RICHARD (A BAD BOY ROMANCE) (39 page)

Whatever it was, it couldn’t have been
appropriate. I removed my hand from his grasp and used it to brush my hair out
of my face. “I’m fine,” I lied, sighing as the offending strand fell back into
my eyes only a moment later.

Preston lifted his hand then, the same one
he’d used to hold mine, and swept my hair back into place for me this time. His
fingertips trailed down the side of my neck when he did so and I felt him leave
goosebumps
in his wake.

“I’ll walk you up,” he said. It
wasn’t a question.

I stepped out of the car, sucking in a breath
of reality. Everything that had happened inside of it seemed laughably strange
now, and I was reminded of my situation all-too-clearly once we began to mount
the stairs. Obviously, I’d just been desperate for some kindness, which Preston
had provided. I was in a low place, and I’d let my emotional needs get the
better of me. He was my stepbrother, or he soon would be, and there was no way
anything romantic was happening between us. The poor guy was probably wondering
what the hell kind of damaged goods he was letting into his family with the way
I’d just behaved.

When we stopped on my stoop, Preston turned
to me. The sunlight filtering in past the awning was enough to make his eyes
look green. “Got your keys?”

I held up my cheap ten-dollar clutch, the
only bag I owned, and smiled faintly. “Got ‘
em
. Thank
you again for lunch. And for driving me. And… well, for listening to me bitch
for an hour.” I forced a laugh.

Preston smiled. “I hope it won’t be for the
last time. In fact, I was hoping that we could do this again. Maybe after the
weekend’s over?”

I wasn’t sure what to say. It was true that
I’d had a nice time with him, but I had so much to worry about now that I
wasn’t sure I could commit to another rendezvous, if that was the word for it.

“Look, Preston… I know for you, this isn’t a
big deal, but I don’t have any options or money. I’ll be lucky to find a job
before the month’s over. That’s what I have to focus on now. Keeping this
place, as much of a shit hole as it is, and putting food on my table. Those
have to be my priorities. You understand, don’t you?”

He nodded slowly. “Of course I do. But I do
want to see you again, and Monday would be best.”

I put my key in the door to open it. “I’ll
try to find a way.” It was the best I could offer him.

As I stepped inside, Preston put his hand on
the door to keep me from closing it. Then he presented me with an offer of his
own.

“That’s the thing, though,
Maddy
. I want to see you Monday in my office. I want you to
be my new PA.”

I turned around and stared at him. I was sure
my jaw was dangling open, but the shock of it had left me so numb that I could
have been on fire and would have missed it. “You’re… serious?”

He nodded, leaning against the doorframe with
another wolfish grin. “Absolutely. You’ve got the qualifications. You have a
great work history, I’m sure. And I’m in need of a new girl anyway. You can
start first thing on Monday after you’ve taken some time to relax over the
weekend. In
fact
…” He reached into his pocket and took
out a checkbook. “I’m happy to offer you a signing bonus for accepting the job
on such short notice. What do you say,
Maddy
—how does
a bit of good, old-fashioned nepotism sound to you?”

I could hardly believe what he was saying. My
entire life, family had been a distant notion for me. It was something I barely
entertained as worthwhile, something I’d grown to consider as simply the
framework for one’s genetic identity. My mother hadn’t so much raised me as
reared and resented me, and my father had barely known me when he took off with
some other woman, leaving me in the dust of his memories. I’d never seen so
much as a birthday card from him in all the years he’d been gone. I had no idea
if he was even still alive.

Everything I’d ever wanted, I’d had to get
myself or go without. There were no exceptions. When all the other kids were
having birthday parties, I was sitting at home thankful that my mother had
bothered to prepare my favorite dinner. Presents were few and far between and
came mainly from aunts and uncles, which my mother always derided as “spoiling”
me. The only gift I remembered her giving me was a dragonfly broach when I was
nine, and I’d treasured it fiercely right up until the moment I’d found out
she’d
regifted
it to me after receiving it from a
friend. I was only worth her trash, her leavings, and after that, the broach
had sparkled a little less for me.

