Promise Not to Tell (Just Between Us #2)

by Alice Bright

  Promise Not to Tell

  Alice Bright

  Copyright © 2014 by Alice Bright.

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  **This is the second book in the Just Between Us series; however, this story is designed to stand on its down. You do not need to have read the other books in the series to enjoy this book.**

  Recently divorced, Calvin is a respected employee at his office.

  He's also sleeping with his colleague, Rebecca.

  After a sexy and exciting weekend at a business conference, they come back to the office and things return to normal.

  Sort of.

  Everything seems fine until Rebecca suddenly starts flirting with their boss, Calvin's ex-wife tries to seduce him, and Calvin can’t stop thinking about the way Rebecca kissed him.

  Will Calvin be able to keep his cool even if Rebecca and Brian sleep together?

  Will he be able to balance the women in his life without it impacting his job?

  Most of all, will he be able to keep his relationship with Rebecca a secret?

  Find out in PROMISE NOT TO TELL.

  Contents

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  One

  Calvin jumped out of bed when his alarm went off.

  He had been dreaming about her again.

  Hitting the “off” button and gliding into the shower, he tried to push Rebecca from his mind. Yes, the two of them had enjoyed an amazing weekend together in Denver, but they were home now.

  And there was no room for emotions when it came to his career.

  Calvin’s father had taught him a lot of things, but leaving a project half-finished or half-assed was not one of them. In fact, he’d taught Calvin from a young age that one of the most important things he would ever do in his life would be to pursue his chosen career path and to do so without complaint or hesitation.

  If Calvin needed to work late, he did.

  If he needed to redo a project, he did.

  If he needed to volunteer to go to Denver for a weekend conference and business meetings, he did.

  But he had never, in his entire adult life, been rewarded with the experience of sleeping with a girl like Rebecca.

  At least, not in the last 10 years.

  Calvin’s recent divorce had left him scarred, lonely, and broken. He felt shaken. He felt unsure of himself. He had always known that no matter what happened, Kelly would be there for him. She would always be the one to remind him that everything would be okay. She would always and forever be his soul mate.

  But with four little words, she had changed everything.

  She had closed their relationship.

  She had stopped their love.

  She had said goodbye and walked away.

  She had shattered his entire world.

  It had only taken four words:

  I want a divorce.

  Such a small sentence, but it had taken Calvin’s entire life and crushed it in less than a minute.

  It had been months.

  It had been months since she left and it still took all of his energy not to call her. It took everything he had not to text her when he saw something that reminded him of her. It took everything he had not to beg her for a second chance.

  But she was gone.

  And now he had finally started to move on.

  Calvin slipped into his black work pants and tightened his belt. He looked at himself in the mirror for a moment before stepping into his shoes.

  He wasn’t getting any younger, but he wasn’t getting worse-looking, either. Small specks of silver lined his brunette hair, letting the world know that he was experienced, that he had been around the block.

  At nearly 40, he didn’t want to waste time pining away for a woman who no longer cared for him. He had enjoyed his marriage with Kelly immensely. It felt cold to think that way about the woman he had shared everything with, but it was a closed (or closing) chapter in his life. He was moving forward now. He was moving on.

  He was, he hoped, moving toward something better.

  He couldn’t be sure, but as he tightened his tie and slipped on his jacket, he thought that, just maybe, everything would be okay.

  Two

  Rebecca looked hot as hell when Calvin pranced into the office at 9.

  She was leaning over a desk, making notes for someone, when she saw him. With a quick smile, she wiggled her ass just enough for Calvin to have flashbacks of their night together.

  It had been only a few days since he’d ravaged her in the hotel room during their conference, pretending the entire time that he was their boss, Brian.

  Rebecca hadn’t minded role playing.

  In fact, she’d loved every second of it.

  Calvin tried not to think about the way she smelled, the way she’d moved, or how she’d made him feel like more of a man than he’d felt in years.

  It was nice to be needed.

  But all that was over now. Now it was back to the ol’ grindstone.

  “Good morning, Cal.” Rebecca greeted him with a smile. She adjusted his tie, leaning in too close, breaking their personal boundaries without caring. He wanted to reach down and kiss her cheek.

  Better yet: he wanted to push her onto the desk and slide his cock into her.

