by Strong, Mimi
It was still early in the morning, and the pool wasn’t yet open to the members, so at least I could work on retrieval without having to stop and be polite. Usually, whenever I come down to the pool, all the women at the club flocked around me like paperclips on a magnet. Ladies would miss their lunch reservations. The guys in the cafe always give me a hard time about it, saying I must get so much action.
That’s when I remind them of the number one rule: don’t fuck the club members. Don’t even kiss them. As far as staff on staff? Go crazy. As long as you aren’t management, like me. Management isn’t allowed to date staff or members.
Given the long hours I put in at the club, that explained why I hadn’t dated much, except for those times I broke the rules.
Fuck.
The last time I’d had a girlfriend felt like a million years ago.
I dove down to the bottom of the pool to retrieve the first batch of coins.
When I surfaced at the mid-point of my operation, I found myself facing the bare, hairy-knuckled toes of my hired investigator, Cooper. He was sitting at the edge of the pool with his pants rolled up and his feet in the water. He lifted a sandwich to his mouth and took a huge bite, dropping shredded greens into the water.
“Dude,” I said, scooping up the greens by hand and tossing them onto the pile of coins.
“I’m above the law,” he said around his mouthful of food.
“Are you eating that sandwich to distract me from the fact you haven’t located that person I called you about nearly three weeks ago?”
“Nope.”
“You’re eating that sandwich because it’s fucking good ham.”
He nodded. “It is fucking good ham.” He took another bite. “The door was locked, but one of the member services girls let me in. She warned me you might be naked.”
“Not this time.” I dove down to get more coins. Cooper had something for me, or he wouldn’t have come down in person. It was either good news or bad news, but I wanted to draw out the moment, either way.
I surfaced and dumped the coins from my hand.
“Doesn’t the robot pool cleaner do that?” he asked.
“Mr. Jeeves has the day off. By which I mean he’s broken and needs a new part. Like a lot of things around here.” I slicked back my wet hair and rested with my arms spread out on the tiles. “Any news on the girl?”
“The thing is, I don’t feel right charging you for the job.”
I kept my face steady to hide my disappointment. “You didn’t find her.”
“No, I did not.” He pointed the sandwich at me. “However, she pulled into the parking lot right in front of me. I’d been putting off coming here to tell you the bad news, when I saw the car drive by me. I had a hunch, so I made an illegal U-turn and tailed the car. The girl matched your description, and to my surprise, I followed her all the way here.”
“She’s here?”
“I believe she’s up in the office right now.”
“Shit.”
“Now, I don’t have any evidence yet that she’s involved with your father, seeing as how she only just turned up, but I can keep an eye on her, if you want.”
“She’s here,” I repeated.
“And that’s why I can’t charge you the full rate. She showed up on her own.”
“But Cooper, if you hadn’t followed her here and come in and told me, I’d still be scooping pennies out of the water when she left.”
“Who put those pennies down there?” he asked.
“Exactly.”
I climbed up the steps and out of the pool, heading straight for the door to the hallway.
“Drying off might be a good idea,” Cooper called out after me.
“You’re right.” I rushed back toward the changing room, my wet feel slapping on the tiles.
“Be careful!” Cooper yelled through the door.
I got dressed quickly, and when I came out, I saw Cooper’s naked ass. He’d completely undressed.
“Don’t you worry about these pennies,” he said. “I’ll finish up here, as my way of apologizing for not bringing you the girl sooner.” He looked up at the clock on the wall. “How long have I got before the doors unlock?”
“Nineteen minutes.”
He clapped his hands together. “Whoopee!” He dove right in.
~
I got to my father’s office and stood at the closed door, my fist hovering over the wood. My father’s secretary had confirmed that a woman named Skye was there, meeting with him to discuss membership. A likely story.
They were talking—that much I could tell through the thick door.
I pressed my ear to the door, cupping my hand around the ear. My father laughed—that hearty laugh of his that he used to impress women.
Now that I’d found her, I didn’t know what to do. I felt like a pervert, standing at the door waiting for them to stop talking and start doing the things I wanted to do with her.
They seemed to be arguing. Good. Unless it was the kind of arguing that lead to a face slap and then sweeping everything off the desk. Not good.
I clenched and unclenched my fists. My forehead was sweating, and water from my pool-damp hair trickled down my back.
They’d stopped talking.
I waited.
I waited to hear the items from the desk crashing to the floor.
When I couldn’t take one more second of thinking but not knowing, I used my master key to unlock the door handle, and threw open the door.
“A-hah!” I yelled.
They turned from the window where they’d been standing and looked at me in surprise.
“I thought you were cleaning the pool,” my father said, irritation in his voice.
“Charlie!” she exclaimed, looking even more beautiful than I remembered. She’d traded the red dress for a sleek pencil skirt and blue blouse that matched her eyes. She wasn’t wearing the high heels I’d met her in, because she’d left one behind when she’d run away, but she was wearing an equally appealing pair of lace-up boots. As I looked at all the laces, tightly wrapped around countless metal hooks, my mouth went dry.
