“Since the second day, maybe, when she knew that you wouldn’t cave and she couldn’t fight her feelings for you anymore.”
I smile, thinking over the last month and all the shit we went through. “Is he the best they got?” I motion to Bruce.
“The best they’ve got is Lauren. He’s the second best,” she replies, getting up to leave. “Now, I have lots to do. You let me know if you need anything,” she says as she walks out.
Looking over my emails and schedule, I get lost in my work. There is a new space I’ve had my eye on that I’m itching to get into. Denis just sent me the plans. It looks like a lot of work, but it will be amazing if we can get everything done. My phone buzzes on my desk with a text from Noah and a picture.
I swipe across it, opening up his text.
My PA is better than yours!
Under the message is a picture of Lauren, with four guys around her desk as she smiles at the screen.
Fuck off! Is my only reply, but I go back and zoom in on the picture. She’s wearing a peach-colored sweater today.
Dude, she is the shit, these chumps are eating her up.
I squeeze my cell phone in my hands and call out to Bruce.
“Yes, sir?” He sticks his head in.
“I need you to send two dozen roses to Lauren at Noah’s law firm. The address is in my box.” I turn down to see another text came in.
All jokes aside, she just cleared my schedule in ten minutes.
I pick up my desk phone, calling Noah’s office, knowing she’ll answer, and when she does, I smile. “Hey there, beautiful. How’s your day?”
“Hey,” I hear her say, hoping she’s smiling, too. “It’s going well. I haven’t had to poison him yet. So, I call that a success.” She laughs.
“What time is lunch?” I ask her.
“I have to meet with HR at lunch today and tomorrow.”
“Really, what about dinner?”
“It’s Monday, which means gymnastics for Rachel and a soccer game for Gabe. Rain check?” she asks. “The kids are with Jake on Wednesday. How about I make dinner and we can eat in bed?” she whispers, and my cock springs to attention.
“That sounds like a plan. I’ll bring dessert.”
“Is that what you’re calling it now?” She giggles. “Okay, I’ve got to go. I just got called into the conference room.”
“Talk to you later,” I say and hang up. Why didn’t she ask if I wanted to go with her? For that matter, why didn’t I offer to meet her?
The rest of the day flies by, and by the time I finish my meeting with Denis, it’s almost six-thirty.
There is a text from Lauren and one from Noah.
I read Lauren’s first.
Thank you for the flowers, they are beautiful ;)
She also sent a picture of her smelling the roses with a sly smile.
I smile at her face, missing her like crazy.
The next is from Noah.
Way to piss on her leg. We get it, she’s taken. Thank god, you didn’t send a barber shop quartet to serenade her.
I laugh at him and answer with the middle finger emoji.
Closing up my computer, I head down to my car, wondering what field they’re at and thinking about going to join them.
I call her cell phone, but there is no answer, so I go home, where I grab my stuff and go for a run.
I run for six miles, getting home soaking wet. Looking over at Noah’s house, I see the lights are all off, so I go straight home, where I shower.
I pick up my phone and see that Lauren hasn’t called me yet, so I call her back.
“Hey,” she answers out of breath, “sorry I missed your call before. We were at the park.”
I hear moving around on her end.
“Yeah, I know, I was going to meet you.” I slam the door of the fridge that is still fucking empty.
“Oh, really?” She sounds sad. “I didn’t know. I forgot about Rachel’s play date with Emma. So they met us at the park.”
I smile drinking my water. “Hot moms at the park,” I kid with her.
“It was actually Emma’s dad with us. Mom left them last year,” she explains, while I hear things slamming from her end.
“Is this father hot?” I ask, anger shooting out of me.
“Um, I don’t really look at him like that.” I hear a door close. “Why would you ask that?”
“No reason, just wanted to know who you were spending time with, since it wasn’t with me.” Holy fuck, am I sulking? Is this me sulking?
“I wasn’t with anyone. I was with Rachel, who was playing with a friend. I didn’t go there on a date with him. What is this really about?”
