Work For It

by Ashley Bostock

  “Maybe nothing to hide. But you and I damn well know the air between us is a hundred and ten. You’re attracted to me just as much as I’m attracted to you. You, for whatever reason, are afraid to admit it.”

  “That’s not the case,” she said.

  “No? Prove it. Kiss me one more time and tell me you feel nothing.”

  Dylan could see the truth in her eyes. He had since the moment he’d walked into Pine Lake. She was warring with herself. He saw that too. He could see a lot in her eyes. The blush in her cheeks. The rise and fall of her breasts. The way she drew back her shoulders.

  The spark of her spirit that she kept trying to hide.

  She pushed into his chest and wrapped her arms around his neck, forcing his head down to meet hers. Her lips took possession of his. So greedy. Her mouth was hot against his as their tongues pressed together. She was all fire. Giving him everything just as he’d dared her. His hands gripped her ass and pulled her against him. He wanted her to feel what she was doing to him.

  To know that she was single-handedly driving him fucking wild.

  She let out a low, guttural moan as she nibbled his lower lip and sucked it into her mouth before pulling away. Her lips glistened, and her cheeks were flushed. Oh yeah, she wanted him as badly as he wanted her.

  “Just admit it,” he whispered.

  “Admit what? That you’re a great kisser? Your kisses turn me on, okay? I’m not going to lie about it. But it’s not something we have to act on.”

  “Why not?”

  She gripped his biceps and moved out of his reach.

  He repeated, “Why the hell not? We’re here together for two weeks. Alone. Let’s make the most of it. You won’t regret it, Lina.”

  She tilted her head to the side. “You’re so damn arrogant. Maybe what I’m thinking in my head has nothing to do with you. Maybe I’m here wishing this storm would pass so my boyfriend could get his ass up here.”

  Dylan stepped back, feeling as if he’d just got punched in the chest. “I don’t mess around with other dude’s girlfriends.”

  “Good to know.”

  Dylan sucked in a deep breath. Okay, she doesn’t have a boyfriend. There’s no way she would have kissed me like that. Especially twice.

  “But you don’t have a boyfriend.”

  She put her hands on her hips. I’m loving that hip move way too much. She rolled her eyes. “No. So you just want to have sex for the next two weeks? What happens after that? We go our separate ways? What if you fall in love with me?”

  Dylan chuckled. “I won’t fall in love with you. And you better not fall in love with me. And I actually can’t have sex. I made a bet that I wouldn’t have sex. But there are other things to do.”

  “What do you mean? Like a no-sex bet?”

  “Yes, exactly.”

  She squinted her eyes at him. “Don’t play games. Don’t lie to me. Are you lying? Who is stupid enough to do that?”

  He laughed. “I’m not lying. And yes, it was stupid. But the good news is that it’s almost over. One week left.”

  “So there’s nothing to talk about. You can’t have sex.”

  “I said there are other things we could do that aren’t actual penetration with my dick.”

  Lina blushed and looked away. He wanted to go over a list of all the things they could do that didn’t involve actual sex. Of all the ways he’d make her come and scream his name. Beg him for more.

  “Like tongue tricks.”

  Dylan smiled. “Yes. Tongue tricks.”

  “Does your tongue have as much stamina as the rest of your body?”

  “Why don’t you let me pull your panties down and you can find out?”

  Lina put a hand up. “Easy, cowboy. I’m not even agreeing to anything. It just came out before I could think about it.”

  “I bet you’ll change your mind,” Dylan said.

  Lina gave a small laugh and shook her head. “It’s not a good idea. I’m going downstairs to check the fire.”

  She left him alone with his thoughts, and Dylan was annoyed with himself. He should’ve held his cards closer to his chest and not come straight out and asked her. He should’ve gone with his original plan at pure seduction. Now, she was going to steer clear from him for miles.

  Fuck. What had he been thinking?

  “So what job did you run away from before you came here?” Dylan asked Lina, who was currently sprawled across the living room floor beneath a blanket, her head propped up with a pillow.

