Touch Me Boss: A Single Dad Office Romance

by Aria Ford

  "Yes," was all she could think to reply.

  Sienna was never much of a drinker, but Marcel seemed like the kind of man where the word 'no' shouldn't be in your vocabulary. Two glasses were filled in no time, and within moments, she felt the warmth of the liquor in her body. The rush increased in potency, though the drink had gone down smooth.

  "So you two are twin brothers?" she asked, trying not to sound too nosey.

  “Yeah,” Marcel replied. “If he cleaned up, it would be more obvious, but yeah, flesh and blood. Heir, or was heir, to a trillion dollar corporation,” he said taking a hard gulp from his glass. "He said he needed to find himself and go on some spiritual journey or some shit like that.”

  Marcel took another gulp from his glass, obviously finding distaste in his brother’s decisions.

  The more she looked at Marcel, the more she could see that he and the disheveled looking man were brothers. He was just as handsome as his brother that was sitting before her. All he needed was a bath, clean clothes, and a haircut. There was just something about him that made her forget her pain. At first glance, she only saw a homeless man. After that initial glance, she found herself captivated. She could tell that he was something more — she sensed something primal within him, some secret that she felt an urge to discover.

  "My dad had a thing for a french woman so it was no surprise that he would marry one,” Marcel said. "It didn't last long, but he didn't want us growing up without knowing our mother.”

  Marcel took another drink.

  “We took turns staying in Paris. As you could tell, I was the first one to stay with Mom. Markie stayed with Dad in Chicago. It was an interesting experience, being aware that you have a brother but seldom being able to see him. No wonder there’s a fair amount of tension between us.”

  After taking yet another swig, he poured himself another glass.

  Sienna took another sip. All she could think about was Mark. The desire was so strong that it seeped out into her words. As if to muster up the courage to ask him, she took a much longer sip.

  "How long are you going to leave him in jail?" Sienna asked, hoping that her voice didn't crack.

  "Just for the night. They did say he was covered in blood, like he bit into an animal or something. I wouldn't be surprised if that fucker has rabies. He's always getting into trouble,” Marcel said, bitterly.

  "With the law?” she asked.

  "Not so much. They found him once out in the woods. All scratched up with these dead wolves and his dead dogs around him. If it weren't for his dogs, he would be dead. They were two German Shepherds that were loyal and obedient as fuck.”

  Marcel took a drink and then continued. "He had an ax for chopping wood. That's how he killed three of them. They found a knife in one of their throats, but those wolves fucked him up good."

  The inside of the Lincoln was quiet save for the car humming. Sienna felt more comfortable than usual. She let herself relax in the luxurious leather seats. She looked back at him and saw that he was staring. She saw buildings that indicated she was close to home.

  "So tell me a little about yourself,” Marcel said. “Maybe that will explain why Markie stopped running.”

  He took another gulp, and Sienna noticed that the effects of the scotch were beginning to show.

  “Well,” she began, “I'm a teacher. I teach English to students that are gifted and to some that are not so gifted. Usually, I am up to the task of helping out the disadvantaged but lately…."

  The thought of her broken engagement crept back up on her, and depression set in once more.

  “Lately, things took a wrong turn for me,” she said, finishing her glass of scotch.

  "I see." Marcel said quietly. He scooted closer to her, causing her to notice that there was much less space than usual.

  "But my students are helping me," she said, trying to keep the conversation going. "They remind me that I am loved, and that my engagement ending does not mean that it’s the end of the world for me."

  Marcel nodded his head in silence. "Husband-to-be left you at the alter huh. That sucks. Well, marriage is a shitty deal anyways. Trust me, sweetheart. It never works for long." Marcel emptied his glass for the third time. For a moment, he pondered something deeply and then poured himself another glass of scotch. He took in a deep breath and then exhaled.

  “So it really has been a while huh?” Sienna asked.

  “Huh?”

  “That you’ve seen your brother.”

  “Fuck yeah. Three or four years. It was a real bitch having to run the company by myself. I sure could’ve used his help.”

