CALLIE (The Naughty Ones Book 1) (70 page)

Law

Fuck me, but that woman is still as gorgeous now as she was a decade ago. All that caramel-colored hair and those eyes…she’s the reason my favorite color’s blue.

Even now, ten years after the fact, I look for women with the same color eyes, and every time, they turn out to be a shade lighter—or most times, not even close—and I’m disappointed.

Turns out that dumping the best thing that ever happened to me to live the life I wanted hadn’t brought me a whole lot of happiness. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been plenty happy being free and living my life by no one else’s rules but my own, but Nicolette Gr-Sharp will always be that one regret—because to gain my freedom, I had to drop the one woman for whom I truly felt something.

And now it seems that my plans of returning and maybe striking up a hot romance with the delectable lady are crushed. She’s married? Mrs. Sharp? Well fuck!

I pull my head out of my ass, just as Mrs. Sharp rises from her seat and breezes past me. She snatches a frame from the table beside me and scrambles back to her desk.

The damn frame is clutched so tightly in her fist I wonder what has her so skittish, but hell, I don’t really care. Truth is, I haven’t really cared about a damn thing in years, and odds are, that I won’t care for some time to come.

Okay that’s not true; I care about Dad and Mom and the future of the company. Not that I want to run this old shipwreck, hell no, but the company has been my destiny since the day I was born, and Dad had warned me expressly that I would one day have to return to run it.

That was the deal. I got ten years to live as I wanted, and then I had to return to take up the yoke. Granted, I’ve had a little over ten years. Dad gave me an extra six months, but unfortunately, he couldn’t keep it up and collapsed. So here I am, ready and willing to take up a responsibility I never wanted.

Although…with a hot ticket item like Nico at my side, I just may be open to all sorts of overtime.

“So, you’re married, huh?”

I battle down pure…? I don’t know what that emotion is.  I walk further into her plush office, taking a seat and attempting to settle the feelings surging through me.

I find that I don’t quite like the thought of my Nico being tied to another.

She doesn’t answer, just raises her left hand to show me a huge rock sitting on her finger, and bile churns in my gut. Dammit! Why do I feel this way when just two nights ago I was buried in a hot woman named Contessa, not caring about anything but what I could get out of the foxy sexpot?

I haven’t allowed myself to think of Nico in a really long time, and that had worked for me just fine. I can’t regret shit if I don’t allow it to intrude, right?

Seems now I can’t escape it, and just thinking of what I did, for the first time in a long time, I feel ten shades of shitty and a lot of regret. A lot.

“Nice rock, Nic. So tell me, what are you hiding there?”

Her face flushes before leeching of all color and going a sickly shade of pale green. Then she growls, rips open her desk drawer, drops the fame in, and shoves it closed with a bang.

“None of your business. Now then, we should discuss your role.”

I smirk and cock a brow at her, feeling my insides go hard at the commanding tone. Nico has always been a take-charge sorta woman, and while that revs my engine in a big way—always has—I have no intention of letting her, the VP, control anything I do from here on out.

This is my show now.

“My role…let’s see. I’m taking over, so I suppose my role would be all round Big Dick,” I say, enjoying the way her eyes stretch just before her face colors and she gets that pinched look.

Yeah, I am very familiar with that look. Nico, when we were together, had been my one and only—until she’d started putting pressure on me to toe the line and do what my parents wanted me to do.

At twenty-two, I was just starting to live, and no matter how sexy, smart, or sassy my girl had been, I wasn’t about to lock myself down to please her.

Don’t think about that, Law. Just focus on the here and now. The rest is in the past where it belongs.

“Lawson—”

“Nic. Whatever you have in mind, you can get it right out of that pretty little head of yours. You’re a great VP, and one of the youngest women to take on the role, but don’t think for a second that I’m taking orders from you. I’m the CEO all the way.”

And yeah, I can see how much she hates that idea when her jaw locks and she gets the same mutinous expression I remember seeing so many times before.

God help me, the woman is magnificent and…. Stop, Law! Getting a hard-on while you’re laying down the law for your old flame is not professional.