  “I didn’t run.” She said automatically on the defense. She thought about her last day on the job and sighed. “I did run, actually. I was living my life for everyone else and not for myself.”

  The truth of her words hit Dylan deep, cutting into him like a heart surgeon cutting into a patient. Wasn’t that exactly what he was going through right now? He was tired of the grind of being everything everyone wanted him to be. It was so much better here than at home. And if Estes Park could get a handle on their electrical situation, things would be better.

  “Me too,” he said. The second he admitted it though, he knew he probably shouldn’t say much more. If he wasn’t being Dylan Truex, owner and creator of Dirty Gains, how was he going to explain to her why he was burnt out and from what.

  Shit.

  “So what’d you do?” he asked.

  “I just packed up all of my belongings and walked out. Finally decided I’d had enough.”

  Dylan smiled at her angelic figure lying on the carpet with her eyes closed. “No, I mean, for a living.”

  “Oh yeah, I was a crisis interventionist. Helped people—mainly women—get out of bad situations.”

  Bingo. It was like a lightning strike the second she said it. That was where Dylan knew Lina Armstrong from. He and his closest friends—four other prominent men that lived in Denver—had built an apartment complex that was focused on women and their children by providing a place for them to live once they were out of their abusive relationship. Dylan’s good friend, Cole Carrington, had formed the idea after his sister was murdered as a result of being in an abusive relationship. Cole had wanted to offer the right resources for women to be able to support themselves and help them stay away from the men that abused them.

  Lina Armstrong had been a big supporter of The Francesca Project when the program broke ground. She’d helped rally quite a few advocates and other programs to support the men’s endeavor and had even come to their groundbreaking ceremony to show her support.

  He moved his hands behind his head and stretched out on the couch.

  Interesting.

  With so much going on in his life, he couldn’t recall being introduced to her that day. It’d been busy with news anchors and supporters; the governor had been there. He sure couldn’t recall meeting her. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. Her long lashes fanned her cheeks as she lay there in solitude. Half of her hair spread out on the pillow, the other half tucked under her shoulder. Her freckles. Those would be the death of him. He wanted to smooth his lips against them.

  He would have remembered Lina.

  He thought she might know Dylan Truex by association, but he couldn’t be sure and she clearly didn’t recognize him. How many times had that happened to him? He could meet someone in a formal setting and then see them later running on the path near his house in shorts and a t-shirt and not put two and two together until they reminded him where they’d met.

  “That had to be an interesting job,” he said.

  “Oh, it was. The best part was that I worked directly for my mother. You know those moms always wanting the best for their kids and all.” She snorted. “Anyway, I had enough. I left. And I’m not going back.”

  “Was she that bad to work for?” He couldn’t imagine what would be worse: working for his mother or dealing with women and children who had been abused. The latter could not be easy on the heart. Especially when things ended badly the way they had for Francesca Carrington. Froggy Franky. He’
d always teased her relentlessly, and she had never had a problem teasing him right back. She was Froggy Franky, and she’d called him Ducky Dill. Dill being short for Dylan.

  He smiled at the memory of her and cleared his thoughts about Francesca. His heart slammed against his chest as he thought of all the women Lina must have helped in her tenure. It thumped in triumph for all the women he and the guys would help.

  “Ugh. She was a drill sergeant. I swear she only gave birth to me so I could be her little robot and do everything she wanted me to do. Act the way she wanted me to act. Date who she deemed worthy. All my life she’s been that way, and I molded into her standards. I became who she wanted me to become.”

  “And who was that?” He ignored her comment about her mother finding men for Lina to date. What kind of guys were they? Perfect, polo-playing kind of guys? He couldn’t imagine her mother being happy to have her daughter dating a gym rat. Not that they were going to date or anything.

  “Someone that doesn’t match who I am in my soul.” She turned her head and eyed him. “What are you running from?”

