“It’s beautiful.”
He looked me over from head to toe and said, “Yeah, you are.”
“Thank you.” My cheeks warmed as he continued to stare. “What are you reading?” The book looked very old.
“Poetry.”
I started to laugh. I’d probably have the same reaction if I came in and found him reading the bible.
“What?”
“Are you serious? It’s actual poetry?” I didn’t know if I could believe that.
“Yes. Look, see.” He held it out to me and I took it. It was a collection of post-romantic poetry and I could see that my favorite poet was listed in there: Alfred Tennyson. “Believe me now?”
I leaned my head to the side and handed the book back to him. “Josh, I feel like I just walked into the Twilight Zone. But the good part. I think.”
He chuckled. “You don’t believe I like poetry?”
“It’s hard to get my head round.” I looked at him and observed his overly masculine presence and stature. There was no way that I would guess that he had a softer side, one that would appreciate classical music and poetry. But here he was. “What’s your favorite from the book?”
“In Memoriam’ by Tennyson.” He said it without thinking.
I loved that poem, and anything by Tennyson.
“That’s a really long poem.”
“Doesn’t bother me, princess.” He straightened up and smiled, setting the book down on the coffee table, then recited, “Be near me when my light is low, when the blood creeps, and the nerves prick. And tingle; and the heart is sick. And all the wheels of being slow.”
My eyes widened in surprise. He was actually quoting the poem.
He smiled when he saw my reaction and continued, “Be near me when the sensuous frame is rack'd with pangs that conquer trust. And time, a maniac scattering dust. And life, a fury slinging flame.”
I thought I’d do a little reciting of my own and join him. “Be near me when my faith is dry,” I cut in. His smile widened. “And men the flies of latter spring. That lay their eggs, and sting and sing and weave their petty cells and die. Be near me when I fade away. To point the term of human strife. And on the low dark verge of life the twilight of eternal day.”
“Well this is interesting, now isn’t it,” he stated. “Now we have something in common.”
“Yes. I never took you for the poetry reading type.” I shook my head.
“My sister could tame the inner beast.” He nodded then glanced down at the book for a second.
“How was yesterday?” I asked tentatively. I’d worried that being at the cemetery would wear him down again.
He nodded. “It wasn’t terrible. I talked. I tried to talk to them as if they were still here. And I realized that as long as I remember them they’ll never leave me.”
That was beautiful, and I was happy for him.
“They won’t.” I nodded with reassurance.
“Thanks for being there the other night, and well…for still being here.”
“You’re welcome. How are you feeling?”
“I’m sober.” He smiled. “This is my second day without a drink. My hands are shaking, but other than that I think I’ll be fine.”
I looked at his hands and noticed a slight tremor as he held them out. I’d heard that shakes were a bad withdrawal symptom when you stopped drinking. I hoped he wouldn’t experience it worse than what I saw.
“I may be able to relax you a little.” I beamed at him.
“What do you plan to do?” There was a saucy glint in his eyes that made my nerves scatter.
“Give you a neck rub.” I gave excellent massages.
He frowned. “Just my neck?”
I giggled. “I can do a shoulder massage, too.”
“Come on, then, princess, don’t keep me in suspense.”
I moved over to him and went behind him so I could place my hands on his shoulders. The muscles on his neck were equally as firm as his chest. I’d never known anyone with such sharp muscle definition.
In New York, I’d seen male models do their photo shoots, but he wasn’t a male model he was an athlete. The muscles were different. And he was very tense.
“You have to relax,” I told him as I tried to work my fingers through his muscles.
“I don’t know if I can, this feels awfully kinky to me.” He looked up and gave me a cheeky smile as I pressed into his shoulders.
“Josh, it’s a shoulder massage. How can that feel kinky?”
“It just does. Are you sure this isn’t something we should continue upstairs in a nice silky bed?”
“Josh.” I smacked his shoulder playfully and he caught my hand.
“What? I can’t help who I am. Besides, I don’t want Hilda coming in and getting the wrong idea.”
I placed my hands on my hips and looked at him through narrowed eyes. “That makes no sense. Wouldn’t being in bed upstairs give her the wrong idea?”
“No, because if we were in bed upstairs there would be no guessing as to what we’d be doing. If she see’s us like this she’ll just wonder, but never be quite certain if something’s going on between us.” Trust him to say that. I didn’t know how he came up with these reasonings.
“But there isn’t anything going on between us.”
“Isn’t there?” He raised his brows.
I guessed kissing him on the beach tended to negate that statement, and so did not wanting to stop.
Or, thinking about kissing him now.
I didn’t know what kind of charm he’d worked on me to completely bamboozle me, but it worked and I needed to get it out of my system.
“You’re my boss, and I’m working. We shouldn’t flirt like this at work.”
“Baby, it’s five to nine. I have five more minutes of flirting.” It was indeed five to nine.
Even I had to laugh. “You’re seriously like this all the time?” I thought the drink may have talked most times.
“I’m like this all the time.” He nodded.
