I grabbed the blender full of margarita and plate full of wings and met her in the living room. Eventually, there would be furniture. It looked too naked in here. I was a little embarrassed having someone over since nothing was unpacked, but if Maria didn’t care, then it was fine.
“You have a great view of the city.” Maria opened the plastic container of wings and grabbed a drumstick. The buffalo sauce dripped from the meat, and my mouth watered for a taste. I hadn’t had wings in ages. I grabbed a flat since they were way better than the drumsticks, that’s just a fact and sunk my teeth into the juicy meat. I groaned in pleasure when the flavor burst across my tongue. The sauce was tangier than I thought it would be. It smelled spicy, but it was sweet. What a great surprise.
“Did you make these yourself?” I asked, licking the bone clean and then my fingers. I didn’t care what anyone said; the sauce on the fingertips was the best part.
She nodded and poured us each a glass of margarita. When she handed it over, the tequila in it made my eyes water.
“Holy shit. That’s strong.”
“It’s five o’clock somewhere, right?” She wiggled her perfectly sculpted brows and hid half of her face by the rim of the cup as she sipped her drink. Maria was very pretty, and her confidence was addicting. I wanted just a fleck of her confidence. Her body was tight and in shape while mine was curvy. I had big boobs and a butt to match. My thighs went on for days, and on top of it all, I was really short.
Five−foot on the dot to be exact.
“So, Lucy Lu,” she tore into another wing. “What brings you to The Big Apple? Anything juicy? Are you running away? Did you escape prison? Are you secretly a hitman? Tell me everything.”
I choked on my drink so hard; margarita shot out of my nose as I laughed and the alcohol burned my throat, making my eyes water. “Do I look like the serial killer type?”
She tilted her head to the side, tapping her wing against her lip as she studied me. “No, but—” Maria held out her finger for a moment of pause, “I have learned that all people come from a variety of backgrounds. So I’m just saying, I’ll keep your secret if you are running. Maybe you’re in witness protection?” She looked right and left to make sure we were alone, and it made me chuckle again. “Blink once for yes and twice for yes.”
“You’re a damn mess,” I said, throwing my head back laughing. This girl was nuts.
“I’m fun, though. So, really, why are you here?”
“Why are you?” I asked. “I’m obviously very different than you. What made you come to my apartment and not someone else’s?” I bit into another wing and then washed it down with a swig of tequila because that could not be considered a margarita. It was way too strong.
She lifted her exposed shoulder and bounced on her butt from all that energy flowing through her. “I’m an extroverted person.”
“No, you don’t say?” I joked.
She grinned. “I know I’m a lot, but I don’t jive with a lot of people. I like to give everyone a chance. I’m friendly. I like to see the good in people, and I know what it’s like being the new kid on the block. Starting over in a city this size is hard, but it doesn’t have to be if you make friends. You seemed nice, so I came over. I know I look like I’d be the type of person that breaks into your apartment, but I’m not.”
“What? I never thought that. That’s horrible. Don’t think that of yourself,” I threw my chicken wing at her and it hit her right in the face. “Oh,” I covered my mouth with my hand, and both of us stopped moving, breathing, wondering if I really just threw a chicken wing in her face, and we fell over laughing, holding our stomachs until tears flowed down our cheeks.
“Someone is having a good time.”
My brother’s voice cut through the giggles, and when I looked at the clock, three hours had already gone by. I ran to him and gave him a big hug. “You’re home! Logan, this is our neighbor, Maria. Maria, this is my brother Logan.”
Maria got up, and the interest in her eyes was unmistakable. My brother was a good-looking guy, but if Maria and I were going to be friends, Logan was off-limits. “Nice to meet you, Logan.” She held out her hand, the black−painted fake fingernails gleaming in the light.
“You too,” he replied, sliding his hand in her palm.
Maria jerked him forward, and Logan stumbled closer, almost slamming against her. “You never told me your brother was so good looking, Lucy Lu.”
