by Measha Stone
“I went home with her, like a fucking idiot. I was sitting on her couch, half in the bag, and she went off to her room to put on ‘something comfortable.’ While she was gone, this little girl, a year or so younger than you, walked into the living room. Her hair was all messy, a smudge of chocolate on her face, dragging a torn blanket. She was looking for her mama.”
Paul looked away and blew out a hard breath. “Her mama was in the bedroom getting dolled up for me. I felt like shit. Reality punched me right in the throat. Never have I sobered up so quick. I started talking to her. She’d had a nightmare. I managed to get her back into bed, and, Alex, when I tell you she lived in a shithole, I’m not exaggerating. Her room was the oversized linen closet. There wasn’t even a fucking window! I got her tucked in and went back to the living room. That mother of hers was livid that she had gotten up and was about to go give her hell before I stopped her. I stuck around long enough to be sure that little girl was sound asleep, and her mom was calm. I didn’t touch her, much to her annoyance.”
“Alyssa was the girl,” Alex provided.
“Yeah. I told your mother everything when I got home. Everything. It was the worst and best thing that happened to us. We got our heads on straight, stopped bickering so damn much, and put our marriage back together. I almost lost her and you over some tramp. I was grateful for Alyssa walking into that room.”
“Why’d you keep in touch if it was just a one-night thing?” Alex pushed off the steps and walked in a circle on the patio. So much to take in, to sort out.
“I didn’t give a damn about that woman. But Alyssa…that little girl deserved a hell of a lot more. Your mother, being the kind woman she was, agreed with me. Every year I went down to the conference, I checked in on her.”
“She didn’t care for her mother.” Alex sighed. He’d seen that much written on her expression the night before.
“Care for her? Hell, that’s all Alyssa did was care for her. That woman was a drunk and no one gave a crap about her. Alyssa took care of her until the day she died. But not out of love, you’re right about that.”
“Why didn't you just tell me this?” Alex faced his father.
“Because it’s not something I enjoy rehashing.” Paul pointed a finger at him. “And you aren’t going to tell that girl you know anything. She’s always felt ashamed about her mother. Ashamed taking the little bit I could give her. You aren’t going bring that up.”
“Of course I have to tell her I know! She has nothing to be ashamed of. I’m not going to talk to her about the details, but I don't want her to feel like she still needs to hide this.”
Paul cracked a smile. “You like her.”
“Dad—”
“Why come all the way out here to ask me all this? You just met her yesterday, why so interested?” Paul stood again and gave his son a playful punch. “You hurt her, and I’ll kill you. Just so you know.” He’d only seen his father look that serious a handful of times. He knew better than to push the conversation.
“I’m not getting involved with her.” Alex had to stop himself from explaining he was also her boss.
“Ah, bullshit.” Paul chuckled.
“Dad.” Alex took a deep breath.
“Look, what happens happens. I know this is a lot for you to take in, but none of it’s her doing. She’s as good as they come, Alex. Nothing like that mom of hers, thank the good lord.”
“You fucked up,” Alex whispered, more to himself.
“Yes, I did.” Paul shoved his hands into his pockets. “Your mother forgave me.” Paul looked Alex in the eye, sincerity and vulnerability lurking in the deep blue.
“You are the most honest man I know.” Alex shook his head again, taking his sunglasses off.
“Still am?”
“Hell yes. Most men would have come home and said nothing. They sure as hell wouldn’t have done anything for that little girl.” Alex’s admiration for his mother grew. How it must have hurt her. The strength she must have needed to push past it and reach out to a little girl who wasn’t hers to worry about. He suddenly missed his mother more than ever.
“Your mother was a goddamn saint.” Paul slapped Alex on the back as he walked up the steps toward the house. “She should have done a hell of a lot better than me.”
“Yeah.” Alex smirked. “But I don’t think she’d agree.” Alex followed his father through the back door into the kitchen.
