Pushy Bastard

EMERALD

Tate and I stayed up all night talking about this confusing, backward, and very messy relationship we were starting.

We agreed that, for the sake of our sanity, we wouldn’t put much of a timeline on what needed to happen for the inheritance so long as we were married before the deadline was up.

If we wanted this to be real, and we had established that we were both willing to give it a shot, then we had to just let it happen as naturally as it could in the upcoming months.

I was still moving in since I had already packed and informed my landlord, but Tate had agreed with me when I asked for a spare bedroom for the time being.

Of course, his housekeeper, Lucy, wasn’t going to say a thing since she had signed an NDA when she was hired.

Not that Tate was overly concerned about her, so we didn’t need to worry about keeping up appearances here, at least.

Another topic of deep discussion was money. I would be added to his banking accounts and such after we were married and there wasn’t anything I could say about that.

He had put up a really good argument about wanting to pay for my mother’s care that made me actually consider letting him, as much as it made me uncomfortable.

It wasn’t entirely my choice, though, since Lance was still part of my family, even if we weren’t on the best of terms at the moment, so Tate decided to let me think about it and then talk to my brother about it later.

“So, I know you’re not going to like this next topic very well, but I’m going to try not to sound like a dick.

“I make no promises, but I really am not aiming for it,” he warned me as his driver, Dale, stopped behind my car, which was still parked at the curb outside my apartment building.

“You aren’t buying me a car, Tate,” I said firmly.

“No, I have plenty for you to choose from and drivers, like Dale, to take you wherever you want to go whenever you want.”

He shook his head as we got out, and I popped open the trunk of my car. “Is this really all you have?”

“It’s all I need, moving in with you. I mean, my shitty furniture in your fancy penthouse? Get real.” I rolled my eyes as I grabbed a box.

“Six small boxes?” He shook his head.

“You were saying something that could come across as you being a dick, not criticizing my meager belongings.” I huffed when Dale took the box from me, and Tate grabbed the one I was going to grab next.

“You need a new wardrobe,” he said, and I lifted an eyebrow at him. “How much of what you already have is work clothes?”

“Most of it.” I shrugged.

“You aren’t an assistant anymore. You’re going to be with me at a lot of functions that require something other than jeans and T-shirts,” he said.

“You know, you really do sound like a dick, but I get it.” I snorted as I carried another box to Tate’s car. “I’m not sure how quickly I can fix that, but I’ll get on it as soon as I can.”

“And here’s the part you aren’t going to like.” He grimaced.

“You aren’t buying me clothes.” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Why do you have to be so damn difficult to spoil?” He groaned.

“It’s not my nature.” I shrugged and closed the trunk of my car, taking the apartment key off the ring. “I need to hand these over to the manager and sign off on the lease.”

“I’ve noticed it’s not in you to be spoiled, but I really want to do my best in that regard,” he said, following me inside and toward the building manager’s office.

“We can compromise. A few things to start with, since there aren’t any functions for a while, but we are going on dates soon. Right?”

“You haven’t asked me, so I don’t know, Tate. Are we going on dates soon?” I smirked up at him.

“Fuck, I’ll take you out tonight if you’ll let me.” He nodded eagerly as I opened the door to the building office.

“You think there will be enough time for me to get settled before this evening? I have so much to put away.”

I turned to Mr. Woodrow, the slightly older man who ran the building. “I’m here to sign off my lease.”

“I’m sorry to see you go, Ms. Wells.” He looked at me like the lecher he was. God, he gave me the creeps.

“Can we skip the drawn-out farewells? I’m taking my incredible woman out tonight, and the sooner we’re done here, the sooner I can start attempting to spoil her.”

Tate shot a look at the old man when he hesitated, putting his arms around me from behind.

“You mean the sooner I can begin deflecting your attempts to spoil me, right?” I smirked over my shoulder. “Don’t think I’m going to make it easy for you, Mr. King. I happen to excel at making things hard.”

“Trust me, Emerald, I am painfully aware of how hard things get around you.” He groaned into my ear, kissing behind my jaw as I burned bright red.

That was absolutely ~not~ what I had meant and he damn well knew it.

“Are there any bulky items left inside?” Mr. Woodrow asked, pulling out some paperwork.

“All the furniture.” I nodded. “I’m aware this voids my security deposit, so we won’t need the repayment forms.”

