by M. Malone
I’d have to face Mr. Dent like nothing had happened and smile the whole time. Ugh. Then I’d have to face Hunter like I hadn’t thrown myself at him and then been rejected. Double ugh.
I was in the middle of doing my second load of laundry when the first text from Hunter came in.
Hunter: Hey, how are you feeling today?
I ignored it. I wasn’t quite ready to exchange cute text messages about my ridiculous behavior last night. Maybe one day in the future we could joke about it. The distant, distant future. Perhaps by then I’d have forgotten that my friend Hunter had shredded abs, and was totally an alpha male in the bedroom. It was something I wouldn’t have thought I’d like, but that had totally turned me on last night. I rubbed my ass. It was still slightly sore from when he’d spanked me. My face flooded with heat and my panties got damp instantly.
Then he texted again.
Hunter: Hope you took the aspirin I left next to the bed.
I frowned. He’d left medicine for me? I hung my head. He really was a sweetheart. No wonder I’d come on to him so hard. It wasn’t something I’d usually admit, but Hunter really was my ideal man. Handsome, intelligent, and humble. A killer triple-threat combo that would make any woman instantly dream of wedding bells. But that didn’t mean I wanted him to know that I secretly lusted for him.
“This sucks!”
I stabbed at the button on the washing machine to turn it on. Everything was going to be ruined now. The whole reason my friendship with Hunter worked so well was because there was none of the weird flirting that usually ended up wrecking male-female friendships. He’d always been perfectly respectful and I had made sure to treat him the same way. Until last night. How did you go back from a drunken dick grab? He’d seen me naked. I’d asked him to wash me. It didn’t get any more blatant than that. Now when he saw me, he was always going to think about the things I’d done and said when I was drunk.
My phone rang and the sound startled me. Hunter’s picture flashed on the screen, and the image of that perfect face taunted me.
Aren’t you glad you ruined our friendship?
Now things are going to be awkward.
Thanks for grabbing my dick, but I don’t like you that way.
Not that Hunter would ever say those things, but wasn’t that really what it all came down to? I had done stupid things while drunk before, and that was why I usually kept a close eye on how many I had at happy hour. Vodka was a fickle friend, and I didn’t enjoy waking up and not knowing where I’d been the night before. Even though I usually brushed things off pretty easily, I couldn’t just brush this off.
The reason it was so embarrassing was because I liked Hunter and he didn’t like me back.
I managed to dodge his calls the rest of the day and all of Sunday. He’d even sent a text message threatening to come over, so I’d thrown on sweats and a baseball cap and gone grocery shopping. But now it was Monday morning and as I rode the elevator up to my floor, there was nowhere for me to hide.
At least I probably wouldn’t see Hunter until lunchtime. He was one of the best client associates at the firm—everyone said so—and as a result, was always extremely busy. At least I’d have a few hours to figure out what to say to him.
I walked up to my cubicle and gasped. Hunter was sitting in my chair.
“Good morning, Bailey.” His eyes took in my slim skirt and the artfully applied makeup that I normally didn’t bother wearing.
“Morning,” I muttered, taken completely off guard.
What the hell? I hadn’t expected him to ambush me, although I probably should have. One of the reasons everyone said Hunter was on the fast track was because he was relentless when working on something. He didn’t let anything stop him from getting what he wanted.
“I just wanted to make sure you were okay after getting abducted by aliens. Or being struck down with the plague.” At my confused look, he crossed his arms. “What other reason could you have for avoiding me for two days?”
I wasn’t going to touch that question. If Hunter wanted to pretend he didn’t know why I was embarrassed, I was more than happy to play along. I wanted nothing more than to forget the past week. Amnesia sounded pretty good to me. I dropped my bag next to my desk.
“I had a lot of stuff to do this weekend. A lot of…cleaning.”
Hunter snorted. “So that’s how we’re playing this? You’re going to pretend that you didn’t show me those perfect tits and give me a permanent case of blue balls?”
Hunter
I watched as Bailey’s face went red. Damn, she was a sexy little thing, especially when she was flustered.
She glanced around nervously to see if anyone had overheard. Luckily, there was no one nearby. I’d gotten here early, figuring she’d try to sneak in before everyone else, and then go hide in the bathroom.
“Perfect tits? Blue balls?” Bailey whispered. “What are you talking about?”
I shook my head and stood. Her eyes followed as I buttoned my suit jacket. Bailey pressed her thighs together and I smiled knowingly. She may not have wanted to admit it, but she was just as affected by me as I was by her. And I knew I looked good naked. I dedicated a lot of time in the gym to making sure of that.
“You know exactly what you did to me. You’re a little tease, Bailey.”
“What?” Bailey just blinked at me. Then she seemed to find her usual sass and pointed a finger at me. “You rejected me. You left me alone in my bed when I think I made it really clear that I was open for pretty much anything.” She blushed again.
So that’s what was going on. She was pissed that I hadn’t taken what she’d offered. I grinned. If she only knew. We were just getting started.
“Bailey, we are friends. And yes I have nightly fantasies of you on your back, my head between your thighs, but that doesn’t mean that’s all I care about.”