“Nothing,” I breathe out my frustration. “I just missed you today.”
“I missed you, too. A lot,” she whispers. “Like to the moon and back.” I hear a smile in her voice.
We continue talking till we drift off to sleep. I haven’t done this since high school, but smile when she sends me a text before I wake up.
Have a great day! Kisses in special areas!
I laugh to myself while I get ready and start another day that flies by. I won’t say that Bruce is better than Lauren, but he is filling her shoes better than anyone else.
I try calling Lauren during the day, but the conversations are all short. Then after she gets home to the kids, it’s almost impossible to get through to her.
I sit in my living room that night, holding my phone, wondering what she’s doing. Wondering if Rachel brought home more math homework. Wondering if Gabe is thinking hockey or soccer. I even wonder if Kaleigh is driving them crazy with tofu.
By the time she gets back to me, she’s yawning and on her way to bed.
I toss and turn all night as sleep evades me. My mind plays through different scenarios in my head. What if I’m not good enough? What if she doesn’t want me in her life with her kids? What if I fuck up and we fight about it?
The questions are endless, the answers never coming. I’m about to throw my phone out the window when Noah comes waltzing into my office.
“Hey there, stranger.” He goes to my couch, unbuttoning his jacket and sitting down. I look at him looking at Bruce. “Well, at least you won’t try to bang your new PA, right?” He laughs, brushing his hands into his hair. I notice that he has pink nail polish on.
“That really isn’t your color.” I point to his hand.
“Rachel painted my nails yesterday.” He inspects his nails. “You should see what she did to my feet.”
I throw my pen down and sit up straighter. “You saw Rachel yesterday?”
“Well, we had to babysit Rachel and Gabe so Lauren could bring her car in to get the radio fixed.” he says it as if it’s no big deal, and I’m suddenly pissed off.
“What?” I yell.
“A CD of Frozen was jammed in her player and was stuck on repeat, so it played it all the time. You know this,” he reminds me as if I’m dumb.
“I know what you mean. What I don’t understand is why you were babysitting.”
“She needed help,” he says with a pointed look at me.
“Why didn’t she ask me?”
“I don’t know, maybe because you hightailed it right out of there the minute family shit started happening on Sunday night?” He stands up.
“Fuck off!” I yell back at him. Bruce sits up in his chair a little straighter. “She was busy, so I left.”
He glares at me. “You left or you took off, it’s the same thing.”
“Is that what she said?” I look at him, waiting for the answers. Did she think I didn’t want to be around her kids?
“She didn’t say anything. I just found it weird that she would ask us and not you. Kaleigh said to drop it, so I figured you didn’t want to.”
“I wasn’t asked.” I hold out my hands to the side. “I didn’t even know.”
I grab my jacket, ready to run out of the office, when Noah grabs my arm. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”
>
“I’m going to tell her that I’m not scared of her kids.”
“Think about what you’re doing. You are planning to go barge into her workplace to profess this to her. Dude.” He shakes his head. He grabs his phone and dials someone. “Babycakes, are you home?” He smiles and nods his head. “Okay. Austin needs to come over and do something. Can you go to my place? Pack a bag, or better yet, just bring everything with you.” He smiles and then hangs up. “Okay, Kaleigh is leaving the door open for you. Go woo your girl.”
“Woo?” I ask him.
“A meal, rose petals, champagne, lingerie, vibrators, cuffs. You know, romance.”
“This, I can do.” I make a list of everything I need to get. “I’m going to woo the fuck out of her.”
I rush out of the office, the sound of Noah’s laughter trailing behind me as the elevator doors close.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
LAUREN
It’s been a long two days, made even more hectic because I was on edge. Ever since Austin hightailed it out of my house like his pants were on fire, I’ve been a mess.
Does he want to be with me? Does he just want a casual relationship, to be with me when I don’t have the kids? Can I even be in that type of relationship? I’m not sure. I have my kids all the time. To top it all off, I can’t seem to get in touch with him about tonight.
