Rough Ride (Riding with Honor)

by Rebecca Avery

  Heading back in the house, he found the stairs that led up. After acclimating himself he was able to judge which room she would have used to climb out on the roof and knocked on the door. Not receiving a response he gently opened the door waiting for anyone within to acknowledge his presence. It must be her room as her bags from earlier were sitting in a chair next to the bed. Looking around he noticed the window to the room was wide open.

  As he approached the window he could see Lilly’s shapely legs sticking out from under the robe. One leg was bent and the other was propped up on her knee and the dangling foot continued to bounce. She still held the wine glass and was fumbling in an attempt to open the container of strawberries she had purchased earlier.

  “Need some help?” he asked through the open window.

  She jumped and her head whipped around to stare at him with wide blue eyes.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, sitting up and attempting to cover her bare legs.

  Ducking through the window he made his way over to where she was and sat down on the rooftop next to the chair.

  “No longer so willing to share your goodies with me?” he asked suggestively.

  She quickly looked away from him but he did not miss the blush that colored her pale cheeks. She was affected by him too, he realized. Working with her might be interesting…

  “I umm… I only have one glass. We could go downstairs and I’d be happy to pour you a glass,” she offered.

  Reaching over he took the carton of strawberries from her hand and pried open the lid. Helping himself to one, he bit into it as he stared at her. Gran had always told him staring was rude but he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She wore no makeup. Her hair was wet and combed straight back but she was hot!

  “I’ll pass on the wine but your berries are really good,” he said, finishing off the strawberry and handing her the open container.

  She took it from his hand but would not meet his gaze. “Please don’t say things like that,” she finally whispered.

  Knowing she meant the sexual innuendos he said, “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to embarrass you. That’s not why I came up here.”

  “Why did you come up here? My bedroom door was closed to keep out my sister’s guests,” she said.

  “Gran told me you’re going to be in town for a while, is that right?” he asked

  “Yes… why do you ask?” She replied.

  “She was as impressed with your knowledge on running an office as I was by the courage you showed riding on the back of a motorcycle with a strange man…in a skirt,” he smirked. “So I thought I would come and see if you had the knowledge and courage to come and work for me as my office manager.”

  “Please thank her for the praise. As for the motorcycle ride, I didn’t have much of a choice,” she began.

  “We could have taken my truck…” he interrupted.

  “What? Your truck? Why would you make me ride on the back of your motorcycle if we could have taken your truck? You knew I had never done that before and I was in a skirt…“she rambled.

  “Did you enjoy the ride?” he asked and ginned at her unable to stop himself.

  Blushing again she looked away from him and after several seconds replied, “Yes, actually I did. I wasn’t sure I would but once we got going…”

  “What was the best part? Did you like the rush from going fast, the roar and power between your legs, or the feel of me in your arms?” he asked huskily as he leaned towards her.

  He heard her sharp intake of breath at his words. This time she did meet his gaze and her eyes blazed with anger…and heat.

  “Mr. Jackson I am not an easy target. My sister and her friends told me all about you after you left earlier. I am a widow, not a Playboy bunny so whatever you think you’ll get from your sex talk and job offers, I can assure you will not pan out,” she said as she stood up and gently made her way past him to the window and climbed through it.

  He quickly followed her and made it through the window and caught her arm just as she reached to open the bedroom door.

  “Wait!” he said.

  Her blue eyes were like shards of glass as they cut him. Tears shimmered in them and he felt like the world’s biggest ass.

  “I’m sorry, that was uncalled for. Please…I can be stupid sometimes and I was just trying to flirt with you. I didn’t know…I’m sorry for your loss. When did your husband pass away?” he said ignoring the tingling sensation that touching her bare skin invoked.

  “In a little less than two weeks, it will have been two years…” she whispered as she stared at the door.

  After several long seconds of awkward silence he said “I’m sorry for your loss… really I am. I’m also serious about the job, you were amazing today. I swear it’s been so long since I’ve seen that desk I forgot what it looked like.”

  She choked out a small laugh. “Your office is in shambles, I’ve never seen anything like it. How did it get like that?”

  “Four sloths work there,” he replied.

  She laughed again and God help him he enjoyed the sound of it as much as he had enjoyed her arms around him earlier. Flirting with women was his specialty and it was usually his ticket to getting laid. This woman had cut him down to size, made him feel ashamed and captured his undivided interest with but a few select words.

  “So… are you interested or are you going to make Dickie and Gran pay for my mistakes?” he asked.

  His voice. It seemed to heat her just as much as his hand on her arm did. Standing so close to him she also noticed he no longer smelled like a mechanic but more like leather and some phenomenal smelling cologne.

  “How would they pay for your mistakes?” she asked, looking up into his dark eyes.

  “Well since I won’t be charging you for the labor to fix your car in return for all you did today at the shop… Dickie’s screwed out of a few bucks. If you worked for me, he’d be paid the same rate as any other job. As for Gran, she knows I won’t have time to get all the tax stuff together if I’m going to get my bike finished for the competition rally in two weeks so…she’ll be stuck doing it,” he said.

