by May Sage
Hands off his Dudette
Some Girls Do It Book Six
May Sage
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Hands off his Dudette
Some Girls Do It Book Six
(a standalone)
by May Sage, writing contemporary romance as Regina Croft
Chapter 1
Anna watched the offending pastry mistrustfully, a frown between her brows.
"Just no," she said, after a minute of indecision.
She wasn't adverse to trying new food, and her stomach had been rumbling for a good ten minutes, but there were lines she wouldn't cross. Bacon doughnuts were one of the few items on that line.
The ridiculously handsome, grinning man holding the box out in front of her rolled his eyes. "Come on, don't be a chicken," said Finn Johnson.
Six foot three, dark-haired, light brown eyes and the most delectable backside ever shaped by the gods of temptation, her best friend was a vision for sore eyes. She almost forgave him for disturbing her morning yoga practice.
"You haven't tried either," she reminded him.
"Which is why we need to do this at the same time. Good or bad, we're in this together," he said solemnly, as if he was swearing a blood oath rather than talking about gross doughnuts.
Anna blamed his theatrics on too many years of Dungeons and Dragons role play.
She grimaced. "Finn, when we said always and forever, the deal was I'd slap a bitch for you, and you'd kick whatever guy made fun of me in high school. We never talked about bad food."
As his first approach had failed, he now looked up at her from under his long lashes, pouting, like a pitiful puppy. A ridiculously gorgeous and sexy puppy.
"Please?"
She groaned.
"I dare you!"
These words rarely failed to work, and he knew it. After a meaningful sigh, Anna pulled up the doughnut. It had some sort of glaze and white cream on top, as well as bits of bacon. She made a face, disgusted.
"You too," she stated.
Finn eagerly took the second bacon doughnut in the box.
"On the count of three?"
She nodded, counting, "One..."
"Two," he said.
The next instant, they both bit down.
Oh.
Oh!
Anna and Finn exchanged one stunned glance, eyes wide. Then, they both rushed to devour the rest of the doughnuts.
"All right. That wasn't your worst idea, yet," she admitted two minutes later, licking her fingers.
"It wasn't my idea at all. Lucy bought them for us."
Lucy was his brother's fiancée; a crazy bitch Anna absolutely adored from their very first meeting. "You could have opened with that."
Finn glared. "I'm offended that you'd eat something Lucy buys without questions, while you make me beg before trying it."
She shrugged, unapologetic. "Lucy happens to have great taste, while you made us eat split pea soup in France."
Finn winced at the memory. "Point."
They'd hung out for so long she could hardly remember a time before Finn. All right, she could, and it had sucked. Friendships often changed in adulthood, when everyone was busy with work, family, responsibilities, but neither of them had allowed their relationship to wither.
Anna had grown up in a shitty home, with seven siblings; she'd all but raised her five younger siblings, while trying to maintain a decent GPA. Then, Finn had happened. They met when in summer camp when she'd been seven and he, nine, and they hit it off. Same day, he found her sorting her Magic: The Gathering deck, and they got talking about games. Next thing she knew, he was sitting with her at lunch time and joining her whenever she had time to role play.
After camp, he asked his parents to let her spend the rest of the summer with them. Eager to get rid of a mouth to feed, the Bullens were quick to give their consent. Since, she'd spent most of her free time at the Johnsons'. Even in high school, and despite the fact that Finn was a jock and she, a geek, they still hung out.
Veronica messed it all up. The stereotypical California girl, obsessed with Finn's brother, Trick, completely deluded, and offensive to anyone close to the Johnsons.
Anna had suffered greatly from her bullying. The girl started rumors about her, rumors that led to all of her friends abandoning her; stuff about her doing both brothers at once and other nastiness. Eventually, her super-religious parents heard of it and kicked her out. She'd been eighteen, in her last high school semester, and homeless.
Anna didn't know what might have happened to her, if it wasn't for Finn, Trick, and to an extent, their mother. Arabella Johnson barely tolerated most people; she had paid very little attention to Anna until the day Finn brought her on her doorstep with a couple of bags, containing all her worldly goods. The proud, elegant woman could have snarled and told her to get her out of her sight. Instead, she snarled, and said, "I suppose you can stay in the blue room."
The blue room was one of the many, many spare bedrooms in the Johnsons' villa. A smaller one, close to Finn's, and nicely decorated. Anna had stayed there whenever they'd had a sleepover after a D&D night.
She finished high school and then, sick of LA, Finn and Anna both flew out to the other coast for college.
They could have gone separate ways, lost touch, and for a while, it looked like they might; Finn was extremely busy in law school, and even more so after he passed the bar. New lawyers had long hours. Anna's schedule was almost as hectic. Trick started a toy company with his best friend Carter, and they hired her right out of college, in their creative department. At first, the team had been small and Anna was one of the key workers; a position as rewarding as it was taxing. In short, they were busy adults busting their asses to pay the bills. Well, she was. Finn didn't technically need to work to pay any bills.
