What They Don't Know (Won't Hurt Them Trilogy #1)

by O. Y. Flemming

  “Hi, Lisa, what's up?”

  “What's up? Who is the debonair god in with Mr. Wilke?” she asks, exhaling heavy. I look at her accusingly. “What… A girl isn't blind, Bria; he was here in your office before he went in with Mr. Wilke.”“Yeah, I'm stuck with him for the day.” She jumps up and closes my door as she silent screams like a fourteen-year-old schoolgirl.

  “I knew you had something to do with why he's here.”

  “No, Lisa, I'm not the reason; this is all business.” She side-eyes me, as if she doesn't believe me.

  “Lisa, I'm serious. You better not start any rumors.”

  “Oh, honey, it’s too late for that; one’s already surfacing.”

  “Oh God, what now?” I ask her.

  “Nothing really, just that today you are training your replacement.”

  My jaw drops... “What the hell?”

  “Right. I told Tracey that's not true. I'll replace you.” She's so serious faced for a minute; I can see the beginning of a curl on her lips. I ball up a Post-it and throw it at her.

  “Traitor!” I yell.

  “So c'mon, Bria, tell me.”

  “Tell you what?”

  “You’re not going to keep me in the dark on this one are you?” She folds her arms and begins pouting. She's acting like a spoiled brat.

  “You're too old for that, Lisa,” I laugh. “Look, there's some company business he has with Bryant and Mr. Wilke. I'm just the liaison between all of them.”

  “Does it have to do with the merger?” she questions.

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, is he married?”

  “Whaaa.” I must sound like a minion, because she laughs.

  “C'mon, Bria, give me something.”

  “Lisa, I'm not sure if he's married or not; that's not a discussion we've had.” It's the truth. I don't know if he ever was married or still is. All that's been discussed between Cruz and me is what makes my lower lady wet. I shake myself out of that thought. Lisa is sitting in the chair designated for Cruz with her arms still folded.

  “Okay, Bria, I'm going to ask him to ladies’ night.”

  “Like hell you are! Hence why it’s ladies’ night. Besides, I need a drink after the way this week has gone.”

  “C'mon, Bria, you can invite Bryant.”

  Holy shit, Lisa doesn't know.

  “Lisa, Bryant won't be able to make it,” I say in a soft tone.

  “Why? What's up with pretty boy?”

  Lisa has always had a love-hate relationship with Bryant after their drunken kiss. I swear these people are too old for one-night stands or the whole, “there was a lot of alcohol involved” excuse.

  “Bryant had a slight accident.”

  “OH MY GOD! He was in a car accident!”

  “No, Lisa, no.” I see how grapevine rumors start. Tell one person something, have ten people repeat it or at least try to repeat the same thing. It will escalate to a long, drawn-out story that probably won’t even involve the actual subject it starts with.

  “Well, what kind of accident?”

  “He… he OD’d on some sex drug and had alcohol poisoning.” Her eyes widen.

  “Oh, my God, Bria!” Her hand is over her mouth while she speaks through it.

  “Yeah, so he won't be joining us.”

  “What exactly happened?” she questions further. I roll my eyes.

  “He was out with Cass.”

  She gasps. “That bitch!”

  “Right,” I continue. “She gave him the drugs; she fed him the drinks. She called Cruz's phone and told him he was in the hospital, which is where he is now.”

  “Cruz contacted you?”

  I go silent. I can't reveal that Cruz was and has been at my house for the past three days.

  “Yeah, he told me that she was calling the last known number in Bryant’s phone.”

  “What?”

  “Exactly what I said; she also told Cruz that she wasn't going to babysit someone who couldn't hold his liquor.”

  “Are you serious?” Lisa squeals.

  “Yes, I was pissed when I saw her at the hospital.”

  “Bria, you should’ve kicked her ass.”

  “I did.”

  “No way!”

  “Yeah, I was out for blood.”

  “Oh, how I wish I were a fly on that wall.” She goes to high-five me and my door swings open. We both stop mid hand slap. Cruz is standing in the doorway with an unexpected look in his eye. He stares at me as if I’ve committed a heinous crime. We both lower our hands. Lisa moves toward Cruz. She extends her hand. “Hi, I’m Lisa… Lisa Fields, Bria’s co-worker. If you need any help with anything that Bria can’t help you with, I’m just one office door down.”

