Backroom Boy: All American Boy Series

by Marika Ray

  “Too bad you’re a gentleman, handsome!”

  She grinned and turned back around. I nearly swallowed my tongue, knowing exactly what had been on the table had I wanted to go there. My dick was pissed at my morals, unable to find enough room in my jeans after walking with Delta Bishop. As soon as she was in the back door of the house, I rushed down the path, veering left and heading straight to the pool house, slipping inside and locking the door.

  “Fuck!” I said to my empty room.

  I flopped down on my bed and grabbed my cell phone to text my buddy Dante that I’d arrived in Merlot in one piece, which I’d forgotten to do when I first got here. He hadn’t been happy when I got the job and decided to leave Auburn Hill for the summer. But he knew how much my dream meant to me and promised to support me. That was what best friends did.

  After that was done, I stripped off my jeans and T-shirt and climbed into bed. I could have sworn I still smelled that mango scent. As soon as I laid my head down on the pillow, my hand shoved into my boxers and wrapped around my dick. It was still semi-hard from the encounter with Delta. Just thinking of her thick lips and sweet dimples had me hard and ready. I stroked up and down twice, rubbing hard enough to cause pain. I didn’t want to be beating off to the vision of Delta Bishop, but that’s exactly where my brain went. Envisioning those lips around my cock had me breathing hard. A few more tugs and the thought of her hair all around me, I’d made a mess on my stomach.

  “Fuck,” I whispered, getting up again to clean up.

  That shit couldn’t happen again. “Just put her out of your head and focus, Lukas,” I pep-talked myself.

  I was here to learn.

  Period.

  2

  Delta

  “Delta!” Daddy’s tone was far too harsh for the headache brewing between my eyes that morning.

  I took another sip of coffee before turning around and answering him. “Yes, Daddy?”

  “Did you read through the folder I gave you last week? I need you ready.” He grabbed the plate of eggs and toast Mom handed him, smoothing his tie and sparing me a quick glance.

  My stomach churned, a result of too much alcohol and not enough food in the last twenty-four hours. I couldn’t really blame myself though. It had been my last day of freedom before a summer of enslavement by my own father. No matter how many times I told him I wasn’t sure if running the winery was what I wanted to do with my life, he insisted on involving me anyway. The school year had just ended and here I was in a pair of black slacks and a starched white shirt bright and early on Monday morning, reporting for duty.

  “Yes, Daddy. I read through it all like you asked.”

  I would never share the fact that I’d been insanely interested to see the profit margin of an established winery. The number of zeroes had surprised me, even though we’d never been hurting for money and I lived in one of the most expensive houses in Merlot. Assuming and knowing were two different things.

  We were filthy fucking rich.

  “We only have the summer before you go back to Stanford, so you’ll be doing double duty. You’ll work the lowest jobs just like I did and just like my dad and granddad. I’ll also be pulling you into some higher-level meetings, so clear your calendar for the next two months.”

  He exited the kitchen with Mom to eat breakfast at the long dining table. That was that, I guessed.

  “Yes, Daddy,” I sighed to the empty kitchen. I grabbed a piece of toast and jammed it in my mouth, knowing I’d need the calories to get through working whatever menial jobs he threw my way.

  Glancing down at my cherry pink nails, I sighed again, thinking about all the salon trips with my sorority sisters and the wild parties and the late nights giggling in our dorm room. Being home under my parents’ watch was going to be like a punch to the dick. Unwelcome and painful.

  “This is Rosie. She’s the manager for the tasting room. Once you graduate from the back room, you’ll report to her.” Daddy swept through a doorway after pointing out a tall brunette behind the long countertop.

  She smiled at me and I waved back before rushing after Daddy. He’d already introduced me to five other people as we went through the winery and I’d promptly forgotten all their names. Didn’t people believe in name tags anymore?