“You two know each other,” my father said, definitely as a statement and not a question.
“I met your groundskeeper last month,” she said, her voice shaky.
“My groundskeeper,” he repeated, his eyes crinkling with amusement. “Yes, it’s all coming together now.”
I pointed at her, pretending to stall for time. “Susan? No, Sarah. Right?”
“Skye,” she said.
My father put one hand on her shoulder while leading her by the hand toward the door, toward me, the guy with the wet hair, sweaty face, and shaky legs.
“Thank you for stopping by,” my father said. “Some of the things you mentioned are very interesting. We’ll be in touch.”
When they reached the door, my father turned to face me, his eyes blazing with intense emotion. We hadn’t spoken since our fight at home, and given my resolve and his pigheadedness, this silent treatment could go on for months.
“Skye,” he said, addressing her while looking at me. “I’d very much like to show you the cafe, and the new putting green, but I’m afraid I’m booked right up with important club business. Charlie, however, is a groundskeeper, and thus expendable. He will take you to lunch, on me. Do you golf, Skye?”
“I’m not exactly dressed for golfing.”
“Then you’ll stop by the pro shop and pick some things out. On me, of course. And then Charlie can show you how to spank a few balls, won’t you, Charlie?”
She looked at me, her pale blue eyes wide with confusion.
He practically pushed us out of his office and then closed the door.
Standing in the hallway, alone together, we stared at each other in silence for a moment. ‘I can’t believe you’re here,’ was what I wanted to say.
“Why did you barge in like that?” she asked.
“Top secret mission.”
She crossed her a
rms, looking irritated. “Some new member services thing?”
“I have your shoe.” I grinned, trying to win her over with my smile.
“You burst into a meeting because you have my shoe? Don’t you have a Lost-n-Found box?”
“What was your meeting about? Did I interrupt something important?”
She scowled and started walking down the hall, not waiting for me. “I was just here to waste my time.” He shook her head. “He’s so fucking typical.”
I jogged to catch up. “You mean my… boss? Mr. Ward?”
She kept walking, her long legs setting a fast pace. “Yup. Mr. Rich Asshole. Mr. Arrogant. Mr. Me First and Fuck Everyone Else.”
“Wow, you’re really not a fan, are you?”
She snorted—just a cute puff of air from her flared nostrils. I wanted to kiss her on the tip of her nose, tell her how cute she was when she was angry, and then let her take it all out on me.
“You’re done with him?” I asked, my voice rising up with hopefulness.
We walked down the stairs and stopped in the lobby.
Skye turned to me. “What’s the most expensive lunch you have here?”
“I don’t know. Our prices are actually quite reasonable, until you get into the second wine cellar.”
She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and pushed her fingertips into the back of my hair. I held absolutely still, savoring her touch.
Her face close to mine, our lips almost touching, she said, “Let’s treat ourselves to a very expensive lunch, on your boss. You heard him.”
“Sure,” I breathed, lost momentarily in her eyes.
“He thinks he can buy me off, so let’s have some fun.”
I could smell her scent now, her perfume and her skin.
I growled, “You ran off on me once, and I won’t let you go again so easily.”
The corner of her mouth twitched up, begging me to kiss her. “You have handcuffs?”
I glanced around the lobby, at members coming and going, looking our way with curiosity.
“Your blouse has those round, pearl buttons,” I said.
“So?”
“If you keep looking at me like that, you’re going to hear the waterfall sound of your buttons hitting the floor as I tear your blouse off.”
Her nostrils flared and her pupils widened.
“You sound exactly like the Big, Bad Wolf,” she said.
“What a coincidence. Because I am going to eat you.”
She blinked up at me, her expression a mix of angel and devil. I was thinking about burying my face between her sweet thighs. Was she thinking the same thing, too?
She licked her lips. “That sounds like a hell of a way to spend an afternoon.”
I reached my hands around behind her and slid my palms along the smooth surface of her pencil skirt, up her thighs and onto her buttocks. I pulled her close enough to bump against my cock. My pulse down there was thrumming, and I was and growing like a hothouse zucchini in her sexy presence.
“We should probably have lunch first,” I said. “So we have enough energy for a good, long time with the balls. By which I mean the golf balls.”
She ruffled her fingertips through my damp hair, sending shivers up and down my spine. Things were getting way too intense below my belt, way too intense for the lobby. I stepped back, but she had her arms locked around me, and she followed my feet with hers, as though we were dancing.
She whispered, “I like the way you say balls.”
“This is crazy. I don’t even know you, and I can’t stop thinking about you.”
“Sure you can’t. I bet you have a hundred girlfriends, and they’re all members here. Young ones, old ones. All of them rich. You take them to the pool after hours, and you fuck them, while their husbands are on the golf course.”
“If that’s what you want to believe, I’m not going to argue. You’ve made up your mind.”
She leaned in, gliding her cheek against my cheek as she brought her lips to my ear. “I’m going to spoil you for all those other women,” she said. “They’re pampered and lazy. They don’t work out unless it’s with a personal trainer. But I work out. I’m strong. Just like you.”