  You can’t be serious. I’m standing there with my mouth slightly open at how she just disregarded me.

  “Cruz King, nice to meet you, Lisa.” She’s still holding his hand while Cruz has the company laptop I assigned to him in the other. I take the laptop from him because I can see where this is going. I turn back to him with one eyebrow up. He hasn’t stopped looking at me even with Lisa still in his face.

  “I’ll let you know if I need anything; but I’m sure Bria has everything I need.” He raises one-eyebrow back at me.

  “Lisa, have you looked over this week’s business plans?” She’s still standing in front of Cruz with a Cheshire cat smile. “Lisaaa,” I sing.

  “Yeah, of course, it’s done, Bria. You know Bria and I are going out for drinks on Saturday night. It’s an official unofficial ladies’ night that we have every other week. You can join us if you like?”

  Lisa has officially unofficially hit an all-time desperate low.

  “Thanks for the invitation; I'll sit this one out. I have a few appointments lined up on Saturday at the gym.”

  “You work at a gym?”

  “Yes, I do,” Cruz says reassuringly. He strolls past Lisa and wide-eyes me. He has his hands in his pockets, like he needs any help complementing the physique of his ass in those pants.

  “So ladies’ night, huh?”

  I just shake my head because I know where Cruz is going with this.

  “Yes, ladies’ night… for ladies.”

  “Hmmmm,” he hums as he turns to Lisa. “If I can make it out of my appointments early, count me in.”

  “I'll even buy you a drink,” Lisa woos.

  Oh, my God… she is relentless.

  “I'll look forward to it.” Cruz smiles at Lisa. His smile sends a sensation through my body. I have to take a seat. No need to provoke my libido, quitting time isn't happening for at least eight more hours. I really hate the middle of the week; these are the days where I'm working ten plus hours. There is no way I'm going to satisfy the ache between my thighs any time soon.

  “Hey, Lis, I apologize; we have a few things to accomplish today.” Cruz turns and winks at me. I know Lisa can't see him; but Cruz is an arrogant ass, besides she's wasting her time. This man has made it very clear that I'm on his agenda.

  “Okay, well I hope to see you again, Mr. King,” Lisa says enticingly. “Good day, Ms. Watts,” she calls over her shoulder as she saunters out of my office.

  Cruz takes the seat where I placed the laptop.

  “Ladies’ night?”

  “Yep…”

  “Drinking?”

  “Lots…”

  “Hmmm.” He hums as he rubs his jaw. “Flirting?”

  “Absolutely,” I say as I look up from my laptop screen. His eyes flick up at me angrily. He looks back down at his screen. I feel vindicated as I continue to stare at him. Cruz slowly lifts his head from staring at the screen.

  I'm convinced he is a different person. His eyes go dark, almost primal; he takes a sip of his coffee that by now has chilled. Never looking away from me, he places the cup back on my desk.

  “Flirting makes for a promiscuous night, Bria. Do you do a lot of flirting?”

  Still staring at Cruz… actually staring at his lips. The lips that we
re on my clit the night before. He goes and does the one thing my lower lady can't handle right now. He fucking licks them, a slow seductive swipe of his tongue over his lips.

  “I don't flirt at all; you just witnessed the flirt of the group.”

  “Good for you that you don’t.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Yeah.” He nods, taking another sip from the cup.

  “Why would that be, Mr. King?”

  “I'm not sure how much longer my cock can hold out not being inside you.”

  That did it, somewhere in Minnesota there's a lady sitting at her damn desk in need of a new pair of panties… Some lady being me. I hate him right now.

  “Are you always…” I pause.

  “A man? Yes,” he laughs at his own answer. The sound of his chuckle is spirited.

  “A perv,” I say.

  “No, Bria, I'm not. I like expressing myself to you.”

  “You do, do you?” I raise both eyebrows questioningly.

  “We have work to do, Bria.”

  “You have no idea what I'm going to say,” I say accusingly.

