Paradise City: Harrison Series Book 1

by L. L. Ash

  Another silence but I didn’t hear anything else.

  A few minutes later Tyler came into the room carrying a tray of food, coffee and juice.

  “Aw, thanks Tyler,” I said, knowing this was more Scott’s doing then Tyler’s.

  “Well, a very smart man suggested I pamper you today, and that’s what I intend to do.”

  “Are you going to eat with me?” I asked.

  He nodded and scooted next to me on the bed.

  “Still doing ok?” he asked as he stirred his cup of coffee.

  “I’m fine.”

  “What do you want to do today? You feel up to doing anything or you just want to lay in bed and nap and watch TV?”

  “Probably the last one. I’m still pretty crampy.”

  “Ok, so spa day inside, it is,” he said with a grin and bit into a piece of buttered toast.

  Sure enough Tyler made it a nice relaxing day. I made sure to order about 12 different desserts from room service and we lounged and watched TV. Around 3 o’clock my phone rang and it was Connor. I suddenly remembered that I never went back to his house last night and he must be worried.

  “Hey Connor,” I started but he interrupted.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Oh, I’m ok.”

  “Tyler called last night and told me what happened. I was worried all night. So I finally decided to be the nosy big brother and see how you’re doing.”

  “Ty has been taking good care of me, and his dad has been a lot of help. You didn’t tell Dad did you? He doesn’t need to know about this.”

  “He called me last night since you didn’t pick up, and I told him you were good. Sleeping.”

  “Thank you Con, I owe you one.”

  “With all the trouble I caused you, it’s the least I can do,” he said and there was a pause before he said, “Well I’m glad you’re ok. Tell Tyler I’m going to kick his stupid ass next time I see him.”

  “Ok I will,” I said with a giggle.

  We said goodbye and I told Tyler in no uncertain terms he was in for a beating.

  “It’s no less than I deserve,” he said.

  “Well I love you. We made this mistake together, and we’re dealing with it together. Screw what the rest of the world thinks.”

  He smiled and kissed my forehead before holding me closer.

  It was around 7:30 before Scott walked into the house looking beat.

  “How’d the Sarekari guest group go?” Tyler asked as Scott threw his keys and wallet on the counter and deposited his suit coat on a kitchen stool.

  He walked to the bar and opened a decanter with golden alcohol and poured at least 4 finger widths of the stuff.

  “Crown Royal kind of day?” Tyler asked now and Scott glanced at him with a ‘what do you think’ look on his face.

  “That bad?” Ty asked.

  “Not so much bad as exhausting. I got a full ab workout with all the bowing we kept doing toward each other. They must have abs of steel.”

  Tyler laughed and rubbed his hand up and down my shoulder.

  I watched Scott destroy the contents of the class, chugging it in record time.

  He sighed as the alcohol immediately hit his blood.

  “And how are you doing Sweetheart?” he asked me.

  I didn’t miss the way his eyes traveled up my bare legs as I lounged in Tyler’s shirt and one of the new panties from last night.

  His eyes suddenly shot away and he poured another half glass of Crown Royal.

  “I’m fine, thanks to you and Tyler.”

  “Glad to hear it,” he said, avoiding my gaze now. “You two enjoy your night, I’m turning in.”

  Scott messed Tyler’s hair as he walked by and Ty complained with a laugh, swatting his hand away before Scott disappeared into his room with his glass.

  “Is he ok?” I asked Tyler. “He seems out of sorts.”

  “He’s just tired. The constant schmoozing takes more out of him then he’d like to admit.”

  “I could only imagine.”

  “Oh, I forgot,” Scott said, appearing again a minute later, his tie gone and his white shirt half unbuttoned. “Sam, you’ll start as soon as you’re done with your 2 weeks notice. Georgiana will show you the ropes since you’re starting with no experience.”

  “That’s really great of you, Scott,” I said, twisting around so I could look at him behind the couch.

