike. Instead of trembling in her Louboutins, the same ones she’d fucked Simon and had her first orgasm in, Katy felt like she could take on the world. Smiling inwardly as if the shoes had the same power as Dorothy’s ruby slippers, Katy extended her hand to Mr. Biel while meeting him eye to eye. That took some nerve, considering what Biel probably knew about her.

“Dr. Winslow,” Biel said, turning to the suit. “This is Mr. Osborne, counsel for Genomtec.”

“Since when is an attorney required for an HR meeting?” Katy asked. “And why was I not afforded the same courtesy?” Damn if she was going to give them anything.

“Take a seat, Dr. Winslow,” Osborne said, disdain dripping from each of his words, “and I’ll explain.”

Katy eyed Evan coolly before moving past him and purposefully taking the seat directly beside him. It made everyone in the room uncomfortable, especially Evan.
Good.

“What is so urgent that my work is interrupted?”

Mr. Biel looked at Osborne, cleared his throat, and opened a rather ominous looking black folder in front of him.

“Dr. Winslow, it has come to our attention that there has been a serious breach of contract on your part, and before we proceed with any action regarding the accusation, we wanted to speak to you first.”

Katy’s gut roiled, not in fear, but in anger. And embarrassment. The heat rising in her cheeks bore testament to that and it bothered her more than any blight on her record ever could. “By all means, explain.”

Mr. Biel cleared his throat again and began, “Dr. Scott has filed a complaint in which he claims you have repeatedly sexually harassed him, not only here in the workplace but also at the gym where you are both members, as well as at the symposium last week in San Diego.”

Katy smiled, causing the four sets of eyebrows around her to rise. She turned to the distinguished Dr. Scott. “Really, Evan?”

He nodded and instead of looking at her, he looked to the ceiling. “I warned you, Dr. Winslow, that if you didn’t stop, I would be forced to take action.”

“Hmm, and are you being forced to
take action
because I kicked your lying ass to the curb?”

The CEO coughed.

Completely composed on the outside, nerves churning on the inside, Katy nodded and, ignoring the smarmy attorney, looked first at the HR director and then to her boss. “Dr. Scott and I had a brief affair. It was mutual, and until he informed me in San Diego last week that he was married, I was under the impression I might marry the ass. Take that any way you want to. And for the record, Mr. Biel and Dr. Shah,” she looked at the contemptuous attorney with an equally contemptuous glare, “I have e-mails, texts, and yes, a few very explicit photos from and of Dr. Scott to support my claim that the relationship was not only consensual but that he was the one who pursued me.” She looked at Evan. “The best thing you ever did for me was man up and tell me you were married.” She stood. “Now, if you’re going to fire me, please do it posthaste. Otherwise, I have work to get back to.”

As Katy turned to exit, Evan stood. “She ‘borrowed’ my cell phone months ago. When I asked for it back, she said she lost it. The texts from that number were not from me. But from her trying to make it look like me.”

Katy’s gut clenched nervously. She had plenty of texts and e-mails. As she turned, he continued, “She hacked into my e-mail accounts and did the same thing.”

Turning fully around, Katy narrowed her eyes. “Why would I do that, Evan?”

“Because I shunned you.”

“Do you always ‘lend’ your cell phone to a stalker you want nothing to do with?”

Undaunted, Evan pled his case. He looked first at Dr. Shah, then Biel and Osborne, all three rapt spectators. “She threatened me. Told me she would tell my wife. So I gave her the damn phone.”

“If I didn’t know better myself, Evan, I’d believe you,” Katy said. He was convincing as hell. “You’re one hell of an actor. I suppose you acted like you really cared, too?”

That got to him. She saw it in the way his eyes softened for just a minute. He cared, as in past tense cared. Now he wanted blood and she didn’t know why.

She turned to leave the room, very much over the drama she did not create.

“Not so fast,” Osborne said, stopping her in her heels. “There’s more.”

Katy whirled around. “No, there isn’t more. He’s lying, I can prove it.”

Osborne opened his briefcase and took out a file folder. Opening it, he handed it to her. Not wanting to see what salacious photos they might have of her and Evan, Katy forced herself to look at the contents. As she read the document dated months ago, a US Patent issued to BioGen, her former employer, for the coding process she developed, the hair on the back of her neck rose.

“What is this?” she demanded looking angrily at Osborne and Evan, who refused to meet her stare.

“A patent for the coding process you stole from BioGen and tried to pass off as your own research and development here at Genomtec.”

“That’s a lie! When I left BioGen five years ago, I hadn’t even begun my research on the gene coding.” She speared Evan with a glare. “You were with me every step of the way, Evan. You know when I started.”

Osborne took the file from her. “Your former research partner at BioGen says otherwise. He says
he
broke through the coding, you tried to say it was your breakthrough, and because of your duplicity you were let go. Then you came here and tried to pass his research off as your own.”

“That’s bull! My research partner was a smarmy, frustrated old man who spent more time looking at my legs than focusing on our work,
that
is why I left BioGen, not because I stole his brilliant research.”

“Corporate espionage is a federal offense, Dr. Winslow.”

“I didn’t steal anything! That’s
my
research.
I
developed the coding process. I left BioGen because Dr. Lockford could not keep his hands to himself.”

Osborne slid another paper from his file of horrors and handed it to her. “That’s not what he said. He swore under oath that you sexually harassed him.” He handed her another document, this one accusing her of the same predatory act, but her accuser on this one was Evan Scott.

Utterly shocked, she stared at them slack-jawed. “Are you actually serious? You’re accusing me of stealing my own coding research
and
sexually harassing two men I worked closely with?”

“We intend to see you prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Osborne said. “You have cost Genomtec billions in future earnings with your duplicity. Not to mention your deplorable predatory sexual practices.”