by BJ Harvey
Work Violation
Copyright © 2019 by BJ Harvey
Edited by Lauren Clarke
Cover Designed by BJ Harvey
Photo sourced from Shutterstock
Formatted by Integrity Formatting
ISBN: Kindle—978–0-6485280–0-5
ISBN: Epub—978–0-6484477–8-8
ISBN: Print—978–0-6485280–4-3
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the above author of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Working Back (Cook County #3)
Preview – Game Saver
About the Author
Other Books by B.J. Harvey
Jax
“Please join me and raise your glass to toast Jamie and April on their engagement, and for finally finishing their house. April, you’re definitely a brave woman, taking him on, and remember, the most handsome Cook male is still single,” I say, waggling my brows.
The crowd of our friends and family snicker. Jamie narrows his eyes, but his curved lips give him away. My big brother may seem like a moody son of a bitch, but he’s protective and loyal, and he’s always one of the first people I call when I need something.
This house—the house—almost caused World War Three between us four brothers. There were even times April threatened Jamie with bodily harm if he didn’t finish in time.
At least now that it’s done, we can start our next project, our most ambitious yet: a two-story ex-bed-and-breakfast that has had years of neglect but holds a whole lot of promise. It’s also pink … everywhere. Every room, every painted surface, even the garage trim—it’s all magenta, fuchsia, and rose.
It’s going to be a big job. Jamie and I decided before we closed on the property that it would only be possible if we were both working on it. Given I’m teaching a few college classes for the upcoming summer semester, it’s ideal since I’ll have guaranteed income. I won’t have to be out there hustling for photography jobs, which means my time is free to help Jamie with the house, and I can live rent-free for three months. It’s a win-win. Well, it will be.
After working their way through well-wishers, Jamie and April walk over to where I’m standing, April giving me a big hug when they reach me.
“Who knew you could give a good speech when you had to?” she says. “Thank you, Jax.”
I look over her shoulder to where Jamie is smiling at us, a look that soon morphs into a scowl when I run my hand down April’s back toward her ass.
She giggles, Jamie growls, and I burst out laughing, tucking my soon-to-be sister-in-law under my arm, much to my brother’s annoyance.
“You sure you want to marry this grump? I’m a lot more fun.”
Jamie gently pries April out of my hold and back into his side. “Get your own woman.”
I see April’s lips twitch before she shoots me a wink. She tilts her head toward my brother and lifts a brow. “Your woman? Is that why you’re marrying me? Me man, you woman?” she says, sounding like a caveman.
Jamie just smirks, hooking his hand around the back of her neck and crushing his mouth to hers, his tried and true way to shut her up when she starts sassing him.
April’s best friend, Veronica—Ronnie—appears at Jamie’s side, watching the two lovebirds making out and rolling her eyes. “Do they ever stop sucking face?”
“Nope,” I say, forcing myself to look away from her.
Over the past year, there have been many family events Ronnie has come along to. And every time, it’s the same thing. I can’t stop watching her. I just can’t help admiring the view every time I see her. Ronnie has her own force field, and it’s larger than life. She lights up a room the second she walks in.
We met in the front yard of our very first flipped house. I was covered in dirt and sweat, and April, Ronnie, and April’s ex-mother-in-law had set up camp on April’s front porch to watch us work. So naturally, since they wanted a show, I chose to give them one by peeling off my shirt.
I felt Ronnie’s presence before I even saw her, and the moment I met her eyes, it was like I could see right into her soul.
Then I found out she was April’s best friend and, well, that was the end of that. I was not going to do anything to cause problems for Jamie and his budding relationship with April. Not after he’d been through so much and finally had what he wanted within his grasp. So every time since that first meeting, I’ve forced myself to either act indifferent around her, or tried to ignore her completely. It’s been a fool’s errand though because she’s not a woman any hot-blooded male could ignore.
But tonight, Ronnie is the personification of boho beautiful. I’ve tried to avoid her for most of the party, but with her standing here, smelling like summer nights and peaches, she’s becoming harder and harder to resist.
“How have you been, Jax? It’s been a while,” she says, her warm voice reaching deep inside.
“Yeah, I’m good.”
She elbows me gently, her gorgeous face now shining up at me, her smile huge. “It was a good speech. You might’ve just put yourself in the running to be Jamie’s best man.”
“I have my moments,” I reply with a wink.
“I bet you do.” The innuendo is definitely on point. “What other talents are you hiding away?” Her sly smile and body leaning close to mine are doing crazy things to my brain, threatening my ability to think rationally. Needing to escape, I scan the yard to spot any other member of my family to use as an excuse to extricate myself from a conversation that could only end in disaster. Thankfully, April and Jamie rejoin the conversation.
