“You’ll be on duty twenty-four seven, live at the mansion with her. But, I understand a man like you will have,” he circled his fingers in the air, “let’s say, needs. So, as part of the compensation package you’ll get thirty days off a year and an apartment at Cruz towers for your time off. Twenty-percent of the property will be vested for each year of your service.”
That apartment alone could fund a dozen security firms. Five years and it was all mine. Then, I’d happily get out, sell the luxury apartment and take the money and run.
What the hell did I need time off for? I never had much of a life to start off with, even less now if I didn’t have the Asylum to go to.
“Sounds fine. Where do I sign.”
“Good. My secretary has your NDA, contract, and keys.” Slimeball stood and extended his hand to shake mine.
I’d better get over my aversion to pressing the flesh with the sleazy upper crust if I was going to be working for them for the next five years. I shook his hand and he waved me out the door.
“See Marylin. She’ll take care of all the details and introduce you to Angie. Take care of that girl and her money, young man. We’re all counting on you.”
I got the distinct feeling they cared a whole hell of a lot more about the money than the girl.
Slimeball shut the door practically before I even got out of his office. I was just as glad to be rid of him.
The woman sitting at the desk, twirling in the chair was certainly a Marylin alright. Dyed blonde hair, contrasted with creamy light brown skin. She was trying to hide her Latin heritage behind that hair, make-up, and designer clothes.
No way those curtains matched the carpet. Regardless, she was fucking gorgeous. Curves in all the right places and a smile that lit up the room.
Jesus. When had I ever cared about a smile? She was sweetness and light, all wrapped up in a body made to be fucked and sucked. By me.
Had slimeball mentioned anything about fraternization among employees?
That last scene I’d played with Celine popped into my head. Had it been this angel with all the curves in all the right places across my lap, my cock would have been rock fucking hard.
We wouldn’t have stopped at one little orgasm either. No. She’d come, again and again, but instead of by her own hand, it would be mine, with my dick deep inside of her.
I’d ride her cunt hard, until she screamed my name. Then I’d take her ass. God, that ass.
What was it about this woman that had me feeling something for the first time in… what, months, years?
She caught sight of me on the next spin of the chair and planted her feet stopping dead. What a pretty pink flamed up her neck and cheeks at getting caught goofing off.
I’d love to see that same blush if I caught her with her hand in her panties after I’d told her not to. Even better across her ass as I spanked it for her.
“You got something for me, sweet cheeks?” Yeah, I was going there. Nobody had made me sign an office place no sexual harassment policy yet.
“Me?”
“I’ll take you, sure.” I sat on the edge of the desk and the light scent of her perfume, maybe her shampoo hit me like a grenade to the brain. Peaches or mangoes.
That blush went even darker. Mmm.
“No, I—” she stood and tugged on the flowy shirt she wore, which gave me even more of a view of her cleavage. My cock was going to get lost in between those plump tits.
I really should have shut all those dirty, dirty thoughts I was having about her down. In my mind I already had her bent over the desk, fucking her, making her moan.
My cock was so damn happy to have some blood flowing to it again, it was completely taking over my brain.
“I meant, I’m not Marylin. She probably went out for some coffee. I was just… uh, biding my time. I’ve been summoned.”
The way she rolled her eyes made me want to laugh at loud at whatever fool had thought they could summon her. She might be a bit shy and flustered at the moment, but there was some fire in there. God, she would be a fucking challenge and a blast to dominate.
“In trouble with the boss?”
“Ha. Not since I turned eighteen and got the money my mother left me. He just wishes.”
If she had money, what was she doing working at a place like this? Working her way up the corporate ladder? No. She barely looked twenty and didn’t have that corporate look the other women I’d seen in the company suited-look uniform.
A woman who had that harried look of a secretary who was over worked and underpaid rushed into the outer office suite. “Hey, Ange. I see you met your new bodyguard already.”
Ange.
Angie.
Angelina Cruz. Daughter of Guillermo Cruz of Cruz Enterprises. My new boss.
Fuck.
Chapter Three
Engaged and Unengaged
I tried. I really fucking tried. The more I stayed cool and reserved around Angelina, the more she wore me down.
I’d been working and living in her expansive mansion for three years and had jacked off more than any normal man should. I’d become a masturbating monk. It wasn’t just her incredible curves that had me turned on.
It took a good week of her grumping around, doing her damnedest to lose me, which wasn’t possible, and me overhearing a half dozen phone calls to her father about how she didn’t need ‘no stinking bodyguard’ before I caught her sticking her tongue out at me.
I’d come at least a hundred and ten times since then just thinking about how wide her eyes had gone when I told her she there were a lot of things I could let her do with that tongue, but none of them were going to stop me from protecting her.
That god-damned tongue of hers. Her mouth was damn near perfect with her pouty lips that were begging to be fucked.
But, something else had happened in the past couple of years. Yeah, I still wanted to fuck her so bad I could taste her sweet pussy on my lips. But, I’d also gotten to know her.