  Ah, shit’s getting real. The gentlemanly part of him knew it was only fair to answer her questions after she’d been forthright with him. The cowardly, keep-his-feelings-to-himself part, wanted to change topics. He hadn’t spoken to anyone about wanting a break from Dirty Gains. No one except Cam knew about his heart condition. It seemed so foolish to his own ears, that the idea of speaking them aloud to someone, made it seem like he was an ungrateful prick.

  He gave a sardonic laugh. “Ironically, I’m not running—just hiding—from the life I created all on my own. The problem is that I’ve become something that everyone expects me to be, and I feel like I’m living for them. Not myself.”

  She stayed silent, and he couldn’t have been more grateful. He swallowed down that lumpy feeling he got in his throat every time he thought about the empire he’d built from the ground up. He loved Dirty Gains and couldn’t imagine his life without it. But he also couldn’t imagine living the rest of his life the way he was either. Like an imposter. Like he was putting on a front.

  “Kind of like me,” she finally spoke.

  “Yeah, it sounds like it. Even down to our mothers. Well, it sounds like your mom—as overbearing and controlling as she is—loves you and is present. My mom sucks.” That was all he was going to say about her. There wasn’t more to say. Their strained relationship was what it was.

  “In her own messed up way, I believe she loves me. It’s just not the way I would show love to my daughter.”

  Dylan thought about his mom and how she’d been trying to make amends and make up for their lost time together. Too little too late. He supposed she loved him in her own way too. He agreed with Lina. “Yeah, me neither.”

  “What do you do? You don’t look like you fit in with Corporate America.” She turned on her side, so she was facing him in a fetal position.

  “I’m not in true Corporate America. I own a gym. A few gyms.” That was about the closest to the truth as he could get without going in deep. He did own a gym. He just left out the rest.

  “Which explains the way you look,” she said matter-of-factly.

  He turned on his side, so they mirrored one another’s positions. “What way is that?”

  “All…all nice,” she stammered.

  “Just nice?” he teased.

  She bit her bottom lip. “Maybe we should add to our rules that you need to leave your confidence levels far outside of the Pine Lake Condo.”

  “What? No fucking way. I earned the right to be cocky. I worked hard for it.”

  Lina smiled. “You’re insufferable.”

  “Just calling it like it is, sweetheart. You never told me where you’re from.”

  “Phoenix, Arizona. But I moved.”

  She’d probably passed one of his gyms in Phoenix as she drove to work every day. Who lived in Phoenix and never drove through Scottsdale or down Camelback Blvd?

  “Where did you move to?” he asked, hoping for some strange reason that it wasn’t going to be too far from Colorado.

  “I don’t know yet. When I walked out of my job, I came here, and I’ve been here uninterrupted ever since. Until you came.” She gave an unladylike snort.

  “But now that I’m here, aren’t you glad I showed up?” he said.

  She gave him another smile. The smile that he was learning to mean was yes, he was right, but no, she wasn’t going to admit it because she was way too stubborn.

  Chapter Eight

  Lina woke up startled from a dream. She was still lying flat on her back with a kink in her neck, on the floor in the living room of her condo. Ugh. Not a dream. A nightmare. Her mother had found Lina in Estes Park and had come into Pine Lake without knocking. Her mom had been horrified at what she’d barged in on.

  “I didn’t raise my daughter to be a whore!” she’d yelled.

  Like most dreams were, it had been unexplainable and weird. Dylan had made no move to put his wet cock back in his pants, and Lina continued to kneel in front of him, hands on his thighs, the tip of his cock teasing her lips despite her wretched mother’s disapproval. As her mother watched.

  It wasn’t all a nightmare. There were probably worse things than giving Dylan head. It was the presence of her mother that made the dream into a nightmare. Lina moved her neck, trying to loosen the kinks and saw that Dylan had fallen asleep too. Except he was on the couch and looked a lot more comfortable than she had been.

  Her clit squeezed as her dream assailed her. The ruddy-purple head of his cock as she sucked it in her mouth. The way his green eyes blazed against her skin. She brought her hand to her panties, and quietly edged her fingers inside, all the while not taking her eyes off Dylan’s resting face. What was she doing?