“Ronnie, thank you so much for staying with Axel tonight. He lasted longer than I thought,” April says. Axel is her seven-year-old son, who I secretly want to kidnap. He’s the coolest kid I’ve ever met because he’s like a mini-me. He’s now asleep upstairs in his brand-new aviation-themed room. As the ‘artist’ in the family, Jamie asked me to design a bedroom that would make Axel the coolest kid in school. From the way the kid’s eyes lit up and then filled with tears when he first saw the finished room, I’d say I met that goal. The added bonus is that I’m now his favorite uncle.
April turns to Ronnie. “How’s school?”
“School?” I ask, my interest piqued.
Ronnie offers a small gift of a smile. A pink tinge blooms on her cheeks, which has me imagining other ways to make her blush. “Yeah, I had an ‘I’m turning thirty-one an
d I don’t like my life’ crisis.”
Jamie chuckles. “I had one of those at thirty-five. I think they can come at any age.”
“I’m still so proud of you,” April says, pulling Ronnie in for a hug.
“Let’s see if it works out first. I may have given up a six-figure salary for nothing.”
What the hell did she do for a job to earn that kind of money?
No. I don’t need to know. My attraction to her miles of curves, long legs, dark blonde hair with the golden streaks threaded through, and her ruby-red lips that makes me want to grab her and kiss her senseless, has never been rational. I’ve had to force myself to be outwardly indifferent, being standoffish to stop myself from entertaining thoughts of getting involved with her. With Jamie finally getting what he wants with April, I don’t want to be the cause of any complications if things were to go wrong between Ronnie and myself.
“I need a drink,” I announce sharply before spinning around and walking away towards the coolers storing all the alcohol.
I don’t dare look back. That would be tempting fate, and I’ve got enough things to focus on without courting complications like Ronnie.
An hour later, I’m sitting in a corner by myself, a bottle of Jack and a bottle of cola my companions. The party is still going strong around me, the happy couple moving around the guests, my parents dancing in the middle of an imaginary dance floor, swaying side to side like they’re the only ones in the room.
“You good?” my twin brother, Bryant, asks as he takes a seat beside me.
I slowly turn his way. “I’m good.”
“Doesn’t look like it.”
I lift my half-full tumbler of whiskey to my mouth. “Jack and I are just fiiiine.”
He chuckles. “Sounds like it. Give me some of that.”
I slide the drinks his way and watch him pour the liquor.
“Cheers then,” he says, knocking his glass to mine. “If you can’t beat them, join them.”
“Or if you can’t touch them, get drunk and avoid them.”
“What?” he asks with a startled laugh. “Who can’t you touch and why the fuck not?”
My eyes drift across the yard to a laughing Ronnie who is standing with a group of Jamie’s friends.
“Ahhh.”
Dammit, the one time I wish he couldn’t read me like a book.
“But why can’t you touch if she wants you to?”
“What?” I ask, my movements a bit slower now as the Jack starts to take effect.
“Why can’t that happen?”
“I don’t need complications, and I definitely don’t need to piss Jamie off by tapping and gapping his fiancée’s best friend.”
“Why would you tap and gap when you actually like her?”
“Slam and run?”
He grins. “How about jerk it and go back to work?” His lips twitch, and we both start chuckling. We’re identical twins, I’m the older one, but there are differences between us. He has short, cropped, well-maintained hair; I lean towards the shaggy, creative, just-rolled-out-of-bed look. He’s an assistant professor in biology; I’m a photographer who shoots sports and events, and takes the occasional road-trip for landscape shots.
“I think I’ll just stay right here with my friends Jack and Coke, and not entertain thoughts of what might be with Ronnie. Why start something that could cause trouble if it didn’t work out?”
“But what if it did?”
I look at him with a skeptical “don’t go there” look.
He sighs. “Alright. Just don’t overdo it. You’ve got class on Monday, right?” the ever-responsible Bryant says.
“Yep. Who would’ve thought we’d be teaching at the same college?” I snort. “In fact, who would’ve thought I’d be teaching at all?”
“You know you underestimate yourself, right? Your photos are amazing. You’re super talented, and you wouldn’t have been asked to teach those classes unless the powers that be thought you had something to offer.”
I grunt in response, which just makes my brother laugh. “Since you’re the resident sage today, what should I do about the other problem?”
“I think you should both get it out of your system.”
“What delusional universe are you living in that makes you think that would actually work?”
“A normal, adult one?”
“Ha fucking ha. Give me my Jack back and go be sociable.”
“Like you are?”
“Yep. Call me Mr. Social Fucking Butterfly. I’m a ray of sunshine ready to brighten up the night.”
Bry shakes his head and grins. “Okay. You’ve obviously caught the brood mood from Jamie. Have fun with Jack…” he says, pouring us both another drink before pushing his chair back and standing. “And if you actually want to get over this fixation you have with Miss Ronnie, go make it happen, because take it from me, the way she’s been watching you all night, if you say go, she won’t say no.”
