by Harlow Layne
Cocky Suit
Cocky Hero Club
Harlow Layne
Cocky Suit by Harlow Layne
Copyright © 2020 by Harlow Layne and Cocky Hero Club, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the authors’ imaginations. Any resemblance to actual persons, things, living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.
Editor: Your Editing Lounge - Editor: Kristen
Proofreading by: Proofing with Style
Photo Credit: Depositphotos
Contents
Cocky Suit
1. Pria
2. Kingston
3. Pria
4. Pria
5. Kingston
6. Pria
7. Pria
8. Kingston
9. Pria
10. Pria
11. Kingston
12. Pria
13. Kingston
14. Pria
15. Pria
16. Pria
17. Kingston
18. Kingston
19. Pria
20. Kingston
21. Pria
22. Kingston
23. Kingston
24. Pria
25. Pria
Cocky Hero Club
Acknowledgments
About Harlow
Also by Harlow Layne
Cocky Suit
Cocky Suit is a standalone story inspired by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward’s Stuck Up Suit. It's published as part of the Cocky Hero Club world, a series of original works, written by various authors, and inspired by Keeland and Ward's New York Times bestselling series.
1
Pria
Squaring my shoulders, I held my chin high as I opened the door to the office of the man who wanted to take the jobs of hundreds of employees. What he didn’t know was that I didn’t plan to leave until I convinced him to let every single one of the people at Gainsworth Investment keep their jobs.
Coming out of the bathroom, I saw the bane of my existence, Kingston Avery. He was tall, a few inches above six feet. His ten-thousand-dollar suit fit him as if it was made for him and I was sure it was. Blond hair fell over his forehead and his green eyes looked down as he tucked his semi-erect cock back into his pants.
He had no idea I was in the room until I squeaked and quickly turned around to face the door.
“What the fuck are you doing in here?” his baritone voice boomed.
“I’m your four o’clock. Ms. Wang.” I turned and looked around the room to see if we were alone. Was there a woman hiding in the corner or in the bathroom?
“Wang.” He said my last name like a stupid frat boy hearing the word fart or balls and snickering at it. His lips twitched and then thinned out.
I narrowed my gaze at him as his laser-like green eyes tried to eviscerate me. I’d never seen a man with eyes that looked like a frosted emerald. “I think you’ve got a little left-over dribble on your slacks.”
He didn’t look down. Instead, he stalked past me out to where his secretary sat. “Ms. Brooks, can you tell me why the fuck you let someone walk into my office without announcing them?”
“Um…” From that one word alone I could hear the fear in her voice.
“You’re fired,” he spat out before slamming his office door. My straight black hair blew into my face as he walked by. I tried to discreetly pull it out of my lip gloss while simultaneously wanting to run from his wrath. “Sit,” he growled out.
I wanted to tell him to fuck off. Kingston Avery had no right to take his anger out on me. I mean what on God’s green earth made him walk out of the bathroom with his cock in his hand when I came in?
I did as he demanded, though, because they always say you catch more flies with honey, and I couldn’t let down the hundreds of people who were counting on me to keep their jobs once the takeover was over.
“Why did you ask for this meeting?” He looked down at my hands lying in my lap and raised an eyebrow with a sexy smirk. “Ms. Wang?” A smirk I wanted to slap off his gorgeous face.
I studied him from across his desk. Kingston Avery looked like the drop-dead gorgeous next-door neighbor with chiseled cheekbones, full lips that made you want to feel them, for them to touch every inch of your skin and plump enough to nibble on, and a strong nose. But it was his cold green eyes that let you know he wasn’t a man to fuck with. One wrong word and he could end your career and run you out of town.
I held my head high as I looked into those biting green eyes of his. I already knew this was a mistake. This wasn’t the sweet boy who used to do anything for his sister. I didn’t know who he was anymore, and it was obvious he had no idea who I was. Should I mention that we knew each other as children? Even though I felt it was impossible, I still had to try. “I’m here on behalf of all the employees of Gainsworth Investment.”
“Let me stop you before you start, Ms. Wang.” Again, he smirked as he said my name. Internally, I rolled my eyes. It was strange, one word, my last name, made him act so childish when he was known to be such a hard-ass. There was no way I’d let it get to me now. I was over being made fun of for having the name Wang since the time I started grade school. “While it’s highly commendable that you think you have the power to change my mind, I regret to inform you that it’s impossible to bring on the entire company of Gainsworth Investment. What you really should be concerned about is trying to convince me to let you keep your job.”
I ground my teeth together. “Mr. Avery, how can you in good conscience fire an entire company?”
“I’m not firing the entire company, Ms. Wang.” He arched an eyebrow. “I’m going to have you go through all the employees of Gainsworth Investments and anyone who’s not up to par doing their job needs to go.”
