Substitute (Xcite Erotic Romance Novels)

by Isobel Rey

  ‘Well, that’s never going to happen, is it? I’m just a temp, remember.’

  Romy thought for a moment. ‘Well, you never know. Perhaps we just have to make sure he does get to know you.’

  Alexia snorted. Romy eyed her for a moment as if calculating her next words carefully.

  ‘We just have to make sure he gets to know you because, after all, a boss needs to know …’ She stopped for moment and chewed over what she might say next. ‘Needs to know his employees, and he does like to do that. Really he does.’

  ‘I thought you said he never bothered with the junior staff?’

  ‘Did I? Oh well, that was when you were worried he was going to sack you.’

  Alexia looked unconvinced. Romy was undeterred.

  ‘Look, you want him to think well of you, so we’ll make sure he does!’

  ‘How? He thinks I’m Tony’s office shag who does it on tables and in cupboards.’

  ‘Well, you nearly did do it in a cupboard!’

  ‘Romy!’

  Alexia shook off Romy’s arm.

  ‘If Tony hadn’t stopped, would you have?’ Romy arched a perfectly groomed eyebrow to emphasise her point.

  Alexia sat, her mouth opening and shutting. No words came out, just confused noises. Romy was right: would she have stopped him? His face flashed into her thoughts. The feel of his hands on her breasts, his mouth …

  She felt her nipples harden as she thought of what had happened. She crossed her arms in front of her, afraid Romy would see. But she couldn’t deny the yen she felt in her pussy. The ache wasn’t going away, and it was getting stronger all the time.

  She breathed out heavily. Romy tilted her head to show her sympathy.

  ‘Hey, come on, Alexia, it’s OK. God, if I thought he wanted me, I’d jump on him before he’d had time to clear his throat to say “fancy a fuck?” …’

  Alexia laughed weakly. Romy pressed on.

  ‘Look, he is a terrible flirt and a tart, obviously, but it would help you get Carter out of your system. Or you could just laugh and flirt with him and concentrate on your job, and Nathan.’

  The mention of Nathan’s name yanked at Alexia’s loins even harder. Just the thought of his hands on her shoulders … But it was crazy. She didn’t know anything about him; he thought she was a flighty office tart. Her stomach lurched at the memory of his disapproval. Why did he have this effect on her?

  ‘And as I said,’ said Romy, watching her friend closely to judge her reactions, ‘we can work on him getting to know you. Anyone who has spent any time with you can tell you’re …’

  ‘Can tell I’m what?’ asked Alexia. ‘An ice queen? Frigid?’

  Romy sighed. ‘I was going to say more discerning than many.’

  ‘I thought you said I needed to learn more about men and get Carter out of my system?’

  ‘Hey, there’s nothing wrong with getting a good seeing-to when you need it, but first things first … You think Nathan’s got a downer on you and we’re going to make sure he doesn’t.’

  ‘We are going to make sure?’

  ‘Yes, we.’ Romy winked at her, then got up slowly, ‘Actually, I’m not feeling too hot this evening. Feeling a little achy and I’ve got a bit of a sore throat. I think I’ll go and watch TV in bed and get an early night.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Alexia. ‘Do you need me to do anything?’

  ‘No, no,’ said Romy breezily, ‘I’ll see you in the morning. Night, night.’ She left the room, the grin on her painted lips barely suppressed.

  Alexia got up and put on her nightie and a cuddly dressing gown and went into the kitchen. Richard was making pasta again. Is that all he cooks? she thought.

  ‘Hey there, darlin’, I’ve made a huge panful, and Romy’s not eating, so plenty for us. And there’s some crisp Californian Sauvignon to wash it down. You look like you could do with a drink.’

  Alexia couldn’t deny that, and smiled as she accepted a very large glass of wine.

  She took a long sip of the chilled liquid, all grass and gooseberries. It cheered her.

  ‘Now sometimes what a girl needs is a boyfriend, and I stress that’s boy friend, as in a friend who’s a boy.’ Richard pointed at himself. ‘One with wide shoulders and two good ears.’

  He dished out the spaghetti and handed Alexia a fork and a plate.

  ‘I need a spoon as well,’ she said.