I frown up at him. “You’re a poet, and you didn’t even know it.”
“Smartass,” he mutters as he walks away.
My eyes drift back towards Ronnie, my gaze locking with hers and staying there. So many unspoken, filthy things are exchanged in just that look. She tilts her head toward the house, a sexy smirk playing on her lips. I quirk a brow, and her grin gets wider. Then I watch as she leans in and whispers something to April before skirting the edge of the group and scaling the stairs leading to the deck. Stopping at the back door, she glances over to me and licks her lips before disappearing in the house, and I know in that move that I’m done for.
Standing, I down my full glass in one go, now feeling decidedly blitzed as I cross the yard to follow her. It may not be a smart move, it may not be a good move, but following Ronnie into the house is the easiest decision I’ve ever made.
Maybe Bry is right. If we can just screw this lust out of our systems, we can go on like everything’s fine.
Once and done. Then happy families.
It should work, right?
Ronnie
Before I even arrive tonight, I’ve made a decision. The second my eyes land on Jax when I walk into Jamie and April’s backyard to join the party, I know my decision is not only the right one, but a necessity.
Because eleven months is far too long to lust after someone and have them avoid you, even though you catch them mentally undressing you every single time you’re in the same place. He thinks I don’t see him shooting his camera in my direction, or maybe he thinks I don’t track him almost as much as he tracks me.
I’ve tried talking to him. I’ve tried initiating situations where he can strike up a conversation with me, and nothing has worked. I know it’s not because he’s shy. In fact, I swear he’s the most outgoing, confident guy I’ve come across in a long time. And of course, that’s exactly the type of guy who ticks my boxes—or gets one particular box to open and ready for delivery—every damn time. April used to say that cocky and me go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly. I just didn’t count on the cocky guy to get my attention to lose his nerve when it comes to his sister-in-law’s best friend.
Spotting him across the room, acutely feeling his eyes roam my body like a blow torch scorching my skin, I knew it was now or never. With the party still going strong, if ever he was going to take the bait and let me reel him in, I knew I had to do something. If it ended up with me playing my hand and him folding, then at least I’d have my answer.
He didn’t fold, he laid his cards on the table and followed me inside.
I catch his gaze for a split second before I walk up the stairs to where I know there’s a guest bedroom with my name on it—or an empty, unused bed ready to be christened. Hopefully, he’ll follow me, and we can be alone. No pressure; no expectations. But I know that if I don’t kiss him, he’s going to continue to be this big huge ‘what if.’
The top floor is almost dark. Nobody has a reason to come up here. My only
hope is that he walks through the dimly lit hallway and notices the cracked door of the guest room.
I stand in the middle of the room. Lying on the bed would be a little too brazen.
I slip off my shoes and push them to the side. Bare feet are suggestive but not as much as being naked. I’m still putting myself out there, just not in a take-me-now kind of way, and it also means if it all turns to custard and someone else walks in, I’m just relaxing, maybe contemplating a nap. Seems legit.
The longer I wait, the more aware I become of the low hum of music drifting in from outside. I focus on my breathing, halfway between calm and collected, and hyperventilating. What if he wasn’t coming inside for me? What if he mistook my look as just a simple head twitch and my ‘come hither’ eyes from the bottom of the stairs as ‘I’m tipsy and tired.’
My brain starts running like a gerbil on a running wheel, the myriad of possibilities and eventualities threatening to give me a headache.
I stop breathing when there are footsteps in the hall, soft thumps getting louder and closer.
With my eyes pinned to the door, my heart speeds up. My mouth goes dry as time slows to a dead halt.
I can do this. I can jump him like a spider monkey and hope he catches me. Sure, it’ll be one of the most humiliating experiences of my life if he turns me down, but oh, how good it will be if he takes me and runs with it, horizontally speaking of course.
The door slowly sweeps open and I go lightheaded at the sight of Jaxon Cook stepping into the room. Just his presence charges the air around me, the electrons snapping at my skin and sending a tremor through my body.
His eyes are intense, his hazel gaze darker and hungrier than I’ve ever seen on him before. Closing the door quietly behind him, he slowly peruses me, his stare like a physical touch I feel down to my perfectly-painted toes then back up again.
In the blink of an eye, he’s standing in front of me, getting as close as he can without a single part of him touching a single part of me.
I let myself take him in. His jaw so square, framing a face so perfect it should be memorialized as a work of art. His strong, broad shoulders, arms my hands would not be able to reach around, a black shirt with an open neck, a chest I have committed to memory, hips that promise power, legs that guarantee stamina, and… bare feet. My head snaps back to his, a muscle in his jaw twitching like mad, his hands clenched into fists at his side.