  “Are you extorting me?” she asked.

  “Is it working? If not I can try blackmailing you with pictures of you on my bike,” He teased.

  Though his expression looked serious she could see the glint of humor in his eyes and she lost her breath at the sex appeal this man seemed to ooze from every pore.

  “Why don’t you ask me nicely?” she said a little breathlessly.

  Leaning forward, she thought for sure he meant to kiss her and she braced for it. Instead he stopped, a mere inch between their lips, and stared in her eyes. This time there was no place to go, no place else to look. He invaded her space causing heat to shoot from her belly to the very core of her and she felt her panties grow damp from the intensity of the feeling. Yet he hadn’t even touched her!

  “Please, Lilly?” he whispered into her mouth as he stared in her eyes.

  She felt her whole body flush at the words. He was asking her to work for him or was he? Everything he said seemed to have a double meaning. She couldn’t tell if he meant it that way, or if her attraction to him made her mind go there. He was a big mass of contradictions.

  His piercing gaze and seeming constant scowl was intimidating, yet he flirted with her and said the most erotic things. He was hard to take and even harder to ignore…especially up close and personal like he was now.

  Stepping back from him she looked down and cleared her throat. “When would you need me to start?”

  “The sooner the better… is your weekend booked? Or at the very least could you work a few hours tomorrow?” he asked. “I never got to payroll today and the guys will be by in the morning to pick up their checks before the banks close. They close at noon on Saturdays so I’ve got no time to get it done and I could use your help.”

  “Sure, what time?” she said, finding herself unable to meet his gaze again.

  “I
s seven ok?” he asked.

  “That’s fine but I have no way to get there and I doubt my sister will be feeling much like getting up early on a Saturday to take me,” she said.

  “I’ll pick you up and bring you back if your car’s not done… but Lilly…”

  “Yes?” she said.

  “You might want to wear jeans this time.” He smiled as the visual of her with her skirt pulled up riding behind him on the bike came to the front of his mind.

  “I don’t have any,” She said.

  “Do you need me to run you to your car to get some?” he asked. Please say yes.

  “No, I mean…my husband never liked them so I stopped wearing them. I haven’t worn jeans in years,” she said.

  He laughed out right and Lilly startled as she hadn’t even seen him smile, let alone laugh. The laugh ratcheted up his looks to the gorgeous level. Lilly felt the back of her knees burn and weaken all at once.

  “We’ll make do for tomorrow then,” he said with a grin.

  Then placing his hand on top of hers and turning the knob he opened the door. Turning back to look at her one last time, still too close to be ignored, he said, “See you in the morning Lilly”

  Then, like that, he was gone. She closed her door and leaned against it. So this was why women always went for the bad boys. She had never understood what all the fuss was about until now. Sherri was right… he was sex on a stick.

  Chapter Three

  Lilly was ready and waiting on the porch the following morning when Bobby pulled up on his bike. He killed the motor and hopped off the bike to put her purse in the saddle bag. The skirt she wore was not as tight as the one from the day before so getting on the bike was easier. After tucking her skirt tightly around her legs to keep it from blowing up they took off for the shop.

  Setting her purse on the now cleaned off desktop she asked, “So where are the timesheets?”

  “I’ll get the log book,” he said and headed out to the shop.

  Sitting down at the desk she opened up the bookkeeping software and went to the payroll section. It was blank, no employee data existed. Great.

  Bobby entered the office holding a spiral bound notebook in his hand and walked around behind the desk. He bent over where she sat, invading her space completely to set the notebook down in front of her. He placed one hand on the back of the chair she sat in and with the other reached around her to open up the notebook. A hand drawn chart indicating each person’s name and how many hours they had worked each day for a two week period was written on the page.

  “You’re kidding right?” she asked

  Bobby scowled at her and then opening a drawer in the desk produced a calculator, a checkbook and a tax chart, which he also placed in front of her.

  “We can use printer paper to calculate taxes and stuff. When we’re done the paper and timesheets go in this binder which I give to the accountant,” he said, handing her a binder from on top of a filing cabinet.

  “Why don’t you use the computer to do this and print out the checks?” she asked.

  He stared at her and she flushed at his dark gaze.

  “Can you give me some basic information about your employees? I will enter it in the computer and the program can figure out all the tax information. You will still have to handwrite their checks until we can order some for the printer but it should speed this process up significantly,” she said, looking anywhere but in his eyes.

  For the next half hour he sat on the edge of the desk and gave her all the information on his employees she asked for. After she entered in the information he gave her, she then entered in the amount of hours each employee worked and was able to give him the amount for each person’s check.

  She watched as he went through his normal routine of figuring out his employee’s pay by hand. After having done one employee and coming up with the same amount the program had, he glanced at her and then began writing out the checks.

  “I will back track based on the timesheets and information I find in the binder and enter as much information as I can. So when it comes time to pay taxes for your employees the system will tell you how much is owed,” she said

  He continued to stare at her, so again she looked away.