  The car halted. They were in front of Sienna’s apartment complex. Sienna had really enjoyed listening to Marcel talk about his past. It was nice for her to feel something of a connection.

  “Well, it was nice talking to you… uh….”

  “Sienna,” she said, extending her hand.

  “Sienna. Right. Well, take care.” He gave her a quick handshake. The door swiftly opened, and the scent of rain wafted in, which Sienna found to be a pleasant smell.

  She climbed out of the car, and she saw a middle aged man in black wearing a driver’s hat holding the car door open.

  “By the way,” Marcel called out from the car, “my brother is a real go-getter. When I say he doesn’t give a fuck, I really mean it. You’ll be seeing him soon.” Then the driver shut the door. When he got into to the car, the black Lincoln Town car drove away.

  “I highly doubt that,” she said to herself. Then she walked upstairs to her apartment as quickly as she could in order to escape the rain.

  .:.

  He paced around the cell block. He didn’t do drugs anymore, and he didn’t remember drinking anything the night before. There was a strong feeling of elation, but it was a natural feeling. There was nothing hazy about his memory up until he got to the park. There were no other memories to be recalled until he woke up on the park bench.

  “What the fuck did Mags do to me?!” he shouted, pounding his fist into the wall of the holding cell.

  He knew she had something to do with it, but if there was maliciousness in her intent, he felt like he would have sensed it.

  "When I get out of here, I’m going to fuck some shit up," he thought to himself. His anger was seething. He felt a surge of strength course throughout his body. Back at the Black Lotus, he remembered feeling like he could take on the whole group of cops and whisk the woman in red away to some secluded location.

  The woman stayed in his mind, and his anger dissipated. Keeping the woman in mind brought him a sense of serenity.

  “I have to find her and just… know her,” he reminded himself.

  He knew that meeting her would bring him some degree of peace, in spite of the chaos present in his own mind.

  “I have to get out of here!”

  The cell he was in was spacious but had plenty of people in it. Some for drunken behavior, some for possession of narcotics, and some for violence. Mark knew what kind violence these men were in for, though he couldn’t explain how he had intuited the information.

  “Moriarty!” A policeman from outside the cell called. “You’re out!”

  .:.

  Gary was standing by the door of the Lincoln. Even though it had been years since Mark had seen Gary, the sight was welcome after spending a night in a jail cell. The evening was young, and the promise of rain was in the air.

  “Gary you old fox! How are you?” Mark asked when he reached Gary.

  He gave him a hug as soon he was close enough. Gary returned the hug in kind.

  “Good, Markie boy. I heard you went through a rough patch., Gary said, looking over Mark to see if he had sustained any damage.

  “Me? Nah. I put life itself in a rough patch. You never took me to be the kind of guy that shys away from adventure, Gary.”

  “I guess not, Markie. Drop us a line next time you go off the radar. That many years going radio silent is too much for a man.”

  �
��Yeah I know. I’ll keep in touch next time I disappear. You know that divorce fucked me up,” Mark said in a less light-hearted tone.

  “I know, but I warned you that shacking up with a skinny ass for good will mess you up. I’ve seen it plenty of times with your father,” he said, his hand on Mark’s shoulder.

  “I know. I should’ve listened to you. You were always the only one I could open up with,” Mark said, placing his hand on Gary’s shoulder. “So what’s up? What does my asshole brother want with me?”

  “Just to clean up for now. We have a hotel suite reserved for you. We have a barber scheduled to fix that hair of yours. Jesus Christ! You really do look like shit, Markie.”

  Mark laughed at that. Gary was always able to make him laugh. He was a father of sorts.

  “If you say so Gary,” he said, taking a glimpse into the mirror of the Lincoln.

  They were driving for a while. Mark thinking about what his next move should be. Go back to the whorehouse and find out what Mags had done to him? Or find out about that woman he was mesmerized by? He found that though their meeting was short, her scent still lingered in his memory

  “Something on your mind?” Gary asked from the front.