As I signed the paperwork, I felt Mr. Woodrow staring at me with that super creepy vibe he always had, and Tate grumbled as I handed the paperwork over.

I turned around and jumped into his arms, smiling at the look of surprise on his face when he caught me.

“Take me home, bossman.” I grinned. “Is it too early to talk about the disturbingly clinical look your place has or should I wait a few weeks?”

“Baby, as long as you’re there at the end of the day, you can do whatever you want.” He chuckled. “It’s ~our~ place now, Shrimp.”

He put me back on my feet and took my hand as we left the office. As soon as we were in the car, I glared at him.

“Shrimp? Really, Tate?”

“It fits you.” He grinned, not a trace of remorse to be found on his stupidly handsome face.

“I am not short, freaking tree person,” I muttered and crossed my arms.

“Are you pouting?” he teased me.

“No.” I stuck my tongue out at him.

“So cute,” he crooned and pulled me across the back seat so I was sitting across his knees.

“Jerk.” I smirked to myself when he tucked me against him, rubbing his fingers up and down my arm.

“I’ll have Yuri take the boxes up for us so we can go get you some new clothes and then some lunch,” he said, breaking the comfortable silence as we got closer to the building.

“It’s literally six boxes. It doesn’t take long to put them in one of the rooms.” I rolled my eyes.

“And it takes even less to have Yuri put them in the entry for us to deal with later,” he replied, grabbing my chin and making me look up at him, giving me a teasingly serious face.

“Let me spoil my woman, you stubborn female.”

“Wow. That sounded very barbaric.” I tilted my head a little. “And shockingly sexual. Such a shameless flirt.”

“I wasn’t flirting, but it’s good to know you like it when I get ‘barbaric.’” He laughed, making me flush a little.

“I’ll assist Yuri with the boxes,” Dale said. I hadn’t even noticed we had stopped already. He gave us a knowing look in the mirror before he got out, and I groaned and ducked my head while Tate chuckled.

“I think we made him uncomfortable,” I muttered.

“He’s seen worse.” Tate shrugged, and I went still. “Shit. That’s not—”

“I know.” I smiled at him and slid back to my own seat. “I’m not foolish enough to think you’re entirely innocent, Tate.”

“If it makes any difference, it’s been months.” He made a face. “Well, weeks for oral.”

“I really don’t need to know this, Tate.” I shuddered.

“I know I don’t have a great reputation when it comes to women. I just want you to know that you can trust me.” He sighed.

“I know I can.” I gave him another small smile.

“You might be a ruthless businessman, but you are never dishonest. If you have that kind of morality in such a cutthroat industry, it’s safe to assume it applies to other aspects of your life.”

“Don’t make it sound like I have some kind of knightly code of honor or something, Emerald. I’m not that kind of guy.” He frowned.

“Oh, I know you aren’t, which, honestly, is kind of a relief. Knights are so stuffy and boring.

“I mean, the whole chivalry thing isn’t entirely dead, but they always seemed so uptight and full of ‘greater than thou’ bullshit.

“But you aren’t a fiend, either, like a lot of the media coverage makes you out to be.”

“Trust me, Shrimp. The things that go through my head are ~very~ ‘fiendish.’” He chuckled darkly, making me squeak softly when I inhaled, which only made him chuckle more.

“Stop that.” I swatted at him, my cheeks flaming and my lady bits weeping for some attention.

“Stop what?” he asked, the innocent look on his face getting shot to hell by the very not-innocent look in his eyes.

“I know what you’re doing, Tate.” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“It’s working.” He dropped the fake innocence and went right into sinful as he reached for me.

“Only if I let it, which I am not.” I swatted at him again, but he managed to grab my wrists anyhow, and I was once again sitting across his legs.

“You underestimate my powers of persuasion, Emerald.”

He rubbed his nose behind my ear. The shiver created from the soft touch mixing with the liquid sex pouring from his words was impossible to stop as my skin tingled with goosebumps.

“You can deny that feeling? The one that burns and soothes in the same breath? Can’t you feel its pull all over you?”

I groaned and put my hand over his mouth, laughter dancing in his lust-darkened eyes.

“Tate. Don’t,” I squeezed out of my tightened throat. “That line isn’t ready to be crossed, and if you keep pushing, we’ll both end up cranky as shit.

“We are both too stubborn, and it’s far too early for us to be trying to handle that right now.”

I felt his lazy, lusty smile under my hand as he pulled on my wrist, not looking away from my face.