  But that couldn’t happen.

  Not today.

  Not ever.

  The two of them had agreed to keep things simple. Their night together had been just that: one night.

  They were just going to be friends now.

  Just and only, very good friends.

  “Rebecca,” Calvin nodded curtly to her. “How was your weekend?”

  She smiled coyly. He knew she was thinking about the secret that the two of them shared. No one else knew what had happened that night in Denver. No one else knew that he had brought her back to her room. No one else knew he had glided his hands over her body. No one else knew the things he had whispered to her in the dark of the night.

  And they would never know.

  They had both promised not to tell.

  But that didn’t mean he didn’t want to.

  When his mind wasn’t consumed with mundane tasks like eating or drinking or showering, he was thinking of her. He had pictured her face the entire trip back from Denver. He had thought about her almost constantly, finding it hard to stay focused on the things he needed to concentrate on.

  “Oh, it was all right,” Rebecca told Calvin. “Nothing special.”

  “No? You didn’t meet anyone fantastic on your trip?”

  “Well, I did get really drunk one night and take a guy back to my room.”

  “You did, huh? What was that like?”

  “Well, to be honest,” she leaned in and whispered in Calvin’s ear, “He sort of took me.”

  He felt a growing warmth in his loins as he thought about the way he had saved Rebecca from an obnoxious stranger at the bar and had ended the night wrapped in her arms. She had been luscious, sexy, and on fire. She had been incredible. She had been fire and ice all wrapped into one.

  She had been all his.

  For just one night, she had been his.

  And despite their promise to just stay friends, he found himself wanting more, wanting her.

  Rebecca walked away, wiggling her ass as she headed into the conference room. She stopped at the door and turned, smil
ing at Calvin’s obvious stare.

  “Coming?” She asked, walking inside.

  “Almost,” he muttered.

  Three

  “The reports should be in by Thursday,” Brian announced, flipping through his notecards. The presentation, so far, had been rough. Calvin wondered if Mr. Montgomery had even had time to prepare. Surely, he had, given that he was the one who had scheduled the meeting, but Brian seemed a bit off today.

  Maybe it was the weather.

  Then again, maybe he was staring at the same thing Calvin was: Rebecca’s breasts.

  Her top button was undone, which was fine.

  The second button as also undone, which was exciting.

  The third button looked as though it might pop at any moment, which made Calvin ache and yearn a million times more than he already was.

  Her cleavage showed as she bent down to pick up a pencil she had dropped, revealing the outline of her bosom.

  Calvin caught a brief glimpse of her red lace bra.

  He had a brief moment of thinking about peeling it off her and tossing it on the floor.

  But then he turned his thoughts back to Brian.

  “One of the main things we learned in Denver this weekend,” Brian continued, clearing his throat, “is that we need to get on board with tech. If we want to continue to improve and to expand our brand, we need to become more active in social media.”

  Rebecca raised her hand. When Brian nodded toward her, she asked, “Is this something we can do in-house, or would you suggest hiring a social media manager?”

  “We’ll need to hire someone,” Brian commented. “Social-based sites are always changing their algorithms. We’re going to have to find someone who knows the latest trends and who knows how to grow our pages to get us more leads and more conversions.”

  Calvin tried to focus on the words his boss was saying, but all he could concentrate on were how round Rebecca’s breasts looked.

  All he could think about was licking them again.

  All he wanted to do was leave early with her and run his tongue along her cleavage in the parking lot.

  But that could never happen.

  They were just going to be friends.

  Just friends.

  What did that even mean?

  Calvin tried to focus during the meeting. He knew Brian’s presentation was absolutely important, but somehow he just couldn’t. He had been through too much in the recent weeks to care about something as stupid as their company’s social media profiles. He had been through too much to care about how many “likes” or “follows” his company got.

  All he wanted was somewhere he could feel complete.

  He just wanted somewhere he could be himself.

  He didn’t know Rebecca that well. He didn’t know if they’d be a good match or not. The only thing he knew, really, was that they had enjoyed a fantastic night together.

  And though he had agreed to allow things to return to normal, Calvin was regretting his decision. He wanted more time with Rebecca. He wanted to be able to enjoy her again. He wanted to be able to collapse into her arms at the end of a hard day and know that she would be there for him.

