He kissed me as he worked into me, swallowing my moans, his lips burning against mine, only adding to the heat that was flourishing in the pit of my belly.
His movements started to pick up speed; his hands, where they stroked my body, became firmer in their ministrations, until it was like I could feel him everywhere, inside and outside of me, until all that I could think about was him, the way his body fit against mine, the way he kissed me and touched me, and fucked me.
I turned my head to the side, gasping for breath and crying out his name as with one final thrust, we both came undone. I held tightly to him, my eyes squeezed shut as emotion rocked through me. Wave after wave of pleasure, warmth, desire, and safety—until I was utterly helpless to even move.
Eventually, I became aware of Hayden’s hands lightly stroking down my body, as he nestled into the hollow between my ear and my shoulder. He kissed me gently, and I sighed contentedly. This was just what I needed. The comfort, the intimacy. Maybe I hadn’t needed to cry at all. Maybe I just needed to know that I wasn’t alone.
“You all right?” Hayden asked quietly.
I nodded. And it really was the truth. It had been a long day, but I knew now that I would make it through.
We lay there for a long while, until finally, I turned towards Hayden, propping myself up on one elbow. “You’re not thinking about leaving, are you?” he joked.
I grinned and shook my head. “Nah,” I said quietly. “And hey, we took off all our clothing in here this time, so you don’t have to go collect it either.”
Hayden laughed and stretched wide. “Yeah, good thing. I don’t think I can move. You got me good.”
I smirked. “You were the one doing all the work,” I pointed out.
“Didn’t feel like work,” Hayden said easily, wrapping his arms around me.
I rested my head against his chest. “Thanks,” I said quietly. “I really needed this.”
Hayden was quiet for a minute. Then: “I’m glad you felt like you could come here when you needed someone,” he said.
“Me too,” I told him. There was so much more I wanted to say, about how I liked him, about how new all of this was to me, about how I still wasn’t sure just what this was. I wanted to apologize again for turning away from him at the hospital and telling him to leave.
But somehow, I knew that we were already on the same page. I could have said all of those things, sure, but I didn’t need to. Hayden already knew them. He felt exactly the same way. That comforted me.
“So, should I be coming back to work tomorrow?” Hayden asked. “I’m sorry, I know you probably don’t want to think about that right now, but I wanted to know if I should be setting an alarm. I wouldn’t want you to possibly be late again.” I knew that he was joking, but I couldn’t quite muster mirth in response.
Instead, I sighed. “I’m going to have to do at least a partial day,” I told him. “I have some meetings to attend.”
“Couldn’t you move them? Or delegate someone else to go in your place?” Hayden asked.
“Probably,” I said. “But Mom would have a fit if she knew. She wouldn’t want me to put the business on hold because of her. Anyway, she’s in stable condition, and the doctors know to call me if anything changes. I’m not too worried.” I paused. “Today was good. Long, but good.”
Again, I held off admitting that I wasn’t sure if she would actually be able to go to the party. If I just believed that she would be discharged in time, then maybe it would actually happen.
I shifted against Hayden, not ready to go to sleep just yet. There was one more thing that I wanted to ask him before tomorrow. “Is Booker coming to the party tomorrow?” It might not seem like a very important thing, but I wanted to know if he would be there. Both so that I could prepare myself for his eventual meeting with my mom. And also so I could make sure there were things at the party that would keep him entertained.
Hayden stirred, apparently already halfway asleep. He nodded, yawning a little. “Yeah, he wouldn’t miss it,” he said. “That is, as long as it’s still okay with you?”
“I want him there,” I said, grinning up at Hayden. “I want both of you there.”
“Good,” Hayden said. “Am I supposed to bring anything with me?”
“Just yourself and Booker,” I said, shaking my head. “The company foots the bill for this one. It’s our one big social expense of the year.”
“Nice,” Hayden said, around another yawn.
I laughed. “Good night,” I said quietly.
Hayden’s arms tightened around me for a moment, and he lightly kissed my forehead. “Good night,” he echoed. He was sound asleep within minutes, and I wasn’t far behind him.
Safe, contented, and warm. Not a trace of the recklessness from before. And as much as it scared me, I had to admit I kind of liked it.
Chapter 31
Hayden
When I woke up on Friday morning, Mallory was already awake, her head pillowed on my chest and her fingers tracing idle patterns across my skin. I shifted so that I could see what time it was. Almost time for the alarm to go off. I remembered the last time we had woken up together when Mallory had all but bolted out of bed so she could get to work on time.
But this morning, she did the exact opposite, snuggling closer to me with a smile when she saw that I was awake. “Good morning,” she said softly, her hand dipping lower beneath the sheets.
I groaned, my cock already hard. But I regretfully pulled her hand away before she could really get me going. “We don’t have time for that if you are going to drive home and still get to work on time,” I sighed. In my head, I was already imagining a day off in our future, lazing together in bed all day, fucking again and again until we were utterly spent and fully content.