  “You're right. I don't, but I do know what has to be done with the proposal and presentations by noon.”

  “Why by noon?” I panic.

  “Lunch,” he says as he winks. I fling the pen I have in my hand at him. He catches it in his left hand; shit, he's quick.

  “Tsk, Tsk, Tsk, no workplace violence, Ms. Watts.”

  CHAPTER 13

  Noon is here faster than expected. I've gone over as many financial reports in three hours as a girl can. They are backdated as far as four years. Cruz and I both work through King Commerce financial earnings. We figure where and why the company isn't profiting year-to-date.

  “This is bullshit,” he grunts.

  “I'm not sure what part you’re speaking about, Cruz; because if this was detected one to two years earlier, it could have been easily solved, corrected, and then written off.”

  “Now Bryant has to do what he does to bring it back to its earning point.”

  “Yes.” I nod. I hear a grumble in my stomach. From the look on Cruz's face, he heard it too.

  “Someone's hungry?”

  “Well, yeah, Cruz.”

  “Did you have breakfast? Oh, wait... no, someone left the house extra early. Trying to avoid me?”

  Shit, I'm caught. “No. I had to get in early. I didn't know this meeting was happening.”

  “Well, if you had stayed home for breakfast, you would have known about this meeting.”

  “Touché, Cruz.”

  “What's for lunch?” he says as he stands to stretch his legs.

  “I really don't care at this point, just nothing too heavy.”

  “Thai salad from the deli?” he asks.

  “No, Mediterranean.”

  He laughs. “I'll get you there one day.”

  “I bet.” I reach for my briefcase and pull out cash that I know he won't accept. I hand it to Cruz; he looks appalled, but snatches the bill out of my hand and stuffs it in his deliciously worn slacks.

  “Lemonade, please,” I yell as he leaves my office.

  While Cruz is out, I fire up classifieds to perform some random searches. I see there's an array of individuals looking for specific details. I click on one that reads. “Cherish You”... Why I even want to know is beyond me. This guy wants someone he can cherish, someone who understands what it is like to be adored by an appreciative man. How sweet to say. I enter another area of posts, casual encounters. These titles are unbelievable. “Looking for Lucky?” I laugh as I open the post and read.

  “Well! You found him...”

  This post is actually interesting as I read it.

  “I'm a cut above the rest and take my job seriously. Any single ladies need escorting for the night?”

  Wow, this is real… this can't be real. I close that post to open a new one.

  “Hi, I'm glad you opened my post, I'm not usually into searching for this particular subject online, but a friend of mine suggested I put an add on here to see where it leads me. I'm looking for a specific woman. She has to be fearless, demanding, careful, observant, discreet, and most importantly she has to be financially inclined. I'm not looking for a “Suga-Momma” but somewhat like one. I'm into making women’s fantasies reach levels her lover, boyfriend, or husband fail to do... I can do that for you.”

  This guy is smooth. It’s funny how he states he isn’t looking for a suga-momma but somewhat like one. So he's looking for a woman with “suga-momma” tendencies? Contradicting. He signed his name “-Seeker”. I laugh.

  I search for a few more minutes. I know Cruz will be back with lunch soon. I clean my history but make a few notes in my phone of search results I may want to research a little more. One or two have piqued my interest, solely for my business with Mr. Wilke. Speaking of… a knock on my door.

  “Sunshine?”

  “Hey, boss.”

  “I see you ditched your boy toy.”

  “Boss!”

  “He's into you, Bria. I tried to pick his brain, but he's too clever.” He winks at me.

  What's with everyone winking today? “He's gone out for lunch.”

  “Good, put him to work; how's everything working out?”

  “We accomplished a big task without Bry.”

  “Yeah, I'm worried about that kid.”

  “So am I, boss.”

  “We'll get him back, don't worry,” Mr. Wilke assures me. I nod in agreement with him. “So are you free tonight, Bria? Can you throw something together last minute if I email you a few details?”

  “I can.” I nod in my chair with my pen in hand. Mr. Wilke leans on my desk; his eyes are mischievous. “I want to try out the swing set you suggested in the missus’s suite.” He wiggles his eyebrows and my face heats up.