  “My pleasure,” he said with a smile and flicked my nose playfully before retreating again.

  “What does he mean?” Tyler asked as he looked at his father’s retreating form and back at me.

  “He offered me a job yesterday. He said he wanted to get you an assistant so he offered the position to me since I told him I wasn’t really happy at my current job.”

  “So you’re going to be my assistant and I can boss you around all day?” he asked with excitement glittering in his eyes.

  “No, I get to be your assistant where you get to ask me to do stuff all day.”

  “Like a mid-morning ‘pick me up’?” he asked with a wink.

  “Maybe on occasion,” I agreed.

  Tyler threw his head back and pumped his fist in the air with a whoop.

  “Just remember to lock the door!” Scott called out from the kitchen with a plastic crinkling noise.

  I threw my hand over my mouth and turned beet red while Tyler’s head perked back up.

  “How the hell did you hear that?” he called.

  “I’m not as old as you think I am, Kiddo,” Scott said as he wandered out of the kitchen in his flannel pajamas with a bowl full of potato chips.

  “You’re sneakier than a freaking ninja,” Ty said, pulling us closer together.

  “No, I just drank too much and needed something to sponge it up with. And besides, socks.”

  There was a pause while Scott put a big chip in his mouth, then after crunching down and slowly chewing it while observing us he said, “Just lock the door. I don’t want to walk in on anything. God forbid someone ELSE did either.”

  “At least we’re not loud like you,” Tyler said and ran his fingers through my hair.

  “You’re… You’re ok with that?” I managed to squeak out.

  Scott gave a knowing smile before saying, “If I wasn't, I’d be the worst sort of hypocrite.”

  With that he put another chip in his mouth and wandered back to his room.

  When the door closed again I turned to Tyler with big eyes. His were twinkling in mirth.

  “Did your dad just admit to having sex in his office?” I asked in a whisper, just in case he could somehow hear us.

  “It’s not much of an admission. The bimbos he always brings in there are louder than a freight train,” he said, then erupted in obnoxious moaning and groaning in a high pitched voice.

  I giggled and Tyler finally stopped, turning to me with a grin.

  “He doesn’t want a real woman though, so he settles for bimbos.”

  “Why?”

  “I think it has a lot to do with his first wife,” he said with a sigh. “They were married when they were 18. Dad says that they were so in love. He said that you’re a lot like her.”

  “That’s nice of him to say,” I admitted with a small smile.

  “Yeah, well they were married about 3 years before she got into a terrible car accident and she passed instantly.”

  My hand flew up to my mouth again but in horror instead of embarrassment this time.

  “Oh, poor Scott.”

  “It gets worse,” he said and fiddled with my fingers in his grasp. “She was 8 months pregnant at that point.”

  “Oh, God….”

  “Yeah. They tried to save the baby but it was already dead by the time they cut her open. It was a little boy.”

  “That’s why when he met you, he had to have you,” I said with a spark of realization.

  “He hasn’t come out and said so, but I think it has a lot to do with it. He was ready to be a dad to that baby, and he wa
s excited about his little boy. They both got ripped away from him. He was rightfully devastated.”

  “But why doesn’t he try to find love again? He found you, obviously it’s not a replacement, but it can be a bandage.”

  “Losing her destroyed him. I asked him the same question and the only answer I got before he told me to mind my own business was ‘girls like that don’t come around twice in a lifetime’.”

  The memory of Scott telling Tyler to hold onto me with all he’s worth echoed in my head.

  “I wish there was something that could be done. Something we could do.”

  “He just wants to be left alone with his bimbos and his pain.”

  “That sucks,” I sighed, thinking about how Dad went though a similar experience with my mom.

  At least he hadn’t lost me too.

  We were quiet again while we watched a silly show on TV, then we headed to bed. As we went past Scott’s room I heard jazz seeping through the wood. I looked up at Ty and he shrugged as we went into his room. After cuddling underneath the fuzzy lounge blankets that were making up for the comforter I ruined. Tyler pulled me close to him and we cuddled as the silent room shone with light coming in from the strip down below.