  She was so worked up, she knew it wouldn’t take long to get off. Her fingers glided effortlessly inside herself and she slowly rocked her hips against the butt of her palm, being sure not to make a sound. All she could imagine was the head of his cock bobbing against her mouth and the way it would feel along her tongue. The fire crackled to her left as her hand moved against her clit. It was going to happen so fast. She gasped, biting down on her lip as her orgasm took hold of her. Thoughts of a sexy man like Dylan egged her orgasm on, solidifying the fact that she had desperately needed that. With or without Dylan. He just happened to be the choice of the moment.

  So yeah, she stretched her neck again, it was mostly a good dream.

  Until her mother ruined the last part of it.

  “That feel good?” Dylan’s sleepy voice made her heart lodge in her throat and her hand fly out of her panties.

  “What?” She barely managed to croak out. She felt like an errant child who’d committed a felony. Heat flooded her cheeks. How embarrassing. Had she ever been busted finger-fucking herself?

  “The nap? It feel good? I feel great.” He yawned.

  She pulled the blanket over head. Kill me now. I just gave myself the fastest orgasm of my life in front of a sleeping man. A man whose ass I peeked at while he was showering! When had she gotten to be so...so naughty? Apparently, this was part of the new Lina’s tactics. `Cause the Lina that lived in Phoenix would have never done such a thing. Shame would have buried that Lina.

  But that Lina would have also been too busy at the office and would have never been in a position to meet a man like Dylan.

  Happy he hadn’t been awake while she was touching herself, she told him the truth. “I feel great too,” she said. Sexual relief was a great thing. Why hadn’t she done more of that when she lived alone in Phoenix? She should have bought her own personal toy sooner. Gosh, she was starting to realize what a stuck-up suit she’d been.

  “I better put more wood in.”

  She heard Dylan move around, and she uncovered her face from the blanket, eyeing his backside as he hovered over the fireplace. She wasn’t dumb enough to do that again.

  “That should be good for now. I better bring more wood in.”


  The second he said that, the power flickered on. The furnace roared back to life, and Lina squealed.

  “Oh, thank God!” She sat up from the floor and grabbed Dylan’s outstretched hand, offering to help her up.

  “Yes! Real food,” he said. He held his hand up in a high-five gesture that she gladly accepted.

  “I hope you’re not expecting me to cook.” She frowned.

  “I got this. What? You think a man can’t cook? Baby, I’m so good I’m gonna have you eating out of the palm of my hand.”

  Lina’s stomach soared, her hand still in his. “We’ll see.” He held it longer than necessary before letting go.

  She had a hard time not noticing how bright green his eyes were. She’d met people with green eyes before, but his made her feel like he knew her. Knew what it felt like to live life for someone else and not yourself. As if he understood how easily it was to lose yourself.

  “Your eyes are so green.”

  He lifted his shoulders. “They’re hazel. Not green,” he corrected her.

  Lina shook her head. “What? Whoever told you that? They are so green. Hazel has brown. Your eyes have no brown.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you. Been hazel all my life.”

  She moved closer to him, assuring herself that they were indeed green. “Yup. Green.” Her voice came out husky, a little shaky. They were so vivid. So searching and open. Like she could tell him anything or like he already knew her. Knew what she desired. Knew what she needed without possibly knowing herself. Sweeps of arousal climbed her spine making her shiver.

  She cleared her throat, breaking eye contact.

  “What are you going to make?” she asked, powering up her laptop. Gosh, she hoped the power stayed on this time. She wouldn’t need to have him hold the flashlight while she showered. Why was she disappointed about that? Well, if she were going to shower. But she wasn’t going to.

  “I’m going to make what I can with the ingredients you have. No lettuce? Tomatoes? Cucumbers? Anything like that?” he asked.

  “Vegetables? I have a jalapeno and a tomato still, I think.” When he frowned, she added, “What, do I look like a bunny?”