“Why me?” I squeaked out.
“Why not?” He leaned back and put his hands behind his head. “You’re now the head of Avery Capital Holdings unless you don’t want the job.”
It took everything in me not to jump for joy in my seat. Instead, I tried not to let show how excited I was at the prospect. “How much would I be making?”
“Starting off, your salary will be one hundred seventy-five thousand dollars. How does that sound to you?”
Sounds like I’d be buying a new wardrobe for my new job. Mama like. Mama like.
“Any benefits?” Like your luscious lips trailing down my body.
“All the standard benefits of health insurance, 401k, one week of vacation, and a week of sick pay for the first year and two for the next, Ms. Wang. Is that satisfactory to you?” Kingston brought his elbows down on his desk and clasped his large hands in front of him, his long fingers steepled under his chin.
My gaze roamed from his fingers up to luscious lips and back down again.
Damn his hands were big. I wondered if he was big everywhere.
Pria, you need to stop yourself. You’ve got Haider at home waiting for you and he loves you.
“I think I can work with that, Mr. Avery.”
2
Kingston
Graham Morgan, my old college friend from Wharton, set down his phone and smirked as I took my seat on the other side of the table from him.
“It’s not like you to be late, King. Woman trouble?” His lips twitched as
he tried to hold in his laughter.
Unbuttoning my suit jacket, I leaned back in my seat and took in my friend. There was something different about him, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I waited to answer while a waiter filled my water glass and took our drink order.
“Something like that. I fired my secretary the other day and the temp agency keeps sending the worst candidates.”
Graham lifted a brow. “You’ve had her since you opened your company. I feel like there’s a story there.”
I chuckled to myself. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
A wicked grin crossed his face. “Well, now you’ve got to tell me.”
“You know how I’m in the process of buying Gainsworth Investments.” Graham nodded. At one point, he was going to buy it, but after finding out he was the father of his dead ex-friend, Liam, and his ex-girlfriend, Genevieve’s, child, Graham backed out. It was a lot for him to take in and when he decided not to buy, he wanted to make sure the right person bought the company, so he came to me. “One of the employees there asked for a meeting. I swear my secretary was trying to sabotage me from the get-go. I’m not sure why she made the appointment in the first place.”
Graham’s brows furrowed. “That’s not standard. What did they want?”
“That was my thought, so I looked her up to see if I could get an idea about what she might want and possibly cancel. You know how I like to be prepared. That was my second mistake.”
Setting down his water, Graham asked with his head to the side. “What was the first mistake?”
“Not canceling the meeting.”
“So, what happened then?” Graham asked when I sat quiet for too long.
“She was—is the hottest woman I’ve ever seen. Even photographed. She’s a petite little thing but even from her picture you could tell she’s feisty.” I couldn’t help but conjure her image up in my head as I’d done every day since she stepped foot into my office. The way her big brown eyes took me in from across my desk and the blush that crossed her cheeks, I was sure she was thinking about my cock.
“Why did she want the meeting?”
“For me to keep all the employees at Gainsworth. I’m not cold-hearted, but I can’t keep every single one.”
“Takeovers are never pleasant,” Graham grumbled.
The waiter brought out our drinks, and we took a moment to order dinner before we both took a sip of our Macallan’s.
“Did you hit on her and she turned you down? I mean there’s a first time for everything.” He smirked at me from behind the rim of his glass.
My eyes narrowed before my lips tipped up. It’s not like he’d ever had a woman turn him down. Why was he giving me shit? “No, dickhead, she didn’t turn me down. I can’t believe I’m about to tell you this.” I took a hearty gulp of my scotch and shook my head. “Just looking at her picture made my dick so hard I knew I needed to take matters into my own hands, or I wouldn’t be able to concentrate during our meeting.”
Graham’s elbows came down on the table as he leaned forward. “What did you do?” he asked with laughter in his voice.
“What any hot-blooded male would do. I went into my bathroom and jerked off.” And I came harder than I had since I was a teenager with the image of her playing on a loop.
“I’m not seeing what the problem is, King. It’s not like you were in the employee bathroom rubbing one out and got caught.”
“How many people do you think are cracking one off in the bathroom at work?” It had been my first. “Is that a regular occurrence for you? If so, I think you need to get laid more.”
Graham leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “No, I’ve never done it at work, and I get laid just fine so no need to worry about me.”
He’d never done it at work but I’m betting he’d done it somewhere questionable. I lifted my eyebrow in silent question knowing he’d never answer me.
Graham laughed and shook his head in answer. “Why don’t you stop deflecting and tell me what happened?”
Finishing off my drink, I took a deep breath. “I walked out into my office tucking my dick into my pants and there she stood.”
“What? Why?” He laughed out. He barely got the words out he was laughing so hard.