But now Preston, a man I hardly knew, a brother
in name only—and that wasn’t even official yet—was writing me a check on my
stoop and ready to give me so much more than that. He was offering me peace of
mind, prosperity, and a way out of the dismal hell hole I’d spent so much of my
life in. For the first time, a family member wanted to take care of me, and I
had no earthly idea what to do.

Preston must have seen my confusion, because
he handed me the check with his business card attached and waved his hand.
“Don’t answer now. Just come in Monday. If you’re not interested, at least we
can have another lunch together. If you are, we’ll get started right away.”

“I don’t understand,” I whispered, staring at
the multitude of zeroes tacked on to the check. My hands were shaking. “You
must want something in return…?”

Preston’s face fell. He looked almost as
bewildered as I felt. He shook his head very slowly, looking right in my eyes
as he said, “Just your happiness,
Maddy
. That is the
only thing I could want.”

Then he left me, closing the door while I stood
in the entryway, still gazing down at the ten thousand dollar check in my
hands. He’d given me a lot to think about.

The
whole drive home, I couldn’t
help but to think about
Maddy
.

She had looked so utterly confused when I’d
handed her that check, like she had no idea what simple kindness was. Given who
her mother was, I could see why, but it had hit me harder than anticipated. Had
she never had anyone stick up for her before? Had no one ever helped her up
when she’d fallen down?

I couldn’t imagine a world like that, or at
least, not in that sense. I’d always had people around to attend to every whim
and desire, except for my father, who could barely entertain my mere presence
at times. In that way, I knew what it was like to have a parent who seemingly
hated you, who was always disappointed and never uttered a word of praise.
Whenever I did well by his impossible standards, there was only relief on his
face, never pride. I’d given up on attempting to sway my father’s opinion of me
a long time ago, but I realized that not everyone had that luxury.

Maddy
seemed like such a strong girl.
When she wasn’t crying, I could see this fire in her eyes. When she snapped at
me, I could hear that same flame in her voice. There was one hell of a woman
deep down in there, but it was hard to see when she’d had such an impenetrable
cage built around herself.

That wasn’t her fault, of course. She was the
victim of those with power, the ones like my father who chose to hurt people
instead of using his immense wealth to make them better. She’d only ever been
able to spread her wings as far as her circumstances would allow.

But I wanted to change that. I wanted to set
Maddy
free and see her full potential. Something inside me
told me that if I did, it would be impossibly beautiful.

It was strange, though, that I cared so much.
I wasn’t a heartless bastard like my father was, but it was rare for me to get
attached to anyone, let alone a woman. There was something about knowing you
could have any girl you wanted that made the whole game feel less interesting,
but something about
Maddy
was… different. Maybe it
was because she was forbidden fruit, or maybe I really did give a shit about
family. Whatever it was, I could feel her hooks in me. I wanted more.

I thought about her as the miles ticked by. I
thought about her as I waited for the gate to open at my own house. I thought
about her as I walked inside, and I thought about her right up until the moment
I smelled the most amazing aroma drifting in from the kitchen.

I followed that scent like a bloodhound, my
stomach rumbling all the way. Carla, my housekeeper, must have been cooking.
The variety of spices was like inhaling a symphony, and my mouth watered as I
imagined all the meals she might be making. She was a goddamn artist in the
kitchen, and from what I could smell of whatever she was making, this was her
masterpiece. Sure, I’d already ate, but that wasn’t going to stop me from
indulging myself a second time.

I felt every muscle in my body relaxed the
nearer I came to that delicious scent. I tossed my blazer and laptop bag on the
sofa as I passed it, loosening a few buttons on my shirt as I rounded the
corner into the kitchen, already rolling up my sleeves to prepare for whatever
sauce I could hear boiling on the stovetop.

