The Office Affair
Chapter Seven
Tenten was pretty much still asleep in bed when her doorbell chimed. Yawning, she sat up, looked at her alarm clock, and then did a double-take. It was six in the morning. The doorbell chimed again and she slid out of bed grabbing up her silk wrap. Who on earth could be calling at this hour?
She groaned, reluctantly dragging her sleep-crazed body across the sitting room towards the door. Nervously she checked to see if the chains where latched before she opened the door and peered through a crack.
"You!" She hissed. "What are you doing here?"
"Open up, Tenten," Sasuke said with a grim terseness.
"I will not. Go away!" After his very graphic and vulgar suggestions last night the last thing she wanted to do was let him in her apartment, least they became a reality.
She tried to close the door again but he put his foot into the crack. "Will you open the damn door before one of your neighbours decides that I'm trying to break in and calls the police," he demanded.
"I prefer to have it that way."
He gave her a dry look, "Why are you so stubborn...?" he grated.
"That's one of my better qualities," she countered.
"There you go again with your sarcasm..." he murmured.
"What do you want?" she folded her arms and glowered.
"Are you sure that's the question you ought to be asking? Because I'm pretty sure you'll not like the answer," he gave her one of his trademark smirks.
She grimaced in disgust then rephrased her question, "What brings you here Sasuke?" she asked in a blatantly peeved tone.
"Now that can be answered," he grinned; holding up a newspaper, it was folded open at an inner page, prominently displaying a large, grainy photograph. Tenten studied the woman's green features, her jaws dropped, "That's... that's..."
"Yes," Sasuke said drily. "It's Sakura Haruno."
"And Neji...?" Tenten said but it sounded as though she was asking. "What on earth is she doing with him?"
"Let me tell you that this was no casual meeting, just look at the way he has his arms around her waist, it's rumoured that they have been dinning alone together for hours."
She unlatched the door and fell back, Sasuke walked past her into the living room, which was filled with greyish light.
"You do realize what is going on here?" Sasuke asked Tenten.
"That Sakura has managed to snatch herself a hot-shot billionaire boyfriend," Tenten said, "You go Sakura." Tenten said in silent admiration. Her ill-bred ass of a boss rolled his eyes at her and scoffed.
"Neji Hyuuga is the owner of the multi-million dollar company, Hyuuga Incorporated."
"He also happens to be a very good friend of mine," Tenten informed him.
"Really?" Sasuke went over and drew the curtains back. "A snake like Neji...?"
"Excuse me?"
"He's a Hyuuga, and Hyuugas can't be trusted, that's why it bothers me that Sakura is dating him."
"I've gone through almost all my life with the Hyuugas and they are nothing like what you picture them to be," Tenten felt the need to defend her friends; they were the closest thing she had to a family. "In fact you're more of a snake than the very serpents themselves."
The corner of his lips curled as though he had received a compliment. "Did you know that Hyuuga Incorporated is The Uchiha Industry's biggest rival and competition?"
"I'm not surprised, Neji is a master mind when it comes to business," Tenten smiled, which earned her a glare from the onyx eyes.
"Don't you see what's happening here? Neji's dating one of my employees, not just any employee; our company's top accountant..." he grimaced.
"So...?" she asked wryly. His dark eyes crept over her almost teasingly. Out of sheer annoyance she ran her fingers through her loose chestnut tresses. She had nice hands he noted; long, supple fingers with short nails painted rose pink to match her lips. He tried to avoid staring at her lips but it was to no avail, they stole his attention anyways.
"He's up to something..." came his somewhat distant accusation. "I don't get what females see in that guy anyway; apart from his good looks, fame and incredible wealth?" he sent her a cynical look.
Well for one, he isn't a dick; she had wanted to say but thought better of it. "Can I see the paper?"
Sasuke handed her the paper and sat in the sofa which Tenten now occupied, "They look intimate, don't they?" he asked.
Tenten nodded silently, "As if they really like each other," Tenten corrected. Sasuke grunted causing her to snicker at the thought that crossed her mind. "You aren't jealous are you?" she jeered.