I flexed my biceps as she ran her fingers down my arms, squeezing the muscles. I dug my fingers into her ass cheeks, no longer caring that we were in the lobby, with members and employees everywhere.
“I’m going to fuck you senseless,” she said.
I had no verbal response, except to growl in agreement, my chest rumbling.
She said, “Think about that while we’re having an expensive lunch, on your boss.”
My face in her hair, I inhaled deeply, strands tickling my nose. Lunch? She wanted lunch? Now? But there was a supply closet five feet away.
I glanced over at the supply closet. It was probably the size of an airplane bathroom inside there, but that was enough room. I could get her panties down, press her against the wall, pull that skirt up, and lose myself inside her again.
“Charlie?” She was staring up at me again, her blue eyes innocent once more.
My cheeks flushed. I wanted to bend her over and lick her from clit to ass. My cheeks flushed some more. The things I wanted to do. I’d been hot for girls before, but never like this. How I wanted to taste her lips, her tongue, her tits, her everything. It wasn’t just lust. It was temporary insanity. Or maybe permanent insanity.
She said some more words, but I couldn’t understand English anymore.
I grunted and nodded toward the door for the supply room.
She narrowed her eyes, seeming to understand exactly what I meant.
“Lunch,” she said sharply.
“Lunch,” I grunted back, then started walking, steering her in the direction I hoped was correct. What was this witchcraft power she had over me?
She thought she was going to ride me senseless? Boy, was she going to be in for a surprise when I wore her out. First I’d fuck her with my tongue. I’d bring her to the edge of climax, until she was begging me to finish, but I’d hold back. I wouldn’t let up until both of us were dripping in sweat and delirious.
Why couldn’t I have fallen for a regular girl, who didn’t have some sort of business with my father, and a dangerous hold over me?
Why couldn’t I remember where the fucking restaurant in my own fucking club was located?
Chapter 12
Skye
To his credit, Charlie had perfect timing.
After my meeting with Mr. Ward, I’d been planning to walk out of that fucking awful place and never look back.
But then Charlie had been so sweet, looking at me with those hazel eyes, and with such tenderness.
He’d made a funny joke about ripping off my blouse, and I would have laughed, except my imagination started going, and I heard my buttons tinkling onto the shiny marble floors. The idea of fucking the groundskeeper, on his boss’s desk, made my nipples hard and my pulse throb.
Charlie had keys to the whole place, it seemed. We could fuck everywhere. He could come on my chest as I writhed around on the dining room tables, where rich people ate their scones and high tea.
Why did the idea of fucking in every room and on every surface of that club make me feel so nasty? As soon as I asked myself the question, I had an answer. It didn’t take a team of psychiatrists to figure out that one.
I pushed those thoughts aside and let myself have some fun.
“I’m going to fuck you senseless,” I said to Charlie.
The poor boy looked like he was going to faint.
Of course it wasn’t just the luxurious surroundings that were getting me going. His hair was wet, like he’d just stepped out of the pool. I could smell the salt on him. The month that had passed since we’d first met disappeared, and everything was happening at once.
I had to get lunch.
I had to slow down.
I had to think, even though I didn’t want to.
We made a few wrong turns on the way to the
restaurant, and I teased Charlie about being new there and not knowing where things were.
He apologized, his cheeks turning pink as he blushed. I almost felt guilty for the dirty things I couldn’t stop myself from saying to him.
Once we reached the restaurant, a uniformed waiter took us straight to what looked like the best seat in the place—a table to ourselves in a sunny atrium, looking over the flower gardens.
“You’re wet,” I said once we were seated.
He swept his hand back through his wet, dark hair. Even the back of his hand was perfect, with just a few hairs crossing over his wrist from his forearm. No hairy knuckles, but his fingers were thick. They weren’t calloused from gardening work, so I imaged he usually wore gloves.
The memory of my roommate’s hands came to mind, dampening my mood like a splash of cold water. The guy living in my apartment had those keyboard fingers, soft and thin, with translucent fingernails you could bite through in one nibble.
Since the night my roommate and I had kissed, I’d been avoiding him. I’d stayed late at work every night, and now today, on my day off, I’d come on this foolish errand, partly to avoid him.
Even though it was a weekday, he’d be in the apartment. He’d been coming home for lunch. Yesterday, he’d stood in the kitchen, microwaved a burrito, then continued to stand by the counter, looming in the common space.
But now I was here. In the sunshine. With a cute guy who made me hot and wet beyond belief.
Charlie answered my question about his wet hair. “I was cleaning the pool. There was a problem, so I fixed it.”
The waiter came to take our food order, standing quietly rather than interrupting our conversation.
“She hasn’t even looked at the menu,” Charlie said.
“Tattle tale.” I kicked him under the table.
“She’ll have the clubhouse on rye, and bring me one as well. Salad and dressing on the side. Plus two mimosas. Not the small ones, though, in the champagne flutes. Bring the good-sized glasses. And make sure they use the fresh-squeezed juice, not the frozen concentrate, or I’ll know.”