There was only so much distance I could put between us when we were together 24/7. She was the one who’d finally broken the ice when she’d bought me a hot fudge sundae after one of her swanky social events at her country club.
I hated that she felt like she had to eat rabbit food and wear those God-awful control top panty-hose to fit in with the bitches and assholes her father spent time with.
She tried to be fake and bubble-headed around them. But, she wasn’t, and they resented her for it.
They resented her chestnut brown hair, her exotic-to-them Latin skin, and her curves. Everything that wasn’t their gluten-free white-bread world.
If she didn’t own fifty-one percent of Cruz Enterprises and financed all their little golf outings and charity fundraisers, they wouldn’t look at her twice.
Which would have been fine by me. The way they looked at her behind her back…with more than disdain, it was pure malice, that persuaded me to keep this job.
She needed protecting. Not from unknown assailants or thieves, but the real bad guys, the ones who wanted to steal something much more precious.
Nobody put baby in a corner.
But, the were sure as hell trying to. Like tonight.
The party of the century. The announcement of her engagement.
“Gray, would you please clasp this. I can’t get my fingers to stay still. I’m so nervous.”
Angelina held out and arm to me with a diamond bracelet that probably cost more than my monthly salary out toward me.
“No need to be nervous. I’ll be right beside you the whole night.” Except the inevitable part later in her bedroom.
“I know. Thank you. It’s just that Mindy said I should have worn the black dress because it’s slimming, but Marc’s favorite color is blue.”
“You look stunning in the blue.”
“What if he hates my hair?” She touched her carefully done-up hair do as if it would break.
I hated it. Mindy, Angel’s best friend had talked her into dying it blonde.
Said she’d look ‘so Marilyn’. What Mindy had meant was that Angelina would look more like all the other women at the country club, but with curves.
I could lose myself in her curves.
Not that she ever showed them off. Especially since she’d started dating Sparky McFuckface.
This guy was a serious douchebag. Thought he was god’s gift to the country club with his fancy ass degree from Yale.
A little negging and she’d become putty in his slimy hands. Yeah, she did have gorgeous brown eyes. But, Sparky couldn’t come up with anything better than calling her his brown-eyed girl.
What the fuck did she see in him?
She could do so much better.
Except Angel didn’t think so, and there lay the problem. She had no idea how beautiful and desirable she was because no one in her life ever told her that.
Until Marc, who filled her head with backhanded compliments.
I’d been this close to slugging him after the first words that ever came out of his mouth around her.
“Nice ass, jiggle it on over here.”
All I could do was make sure they didn’t physically hurt her or put her in any danger.
Because while Marc was a conniving asshole who would probably cheat on her the first chance he got, Angel needed to learn that lesson all on her own.
Nothing I said would make her see any different.
Because I wasn’t her nanny. I was her bodyguard and nothing more.
Because I was the asshole who couldn’t have her.
The party went off without a hitch. For Angelina anyway. Once we arrived at the club and Marc paraded her around on his arm for everyone to congratulate Angel calmed down.
All she needed in her life was a little acceptance. A little love.
Marc wasn’t the right guy to give it to her.
But, neither was I.
I could fuck her. I could open up that seductive siren she hid beneath clothes that were baggy and self-deprecating humor. Seeing her here tonight with all these smarmy bastards who called her the names behind her back almost had me pulling her away from all this.
I could take her to the club. Technically, I was still a member of the Asylum. She’d be shocked as hell.
Bennett had turned his little fuck club into a coveted place that the rich and famous couldn’t buy their way into. Only kicky fuckers were allowed through his doors, and only by recommendation from a current member.
I’d had my fair share of Doms, Dommes, subs and switches knocking on my door for a word from me. Half of them didn’t know what the fuck they were asking for. But, the ones who did, I sent to Jackass. He’d get them in if they were right for the Asylum.
Seeing Angelina on her knees, just for me, with nipple and clit clamps, her hands tied behind her back and a yes, sir on her lips would have to be one more fantasy. One which I’d be using to jack off.
Later tonight when she was tucked safely into bed.
Right now, I needed to keep my head in the game. Angel was chatting up some friend of her father’s who was leering a little too much down the front of her dress.
Not on my watch.
I approached them and cleared my throat. “Angelina, can I please see you for a moment?”
The leerer didn’t like my interruption. Tough.
I held her elbow and guided her away before she could even answer.
“Oh my God. Thank you. If I had to hear one more time why Cruz Enterprises needs to invest in that old windbag’s media company I was going to fake fainting. You had perfect timing.” She rolled her eyes and took a deep cleansing breath. “Have you seen Marc?”
Douchebag should have been the one to save her from boring conversations at their own engagement party. “No, but I can make a sweep for him.”
“Would you? I feel like I haven’t even seen him all night except at the beginning of the reception.”
I gave her a salute. “Will do. How much longer do you want to stay?”
“Umm, I don’t know. Let me check with Marc first.”
Whenever she was around him that was always her answer. I hated it.
I had to find a way to get him out of her life.
