by Cara North
“I’m only going to say this once.” He squatted to be eye level with her.
He reached out and took her hands in his. Frankie was on the verge of swooning, but she kept repeating the words ‘get it together’ in her head. The warmth of his fingers transferred to the chill of hers. She could almost hear her thoughts over the pulse of her heart thrumming in her ears, beating against her ribcage, drowning out everything but the desire to speak. Time moved in slow motion as she breathed in the warm, clean scent of him. His eyes looked at hers and held.
“Francesca MacBeth, will you be my personal assistant?” He bit his lower lip. He was a flirt, no two ways about it. A funny guy with charm to spare one reporter had noted in an article she recently read. Here he was, in a proposal situation, not asking marriage, though asking her of anything was more than she dared but dream before.
She blurted, “Get it together.”
His expression puzzled. His eyebrows raised in surprise. She wanted to take it back. It wasn’t what she wanted to say. She was blowing it. An opportunity of a lifetime, wasn’t that what she was being offered?
His expression sobered. He nodded. He let go of her hands as he stood up. “See, that is exactly why I need you, Francesca. You don’t hold back. You cut right through my bullshit and say what you mean.”
Good grief the man thought her words were meant for him. Somewhere inside she knew she had to reign in her unbridled lust for this man and put on her game face or she would ruin her chance to…just be around him. “Frankie. Please, call me Frankie.”
“So, Frankie, you wanna grab some lunch and hash out the details?” He quirked an eyebrow and smiled.
“Yes.” It was the only word she could say. Hell, she was having enough trouble remembering her own name. Hopefully, she would get past being star struck quickly.
“Good,” he said. “I’ll just grab Lea.”
He was out of the room in a few steps. The moment the door closed, Frankie let her bones melt against the couch. She took several fortifying breaths and fought the urge to text Shay. No doubt Shay would tell everyone in ear shot before Frankie even put ink to paper on the contract. How was she going to handle Shay? The thought helped to take the anxiety off of her current dilemma, how was she going to handle Jonas?
Chapter Two
Frankie pressed her fingers deep against the cramp in her side.
“Ishmael!”
She called out to the German Shepherd determined to get every bit of his exercise in today. Jonas had left her a message that said Ish was a good boy. He loved the dog park and would be fine off leash to play with other dogs and fetch his tennis ball. The regular dog walker was out for a week and her first assignment was to fill the bill or find someone else to. Uncertain of how to find a dog walker for a Hollywood star, she showed up to handle the task herself.
As she tried to catch her breath, Frankie wondered how hard it would be to get that guy from television to teach her how to be dominant assertive, or whatever it was called. “Ish, be a good boy. Come on Ishmael.”
He ran towards her with enthusiasm, his ball held firmly between his teeth. Much like his human master, Ish was a flirt. He came running all giddy and happy towards her, making her think it was going to be easy, and right when he was close enough to touch he ran off again. Frankie chased after him and almost caught him. She was not giving up. She ran through the pain of the stitch in her side building up again. She chased Ishmael all the way around the entire length of the square, fenced in, “private,” as in reserved for the gated community, dog park until he came to a complete stop in front of Jonas. Frankie stopped running, stopped calling his name. She grabbed her side and walked towards them. Of all the pictures in her mind of the way she would look the second time Jonas Gunner laid eyes on her, this was not it.
“Drop it,” Jonas said simply and Ish opened his mouth and dropped the slobbery ball.
Frankie wanted to strangle the dog. She wanted to lie down. She needed a drink of water and maybe a towel, because she was drenched with sweat. Jonas had returned early. He was not supposed to be home until later, and then he was scheduled for a nap before the award show and the after parties. Jonas looked her over with those clear, disarming blue eyes of his. Frankie was conscious of every drip of sweat sliding down her face, her back, the crack of her ass.
“I didn’t know you were a runner. I would have changed my schedule around. The three of us could have gone for a jog instead.” Jonas looked away from her and patted his dog on the head.
Frankie took the moment to pinch her side again. She gasped for breath and resumed the smile when he looked at her. She was dying. Her lungs were on fire, her side felt like someone was pinching her, and it throbbed in pain with each spasm.
“Yeah,” she lied. “I’m just getting back into it you know, so running behind Ish here is fine. I would hate to slow you both down.”
He looked at her and she knew before he said anything that he was going to make a comment she could tuck away and use later that night in her dreams. A consummate flirt, another tid-bit of information she had read about him.
“I can go slow.” He let his gaze travel over her. “I can go as slow as you need me to.”
She knew one thing for sure, he liked her quick wit. She could not accept his flirtations as genuine, especially as she stood there with sweat dripping out of every pore of her body. Instead, she quipped, “Good to know. Now, how did the meeting go? Do I need to get anything prepared for this weekend?”
He held out his hand and she passed him the leash. Ish would not be seeing freedom on another walk until she knew exactly how to manage him. Frankie stood up straight and pulled her phone out of the hidden pocket in her tank top. It was meant for a portable music device, but her phone fit just fine and she did need to keep it on her at all times. That was in the agreement. She worked five days a week from ten to seven, but she was on call twenty-four hours, seven days a week, including holidays. He watched her pull out the phone and then had a laugh at her expense.
