The games we play

7

Carly feels pleased with how it all worked out. Without much effort Mario got the help he needed. She does feel bad about her little performance, out right lying about why she thought they met. She needed to drive it home, and the words flew out of her mouth before she could stop them. Dexter's anger was apparent the whole time and she had seen him bite back several outbursts. She could see Mario and Michael's fear of him, his anger and dominance practically seeping out of his pores. Like a true alpha male. She felt it, too and if she was being honest she wanted to hide away from his intensity, it made her nervous, but at the same time there was something else she couldn't quite put her finger on, some strange pull that she felt, she was distracted by how handsome he was, she'd convinced herself that maybe that was what it was. His eyes held a certain darkness but they pulled her in more than they made her cower away. Although she's done similar things and dealt with men like him in the past she feels afraid, something in the way he looks at her makes her feel like his prey, and it was unnerving to be on someone's radar who could casually discuss the cover up of crimes with his landscaper without a trace of remorse or shame. Standing in her office door she was painfully aware of the fact that Dexter had not moved, not even an inch. He sat there in his light blue dress shirt and dark blue suit pants looking as handsome as ever, his big frame almost to big for the chair. Broad shoulders leaning back, from behind it almost looked like he was relaxed, she knew otherwise. Mario left and she had quickly given Michael short instructions to start up the neccessary paperwork, she knew that she had to face the music, face him, face the anger she knows he must be holding in. She took a breath and turned to go back into her office, leaving the door wide open on purpose, to make sure there wouldn't be any monkey business. Two steps in and he holds up a hand but sits perfectly still as he says, "Close the door, Carly. There's something private I need to discuss with you." She stays frozen in her spot for a moment, closing the door would mean a great many things, none of which she wanted and none of which should happen. Ignoring him she moves quickly making her way back to her desk, passing him she says,"You need start making appointments if you're going to come and see me everyday, I do have work to do, and just so we are clear, I don't take orders from you." In a flash he grabs her around the waist and pulls her onto his lap one hand circling her waist the other holding her knees. She let's out a shriek and her heart starts racing, she's slightly out of breath as she tries to wiggle out of his grip. "You have a very loose mouth on you my little butterfly," he places a small kiss behind her ear while rubbing circles on her knee, "We'll have to fix that... some how." His whisper crawls down her neck and makes her shiver, from fear or excitement, she'll never know. Her body is betraying her once again as she suddenly leans into his chest instead of trying to get away, red lights are going off somewhere in the back of her head telling her that this man is the definition of dangerous, but the warm feeling between her legs wants her to stay put. So that's what she does, she sits frozen in his lap waiting to see what he does next.

Goosebumps cover her skin as he places one more kiss on her neck and his hand moves up her leg pushing up her skirt slightly. Dexter's mouth is on hers and again she kisses him back, their tongues dancing together fast and fiercely, almost, too wildly. His hand travels up higher when he stops on her inner thigh hovering over her now wet panties. His fingers threathing to touch the place she both wants and absolutely doesn't want him to touch, caress, pleasure. Breaking their kiss he keeps his face close to hers and whispers on her lips, "I know it was all a little game and I'm not going to let you get away with it." Her blood runs cold and she tries to swallow the lump in her throat, still not able to move or even make a sound under his touch.

Dexter finally meets her gaze his eyes burning into hers and says very softly, almost intently, "What do you have to say for yourself my little butterfly?" His hand still inches away from her s*x and his other hand placed securely under her breast holding her tight. She can feel his erection rising against her lower back and her breath hitches, making Dexter laugh softly onto her mouth. "Now that hasn't happened after just a kiss in a very long time." His eyes are wild and filled with want. Carly tries as hard as she can not to want this, to listen to every red light going off in the back of her head. Squeezing her eyes shut she recalls all the things this man is, all the things Michael had said to her yesterday ... Liar, cheater, thief, murderer.... maybe . Opening her eyes with more strength this time she says softly but with just enough confidence and just a pinch of distaste, "Dexter Moore, you let me go right now, take your hands off me. I'm not one of your play things!" He doesn't move a muscle but gives her a look, and she swears it's a challenge, as if he wants to say make me.