  ‘No, you don’t. Romy taught me to cook pasta like her Neapolitan mamma and eat it Italian style. So into the living room and let’s chow and pow-wow!’

  He turned her around and scooted her into the living room. The feel of his hands on her back was comforting and sent a little charge through her midriff. He had a wicked smile but he was soft and gentle and there was a kindness to him. And suddenly she wanted that kindness very badly.

  They sat on the floor listening to soft jazz. Alexia had never been a fan, but Richard was a Miles Davis fan, and somehow it seemed perfect for her mood.

  Richard expertly twirled the pasta on the tines of his fork, then delivered the spaghetti into his open mouth. The last two centimetres of a strand lingered on the outside and he sucked it into his mouth, the tomato sauce coating his lip. Alexia watched his mouth. He saw her watching and licked it. She felt another jolt. She looked down and grabbed her drink, swallowing two huge gulps.

  Richard laughed softly. ‘I cook it better than I eat it!’

  She laughed.

  ‘That’s better,’ he said. ‘You look beautiful when you laugh.’

  Alexia felt his eyes on her, but they were kind as well as wanting.

  ‘Bad day, huh?’ he said.

  ‘You could say that.’

  Richard looked enquiringly at her, his soft eyes languid under his lashes.

  Alexia picked up her fork and started to twirl the spaghetti on it as Richard had done. She was used to using a fork and spoon, and she found it difficult.

  ‘Just a couple of strands at a time on the edge of the plate,’ he said helpfully.

  ‘Oh, OK.’ Alexia complied.

  She moved two strands of spaghetti as instructed, and twirled slowly and carefully until it was neatly wrapped around the fork. She lifted it to her mouth, but as she tried to deposit it, one long strand escaped, forcing her to suck it up noisily, the sauce coating her chin. She giggled and dropped her fork to wipe it away.

  ‘No, no, no … It may not be an Italian tradition, but I am going to make it mine.’ Richard leant forward and ran his finger along her soft, white chin. He put the sauce-coated finger into his mouth and sucked it.

  Alexia felt a rushing surge in her pussy. She looked at his hand, and couldn’t help remembering how his fingers had felt when he’d plunged them into her pyjamas and caressed her intimately.

  She grabbed her wine again and drained the glass.

  ‘Hmm, really tough, I guess.’ Richard smiled and poured her another.

  They were very large glasses, and in the space of 15 minutes Alexia had drained the best part of a bottle while eating her pasta. The sauce was incredible. Deep, dark flavours of tomatoes and sunshine. Its slippery oiliness helped the pasta to glide over her tongue.

  She twirled the strands and put them in her mouth. Each time she missed, Richard obligingly wiped the red, silky sauce from her mouth, the last time running his finger along her plump lower lip. She wanted to suck his finger, to pull it into her mouth and run her tongue over it, licking all the sauce. But he removed it before she had a chance to embarrass herself.

  He poured her another glass.

  ‘What happened today?’ he asked quietly.

  Alexia was a little drunk. She was warm too. She shrugged off her dressing gown, revealing creamy bare shoulders covered by the dark blue straps of her knee-length satin nightie.

  Richard sat very still, trying to keep his attention on her face.

  Alexia was exhausted and in need of unburdening.

  ‘Do you think I’m an ice queen?’

  ‘A what? God, no!�
��

  ‘The men in the office call me that, apparently. Maybe I am. You said the other night that I –’ she faltered

  ‘– needed it more than anyone you know.’

  Alexia looked miserable. Richard wanted to pull her into his arms, but he sat looking at her.

  ‘Yeah, you did, and I think you still do, but that doesn’t make you icy, sweetheart. You’re no ice maiden, you just need …’

  ‘Need what? A good fuck?’

  Alexia was slightly startled by her own frankness. But she felt as if she needed to be blunt, and to let everything go.

  Richard was silent. He reached over and smoothed a strand of her wavy, ash blonde hair from her face. She looked up at him with her big blue eyes. She was very beautiful and she was wearing a look he hadn’t seen before. She gazed levelly at him.

  ‘Well, I nearly fucked someone in a cupboard today.’

  ‘OK …’ He nodded slowly, taking in her statement and trying to sound as if she’d just said something very ordinary like, “I bought a new dress today”.