To protect her. Not because I was a selfish bastard who wanted her to myself.
Mindy had been scooting her way toward the edge of the room for at least a half an hour. She thought nobody was paying attention. She was wrong. After a quick glance at Angelina, she made a break for the hallway that led to the posh restrooms.
I did not like the look of that.
“Snag me a piece of cake, will ya? I’ll make that sweep and meet you by the tower of champagne.”
She nodded and rolled her eyes. “Can you believe that crap? What a waste of good bubbles.”
Angel headed toward the bar and I went in the opposite direction. No sign of Mindy in the hall, but it didn’t take me long to find them.
They hadn’t even bothered to lock the door.
My years of special forces training and ops were not needed to sneak up on Marc and Mindy. They were oblivious to the world around them.
Mostly because Marc had his cock buried in Mindy’s ass.
“Fuck, Mindy. That’s right, take my cock, you little whore. Take it all.”
“Oh, God. Yes. Call me your whore again.”
Bingo.
I could have guessed that these two were into degradation. I’m sure Marc thought he was a big bad Dom. I knew a lot of men who could have given Mindy what she needed, better than this schmoe.
I hid myself behind the door and pulled out my phone. This was exactly the fodder I needed to get Marc out of Angelina’s life for good.
Blackmail was a bitch.
Angel would be hurt when he broke off the engagement. That couldn’t be helped. But, I’d make sure he made sure she knew he was the problem in their relationship.
Thirty seconds of watching these two screw was more than I ever needed and plenty to keep as my compelling evidence of why Marc was going to suddenly develop a need to go find himself, in someplace far away, like Antarctica.
I silently backed out of the restroom and returned to the party. Now, to find Angel and get her the hell out of here.
She wasn’t by the champagne, or the cake, or anywhere else in the room.
“Hey, did you guys see which way Angelina went?”
The group of suits I approached snickered and scoffed. One of them motioned toward the ladies’ restrooms.
Shit.
The bathrooms shared vents. What was being said in one could be heard in the other.
I sprinted across the room and caught Angel coming out. She was pale and kept swallowing like she was going to throw up.
“Gray.”
“Angel.” I wasn’t supposed to know anything. She was feeling humiliated and fuck if I was going to let anyone see that.
“Take me home.”
I nodded and moved to put my hand on her arm to lead her away, but she slumped against the wall, tears forming on her lashes.
“No way, baby. Don’t let them see you cry. They aren’t worth your tears. Hold your head high and march the fuck out of here.”
She glanced up at me and that hurt turned to rage. A curt nod and she stood tall, pushing herself off the wall.
I placed my hand on her back and guided her through the people still partying, through the murmurs and whispers, until we were outside, and I could get her into the car.
I directed the driver to take us back to the mansion and then crawled in the back seat with her. Christ, I didn’t know what to do.
I wanted to hold her, tell her everything was going to be all right. She’d be better off without Sparky.
Her body language said not to touch her. She was pissed.
Good.
About damn time.
I clenched my fists containing my own anger. It would feel so damn good to punch in Marc’s face. Or worse.
I could. I wouldn’t hurt him. Unless she asked me to. Then I’d make him wi
sh he’d never even looked at her.
Angel didn’t say anything the entire ride home. She slammed doors and practically shredded her dress yanking it off as she walked inside. Lord, help Marc if he showed back up here tonight.
Which, of course, the fucktard did.
“Angie? Where the fuck are you? Ange?”
I met Sparky in the front foyer, arms crossed and my face as blank as possible. I kept my tone completely flat. My fury at him didn’t matter. Only Angelina’s.
“She’s in the great room.”
“Thanks. You may not want to stick around for this, man.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Marc shrugged and walked toward where Angelina sat waiting for him. I hope she sprang on his ass like a mother-fucking puma.
She was in some adorable pink fluffy pajamas, sipping a mug of tea.
“What the hell Angie? You left in the middle of the party. We hadn’t even made the toasts yet.”
“Get out.” She didn’t raise her voice, no screaming or hysterics for my girl. She was stone cold.
“What are you talking about?”
Really? He was going to play dumb?
“Get. Out. It’s two very simple words, Marc. But, I’ll spell them out for you if you need me to. It means leave my house and don’t ever come back. Don’t call, don’t write, do not pass go.” Angel didn’t even look at him. She was staring at the opposite wall and when she was finished with her speech, she raised her mug of tea and took a long sip.
Marc sat on the chair across from her. “I’m not going anywhere. We’re getting married and that’s final. Your father already offered me the vice-president job tonight.”
I wasn’t even a little bit surprised about that. Angelina might own a majority share of the company, but it was as if she didn’t exist when it came to running the place. Too bad. She would probably do a better job.
I took a post behind Angel and crossed my arms. Sparky needed to see that I had her back. I could tell he was already losing his cool.
“Have fun with that. I hear there are lots of boys trips for the executive team. I’m sure Mindy won’t mind if you fuck around with some strippers.”
Covet the Curves: a Romance Collections Anthology Page 25