Her mouth fell open. “You… You think about…”
“Yes. I think about that. A lot. But Friday night, you were upset. You were intoxicated. What you needed was a friend. And I will always take care of you because I want what’s best for you.”
I leaned closer until I could smell the scent of her shampoo. It didn’t escape my notice that her breathing had gotten noticeably faster. She was so responsive.
“Thank you, Hunter.” Bailey smiled sheepishly. “I should have known that was why. You’re a really good guy.”
“Not that good. Because going forward, what’s best for you will be when I put you over my knee and spank that sexy ass.”
Bailey’s mouth fell open.
I knew I needed to set the tone before she could say anything else. If Bailey had her way, we’d be dancing around the damn friend zone for years before we got anywhere. I wasn’t going to let that happen. She was too damned sexy, and not sucking on those perfect tits was practically a crime against nature.
Not to mention the fact that I just wasn’t that fucking nice of a guy.
“This is how this is going to work. You’re going to sit at your desk like a good girl and do your work. But once this day is over, that ass is mine.”
Bailey let out a little moan that instantly made my dick hard. She was enjoying this. The flush of red in her cheeks and the sparkle in her eye proved it. I filed that away for future reference. It was good to know she could appreciate my filthy mouth, because I had no plans of reining it in while fucking her.
“What does that mean?” Bailey finally asked. She smoothed a hand down her skirt, and I noticed that her hand stopped dangerously close to her pussy.
I chuckled. I bet that little kitty cat was soaking wet right about then.
“It means that you are going to leave at exactly five o’clock and head over to my place. And then we’re going to have a long overdue conversation.”
She gulped. “What if someone sees us leaving together? Won’t we get in trouble? I thought employees weren’t supposed to date.”
“I don’t give a damn if someone does see us. What are they
going to do, fire me? They’d lose their minds without me here cleaning up their messes inside of a day.”
It wasn’t arrogance that reassured me that my job was ironclad. My immediate manager was lazy as hell, and none of the other associates had the rapport with the clients that I did. So anyone who had a problem with what I did in my private time could kiss my ass.
“If you’re worried about getting in trouble, don’t be. We’re friends, right? Friends can give their friends a ride home. Besides, I have an offsite at 3, so I’ll meet you there.”
Bailey nodded. “And after we talk, then you’ll take me home.”
Hell no, I wasn’t taking her home. I knew exactly what would happen if I did that. She’d be inside and ignoring my calls again, and nothing would be resolved. I needed to get Bailey somewhere we could hash things out, and then we could get down to the good stuff. Such as exactly what she had on under that skirt.
“No, that’s not what’s going to happen, baby girl.”
I reached out and caressed her cheek, unable to stop myself from touching her. Bailey closed her eyes at my touch and made a sound that reminded me of a kitten purring, which definitely didn’t help the blue balls situation.
If I was going to get through an entire day of work while thinking about Bailey naked then I needed something to tide myself over. Before she could see it coming, I leaned forward and brushed my lips over hers. When I pulled back, she was gazing at me with needy eyes.
I blew out a breath. I took a step back to keep myself from grabbing her. It was easier to breathe without her warm, vanilla scent wrapped around me.
“You’re coming over, we’re going to talk properly, and then we’re going to see if you need that spanking or not.”
I walked away while I still could. This was going to be one long fucking day.
6
Bailey
No way was I going along with this.
This was Hunter.
My best friend, Hunter.
Hot Hunter.
No. I wasn't going. I couldn't. Besides, when had Hunter turned into this totally hot alpha guy? No way, no how was I into any of that dominance and being tied up stuff, but, what he’d just said…it was a total turn on.
I inadvertently squeezed my thighs together, trying to quell the throbbing between my legs. Right about now, I was desperate enough to let him do whatever he wanted to me.
All weekend, I’d been thinking about what had happened. I hadn’t been drunk enough to completely forget. How could I? I’d lost my mind and thrown myself at him.
And true to form, Hunter had been a gentleman. Sort of.
Every time I remembered how he’d spanked me in the shower, my clit lit up like a pinball machine. Kind of like now.
I plastered my hands on my cheeks and tried not to think about it. This was insane. How was this Hunter? What happened to nice guy, affable, Hunter? He was sweet, considerate, someone I could really talk to. And he gave me excellent advice. We were friends. Oh yeah? Do you come on to all your friends like that?
Okay, there might have been that teeny tiny lapse in judgment. I’d been super vulnerable, more than a little drunk, and suddenly realized my bestie was hot. That wasn't my fault. And with my mind reeling from what I’d seen, and unfortunately heard, I’d been looking for comfort in all the wrong places. So I couldn't really be blamed for suddenly noticing Hunter was hot and then throwing myself at him.
Okay, I could be.
What was I going to do? If I went to dinner at his place, I’d likely need a large glass of wine to fortify myself. And then what would happen? Would we hang out as usual? Would he pick me up, slam me against the wall and drag orgasm after orgasm out of me? God, I hoped so.
No. No, I did not hope so. What was wrong with me?
I wasn't looking for a relationship. Okay, it would be nice to have someone to care about me. But I wasn’t looking for something at work. And certainly not with my best friend. Because if things went sideways, then who would I talk to? And since when did Hunter want me?