I rolled my eyes at him and continued to rub his shoulders.
* * *
My work with him took off from that day. The weeks that followed saw me crazy busy, running around all day trying to balance everything and accompanying him to various events and meetings. The events took up the whole day and most times I was with him way past my normal working hours.
Everything was on track, and the best news ever was that Mom now had a date for surgery. An actual date, scheduled for the end of the month. It gave me that sense of accomplishment and hope. I had planned to take that week off to be with her. It would be good for me, too, because we hadn’t seen each other in months.
Things were looking up and I thanked God that Josh was doing well.
I was proud of the way he’d shaped himself up, and how serious he was about focusing on playing again. We spent a lot of time together on these outings and I was pleased to say that he’d been sober for over six weeks now. He was a new man, one who was determined to get his life back in order. I also hadn’t seen Allegra and Cindy, or any other woman coming or going from the house. Everything had turned out better than I’d hoped.
The cherry on top was watching him organize himself and prepare for training. I didn’t realize that when I was being told about training weeks ago that it would be an all-day thing.
I couldn’t begin to imagine what they would do all day, but that was because I wasn’t an athlete or, more specifically, a Gladiator. Josh told me that they trained with the sun, and sometimes long after it set. I supposed that was why they were so good and the leading champions. Other than my morning jog I used to do back in New York I didn’t exercise. I planned to start running again after the showcase. The beach was the perfect location for that and I’d have more time then.
Having some organization gave me the chance to fit in the time I needed to finish off my dress and portfolio weeks before I had planned. I was very happy with what I’d done and thought it kept with the uni
que qualities found in a Dior designer.
I’d gone with a spring theme and called my collection Metamorphosis, to represent the changes you could see during the spring time. My style and taste was very European mixed with an air of bohemian chic, so I’d drawn stylish designs that mingled pastel shades with unique accessories.
Dior didn’t just create a look, but a language recognizable in every season and across the world. I wanted to capture that with my designs.
Finishing it made me feel good and I could tick it off my mental list of things to do. It also made my look forward even more to the showcase. Most designers were going in with their models. I was going to be both designer and model. It wasn’t unheard of and I was sure I wouldn’t be the only one. Money and time prevented me from getting a model, but honestly, I preferred it this way.
I heard the front door open. That would be him now. I was in the office finishing up some emails I wanted done before I left for the weekend.
“Baby, are you still here?” he called out from the hallway.
I smiled to myself when I heard his voice.
“I’m in the office,” I answered.
I looked away from the computer screen as he came inside looking delicious in his tight, long-sleeved, black training top. He looked like a walking advert, proudly displaying the Nike swoosh on the side of his chest and the edge of his hip.
He also looked bigger to me, more muscular. I guessed that’s what training all day did. When he smiled at me I noticed a bruise on his left cheek.
“What happened to your face? You have the USA Today shoot next week.”
“Gage hit me. That feral creature. I swear he belongs in the wild.” He came around to me. “Baby, it’s nearly six, pack that shit away.” He grimaced when he realized he swore. “I mean stuff.”
I giggled, appreciating his attempt. “I have to send these emails, then I’m gone.”
“Gone? Now that I’ve seen you I’m not letting you leave.” He gave me a cocky masculine grin. “Come here, your man needs you.”
Anyone would think we were a couple, but it was harmless fun.
Well…to some extent. It would help a lot if I didn’t get all weak-kneed girlie when he said things like that.
“Josh, Perry Henderson needs to have the reports for the expenses over the last few months and I have to sort them.”
“Perry?” Josh narrowed his eyes at me. “Who is he even?”
“The team’s accounts manager.”
“He’s accounting at this hour?” He shook his head in disbelief. “Pack it away and come here.”
“No, I have to—”
Before I could refuse again, Josh took my hand and pulled me up from the chair. He fixed his gaze on my legs as I stood and the edges of my skirt floated around my thighs.
“Jesus, look at you. How can you hide your fine self behind that desk?” He continued to stare at my legs.
“I’m working.” Thank goodness he was staring at my legs and didn’t see me blushing uncontrollably.
“Like hell you are. You finish at five. We should go hang out.” He brought his gaze back to my face and reached out to touch my chin.
“Hang out? Doing what?”
“There’s a number of things I can think of.” The look he gave me told all. It was purely sexual, no mistake about it.
“Josh, it’s imperative that I get back to work.” It probably wasn’t imperative, but I couldn’t be like this with him. Him, with his overpowering sexual magnetism that weakened my resolve.
We’d gotten on well over the last few weeks, gotten on with the tasks and work set out for us, but there was one thing I was becoming openly aware of and that was the invisible web of attraction building between us. It increased daily and it was starting to be something I found difficult to escape. Some days I caught him looking at me, shamelessly checking me out. At other times, he’d give me this look of appreciation. Of course my mind told me to resist, but my body and my heart refused to listen.
“Imperative my ass. Hang out with me, baby.”
I shook my head. “I can’t.” At least I was trying.
