He leaned forward resting his forearms on the table as he stared at me intently. "Let me sweeten the deal for you a little bit. I can arrange for a solo showing of your artwork at a local gallery, if you'll accept a six month trial position."
This time I didn't just gape, my jaw dropped to the floor.
"Assuming neither of us kills each other, at the end of it, we can walk away and tell Ryan and Kellie that we tried."
Of course, I'd have to accept this. I'd crawl over broken glass to get a showing at a gallery. I'd been trying for years, but was never able to get in.
Still, I was surprised he was making the offer. Granted, I was sure Ryan and Kellie put him up to it. Somehow, they talked him into it.
"What's in it for you?" I asked.
"What do you care as long as you get what you want?" he answered.
He had a point. I didn't really care. Still, I was curious. " I just want to make sure that we’re fair and square here."
His lips twitched upward into a half smile, and holy moly it made him incredibly handsome. I wondered what he’d look like if he had a full smile.
"Well, one I get Ryan and Kellie off my ass. And two, I get the European advertising campaign done, which, three, again, gets Kellie and Ryan off my ass."
"I guess that does sound like a fair deal then."
"So, it’s a deal?" He asked.
"It's a deal." I held up my glass to clink with his as we solidified the deal.
After our agreement, and dinner came, we actually had a fairly pleasant meal. We still bantered all the way through our dinner, but it didn't have the same edge that it had before. I wasn't sure if it was because I was feeling pretty good about having a gallery showing, or the wine. Maybe it was that Hunter seemed to be acting on his best behavior. I wondered if Ryan had talked to him, or if Hunter had realized what an asshole he'd been before, and he was trying to do better. I'm not sure why he’d be trying to behave, considering how I had treated him, but whatever the reason, we enjoyed a good meal and some lively conversation.
By the time we finished our meal, the noise in the restaurant had picked up. The music from downstairs was louder and looking out the window I could see that there were more people, many of them dancing out on the dance floor. He glanced out too and I had a moment to wonder if this is where he came to stalk his prey. But he didn't look long before he turned his attention back to me.
"Do you like to dance?” he asked.
"Sure." I wasn't sure if he was actually asking me if I wanted to dance or if I just enjoy dancing.
"But I still have some work to do later tonight so I'm going to have to head out pretty soon." That wasn't a complete lie. I did have more work that I wanted to do. But in case he was getting any ideas about me, I wanted to make sure I had an out. Then I laughed at myself because Hunter wouldn't have any interest in me. Especially not with all those long-legged blonde women shimmering in their barely there outfits on the dance floor. I'm sure he could have the pick of the lot. He probably already had.
We finished our meal and he walked me out to my car.
"I'll see you in the office tomorrow," he said as I unlocked my car door.
I turned to look at him with a smirk. "Yeah, I should be there around noon, maybe."
His lips twitched up into that half smile again. It made me wish I could see a full on beaming smile from him.
I had given him the opportunity to make some sort of snarky comeback like maybe how much I needed beauty rest or something, but he didn't say anything. He just stood and looked at me like I was some sort of enigma.
Then he gave a small laugh like he was humored by something he was thinking. I didn’t have time to ask about it, as his hand reached out, wrapped around my neck and he pulled me to him fusing his lips to mine.
My brain went blank of everything except the taste of him, and the warmth of his body as it pressed against mine. Just as my body was beginning to melt against his, he stepped back, turned and began walking away.
What the hell?
As he kept walking, he called back over his shoulder, "That was payback for yesterday."
I managed to open the car door and on shaky legs got inside the driver seat. I sat with my heart racing and my mind in a whirl from what just happened. I couldn't say that I hated Hunter Strong, but I definitely didn't like him. So why was it when he was so near or when our lips were mashed together, that it did all sorts of crazy things inside my body?
I began to realize that working for him could be an even bigger problem than I'd anticipated. Before, my concern was about being bored, or having my creativity stifled. But now I had to wonder if my hormones were always going to go crazy when he was around?
7
Hunter
I wasn't sure if Natalie had been serious or not when she said she'd show up at work at noon. She was just the sort of free spirit that might do something like that. But she showed up at eight o'clock, like everybody else.
I greeted her and told her that I would show her around. She looked up at me with an expression that seemed to ask if that was a good idea. I wasn't sure that it was considering that most of the time we couldn't say a civil word to each other. Last night after we forged our deal had been the exception. But even then, there was a banter that wasn't totally and completely friendly. It just hadn't been as nasty as it'd been before.
I brought her to the section of the building that had held most of the marketing team. I began introducing her to the various staff that were.
I had some curiosity about how they would accept Natalie as their new boss. It wasn't just that Natalie didn't look the corporate type that had me wondering what they would think of her. It was more of the carefree and relaxed way she moved through life. I suspected she was more likely to give them free reign on all their creative ventures, and maybe even art lessons, then she would push them to meet deadlines. But if that turned out to be the case, it would just give me a reason to fire her and I’d have Ryan's backing because he was hell-bent on getting this European campaign done ASAP.