“I’m a very pushy bastard, baby,” he said just as I felt his other hand settle between my shoulder blades.

That was the only warning I got before he kissed me. And hot damn! He knew what he was doing.

When I was a foolish and naive teenager, I, like every other girl at that age, used to daydream about this sweet and gentle, tender type of kiss that had a slow-burn kind of feel to it.

Part of me still held on to that kind of romantic bullshit, even in my midtwenties. But no matter how hard I daydreamed about this moment with Tate, that soft tenderness was never there.

It didn’t suit his personality very well, and it seemed so ~wrong~ to even imagine it happening. There was no amount of fantasizing that could ever have done the real deal any kind of justice, though.

This wasn’t a storybook first kiss. I didn’t want that anyhow, and Tate, I was beginning to suspect, was incapable of it.

No, no, no. This was more possessive. This was raw and rough and fucking demanding as shit.

It was undeniably a dark and wicked promise of all the things yet to come. I felt thoroughly and irrevocably claimed.

It tickled a part of me long locked up in a dark and forgotten cage, and I’ll be damned if the beast inside didn’t wake up with a roar and an appetite from hell with a craving for one thing.

And its sights were set on Tate King.

“Damn you, Tate,” I snapped, pulling back for air before we clashed again.

I was being ravished by just his lips alone, so when I felt the sweeping push of his tongue against my lips, my melted brain instantly granted him complete access.

He groaned, I moaned, and I was suddenly grinding on his lap, my legs straddling him. How I went from sitting across his legs to us practically humping each other is a mystery, but not one that needed solving.

Who fucking cared about the how when the friction between my legs was sending me in a pussy-first rush toward my first orgasm in over a year that wasn’t self-induced.

“That’s it, baby.” Tate groaned as I clutched onto him, my body taking control of itself as it desperately sought what it wanted. “Take what you need.”

“Tate,” I said, pleading for something I didn’t even know how to begin naming.

Thankfully, he seemed to understand as he readjusted us just a fraction. His hands gripped my hips, matching my rhythm, but adding more pressure and driving his hard bulge up at the perfect time.

The world went dark and fireworks danced with bright spots of white light as an orgasm unlike any I’ve ever felt before ripped the fabric of the universe and took me into another dimension.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!” Tate groaned, moving my hips on his own now that I was higher than oblivion.

I felt him shudder as the bulge under me twitched. This primal satisfaction exploded in my chest and rocketed a second orgasm through me while I was still in the wild throes of the first.

The two clashed in a ferocious tangle of pleasure that dug its claws in and refused to leave as I slowly came back to reality.

A whimper crept out of my mouth as my body finally went limp against Tate and his arms went around me protectively, both of us breathing hard and speechless.

As my mind flickered back to life, I sighed and snuggled my face into the crook of his neck, absorbing the afterglow as much as I could.

“Please tell me Dale wasn’t forced to see that,” I whispered.

“Baby, we’ve been parked for most of this.” Tate chuckled. “He’s probably getting some coffee or something down the street.”

“Thank god for that.” I sighed again, this time in relief.

“No one gets to see that look on your face but me anymore,” he growled, his arms tightening around me. “Damn. I feel like a horny teenager, coming in my pants like that.”

“Did you really?” I sat up and looked at him.

“You’re welcome to find out.” He winked at me.

“I’ll take your word for it.” I shook my head with a smile. “Looks like I’m not the only one needing clothes, huh?”

“I would sooner get that taken care of before it gets uncomfortable before we do your shopping, if you don’t mind.” He made a face, and I giggled.

“Good thing I know your sizes already, huh?”

“Not all of them.” He gave me a wicked smile.

“Down, boy.” I glared at him. “God, you’re lucky that was the best orgasm of my life.”

“I’m very fucking lucky, Emerald, and it has very little to do with the best sex I’ve ever not had,” he said seriously and pulled me down for another bruising kiss before letting me sit back again.

“How about we get you cleaned up so we can get something to eat? For some reason, I now have a pretty big appetite.” I smirked at him.

“I feel responsible for that. I should definitely see to satisfying it at the earliest possible moment.” He grinned, lifting his hips slightly and rubbing his still impressively firm bulge against me.

“Stop that,” I hissed as pleasure zinged through me again.

“Never.” He chuckled and helped me get off his lap. “Let’s go, Shrimp. Just—stand in front of me until I can get some clothes, yeah?”