Unfortunately, today was a workday. And given that Mallory had already missed the previous day of work, having spent it at the hospital with her mom, I knew she was probably even more likely to be a stickler for getting there on time, so she could figure out what she had missed and get caught up on everything that she would have done the previous day.
I could only imagine how much she must work herself during the busier seasons at the winery.
Mallory insistently put her hand back where it had been, though. “You can drive me,” she said, her voice breathy with lust. “We’ll go in together. That’ll save time.”
I tried not to laugh. So that was how it was. Then again, we were going to show up at the party together that night, so the cat would be out of the bag soon enough. And anyway, I wasn’t really an employee of the winery anymore, not now that I had managed to figure out who had been cooking the books. I still had a few loose ends to tie up, but there was nothing that this relationship might compromise.
So, I let her do what she wanted with me. Afterwards, we showered together, and I couldn’t get over how adorable Mallory looked with that soft, relaxed smile on her face.
But at the winery, it was all business. Even with stopping by her house for a change of clothes, we were still the first ones there, so there was no one to notice that we had arrived together. “I’m thinking that you and I and Charlie should have that meeting this morning,” Mallory told me as we walked down the hall towards the offices. “I’ve read through the report you gave me, so it’s really just about making sure Charlie’s on the same page. We’ll have to terminate Tim’s employment immediately, of course,” she paused. “But I don’t want to take any further action against him, I don’t think. He’s been a part of this company for ages now.”
I frowned. “Aren’t you worried that he’s just going to do the same thing to another company?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Even assuming that he could get hired to another company in spite of his age and the fact that I won’t be giving him a recommendation, I think he’ll have learned his lesson,” she said firmly. “I don’t want to destroy the man’s life.” She grinned over at me. “Even though apparently neither my grandfather nor my mother ever
liked the guy very much.”
I chuckled. So that was the way she wanted to do things. I respected it actually. It would have been easy to destroy Tim based on the evidence that we had. To make him pay back every cent that he had stolen from the company, and likely utterly ruin his life. But Mallory had chosen to take the high road.
“Anyway, I’m thinking that we’ll have our meeting, you, Charlie and I, and then we can call Tim in and get the dirty work over with,” Mallory said. “Do you have anything else that you need to do today?”
“I’m almost finished updating the books to show the accurate information,” I told Mallory. “But when did you even have a chance to read the report I gave you?” As far as I knew, I had put it on her desk and then we had rushed off to the hospital.
Mallory shrugged. “I threw it in my purse before we went to the hospital,” she said. “I figured it wasn’t the kind of information that I should just leave lying around. And then once I was at the hospital, well, it wasn’t like there was anything better to do.”
I shook my head. “And you talk to me about overworking,” I teased.
Mallory just laughed as she disappeared into her office.
Things went exactly as Mallory had planned. And honestly, it went the way most of these meetings went. My employers didn’t always want me to sit in on them, considering them to be private company business, but I’d been to plenty.
Still, there was something different about watching Mallory be the one in charge of the meeting. She was cool and confident, and I couldn’t deny the little thrill I got in knowing that I was one of the few people that she let get through that tough external mask of hers.
I could see the look of disbelief on Tim’s face, then the look of frustration that he shot me as Mallory went over the evidence. He thought that he had gotten away with everything and would never be caught. He should have known better.
“You’re lucky Mallory is only firing you,” Charlie said, frowning at Tim. “I still can’t believe that you were the one behind all of this.”
Tim sneered at him but didn’t respond. I could tell right then that he didn’t have any respect for Mallory, her family, or any of the other people he had been working with. And suddenly, I realized why Mallory wanted to fire him, instead of going to all the trouble of taking him to court. This was the kind of guy who would never learn his lesson. So why should Mallory bother wasting her time taking him to court?
Like she had said, it was pretty unlikely that he would get hired by another wine company. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t branch out and work for a different company, but he had worked here for many years, and it would be pretty telling to a new employee that he didn’t have any work references to list.
Tim eventually got up and walked out, and Mallory sighed, shaking her head and deflating a little. She put on a brave little smile as she looked over at Charlie, though. “Well, that’s done,” she said. She looked over at me. “What’s the status on the books now?”
“Got everything pretty much straightened out,” I told her. “You shouldn’t have any trouble with the IRS.”
I could see the relief on Mallory’s face. “That’s such great news,” she said.
Charlie coughed lightly, and I had a feeling from the expression on his face that he could tell something was going on between the two of us. “I have a meeting this afternoon that I need to prepare for,” he said to Mallory. Then, he turned to me. “Let me know if you need any help with the rest of the books.”
“Thanks,” I told him, unable to keep the grin off my face.
As he left, Mallory raised an eyebrow at me. “What’s the grin for?” she asked.
“He knows,” I told her, gesturing back and forth between the two of us.
Mallory looked surprised and then rueful. “Well, he’s known me my whole damned life,” she said, shrugging. She grinned. “I guess I never should have thought that I could hide anything from anyone around here.”
