Dirty Boss: A Second Chance Romance

Dirty Boss

A Second Chance Romance

Dirty Boss: A Second Chance Romance

Alex Riley

Copyright © 2016

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction.  Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental. 

Emily is a straight laced college girl whose life experiences have taught her to always plays it safe so as not to get hurt. She is inexperienced with men, shying away from experience in favour of her college studies.

That is until she meets super hot Ryan, a recent graduate and dirty boss, who turns her world upside down in an explosive one night stand that will change her life forever.

The next day Ryan is gone but Emily’s eyes are forever opened, that night making her feel like a new adult and marks the start of her transformation into a successful career woman and the boss of her own company.

All the while though, she once again longs to feel his warm embrace and the way he made her feel down there.

She has all but given up when a tragedy four years later provides the two young adults with an opportune meeting and a second chance at romance. If only Ryan would believe in second chances ...

Table of Contents

Emily

One

Two

Three

Ryan

Four

Reunion

Five

six

seven

April, 2016

Emily Wilson read the mail in her inbox over and over again. Her business really was going to take her to Athens, Georgia, she thought with a whimsical smile. More than that, it was going to be taking her on a roller coaster ride down memory lane. Not that she had ever forgotten; not for a single day. The International Fashion Show was always the most anticipated event of the year for the fashion industry and this year’s event was taking her to Athens to represent her fashion line, ‘Head Turners’.

“Why Georgia of all places? Why not Egypt, Switzerland or Haiti? Why Athens?” she muttered out loud even though she was the only one in her room.

Fate really had a way of going about its business, Emily thought with an unbelievable shake of her head. For Emily, it had all started in Athens, Northeast Georgia. The name she had made for herself and the fame she had gathered was birthed in Athens on that one night with
him
four years ago.

She hadn’t been back since she had graduated. Atlanta, where she lived now, was only an hour drive away but Emily avoided going back because it brought back powerful memories that were simultaneously amazing and filled with longing.

She shouldn’t have bothered. Now, she was going there despite everything she had done to avoid it.

“It is too fucking soon to go back!” she screamed at the laptop, running her hands through her spiky, short blonde hair in frustration.

There was however, no respite from the feeling of nostalgia she felt as soon as she saw the inbox notification for the Show. Nor would the venue change; no matter how much she wanted to avoid it, it was still going to be Athens.

“Gran, why is it so hard to forget some people? Why is it so hard to let go?”

The feeling of nostalgia that arose from knowing she would go back to Athens, brought to mind another life-changing moment with her grandmother from ten years ago. Thinking back on that conversation and the impact it had on her life, Emily let out a long sigh. Tonight was a night of reflection, she thought in resignation. It was one of those rare moments when Emily allowed herself to think. She detested thinking. It wasn’t her thing; she preferred to act and then maybe think later, if at all. She grabbed her wine and let her mind wander ...

When Emily was just sixteen she began drinking to cope with the guilt of her parent’s death. She had been smuggling drinks into the house each night after the accident and one night her grandmother caught her. Instead of scolding her sixteen-year-old granddaughter for drinking, Lara had grabbed a glass and sat on the floor of Emily’s room with her. “Lord knows we both need this,” she said.

They drank and talked long into the night. About love, life, her parents and amidst blurs, hiccups, tears and burps, her grandmother said something that had stayed with her every since.

“You see, my darling, you don’t forget some people because they have had a huge impact on your life. Some people make you laugh, others make you cry, some do both and it is those people that have an impact so great that you do not know where you end and they begin and when we lose them, we lose part of ourselves. Remember your parents but know that you must live your life in honor of their memory.”

Though the words had been said over a few drinks, they would change her life forever and it was these words she reflected on as she remember that night with him four years ago. In one night, he had shown her all those things and more and taken her to places she had never thought possible.

That night with her grandmother ushered in a new dawn for a more responsible, cautious and wiser teenager. But the night with him, saw the birth for a more spontaneous and determined adult. Those experiences from her past combined to form the perfect blend of groundedness and daring that allowed her to forge a path for herself in the fashion industry. She was a person of her own, a recognized entity and not just another face in the crowd, something she never thought possible before that night.