In the month following the start of her employment at Harris Toys, she'd seen Finn three times; once at the cinema, once at a D&D game, and once for a quick game of Wii.
Finn came to see her at work one lunch time, and popped a key on her desk.
"What's that?"
"Spare key. I texted you the digital codes to get in our place. It's way too big for Trick and I, I hate not seeing you, and it's ridiculous that you're wasting half of your salary on renting a cupboard. You're moving in."
She'd said no, because Anna hated feeling like a charity case, but just like he had with the doughnut, Finn convinced her to try it. She kept paying her rent on her place and moved into the Johnson townhouse, a three story Upper East Side brownstone with seven bedrooms.
As it turned out, living there was a blast, so they'd made it a permanent thing.
It had been five years, and the arrangement still worked, mostly. Trick and his fiancée moved out, buying their own place nearby, so it was just Anna and Finn now. They hung out every evening, playing games or watching movies. Finn cooked when he wasn't too exhausted; Anna called takeout when he was. He refused to let her pay rent, but she hired the housekeeper, so it was almost the same thing: Mrs Brown worked for them twenty hours per week, and she wasn't cheap.
> Really, the situation was almost perfect.
Except for one thing.
Anna had never brought any lover to this house; she couldn't imagine doing it. Finn certainly took his conquests home, but it was his place. She'd feel so very awkward bringing a guy home and introducing him to Finn. And Anna really started to want to. Not just screw someone; she could do that at a hotel easily enough; but date a guy, maybe do some overnight stuff, cook in the morning. Okay, call Uber Eats to deliver breakfast in the morning.
She knew, without a doubt, that Finn would hate that.
In the twenty-one years since they'd met, she'd dated exactly three times, and he'd always acted like an overbearing big brother who didn't believe the guys were good enough for her. She couldn't imagine that things would change. But she was twenty-eight now, dammit. She wanted to at least try to date.
"Are you seeing everyone tonight?" Finn asked, after finishing his doughnuts.
Anna nodded. She'd started hanging out with Lucy and some other friends every other Thursday.
"Yep. Why, you want to crash girls' night out?" It wouldn't be the first time.
Finn laughed. "I wish I could. Big case. Some idiot is suing Knight Security for a lot of cash. Their client died on KS's watch. Only, it was because of a plane crash; it's not like KS guarantees they'll prevent accidents like that from happening. It should be straightforward, but as there's billions involved, we're covering all the bases."
Anna knew what it meant. She winced. "Try to get some sleep."
"I will," he promised, before bending down, dropping a kiss on her cheek. "Don't wait up for me."
Such a familiar scene. It almost felt domestic. Only, it wasn't.
Chapter 2
Finn hadn't been kidding: this case was going to greatly contribute to turning his hair gray. They had to go through way too much information about aeronautics, a subject he knew nothing about, given the fact that he was a lawyer, not an engineer.
"This is bullshit," he stated, and the four people in his office nodded in agreement.
It wasn't often Clark Carmichael agreed with him about anything. The other junior partner loved to hate him. They'd started working in the firm around the same time, and Finn had always been promoted before Clark, so no wonder he was sour. Never mind that they had the same job now; the fact that Finn got it a quarter before him was what mattered.
They'd momentarily put all differences aside, because stupid as it was, the case would put a serious damper on their quarterly bonus if they lost it. The wife of one of KS's clients was suing for one point five billion; that was a number higher than all of Finn's quarterly cases put together. Had the senior team not been entangled in a messy fraud case taking up all their time, they would have tackled it themselves.
Finn knew that a case like this was make or break for his career. And it was also complete and utter bullshit. He didn't understand the mechanics of any of the information about the plane's configuration. How the hell was he supposed to present this, sounding like he knew what he was talking about?
"What is a camber? Sounds like a type of cheese."
Alisha had her phone at the ready. "Google says it's the curved upper surface of the wing."
"So, I can just say wing?" he asked hopefully.
Clark shook his head. "No, say the actual term. We need to seem on top of it."
Only, they weren't. "You know there's a high probability that I'll end up saying Camembert instead. We'll definitely sound like we're on top of it then."
Clark lifted his eyes from the pile of files in front of him long enough to smirk. "I have complete faith in your ability to talk out of your ass, Johnson," the other lawyer said.
Then his eyes widened, when he caught sight of something behind him. Finn turned right before Anna knocked on their open door.
"Hey everyone," she said cheerfully, with a small wave of her hand. "Still alive?"
"Barely," Daniel, an associate on his second year of hell, muttered. He hadn't said another word all day. Associates worked ten times harder than everyone else, which meant that right now the poor guy was just the shell of a human being.