  Alexia looked down, thinking. There was a long silence.

  ‘The man I left, to come here – to come and live with Romy … His name was Carter. He – he was a complete bastard. He was a bully. A selfish, nasty, horrible, bullying, bastard, selfish …’ She was on a roll but she’d run out of words. ‘Cunt!’

  The last word came out as an explosion, as if all the pain and stress of her time with Carter needed to be ejected in one go. Tears started to roll down her face but she wasn’t going to stop.

  ‘He got me when I was vulnerable and then he played on it. I’d only ever had sex with one other guy, in college, and he was – well …’

  Richard tried to finish her sentence. ‘Crap in bed?

  She scrunched her eyes shut, trying to stop the tears.

  Richard ploughed on. ‘Came too fast? No foreplay?’

  Alexia blurted, ‘Boring!’

  Richard roared with laughter and Alexia found herself joining in.

  ‘Man, that hurts!’ said Richard. ‘I feel for the guy.’

  Alexia was giggling now.

  ‘He was really bright and brainy and he was all about the books. And he was sweet, I really liked him, but sex was just so pointless! I couldn’t understand why everyone else was raving about it. It was, well, just not …’

  ‘Fun?’ asked Richard.

  ‘No, it was definitely not what you’d call fun.’

  ‘Then he definitely wasn’t doin’ it right.’ Richard laughed.

  Alexia went quiet again. ‘No, no, he wasn’t,’ she said after a long pause.

  Richard got up and walked into the kitchen. As he stood, Alexia noticed a bulge in his trousers. She was drunk and feeling the lust that comes with intoxication. She was sure Richard knew how to “do it right”; the confidence in his fingers in her pussy had shown her that. She wanted that again, she wanted to feel that fire. She shifted on the floor; she could feel her pussy getting wet, and she didn’t want leave a puddle on the rug.

  Richard returned with another bottle and filled her glass and then his own. She took it gratefully and swigged down the thrilling, cold, gooseberry taste.

  Richard waited for a moment before he spoke. ‘And then …?’

  ‘I met Carter,’ Alexia said flatly.

  ‘The cunt?’

  She snorted to hear her words coming back to her. Had she really said that? ‘Yes,’ she said, blushing.

  ‘Was he boring in bed too? I’m guessing not, but not in a good way.’

  ‘No, not in a good way.’

  Alexia went quiet and Richard waited. He could tell she needed to share, but he knew she shouldn’t be rushed. She took another long swig of wine.

  ‘He didn’t like me too wet.’ She was being very bold this evening, the wine loosening her tongue as well as her inhibitions. She felt Richard’s gaze on her.

  ‘He didn’t want me too wet, because he said it felt better if I wasn’t.’

  ‘That’s crap … God, half the fun is to feel a hot, wet pussy clamped around your cock.’

  Alexia felt another hot squirt of moisture at Richard’s bluntness. God, then Carter would hate me now, she thought. She felt the wetness in her own pussy. She was absolutely soaking; she could feel it on the top of her thighs.

  ‘That guy was just an asshole, honey. That was about control, not about sex.’

  Alexia looked at him. He smiled with closed lips and raised his eyebrows, nodding gently to assure her he was right.

  ‘He only ever really liked it –’ Alexia realised she was talking in intimate detail, but the wine had made her bold and she wanted to unburden herself ‘– liked it from behind. He was always trying to stick it in my –’ she faltered ‘– and it hurt so I used to shout for him to stop. Then he’d ram into me, you know, normally, because he couldn’t get what he wanted. He used to hold my head down. Sometimes I felt like I was suffocating, but I just wanted him to finish and get off.’

  ‘Oh sweet girl, that ain’t right. Hey, anal can be great but only if you’re with someone who wants you that way. No guy should ever force a girl. If she wants it, great; if she don’t, move on, buddy, find another girl or another way to please the one you got!’

  Alexia listened to his soft drawl. It was so seductive, those deep, southern vowels, like melted molasses.

  ‘It’s about pleasing a girl?’

  ‘Hell, yeah!’ Richard smiled. ‘A hundred per cent.’