Emily had never forgotten that night with her grandmother despite how much she had changed. She never would. Just like she had never forgotten that night with him those years ago.

And she knew that it was because of the impact
he
had made in her life. With everything she had done over the past four years, she still remembered that night. That night, she had thrown all caution to the wind and done exactly what she wanted to do. It was the beginning of true liberation for her; no one who knew her before that, would ever guess that she once lived life in an entirely different way. That night, the tables turned and so did her life much to the delight of her grandmother. Not that she had any regrets about what she did that night; far from it. Perhaps now, the only regret she had was that the night was the only one she had. Years after, all she had were bittersweet memories.

Memories that kept her awake on cold nights wishing she had just one more night.

The same memories saw her sometimes staring into space in broad daylight, remembering and reliving each moment in her head. She sometimes wished that she had done things differently but she also knew that she wouldn’t change the events of that night for anything.

She didn’t know if it was by coincidence or if fate was having a good laugh at her right now. Calculating the days, Emily realized that today was
exactly
four years ago from that night ...

Four Years Ago…

“Come on, Emily, don’t be a spoil sport. It is going to be such fun.” Shannon whined.

Emily looked up from the novel she had in her hands and removed the glasses set precariously on the bridge of her nose. She regarded her roommate and best friend in silence for the better part of two minutes.

She couldn’t believe how well they hit it off and how long their friendship had lasted. They were so totally different from each other that everyone who saw them together never failed to comment on their glaring differences. While Emily was blonde, thin and gawky; Shannon was a redhead, round little gypsy that turned heads when she walked. Emily wore glasses and looked geeky, with her nose constantly buried in one book or the other; Shannon, on the other hand, would not be caught dead wearing those horrible things called glasses nor would she touch any book with a ten-foot pole, God forbid, unless it was to doodle on it.

While Emily was extremely introverted and tidy, her roommate was an extrovert and  disorganized. Emily’s tireless efforts to keep their room in some semblance of order; would quickly be blown apart as Shannon left a trail of destruction wherever she went.

In a nutshell, she had been best of friends with Shannon McGuire for the last three years, when they were thrown together as roommates in freshman year. They had hit it off at once despite knowing right away that they were exact opposites of one another. However, Emily knew that she wouldn’t exchange Shannon for anyone else, no matter how much trouble she could be. Her little gypsy friend was loyal, understanding, faithful and the most compassionate soul on earth despite her flashy outward appearance.

It was why Emily was listening to her right now instead of out rightly screaming at her.

“Shannon, you know how much I hate parties and noise.” She complained to her friend.

“Of course I know,” Shannon said with a roll of her eyes. “But I have been trying to tell you that this is not the sort of parties with blaring speakers and loud music. And, we’ll be leaving early to make it up in time for Greg’s flight early in the morning.” She added.

Now, it was Emily’s turn to roll her eyes. She knew that Greg’s early flight to Washington tomorrow morning wasn’t the reason that Shannon would agree to leave a party early.

Greg was Shannon’s boyfriend and he was one of this year’s graduates at the University of Georgia. He had graduated with distinction and Shannon was as proud of him as a mother. A special dinner party was organized in a hotel for those graduating with distinctions and they were allowed to bring with them two more guests.

Greg’s parents were dead like hers and he had given the invitations to Shannon. Now, Shannon wanted Emily to come with her.

Placing the book on the bed, Emily inclined her head to the left to study her friend. Shannon was dressed as usual in flamboyant colors that threatened to burn the retina. Emily could make out shades of yellow, bright pink, magenta and gold. She shook her head, slightly distracted. Her friend was just a tad crazy. No, more than a tad, she corrected when she caught her first real look at Shannon’s hair.

“What on earth did you do to your hair?” she exclaimed in astonishment.

Shannon shrugged and plopped on the bed beside Emily.

“I thought you would never notice,” she murmured impishly, patting her hair and preening like a peacock.

Emily continued to stare at the hair in question, unconsciously raising a hand to touch it to see if it was as real as she saw it.