I huff out a breath as I get out of my car and walk up to my front door. Opening the door, I’m hit with thick white smoke and the fire alarm going off.
“What the fuck, Kaleigh?” I storm into the kitchen and come to a complete stop.
Austin is in my kitchen, wearing white Calvin Klein boxers and an apron. My mouth waters right away, but then I see the fire coming from the pot on the stove and notice that he is using the sprayer from the sink to douse the flame with water. “What in the world?” I run to the back of the house, opening the door so the smoke will clear out of the kitchen. I grab what I think is a kitchen towel that is sitting on the table. I pick it up and see what is underneath.
I gasp out in shock, because under the cloth is a mini sex store. I’m talking cuffs, a whip, butt plugs, balls, nipple clamps, bullets, cock rings, four different vibrators. He looks over at me. “Oh, that is for dessert.”
I run to the smoke detector and start waving the cloth under it, trying to get it to turn off. “What is going on here?” I look at him and ask. “Why are you burning down my house?”
He looks at me, the water spraying across my whole kitchen when he turns around. “I’m trying to woo you.” He turns back around and finally puts out the fire. “I’m cooking for you—flambéed steak—but I guess I put too much alcohol in the pan. It pouffed up too fast and got a little bit out of control.” He reaches for a small rag to wipe up the water.
The alarm finally stops ringing and I run up the stairs to get towels. Throwing one at him, I put mine on the floor and start to walk on it across the floor in an attempt to soak up the water before throwing another one down.
“You went to work like that?” I look down at my outfit. I’m wearing tailored trousers, a white fitted shirt, and a matching jacket.
“First, you try to burn down my house. Now you’re insulting my wardrobe!” I throw my hands up.
He drops his towel by his feet and storms over to me. He grabs me by my ass and hoists me up as his mouth crashes down on mine. His tongue slides against mine, and I pull him closer. I’ve missed him so much. The feel of him, the sound of his voice, even the annoying pen-tapping thing he does on the desk when he’s thinking.
I moan into his mouth while the kiss turns frantic, almost desperate. Neither of us interested in stopping, he puts me down on the counter, right in a puddle of water. Cold water. “Fuck,” I squeak out.
“Oh, shit. We should get you out of those pants.” He quickly whips off my shoes. “Lift up,” he urges, and I try to lift myself up on my hands, but they slip off the counter because of the water. I fall backward, and Austin face-plants into my stomach.
“Ouch,” I whine, while he just laughs against my stomach.
“I’m supposed to be wooing you,” he mumbles into my stomach while placing little kisses on it. “Romancing you.”
“Ahh, I see. Nothing says romance or wooing quite like anal beads do.” I chuckle, running my hand through his hair and looking around at my house. It looks like a bomb went off in here, but looking down at him with his lopsided grin, I can’t be upset.
“The anal beads were for after the wooing.” He smiles at me. “I missed you.” He gets up and pulls me to a sitting position.
He puts my hair behind my ears, cupping my face in his hands. “This was supposed to be romantic.” He kisses my lips softly.
“It is.” I smile as I stroke my thumb across his cheek. “No one has ever tried to romance me.”
“I was a dick,” he says, and my eyebrows shoot up in surprise.
“Which time?” I ask him.
“When I left on Sunday.” I look down, not ready for him to see how much it bothered me.
“It’s okay.” I smile up at him after a minute.
“It isn’t okay. This is your life, and it’s now my life.”
I take his hands from my face and push him off me as I jump off the counter. “No.” I grab the towels off the floor. “It’s not your life. It’s mine.”
He grabs the towels from my hand, throwing them back down. “I worded it wrong. I want this, Lauren. I want to be there for you. To be the one who helps you. I mean, I’m pretty sure you can run the world from your phone”—he smiles—“but when you have too many balls in the air, I want to be who you call. I want you to know that I’m here for you not because I have to be, but because I want to be.” Then his smile disappears as he continues, “And when you need your car serviced, I want it to be me who you call to help you, not Noah, not Kaleigh—but me.” He motions to himself with a thumb at his chest.