  “Yeah, but it’s something that I can’t tell you. You would think it's crazy,” Mark replied.

  “Nothing could top that incident with the wolves at the mountains, Markie,” Gary replied.

  “I know.” He paused. ”I’ll tell you once I get my head wrapped around it.” Mark sat back in the seat.

  “Sure thing, Markie,” Gary said.

  The two sat in silence for the remainder of the drive.

  .:.

  A knock at the door woke Sienna from her sleep. She’d had dreams that felt psychedelic and yet like something or somebody was trying to communicate with her. A building flashed in her mind. Sienna was sure that it was in a bad part of town. She wondered why she would be dreaming about such a place, but then again, she had been wondering about a lot of things lately.

  Another knock at the door came, this time, a frantic knock.

  “Could it be, Mark,” she wondered.

  She got up to look through the door and sighed. It was Jane and Claudia, two of her students. She made her way around unpacked boxes, and dirty laundry seemed to form piles everywhere. She opened the door.

  “Hey, gals. What’s going on?”

  “Oh my god, Ms Larson, we heard there was an incident right by the restaurant after we left. We tried calling you, but there was no answer.” Claudia could be a little dramatic.

  Sienna smiled. “I’m fine Claudia, thanks.”

  “I told you,” Jane said to her classmate. “Ms. Larson is tough.”

  Sienna laughed at that. She noticed she was still in her clothes from the night before. She felt embarrassed but didn’t want to dismiss the girls right away.

  “Why don’t you girls come on in? You were right Claudia, there was an incident at the Black Lotus.”

  The girls looked at each other in astonishment. They walked past Sienna to the living room.

  After Sienna had told them the story, the girls had several questions: Did she like Mark? Was is it possible that Marcel might have a crush on Sienna? Which brother did she think was cuter — that sort of thing.

  “Wow, Ms. Larson,” Jane exclaimed. “To think that if we hadn’t gone to the Black Lotus, you wouldn’t be feeling the way you are.”

  “Jane, Cladia, I have you all to thank. Seriously you all keep me going,” Sienna said, feeling elated.

  “You’ve helped us more than you could ever imagine,” said Claudia, standing up to embrace Sienna.

  Jane joined in as well.

  There was a knock at the door, and the hug broke apart. All three looked at each other with puzzled faces.

  “Are we expecting any more students here?” Sienna asked.

  “No. We haven’t told anybody,” Jane said, looking at Claudia who returned the same puzzled look.

  “It could be one of the twin brothers, Miss Larson!” Claudia whispered with a playful smile.

  “Let’s see,” Sienna said feeling nervous.

  When she opened the door, she saw that it was Marcel, looking slick and handsome like before.

  “My brother has done it again,” Marcel said, slightly annoyed.

  “Oh?” Sienna said.

  “This time, they’re not cops and it’s not at a restaurant.”

  “Really?” she replied. “Where at?”

  Marcel let out a deep sigh, and he saw the young students who were in the living room.

  “Maybe it’s best if you just come with me right now,” he concluded. “I’d rather say this in private.”

  “Ok, sure.” She spoke in a low voice. “Just let me change first.”

  “I’ll be waiting outside in the car, then,” he replied.

  After she took a quick shower and had gotten into a fresh set of clothes, she told the girls that they were more than welcome to stay at the apartment and to help themselves to whatever they wanted.

  The old driver was waiting at the car when she made her way downstairs. She wondered what could prompt a man of such wealth to share a moment with her for the second time.

  She got into the car and sat next to Marcel Moriarty.

  “He’s at a whorehouse,” he said. “For some reason, he needs both of us to be at a whorehouse where there’s hookers, drug addicts, and other kinds of degenerates. Have you heard of the Velvet Dime before?”

  “Yeah. I hear rich people go there….” Sienna said.

  “I said ‘other types of degenerates’ did I. Well, he told me that he needed both of us to finish his ‘spiritual quest.’ I’m only going because he promised that he will come back and help run the business.”