  After several seconds of awkward silence she continued, “I started doing your accounts receivable as that is what you will owe taxes on. Once I get that caught up I will start on the accounts payable. After I have a better idea of what is coming in and going out, we can sit down and compare it to your bank statements and balance.”

  More silence. The awkwardness grew and she could not seem to keep quiet.

  “I may need to order office supplies because I didn’t notice any file folders or labels. I’m not sure there’s even a stapler,” she said, wishing he would say something.

  Handing her the payroll checks he then headed for the door to the garage. “We can work until noon and then call it a day,” he said as he exited the office.

  After sitting stunned at his silence for several minutes, she shook it off and got to work. Time seemed to pass way too quickly and a couple hours later she had managed to sort through the stacks of paper on the counter attached to the desk. Other than the overhead shelves of the desk, it was completely cleaned off and sorted into one of the four piles she had started.

  “Good morning Miss Lilly. Did Bobby leave you here yesterday?” Dickie asked, coming through the door to the office.

  “No, actually he offered me a job so I thought I’d come in today and get a jump start on things,” she smiled.

  “Wow, you’ve done wonders in less than a day… do you clean houses too?” he teased.

  She smiled and handed him his check as the younger guy who’d worked on her car came through the doorway with another man who looked as rough as Dickie and Bobby.

  “The boy is Chuck and the ugly one is Tommy” Dickie advised her.

  “It’s nice to meet you both, I’m Lilly.” she smiled.

  The two newcomers stared at her and then at the desk as she handed them each their check. Chuck again looked like the all American boy except for the tattoos. He wore jeans and a t-shirt with a ball cap on his head. Tommy much like Dickie wore jeans that rode low on his hips with black work boots and a t-shirt. They looked to be in the same motorcycle club with the tattoos and gruff appearance.

  Tommy was good looking in a tousled kind of way with untamed blonde hair and light brown eyes. He appeared to be in his early thirties, around the same age as her.

  “Thanks for the check. Are you working here now?” Tommy asked with a grin.

  “Yea, I just got hired and started today… trying to get things organized,” she replied.

  “Well, good luck with that…” Chuck said sarcastically.

  “Well as much as I’d like to bless you all with my presence a little longer I got to use the shitter and get to work on Miss Lilly’s car. Either of you dumbasses want to stay and give me a hand?” Dickie asked the two men.

  “I’m heading to the bank and then I have to pick up Gretchen from the sitter,” Tommy said, heading out the door. “Nice to meet you, Lilly.”

  “I have to make it to the bank before they close but I can give you hand for a few,” Chuck offered.

  With that both men headed back out to the garage. She made a list of the bare items she would need to order from the office supply store and then sat down to enter in back payroll information. What seemed like only minutes later, Chuck stuck his head in and told her he was leaving.

  “I made individual time sheets for all you guys. When you come in to work from now on would you mind to write down the time you came in and then write down the time you leave?” She asked, handing him his time sheet. “You can keep them up here in these mail slots along with the pink copy of the invoices you filled out that day. Do you mind?”

  “You might just do ok here Miss Lilly,” Chuck smiled, taking the timesheet from her and filling in the required information and then putting it in the top mail slo
t. “Catch ya later,” he finished.

  Dickie entered as Chuck was leaving and after explaining the timesheet and invoice request to him as well he advised her that they would simply have to wait on the starter to come in.

  “I’m sorry… I was hoping to get it going at least through the weekend but that’s not going to happen. You could probably borrow the truck, but you’d have to check with Bobby since it’s his,” he said. “Anyways, I’ll see ya on Monday then I guess.”

  She worked for a while longer until she heard, or rather felt, Bobby enter the office. Walking over to the desk and leaning his hip against it he stared at her. Those eyes! She had to get a hold of herself; she didn’t date roughnecks… ever! Darren had been a sophisticated business man on top of his game. This man was the exact opposite.

  “So you got a timesheet for me?” he finally asked.

  “You’re the boss, you don’t need one,” she said trying to ignore his closeness.

  Moving even closer to her, he picked up the list of office supplies she had made and studied it for a moment.

  “You busy this afternoon?” he asked as he looked over the list.

  “My sister works tonight so I was just going to relax and maybe read a little. Did you need me to stay a while longer? I don’t mind, there’s so much to do…” she answered, looking around the office at the piles of papers she hadn’t even touched yet.

  “I thought we could grab some lunch and hit up the office supply store. Maybe find you some jeans,” he smirked. “Though I will miss the skirts.” His dreams had been full of her in that professional looking skirt lying across this very desk...head thrown to the side in ecstasy from the feel of his mouth on her. Feeling his dick react to his wandering thoughts, he tried to focus on something else.

  “Do my outfits bother you?” she asked.

  “More than you know,” he said, staring at her.

  His intense stare and the things he said… wow! She noticed his gaze moved from her eyes to her lips. Unable to stop the blush she felt crawling up her cheeks, she cleared her throat and said, “I think I can make some time for the office supply store as it will make my new job a lot easier.”