Work & Play (Love at First Sight Book 2)

by Mia Madison

  Work & Play

  Love at First Sight: Book Two

  Mia Madison

  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

  About the Author

  Work & Play

  Love at First Sight: Book Two

  Copyright © 2016 by Mia Madison

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.

  Each book in the Love at First Sight series can be read on its own, but if you’d like to check out the first book in the series, just follow the link below.

  Touch & Taste (Book One)

  1

  My best friend Brooke once told me that you never really knew someone until you lived with them. I never fully grasped what she meant considering she was the only person I’d ever lived with besides my parents and my little sister, but it only took one mistake for me to discover the ridiculous amount of truth in her words.

  Who would have ever thought that in less than a year, I’d be longing to go back to the simplicity of college life? I sure as hell didn’t.

  “What’s the big fucking deal?” Ben shouted as he threw his hands in the air. “I told you I didn’t want to go when we first got the invitation, and you shouldn’t want to either! Why are you giving me shit for it now?”

  “She’s my best friend,” I argued, trying not to let the edge in my voice provoke him even more. “There’s nothing you can say to stop me from going. The real question is—why are you being such a dick about this?”

  “Because it’s fucked up. I don’t get how you can be on board with this bullshit.”

  “Joshua isn’t half as bad as you try to make him out to be. You’d know that if you ever came with me to visit them.”

  “He’s a predator. He took advantage of a young girl and—”

  “And what? Asked her to live with him? Asked her to marry him? In what way is that taking advantage?”

  I couldn’t hold it in any longer. This fight—not to mention countless others—had been building to a breaking point for months. Ben and I fought about everything. From money to sex to other people’s relationships to what we were going to eat for dinner.

  Moving in together was a mistake. Maybe we could’ve smoothed over the rough parts a little better if we had dated longer first, but there was no going back now. After months of the same shit over and over again, I could barely stand to look at him.

  “Ben. I need you to go.”

  There was a long moment of silence before he whispered, “What?”

  “You heard me,” I said, raising both my voice and my eyes to stare directly into his. “You know this isn’t working. We can’t even make it two days without having a huge fight about nothing. I just can’t do it anymore. I was supposed to come home from work and be happy to relax, but I dreaded it. I dreaded leaving the office to come here. This is hell.”

  “You… You can’t just throw me out, Finley. How the fuck do you plan to pay the rent without me?”

  The extra reminder that I still hadn’t found another job after losing mine three weeks prior wasn’t what I needed, but it did exactly what he intended it to. It made me hesitate.

  My timing might have been sucky, but I had finally worked up the nerve to break up with him and I wasn’t going to back out now. I’d just have to ramp up the job search again instead of wallowing in self-pity about the fact that the company I’d been working for went bankrupt.

  “I’ll find a way,” I said with confidence.

  “You can’t kick me out of my own—”

  “It’s my name on the lease—not yours. You can stay on the couch tonight, but I want you gone by tomorrow.”

  His face twisted up with a combination of rage and disbelief before he finally let out a scoff and rolled his eyes.

  “I don’t think so. I’ll come back tomorrow for my stuff—I don’t need your fucking charity. I hope you enjoy losing everything.”

  With that, he stomped off to our shared bedroom, returning a moment later with two duffel bags shoved full of what I could only assume was a random assortment of clothes and his laptop.

  “Have a nice fucking life.”

  The door slammed behind him and for the first time in nearly a year, I felt like I could breathe again.

  Ben came back for his stuff the next day with little fanfare, opting not to speak to me as he and his friend from work carried the boxes of his belongings down to the moving van. When everything was gone, he walked into the kitchen where I sat at the table with a cup of coffee and tossed his set of keys to the floor.

  Nothing more. Just the clink of the metal on the linoleum and he was out of my life for good. His cold departure made me all the more certain that I had made the right choice.

  Once he was gone, I strolled around my apartment and took in just how empty it felt now that his possessions were gone. The quietness gave me a strange sense of loss, but I knew I’d get used to it. Ultimately, I was happy.

  Which meant it was time to renew my efforts of finding a job. My savings account would only get me so far before I found myself out on the streets.

  Or worse—back at my parents’ house in Jersey.

  Shuddering at the thought, I flipped open the lid of my laptop and poured myself another cup of coffee while I waited for it to boot up. When I could finally open a browser, I started opening tabs of all the different job hunting websites I could think of.

  Scrolling through the most recent listings, I was saddened by the fact that the jobs I was most qualified to work were places I had already applied at. The more I looked, the more miserable I felt until my eyes finally landed on something I hadn’t seen listed when I last checked a few days prior.

  Black & King, Attorneys At Law.