  “Sounds like a deal. What could go wrong?” Sienna asked.

  “A lot. Ville Vitaly is in town today and one of his favorite places is… well, you guessed it…. He’s a big asshole and so are his goons. They’re always starting shit at the clubs and always fucking up shit for everybody else.”

  Sienna had never been around that kind of scene before. The idea of being around Russian Mobsters excited her. Anything was better than staying home on a Saturday, depressed and wondering why her life had become such a failure.

  “Glad to see you’re excited,” Marcel said, after noticing her smile. “These assholes are always armed with automatics.”

  Sienna couldn’t help but laugh.

  .:.

  It was a long drive across town. Sienna had noticed the further she drove, the more she noticed that buildings and the area in general decreased in quality. Roads were filled with potholes, street signs were filled with graffiti. She saw vagrants wandering around the area.

  “How could I have not known that Mark wasn’t really a homeless person,” she thought. “No way I would be attracted to a homeless person, why now?”

  The Velvet Dime Whorehouse looked exactly the way it did in her dream. Its neon signs and the ejaculating penis was what probably gave her dream a psychedelic feel. There were two armed men at the door who looked like secret service agents. They wore black sunglasses, and their weapons were difficult to conceal.

  “Are these the assholes?” Sienna asked while staring out through her window.

  “Yup, and plenty more inside,” Marcel said. “Gary, you strapped?”

  The window rolled down with Gary already looking over his shoulder. He was a holding a automatic that looked like it belonged to a SWAT team.

  “Always,” he said.

  “Gary was a badass back in the day. Isn’t that right Gary?”

  “If you say so,” Gary replied while stepping out of the driver seat.

  The door opened on Sienna’s side, and she made her way out. As the three were making their way to the front door, two tall identical blondes walked out of the door and descended the steps. Both had their hair pulled tightly back as if they were coming out of a photoshoot. They both wore plush white fur coats a
nd a band around their heads with a flower on them that made them look like angels. However, their faces were full of disgust.

  “Well if it isn’t the Bloom twins. Lily and Daisy. How goes it, ladies? Vitaly being an ass today?” Marcel asked.

  The twins face brightened up when they recognized Marcel. They hugged him simultaneously, and then kissed him on both of cheeks.

  “Ass would be an understatement,” one of them said.

  As Sienna looked closer, she saw that the woman who’d spoken first had a flower that resembled a lily on her band.

  The other, with the daisy, said, “It’s like he brought his entire his entire organization to Velvet Dime! His goons are getting out of control, so Mags ordered all the girls to leave until ‘things settle down.’”

  “Things will settle down, ladies,” Marcel said with a smirk.

  “We know,” said Lily with a smile. “Drop by at our place. We’ll consider it a social visit.”

  They gave Marcel another simultaneous kiss and walked off. When there was plenty of distance between them, Sienna asked, “Friends of yours?”

  “How else would I know about the Velvet Dime’s clientele?” Marcel asked. He continued walking to the door. Gary followed and Sienna brought up the rear.

  They were met by the Russian bodyguards who were standing by the door as if they were employees of the establishment.

  “Piss off. Private party,” one of them said in a Russian accent while revealing an automatic weapon that was underneath his jacket. Gary and Sienna had stopped while Marcel kept walking.

  “Hey, dum-dum,” the other bodyguard called in a much thicker accent. “Private Party. Means walk the other way or you’ll sleep forever.” He uncovered his gun completely, knowing that Marcel wasn’t going to stop.

  Sienna wasn’t sure if she imagined it or not, but when one of them started shooting, Marcel leaped at the gunman and grabbed him by the throat. She could’ve sworn that the bullets had hit him in the torso. Marcel somehow ended up behind the gunman and dug his hands into the Russian’s throat. Blood oozed out from where his fingers were digging into the man’s flesh. Marcel tore the man’s throat apart, exposing the neck bone. The other pointed his gun at him at him, trembling, not sure what to do.