“You want something to eat?” Paul offered.
“No thanks. I need to get back to the city.” Alyssa’s shift ended at ten, and he needed to get back on the road to get there in time.
They needed to talk.
Chapter 8
Alyssa needed new clothes. She smoothed her hand down her black skirt, worrying about the ragged edges of the hem. Hopefully, the dimness of the club hid it. At least her shirt was clean with no stains.
“Hey, survived another shift?” Kerri touched Alyssa’s shoulder as she passed her in the breakroom.
“Yeah.”
“Probably helped that Travis and his hoard didn’t have a party tonight.” Kerri popped open her locker.
“They weren’t so bad. I’ve dealt with worse at the hole in the walls where I’ve worked.” Swerving through crowded bars both balancing the drinks on the tray and keeping her ass out of pinching distance had been a normal night.
Kerri checked her teeth in the small square mirror on her locker door, then shut it. “It’s actually a great place to work. Travis is an ass, but the rest of them are pretty cool.”
Alyssa’s phone vibrated in her back pocket.
“You off now?” Kerri asked.
“Yep. You closing?” Alyssa swiped her phone to life. Just an email notification. Junk mail in electronic form.
“You know it. Have fun tonight.” Kerri tapped her finger on Alyssa’s phone as she passed by her to the door.
Alyssa didn’t get a chance to correct her before she was gone. With a heavy sigh, she looked over the messages he’d sent throughout the day.
You can’t hide forever.
Pick you up outside.
We need to talk.
Alex. She’d ignored his calls, his voicemails, his text messages—but he wouldn’t go away. He needed to understand they couldn’t do anything other than be work friends. She would need to be blunt. Make sure he came to the same conclusion. Paul was a good man, and she wouldn’t mess up her friendship with him by playing around with his son. And there was the small detail of Alex being her boss.
Yeah. Friendship was all they could have.
She grabbed her purse from her locker and punched out. She’d get the conversation over with. She’d explain about his father, about how hooking up with the boss was unacceptable. He’d understand. He’d get it. He had to.
Then she stepped outside into the humid summer air and her gaze landed on his. Every word she’d planned to utter fell right out of her head.
“Hey.” She walked up to him, clutching her purse to her chest. “I wasn't sure you’d actually be here.” The wind blew softly, whipping small strands of her hair around her face.
“You would have if you’d responded to any of my texts today.” He kept his eyes fixated on her. She wiped the hair from her eyes and looked away, his gaze too powerful to hold for long.
“I was busy.” Except her dinner break, and the other two short breaks she had throughout the night, she had been caught up in work.
He gripped her chin with his fingers, pulling her gaze back to his.
“Don’t ever lie to me again.” He kept his voice low and controlled. He released her. “Now, I thought we’d have a nightcap. My place okay?” He moved to the side, gesturing for her to get in the car.
She studied him silently, rubbing her lips together in thought. “Okay. One drink.” She sank into the passenger seat.
“Do you enjoy having the last word?” he asked once inside.
“Enjoy? I wouldn't say I enjoy it, but I would say I’m used to having it,” s
he said with a wink.
“Hmmm.” He faced her for a moment, playing with a strand of her hair. “Well, I think it’s safe to say you will be used to other things very soon.”
Before she could conjure up a good response, he leaned over the center console and kissed her. A warm, toe-twisting, passionate kiss.
Butterflies danced in her stomach as his hands dove into her hair, holding her in place while he deepened the kiss. His tongue brushed against hers, an erotic meeting, sending electric currents from her tongue to her toes.
When he broke off the kiss, he gave her a quick peck to her cheek before pulling back and bringing his gaze to hers. He seemed to be demanding her attention, her presence. She ran her tongue over her lips, tasting him. He’d had a red bull earlier.
“You know, those energy drinks are horrible for you,” she whispered when she was able to piece together a coherent thought. He chuckled.
Alex settled back in the driver’s seat and pulled the car into the evening traffic.