“You crack me up,” he said.
She wanted to crack him in the head for laughing at her. She would not look at him. He would not get the pleasure of seeing her face while making fun of her for doing her job. “Do you need to change anything on the schedule today?”
He stopped laughing. “No.”
“Good. I’ll head home now and grab a shower. I’ll be at your place…”
“Yes,” he said. “I do need to change something. I forgot about lunch with a friend of mine. I need you to make reservations for us at…somewhere good. Oh, and low key. You can meet me back at my house in two hours, okay?”
She put on her best fake smile and said, “But you have…”
“No buts.” He held up his hand.
“Yes, sir.”
His brow furrowed a moment, he relaxed his expression and coolly responded with, “I think I like the sound of that.”
Frankie could feel the strain on her jaws as her teeth clenched to keep her mouth shut. He was baiting her. That much she was certain of. He would not win. She was going to do this job because he was more than generous with her salary. She could assist the fantasy man of her dreams, though the real man was quickly becoming her waking nightmare, for a year, and then head off to Europe for a while with a nice cushioned bank account.
“Okay, I will see you at eleven and send you the details via text in less than an hour.” She looked up at him just as a cloud moved and the sun shone down causing her to squint. Her glasses were already slippery. She had to remember to put in her contacts. The squint caused a drop of sweat to get in her eye and she opened and closed it with effort to erase the sting.
“Is that code?” He bit his lower lip in that telling way he had right before leading in to a clever quip.
“Is what code?” She wanted to take her glasses off and scrub her eye but she was trying to get this conversation over with and home to a nice cool shower.
“You’re winking at me. Are yo
u flirting with me, Lady MacBeth?” He winked at her. If her face was not already red enough from the running, it would have been pink from blushing. He smiled that killer smile. “I don’t remember that being part of the agreement.”
“I have sweat dripping into my eye and the sun is blinding me. I am not flirting with you, sir. I am losing time with every minute we stand here.” Frankie huffed. “And just so you know, I am aware I’m…was… a lit professor with the last name MacBeth, the reference…so played.”
“Indeed.” He looked off towards the dog park. She had wounded his ego, his pride, something she was sure because he pouted.
She took in the sight of his profile, his strong jaw, the stubble from a few days of not shaving. He was damn sexy regardless. Brooding, playful, every one of his moods looked good on him.
“Come on Ish, we know when we have overstayed our welcome.” He started off with the dog.
“Sir,” she called after him. “I work for you. How can you overstay your welcome? I’m just trying to do what you asked me to do in the time constraints you asked me to do it.”
Frankie wanted to tell him he was a spoiled brat and she was not about to put up with his moods, but that would only get her fired, so she decided to do her job and bend to his will. She was high-stepping it to get to him and his sudden stop caused her to slam flat into his chest as he spun to say something.
She bounced off his strong, lean, body and took a hasty step backwards. His hand grabbed her by the upper arm and held her steady. “Jesus, Frankie.”
Her legs turned to noodles as she became ultimately aware of him, his scent, and his grasp on her arm. His strength radiated. She took a step back and he let her go. If she could smell him this close, he was bound to smell her. Certainly, she was not in prime condition to be this close to anyone. “I’ll have everything ready and on time, sir.”
***
There she went. Francesca MacBeth running towards her car. He pushed his hand through his hair and looked down at Ishmael. “Well, Ish, what do you think?”
The dog barked while he wagged his tail.
“Yeah, well, you like everyone.” Jonas smiled. He couldn’t quite put a finger on what it was about her that made his blood rush faster, his mind work quicker, and his body, hell he had been abusing himself non-stop since the interview. He would have given her anything to take the job. Now, he needed to figure out how to slowly transition what he felt from being her boss to…he didn’t know what he wanted from her. Well, he knew a few things he wanted from her. He opened the door to his Jeep and let Ish inside. He drove home wondering where she would choose to have lunch. Additionally, he had to find someone to meet him there so she could set up the final details.
She arrived ten minutes early, as he knew she would. Frankie was dressed in that same business casual attire that reminded him of her previous position. Unfortunately, it also reminded him of the many other positions he wanted her to be in. The glasses and bun only brought to mind fantasies of a smart woman standing in panties and a bra with a ruler in hand.
“Do you own a pair of jeans, Frankie?” He knew it was an inappropriate question, but he could not stop saying inappropriate things around her. Sure, he was known as a flirt, but with every other woman it had always been flirting for sport. With Frankie, he was flirting for real. He tossed out a line and hoped she would bite. He would do whatever it took to reel her in. Once, twice, he would be satisfied once he had her. He could let her do her job then. He was almost certain he could just sex it right out of his system.
“Several. May I ask why? Am I overdressed for lunch?” She looked genuinely worried about it.
“I thought about going hiking sometime…soon. And since I would need you to go with me, I wanted to make sure you had something else to wear.” He made it all up instantly. Her brown eyes, the darkest he had ever seen, studied him. He thought she may be on to his game.
“Sir, where would you go hiking?” she asked.