“Ew, gross,” I mumbled, crinkling my nose.
“Brat,” Logan said, but the interest in his eyes as he stared back at Maria mirrored her own. He took a step back from her, leaving Maria pouting, and that’s when I saw dirty boot prints on the floor. “Nice to meet you, Maria. I need to get in the shower.”
“Is that an invitation, Red−Hot?” Maria teased, sending him a wink.
All Logan did was give her a slanted smirk as he slid the shirt over his head and placed the smelly thing on her chest. “No, it isn’t. I’ll see you around though, I imagine.” Logan walked away, leaving Maria licking her lips and staring at his back.
His bedroom door shut, and Maria pretended to faint with one hand against her chest and the other on her forehead. “Oh my god. He is so delicious.”
“Okay, if we are going to be friends, my brother is off−limits. Two, don’t call him delicious. It’s weird.”
“The only thing weird is that I’m not in that shower with him,” Maria sighed dreamily and stared at Logan’s closed bedroom door with hearts in her eyes. “I’m never giving him this shirt back.”
“Are you a crazy stalker? Do we need to worry about that?” I made sure it sounded like a joke, but I truly knew that one could never be too sure.
“Not yet,” she winked. “Where were we before we got interrupted?” Maria walked back to our drinks and plopped in the middle of the floor. My phone dinged, and when I pulled it out of my pocket, it was a job notification saying that Stoneridge was hiring a personal assistant, and my resume met the criteria. If I got that job, Logan and I could go to work together, and I’d feel safer with him around.
With one click of a button, my resume was off to the hands of the person that was about to determine my fate. Until then, I was going to drink this margarita with my new crazy friend. New York hadn’t disappointed. For the first time in a long time, I was excited to see where change would take me.
I hoped it didn’t lead me to a tattoo chair.
That, I was not ready for.
Chapter Two
Godrick
“Do you have the files for the job applicants yet?” I asked my secretary, Barbara. She reminded me of my mother. She had a cold demeanor, stone−cold blue eyes, and a silver bun pulled back so tight, it gave her a natural brow lift.
“I’m getting them together now.”
“Get them together quicker. I want to look them over before my meeting in an hour.”
“Yes, Mr. Stoneridge. Right away.” Her old bones typed furiously on the keyboard, and to my right, the printer started buzzing, printing the files I was waiting for. It was unlike me to look over resumes, but leaving the hiring to HR was out of the question in this case. The last personal assistant that Melody hired was completely incompetent. I had to do everything myself, which shouldn’t be a surprise, but sometimes, I didn’t want to have to pick up everyone else’s slack.
“Grab me a fresh cup of coffee, would you, Barbara? Two—”
“Creams and one sugar. I know, Mr. Stoneridge.”
“You know me too well, Barb.”
“Don’t I know it.” She slid her wrinkled judging gaze to me, peeked over her readers, and then laid them on the screen again.
“You love it,” I said with a large, million−dollar smile.
“So you say, but something in my gut tells me I don’t.” She was the only one allowed to be cheeky with me because Barbara had worked here longer than anyone, even me. She worked with my father, and when I started to work for the family company, my father cut back on the bus
iness and let her work with me. Best secretary in the universe if anyone asked me, and one of the few people I liked. I wanted her to be my personal assistant, but she was too old, and I needed someone who was able to be on their feet a lot.
By the time Barbara brought my coffee, I’d have to warm it up. I never said anything about it; I never reprimanded her for it. It would be like yelling at my grandmother. Everyone here loved Barbara. Every Christmas, she brought hand−knitted scarves, and every Wednesday, she brought homemade biscuits drizzled in honey.
She took care of everyone, and her determination to keep working made me admire her. She could retire and do whatever she wanted and relax, but she said Stoneridge was her life now that her husband died ten years ago.
Nothing in this life would ever make me get rid of Barbara except her death, and I hoped like hell it wasn’t for another twenty years.