  There was an underlying tension boiling beneath the surface and I just wanted to face it head on but I wasn’t sure what it was.

  “Want me to shut the blinds?” Tyler finally asked, sounding as on edge as I felt.

  “It’s pretty bright,” I commented and he nodded before digging through his bedside stand.

  He pushed a button on a remote and the woven black blinds lowered. I watched them shut out all light and we were thrust into blackness.

  “Well now it’s too dark,” he said and that got a giggle out of me.

  He pushed the button, lifting the blinds, lowering them, until he had just a sliver of light coming through to cast a golden glow on the larger pieces of furniture. I saw his silhouette in the light and my heart raced a bit.

  The awkwardness was tension, sexual tension.

  “Ty,” I finally asked.

  His head turned quickly toward me.

  “Will you kiss me?” I asked and his gaze dropped to my lips.

  “I want to…. But I’m supposed to leave you alone for at least a week.”

  “That doesn’t mean you can’t kiss me,” I told him with a smile.

  He seemed to consider it before his decision was made and his mouth dropped to mine.

  The kiss was something unlike we’d ever shared. There was more than lust and heat in it, there was caring and a fragile sense of trust underlying the brushes of his tongue against mine. Knowing this was as far as it would go left a whole new sensation of exploration. A sense of curiosity of what we could get out of the kiss to temper our own flames.

  His hands stayed on my head, on my face and neck. He intended to stick to his word and nothing other then kissing went on, but oh what kisses they were.

  Finally, I wasn’t sure how long we’d kissed, or what time of night it was anymore, but my heart was swollen with love and my lips were almost painfully plump from Tyler’s attentions.

  “I’ve never done that either,” he said with a grin as he tried to catch his breath.

  “You’ve never what?” I asked, my brain foggy from passion and tiredness.

  “I’ve never just sat, or laid, and kissed a woman. You got the first of that, too.”

  I smiled at him and pressed one last kiss to his pink lips before digging beneath the blankets and near his chest. Tyler held me there and we stayed unmoving until dawn.

  By morning I felt mostly recovered. My stomach was well and my head no longer ached. I was still tired, but I wasn’t sure if it was because Tyler woke me up early to make out again, or if it was leftover from the pill. Either way I had every intention of going to work and giving my 2 weeks notice so I could begin working with Tyler. I got major resistance from him about going back to work, but I insisted on going back for my shift that afternoon. After picking up my clothes and stuff from Connor’s house with my spare key, Tyler dropped me off hesitantly, making me promise to call him if I felt anything other then absolutely perfect.

  I agreed and went into the store and immediately sought out Tina, the store manager. She pulled me into her office and sat behind her desk, folding her hands in her lap.

  “You’re feeling better then?” she asked me.

  “I am. I apologize I just got a horrible flu all of a sudden.”

  “Well that’s not something we can really control,” she said, a small smile on her face as we went quiet.

  I wrung my fingers for a minute then said, “Tina, I need to give my 2 weeks notice.”

  “What?” she looked surprised. “I thought you were happy here.”

  “It’s been a great job, and everyone’s been so nice, but another opportunity has surfaced and I need to take it.”

  “I see,” she said and a smile lit her face. “Well I’m glad you’re on to bigger better things but we’ll miss you as part of our team, Sam.”

  “I appreciate that,” I told her with a small smile.

  I would miss Tina. She was a great, understanding manager and I did like working with her.

  “Do you mind if I ask where you’re moving to?” She asked.

  “Well, it just happens that my boyfriend’s dad needed an assistant at his office.”

  “Well that’s a real step up!” She said, looking genuinely happy for me. “So you’ll start there in 2 weeks? You must be excited.”

  “I actually can start whenever I want. I just wanted to give you the heads up. You’ve been so good to me, and you took a chance on me, hiring me with NO experience.”