“Nothing so bad as to get your mouth hanging open like that,” she replied with a naughty grin. “I only cut it a bit and dyed it in the colors of the rainbow; you know how my Greg loves the rainbow.” She said with a throaty laugh.

Emily shook her head. Really, she shouldn’t be amazed at her friend’s behavior anymore but each time, she allowed herself to be surprised by the different impulsive decision that Shannon make on an almost daily basis. Just this morning, Shannon had been a redhead, now her hair looked like it was cut so haphazardly that there appeared to be no pattern and was dyed all the colors of the rainbow.

“But why would you do that? You loved your red hair.” She said, looking her friend right in the eye.

It was true. Shannon always claimed that her red hair was her best feature without which she would just have been an ordinary Irish girl in a foreign country. Shannon just shrugged again.

“I want to make Greg’s last night in Georgia memorable.” She said with a dare devil grin. Just as soon as the words were out, her shoulders drooped and worry entered into her grey eyes. “What if he goes and forgets me? You know we are world apart and he might decide to go for an American when he is out of here. Maybe if I make tonight so special for him, he wouldn’t forget me? I want him to be my forever.” she said worriedly.

Emily sighed in exasperation. Shannon could be so insecure of herself at times like this but only when she was alone with Emily. Emily shifted towards her to draw her into a hug.

“You know that he wouldn’t dare. Grey loves you too much to forget you and you know it. Why would you even think that?”

She held her friend in her embrace, patting the dyed hair down her back. Shannon was petite but curvy and everyone knew that Greg just loved her to pieces as she did him. Since his graduation, Shannon had been fretting, worried that she still had one year to go while Greg would leave the city. She had started to convince herself that the distance would tear them apart and she would be left heartbroken.

Emily however had seen the couple when they were around each other. They only had eyes for each other and couldn’t bare being away from each other, on the holidays or even during the day when classes separated them. Though Emily herself had never been in a relationship of any kind, she guessed that Shannon and Greg’s love was the real thing and wished for something similar for herself someday.

“Believe me, I know … but what if?” Shannon asked, leaning back to stare into Emily’s baby blue eyes.

“Don’t think about what ifs right now but what
is
.” She said firmly. “And right now, ‘what is’ is that Greg loves you and you love him; that should suffice.”

“Thank you.” Shannon said softly, squeezing her into a tight hug.

“Anytime,” Emily managed to mumble out through the tight hug.

“Then, you have to go with me to the dinner party. I so do not want to hear anything else about it.” Shannon said breezily, getting up from the bed and walking up to the full length mirror in the corner of the room. She pranced in front of it to admire her new hair style.

Her eyes caught Emily’s in the mirror and she saw that another argument was on its way.

“You are coming with me to support me and my boyfriend. You can’t not come; Greg will be so heartbroken.” She emphasized, one hand dramatically splayed over her chest.

Emily sighed heavily and rolled her eyes so that Shannon would see her in the mirror.

“You are a nag; you know?” she asked rhetorically but Shannon answered anyway.

“Yes I know but you still love me.” She answered, turning and smiling at Emily. “So you coming or what?” she asked, arms folded, daring to to defy her.

“You have to promise that we will leave when I say we should.” Emily bargained.

Shannon clapped her hands gleefully, jumping on the spot like a child.

“Of course, I promise.” she replied

“Now, we need to get you prepared. You can’t go looking like this.”  Shannon was disdainfully observing Emily’s clothes and then turned to her wardrobe. She looked into the wardrobe while Emily went back to her book.

Shannon was a fashionista that prided herself on looking the very best. She was always dressed in dazzling colors, but Emily had no such desire to look this way. If Shannon wanted to fix her for the party, she would only tolerate it to please her friend. After all, she was going there only to satisfy Shannon and nothing more.

She hoped that they would come back before midnight so she could finish up the novel she was reading before bed.

*********

Coming to this party was without a doubt the most boring thing that Emily had ever done in her life.