  “Sure Rosie doesn’t need an extra hand pouring today? I read up about every varietal.” I floated it out there, full of both hope and desperation. If I had to work at the winery all summer, it would be really great to be out there where I could chat up the customers and keep things interesting.

  Daddy tossed a dark look over his shoulder. “Nice try.”

  I sighed and resigned myself to my fate.

  The wooden floors were just as nice in this new area, but the lighting was terrible and the furnishings were sparse in the huge room I found myself in. A single person stood bent over an industrial steel sink against the far-left wall, up to his elbows in soap suds. A smattering of steel appliances surrounded him. Ah. We must have arrived at the infamous back room. The place I’d earn my street cred before being allowed to play with the big kids in the tasting room.

  Daddy spread his arms out and grinned. “This will be your domain. No detail is too small, no effort goes unnoticed. Do your best work here and I’ll know you’re ready for more. Today you’ll work on cleaning all the glasses from the weekend rush, restock the wines out front behind the bar, and inventory the cheese and crackers so we know what needs ordering. Aprons are over there.”

  He gestured to a small coat closet of sorts before giving me a pat on the back and walking out, whistling. I put my purse away, sliding my phone into my pants pocket, and grabbed a black apron emblazoned with our company logo. I always thought the two gold B’s wending around a bishop-shaped chess piece looked a bit like they were wrapping around something more phallic, but I never shared that with Daddy. I couldn’t help a chuckle as I tied the apron around my waist. That would not have gone over well.

  I spun around and took in the room. The guy at the sink hadn’t even turned around, so I figured I’d leave him to the glasses and find my own project. The wall of floor-to-ceiling built-in wine racks seemed interesting, so I walked over there and found a clipboard. Inventory. I could do that.

  An hour later and I decided that I’d sat through biochemistry lectures that were more riveting than taking inventory. A throat clearing behind me made me jump and nearly drop the clipboard.

  I turned around and…well…paused.

  My brain froze and my eyes widened like maybe then I could understand what was in front of me. Or should I say who.

  The hot stranger from last night. The one whose leather jacket still hung in my room.

  “L-Lukas?” I stuttered.

  He looked at the ground and then back up at me, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but there. His scruffy brown hair was disheveled, like he’d swiped a soapy hand through it more than once already this morning. He made disheveled look hot with the ropey muscles straining his plain black T-shirt and dark jeans.

  “Princess,” he said in that deep grovel of a voice that had intrigued me last night even if he’d scared me when I first saw him in the vineyard.

  But holy shit. I hadn’t seen those vibrant blue eyes in the dark last night. They were practically shining at me, making me think of emeralds or sparkling Caribbean waters. I shouldn’t even be noticing because I didn’t care for the princess nickname. It wasn’t so much the name, but the volume of innuendo behind it. He thought of me as the spoiled rich girl and that irked me. Maybe because it hit too close to home. Growing up with money meant you were always trying to outrun that quick judgement.

  “Oh good, you two have met.” A voice interrupted our moment, but not the staredown of each other.

  A vaguely familiar mid-forties man came up to both of us, his black polo emblazoned with the company logo in gold thread. He clapped his hands together, pulling me out of my trance.

  “Lukas, this is Delta. Delta, Lukas. You two will be w
orking together this summer, so hopefully you’ll get along. If you’ll come this way, I will give you the official tour and then I’ll give you tasks to get done this week. I’m John, by the way, the winemaking director for Black Bishop Winery.”

  Lukas, the ass-kisser, reached out his hand for a shake and seemed genuinely pleased to meet John. I, on the other hand, just hoped our tour lasted awhile so I could take a break from inventory. I’d heard Daddy talk about John, so I felt like I knew him already. He was married with two kids. Been working for Daddy for close to twenty years now.

  John had the unique ability to walk forward, while spinning his upper body halfway around to keep talking to people trailing behind him.