For a second or two the raven-haired male looked appalled then his indigenous calmness resurfaced. "Sure we've slept together once... maybe twice, three times, heck I lost count," he seemed to gloat, "but there's absolutely no room or reason for jealously. Especially when taking into consideration the fact that Sakura is basically a hand-me-down gift to Neji."
"You are despicable," she snarled at him. Now, she may not have known Sakura for long but the image Sasuke was painting of her most definitely isn't the one that she represented. "Hand-me down?" she grimaced. "Why you…" she struggled with words to describe him. "Pretentious, insufferable ass—" her breath caught in her throat.
He was leaning over her shoulder, his cheeks almost touching her hair which was a hanging loosely over her shoulders. She felt him breathing, smelt the flesh air of an autumn morning on his skin. Slowly she stiffened in the chair, deeply conscious of him and thoroughly annoyed.
"Don't be so defensive," he gave a dark chuckle. "Sakura isn't that much of a saint," he shot her a grim smile staring down into her brown eyes now darkened by feeling and confusion. "Saints don't do the kind of things that she does. And I would know," he chuckled. "...because we did them together,"
"Y-you're a c-complete and total j-jerk, do you k-know that?" she stammered hypnotised by his stare.
"I've been called worse," he smirked bringing Tenten's gaze to his lips. She had never really looked at his mouth before, never noticed the warmth of it.
To Tenten's everlasting bewilderment it softly touched her lips and a part of her mind wanted to stop him now before this got out of control, but she couldn't bring herself to stop his mesmerizing kiss. His hands went round her in a possessive grip, and she yielded to them in a trancelike state, not knowing for sure why she wasn't fighting him off.
Her mouth was soft, welcoming, giving, so he took, demanded and ravished. Sasuke ran his hand up and down her back, moulding her closer to him as he pressed her back into the cushioned upholstery. She felt heat coming from his skin, heard his thickening breathing, suddenly growing frightened. She pulled her head back, flushed and trembling, "Please, don't touch me," she tried to sound angry and distasteful.
"That's not what you wanted just now..." he grinned at her.
"No, and will you—" her sentence ended on a grasp of surprise. "What are you doing?"
"Feeling your heart." He laid his hand over the top curve of her breast. "When I came in, I could see your pulse pounding; here..." he pressed her breast. "... and here." He settled his lips against the base of her throat. "Know what?" he asked, "It's pounding just as hard now."
Irritated by his accurate assumptions, a coy smile found its way on her lips. Her heart did feel as if it was going to jump right out of her chest. "Leave me alone." Tenten said, her voice lacking conviction. But how could she sound convincing when he was practically taking love bites up and down her neck?
"Want me to tell you a secret?"
"What I want you to do is get out of my house before I call the police," she warned.
"My heart started to pound when I saw you in that silk gown. Feel it?" he held her hands up to his chest; she pulled back her hand as if she had been stung. His teeth gently closed on her earlobe. Pleasure spiralled downward through her, rousing her body…setting her breast tingling and settling a sweet ache in her lower abdomen.
"M-mister U-uchiha with all du-due re-respect..." she flustered and stammered. "I d-don't—"
He moved his lips back to hers to stop her from uttering another word and plunged his tongue inside her mouth. She pulled back and held out her hands in front of her. "There's no need for formalities," he murmured, running his hand down the side of her neck.
"This is not right," she protested. With all her angry struggling, her silk wrap fell open, leaving her legs bare from the thigh. Sasuke laughed, staring at the smooth, pale skin exposed, then his laughter stopped and his hands slid slowly downwards, over the silk-sheathed hips and began to caress her naked thigh. Shock flashed throughout her, the way he was touching her was disturbingly intimate.
Her heart beat heavily within her ribcage. Through the thin silk of her nightdress she felt the heat of his hand and something rather foreign to her spiked through her, making perspiration spring out on her temples—something that unmistakably must be desire. She didn't know how to stop him when, whatever she might say, her body was giving him very different signals.
