Protecting Emma

by ML Michaels

  “Sign my damn paperwork and maybe I won’t need to.” He was angry. Angry that other people were allowed to go on with their lives in the dysfunctional way people did, but that he needed a doctor to tell him it was okay to live his own. He was angry that the girl in front of him, who he wanted so badly, was determined to ignore the sexual tension between them.

  Jamie was just angry in general.

  Clara

  Clara was tired. She was tired of running from people like Dane, and she was tired to lying to people like Jamie. She was even more tired of lying to herself.

  Jamie was right. She knew exactly where he was coming from. It was unfair that she got to run away from her problems until the very last second before impact, but he had to face up to his. She’d been walking around for months, a ticking time bomb of anxiety, but nobody had forced her into therapy.

  “You’re right,” Clara said. “You’re absolutely right about me, you know.”

  This admission seemed to stun him. “If you know that, then why do you do it?” he asked.

  Clara chuckled mirthlessly and sunk to her heels on the ground. “The same reason everyone does anything stupid,” she said. “It’s easy.”

  Jamie hunched down onto the ground with her, pulling his knees up to his chest and balancing his elbows on them. “Seems anything but easy,” he observed.

  “In a way it is, though,” she said. “It’s the same reason it’s easier for you to pretend that what happened on that mission doesn’t affect you.”

  “We were doing so well, Clara,” he said with a grim smile. “Don’t ruin it now. Don’t bring up things that should stay dead.”

  “Jamie.”

  It must have been something about the way she said his name that did it. One moment, Jamie was all buff and bravado. The next moment he was looking at her like his soul had ripped in two.

  “You remind me a lot of him, you know,” he said quietly.

  “Heath?” She’d read from his records that he and one of the men who had been killed on that mission, Heath, had been best friends. He and two others had died that day. Jamie was the sole survivor.

  “Yeah.” He looked down and shuffled his feet. “It’s hard to move on without him. I feel like I have a purpose when I’m out there in the world, fighting for the things I believe in. But they’ve grounded me, and now I feel useless.”

  Clara put a hand on his shoulder. “Well then,” she said, smiling softly. “There’s only one thing left to do.”

  He looked down at her, eyes dark and wide. “What’s that?”

  “Stop blaming yourself.”

  Jamie stilled, but otherwise showed no sign of just how hard she’d hit him. But she had, and she knew it. “I should have been there,” he said. “Did your file tell you where I was when we were attacked?”

  Clara shook her head.

  “I had lagged behind for two seconds, just to fix a strap on my pack. Two seconds was all it took.”

  “It was an ambush, right?” Clara asked quietly.

  “Yup,” he replied, his eyes stony. “And they walked right into it. I caught up just in time to see their dead bodies and to shoot the guys who did it.”

  “You couldn’t have known, Jamie,” Clara said. “Hindsight is twenty-twenty.”

  “I know,” he said. “I’ve been told that bullshit a million times by everyone since then. But the look in my best friend’s widows eyes when she saw me at his funeral…I know she wished it had been me lying in that casket instead of him.”

  “You did what you could,” Clara said quietly. “She knows that.”

  Jamie exhaled breathily. “I know.” He rubbed his hand across his face. “I think it was just easier to stay angry at myself than to accept that he was really gone. It’s like as long as I still have this weight on my chest, he’s still there.”

  Clara nodded. “That’s normal,” she said. “And so very human.”

  Jamie chuckled grimly. “He would have liked you a lot,” he said. “Though he would have really disliked your taste in men.”

  Clara scowled. “I deserved that,” she admitted. “But, like I said, it’s easy.” She ran a hand through her hair absently. “I think we both need to stop taking the easy route all the time.”

  Jamie nodded.

  Clara smiled coyly. “My taste in men isn’t always so bad though,” she said.

  Sam raised an eyebrow at her. “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Give me one example of a guy who actually deserves your affection.”

  Clara finally felt as ease to do the one thing she had wanted to do since he walked into her office on her first day. She rushed forward and kissed him.

  If Jamie was surprised, he didn’t show it. He responded easily, pulling her body flush against his and delving his tongue between her lips. He kissed her hungrily, all of the pent up lust he had felt exploding into their embrace.

  Without interrupting their kiss, Jamie hoisted Clara into his arms and walked up to her front door. She fumbled with her key in the lock briefly, but they made it through. As the heat of their kiss rose, however, it didn’t seem like they would make it much farther.

  Jamie sat down on her couch and balanced her on his lap. His rock hard groin was pressed against her mound, and she rubbed against him with fervor as he continued to kiss her demandingly. She wanted him. She wanted all of him. She wanted him to take all of her.

  Jamie seemed to want that too. He reached into her skirt, past her panties, and pressed a finger deep inside of her. She already knew that she was soaking wet. He growled against her lips, then moved his face to kiss her neck, nipping in time with his thrusts between her folds.

  Clara couldn’t take anymore. “Dammit, Jamie,” she whispered breathlessly. “Please.”

  Her words seemed to drive him mad with lust. One moment, he was reaching between their bodies and unbuttoning his jeans, the next he was pushing her panties to the side and sliding his length into her.

