Shattered Restraint

RONAN

The phantom sting of Katarina Voss’s hand striking my face lingered on my skin. I should have been furious. I should have wanted to fire her on the spot for having the sheer guts to slap her boss. Instead, the sharp impact left me so turned on that I felt like a damn pervert. The burning heat on my cheek sent a rush of heavy blood straight to my groin. A grueling two-hour workout at the personal gym in my penthouse did nothing to drain the tension from my muscles. Pushing heavy iron plates only made me picture the resistance of her body against mine. Standing under a freezing shower for twenty solid minutes failed to quench my raging arousal. The ice-cold water hit my skin like needles, numbing my shoulders and chest, yet my dick remained rock hard. I was aching for the stubborn woman who had just walked out on me.

Stepping out of the shower, I gripped the edges of the marble sink and stared at my reflection in the fogged mirror. I refused to touch myself. Giving in to the base urge while thinking about her meant she had won this unspoken war. I would not give that infuriating woman the satisfaction of owning my release. I chose to suffer through the night instead. I spent hours wide awake, tossing and turning on my massive bed, dealing with an agonizing, tight frustration that refused to fade. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the exact shade of her dark eyes glaring up at me, defiant and furious.

It took just one second of seeing her ass framed by that riding skirt for me to lose my iron-clad control. I had managed to keep my hands off her for a full year. Yesterday broke me. The whole day had been a relentless test of endurance. First, her skirt caught on her panties in the hallway, giving me a prime, unobstructed view of her perfect ass. Then came the afternoon meeting. I could barely process a single word of the complex financial reports because she kept biting her lower lip. She did it without thinking, a natural, nervous habit that drove me out of my mind. Her teeth sinking into the plush bottom lip pulled my attention away from million-dollar figures. I sat there in the leather chair, staring at her mouth, wondering what those soft lips would feel like wrapped tight around me.

The final straw was the news about Nolan. Finding out she actually accepted my brother's invitation pushed me over the edge. She had to be out of her mind to think I would sit back and let that happen. If Katarina Voss was off-limits for me, she would not belong to my brother. After resisting the heavy temptation she presented for twelve months, I refused to let it all go to waste for Nolan’s amusement.

I needed to keep things under control. That did not involve rubbing my dick against her ass or putting my hands under her skirt. The memory of the feeling of her soft skin in my hands burned into my brain. It was a stupid move that jeopardized the business. Katarina was brilliant and efficient, but she was a beautiful woman who possessed the power to shatter any man’s focus. Right now, she hated me. She probably thought the physical assault was a calculated scheme to scare her away from my brother.

It was a desperate improvisation. In a second, my hands were all over her, and all I could think about was bending her over the table and thrusting hard into her. My reasoning vanished. Only when the harsh reality of corporate consequences crashed over me did I manage to stop, tearing myself away when every instinct screamed to take her right there.

I was not doing this out of jealousy. I was not being a protective asshole for my own ego. The stakes were massive. I cared about her future. Nolan treated women like disposable playthings. Katarina was smart and determined, yet she seemed willing to throw her career in the trash for a meaningless fling. I would not let her become just another name on my brother’s endless list of conquests.

I walked into the executive suite the next morning. She sat at her desk. Seeing her there, composed and unbothered, stoked my lingering anger and reignited my deep, burning desire. She wore a crisp navy blue shirt. The tailored fabric hugged her torso, accentuating the heavy curve of her breasts. I caught myself wondering what color her nipples were beneath the expensive material. She had tied her hair up, a style I hated. I wanted to pull the tie loose and watch those dark, wavy locks cascade down her bare back. I needed tighter underwear if I wanted to keep my dick under control around her.

I stopped directly in front of her desk and looked down at her.

"I have to admit, I am surprised to find you here. I thought you would be somewhere filing a lawsuit against me for harassment."

She raised her face, forcing a tight smile when our eyes met. She wore dark red lipstick today.

"You know... I can still do that. So do not push your luck."

I scoffed at the warning.

"I hope that served to get your head back on straight, Voss."

Her eyes sparked with pure fury.

"Do you really want to talk about what happened?"

I leaned a fraction closer.

"Do you really think it is worth throwing your career in the trash because of Nolan?"

"That is none of your business. If you do not have anything work-related to say, do me a favor and disappear from my sight." She snapped the words at me.

I let out a low chuckle, unable to resist poking the bear.

"What is the reason for all this anger? I thought we were even. Besides, I did not know you were in favor of using physical violence. I guess we discovered a new side of you, did we not? What would my father think of that? What would he say if he found out his darling Saint Voss is not as calm and balanced as she pretends to be?"

She stood up fast, placing both hands flat on her desk to lean fiercely toward me.

