She set the bottle on the counter and gave Winnona one more gentle rock. The baby shuddered and settled into the intoxicated sleep of blissful innocence. Gina walked around the counter. She stood in front of Giles and laid Winnona in his arms.
Forgotten instinct infused his dead limbs with new life, just the way Gina knew it would. His arms moved of their own accord to surround that baby with his protective bulk. He held her against his chest and gazed down at her sleeping face.
He stole a glance up at Gina.
She smiled at him and arranged the blanket under Winnona’s chin. “She’s yours, Giles, yours and mine.” Gina withdrew to the other side of the room. She left them alone. She set about tidying up the kitchen and getting ready to start dinner.
Contented quiet filled the apartment. It was supposed to be this way. He completed the picture in ways she never imagined. He was supposed to be part of this. A heavenly aura of domestic peace hovered around him when he held his baby and watched her sleep.
Gina happened to glance over at them and saw tears streaming down his cheeks.
She hurried over, but he got up before she reached him. He hugged Winnona in his mighty arms and sniffled. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe I may never have known about you.” He gazed softly into Winnona’s eyes before hugging her close again.
The next moment, he shot a ferocious glare around the room. “Pack your bags, Gina. You’re coming with me.”
Gina gasped. “Where?”
“To the penthouse. You’re moving in with me right now.”
“Giles, I—”
He cut her off with a shake of his head. “I don’t want to hear any more. Ditch this backwater apartment. We have a daughter here Gina, yours and mine. You’ll be a lot more comfortable in the penthouse, and we can be together there—all of us. Come on. Grab your diaper bag. The limo is waiting for us downstairs.”
Gina’s jaw dropped. “But you—you just got here.”
He fixed his smoldering eyes on her face. “Is this your big secret? Is this the reason you wanted to work from home, so I wouldn’t find out about this? Well, now I know. Nothing is going to change how I felt when I held my Winnona for the first time. You don’t have to work from home anymore. We’re gonna work together from now on. I saw that today. You’re too good to be stuck in front of a computer doing research and writing reports. You’re gonna work with me, bagging the big game.”
“What about Winnona?”
“What about her?”
“I couldn’t leave her alone. I decided to work from home so I could take care of her.”
“Who took care of her today?”
Gina waved her hand. “Some lady from down the hall.”
He jerked his head sideways. “She’s not staying with some lady from down the hall anymore. She’s coming with us. You can take care of her at the office as well as you can at home. Bring her along. We can take care of her together.”
Gina snorted. “Do you mean take care of her during contract negotiations? Get serious Giles. You haven’t thought this through.”
Giles didn’t crack a smile. “Yes, I am serious. That is exactly what we are going to do.”
Gina stared at him. “My God! You’re serious.”
“You’re coming with me to the penthouse right now. That’s final.” He gazed down at Winnona’s face. “We’re a family, and this little girl needs her family around her.” His head snapped up, and he set off toward the door. “Come on. You’ve spent too much time here already. Where’s the diaper bag?”
Gina watched him walk away. Of all the possible reactions she expected, this was definitely not one of them. Curses, tears, threats, hatred, firing her from work—she expected those. She already knew what he thought of women getting knocked up while trying to snag a billionaire. She never meant to be one of those. Move into the penthouse with him? Raise Winnona with him as a real family? She couldn’t imagine it.
He walked out the door without looking at her again. He only had eyes for Winnona now. The baby encompassed his whole world. He was a father smitten with his little girl. She would always encompass his whole world from now on. They would be joined at the heart forever.
Isn’t that what Gina wanted all along?
She cast a long, heartfelt glance around her apartment. When she first moved in here, this place stood for her freedom, for her ability to raise Winnona on her own with no help from Giles and his billions. She’d proved to herself she could work from home and take care of Winnona at the same time. Did she really need to keep doing this when she could have him and the penthouse instead?
All of a sudden, the apartment looked wretched, dingy, and squalid. The food lay unprepared on the kitchen counter. Piles of papers littered her desk. Give up all this for the penthouse? Give up her lonely existence to share Winnona and her precious days with the father who already adored her?
Gina’s whole soul screamed the answer, Yes! Praise to God and all the angels, Yes! She could walk away from hardship, loneliness, fear and lies to embrace love, belonging and togetherness. She could leave behind squalor for abundance, luxury and satisfaction. She could leave behind all this for Giles’s love and their future together.
She took one last look around, and this time, the litter, chaos and squalor made her happy. Her heart said goodbye to the past, a past Giles didn’t even care about. Nothing mattered but their family.
Gina danced across the room, snatched Winnona’s diaper bag in one hand and her own handbag in the other, tripped out of the room on feet lighter than air. She hopped down the stairs and out the front door to the street, where Giles climbed into the limo with Winnona still in his arms.
THE END
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Copyright 2017 Cassandra Bloom; All Rights Reserved
Big Bad Boss
Chapter 1
Eva Charles tapped her phone and saw a new message from her favorite chat buddy, RipRoarer. How’s my sweet angel this morning?