His cock responded every single time she addressed him that way. He didn’t know why. It wasn’t like she was the first person to call him sir, but normally he would correct the person and say, ‘that’s what people call my dad, call me Jonas, call me Gunner, call me anything but sir.’ For some odd and incomprehensible reason he liked when she said it. He liked the way her lips moved as she formed the word. He liked the sound of her voice. He liked that in some way she was his to do with as he pleased. Unfortunately, he could not do all the things he wanted to do, so he would find other ways of occupying her time until he found a loophole, and then he would occupy her body.
“Joshua Tree National Park. I’ve gone there a few times, but I want to go alone this time. Well, I’d be bringing you along for safety purposes, but you get what I’m saying. You should look at my schedule and work out a time for me…us to go camping and pencil that in.” He barely got what he was saying out since he was still making it all up on the fly. He wanted to go somewhere secluded, get her out of her element, and see what happened.
Frankie nodded slowly then looked at her watch. “We better get going if we want to be on time.”
“Unless it’s work, I am rarely on time for anything.” He grabbed his keys and followed behind her. He watched the sway of her ass as she walked. Frankie wasn’t skinny, she wasn’t fat, but she sure wasn’t skinny. She was voluptuous, round in all the right places. Her hourglass figure did nothing to abate his lust. If anything it made him harder. A quick adjustment as they walked out the door was needed. “Where are you going?”
“You want to be discrete, have a private lunch with a friend. The moment that beast, she pointed to the luxury SUV, hits the street paparazzi will be looking for you.” She walked to her non-descript black four door sedan and opened the passenger side door. It creaked on the hinges. He was sure it had to be at least ten years old.
“Are you coming, sir?” she asked.
Not yet, he thought, but moved his feet towards the vehicle anyways. “We could take my Jeep.”
“What if you have a few beers at lunch? I don’t know how to drive a stick shift.” She opened the door on the driver’s side and disappeared into the car.
“I could teach you,” he said with as much restraint as possible for the double entendre. “I mean, it is important you know how to drive every vehicle I own, especially that you know how to drive a stick.”
She half smiled, half laughed, and shook her head as though he barely amused her. He had hoped to make her laugh out loud or maybe give a look that said more than annoyance. “Like you said, I may go somewhere, meet a few people, have a few drinks, and then need to get out of there. What if I get bit by something on the camping trip?”
“I’ll put it on the schedule when we get to the restaurant, sir. You want me to drive your stick…the stick...the Jeep...I will.” Frankie gave the road her full attention.
For his part, he tried to hide his delight at her blush and stumbling words. He knew now he had to do anything and everything to break her focus and make her talk to him. He fiddled with the radio and complained about the fact that she did not have all the sports channels and the buttons were pre-set to NPR and the classical music stations.
“Are you thirty-six or sixty-three, Frankie? If you think I’m riding in this car again, then you know I am going to require you to fix this situation.” He watched as she gripped the steering wheel tighter. He was never this picky with people, but he could not help it. He kinda liked getting under her skin a bit. He tuned in to a pop station and said, “Finally, something from this decade.”
“I…” she started then stopped. Her grip was white knuckled on the wheel and he knew she had something to say, but she was holding it back.
“Say it. What?” he pressed.
“I do listen to music from this decade. The channels are pre-set for when I need to remind myself that there are other things going on this world, or when I need to relax and clear my mind on a drive home after work. I mean after teaching, not this job. If you l
ook in the compartment under the radio you will find a cord, and the little box it is attached to has hundreds of songs from this decade and others.” She darted a glance at him then her focus was back to the traffic. She seemed to navigate through the afternoon congestion smoothly and with less aggression than he. Of course, he never gave himself enough time, and Frankie had timed it just right.
He looked out the window as she took an unfamiliar turn and then another. The traffic was almost non-existent by the time she made another turn. He hoped his brother-in-law would be there already. The sooner they got lunch over, the sooner he could move on to the real business of the day. He had forgotten all about the nap and the business ahead when he made these plans because he was caught up in his own lust at the sight of her drenched in sweat and her hair tousled from the run. She hadn’t forgotten the plans for the evening and now, thanks to this lunch, she would be scrambling to make sure everything lined up just right. She knew he was pressing his luck fitting in lunch when he had an award show to attend that night, but she didn’t argue. She just made it work. Deciding to make the most of it, even if it meant missing a nap and working well into the evening, he was going to enjoy the now.
“Great,” she said with a sound of relief. “He’s here.”
Frankie pulled into a parking space and got out of the car. He opened his own door and got out before she could get to it. He shook his head at her as she rounded the back of the car towards him. “I can open my own doors, Frankie.”
“Suit yourself.” She held up an arm in the direction of the restaurant. His brother-in-law sat at an outside table under an umbrella.
“Hey, man, what’s up?” Buddy stood as they approached the table. Jonas responded with a nod in Frankie’s direction. One he hoped she didn’t notice. He had called Buddy shortly after the interview and told him all about her. Buddy was not in agreement that this was a good plan, but what else could he say? Buddy reached out a hand to shake Frankie’s and said, “You must be Frankie, your directions and timing was perfect. How do you know about this place?”