“Yes, you can. All you have to do is come upstairs with me.”
“Upstairs?” I pressed my lips into a tight smile.
“Yes, upstairs.”
“Where upstairs?”
“My room, baby.” He smiled again, looking me over seductively. “Clothes are optional, although no clothes is always best.”
I swatted his hands away as he reached for me. “Josh, you are going to get me in trouble.”
“How much trouble can you get in if I’m your boss?”
“A lot.” I tried to get around him but he blocked me.
“Amy, come on. It’s been weeks now.” He pretended to pout. I giggled and held his gaze.
“Weeks since what?”
“Our beach fling.”
Fling. What a way to put it. My cheeks warmed.
“And I’ve been good,” he added. “Really good.”
I didn’t know what to say to him. It would be wrong for me to give in to temptation, no matter how great it was. The best thing to do had to be to leave things as they were and encourage him to focus on what he had to do.
“You’ve been great. Now, I have to get back to work.”
He watched me with narrowed eyes and that silly half-smile on his face that told me he wasn’t done yet with whatever plan he had up his sleeve. I stepped around him, sat back down, and started typing away at the keyboard, ignoring his intense gaze.
Out the corner of my eye I saw him take off his wrists supports and then his watch, both of which he rested on the side of the desk. I glanced up at him but didn’t encourage any conversation. Best to ignore him, then he’d hopefully leave me alone to work.
I opened up the files with the reports the last PA made. I had to check them and then attach them to the email. Hopefully that would take another hour tops.
I had just opened the file for January when Josh pulled his t-shirt over his head and tossed it over to the ground beside the Xerox copier. I turned to glare at him but the words escaped me as I beheld the site of his masterpiece torso adorned with stunning tribal tattoos.
He was a work of art and I swore he looked like the perfect specimen of what God intended when he made man. Josh was the blueprint and I noted that he looked dramatically different to when I saw him shirtless weeks ago. He’d looked like he’d accumulated more muscle and he looked more sculpted. He’d been eating super healthy and having these superfood shakes he called his magic punch.
Put that together with his training and this was what you got. The extremely overconfident man standing tall and proud before me who took pride in his amazing looks and the way I was looking at him.
“What are you doing?” I hissed trying to stop my blood from coursing through my veins at a hundred miles an hour. There was no doubt that my cheeks were now red and the uncontrollable; blushing had seized me once again.
“Stripping.” He said it like it was nothing, like he was gardening or something.
“What? Are you crazy?”
“Yes.” He nodded and smiled. Then to my surprise he switched off the computer and, with one swift move, picked me up. I shrieked when he tossed me over his shoulder as if I was a rag doll. It brought the image of a caveman up in my mind and I tried to stop myself from laughing.
“Josh, you put me down this second,” I yelped, smacking his back, which was also covered in more tattoos.
He answered by switching off the office lights and closing the door as we went through it.
“Josh, you’re my boss. I work for you. This is not good work behavior.” It was fruitless. My attempts were fruitless.
He carried me into the sitting room and set me down.
“Perry is going to go mad.”
“Perry can go fu—”
“Language, Josh,” I hissed, giggling.
“I’m sorry, I can’t help it. I always talk like this. It’s football
language.” He winced. “Okay, this is what I’ll tell Perry if he complains. I’ll tell him go fill himself with something because we’re busy after five.”
I’d met Perry last week. He seemed to be one of those men who were very particular and professional. I’d offered my usual smile and pleasantries but he barely acknowledged me and launched into a lengthy conversation about what he needed me to do. He barely took a break to breathe as he spoke.
“Then he’ll say, ‘busy doing what’.”
“We’re fooling around.”
“You can’t say that to him,” I retorted. I knew he would do it. That was his character. Very open minded and liberal to the point where he just said whatever was on his mind. Didn’t matter what it was. Josh just spoke and did as he wanted. The last thing I needed was for people like Zelda to think that I wasn’t serious about my work and replace me. “And we aren’t fooling around.”
“Yes we are.” He nodded with a wicked glint in his eye. Taking the edge of my camisole top, he edged me closer.
“Josh.”
“Yes, baby.”
“We can’t fool around.”
He spread his arms wide and held them out. “Baby, you’re seriously telling me you don’t want this?” He motioned to his perfect body, drawing my attention once again to his sculptured abs and the intense definition of each muscle against the glossy black ink of the tattoos swirled across his chest.
I tried to hold back a smile.
“Josh, I work for you.”
“Baby, that didn’t stop you weeks ago.”
“That was different.” It wasn’t and I didn’t know how to talk down a kiss I’d wanted more than anything at the time. “We were on the beach.”
“And the time before that?” A mischievous smile lit up his face, showing off his gorgeous dimples.
I pulled in a sharp breath and felt the blood begin to pound in my temples.
“You remember?” I couldn’t have felt more mortified when he nodded and felt worse by the second as my mind conjured up the image us.
“Like I’m supposed to forget that?” He smirked.
Play of Love: The Gladiator Players Box Set Page 14