"What do you think he would think if he found out his perfect son put his damn hands under my skirt and rubbed against me?"

I smirked, closing the remaining gap between our faces.

"Why are you so angry? We both know you wanted me to keep going."

A wicked, condescending smile replaced the flash of shock on her face.

"Do you really think you can impress anyone with that little thing you have got there?"

I laughed out loud, amused by her blatant attempt to bruise my ego. I remembered exactly how her body had reacted to my touch.

"Keep pretending, Voss. Maybe you will convince yourself at some point."

I turned my back and started walking toward my office doors, pausing at the threshold to look over my shoulder.

"Bring me a coffee."

I walked into my office and shut the heavy door before she could throw a stapler at my head. We had a long day ahead. And even though it had just started, my dick was already awake.

A few minutes later, she strolled into my office without bothering to knock. She carried a silver tray with my coffee. Her long legs moved with calculated grace beneath a sleek gray skirt. She marched right up to my desk, gripping the tray tight. She stood there, staring down at me as if plotting a bloody murder.

I flipped a page on the new account contract, keeping my expression neutral.

"If you are considering throwing hot coffee on my pants, know that it will not end well for you."

A dangerous glint lit up her eyes.

"I would like to hear the consequences before making my decision."

The defiant challenge sent a fresh surge of heat straight to my groin. The consequences would be to make her clean every drop of coffee with her tongue, then bend her over my desk and fuck her brutally while leaving the marks of my fingers in her ass. Maybe then she would finally understand who was in charge here.

I forced my attention back to the black ink on my paperwork.

"I am trying to work, Voss. I will call you if I need you."

She let out a sharp huff of breath and leaned over to drop the tray onto my desk with a loud clatter.

"You are welcome."

I sighed in frustration as she turned around and walked toward the door. Her hips swayed naturally with every step. The severe heels she wore made her legs look incredible. Resisting her was becoming an impossible task.

I spent the rest of the day buried under a mountain of corporate paperwork. I read through financial forecasts, signed non-disclosure agreements, and reviewed marketing proposals. None of it held my true attention. The afternoon sun began to dip lower in the sky, casting long, harsh shadows across my office floor. I checked my gold wristwatch. It was late. The building had grown quiet. I reached for my desk phone and pressed the intercom button.

"Miss Voss. Come in here. We need to go over next week's schedule."

I released the button and leaned back in my leather chair. I wondered if she had come to her senses during the day. I hoped she had decided to change her mind about going out with my brother, because I had not planned anything to make her reconsider.

The door clicked open. She walked into my office carrying her leather-bound notepad and her iPad. She settled into one of the plush chairs directly across from me. She shifted her weight and crossed her long, toned legs before we began reviewing each item on the agenda.

We opened our planners. We waded through the mundane schedule for the upcoming week.

"Monday morning is the executive board review at nine. Followed by a lunch meeting with the legal team at one." She read from her screen in a cool, detached monotone.

"Push the legal lunch to Tuesday. I need the afternoon clear to review the European acquisition files." I replied without looking up.

"Noted." She tapped her fingers across the glass of her tablet.

We continued this dry, mechanical dance for twenty minutes. There was nothing too important on the horizon to distract me from the heavy tension radiating between us. Then she reached Wednesday.

"On Wednesday, we have the summit with the NX Group in Boston." She announced, pausing her fingers on the screen.

"It is a two-day conference. We will need to stay overnight." She added, finally raising her head to meet my gaze.

The words dropped like a bomb in the middle of my office. Our eyes met, and we fell into a heavy, suffocating silence. The ambient hum of the air conditioning seemed to vanish. The ticking of the wall clock faded away. There was only the intense, magnetic pull holding my gaze to hers.

A long trip to Boston. An overnight stay in a different city. Just the two of us locked in a different environment, away from the familiar walls of the corporate office. She must have been thinking the exact same thing while looking at me with that indecipherable expression.

Going on this trip meant breaking my strict, self-imposed rule. For the past year, I had maintained a safe, heavily guarded physical and emotional distance from Katarina Voss. I avoided traveling with her whenever possible. No contact, except what was strictly necessary for work. I told myself it was because she was irritating and lived to confront me, but the truth was it was the safest option for both of us.

Whenever she was sitting right in front of me, like she was now, it became painfully clear why I needed that distance to keep my sanity intact. But as I stared at her beautiful face, doing the exact opposite was the only thing on my mind. I stared at the curve of her throat and the rise and fall of her chest beneath the navy blue shirt. I wanted to close the gap. I wanted to rip that tablet out of her hands, pull her across the desk, and finish what I started yesterday. I had endured this agonizing torture for far too long.