“You wound me, Barbara.”
“Some women have to, Mr. Stoneridge, to keep a man like you knocked down a peg or two,” she teased.
I barked out a laugh and knocked on the trim of my doorway. “I’ll win you over one day, Barb. You just wait and see.”
“I’ll be long gone before then, Lord can only hope,” she muttered the last part under her breath, but the sassy older woman sent me a wink before I disappeared into my office with a shake of my head.
My desk phone rang with a high shrill, and I sat down, holding my tie down to keep it from swaying. “Rick here.”
“Mr. Stoneridge.”
I rolled my eyes when I heard my best friend’s high−pitched mocking tone of a woman.
“Oh my god, Mr. Stoneridge. You are the biggest strongest man. Last night was the best night of my life—”
“Shut up, Haden. What do you want?”
He snickered, and the childish antic made me grin. He was the playful one between us. I was serious, a bit rough around the edges, while Haden liked to joke.
“Oh, I’m just reminding you of all the women in your life. That’s all.”
I had a bit of a reputation when it came to women. I liked to fuck.
And women liked to fuck me.
I didn’t fall in love. I didn’t do relationships.
I did orgasms. I gave them repeatedly until my partner was beyond satisfied, and then I gave in to my own pleasure. One fuck never felt better than the other. Sex was just sex, and sometimes the women became a little too attached to my ‘god−like’ fucking as they called it, and Haden loved to remind me of it all the time.
“You don’t need to remind me. I remember.” Kind of. I had never had a memorable lay. It sounded shallow and conceited, and for a while, I wondered if I was incapable of feeling love or anything more than what I did. It bothered me to a certain extent. I wasn’t heartless, but I didn’t care enough to remember the endless string of women.
Maybe I was a cold-hearted bastard like a lot of them said I was.
A knock at the door sounded, and I tossed the stress ball in the air as I leaned back in my leather desk chair to see Barbara holding a stack of papers and a coffee in the other hand. “There’s my favorite girl.”
“Who?” Haden asked from the other end of the phone.
“That sly tongue of yours will get you in trouble one day, Mr. Stoneridge.” Barbara sat the papers in front of me along with the aromatic coffee. It wasn’t steaming, and it made me smile.
“Thank you, Barbara.”
“Mmmhmm, Mr. Stoneridge. I’m going to lunch. An old lady needs her food.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I chuckled as she shut the door behind her. Sometimes, I thought she was the boss of me with how she told me what she was going to do.
“That Barbara,” Haden clicked his tongue. “If she were forty—no—twenty years younger, I’d go for it.”
I gave him a look of disgust even though he couldn’t see me. “She’d be sixty.”
“Sixty is the new thirty these days.”
“And they call me the dog.” I picked up the papers in front of me and sighed in disappointment when I flip through the resumes on my desk. “God, does anyone have experience anymore?” I tossed one after the other in the trash, very unimpressed with everyone.
“Still no luck with the personal assistant? How hard could it be? I could do it,” he said.
“I don’t want to see your ugly mug more than I have to.”
“Better looking than you.”
I snorted and flipped another page. “You wish.” I paused when I reached the next resume, and the breath left my lungs, the world around me stopped, and Haden’s voice rambling on and on about something faded into the background. The resume in front of me was amazing, but that wasn’t what caught my eye; it was the headshot photograph in the left corner. My god, she was fucking gorgeous.
My cock went hard as a rock, and my balls ached, pressuring me for release. I never reacted like this. Sweat beaded across my forehead, and I reached a finger out to touch her face. Her smile was bright, but it didn’t reach her eyes. I didn’t like that. All of her smiles should reach her eyes.
And fuck, those eyes made my cock leak. They were the color of pine, and her fire-red hair only made them look brighter. I never had a thing for redheads, but she was different. The long blazing locks curled down her shoulders in simple waves, and she had these small freckles dotting her nose and cheeks. My tongue twitched with the urge to trace and connect the pale copper flecks.