As I introduced her to the various staff that would be working with her, she was friendly and outgoing, and they seemed to take to her. She expressed a genuine interest in them and what they were working on. And unlike with me, she held her opinions about the work they were doing to herself.
We reached the section of the office that held the copywriting team and I introduced her to our lead copywriter, Gavin Martin. Gavin looked up from his desk, and had the proverbial eyes popping out of the head as he saw Natalie. He stood wiping his hands on his pants as he thrust out his arm to introduce himself and shake her hand.
At first, I was amused by his reaction, but as their conversation went on, Gavin's enthusiasm toward Natalie, and the way his eyes every now and then would drift over her body with a lingering look at her tits, I began to feel unsettled about him. At first, I told myself that he was being inappropriate, and I would definitely have words with him about it. But as she laughed at something that he said and patted his arm, that unsettled feeling felt an awful lot like jealousy.
Ah hell no, I thought to myself. Yes, she kissed me and yes I kissed her. And yes, I had jerked off a few times at the image of her. But I had no intention of ever getting attached to a woman. Not ever.
It'd been a couple of days since I'd actually been with a woman, so perhaps that's why I was feeling weird around Natalie. It's probably why that kiss brought her into my dreams last night and had me wanking off in the shower this morning. What I needed to do was to go out tonight, find a woman, and get laid.
I finished giving Natalie the tour and then brought her to her office. Most people would like to have their own office. It was a sign of status.
But of course, Natalie looked around, and said, "How are all these creative types able to deliver you the best ad materials when we’re all segregated and separated into different offices? Hiding away in cubicles isn't the best way to encourage creativity."
I rolled my ey
es. "If you want to drag your desk out to the rest of everybody else, have at it." I looked at my watch. "I've got another meeting I need to get to. So, unless there's something else you need from me, I’ll leave you to it."
She made a shooing motion with her hand. "I've got this."
I headed out of the office and made my way over to Gavin.
"Mr. Strong." Gavin sat up at attention at my arrival at his desk again.
"Gavin, as second in command of this department, I'm going to expect you to help Ms. Nichols in any way she needs."
"Yes, sir. I'll see that she gets settled in and brought up to date on all the campaigns we're working on."
"Right now, I want her focused on the European expansion campaign. That is the priority at this point."
"Yes, sir."
"Also, try to keep from ogling Ms. Nichols, at least while you're at work."
His cheeks turned a bright red and he looked down. "Yes sir, I'm sorry. She's just… She's very pretty."
I suppose she was. Actually, I knew she was. "When we’re working, Gavin, we need to stay professional."
He looked up at me and nodded. "Yes sir, I understand."
As I left Gavin's work area, I scanned the office and saw Natalie making the rounds again talking to the various people and seemingly getting updated on what was going on. I liked that she was doing that. It told me she was taking the job seriously, and would at least start with a baseline of where we were at already. Hopefully she wouldn't try to take the campaign off in some crazy area.
I left the marketing area walking towards my own office, wondering what she thought of the way Gavin had been staring at her. Gavin was a nice young man and good-looking enough, but he and I were polar opposites.
I shook my head, trying to figure out why the fuck I cared. She kissed me out of anger and irritation. I kissed her simply because I wanted the last word. That was it. Even if we didn't have a no-fraternization rule here, she needed to be off limits to me. It was clear we were a bad match. Yes, there is some crazy chemistry going on between us, and I couldn't deny that we could probably create some interesting combustion between the sheets. But the potential to go up in flames was high, so I needed to get her out of my head.
I wasn't one to micromanage my team, so I didn't check on her or the rest of the team as I did my own work for the day. When the day was over, I still didn't go check on them. Perhaps I should've since Natalie was Kellie's sister, but I figured Natalie would see it as a sign of respect that I wasn't following up to make sure she was toeing the line.
For me not going to check on her was more in an attempt to make sure I could get her out of my system. Each time I saw her, I swore I could taste her on my lips again. My hands itched to run over those luscious curves. My fingers wanted to tangle in her lavender curls. The best thing I could do was to avoid seeing her so that I could get her out of my system.
That evening I decided to head back to Cesare’s to take care of the blue balls I was sporting. This time, I went into the club side where I had a private area that would allow me to have a drink without the bombardment of the crowd. The room was made of one-way glass so I was able to see out on the dance floor, but no one was able to see me watching them.
As I sat in the booth and looked out on the dance floor, sipping my vodka tonic, my body began to relax. It was nice to be back to the old routine. I worked hard and took my job seriously, but I also played hard. Yes, much of that play was quite bacchanalian, but I never hurt anyone. Every woman I ever met and took home knew exactly where I stood when it came to relationships. Most of them were in agreement with the deal and we would end up having a long night of orgasms before I put them in a car to send them home.
