Chapter 68: Same Day

Astrid’s POV

"Raven, I’m... I’m..."

He kept coming closer. "You’re getting married. That’s what you want to say," he said, popping the bubble before I could.

I lifted my hand and shoved the ring right in his face. My shiny, expensive, this-man-loves-me ring ... right there, inches from his eyes as he closed the distance between us.

"This wasn’t intentional, was it?" he asked.

"I love my boyfriend and soon we’ll be husband and wife ... so fuck you, Raven, for even asking me that question."

He laughed.

"You don’t understand, do you? You’re my mate, Astrid. You can’t just go marrying someone like that. I have to give permission for something like that to happen," he said.

"Watch me get married next week," I fired back.

"I bet you can’t resist me now ... just like you couldn’t resist me back then."

His hand landed on my thigh.

I slapped it away fast. "Don’t touch me, Raven. I’ll call security and that won’t be great for your image, now will it?"

"What are they going to say? It’s just a male wolf trying to claim his mate," he said, already trying to put that hand back.

"I’m engaged and about to be married ... fuck mate, and fuck you." My voice rose sharp and clear.

But even as I said it, I couldn’t move his hand a second time. Something in me had already started slipping. I was giving him permission without meaning to and hating myself for every second of it.

"The person you’re engaged to isn’t as hot as I am, is he?" Raven asked.

I couldn’t answer that. His hand was already across my panties and all I could do was gasp.

"You want to get me like those old times, huh?" I breathed out, and the sound that came with it was embarrassingly close to a moan.

His hand moved to pull the fabric aside.

I can’t do this. Not in this office. I’m done if anyone finds out.

Like he’d read my mind, he said, "Don’t be afraid ... the doors are locked, love." He pressed his other hand to my lips and kissed his own fingers against them, slow and deliberate, like he was savoring something.

I had nothing left. My walls were gone ... not cracked, not leaning ... completely destroyed. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen and I had stopped pretending I had any power left to stop it.

I kissed him back.

The heat between us was immediate. We started going at it right there ... fast, hungry, no buildup needed. I hiked my skirt up myself and he didn’t waste a second. He put his mouth on my pussy and started sucking like he had a personal vendetta against my sanity.

How was he handling that heat? I genuinely wondered.

I wasn’t the type to get to orgasm fast. Every pull at my clit only sharpened my appetite and I was already far gone by the time he came up for air.

All of this was happening on my office desk.

"I’m going to fuck you right ... you’re mine," he said.

My eyes had long since rolled to the back of my head.

He pulled out and I could tell he’d reached his peak too. I still hadn’t taken off a single piece of clothing properly. We went at it a few rounds before he found the exact angle ... the one that put him in direct contact ... and started thrusting. He used the same hand he’d fingered me with to cover my mouth, stopping the moan before it could get loud enough to travel through walls.

Look at me. Not a single consequence was running through my head. All I wanted was more.

"Harder, Raven ... faster!" I forced out through his hand.

He delivered. Every single bit of it.

That desk held up like it was built for exactly this kind of sin. Solid, stable, unbothered.

We were sweating under the air conditioning ... that’s how I knew it had gotten serious. I leaned forward and kissed him while he was still moving and his mouth gave me something extra, something that exceeded everything I’d expected from him.

Then ... a knock.

"Ms. Astrid?"

My heartbeat spiked so hard it nearly knocked me sideways.

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. My assistant was probably looking for documents. I held completely still.

Raven caught my eye and gave me a look ... shut up and think. Tell her to leave.

"Come back in ten minutes ... the papers will be ready," I called out, voice steadier than I had any right to sound.

She said okay and walked away.

Raven smiled and picked right back up where he left off.

I climbed down from the desk, bent over, and offered him exactly what he wanted ... hands braced, ass out, no argument left in me. He entered and the only signal my body gave me was that sharp, splitting pain at first contact.

His dick opened me up wide. But I loved it. Every second of it. I didn’t want it to stop.

"Oh Raven ... harder, you bastard! You got what you wanted, didn’t you?"

He hit harder. Fucked my ass with more intensity, like my words had lit something in him.

We hit a third gear ... same pace, relentless, like two people running the same race in perfect rhythm. He thrust and I moaned and bounced back against him every time his strength dipped ... until I squirted and he came at the exact same moment.

We separated, both of us breathing heavy and loud in that locked, quiet office.

I fixed myself immediately. Panties back in place, skirt smoothed down, like I could undo the last twenty minutes with the right positioning.

Raven buttoned up and closed his pants.

"So this is goodbye, isn’t it?" I asked.

"It is, Astrid. The only difference is that this time, it’s me saying it," he replied.

Every other time we’d ended up like this, I was the one who disappeared. No goodbye, no explanation ... just gone. At least he was decent enough to let me know he was leaving.

"Maybe we were never meant to be mates," I said. "But as sex partners ... I’d believe that."

"Is that what you say to everyone you’ve slept with?" he asked.

I laughed. "No. Just you. Bye ... or however you say it."

He’d already finished dressing. He picked up his bag, slipped out through the door with the kind of careful precision that meant he didn’t want a single soul to see him leave.

I sat back down at my desk.

Two minutes later my assistant reappeared. "Mr. Liam would like you to come to his office for some instructions and updates, ma’am," she said, gathering the day’s papers to log and close them out.

"I’ll be there shortly," I told her as I started pulling myself together.

Ethan had probably already gone home. He’d mentioned needing to sort out a few things before the wedding.

And sitting there, in the quiet of that office that still smelled like what I’d just done ... I finally stopped lying to myself.

I was a whore. A selfish bitch who only thought about herself. I’d known it for a while and kept fighting it but the fight was over now.

The same day I got proposed to ... the same day a man got down on one knee and put a diamond on my finger ... I let someone else fuck me in my office. It had become an addiction and I didn’t know how to reach back inside myself and find the brakes. Anything from my past with a body and history attached to it lit me up like a match.

I stood, straightened my clothes one final time, and walked out to go see Liam.

But I was carrying something with me now. A scar I was going to drag straight into that marriage whether I wanted to or not.