“Helllooo, Rick?” Haden called for me, but my attention was elsewhere. I squeezed my cock, swallowing a groan as I stared at her picture. “Godrick!” he shouted.
Hearing my full name snapped me out of my trance. I hated my name. “What?” I barked, never taking my eyes off the beauty in front of me.
“Where did you go?”
“Um, I have to call potentials. I’ll talk at you later.” I ended the phone call with the press of a button and walked over to my door. I looked out to make sure no one was around to see me and closed it, twisting the lock in place. The deadbolt locked everyone out, leaving me inside my office, alone with the picture in hand.
My cock throbbed for attention, but I needed more from the woman in the photo before I did anything about the need inside me. Hating that I had to look away from her face, I read the rest of her resume, seeing that she had three years of experience being a personal assistant and a bachelor’s degree in business. She volunteered at the Red Cross and a homeless shelter. Her GPA was a 3.5. She was young, only 24 to my 31.
Lucy Green. I’ve never met anyone named Lucy before. It suites her.
Wait a minute. Green. I just hired someone with the last name Green. I turned on my computer and searched and boom, there he was. Logan Green, 26, damn good construction worker and just moved here.
With his sister, Lucy.
I wondered what brought them here. They seemed like they were from a smaller city, possibly a small town. Why would Lucy come with him? I had so many questions for this little redhead. My eyes drifted back to her photo, and her smile reminded my cock of why we needed her here.
As soon as possible.
I stroked my cock through my pants as I stared at her picture. It was wrong, a bit deviant, touching myself to someone I had never met, never known, but staring into her eyes, even through a picture, it felt like I did know her.
And it turned me on more than any woman I had ever been with in my entire life. I unzipped my pants and fished out my cock. Precome dripped from the slit, helping me lubricate my shaft. I shouldn’t be doing this, but the urge was too strong. I needed to do it. I knew it would be one of many orgasms she’d give me. I felt it in my bones.
I wanted more. I wanted to hear her voice to help me get over the edge. Reaching for my phone, I typed in the number on her resume and then put it on speaker, quickly placing the phone back on the receiver. It rang and rang; the anticipation of hearing her voice made my cock jerk in my hand. A stab of disappointment started to make its way in my veins when the phone kept ringing, and she didn’t answer.
“Come on, Lucy,” I said through clenched teeth and caught my moan between my lips when I pinched the tip. “Answer.”
As if she could hear me, the soft click sounded like static. She giggled and whispered something to someone; I didn’t know what, I couldn’t make it out, but I wanted her attention on me. I wanted her laugh to be focused on me. “Hello?” she greeted, and I had to place my fist in my mouth and bite down to keep myself from groaning when I heard the angelic tone. It was smooth, like what I’d imagine velvet to sound like if it could.
I tightened my fist around my cock and swallowed, removing the fist from between my lips. “Is there a Lucy Green available?” but I knew I was already speaking to her. My instincts told me. I stroked myself faster when her breathing hitched.
The sound in the background faded. “This is she. I’m Lucy. May I ask who is calling?”
God, her voice. It was unlike anything I have ever heard. While quiet, I could hear a vibration of power and strength when she spoke. She might sound meek, but she was anything but, and it made me want to pound into her just to see how loud she could be.
“This is Godrick Stoneridge. I’m calling about your application.”
“Oh, wow,” she said on a wispy breath that caused me to get hotter and my heavy sack between my legs to pull tight to my body. I closed my eyes and imagined her saying those words to me after she saw my cock for the first time before trying to take all of me in her mouth. Ah, just the thought of those lips around me and sucking me down had the base of my spine-tingling. “I get to talk to the man himself! I never thought I’d ever talk to you, Mr. Stoneridge—”
Kiss my Boss (Plot Twist, I'm Pregnant Book 1) Page 2