  She looked into his face and knew she wanted him now, really wanted him. He wasn’t like Nathan, he wasn’t powerfully masculine, but he was all man. The stubble on his chin looked as if it would be soft and caressing. She imagined it plunged deep into her pussy.

  She tried not to look at Richard’s stiffening cock, tried not to imagine what it looked like. Was it big? Would it be circumcised? Romy told her American men usually were. Did it have a marble smooth helmet like Tony’s?

  Richard was definitely hard now; the zip of his jeans was straining to contain his erection. But he remained remarkably contained.

  ‘You still ain’t told me what happened today,’ he said.

  ‘Oh.’ Alexia sighed, brought back to reality. ‘Today … Well. It kind of started the other day when I was at an office party. I’d only been there a couple of days, so I didn’t really know anyone. I needed a pee and the only free bathroom was off the boardroom, which is part of the boss’s office – there’s an en suite. So I went in, but then these two people came into the boardroom and I had to hide. The guy’s called Tony, he’s a bit of a player, and the girls in the office are always flirting with him. Well, he and this woman, they …’

  ‘I think I get the picture.’ He took a long, suggestive gulp of wine. Alexia watched as it moistened his lips. She knew Richard was imagining the boardroom and she was wishing she was in that fantasy with him, splayed on the table, waiting to be speared. She thought of Tony’s cock, then tried to imagine Richard standing there, with trousers peeled down, his erection standing to attention ready for action. But she kept seeing Tony’s face, Tony’s cock as she tried to imagine Richard. Maybe it was because she knew what it looked like, and Richard’s was still a dark secret hidden under the straining denim.

  ‘So, I watched them,’ said Alexia, and let the words hang between them.

  Richard was no longer so completely still. The image of Alexia watching a fucking couple from her secret hideaway was clearly cracking his composure. She could see him pulling his hips backwards as if trying to ease the pressure on his manhood. It aroused her.

  ‘He was pretty merciless, but it wasn’t like Carter, it was … She wanted it that way.’

  Richard’s breathing became slightly ragged.

  ‘He kept making her wait; he was playing with her and it made me …’

  Richard finished her sentence. ‘Made you want it too.’

  ‘Yes!’ The word tumbled out of her in a half whisper. She realised she’d answered a little too quickly, too ea
gerly. She blushed again.

  ‘Well, what’s so bad about that? You’re a healthy young woman, and watching people fuck should make you have that reaction.’

  Alexia looked down and took a deep breath, then another glug of wine.

  ‘It wasn’t that … It was when they’d finished. The woman, she left the room, but he came into the bathroom and caught me.’

  ‘Oh fuck!’

  ‘Quite! He offered to do me the same service – and I panicked. But that’s not the worst of it.’

  ‘Oh God.’ Richard snorted. ‘There’s more?’

  ‘As he was leaving, this man came in. He’s the boss of the company, Nathan.’

  Richard nodded. Suddenly, all the names Romy had mentioned in connection with Alexia were making sense. Carter, Tony, Nathan. Quite a collection for a quiet little girl.

  ‘He took one look at us and thought it was me Tony had been shagging!’

  Richard nodded and let out a long, slow whistle. Then his eyebrows knitted and he looked quizzically at her.

  ‘Um, where’d the cupboard come in?’

  ‘What?’ Alexia was confused, then remembered how she’d opened their conversation.

  ‘Oh … Well, today, I had to get something from the stationery cupboard. It’s a huge cupboard and it’s well away from the offices, and while I was in there …’

  ‘Nathan came in?’

  ‘What? No.’ Alexia felt a huge, curling rush in her pussy at the thought of Nathan in the cupboard with her. ‘No, it was Tony …’ She stopped.

  ‘I can see how this would be a little confusing,’ said Richard, trying to keep up. He took a huge glug of wine and shook his head, as if the act of shaking it would make all the pieces fall in the right place.

  ‘We – he was … I …’

  Richard stepped in to help. ‘Tony?’

  Alexia pursed her lips and nodded.

  ‘And you …’

  She nodded again. Richard studied her for a moment.

  ‘Yeah, but you didn’t go all the way, did you? You didn’t fuck.’ It was a statement not a question.

  ‘No. How – how did you know that?’

  Richard smiled without answering. ‘What happened next?’