  It wasn’t a place that’d need my marketing experience, but the ad was pretty clear about the fact that they were looking for people with office experience above all else. Secretaries and assistants. I could do that.

  But the real reason why I was drawn to the name of the business wasn’t because of my ability to perform assistant duties. Definitely not.

  I dug my cell out of my purse and scrolled down until I landed on the name, grateful that I still had the number saved. I said a little prayer before pressing the call button, holding the phone to my ear while I nervously bounced my leg up and down.

  “Hello?”

  I recognized her voice immediately, relieved that her number hadn’t changed.

  “Ava? Hey, it’s Finley. I don’t know if you remember me, but—”

  “You’re Charlie’s big sister. Of course I remember you,” she said with a chuckle. “You bought the beer for my eighteenth birthday party.”

  Ah, yes. Vague memories of my little sister begging me to get her and her friends a case of beer and a few bottles of wine, followed by me staying sober all ni
ght to keep them safe, returned the moment she mentioned it.

  “It’s been a while. What’s up?”

  “I… This is kind of embarrassing,” I admitted, stopping when I heard a shuffle on her end of the line.

  Her voice was muffled but recognizable as she said, “Go. Away.” Another shuffle—like fabric rustling over the speaker—and her voice returned clear as day. “Sorry about that. What’s embarrassing?”

  “Uh… Well, the company I was working for went belly-up last month and while I was looking for another job I saw that your dad’s company is hiring assistants…”

  Ava was always a quick one, so when I trailed off she finished for me.

  “So you want me to put in a good word for you? I can do that.”

  Relief washed through me and my shoulders slumped as I felt some of the heavy weight begin to ease. Maybe everything was going to work out after all.

  “Really? You don’t mind?”

  “Not at all. I still owe you a favor for my birthday anyways. I’ll talk to him at dinner tonight and call you back.”

  “You’re a lifesaver, Ava. Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me yet. You should wait until—” She cut off abruptly and let out a frustrated groan. “I told you to—damn it. Finley? I got to go. I’ll call you tonight.”

  “O-Okay. Is everything—”

  The phone beeped and I tugged it away from my ear, raising an eyebrow at the ‘Call Ended’ notification. I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but I made a mental note to ask her later if everything was okay.

  Until then, I said another silent prayer for good news, but prepared for the worst by continuing to scan through the job listings.

  2

  Two days later and I was nearly bursting with excitement as I paid the cab driver and hopped out beside the main office of Black & King. Ava had come through and set up an interview, but she insisted it was just as a formality.

  According to her, I was a shoe-in. But I dressed the part of the devoted interviewee and brought along my resume just in case. I glanced around the entrance and took notice of the few people standing around on their cell phones, quickly noting that Ava wasn’t among them. So I strolled up the stairs that led to the front door and went inside.

  The lobby was bustling with activity. Thankfully everyone seemed to have somewhere to be, so there weren’t a ton of people standing around in the way. All the motion made it easier to spot Ava where she stood near the elevators.

  I was just about to call her name and wave when I spotted the huge hunk of a man lingering a few feet behind her. He wasn’t even looking in my direction, but his tense posture and the pissed off expression on his face, that I could read even from the distance, made me nervous.

  As my smile began to falter, Ava finally noticed me.

  “Finley!” she called, a small smile appearing as she waved me over.

  When I reached her, we shared a sisterly hug like we always did, though she seemed a lot more tense than usual. I wondered if it was because it had been almost two years since I last saw her.

  As I pondered the reasoning for the awkward tension, Ava pressed the call button for the elevator and turned back to visually scan my outfit.

  “You look… different, but somehow the same. I’m not sure how to describe it.”

  “It makes sense. I feel the same way looking at you.”

  The elevator doors slid open and Ava stepped inside. I didn’t say anything as I followed behind, but the truth was that I could identify exactly what was making her look different.

  Sadness. There was something about her usually bright and sunny nature that had been subdued and I could hear the difference in her voice. Hell, I could hear it over the phone.

  We had somehow managed to grab an elevator to ourselves and I was just about to ask her what was wrong when a large hand stopped the doors from closing and the looming figure slowly stepped into the car. The man didn’t bother to remove his sunglasses, he merely stepped into the back corner of the elevator and leaned against the wall.

  “Just ignore him. I do,” Ava said, keeping her face turned forward as if she were proving her point.

  Unable to resist, my eyes flashed back just in time to catch the sight of his shoulders lifting with a short, silent laugh. I couldn’t tell if the man was looking at me behind the tinted shades, but I was certain he was aware of me surveying him. Intimidating or not, he was an undeniably attractive man. Tall, huge, nicely dressed—fuck, he looked like he stepped right out of a Calvin Klein ad. Bodybuilder’s edition, of course.