"Sasuke..." she bit her lip, nervously staring into his face. But her mind was blank; she couldn't think clearly, her body was too obsessed with sensations she had never felt before, wild stabs of pleasure, an intense, shuddering desire. "Please…" she muttered hoarsely—a plaintive plea for mercy. She gasped and held her breath, her eyes closed, seeing with her mind his dark head lowering towards lush curve of her breast.
"Please what?" he asked innocently, looking every bit as chaste as he sounded.
"This isn't—" Her heart pounded hard in her chest the moment their lips retouched. All train of thought flew out the window when his tongue began mating hers with an intensity that shook every nerve in her body; she had to fight the urge to break the connection for fear of losing control. At that moment she wasn't aware of anything but the feel of his tongue stroking hers, the feel of hers stroking his, the rush of sensations flooding and overpowering her. She also became aware of the fire stirring in her stomach and of the way her body was beginning to ache.
It was ridiculous she thought to herself, it had to be illegal for one man to provoke such feeling in a woman. She has only known him for what...one week! And what she did know of him, she loathed. Especially the part which involved Ino Yamanaka, at the thought of her Tenten slowly pulled back. Their lips reluctantly separating, she felt a tremendous sense of loss.
"Sasuke..." she said slowly, dragging the word out softly as she eased away from his lips. "No..."
"No what? Don't stop?" He elevated an eyebrow and fixed her a smug look. He saw that her lips had been thoroughly kissed, lips that had to be the sweetest pair that he'd ever tasted, sampled, devoured. His response to her was as potent as any intoxicating drink he'd ever taken. And from the heated look in her eyes, she was just as affected by the kiss as he was.
"Yes," she finally said, pulling in a deep, hot breath.
"Yes what?" he asked. "Yes don't stop?"
For some strange reason she couldn't bring herself to say it, whether it was out of curiousity or plain stupidity the words just would not come. She resorted to asking, "Do you kiss all of your female employees like that?"
He looked slightly amused, "Only the ones that I like..."
"Except that you don't like a bone in me Sir."
"I was hoping that we could change that..." his voice dropped huskily.
She thought about his response and knew instantly what he meant. After all he had made his motives blatantly obvious last night. But wasn't he not breaking rules he'd put in place for specific reasons, rules he'd been keen on not enforcing when it came to his business relationships? Women to be more specific...he was very open about his previous relationship with Sakura and his current one with Ino. Kami knows how many others he had charmed; now he wanted to add her name to the list—Fuck No.
She laughed dryly, "I rather like where I stand in your life at the moment."
He stood, "Very well then, suit yourself."
Her lips parted slowly as he stood towering before her eyes. They roamed over him, liking the way his muscles filled out the suit he was wearing. There were a number of other things she could appreciate at that moment but decided it would be safer not to think about them right now. As attractive as he was, he was thrice as insufferable...and that was really saying a lot, because Uchiha Sasuke wasn't your average eye-candy.
"I trust that you know your way out?" she asked grudgingly.
He stood rooted in his spot. Tenten frowned, gathering up her wrap she threw it back on and saw him to her front door.
"Shall I leave my number?" he asked before he slipped through the door. "In the event that you have a change of mind."
"Get out!" she barked slamming her door shut. When she heard the sounds of his footsteps die she pressed her back against her door and heaved a frustrated sigh. She glanced wildly around the room, in search of commonsense which seemed to have neglected her. She kept feeding herself the excuse that it was just a kiss, but deep down she knew that what they had shared moments ago was so much more than that.
Without her realising it, she traced her lips with her tongue, still tasting him there. She hadn't counted on the rush of desire that had radiated through every part of her body at the same time that her insides began a slow meltdown under intense heat. Sasuke had placed an all-out assault on her senses, each one of them and it would take some time to recover from the tingling rush of desire she still felt. It was desire of a magnitude that had never invaded her body before. It was terrifying to say the least.