  “Well I’ll tell you what,” she leaned forward toward me. “Work til the end of the week and we’ll call it even. I know you’ve got to be revved up to get to your new job, and I’ve got a stack of applications full of eager teenagers that don't care if they start this monday or next.”

  I grinned at her.

  “You’re the best boss, you know that?”

  She grinned back and said, “Don’t tell your new boss you said that.”

  We had a few more laughs before she jokingly sent me back to work.

  The day went quickly, and before I knew it Tyler was waiting for me in the parking lot.

  “Well, boss,” I told Tyler after I’d gotten into the car and buckled up. “I start on Monday. Or Sunday. I’m not sure what the hours are for this job.”

  “Your hours are my hours, generally,” Ty said as he reversed out of his parking spot.

  The sky was black, seeing as it was midnight, but the roads were still just as busy as if it was rush hour.

  “So I get you all to myself after Saturday?” he asked, glancing at me with a smile.

  “Yep! I’m kind of nervous though.”

  “Why would you be nervous?”

  “I want to do a good job for you Ty. I may have gotten the job because I was your girlfriend, but I can’t keep it if I suck at it. You deserve someone who can excel at it.”

  “You want a job description?” he asked to answer my worry.

  When I nodded he went on to list the attributes.

  “You’ll be expected to do some paperwork, that’s a given. But Georgiana will teach you that and I know you’ll pick it up quick because you’re sharp.”

  He sighed and turned onto the freeway.

  “But a majority of your job is to make mine easier. That means that you’ll fetch things like drinks or food, or go to the store like Georgiana did the other day, night or day. And I’ll have you by my side while I schmooze people.”

  He glanced back at me and smiled at me.

  “You’re charming, so you shouldn’t have a problem with that.”

  “So, I’ll basically be your shadow?”

  “Right. Not a big deal.”

  “I think I can handle that,” I told him and nodded, reassuring myself that I could.

  “You’ll also screen cal
ls and visitors when I’m actually in my office. But again, not a big deal. It’s mostly just the time consuming stuff that I just don’t have time for.”

  “I’m going to try really hard,” I told him.

  “I know you will. I’m not worried about it,” he said with a sweet smile at me.

  We got back to the Triton and went up to the top floor. After getting into the house we found Scott passed out in his pajamas on the la-z-boy.

  “Hey old man,” Tyler slapped at Scott’s head. “Wake up. Your old bones will be creaking in the morning if you don’t get to your bed.”

  Scott shot up and glared at Tyler before yawning.

  “Yeah goodnight to you, too,” he said and got up.

  “Oh, Scott,” I piped in. “I’ll be starting for Ty on Monday.”

  He ran his hand back and forth through his hair, then nodded.

  “Great. I’ll let Georgiana know.”

  He stretched, his arms, chest and back muscles bulging as he turned and said, “Night kids.”

  Tyler grinned at his dad before pulling me toward his room.

  We undressed and brushed teeth, then plopped on the bed in exhaustion.

  “I’ve got to go home tomorrow morning,” I told Tyler. “I’ve been avoiding Dad too long as it is. Maybe he’s come to terms with things.”

  “And you work tomorrow afternoon?”

  I nodded.

  “When will I see you?”

  “Well, I have a shift on Saturday morning, but I’ll be off at 4 so we can go to dinner or hang out.”

  “Will you stay over?”

  “Here?”

  “Yeah. I’ve gotten so used to having you here. I’m going to miss the hell out of you every second you’re gone.”

  “I’ll miss you too,” I told him and kissed him.

  He launched forward when I broke the kiss, to continue it. It was long past one before we finally went to bed.

  After coffee and pastries in the morning, Tyler took me back to Connor’s to get my car, then we said a sad goodbye as I headed in one direction and he went in another.

  Dad wasn’t home when I got home, but I sent him a text telling him I was home if he wanted to talk over his lunch break.

  Sure enough the truck pulled into the driveway and Dad meandered his way into the house. I had big burritos waiting for him.