On occasion there would be one who would think that their skills in bed were such that I’d fall in love with them and want to keep them. But that never happened. Yes, I met some women who were quite creative, and very satisfactory in the sack, but I never changed my one woman one night rule for any of them. The fact that I'd never even been tempted to do so suggested that either I had very good skills at keeping my emotional distance, or that part of me that could love had died. Either theory could be right, but it didn't matter which was true. The end result was that I planned to be a bachelor for the rest of my life. Female companionship was available to me when I needed it, but for the rest of my daily life, I didn't need to have a woman around me. I wasn't like Ryan, who, as far as I could tell, seemed to have fully come into himself after falling for Kellie. He'd been so singularly focused on the business to the point of being a bore. But with her in his life, he was still focused on business and yet at the same time was now more animated and interesting.
Me, I had no interest in falling in love ever again. Ryan and Kellie were an anomaly. Trusting a woman with one's heart was tantamount to trusting them with your life. I tried that and had been eviscerated. My sex without emotional entanglements was a whole lot safer.
I looked out through the one-way glass to the dance floor, noticing several potential ladies. I hit the buzzer to let one of my staff know that I wanted them. When he appeared, I asked him to invite the group of women in to have a drink with me. A few minutes later, the three women were sitting with me drinking and giggling. All three were the type that I normally went for; tall with nice round tits and long hair. I also liked it when they had that flirty look in their eyes that promised me a night of orgasms.
I focused on the blonde woman in the group, probably because instead of being too eager like her friends sitting next to me and pawing me, she sat across from me.
I stood, and said to her, "Do you want to dance?"
"Sure." She set her drink on the table and stood.
"Get my other friends another drink. On the house," I told the young waiter. I didn't look back at the other two women, but I could hear their noises of discontent that I had chosen their friend.
Out on the dance floor, me and the blonde began to move. The way her hips swayed and her tits bounced, and I knew she’d be satisfying in bed, and yet at the same time something felt all wrong. I wondered if maybe she felt the distance between us, or that I wasn't feeling it between us, because she stepped up to me, her hands on my shoulder, her pelvis grinding into my dick.
I looked down towards my groin, wondering what the hell was wrong with it as it sat quiet and soft in my boxer briefs. For the last couple of days, it had a mind of its own, always going hard when I saw Natalie.
In that moment, the image of Natalie popped into my head and sure enough, my dick began to swell. God dammit.
My new blonde friend leaned forward, her perfume wafting over me, the warmth of her breath against my cheek, as she whispered in my ear. "What do you say we get out of this place? We can have a private dance."
That's why I was here. I put my hand around her and escorted her out the front door onto the sidewalk. The cool air hit me, and I stopped again as that unsettled feeling flowed through me.
She plastered her body against mine, her hand caressing my chest. "Something wrong?"
I looked down at her for a moment. I reminded myself of my goal tonight; get laid. But as I looked at her, this beautiful sexy woman, my dick began to deflate again.
Apparently, she thought I wanted to kiss her as she puckered her lips and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. It felt like I had ants under my skin and I quickly disentangled myself.
"I'm sorry.…" I didn't know what else to say at that point, so I simply turned and began walking down the street. It was an asshole thing to do to just leave her standing there like that, but I had to get away.
My loft wasn't far from here, so I walked home trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with me so that I could go back to being the man I'd been before. Before what, though, I didn't know.
Liar, something deep in my psyche said. But I didn’t want to listen to it.
I made it up to my loft, stripped my clothes, and climbed into bed.
Natalie.
What the
hell kind a hold did she have on me that I couldn't get it up for that sexy blonde who wanted to fuck my brains out. I lifted the sheet and looked down at my dick.
"What the hell's wrong with you? Why do you only want to work for Natalie?"
The mention of her name had the image of her filling my brain. The taste of her came back to my lips. My dick filled until it was extending out over my belly.
"You're fucking crazy you know that?” I said to my dick feeling like I had no choice. I wrapped my hand around it and began to stroke. Because I couldn't stand the idea that Natalie had such a hold on me, I forced my brain to think about the woman in the club. The way her hips swayed and her breasts bounced as we danced. The scent of her perfume as it washed over me and the way her body pressed against mine.
My dick however wasn't having any of that. Almost immediately he began to soften. I should've considered that a victory and released him and gone to sleep. But the need to have an orgasm overrode that. And apparently my dick had a direct line to my brain as the image of Natalie reappeared. She had her sexy smirk on and nothing else. She dropped to her knees, her hands sliding up my thighs. My dick extended even longer liking that image. My hand began to stroke faster as the image of her cupid bow lips wrapped around my dick filled my brain. Her hot sexy feisty mouth slurped and sucked until I shot my load all over my chest.
As enjoyable as that was, the aftermath left me with a feeling of disgust. What was wrong with me that this woman had gotten under my skin or at the very least to my dick. I had a wave of panic that filled me as I realized that this could be a situation that lasted for a long time. After all, she was working for me now. Was I going to have to go the next six months without the ability to get it up with another woman? Spending my nights wanking off like some loser?
There had to be another solution to this problem. As I lay in bed, wiping my cum off my chest with a tissue, I weighed my various options. In the end, there was only one that could possibly work.
Giving In To Love: A Friends with Benefits Office Romance (Strong Brothers Book 2) Page 5