“How was your shift?” He rested his hand on her leg—a gentle yet possessive touch.
“Uneventful.” She leaned her head against the seat. The cool air from the car vents felt good against her skin.
His fingers rubbed her thigh over her skirt while he maneuvered through the city. She should have chastised him for kissing her. She didn’t go around kissing everyone she met, and that kiss wasn’t just a kiss. That was a claiming. The only other man who ever kissed her like that was Thomas, and she hadn’t come to Chicago looking for a love interest or Dominant.
Once at his apartment building, Alyssa followed Alex through the lobby. The decor on the walls alone could pay her rent for a year. Aside from the soft music playing in the background, the elevator ride was quiet. When the doors slid open to a foyer larger than her old house, her breath caught in her throat.
“This is yours?” She hooked a thumb at the apartment in front of them. He stepped out and held out his hand to her.
“Yes. Come on. The doors are going to shut.”
She took his hand and walked into the well-lit foyer. The marble tiling was pristine. How long exactly did it take to get the floor to shine like that?
He led her from the hall.
“Let me give you the tour.” He brought her past the entrance way to the living room, which housed the biggest television she’d ever seen. He waved off the kitchen that boasted of state-of-the-art equipment, even though he hated to cook—so he said. “This is my favorite room.” He grinned at her and pulled her closer to him. He turned the knob and pushed the door open. She held her breath.
An arcade. He had a flipping arcade in his apartment. Pinball machines of various sizes and themes. A few motorcycle games, two gunslinger games, and of course Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man.
“Skee-Ball!” She clapped her hands when she saw the set of three lanes in the corner of the room.
“You like that game?” He laughed. “Let’s play.” He took her purse from her and tossed it on the Star Wars pinball machine as he led her to Skee-Ball. A quick flick of a switch, and the balls rolled down the corral.
She hadn’t played since she was a kid. Some random friend of her mother’s had taken them to the carnival in town. He’d given her ten bucks to stay at the game until he brought her mom back to her. She’d been there for three hours. She played with five dollars of the money and pocketed the other five for lunch the rest of the week at school.
“Damn!” She laughed after the last ball made its way into the gutter. “Too many years, and completely out of practice.” She frowned at her score of only eight-hundred compared to his score of twenty-four-hundred.
“Finally, a woman who knows the value of games.” He raised his hands in the air as if to say a prayer of thanks.
She shook her head and gave an exaggerated roll of her eyes. “Boys and their toys.”
“Yeah.” He gave her a side-glance. “So, I talked with my dad today,” he said softly. Her spine stiffened at the cautious way he spoke.
“Oh? I did too.” She tried to keep calm as he motioned for her to sit on the lane next to his.
“I talked to him about you.” He picked up her hand.
“Oh? I did too.” She forced a grin. Her stomach twisted.
“He told me about your mother.” He held fast to her hand when she tried to jerk away.
“Oh. I did not talk to him about that,” she breathed. “What did he tell you?”
“The truth.”
“He shouldn’t have.” She tried to stand up, but he kept her in place. “You must hate me. Why did you bring me here?” she demanded. Was he going to rave at her about what a horrible woman her mother had been? He wouldn’t be the first child to show up and take out their anger on her for their father’s adultery.
“Hate you? Why would I hate you? You did nothing wrong.”
“My mother. I mean. Your dad—” She hung her head. “I really don’t like talking about this.”
“Okay. We don't have to talk about it right now. I just wanted you to know you don’t have to lie or hide the truth from me.”
“Fine,” she said in a hard tone.
“Fine?” He narrowed his eyes. “I really hate that word.”
She yanked her hands free.
“What did you bring me here for, Alex?” She pushed up from the game. “This is too much. You are my boss! Your father almost slept with my mother! It’s weird. This is weird.”
“No, it’s not weird...well...okay...maybe a little more of a soap opera than I prefer with my women, but—”
She sucked in a slow breath.