What had she been told about this man? Black eyes, black hair, black heart. Why, oh why, hadn't anyone warned her about the equally black desire he could arouse with one simple touch?
Well, the situation at work will most definitely take a turn for the weird.
Sure enough it did. Monday's copy of the Leaf's magazine had the entire building going hushed upon her arrival at work. Sakura was the first to corner her in the elevator.
"Why are you wearing a scarf?" the pinkette inquired. "It's against the dress-code."
Tenten bit her lip and mumbled, "I'm sure Sasuke wouldn't mind."
"I suppose he wouldn't..." Sakura shrugged, and then muttered, "He's after all the reason why you're wearing one in the first place."
Tenten frowned, "Excuse me...?"
Sakura's green eyes flared with anger, "I can't believe that you ditched me Saturday night to go play house with Sasuke. You've only just started working here Tenten, news travel fast and Sasuke's not the type of guy to mess around with—"
Tenten was taken aback; she hadn't the slightest clue what Sakura was talking about. "What are—"
"—I thought you were better than this!" Sakura hissed, grabbing a hold of Tenten's scarf, freeing it from around the brunette's neck. "So it's true!" she declared studying the red spots standing out on Tenten's pale fresh.
Embarrassed, she snatched the scarf from Sakura, hastily wrapping it around her neck once more. "I don't know what you're talking about..." she whispered urgently.
"It's all over the magazine Tenten! Pictures from the club and pictures of him leaving your apartment in the wee hours of the morning. The tabloids are blowing up Tenten."
Sakura's accusation suddenly made sense but before she could bring herself to explain why Sasuke was at her house in the first place the elevator stopped.
The doors slid apart and they both stepped on to the fifteenth floor. And there stood the glamorous blonde beauty with her arms folded and a copy of what looks to be a magazine in her hand. She wore a menacing scowl that got darker at the sight of Tenten.
"I can explain—" Tenten said hastily.
Ino threw the magazine at her and snarled, "An explanation won't be necessary, the Leaf has pretty much covered every nasty little detail."
She stared down at the magazine, dumb folded at what a picture of Sasuke and herself in the club lodged at the upper right hand corner of the magazine's cover. Below it was the caption in bold "that's not Ino..."
"Page three," Ino instructed.
There were a series of pictures of herself and Sasuke, each with little captions below them, each one more disturbing than the last. The ones taken at her apartment were easily the most scandalous. "Sasuke seen leaving the mystery woman's apartment after they were last seen at a club the night before" and the allegations continued, they were endless.
"What I'd like to know is what Sasuke was doing at your apartment?" She grimaced.
Tears welled up inside Tenten's eyes, she had no idea rumors could get this vicious. This would not reflect well on the image she had managed to build for herself back home. She was very aware of the fact that Uchiha Sasuke was a public figure prone to gossip and rumours but she had no idea the extent to the press's obsession with the happenings of his life. Now she was caught in the middle of the cross-fire subjected to the torment she knew would come from the public.
"Well…?" Ino demanded.
Conjuring what was left of her dignity she held up her head and stepped around Ino, "I don't have time for this."
Ino's eyes widen then she quickly cleared her throat. Sakura must have sensed what was coming so she excused herself and bolted into the direction of her office. "I doubted its validity, after all Sasuke would be caught dead in your bed," Ino said.
"And yet, here he is, alive and healthy," she responded smugly, knowing damn well it'd not be in her best interest to indulge the scary blonde lady. But she had to guard her feminine pride as well.
"What?"
"I'm just saying, if he survived yours he can withstand anybody else's."
Ino's face grew red with anger, "You're passing your place brunette," she warned, then strutted off towards Sasuke's office, not without roughly bumping into Tenten's shoulders. "It's on…"
Oh yes, Tenten confirmed…the situation at work would undoubtedly take a turn for the weird.
A/N: Okay, I was skeptic about the changes that I made to this chapter but oh well… this will have to do for now. I hope I didn't bore you to death. Please review. Thank You ^-^ i'll try to review chapter 8 soon so please pardon the level of immaturity it may possess.