I feel my whole body stiffen. Every muscle inside of me turns to stone. My heart races, beating so fast I’m certain the whole room will be able to hear it. I try to swallow but my throat is dry. Unlike my palms which are suddenly coated in a layer of sweat.
It’s been four years since I heard that voice, but I would still know it anywhere. I could pick out a whisper from that voice in a sea of yelling. It’s her. Kimberley.
Suddenly, it all drops into place. The way Matt wound me up about seeing Kimberley. The way Chance lectured me about not letting the hurt in if I should come across her. The way everyone has been extra cagey about revealing any names when it comes to the Benton merger. I didn’t press for them. One CFO is the same as the next one to me. I work in numbers, not names. But this CFO is anything but the same as the rest of them. She’s supposed to be my past, yet here she is, very firmly planted in my present and my future.
I can hear her voice still as she greets Chance and Matt and the others. Two other voices join in with the introductions, not that Kimberley needs any introduction. She’s brought with her the CEO and the VP. So at least my brain is still functioning. It’s only my body that seems to have failed me completely. I just can’t bring myself to look up from the brief I’m staring at but no longer reading.
“Oh don’t worry. He always was thorough,” Kimberley says, and I know she’s talking about me.
She’s excusing my rudeness, no doubt to Matt. I can’t just sit here like this. The whole room has gone silent and I can feel every eye on me.
Just breathe. Just act like a normal fucking person.
I look up and all eyes are indeed on me. I force myself to smile. I clear my throat.
“Sorry, I was engrossed there,” I say with a fake cheeriness. “Sebastian Hunter. The numbers guy.”
The two men with Kimberley introduce themselves. Joe Benton, CEO, and Gary Parker, VP. I nod at them and then I do what I knew I would have to do. I turn to Kimberley. My eyes meet hers. I am once more frozen. The casual greeting I had planned freezes on my lips. Her eyes are exactly as I remember them. Bright green with tiny flecks of gold that seem to dance in the sunlight. The quick glance I had of her before I met her eye told me Matt is right. She has grown up. She has changed a lot. But her eyes have never changed even a little bit.
I know that our gaze is affecting Kimberley almost as much as it’s affecting me. I can tell by the way her pupils dilate as she looks at me, the way I hear her let out a small gasp that sounded so loud in the silence of the room.
Someone clears their throat and the moment between Kimberley and I is broken. She looks away and lets out a long breath. A breath she was holding because she too froze when our eyes met.
“How are you Sebastian?” she smiles, gaining her composure a lot quicker than I do.
I still can’t speak, and I just nod to her. It’s enough to break the spell in the room and the three newcomers take their seats. An awkward silence still hangs over us, and I still feel as though everyone is looking at me. It’s as though my whole fucking life has been projected out for the entire room to see.
I finally find my voice and I turn to Chance.
“Want to get this started?” I say.
He nods and begins to talk and the atmosphere in the room melts away. I try to focus on Chance’s words, but it’s almost impossible for me to look anywhere but at Kimberley. It doesn’t matter. I know Chance’s spiel almost as well as he does.
I shift uncomfortably in my seat as my cock begins to respond to the vision of beauty sitting across from me. Her breasts have indeed filled out, as have her hips. She’s all woman now, there’s no denying that. That innocent look she always had is gone, replaced with a quiet inner confidence that radiates out of her, showing her to be a force to be reckoned with.
That’s my Kimberley. A force of nature. A force of nature that might just be about to break me once again.
Chapter Four
Sebastian
This damned meeting drags more than any meeting I’ve ever been in. Hell it drags more than my classes at school used to when all I wanted was for the school day to be over so I could spend time with … well, her.
Kimberley and the others ask questions; way too many for my liking. No, actually that’s not fair. They clearly know their stuff. They ask all of the right questions. All of the questions I would have asked had I been on their side of the table. But it feels like a slew of pointless questions because I have a list of questions of my own. Questions that I can’t ask in a meeting. Questions I’ll probably never get to ask and never get the answers to.
I want to ask Kimberley a thousand questions. Why she is back. Why now? Why did she choose our firm for the merger when there are hundreds of other firms out there she could have done business with? I mean I get it. We’re the best. But she must have known she’d have to face me. Which leads to me more questions; the ones that will really hurt. Does she not care at all about seeing me again? Am I really just a short chapter in her life’s book? Why did she …? No I won’t go there. I’m not even going to ask that question in my head.