“That may be, Lawson, but you need to be brought up to speed on the job. We’re currently in negotiations with—”

“I’ve studied everything Dad sent me. I know what’s going on, Nic, and I have every intention of running this place the same way my dad did—with one exception. You’re VP only. Any decisions go through me first, and that’s an order.”

She doesn’t like that, not if the tightening of her lips is anything to go by, and I almost laugh when she takes a deep breath, as if she is looking for patience before nodding once, picking up a folder, and tossing the heavy pile of papers onto the edge of her desk.

“That’s a deal I’ve been working on to buy out Smith & Sons, a little mom-and-pop construction company that runs out of the Queens area. We’re looking to incorporate—”

I let her continue, zoning out enough to appreciate her beauty from afar. Jesus, she’s more beautiful now than she was at nineteen—if that’s even possible—and I find myself not caring one wit that she’s married.

I want her, and God help me, I don’t know if I can work that closely with her without making a play. I still remember everything about her, from her vanilla scent, to the way her skin glistened with dewy sweat after sex, to the way she tasted between her legs.

In all the years I’ve pursued and screwed other women, I have yet to find one who tastes as good as my Nic does.

And there goes my imagination.

In the blink of an eye, I see my buttoned-up, prim little Nic spread out over her desk, her skirt hiked up around her waist, as I sit in her chair and bury my head between her golden thighs.

The image is so real I can almost smell that musky scent and taste her on my tongue. All that sweet heat…

“Lawson! Are you even listening to a word I’m saying?” she barks suddenly, ripping me free of the best sex daydream I’ve ever had.

“Yup. Look, I checked it all out, and while I agree with your angle on forming our own construction company to take care of the real estate side of things, I’m not sure Smith is the best option. You haven’t done all your homework there, Nic.”

Her face goes twenty different shades of red, and then she launches into another diatribe that I tune out for the sake of continuing the daydream she so rudely interrupted.

By the end of my musings, which I am ashamed to say have left me with a raging chubby and an almost desperate need for the hot lady steaming across the desk, I’ve made up my mind.

I want her.

And I know just how to get her.

Nico

“Cody!” I yell that I’m home and dump everything in the front hall, feeling my heart leap when my nine-year-old son comes streaking out of the living room, a tangle of gangly arms and legs.

“Mom! Guess what I did today after school?! Mrs. Pierceson let me play soccer with Billy and Greg, and we even had ice cream in the park, and then Billy puked and we got to see the hotdog—”

“Oh gross, Cody. I don’t need to hear about Billy Bailey upchucking the trash his mom feeds him. Now come here and give me some sugar.”

Cody is your typical nine year old, who thinks girls have cooties and kissing his mom is the darkest degree of babyish, so instead of the warm hug and kiss I need after a torturous day spent shadowing Law, I get a quick cheek peck and a less-than-there hug before he’s scrambling down and bolting back into the living room.

“Hey, Nic.”

“Hey, Jude. Sorry I’m late.”

Jude Pierceson is my best friend, as sad as that sounds since she’s sixty if a day
and
Cody’s nanny. While I’m not too sure that she enjoys all of his rambunctious antics, she adores my son and lives a convenient one door away from our upscale Manhattan apartment.

Convenience, and my job being what it is, have sort of solidified Jude’s role in our lives. Plus, I just love the old bat so much that thinking of paying someone else to watch Cody is not my idea of great.

Jude needs the money I pay her, and seeing as her own kids don’t give a rat’s ass about her, I’ve decided she’s Cody’s and mine.

“No worries, I would have stayed anyway since ‘Kingdom’ is on tonight.”

I snort and roll my eyes, groaning when I flop down onto the sofa beside her and feel my feet immediately swell when my four-inch heels fall off.

“Shouldn’t an old broad like you be watching ‘Columbo’ or something?” I ask.

“That’s unnecessary, Nicky. You know age is not a disability, right? Just because I’m old don’t mean I can’t enjoy a little muscle every now and then. And my eyes still work fine enough to see all them buff boys.”