  He wanted something.

  The meeting ended almost as abruptly as it had started, and Calvin began to gather his things as the room cleared out. Soon only Brian and Rebecca remained. She smiled at Calvin and started to follow him from the room, but Brian called her back.

  “Rebecca, can you stay a moment, please?”

  She glanced at Calvin and shrugged, as if to say, I don’t know what he wants. He tried to hide his disappointment as she scurried back into the room and next to Brian.

  Calvin tried not to notice the way Brian’s hand slid comfortably onto Rebecca’s lower back.

  He tried not to notice the way Brian leaned a little too close to Rebecca.

  Most of all, he tried not to notice the way she smiled at him.

  But he did.

  Four

  As Calvin left the meeting feeling defeated, he retreated to his desk and settled in for the day. His job didn’t have a lot to do with anything Brian was describing. He wasn’t on the hiring committee, nor did he deal with the company website.

  No, Calvin was one of the managers. His job was to make sure that everyone did what they were supposed to do.

  When someone didn’t do their job or when they failed to show up for work completely, Calvin would typically have to take over that person’s responsibilities. Because of this portion of his job, he was one of the most needed employees.

  And that was job stability at its best.

  Today, though, their intern hadn’t shown up. Calvin wasn’t entirely surprised. Alyssa was obnoxious, spoiled, and ill-tempered. He was surprised she’d lasted two weeks already. Because they didn’t have a replacement for her yet, though, Calvin would be covering her job that day.

  This primarily meant that he would be responding to customer inquiries, complaints, and letters.

  He had done the job before, and surprisingly, it wasn’t always horrible.

  Sometimes, the company would get letters from fans who loved their products. Sometimes, they’d get really nice pictures, notes, and compliments from customers. In these cases, Calvin got to write a friendly response and send off some coupons to a well-natured stay-at-home mom or retiree who had taken the time to write.

  The other times, though…well, there was a reason that only employees could enter the building.

  Today was one of the “other” days, one of the days where the mail was so awful and unbearable that Calvin spent nearly half an hour frowning at one particular letter.

  DEAR SIRS, it began, all in caps. LET ME TELL YOU WHY YOU ARE THE WORST COMPANY I HAVE EVER DEALT WITH.

  Calvin wondered how much longer the letter would dredge on for.

  Twelve pages, it turns out, and the entire thing was all in caps.

  He read the letter twice before looking at the clock and realizing how much time had passed. He turned around, slightly surprised that Rebecca wasn’t sitting at her desk. Though they weren’t particularly close emotionally, their desks kept them in close proximity throughout the workday.

  Calvin glanced around, unable to spot her.

  Curiously, he turned back toward the conference room. The glass windows of the room revealed Brian and Rebecca, still chatting at the front of the room. They seemed to be discussing something in one of Brian’s folders.

  His hand was still on her back.

  At least Calvin could feel superior knowing that he had gotten to her first.

  No matter what happened between Brian and Rebecca, it was Calvin who had slid into her in the darkness.

  It was Calvin who had made her moan with pleasure.

  It was Calvin who had given her one of the best nights of her life.

  And he had been pretending to be Brian the entire time.

  Five

  By the time Rebecca returned to her desk, it was nearly noon and Calvin was about to claw his eyes out from the horrendously spelled letter he was reading. A woman was tired of their company and wasn’t afraid to let him know over the course of four very-sloppily written pages.

  He reached for his coffee, took a swig, and turned to Rebecca.

  “Let’s get lunch,” he said to her.

  She turned around and smiled at him in her oh-so-coy way. What did that smile mean? Yes? No? Maybe? Did she need convincing? Had she been thinking of him the way he’d been thinking of her?

  “Let’s not and say we did.”

  She didn’t want to spend time with him.

  She didn’t want him the same way.

  Maybe his performance had been lackluster.

  Maybe she’d simply realized that a work relationship was not what she really wanted, at least not with him.

  Maybe she was holding out for Brian.

  “Oh,” he tried to conceal the disappointment he was feeling. “Already have other plans?”

  “No, it’s not
that,” she whispered, leaning close enough so that he could smell her perfume. “It’s just that I’m not hungry.” Eyeing his crotch, she smirked and added, “at least not for a sandwich. I had something else in mind.”