“Your women? I’m not your woman. I’m not your anything—except your employee!” she proclaimed. Her heart raced as she continued to stare at him. She could stand Paul’s charity; he had made it clear when she was a kid that she had no choice. He was going to take care of her, and she had let him. But she would not stand as an adult and allow his son to do the same. She may not have much money, or possessions, or education, but she had her pride, dammit.
“Ohmigod. Is that why Bradley asked if I had a Dominant? Because you wanted to be sure I was taken care of?”
He recoiled at the accusation, and she regretted it immediately.
“He asked you that? When?” Alex was standing now, his hands balled into fists.
“Never mind. I should go. This was wrong.” She never should have left with him.
“Dammit, Alyssa. You will not take one more step.” The menacing quality to his voice froze her feet to the ground. “Bradley shouldn’t have asked you that. It had nothing to do with me.” He raked his fingers through his short curls and took a deep breath. “Look, I don’t get this either. I've known you for all of twenty-four hours, but in that time, I’ve done nothing but think about you. Hell, I drove all the way out to Elgin tonight to be sure you weren’t some lost love child of my father’s!”
“Love child?” The edges of her lips threatened to curl.
“I knew something wasn’t right,” he explained. “It doesn’t matter. Look, how I feel about what my father did twenty years ago has nothing to do with us. What does have to do with us is I can’t seem to get the idea of touching you, kissing you, and holding you out of my fucking mind.”
“I’m your employee, Alex,” she whispered. He really had driven all the way out to the ’burbs? He'd been thinking about her as much as she had about him?
“I know,” he ground out. “Should I fire you?”
“What?”
“That was a joke,” he breathed out. “I’ll figure something out.”
“No.” She shook her head. Things were spiraling out of control. As much a she could feel herself being pulled to him, she couldn’t allow it. She had to get her feet on solid ground. “Don’t figure anything out.”
She placed her hand on his chest. His heart pounded beneath it. His breath was shallow as he searched her face.
“Let’s just take things as they come. You know, like friends.” The words tas
ted sour, but she didn’t try to take them back. She needed to end whatever was happening before it got completely out of control.
“Friends?” His tone dipped, and his cheeks flushed. She doubted it was embarrassment by the way he was flexing his hands.
“Well. Yeah.” She tried softening her tone. Men didn’t exactly like the term friends when it came to women, especially women they enjoyed a very powerful kiss with only an hour earlier.
“I have enough friends already,” he bit out, irritation blatant in his eyes. She tried not to get defensive. She’d hurt him…or offended him.
“I know.” She lowered her gaze to the floor and took a steadying breath. If she kept looking into his eyes, she might change her mind. “I’m sorry. It’s just…I need that job right now. I need to get my life in order. I need simplicity.” She raised her chin, but averted her gaze. “I should go.”
Alyssa managed to get out of the room without getting turned around. She didn’t look to see if he was behind her as she jumped onto the elevator.
As the car made its way back down to the lobby, she took a deep breath. Her mother had been right; she couldn’t do anything right. One day after meeting a hot, smart, funny man, she threw him aside and possibly ruined the job that would help keep her housed and fed. Opening her purse, she realized she hadn’t grabbed her tip money from Brandon. She had no cash. And no idea where she was.
Outside on the sidewalk, she looked back at the skyrise, contemplating asking Alex for a ride home, or at least directions, but tossed that idea away fast. Thankfully, the doorman stepped out and she was able to get directions from him. It was going to be a long walk. He looked a little concerned for her.
“Does Mr. Tribelli know you’re walking home, ma’am?” he asked with a wrinkled brow.
“Mr. Tribelli isn’t an issue,” she assured him, then started the two mile walk back to her hotel.
Chapter 9
Friend-zone. She had quite efficiently plucked him up from his good mood and thrown him headfirst into the friend-zone. He was no stranger to friendships with women. He had three, and he didn’t want another.
