Page 16 of Unmoored: How to Fail at Hating the Boss

The sun is almost below the horizon, and the sky is crazy beautiful as we ascend the winding road to my house.

We come to a four-way stop, and on impulse, I lean over and press my lips against Reef’s throat, made damp and sticky in the humidity. Reef exhales a low groan and reaches over to cup my cheek, not letting me pull away. He steals my breath in a claiming, heated kiss, capturing my bottom lip and letting his tongue slide over it. The sensation ripples through me, making my skin itch to be rid of these work clothes that cling to me.

High beams flash, and someone honks their horn behind us.

We pull apart, the moment over.

With a grunt of frustration, Reef speeds the car across the intersection.

The road curves into the mountains, dark trees crowding the shoulder. After five more minutes of silence, Reef, shifting restlessly, squeezes my hand again.

Without warning, he pulls over into an abandoned overlook parking lot.

“What are you doing?” I ask, but it’s mostly performative. I have an idea.

Reef parks the car in a shaded corner and cuts the engine.

“This isn’t my grandma’s.”

“Nope,” he says, popping my seat belt.

We reach for each other across the console. Thick fingers tangle in my hair as our lips join in a fevered kiss.

In the midst of the kiss, Reef’s tongue licks over my bottom lip.

My lips part, welcoming that tongue into my mouth. I let out a small moan at how delicious it is. The licking tongue. The lingering taste of summer berries. The earthy scent of him. The way he crowds me but doesn’t overpower me, like he knows how scary he can be.

But Reef is not scary. Not to me. He is enticing and exciting and everything I need right now.

When he pulls away from the kiss, the look in his dark eyes is ferocious. I shiver.

I was determined to dislike my boss, but how can I hate someone whose touch I can feel everywhere, when they’ve barely touched me yet? My body hums with anticipation at the thought of him having his way with me.

“Quincy,” he growls, leaning in, dragging his lips down the side of my throat. I gasp in response. “I need you.”

Those three words, my god. If we weren’t encumbered by the size of this car, I’d be climbing on top of him and shredding his too-snug shirt with my teeth.

The fact that Reef is my boss makes me all the more eager to react to those words. The wrongness of it makes this even better.

As he breathes heavily against my neck, I reach down and unbutton his shorts. I unzip him and reach in, cupping all of him. The heat of his erect cock, his balls, even, radiates through the fabric.

Reef hisses a curse and pulls back, leaning against the headrest. “Quincy.” His voice is a ragged warning.

The meat of my palm presses down, stroking up the underside of his penis.

“Shit…” he says, his body twitching, pressing back against my hand, then rumbles something unintelligible.

The way he breathes, his chest heaving, I can sense he’s holding back.

“Relax and let me…”

This wakes him out of a daze. To my complete surprise, he pushes my hand away and is once again towering over me. “No,” he says. “You first.”

“Oh…oh…” I murmur as I finally understand. Reef’s tongue licks into my mouth, and his hands are deliciously everywhere.

At least one of them has flipped a lever on the side of the passenger seat with a loud thunk, and the seat reclines back.

I feel him pressing me down. I notice the feel of his lips on the skin at the base of my throat, his body blotting out the fluorescent security light, the bristles on his chin raking across my skin, his hands working my shorts open.