“Why what? Why was she in my office? Good question. My secretary let her in my office. She didn’t even announce her. Hence, why Ms. Wang saw more than she bargained for.”
“Maybe you’re upset because she saw your wang wasn’t so big after all.” Graham laughed to himself.
“Not the case, asshole, and you know it.”
“If you say so. Did you end up having the meeting?”
“I did. It wasn’t as successful as she wanted, but I think I found the new head of my HR department.”
“You’re going to hire a woman you think is hot and gets you hard as the head of HR? I’m not sure that’s a very good idea.”
“You’re probably right, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take.” Even if I have a hard-on all day while at work.
“Just remember not to whack off at work.” Graham laughed and finished his drink.
Of course, that would be the moment our waiter brought our dishes to our table. He had a questionable look on his face but didn’t say anything. “Can I get you anything else?”
I ordered another drink to try to forget the week I’d had at work. “I’ll try to keep that in mind, but it’s not like I’ll be seeing her every day. I’m the boss. I don’t do Human Resources.”
“Oh, King.” Graham shook his head. “I have a feeling you’ll be seeing her more than you realize.” Holding his finger up, Graham pulled his phone out of his suit pocket and smiled down at it. After typing out a message, he put his phone down on the table and took a bite of his steak. “I’m going to have to cut our dinner short.”
“Really? Trouble?”
Graham smiled wickedly at me from across the table. “Only the best kind.”
“Do tell. I have to say, I’ve noticed you seem different tonight.”
His brows furrowed. “Different in a good way?”
“Yeah, you seem happy. Lighter. It looks good on you.”
Graham had always seemed happy even back when the rest of us were stressed out studying for exams at Wharton. The only exception was when Genevieve fucked him over, but whatever this was, it was more.
“When I came to you to take over Genevieve’s company, we didn’t get to catch up. We should make time every once in a while.”
“I’d like that.” After Liam Gainsworth died at an early age it made me realize I needed to seize every day as if it were my last and not take for granted the people who were in my life. I had a feeling Graham had the same epiphany. “You didn’t answer what’s got you like this.”
“You’ll never believe it.” He smiled wide and tapped his finger on the screen of his phone. “I met a woman and settled down. She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“Wait, are you married?” My gaze went to his left hand and found it ringless.
“Not yet, but I do plan to ask her to marry me. She’s it for me and she loves Chloe just as much as I do.”
“After what happened with Genevieve, I never thought I’d see you settle down, but damn if it looks like that, maybe I need to think about finding me a woman.”
“Maybe Ms. Wang?” He smirked before placing his credit card in the bill sleeve.
“I guess I can’t convince you to stay for a cigar.” I motioned to the bill.
“Not tonight. Soraya’s waiting for me at my place and I don’t want to leave her waiting for long.” A gleam came into his eyes. I knew that look. He was thinking about his woman naked.
The waiter brought Graham’s credit card back and thanked us before leaving us to ourselves once again.
“I’ll let you get home to your woman.” I stood and held my hand out for him to shake.
“What? I won’t sit and shoot the shit with you and now I don’t get a hug?�
� Graham joked before pulling me into a back thumping embrace. “Don’t be a stranger, King.”
“I won’t.” Or I’d try not to be. It was too easy to let work take over my life. I worked sixty to eighty hours a week lately. The only thing I did for myself was hit the gym each day and spend time with my dogs, but I knew I needed more. What that more was, I wasn’t sure of yet.
3
Pria
I double fisted my coffee cups as I stepped onto the elevator. It had been a long week, and I wasn’t even close to finished going through all the employee files of Gainsworth Investments. I had not so lovingly started calling them the “G” files. I hadn’t seen the light of day since I started working here and I hoped that wasn’t going to continue after I decided the fate of who got to keep their job and who didn’t. While I didn’t relish the task of deciding the future of so many people, I did love my new office with its amazing city view and the money. I was already fantasizing about all the hot new outfits I was going to buy for work. Outfits I had a feeling my new boss would greatly appreciate.
I leaned back against the wall as the doors started to close only for them suddenly to open again. In walked Kingston Avery in another ten-thousand-dollar suit looking like a god. He looked as if he’d gotten a full ten hours’ sleep when I knew that wasn’t possible. Every night when I left, his light was still on and today was the first day I’d made it to work before him. It wasn’t fair for a man to look so insanely good. It was as if the gods themselves had molded him to perfection. I hated where my thoughts went when I was in proximity to him. I had a loving fiancé at home to remember, yet every time I was around my new boss, I forgot all about him. Haider doesn’t look like Kingston Avery. No one looked like Kingston, and there wasn’t a Kingston for everyone. Some of us had to settle for ordinary men instead in lieu of males who looked like Greek gods.