After a moment of silence he brings his mouth to hers once more and kisses her gently, almost passionately, this time she doesn't kiss him back but breaks the kiss and turns her face away from him all the while trying to squirm free of his grip. He let's out an irritated sigh and slowly realeses her. Swinging her legs to the side and standing up she pulls down her skirt and smooths down her shirt. Taking a moment to compose herself. When she's behind her desk again and there is enough distance between them she knows she has to say something. He'll never trust Hugo again if he knew that all of this was a plan to trick him. To get him in her office and see Mario," coincidentally". She had gone to their boys night to lure him out, knowing how he'd like a challenge, knowing that he'd come after her if she played him right. Her instincts were not wrong, like all the other rich and powerful men she knew he was an open book. All of them liked mind games, the challenge just to prove they could win, dominate and posses. They didn't like to play their games too long, though, always giving up when she expressed that she wasn't attracted to them, when she'd not given in to their advances, the insult too much for their overly zealous egos. The problem she had now was that Dexter knew that she was infact attracted to him, she had let him kiss her twice, kissed him back even. He saw it as a real challenge now, to get her to give in to him completely and she could kick herself.

"This is none of your business but I have a deal with Bernie, I get to do one pro bono case for every four other cases I do. I have a contact in Legal aid, downtown that keeps the bigger cases aside, you know the cases where they don't have the man power or financial means to actually help. So she sends them to me once a month. I have Michael sort through them and organise the meet ups. I had no idea Mario Sanchez was your employee and I had no idea that the case would be against you. I tried to keep you apart the second I realised you were here in the building and involved. " She takes a breath and sounds more sure of herself this time, "What are you doing here?" Dexter sat in his chair smiling like an alley cat that got cream. He knew he had her, she kissed him back again, didn't protest as his hand went up her skirt, as he held her tight and whispered in her ear. "You want me to believe all of this was just a huge coincidence?" He let's out a laugh that's laced with sarcasm and continues, "I think you can drop the act little butterfly, I'm not as clueless as you might think!" Carly has to brace herself, this has never happened to her before. Her plans were always very well thought out and planned to the T. Keeping her face as straight as she could manage and hoping to keep away all traces of fear she shakes her head, "The problem is I don't care what you believe. I can give you the information but what you choose to believe Mr. Moore, well that's just not my problem.." She was about to ask him to leave, or ask him again why he was there when her phone rang. "Carly Summers," Her voice sounded strange, rushed , too high and she hated that she keeps showing him some weird and weak version of herself.

"Carly, hey, It's Mac, lissssten I do love to keep looking at a very expensive and one of a kind Porsche in my garage buuuttt it's kinda starting to make me nervous. When, like when can you come get it? I mean you said two days tops,right?" Carly let go of a breath and instantly looked at Dexter, hoping that he couldn't hear the conversation. Mac is Carly's youngest and closest brother, the only one that would help her with something like this. Also the only one that has a garage but never parks his car in it and also the only one that would pick her up at 3 am with his wife and hide a Porsche, no questions asked. "Hello, Thank you for letting me know, I'll be sure to have my shipment picked up by a transportation service by tomorrow morning. Would that work for you?" Mac makes a noise at her very formal tone. "Ah, ok you're not alone, tomorrow is fine, I guess. Can I , I mean why do you have this? How did you get it? This thing should be somewhere in a museum Carl, like it all feels... illegal.." She had forgotten to have the car moved to her storage unit and felt guilty for putting her brother in the middle of all this business with a man as dangerous as Dexter, but one more day wouldn't hurt. Dexter hasn't mentioned the car once, it seemed to her the one and only thing he had wanted was to make her submit to him. Mac was going to have to be just be a little more understanding for a little while longer. "I do apologize for the inconvenience, sir, I can assure you that I'll have it sorted out as soon as I can, and as always I thank you for your patience and the particular care that you've taken of my shipment. My assistant will be in touch in the next hour or so." Mac made another noise in her ear that made her flinch slightly. "Yeah, yeah ok I'll wait for Michael to call, he'll dish with the details, always does!" Carly felt very annoyed with her brother, she couldn't possibly talk to him about this right this minute. "You do that sir! I really do have to go, I have a client with me." Without a goodbye Mac hangs up and Carly says goodbye into a beeping tone. She can feel Dexter's burning eyes on her while she calls out to Michael. Michael appears in the doorway with big questioning eyes, why is he still here he mouths behind Dexter's back. "Micky, I've forgotten to have a shipment picked up and the guy at the dock is getting impatient, could you call to have it picked up?" On a piece of paper she scribbles

Call transportation company.