  “Mr. Wilke you are…”

  “Ahem,” I hear in my doorway. There, standing with a look that could send chills down a deceased man’s back, is Cruz. His hazel eyes are saying, “I will bury this man in his already-paid-for grave.”

  “Cruz?” Mr. Wilke says then stands to help Cruz with the bags. Cruz hands me a bag I guess contains my salad.

  “I'll leave you two to lunch, Bria love, I will email you the details. I'm sure whatever you decide will be amazing.”

  “Okay, bo— Mr. Wilke, I'll have everything set by E.O.D.”

  “Beautiful,” he says as he turns through my office door and walks out.

  “Is he always that—”

  “Happy?” I cut Cruz off.

  “No, I was going to say flamboyant.” I laugh at Cruz's analogy of my boss.

  “I guess.”

  “I'm going to sit at your desk and have my lunch; is that okay?”

  “That's fine. I'm going to the cafeteria.”

  “You don't want to have lunch with me?” He looks suspicious as he pulls his food away from my desk. “Is there a reason you don't want to eat at your own desk?”

  I scrunch up my nose. “You’re disgusting.” He's insinuating that I may have performed a sexual act on my desk.

  He shrugs his shoulders. “I'm just saying,” he ruefully states. I throw a balled up piece of paper at him.

  “If you want me to have lunch with you, Cruz, all you have to do is ask.” He pauses a minute. He stands and walks over to my chair. He turns me toward him in the chair, kneels down, and looks me in my eyes.

  “Cruz, what the hell?”

  “Shhh.” He puts his finger on my lips. He's so serious. “Bria, will you please grace me with your presence and have…” He stops and drops his head. I can tell he's laughing; he can't even finish his little display of affection.

  He lifts his head and I can see the smirk on his face and can imagine what he's thinking. “Bria, eat the damn salad so I can fuck you on your desk.” He's laughing but serious. He stands slowly so that his cock is eye level. He's hard and revealing quite a bit. My thoughts can't even be addressed right now. He really needs to wea
r boner... I mean boxer briefs to contain that...

  * * *

  Although it was a trying day, we completed it without office sex, nor did either of us commit any crimes against each other.

  “I really need to go see Bryant.”

  “I was thinking that too; let him know where things are at,” Cruz agrees.

  “Okay, we can meet there.”

  “You can just ride with me, Bria.”

  “I have a few things I have to take care of after, so I'll just take my car.”

  “I can take you wherever you have to go, Bria; it wouldn't be a problem.”

  “Thanks, Cruz, but I'll drive.” He shakes his head; he wants to say something but keeps his eyes on his briefcase.

  “Okay… I'll meet you there,” he says.

  “I have to make a stop so I'll see you a bit later.”

  “A bit later?” His response sounds more like a question than a statement.

  “Yes,” I reply. Cruz gathers his things to leave. He rounds the desk to where I am.

  “Thanks for everything today, Bria.” He leans down and with a feather-light touch, he kisses my forehead. It shocks me a little. Cruz a gentle man? He's shown me many sides of him. I'm no more knowledgeable of this man than I was weeks ago.

  “Drive safe, honey.”

  “I will.” The office is silent; a part of me feels desolate, but why? Cruz has brazenly entered my life without notice, sending my body through partial-ecstasy that I know my body won’t be able to handle fully. For what? What does he want from me? I stare out my office window for a few minutes to reflect on what Cruz has planned. I glance at the clock on the wall. Hmm, a quarter to five, I have to complete this set-up for Mr. Wilke first. I'll meet Cruz at the hospital at 7:30. I'll send him a quick text to let him know.

  As I do, Lisa pops her head in.

  “Good night, Bria.”

  I look up from my phone. “Good night, Lisa,” I reply. She waves. I can hear her exiting the building. My phone chimes; it’s Cruz. I know this because I’ve finally programmed his number in my phone. I mean, it’s the least I can do after he’s had his mouth on my clit.

  (Cruz) Can I ask why will you be so long?

  Did he really?

  (Me) I have to get something done for Mr. Wilke, if you don't mind...