  Clara groaned in satisfaction. He fit her in a way that no man ever had, like they had been divinely sculpted for each other. She pressed her hands onto his shoulders and began to grind up and down.

  The only thing that kept Clara from floating off into space was the feeling of Jamie’s hands anchored on her hips, pushing and pulling her on his cock. She cursed herself for not allowing them this pleasure sooner.

  Jamie used one of his hands to pull her breasts out of her tank top, then latched his mouth onto a nipple as she rode him. The pain of his teeth on her sensitive bud was sharp and insistent, but it was also so sweet that she cried out in rapture. She could feel it—her impending orgasm. The further she rode Jamie, the closer it got. She began writhing on top of him, desperately grinding away toward her release.

  Jamie’s hands moved back to her hips and guided her with a similar ferocity, their combined moans filling the living room with the sounds of fervent need.

  “Oh god!” Clara cried. “I’m coming!”

  She came apart in a haze, eyes rolling back into her skull as Jamie continued to hoist her on his shaft like a doll. She felt electricity surge beneath her skin, burning every nerve ending with a delicious pain that raised her out of her consciousness and onto a higher plane.

  Jamie’s moans turned to grunts and he began to thrust up into her, doubling his frenzied assault on her pussy. He reached his climax with a loud groan, pulling her body against him and burying his face in her neck.

  He held her for some time, arms tight around her back as if he was afraid to let go.

  “Jamie?” Clara said eventually.

  He pulled away from her shoulder, and kissed her sweetly on the lips. “Yes?”

  Clara gave him a tender smile. “I can’t be your therapist anymore.”

  Jamie laughed. “I figured,” he said. “Perhaps you can refer me to someone else.”

  The End

  *****

  Resisting the Boss: A Billionaire BBW Office Alpha Mal
e Romance

  By ML Michaels

  Brooke walked awkwardly, holding an extra-large coffee in one hand and a bag containing a doughnut in the other. She huffed with determination and brought them to the passenger seat of her luxury rental car with butter-soft leather seats. The GPS told her about a traffic jam up ahead.

  “Oh, why didn’t you tell me about that before I came to this coffee shop? Stupid thing …” she cursed at the unassuming screen on her dash. "Call Sally,” she added, as she pulled out into the morning traffic in her new home city.

  “Hey, sugar, what’s happening? Don’t you have to get to work?” Sally said when she picked up.

  “That’s my problem; I’m stuck in traffic.” Brooke’s car was barely able to crawl since she’d left the coffee shop. Her words were muffled by the sweet delicious flavor of her breakfast.

  “So, you’ve got nothing more important to do, why not call me, right?” said Sally. “Hey, are you eating?”

  “Pretty much the idea I had, and maybe.” Brooke smiled, and was less annoyed by the traffic—or the prospect of actually being late for the first time in who-knew-when.

  “Jelly doughnut? You’re stressed out about the new job aren’t you?”

  “Well, not so much.”

  “Come on,” said Sally knowingly, “you wouldn’t have called me while driving through morning traffic unless you were freaking out at least a little.”

  “Maybe just a little bit—oh crap!” Brooke turned down the wrong street, and her GPS started to correct for the mistake.

  “You’re on hands free, right?”

  “Of course I am,” said Brooke, waving her hand at the little speaker she was talking into, as though her friend could see her. “Crap, crap, crap. I’m going to be late now, I know it. I shouldn’t have stopped for coffee here. There’s a diner by my place, why do I have to have fancy coffee? Why am I addicted to sugary bad things? I don’t know the area well enough. I’m definitely going to be late.” Brooke felt herself speeding up, driving less safely.

  “You really need to calm down. It’s going to be fine. If they were ready to lure you from a rival and fly you all the way out there, I don’t think being a few minutes late is going to be a deal breaker.”

  “I know…” She slowed down to a legal pace and took a big breath. “Can I tell you something? I just actually kind of wish Franklin was here to talk me through this.”

  She and Franklin had been so close for several years. She had supported all his ideas in college and one of them, a fitness app, turned out to be a big money maker. He went on to launch a digital fitness enterprise. But the more successful he got, the less their relationship meant to him.

  "Hey, you don't say that. He never deserved you," said Sally firmly. “You know…your new boss is single though, has been for a long time. He’s cute too, and of course, loaded.

  “Oh boy! Another hot shot with no time for a love life,” Brooke said. She’d talked with her new boss over the phone many times while he tried to recruit her for his team. He seemed like a man committed to making a difference in the world. He never gave her the impression that money meant that much to him.

  “Not according to his interviews,” Sally chimed in.

  “Finally. Sally, I made it! You’re right, I don’t need Franklin anymore when I have a best friend like you. Thank you so much for talking me down.”

  “Any time, good luck!”

  “Thank you, bye!”

  As soon as she was in that meeting room, enjoying the cool breeze of the climate controlled office building, Brooke forgot all about her anxiety. This was what she was born to do, and she was damn good at what she did.

  The formal introductions with the team where pretty routine. Everyone was courteous, dressed professionally in expensive power attire, and seemed highly attentive to everything that was done and said.