I flushed. Okay, if I was being honest, I’d seen his interest back in the early days. But because I’d been so shut down to any of that, he’d stopped sending the signals, and we’d settled into our friendship.
If I did this, we would be crossing a line we couldn't come back from But what if he was still Hunter? What if we stayed friends, but just added amazing sex? I had no doubt sex with Hunter would be amazing.
There was no way I could do a friends-with-benefits arrangement with him. Friends-with-benefits quickly turned from good, great, awesome benefits to bad benefits. Things went wrong. I wasn’t going to risk that. He was too important to me.
Okay, yeah, my decision was made. As much as I might want him, as much use as I’d been giving my battery-operated boyfriend, I wasn't going to go there.
So what if he suggested he might spank me or that I might like it? So what if his hands gripping my hips tight had been the hottest thing I’d felt in years? None of that mattered, because I was not going to fuck Hunter.
Besides, given that streak of dominance, I wasn’t down for any of that. No man told me what to do. Never mind that I sort of liked it.
Just as I was grabbing my bag to head to the gym before going home, my work phone rang. Mr. Dent. Crap. I knew how this was going to go. Instead of getting a workout and going home with takeout to watch reruns of Sex and the City, I was going to be here. Working. With Mister Pervy.
"Yes, Mr. Dent?"
"Bailey, I'm reviewing the marketing campaign we just turned in, and none of this is going to work. I need you to stay late. Make a couple of orders from the place around the corner for takeout, but do not exceed fifty dollars."
What the hell? I wasn’t even assigned to the Higgins client. And fifty dollars was not going to cover takeout for more than three people if all the interns were working. But he knew that. He was just a cheap ass.
"Okay, sir. How many of us will be staying?" I waited with bated breath, dreading the answer.
"All the interns. This is an all-hands-on-deck situation."
I exhaled a long sigh, then said, "Sure thing." After I hung up with him, I dragged out my cell phone and started a text to Hunter.
Me: Sorry not going to make it. Have to work. Dentface is on a rampage. Rain check?
I had absolutely zero intention of getting a rain check, but he didn't need to know that.
Hunter
I stared at the text for several seconds.
She may have had to work, but I knew her well. She’d had no intention of ever coming tonight.
I smirked at my own joke. Well, if she wasn’t coming, she wasn't going to give me the brush off via text. She was going to tell me to my face. I wasn’t letting her run.
Not after what happened Friday. I knew she wanted me. And I wanted her too. So bad my balls were a permanent shade of indigo. But I wanted more than sex. I wanted all of Bailey. This wasn't going to be a casual-sex situation. We could make this thing work. I just had to make sure she saw it too.
Sitting back and being Mr. Nice Hunter had gotten me nowhere. I’d spent a lot of time tamping down my desires and what I really wanted to make someone else more comfortable. Well, I was done with that. I wanted Bailey, so I was going to go get her.
I grabbed a box of her favorite chocolate truffles, which I’d been saving for tonight. If I knew Dent, he might not feed the team he had working. Or if he did, he’d make a point to order less food than was enough for the people there.
At least these would tide her over until I brought her home and could feed her properly.
In minutes, I was out of my apartment and hailing a cab. I lived downtown, so it made no sense to pull out my car when the office was just on the other side of downtown. I could've walked, but I wanted to be quick just in case she did leave the office and try to head home instead.
When I reached the office, I was surprised to find it still hopping and busy with interns working on finishing touches fo
r the Reverence Airlines campaign.
The strange thing was that the interns that were here were lower-level interns, the kind that could make copies and fetch coffee. Bailey might still be an intern, but after working here for nearly a year, she was acting as a junior associate on a lot of campaigns. This campaign wasn't even one of hers. Why the hell had Dent had her stay for this?
Besides, while Dent was technically the person she reported to, the structure was cross-functional. All the projects she worked on were in my department, so why was she staying to help with this stuff?
Because Dent has the hots for her. That made me shudder. I still had the video from the other night. I didn't think Bailey even knew she'd recorded the whole thing. The real question was what the hell was I going to do with it? Right now, I was holding on to it just in case we needed it later.
Okay, first things first. I texted my boss, Stephen, with a quick request to have Bailey help me out with something. Then I marched into Dent's office. This should be fun.
“Hey, Mr. Dent."
Dent frowned. "Hunter? I didn't know you were working late."
"Yeah. Had a little trouble with the Wendell campaign. Actually, can I grab Bailey? She's done most of the original work on it, since she’s been working with our team."
Dent frowned. "But I need her here."
And here was the crux of it. I didn't want to have to do this, but I would to get what I wanted.
"Well, you have lots of interns. Bailey's actually done work for my client. So do you really need her to collate, or can another intern handle that?"
Dent's face went red. I had him by the balls. He didn't need Bailey tonight. Bailey didn't even work on this particular project. So having her here was bullshit and we both knew it.
After a few moments, Dent said, "Fine. But I want to talk to Stephen about her time. She is my direct hire."
I smiled. "Oh, I totally get it. The thing is, we have cross-functional teams for a reason, right?"