  “I’ll be overseeing you both for two weeks while we teach you everything that goes into winemaking. After that, you’ll be with the operations manager, and then after that, the vineyard manager. Seeing all sides of this business is imperative to running a successful winery. From there, Delta, you’ll be placed wherever your father sees fit. Lukas, we’ll have to see what side fits you most.”

  John kept walking down a long line of oak wine barrels while Lukas shot me a glare. I looked up at him and shrugged. Not my fault my daddy owned this winery and would give me a job. You’d think I’d start in the tasting room, not back here in the dungeon. A spoiled princess I was not.

  I could feel him next to me the entire tour, his arm brushing mine on occasion, the rough hair there an intriguing sensation. The last few guys I’d dated were total gym whores, shaving their entire bodies in fear others wouldn’t be able to see their muscles under the hair. Lukas didn’t look like he worked out in a gym. More like he did things with his hands that led to muscles as an afterthought.

  “Okay, so now you’ve seen the whole backroom operation.”

  John clapped his hands and I had to pull my head back into the conversation. I must have missed the last few minutes while I was lost in my thoughts about Lukas. Hopefully I didn’t miss anything important.

  “It’s impressive, for sure,” Lukas said, his expression serious.

  What was his deal? This was a minimum-wage job doing the crap no one else wanted to do. Was he really going to play that game where he kissed ass the whole time we worked together? Because that was going to get old. Real fast.

  “Black Bishop has a long history of never cutting corners and always putting the grapes first.” John’s chest puffed up like he single-handedly planted the damn grapevines himself. “Now how about I get you two back to inventory and then restocking the supply in the tasting room.”

  John led us back to the wall of wine racks and that damn clipboard. He explained how to do what I’d already been doing and then left Lukas and me alone. The sounds of the tasting room drifted into the back, making me realize lunch crowd was starting to pick up. I grabbed the clipboard as Lukas drifted his hand over the racks, staring at the bottles of wine like he was studying for a test later.

  “How about you call out which wine and how many and I’ll mark it down?” My voice came out louder than I wanted, the words practically a gunshot in the silent room. I cleared my throat and tried a softer tone. “Maybe we can get done before lunch.”

  Lukas’s laser gaze stayed on me for a beat longer than was necessary, making me shift in my black Converse high-tops. What was with this guy and his straight-faced stare that had my stomach churning?

  He nodded once and gave me his back, touching each bottle of wine while he counted meticulously. His blunt-tipped fingers practically caressed each bottle neck. Butterflies hit my churning stomach and I realized that maybe I’d taken the wrong end of this job. I’d have to sit here watching him for another hour before we were done.

  My head listed to the side and I allowed myself to sweep his entire body with my gaze, unhurried thanks to his focus on the wine bottles. He wore plain black Chucks that had seen better days. His jeans were already a faded black, molding to his ass quite nicely in a way you didn’t see much in guys these days. Even the guys who wore tight jeans tended to sag them so badly you couldn’t accurately see what kind of ass you were dealing with. But Lukas? Oh, he had a very fine ass.

  “Princess?”

  His voice pulled me from my thoughts. And pulled my gaze from his backside to see him looking over his shoulder at me, a smirk on his handsome face that meant he’d caught me staring at him.

  My cheeks heated and I hated that he had me flustered. “Huh?”

  “I said the 2015 pinot noir only has three bottles.”

  I quickly looked down at the clipboard like my life depended on it and wrote down the number in the appropriate column. “Got it.”

  Lukas went back to counting.

  “And don’t call me princess,” I said in my best bitch voice.

  Lukas only made a sound in the back of his throat that sounded an awful lot like he was laughing at me inside. The rest of inventory, we kept quiet, only calling off numbers when necessary. And I kept my eyes firmly on the clipboard.

  “Ready for lunch?” Daddy broke the silence a while later, his shirt sleeves rolled up and looking at me expectantly.

  I looked back at Lukas, his jaw clenched tight.

  “I’ll finish up here. You go ahead.” He took the clipboard from me and kept going, dismissing me without a glance.