“Austin,” I whisper, “I’m not going to force my kids and my responsibilities on you.”
He places his finger on my lips, stopping me from talking. “You aren’t forcing anything on me. If anything, I’m forcing myself on you.” He takes a breath and continues. “I want to be there with you when you go to soccer games, if I can. I want to be here with you when Rachel is running around naked. I mean, not to see her naked, that’s weird, but I want to be here to throw you her clothes.” He reaches for me. “And I really want to drive Gabe to hockey; it’s our thing.” He shrugs and gives me a smile. “I want to cook for you guys.” My eyebrows shoot up. “Okay, I want to be here to order out for you guys. Let me be that person for you.” His arms wrap around me, bringing me flush against him.
“Austin, what if you resent this whole thing and then feel like you can’t leave?” I question him. “What if you have a headache and the kids yelling just makes it worse? I’m okay with this thing between us not having a title.”
“I’m not.” His voice is firm. “The last two days, I realized that this is where I want to be. In the middle of the chaos. Ask me,” he whispers.
“Will you come to Gabe’s soccer game tomorrow night?”
“Yes,” he answers, smiling. “Now, can we have dessert?”
“What type of dessert were you thinking about?” I look back at the table of titillation and torture.
“I was thinking bullet, anal beads, and whip.”
“Really? I was thinking nipple clamps, cuffs, and vibrator,” I counter.
“Who wears the cuffs?”
I wiggle my eyebrows at him, while he looks at me with hooded eyes. “Oh, you are definitely wearing the cuffs this time.” His evil laugh comes out. “Let’s go upstairs. I want you laid out.”
He jogs up the stairs after he collects the whip, cuffs, bullet, vibrator, nipple clamps, and anal beads. “Just in case.” He winks.
I follow him up, shrugging off my jacket and shirt as I go. “You’re lucky your junk didn’t burn off in the fire.” I enjoy the view of his ass in those white Calvi
ns.
“That would have been a bigger disaster than your house burning down.” He throws his toys down on the bed.
I slip my wet pants off, leaving me in my matching white lace bra and panties that are both sexy and delicate.
“Leave those on,” he demands, his erection tenting his Calvins as his hand rubs it. The sight makes my knees weak and my pussy wet.
I get on the bed, moving to the middle and crossing my legs. “Okay, what next, sir?” I laugh.
“On your stomach for now,” he orders me. “But first,” he states as he reaches for the cuffs, then cuffs my wrists together in front of me. “On second thought, on your hands and knees, head to the wall.” I get in position, looking over my shoulder to see what he is doing.
He has the whip handle in his hand while he tests it on his other hand. “You trust me?”
“It’s kind of difficult to answer now that I have the cuffs on,” I tell him, “but I wouldn’t have these cuffs on if I didn’t.”
“Good, now, eyes facing forward,” he demands. “Should have gotten the blindfold, too,” he murmurs to himself.
I’m facing the headboard. The anticipation of what’s to come has all my senses on high alert. I feel the bed move and then his heat hitting the back of me.
He opens my knees wider with his hands, sliding them softly up my inner thighs ever so slowly until they get to my pussy, where he starts rubbing me through the lace with two fingers. “Wet,” he groans, and I hang my head. “I bet we can make this pussy wetter. What do you think?” he challenges me. His fingers are now gone but are quickly replaced with the tip of the whip, the square leather tip grazing me. His hand goes to my ass, which is only partially covered since I’m wearing a thong.
“So soft,” he says, caressing it gently. my back arches, making my ass stick out more. Moving from one cheek to the other, he strokes me in a circular pattern. “Creamy white,” he breathes. “Let’s see how it looks pink.” And then his open-palm hand comes down on my ass with a smack. It stings at first, like a pinch, but he soothes the sting with his hand, and the pain dissipates, leaving a warm sensation in its place. I wait for the next smack, but it doesn’t come, and my heartbeat picks up the longer I wait.
Tempt The Boss Page 20