Snorting at that, because her current flame is seventy and counting and so short on muscle I can see his wrinkles through his clothes, I give her a wink and look over at where Cody is putting together another Lego tower.

My kid has a genius IQ—like his mom—and is currently in the accelerated program at his private school. The place costs a ton, like half my freaking paycheck, but it’s well worth it if my little man is getting the education his little mind needs. He’s currently in ninth grade, a whole year ahead of where I was at his age, and if things keep going at this rate, he’ll graduate before his sixteenth birthday.

Not ideal since I wanted my kid to be a kid, not a little know it all like me, but hell, I gave him those genes, so it’s not as if I have any room to complain. Anyway, it’s not all bad, being this smart. I’d gotten my Masters at nineteen and been on the short list for VP by then.

The James Conglomerate had specifically headhunted me right out of college, and Jack had given me my position with a smile and a lot of hope. I’ve more than lived up to any and all expectations.

“Cody, time for bed, buddy.”

“Aw, Mom! Can’t I just finish this?”

“Nope. You’ll be building another one before I can blink, and then you’ll only go to bed at ten again. No dice. Bed.”

Jude and I both listen for a while, as he gets changed and brushes his teeth before his door closes and we hear him scramble onto his bed.

“That boy is too smart for his own good. His teacher says he’s cutting through the physics stuff like a hot knife through butter. You better slow him down some, Nicky girl—or we’ll have a college grad who’s not yet shaving.”

My shoulders tense up, and I feel a migraine coming on at the thought of Cody doing even more than what I’d been worrying about. My son is brilliant and I love him, but it scares and saddens me to think that he’ll be gone and living his life before I even had the chance to experience it all.

From the day I learned I was pregnant, I wanted more for my kid than what my parents had given me. As much as I had loved them, Mom and Dad had no clue that the way they pushed me made me miserable.

Spilled milk, and not something I’m bemoaning at the age of twenty-nine, being as successful as I am, but I still regret not having tea parties with friends or crushing on the latest boy band.

I’d hoped that Brody would have a steadying effect on us both, but having lost him after only two years of marriage to a brain aneurism, well, Cody has Jude and me—and that’s about it. Not nearly good enough for a little boy who still wants to do boy things, but has the intelligence of a thirty year old.

“I spoke to his teacher, and she says Cody isn’t showing any signs of stress, fatigue, or burn out. As far as she can tell, he’s just fine, so if I try to slow him down, it is not going to work.”

“Honey, forgive an old woman for prying, but as great as your job is, and as much as I know you earn, you can’t be doing too well on the finances. That boy’s school costs more’n my house did—even after we mortgaged it to pay for Doug’s college tuition, and all them extra stuff he does at school. And then we haven’t even started on your rent, my pay, or the grocery bill.”

True. Though I hate to say it, that is totally true. It’s only the tenth of the month and I have six hundred dollars left in the bank, groceries to buy, and a field trip to pay for.

Every month gets worse, and I haven’t even started on the college fund I know Cody is going to need in a few years. At this rate, I’ll have to sell an organ to ensure things stay on track.

“I’ll manage, Jude. I always do.”

“Damn shame his papa ain’t here to help out. I sure do regret never meeting the boy; he sounds like a real catch. Must have been a looker if Cody’s anything to go by.”

I shrug, feeling the familiar tightening in my limbs at the thought of his father. And then also at the reminder that I lost my best friend before he was even a real role model to Cody.

If Brody were here right now, I know he’d have my back with Cody and all the extra expenses that raising a gifted child entails.

I could always…

No, I would never do that to myself, or Cody. The truth is that even if I were forced to work a second job, I would never go that route. Lawson James is not a good bet, I know
that
already, and letting that douche into my life is not a good idea.

In fact, if I didn’t need this job so badly right now, I would leave and start over somewhere else. All I can do now is hope for the best and just try to keep my personal life as separate from the office as possible.

Because if Law ever found out that Cody is his, I’m not sure what the guy would do, and that is
not
a risk I am willing to take.

“Cody’s dad is history.”