She paused before crossing the street to punch in a message in return, First day at the new job.
Did you shave last night?
Why don’t you come on over and find out? I just might do that. Where are you now? Eva stopped on the other side of the street. She had to keep track of the time, so she wouldn’t show up late to her first day, but RipRoarer excited her so much she couldn’t put the phone down. Corner of Second and Fulbright Streets. Where are you?
Fulbright and Park. I can be there in ten seconds.
Eva’s heart skipped a beat. On your bike?
How else?
In the three weeks since Eva started chatting to RipRoarer, he managed to make her weak in the knees with photos of his bike, his tatted-up chest, and other select pieces of his anatomy in various stages of arousal.
Eva never went in for all that internet sex, but since she found RipRoarer, he inspired her to push the boundaries in ways she never considered before. She sent him pictures of herself and even videos. Needless to say, he appreciated them. Oh, man, did he appreciate them! He sent her videos back of himself responding to the pictures and watching videos of her antics.
What are you wearing right now?
Black skirt, white button-down shirt, and black suit jacket. Black pumps. White lace bra.
I meant under your skirt. What color?
White with pink hearts. Are you coming over?
I’m right behind you. I’m watching your cherry ass jiggle while you walk down the street.
Eva whirled around, but she didn’t see any tatted-up biker anywhere in sight. She turned on her heel and started walking again, but she couldn’t escape the sensation of eyes on her back. How about now? What do you see?
I see your handbag falling down your shoulder. I see you checking both ways and pressing the button for the crossing signal. You’re such a good girl. I want to make you be bad for me.
She typed back, I want you to make me bad. You make me want to
be bad so you’ll spank me the way I deserve.
Are you a bad girl? Are you a bad girl hiding under that good girl exterior?
You know I am. You know I can’t stand it when you talk dirty to me. You make me do things I never thought I’d do.
What do I make you do? Tell me.
You make me take videos of me touching myself. You make me send you pictures of me bending over and video of me moaning. I never did any of that before I started chatting to you.
I’d like to see you bent over and moaning right now, baby. I’d like to bend you over the seat of my bike and see you ride it until you moan.
Oh, yeah, Daddy. You know I want to.
If I ride up to you right now, will you climb on my bike and ride off somewhere I can have my way with you?
She spun around again. What the fuck? Was he really right here, where he could see her and almost touch her? Her skin prickled. Okay. Where are you?
From somewhere out of sight, the roar of a Harley rattled the buildings. Eva stood still with her phone dangling in her hand. What had she gotten herself into? Was some biker brawler really going to pick her up and drag her off to do God knows what on her first day of work?
What if he made her late? What if he turned out to be some sleazy old guy with stringy hair and a sagging ass?
The thought crossed her mind to run for it then and there. She could make it to the Rockford Communications building before he got there. She could duck inside and be sitting in the waiting room before Matlock Rockford called her into his office.
She hesitated just a moment too long. The Harley blared to life, and the thunder of cylinders rumbled around the corner into the street in front of her. Before her eyes, a burly figure in a black helmet with the tinted visor pulled down rode up to her and eased in at the curb in front of her.
Eva stared at him in horror. This was RipRoarer, the mystery stalker she’d been texting and chatting to for weeks. He knew her most intimate secrets. He knew how her last boyfriend epically failed to turn her on or get her anywhere close to orgasm. RipRoarer knew how her ex’s cock was too small to stimulate her inner pleasure points, and he got off too fast himself before Eva even got fully wet. RipRoarer knew how she touched herself and how she got herself off when no one else was around. She’d even sent him a video of herself in the shower.
She couldn’t see anything of him behind that visor. A black leather jacket hid his chest and arms, but he was big enough. Did the body she saw in his pictures really lurk under that jacket? His powerful legs showed up thick and sturdy under his black leather pants. When he swung off the seat and stood in front of her on the sidewalk, she saw the bulge in his pants. He was definitely big enough.
A quiver of excitement tickled inside her panties. She knew what he kept hidden inside those pants. She’d seen it in action enough times. He sent her a video of himself jerking off to the video of her in the shower. That video made her so horny she sent him a video back of herself sitting on the arm of the couch and rocking until she screamed into her phone.
How could you share so much with a man you never met before?
She could hardly reconcile the man she knew on her phone to this monster pulling off his helmet. First, he flipped up the visor, and she beheld those eyes. She dreamed about those eyes since the first time he sent her a picture of his face. They burned with soft light. They drilled into her soul across the airwaves.
Those eyes saw everything she kept buried in her tortured soul. They saw the devil disguised as an angel. To him, the devil was an angel. He wanted to worship that devil. To him, the angel didn’t exist.
He unbuckled the chin strap and hooked his thumbs inside his helmet. He pried it apart and slid it over his head. He shook his curly brown hair free and faced her as the rebel bike ranger she saw on her phone. It really was him, only ten times better than she ever imagined possible.