“Good thing we don’t have to anymore,” I said, shrugging. “I guess technically I’m not really an employee anymore.” I paused and grinned wickedly at her, stepping closer and putting a hand on her hip. “Meaning I guess that I can’t get in trouble for anything I do, huh?”
Mallory laughed and took a step back, but I could tell from how dark her eyes had gone that she was contemplating letting me make those advances right here in the conference room. Or at least behind the locked door of her office. But then, she sighed. “There’s a lot that I have to get ready for the party tonight,” she said. “No distractions.”
I smirked but obediently took a step back. “No distractions, then,” I promised her, glancing at my watch. “I guess it’s about time for me to go pick Booker up from school, anyway. But I’ll see you later. Let me know if you need me to pick up anything on the way to the party, or if you need any help early with the set-up.”
“Think I’ve got it all covered but sounds like a plan,” Mallory said. She waited until I had my hand on the door leading out of the conference room before she cleared her throat. “You know,” she said, but then she trailed off.
I turned back to her, raising an eyebrow and waiting for her to continue.
“It wouldn’t have been a problem, even if anyone had known that we were dating while you were one of my employees,” Mallory said, carefully not looking at me. Yet again, I was struck by how different she was around me. How much she had let her guard down.
She glanced up at me and gave a little shrug. “We’re both consenting adults,” she said. “And it’s not like there’s anything in either of our contracts or the company policy that says that we can’t date coworkers. And technically speaking, we were dating before you ever started here. So, it’s a non-issue anyway.”
I grinned at her. “Sounds like you’ve thought about this a lot,” I teased, watching as she blushed.
“Oh, get out of here,” Mallory said, looking amused in spite of her embarrassment.
“See you later,” I promised her.
“Yeah, yeah. See you later,” she echoed.
I drove over to Booker’s school to pick him up and then brought him back home so he could take a break, then we could get changed into something a little nicer for the party. I wasn’t sure if everyone would be dressed up, but I had a feeling Mallory would appreciate it if I tried to look a little nicer than usual.
“We’re going to a party, we’re going to a party,” Booker said, in a sing-song voice. I grinned, trying not to be alarmed when he told me how many sugary treats and pieces of candy he’d had at school that day during their class Valentine’s Day party.
“Remember, you have to be on your best behavior tonight,” I told Booker.
“I know,” Booker chirped. “Do you think Mallory will let me drive the golf cart again?”
I laughed. “Probably not tonight,” I told him. “It’s going to be dark before we get there. And cold. But maybe we can go back some other time soon, during the day.”
“Okay,” Booker said, not sounding disappointed in the slightest.
When we got to the party a little while later, it was already in full swing. But of course, that made sense since most people were just trickling in as they finished up their work for the day, rather than driving over from home. I also speculated that many probably showed up to the party early anyway, since the pruning work was done and it was a slower time of year for the winery.
It was easy to spot Mallory in the pretty silver dress she had changed into. “Hey,” I said, slipping an arm around her as I came up close. I wasn’t sure if that was too forward, but she had said that we could be ‘together’ at the party. Besides, no one was really looking our direction at the moment anyway. If she didn’t want me to touch her, she could easily step away from me, and no one would even notice.
But she craned her neck so she could look up at me with a smile on her face, and she relaxed into my touch. “Hey,” she said. Then, she grinned down at Booker. “And hello to you, too.”
“Hi Mallory,” Booker said, all smiles. “Happy Valentine’s Day!”
“Happy Valentine’s Day,” Mallory said, laughing. “I’m so glad you guys could make it.” She paused, “Booker, there’s actually some kids that I want you to meet. I think you’re going to have a ton of fun with them. They’re over here playing some games. Come on.” She led Booker over towards a group, and I smiled as I watched her introduce him to each of them. Then, she came back over to me. “They’re the kids of some of the other employees,” she said.
“Cool,” I said, not worried. Booker was already chatting excitedly with a couple of the boys. I was always surprised to see how easy it was for him to get to know other kids. The boy had charisma practically coming out of his ears.
“Can I get you a drink?” Mallory asked me.
“Sounds great,” I said, settling in to enjoy the party.
Chapter 32
Mallory
The Valentine’s Day party was great, as always, but there was something missing. Mom.
I kept catching myself feeling guilty for having fun while she was stuck in the hospital. Maybe I should make a special trip over there tonight? I wanted her to meet Hayden. And Booker. But on the other hand, I didn’t want to make her feel even worse about not being able to make it to the party.
“All right, what’s up?” Hayden finally asked, and I realized that I’d sighed out loud.
I pasted on a fake smile, but I could tell that Hayden wasn’t buying it. I shrugged, glancing away towards the rest of the party and taking a sip of my wine. “It’s just weird, not seeing Mom here,” I told him. “She’s always here. At least for part of it.”
Hayden rubbed my lower back sympathetically, and even though his touch couldn’t fix things, it definitely relaxed me a little. “Why don’t we head over there?” he suggested.
“What?” I asked, surprised to hear him echo my earlier thoughts. I wouldn’t have thought that he would volunteer to come with me, but that was definitely what it sounded like.
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