Finn still remembered those days. He didn't think he would have survived them, had he not returned home to Anna.
"Anna Bullen. Beautiful as always," said Clark smoothly, no doubt just to infuriate Finn.
But now he paid attention, she was rather pretty today. Her golden hair fell in neat waves, and she had on a little makeup. She wore a short red skater dress with a black sweater and heavy black boots.
"Aren't you cold?" he asked.
Anna often forgot they'd left California, although it had been over a decade ago. Then, she got outside and started freezing her tits off.
She winced. "Maybe?"
Finn sighed, and beckoned her forward, pulling his suit's jacket off the back of his chair. When she got close, he handed it to her. It suited her look, somehow.
"Don't you catch a cold."
"People don't catch a cold from being cold, you know. Anyway, I'm just popping by to make sure you guys actually take a second to eat. I didn't know how many of you would be working on this case as someone isn't looking at his text messages, but it looks like I grabbed enough food."
Comfortable in his office, she moved to the filing cabinets on the left side of his desk, and opened her large boho handbag to retrieve a big plastic bag that smelled of heaven. Finn's stomach, too long ignored, growled angrily.
"You're a goddess," said Clark, rushing to her sides.
Finn glared. It wasn't the first time that Clark had made a pass at Anna, and he didn't like it. At all. Clark was handsome, with his gray eyes and glasses—very similar to his superheroic namesake. Thank fuck Anna didn't seem to fall for it.
"What did you get, dudette?"
Anna turned to him with a bright smile. "Chinese."
She plated up at least ten different dishes. By the time she was done, one senior partner, two junior, and four associates had walked inside his now-cramped office. Damn office staff. They always knew when to turn up to get food.
Now he'd finished reading his current page, Finn moved to get to his feet and claim some food, but by the time he got up, Anna was walking toward him with a plate.
"Beef with ginger and spring onion on egg fried rice."
He grinned at her. "I should marry you."
She rolled her eyes, like she had every single time he'd said that. "Yeah, right. Like I'd have you. I have to go or I'll be late for girls' night out; can I keep your jacket?"
"Sure." He'd just call a ride when he was done. "I think we'll be done around one, so I'll see you tomorrow. Hopefully."
Anna laughed. "Maybe I won't be done by one. Plenty of cute guys out in the city," she said with a wink, heading out of doors.
Finn watched her back as she retreated, eyes narrowed. He didn't like that one bit. The flirtiness was new. She'd never been that into guys before. Said that her BOB did a better job than any guy's tongue. He knew there was squat he could do about her dating; as a good friend, he should actually encourage it. But he knew guys. He had plenty of friends, went to the gym with a bunch of guys, met college friends for drinks. The one thing all of the single ones had in common was that they loved sex, and would do, and say, just about anything to get under a pretty girl's pants. Men were assholes. If someone hurt Anna, he'd feel obligated to hire a hitman, or something equally dramatic.
"You're a fucking idiot if you're actually not dating her," said Maria Thompson, his favorite one among the senior partners.
She was a beast in the courtroom, and whenever he'd doodled her during a boring meeting, Finn had added a black catsuit and a whip in her hands. It fit. Sometimes, he also drew horns.
He shrugged. "We're too close for that. No way would either of us ruin what we have."
Maria snorted, before heading to his filing cabinet and helping herself to spare ribs.
She wasn't the only one who'd told him that, one way or another. His own
brother had hinted at it numerous times, although he'd known Anna for almost as long as Finn had. People just didn't seem to understand that some men and women could be friends, platonically. They had to add some romance to the equation.
"We're happy with what we have," he repeated, before returning to his files.
He ate a bit of beef and smiled. She'd gone to his favorite takeout, although it was a way away.
His best friend was just too important to screw with her—in any capacity.
Chapter 3
Anna hadn't always felt comfortable hanging out with other women, like most gamers. There was a huge network of female gamers online, but statistically, it was rare to find more than one or two in any establishment. Growing up, the super studious girls had a tendency to make light of her pastimes, while the rest simply didn't share her interests. In college, things had been similar, and after, she'd been too much of a homebody to make an effort to change her ways. She did get along with a few people from work, men and women, but she'd never made an effort to get to know them outside of the office. Then, Lucy had bulldozed into her life.
Lucy Warner, soon to be Johnson, was a bundle of positive energy. She had a tendency to adopt people she liked, and she'd somehow decided she liked Anna. She'd dragged her along to shopping sprees, lunch, brunches, and to her fortnightly girls' night out. To her surprise, Anna found that she actually enjoyed it.
After her quick stop by Finn's office, she was the last to arrive, but the girls had kept a high red stool empty for her, at their round table near the bar.
"Hey! Loving the hair," said Piper Stone with a wink.
She was the one who'd suggested she should try to curl her dull blond hair. She'd been right, it suited her, but Anna wasn't going to go through that effort every day.