  I rolled my eyes and followed Daddy out, wondering what inspirational advice he’d force down my throat while we ate lunch in his office. As much as Lukas acted pissed off that I had the attention of the owner of the winery, he didn’t realize I envied him and the lack of responsibility to live up to someone else’s expectations for you.

  I’m not saying growing up with money didn’t have its perks.

  But it also came with a lot of responsibility and pressure.

  3

  Lukas

  After another round of cleaning glasses, where Delta immediately jumped at the less messy part of the job and left me to do the dirtiest work, we were finally done for the day. I’d learned so much my head was spinning. Didn’t help that the pretty girl from last night was like my goddamn shadow. Everywhere I went I could smell her mangoes like she’d bathed in them before coming to work. She was stealing my focus and I couldn’t have that.

  I hung up my apron and grabbed my helmet and keys from the cabinet in the back room. More studying awaited me when I got back to the pool house. I was also thinking of walking through the grapevines and seeing if I could identify which grapes were which based on their early growth stage.

  The door swung shut behind me and I sucked in my first breath of non-mango-scented air since this morning. What were the odds I’d get paired up with the owner’s daughter when I was just trying to learn as much as I could this summer? I didn’t move away from home and all my friends to get sidetracked by a spoiled rich girl who didn’t take the winemaking process seriously.

  “Hey, Lukas, wait up!”

  Shit. I took a deep breath and willed my eyeballs not to roll back in my head. I paused by my bike and looked at her hustling across the parking lot to reach me, her blonde hair tumbling out of the messy bun she’d put it in when we did the dishes.

  When she reached me, her cheeks were flushed and she was breathing heavy enough to make my gaze want to look at her breasts, but I was stronger than that. Maybe.

  “You want to go swimming or something? We can go back to my pool.” The words were rushed, almost like it was a pity invite. And I didn’t do pity.

  “Nah. I got things to do. See you tomorrow.” I strapped on my helmet, got on my bike, and fired it up, drowning out what she said next.

  Probably a dick move, but after eight hours around her, I needed some space. I needed to focus on learning about the winery, not the way she swiped her right wrist across her forehead when she got the tiniest bit sweaty. Or the way she bit her bottom lip constantly, driving me absolutely crazy.

  The wind hit my arms as I rode, cooling me off and prompting me to keep going on the winding road, just to sightsee for a bit before retu
rning to the pool house. A white Range Rover came up behind me, and after a double take in my mirrors, I realized it was Delta.

  “What the fuck?” I muttered.

  The turnoff for her house came up on my left, but she didn’t turn, instead following me all the way into the little town of Merlot and around the wineglass-shaped fountain in the square. This time I did roll my eyes.

  “Alright then. I guess you’ll follow me right home and learn we’re neighbors.”

  I sped up after the last stop sign in town and headed back toward her house, making the right down her long driveway and splitting off to the right again to go around to the pool house.

  I’d barely gotten my helmet off and the kickstand down when she ran down the driveway to the pool house. She had the funniest little line between her eyebrows. Still totally hot, even when confused and slightly angry.

  “You following me, princess?” I asked with a smirk, knowing the nickname would rile her up further.

  She pointed to the house and spoke slowly. “This is my house.”

  I nodded and got off the bike. “Yes, it is. Good job.”

  Pulling the key out of my pocket I walked to the pool house, ignoring her angry stance.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake. You’re the guy Daddy rented the pool house to?”

  My back was to her, the key in the lock, but her comment hit me like a kick to the balls. The disdain in her voice made me feel like I’d snap in two, a firecracker ready to explode.

  “Don’t worry. I won’t rob you, princess.” The words poured like venom from my mouth.

  I may have been from a small town. I may have been dirt poor compared to her, but I wasn’t going to let her make me feel bad about who I was. I was a good guy, just looking for experience so I could make a difference in the world. If I’d wanted to harm her or rob her, I’d have pounced last night when we were all alone and she wasn’t exactly at her best.