Car is at Mac's .

he's being a baby

Move it to my storage unit.

come back in 10minutes to save me :(

Michael takes the note and gives her a knowing smile. When he walks out of the office he turns around and says, "Carly, don't forget your next meeting in roughly 10 minutes." She'll have to give him a raise! "Thank you, Mikey, Mr. Moore here was just on his way!" Dexter doesn't move his eyes from her, "Oh ten minutes, is plenty to do what I still need to get done." Michael gives Carly a wide eyed look and reluctantly disappears around the corner. Carly sighs. He won't go that easily, he feels played and he's lost his car. "And what is it that you think you need to get done, Mr. Moore?" Dexter twitches his neck like something she's said had hurt him. "Have dinner with me, and I'll forget all about this," he says while gesturing to the seat where Mario was sitting. "One night and I'll pretend you didn't manipulate a case." Carly scoffs, "I did not manipulate anything! Is that how you get women to go out with you? Blackmail?" His smile fades, he thought because of the way she had reacted to his touch that she must want him in some way, nothing could be further from the truth. She felt disgusted with herself, that she wanted him to touch her. She wanted to put serious distance between them. She might be sexually attracted to him but a man like that could never have and hold her heart. "Keep up the fight, I like a challenge, it will make it all the more worthwhile." He says with dark eyes. Carly visibly shivers and suddenly she feels cold although they're in the thick of summer."That's right my little butterfly, you should be very afraid, I am after all what they call a dangerous man, you've started a game you're going to have to finish." Once again she is rendered speechless, all she can do is stare back at him and try to hide her fear. "Fine, have it your way. Make me work for it, but I'll win you know that right?" Another shiver goes down her spine, she was sure he'd be put off by her dismissal of him. She shrugs trying to make it look like his words didn't have any effect on her. "I'm sure there are a hundred other women you could blackmail to have dinner with you, that would sell their soul to go to dinner with you, why not invest your time and energy into one of them? Besides, it would be a conflict of interest, considering the situation with Mr. Sanchez." Dexter doesn't say a word, he gets up, puts on his jacket and bends over her desk taking her hand in his, "I'm going to try really hard not to take that comment personally, but you'llpay for it later." He plants a kiss on her hand, giving her goosebumps again. "Have dinner with me please? We could talk about a trade for my Porsche." This time it's Carly that has to laugh sarcastically. " I'm not going to dinner with you and I'm not going to be trading in my Porsche either.I just got it, I haven't even had time to have fun with her, or go on a proper test drive." She said it as if talking to a child that wouldn't listen but he continues pressing the matter, "No? Not even for a certain boat of a certain friend of ours? Imagine how grateful he'd be, god, he'd love you even more if that was even possible." He rolls he's eyes as he says the last part. "Hmpf, Hugo's bad decisions are not my problem, that's a battle he has to fight on his own!" Her words don't match her feelings, that was exactly what her plan was, after she was sure that Mario and his team were sorted, she planned on offering him the trade. He'd probably had the same thought the night of them playing cards, as he and everyone at the table heard her chewing out Hugo for losing it, but she wasn't going to give in to him, not even for Hugo. Not even if it was the only thing he had of his father, he'd win it back in some bet, some game, just like he'd lost it. Dexter finally let's go of her hand and takes a step back, a calculating look on his face. "Well, don't come crying when the boat is gone for good, I've been looking into giving it up for charity, some diving schools could really use a trustworthy boat. You could be the person that saves Hugo's memories, all those memories with his Daddy." Carly sucks in a breath. "You would not DARE, I'd sell that Porsche the very same day!" Her fists tight at her sides. "And I'd buy it back the day after that, little butterfly, how do you think I own a piece that's supposed to sit in a museum in Germany?" Carly's face falls. She's lost this round. He won't let her walk away from this without getting something in return. She had to give in. "You're evil and that makes my skin crawl." Knowing that's she's given in he smiles brightly at her. "Good girl. I'll pick you up at seven. sharp." She glares at him, so mad at herself for somehow ending up in this position, for some how ending up in Dexter Moore's claws.