  “It is a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Mr. Floyd. This seems like a wonderful team. I’m sure I’m going to love working with you all,” Brooke said, letting her business persona do the work for her as she shook hands with the last person around the table, the boss.

  “Just call me Matthew, please. None of that “mister” stuff here. The man was, true to Sally’s word, cute. Brooke could not help but notice that he was downright gorgeous. He had precisely cut but ever-so-perfectly unkempt black hair, a slight amount of stubble that was cleaned up at the edges to create straight lines, and straight, broad shoulders to fill out his lavish suit. He was noticeably taller than Brooke as well, at a little over six feet.

  “You have no idea how hard we pushed to get you over onto our team,” he said, sitting down. “Please, take a seat guys. So, Brooke, how have you found our fine city so far? Have you settled in well after the trip out here?”

  “It’s wonderful, thank you. I am a little eager to start getting up to speed though.” What, are you just going to chat away like we all have all day to waste? Brooke thought.

  Matthew’ bright eyes went a little darker. It seems he was hoping for a more casual response. “As you can see, we’re going to have to ask you to play catch up, just for a few weeks anyway.”

  Brooke was nodding along with each point Matthew made. She was getting impatient, and that was now obvious to everyone else. Matthew said, “Carla here is going to be your right hand woman.” He gestured at the classically beautiful woman in her late 30s, long brown hair in a bun, wearing a sensible but expensive pant-suit. She nodded, and Brooke did the same. Neither actually smiled, but there was a look of mutual respect.

  After the meeting, Matthew approached Brooke while she remained at the table to look through her notes. “So, how do you think you’ll fit in with us here at GoForSky? Do you need me to walk you through anything?”

  “Will Carla have the info I need?”

  “Oh, she’s got all the data you could possibly want, and more. I was talking about you though, do you want to grab a coffee and talk about the project, your position, or any other questions you have?”

  “Matthew…I moved a long way to work with what I consider to be the best team in our field. Please don't make me regret that, sir." Brooke waivered for a moment wondering if she’d taken his comment the wrong way. But after Franklin, no…better safe than sorry.

  He looked surprised, then embarrassed. “Oh, no, I didn’t mean—Well, I’ll let you get back to your notes. Please take your time, this is our team’s personal meeting room. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Floyd, I mean Matthew.”

  Brooke had barely even had time to unpack her things at her new apartment. After arriving at the airport yesterday, a car sent by GoForSky had picked her up and taken her there. It was still early, but the jet lag from her long flight was overwhelming. Instead of unpacking and organizing herself like she really wanted to, Brooke had zoned out and slept for most of the day. That, and her need for coffee and a donut, were why she had been running behind schedule this morning.

  It was nice of them to give me the rest of today off, she thought, as she headed back to her apartment. Brooke had been expecting them to put her right to work that day; big business people always with their eyes on the prize. She picked through some of boxes, but was not in the mood to put things away yet. For some reason, she kept thinking about Franklin, who’d moved on the minute he made it big. Things hadn’t been like that when they were in college together. It seemed like success just made many people change…Brooke was successful, but she still cared about the important things in life, like friends and family.

  She went to call Sally, or maybe her parents, tell them about her new home and colleagues. But the time difference meant that they would be asleep…damn.

  She checked her email instead, and there was a message from Matthew.

  Hi Brooke,

  Please allow me to apologize if I made you uncomfortable today. I only want each person on my team to feel happy and totally in the loop. If you were feeling overwhelmed or lost after coming into this new
product release at the last minute, I understand. Let me know if you need a hand.

  Sincerely,

  Matthew Floyd

  For the rest of the night, she tried to figure out what the guy’s angle was. He must have one. They’d had some nice conversations over the phone, but surely he didn’t think that meant anything. Of course, he must just be trying to get into the new girl’s panties, right? Ha, like that was something she was about to do. She didn’t reply to his email thinking that might make him squirm and think twice about wasting time on her. He’d move onto the next trophy soon enough.

  ***

  The next day, Brooke was back at work ready to go. She’d at least had a chance to go through her work clothes and find some of her favorites. Today’s pick was a tailored suit and blouse that fit her fuller figure perfectly. She felt fantastic for her first day of actual work as vice president of public relations for GoForSky. In fact, she even got there an hour early to start going through all the paperwork piled up on her desk.

  “Hello, Brooke, it’s nice to see you again,” said Carla as she entered the office.

  “Hi, Carla was it it? Sorry, I was a little flustered yesterday.”

  “That’s me.” She smiled and continued, “Are you having any trouble settling in? I can imagine it would have been nerve-wracking to get off a plane from the other side of the country, only to come right in for a meeting like that. I would have been terrified.”

  “I don’t know; you look like a confident woman.”

  “Thanks,” said Carla with an even bigger smile. Somehow, Brooke had thought that this woman would be a hard-ass, but she was already warming up to her.

  “Oh, sorry…can I help you with something?”

  “No, I’m fine.” Carla moved over to the other side of the room and sat down at a desk that faced Brooke’s own work area. “They didn’t tell you, did they? We’re sharing this office together. You know, ‘right hand woman’ and all.”