And she had done some pretty boring things too but this party was the highlight of them all. Emily sipped on her champagne and sighed for what must be the thousandth time that night. She could be home right now, curled up on her soft bed with a bowl of ice cream. She should be reading the standalone romance novel she started just this afternoon. Exams were over but courtesy of Shannon, she couldn’t do as she pleased. She was here watching men in suits and ladies in varying lengths of dresses. They canvassed the hall speaking to this dignitary and that professional, giving boring speeches and clapping afterwards.

She knew that Shannon was even more bored than she was but she wasn’t feeling very charitable towards her friend in that moment. She had asked that they leave fifteen minutes ago but she was still there, sipping on champagne. Emily knew that she had had too much to drink; but it was all there was to do, short of falling asleep in her chair.

“Please don’t be mad, Emily but PowerBit seemed to have taken an interest in Greg and he cannot very well leave them now.” She said, her grey eyes pleading with Emily.

It was a kind of dinner party where leading names and brands in the market met graduating students like Greg with marked achievements and distinctions. For the new graduates, it was a field day because it was like a dream come true. PowerBit, a powerful scientific research company in computer engineering and software development had immediately shown interest in Greg after his citation was handed out. He had barely sat down with them for five minutes before he was invited over.

Other invited guests either walked around, admiring the various artwork on display, formed small groups of conversation or sat in bored silence like she and Shannon.

Emily wanted to go home but since she wasn’t the type to hitch a ride, she would have to wait for Greg to finish so he could drop her off. She was resigned to the fact that Shannon wouldn’t be sleeping in their room tonight; she was going to be with Greg all night since he was leaving early in the morning for Washington.

Emily grabbed yet another bottle of champagne from a passing waiter and set it on the table.

“Don’t you think you have had enough to drink?” Shannon asked, eyeing the bottle warily. She had barely had a sip since Greg was invited by a representative of PowerBit. It was obvious that she still fretted over the issue they discussed in the afternoon.

“What else is there to do but eat and drink?” Emily asked mulishly.

“I am sorry. I shouldn’t have made you come when you didn’t want to.” Her friend said, looking downcast and dejected.

The words sobered Emily. She realized that she was behaving like a petulant child; she chided herself. While Emily had her back to the PowerBit table, Shannon faced them squarely and she had been casting anxious glances over since Greg joined them about thirty minutes ago. Emily shook her head at her selfishness.

Her best friend, the only friend she had in the whole world was seated right in front of her, worrying her pretty head away over her boyfriend’s departure and all she could do was complain about the dullness at the party. She was the worst friend ever, she thought to herself. What were a few hours at a boring party for a friend? Shannon had done crazier things for her in the time they had known each other.

“No, I am sorry.” She apologized, trying to think of what to do to make it up to her friend. “How about you go join Greg at their table and brazenly introduce yourself as his girlfriend?” she asked impulsively.

Her words surprised both her friend and herself. She was not the type to be so impulsive or daring but she wanted to erase the worried look on her friend’s face. Or perhaps, it was the wine doing the talking.

“Wow!” she declared admiringly. “That is just the best suggestion ever. Why didn’t I think of it before?” Shannon said already standing and grabbing her purse from the table. “Come with?” she asked her.

Even though Emily knew she’d be even more bored on her own, she shook her head. She was a student of Creative Arts and a freelance writer, any talks about science churned her stomach. Conversation at the table with the company would definitely be more boring than sitting here on her own, thank you.

“I will be fine by myself, go on.” She waved her friend off in the direction of the table where Greg sat with three other men, talking animatedly.

“Thanks, G.” Shannon said, blowing her a kiss.

When she was gone, Emily fidgeted with the clasp on her purse for another five minutes, looking around the room for nothing in particular. She turned in her seat to look over at the PowerBit table some ten feet or so away and saw that Shannon was now seated beside Greg and seemed to be enjoying the conversation.

Good for her, she thought.

The bottle of champagne still stood unopened in front of her and she turned her gaze to it, trying to decide if she should just open it and have yet another drink.

She continued to stare at it undecided for another five minutes.

“Now, what is a beautiful thing such as yourself doing here all alone with an unopened bottle in front of you?” A silky male, voice interrupted her thoughts.