  Ava seemed entirely unconcerned about his presence, which only made me more intrigued about his identity.

  Before I had a chance to let my curiosity get the better of me, the doors dinged once again and Ava linked her arm with mine before leading me down the hall. The man trailed a few yards behind us in what was an obvious attempt to give us space.

  Which was when it clicked.

  “Is he your bodyguard?” I whispered a little incredulously.

  Ava didn’t verbally respond, but she nodded slightly before her eyes went back down to the floor and she whispered, “Please don’t tell Charlie. She’ll just worry.”

  “That’s a massive understatement.”

  Ava laughed, but we both knew it was true. My little sister might have only been twenty, but she could worry herself to death with the best of them. I couldn’t remember a time when she didn’t. It was definitely a trait she got from our mother—one I was grateful not to have inherited.

  “There she is!” A booming voice interrupted my thoughts, the man behind it walking down the hall with the easy, confident air of a man in charge. He paused to give his daughter an affectionate smile before turning to me and offering me his hand. “Nice to see you again, Finley. It’s been far too long.”

  “It’s good to see you, too, Mr. Black.”

  He scoffed and waved a hand through the air. “Please—call me Arthur. Mr. Black is so formal. Come now, let’s get right to the interview and get it out of the way.”

  I trailed behind him, casting a helpless look at Ava who just shrugged and walked over to speak to the young receptionist. Realizing that I no longer had her as a buffer, I focused on Mr. Black as he guided me into his office.

  He made a gesture to the chair in front of his desk and softly closed the door behind him. I smiled at the photograph of he and Ava on his desk, letting the reminder of familiarity between us ease my frazzled nerves.

  “So Ava tells me you have a marketing degree,” he said after he finally sat down, clasping his hands together on the desk in front of him. “I’m afraid that’d be mostly unused in an assistant position.”

  “You’re right, but it doesn’t matter. Whether I’m overqualified or not—I need this job,” I told him, opting for total honesty and hoping he’d respect it.

  He smiled, but it quickly faded. “Finley, I feel like I should warn you. We go through assistants on a fairly regular basis here. The tasks are easy enough—but when piled on, it can become very stressful.”

  I fidgeted in my seat, put off by the serious expression on his face. After a forced chuckle, I said, “Can’t be much more stressful than wondering when you’re going to get kicked out of your apartment for not making rent.”

  His frowned deepened and I could tell it was out of concern for my situation more than anything else. Eventually, the frown faded and he slowly nodded.

  “In that case, I’d be happy to hire you. I don’t see the need to go through the full interview process.”

  “Thank you so much, Mr. Black,” I said with genuine relief, standing up and reaching for his hand again. “Seriously. Thank you. I won’t let you down.”

  He laughed. “I thought I asked you to call me Arthur, dear.”

  It was my turn to frown. “Isn’t that—I mean, I know that we already know each other, but won’t that be a little inappropriate if I’m working for you?”

  I swear my heart stopped when his eyebrows
raised in surprise. A weird panic started to settle in, though I couldn’t reasonably explain why.

  “For me? Oh dear. Didn’t Ava tell you?”

  “Tell me what?” I numbly asked, dreading wherever this was going.

  “It would be unprofessional to hire a friend of my daughter's to be my assistant,” he said with a slightly condescending laugh, like he was shocked that I hadn’t thought of that. “You won’t be working for me.”

  “Then who—”

  “That’d be me.”

  I spun on my heel and felt my eyes go wide as I took in the sight of the sharply dressed man leaning in the doorway with his arms folded over his chest, a stern look on his handsome face and sharp brown eyes behind his black glasses.

  Mr. Black—Arthur, now that I knew I wouldn’t be working for him—stood from his chair and came around the desk. I was still staring in shock at the new presence in the room, wondering how the hell I missed the sound of the door opening.

  “This is my partner Charles King. Chuck, this is Finley Price. The woman I spoke to you about yesterday.”

  One corner of the man’s mouth raised and I was hesitant to think of it as a smirk considering the predatory glint in his eyes.

  “It’s nice to meet you. I’m your new boss.”

  3

  At first glance, all I could think about was the conversation I had with Brooke so long ago about love at first sight.

  Charles was gorgeous. Like, holy fuck gorgeous. I had honestly thought that Ava’s bodyguard was going to star in my wet dreams for a long while until my eyes landed on my new boss.

  Of course, that was just at a glance. That was before he ordered me to follow him as he briskly showed me around the office, leaving me no time to actually remember which room was which and how to get to them from the elevator.

  Before his irritated voice said if I couldn’t even keep up with his walking pace then I surely wouldn’t be able to run errands efficiently.