The Boss(hole) by Penelope Bloom
Adrian
My phone had been driving me crazy. I considered shutting the thing off, but then I knew Jules wouldn’t be able to reach me quickly if she needed me. I was still nervous about her being all alone in the apartment while I was at work. I wasn’t sure what I expected to happen, exactly. The building I’d chosen had security and our place was on the forty-second floor. None of that stopped me from worrying, apparently.
I was sitting at a conference table with Noah, Travis, and my sister.
Noah squinted at me, pushing up his glasses. “You okay there, Adrian?”
I waved off his question. “I’m fine. My phone has just been narrating my texts to me all day. I haven’t had a chance to figure out how to get it to stop.”
As if happy to demonstrate, my phone chirped. After a brief delay, the text-to-speech voice kicked in. “Message, from, Davis. Cumberland. Please have it to me by tonight. Thanks. Talk Soon. End. Message.”
I gestured to my phone. “As you can see.”
Travis grinned. “I’d be fucked if that happened to my phone.”
“I don’t even want to know,” Jordan said. “So, Adrian, are you going to bring Jules to the Coleton masquerade party this weekend?”
“That seems like an unnecessary risk,” I said. “Russ Coleton is going to be there.”
Jordan crossed her arms. “Everyone will be wearing masks. And if you care about keeping this girl, you should include her in as much as you can. How do you think she feels being stuck in the apartment while this all happens without her?”
“She probably feels good,” Noah suggested. “You think she really wants to help us tank the family business? I figured she’s only going along with it because of her feelings for Adrian.”
“Doubtful,” Travis muttered.
“No,” I said. “I think Jules is sincere. She really wants to help this happen.”
“Then don’t make her sit at home while we do this,” Jordan said. “I know we can’t have her here. But find some ways you can make her part of what we’re doing.”
“You’re right,” I said. “I’ll see if she wants to come to the party.”
Noah cleared his throat. “In other news.” He turned his laptop around to face us. He spent a few minutes going through what he’d been able to gather now that we were at Central. New security access had given him the ability to dig deeper than he had so far, and it apparently was a productive dig.
I found myself zoning out while he explained just how “by the balls” we had Coleton. All I could think of was the way Jules had looked in that sparkling moonlight when we skinny dipped. When she had me by the balls. I found myself grinning.
She had a very dangerous way of making everything else matter less to me. I would’ve never tuned out what Noah was saying before. I definitely wouldn’t have been getting a hard-on at the conference table because I was replaying yesterday with my girlfriend. It was completely unprofessional, and I couldn’t stop it.
But for the first time, I found myself wondering what would’ve made my dad happier? Would he rather see me getting revenge on Coleton or see me finding a woman who actually made me happy?
“So,” Noah said a few minutes later. “Honestly, I thought it would take longer. But I think we’re close. Very close. Travis just needs to win over this Ahmad guy in human resources. Jordan, you’ve got to keep IT off me a little bit longer. That Clark guy is pretty good, and I’m worried he’s getting close to realizing these breeches aren’t external.”
I nodded. “And I’ve got to get close enough to Russ Coleton to make sure he thinks he’s pressing the button to supercharge his business, when all he’ll really be doing is triggering the detonator.”
Everybody was grinning in self-satisfaction when my phone chimed again.
“Message, from, sweet cheeks. Eggplant. Eggplant. Eggplant. Water drops. Water drops. Eggplant. Banana. End. Message.”
I cleared my throat. “I may need to pay a visit to IT,” I said quietly. “See about this phone.”
“It sounds more like you need to pay a visit to ‘sweet cheeks’ before she floods your apartment,” Travis said.
It turnedout that Jules hadn’t been bluffing with the water drop emojis. When I came home, she practically jumped me in the hallway. I had her right there standing against the wall, and then I went to take a shower before bed. She joined me, and I had her again in the steam after she’d gleefully helped shampoo my hair and soap me. By some miracle of libido, we both still had the energy to go for a third and final round once we got into the clean sheets with our hair still wet from the shower.
I was holding her against me, both of us still naked and now exhausted.
“How are you feeling about all of this?” I asked.
“Like three is a good number.”
I chuckled. “I mean about New York. The apartment. This whole situation.”
Jules’ back had been to me, but she turned to face me, her golden hair pooling around her face and in front of her bare chest. She looked every bit the escaped princess I’d taken her for that first day in my office. Little had I known she essentially was. She was Coleton royalty, and she was on the run. But had I rescued her or stolen her?
“I think it’s temporary,” she said.
“This is. The apartment and the work. It’s the final leg. And when it’s done, it’ll only be us.”
“Do you think ‘only us’ will work? What if it’s one of those things. Like an affair where all the magic was in the wrongness.”
“Then we can roleplay about destroying your father’s business to get ourselves in the mood,” I said, kissing the smooth skin on her jawline.
She smirked. “I’m serious, Adrian.”
“So am I. The world is a big, big fucking place. They always say there’s someone for everyone, but nobody ever talks about how hard it is to find that needle in the haystack. I never wanted someone who was only ‘good enough.’ I didn’t have time to go looking for that perfect woman, and I’d resigned myself to the fact that it wasn’t in the cards for me. Then you came raging into my life, and now I’m going to do whatever it takes to keep you here.”
“Could we say I came fluttering like a gorgeous dove into your life? It sounds more girly than raging.”
I grinned. “Do gorgeous doves carry flamethrowers and have a tendency toward back talking and sass?”
“That’s an unfair representation of how things went. You were the most insufferable prick I’d ever laid eyes on.”
“From the first moment you laid eyes on me, I was almost certain you would’ve happily suffered my prick. Again and again.”
Jules reached between my legs, giving me a playful squeeze that made me straighten. “Don’t get cocky.”
“Or what?”
She kissed me softly, then pulled back with a wicked look in her eyes. “I’ll kiss you everywhere but where you really want me to.”
“Hm,” I said. “Good threat.” I imagined her feathering kisses down my torso and my inner thighs, refusing to give me the release I’d desperately want. “There’s a party this weekend,” I said.
Jules let go of her death grip between my legs. “What kind of party?”
“A masquerade party. At Coleton Central. All the important people will be there, your father included. But everyone will be wearing masks. I want you to be there.”
“You do?”
I nodded.
“I shouldn’t,” she said quickly. “What would your team think if they found out?”
“They were the ones who suggested it.”
A beautiful smile split across her face, reminding me how easy it had been for this woman to nearly derail ten years of determination. “I can really come?”
“You can,” I said. “I insist.”
My phone buzzed on the nightstand. “Message, from, Travis. Smith. Just making sure you’re home giving that girl of yours all the eggplant and banana she wanted and not at the office. End. Message.”
Jules stared at me in silent confusion for three full seconds before she spoke. “Why is your phone narrating your text messages out loud?”
“It’s been doing that all day,” I said, trying to keep my mouth still and fight the smile threatening to form.
“Were you alone when I texted you earlier?”
“I was in a meeting with the team.”
Jules put her hands over her eyes and buried her face in my chest, making a sound somewhere between laughing and crying. “I’m not going to be able to look any of them in the eyes,” she said once she’d calmed down.
“Good,” I said. “I don’t need them getting any ideas about trying to take you from me.”
She snorted. “Possessive, much?”
“Very much.” I wrapped my arms around her and held her until she fell asleep against me. I hoped this party would be good for her. Something to help let her be at least a little involved again. I could tell she was putting on a brave face, but quietly going stir crazy in the apartment all day every day.