A slight smile touched his lips. He kept his face shaved clean, but rough sideburns cut down his cheekbones and ended in sharp points aimed at his mouth. Tribal tats wrapped their geometric fingers around his stout neck.
He took a few steps toward her and stuck out his hand. “You must be Eve.”
She shook that hand with her mouth hanging open, but she could see plain as day that the body he showed her in his messages really lay concealed under his leather jacket. When he stuck out his hand, his chiseled shoulder popped out and curved down to a rippling bicep.
Between the leather lapels, his muscular chest gave its unmistakable shape to his white shirt.
Was he wearing a dress shirt under his leathers? She couldn’t get a clear look at it to tell. She couldn’t see anything but that crisp white shirt tapering down to a tight waist surrounded by a black leather belt.
Daddy talked a lot about his belt. Daddy’s belt turned him on. He liked to talk about what he would do to his naughty little Princess with his belt. He warned her not to be a bad girl if she didn’t want the belt.
She tried so hard to be good for him, but she always wound up being bad, so bad! She dreaded the belt, but her very fear made her squirm with a naughty kind of enjoyment, too.
Never in her life had she even thought these thoughts. She thought women who thought like that were sick. They belonged at the Rape Crisis Center. No woman could truly want to be treated like that.
Yet ,here she was, begging some guy on her phone to treat her like that. She called him Daddy and told him she was a bad girl, knowing full well what he would do to her.
And here he was, the leader of an outlaw biker gang, standing in front of her in person. Should she run for it now? She couldn’t shake herself free. She could only stand there and stare at him. He was everything she imagined he would be and so much more.
His living breathing presence worked its magic on her. She was just playing around when she invited him to come and pick her up. Now that he stood in front of her though, she realized she couldn’t refuse.
Deep in her heart, she’d wanted this. She wanted to break out of her pathetic good-girl shell and be bad as bad could be. She wanted to taste that bulging cock of his and let him do whatever he wanted to her.
She would never see him again. She would get what she wanted from him and give him what he wanted from her. Then she would walk away to her posh office job and forget he existed. If she decided she didn’t like him, she would block his number and that would be that.
Just this once, she would cut loose the chains binding her. She would bend over his gleaming black Harley and let the devil take her.
He watched the wheels turning in her mind, but he didn’t say anything. He sized her up with a sweep of his eyes down to her pumps and back up to her face. He saw her tasteful layered brown hair and her crystal clear green eyes.
He saw her carefully made-up cheeks and eyelashes and just the right amount of gloss on her lips. He saw the zippered pouch in her hand and the handbag perched on her shoulder. He knew everything about her in the blink of an eye. Even if she hadn’t revealed herself to him on the phone, he already knew.
Without a word, he took a few steps back and swung his leg over the bike. He settled on the seat and rested his helmet against his stout thigh. He cast a questioning glance up at her and switched on the ignition.
Eva stood stock still, but her mind already followed the curve of his ass against the leather seat. It followed the seams of his leather pants where they traced the bulge in his crotch, down his thighs and around to his stitched leather pockets. In her heart of hearts, she understood every inch of that territory. She loved it. She craved it.
With one last kiss blown to Rockford Communications, she cast caution to the wind. She shoved her phone in the inner pocket of her suit jacket and walked over next to the bike.
Her pumps tapped on the sidewalk. Eva watched herself from a distance. Was she really going to do this? Was she really going to get on a strange man’s bike, an avowed criminal and gang member, and let him drive her away? He would drive her away from the job she w
orked so hard to win, the future she dreamed about all these long years.
He cocked his head to one side. That maddening smile touched his lips. He threw back his head and shook the hair out of his face before sliding the helmet down over his head. He snapped the visor down, and she lost sight of those eyes, her lifeline to everything that made sense.
Chapter 2
Riproarer held out his hand to Eva and guided her across the gutter. In a dream, she lifted her leg and swung over the seat in front of him. He settled her in front of him and took hold of the handlebars.
She observed the mechanical intuition of his hands turning the ignition key, squeezing the clutch and putting the bike into gear. It didn’t lurch at all but glided away from the curb in a deafening clatter of its thumping motor.
The chopper’s vibrations traveled up her legs and into her crotch exactly the way she imagined they would. He leaned his chest against her back, and his powerful presence infused her with a kind of madness.
She must be bad to turn her back on everything good and ride away with him like this. She must be just as bad as he said she was. The vibrations tortured her clit, and she sat down on the throbbing leather seat to press her the hum into her wet panties. The bike vibrated so hard it made her thighs numb, but this moment answered all the fervent dreams she dreamed since she first fantasized about RipRoarer.
How far he drove, she never knew, but it wasn’t far enough. He pulled off into an alley between two restaurants and switched off the bike. Eva stared down at his hands. Muscular fingers gripped the handlebars. He kept his hands clean and his nails trimmed. This was some kind of biker.
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