“Goddamn, Carla, that smells—”

I stopped so suddenly that I was sure my
organs would fly right out of my body. As it was, my stomach had dropped to my
feet. It took several seconds for the sight before me to register, and when it
did, it made no more sense than when I’d first walked in and seen it.

Carla was, as anticipated, standing in my
kitchen and slaving over a hot stove. She had her dark, frizzy hair pulled back
into a bun and her olive skin was aglow with a light sheen of sweat. Her apron
was stained where she’d repeatedly wiped her coarse, calloused hands and from
the way her back was bent, I could tell she’d had a rough day.

But that wasn’t what surprised me. What did
was the person standing next to her, a person who didn’t belong in my house,
and certainly not when I wasn’t here.

“Jane, what the hell?”

She turned to me, beaming so brightly it was
almost blinding. She had her long, auburn hair braided down her back, and under
Carla’s watchful eye, she was adding sweet
Marsala
to
a pan.

“Hey, baby,” she said. The very sound of it
made me cringe. “I thought I’d surprise you. Carla’s teaching me how to
cook—it’s veal
Marsala
. I figured after such a hard
day at work, you needed to come home and have a nice, hot meal waiting for
you.”

I caught Carla looking at me out of the
corner of her eye. She didn’t look happy. I knew her pain.

“Carla usually takes care of that for me,” I
said, rubbing the back of my neck in the hope of making my anger dissipate.
“That was a nice thought, though, Jane. I just wish you’d told me you were
coming over. This is… a surprise.”

Jane smiled sweetly. “That’s the point,
silly.” Then she left the stove—and any pretense of learning to cook—and
crossed the room to me, sliding her hands up my shirt.

“When you didn’t come back to the office, I
thought something might be wrong. I tried texting you, but you didn’t respond.
Didn’t you get my pictures?” She looked up at me. “Was something wrong?”

There was a hint of an accusation in her
voice. Jane wasn’t good at hiding her emotions. I looked at her, gently taking
her wrists in my hands to move her away from my body.

It didn’t work. She only entwined her fingers
with mine, swinging her arms gently as I sighed.

“Yes, actually. It’s my sister. She got fired
from her job, and she needed someone to talk to and drive her home.”

Jane arched one of her perfectly-coiffed
brows. “Sister? You never told me anything about a sister…”

“That’s because she isn’t my sister yet. Her
mother is marrying my father. We’ll be stepsiblings in just a few months,
though I think it’s fair to start using the title now.”

Jane didn’t look convinced. I could feel her
hands growing cold in mine. “So… you’re not siblings yet. Then she’s just a
woman you drove back to her apartment instead of coming back to the office to
fuck me?”

I looked over at Carla. If she’d heard what
Jane had said, she didn’t show it, and for that I was thankful.

I took Jane by the arm as gently as I could
and pulled her out of the kitchen and into the hallway.

“You’re being ridiculous,” I told her,
keeping my voice low. “First, you already know that we’re not fucking again.
Second, Madison is practically family. And unlike me, she doesn’t come from
money, so losing her job is a pretty big deal.”

“Doesn’t she have any friends?” Jane asked,
wrenching out of my grasp. “Someone
else
she could call on instead of her ‘big brother?
’_”
The
way she put the words in air quotes made me want to break her fingers.

“No. She has no one. Her mother is… well, her
mother is the kind of person who wouldn’t give a burning man a glass of water.
In fact, she’d probably use him to light her cigarette and complain about the
smell.”

I smiled to myself. It was no wonder my
father liked her. Those two had so much in common.

“The point is that I was the only one she
could turn to. Besides, we ran into each other by accident. I had no idea I was
going to see her today.”

“Uh huh,” Jane said, folding her arms across
her chest. The kimono-style top she was wearing left very little to the
imagination, and the pushup bra she had on underneath it ensured that her
cleavage was practically touching her chin. I remembered the first time I’d
gotten a glimpse of those beautiful breasts. It was funny how I couldn’t give
two shits about them now. “You could have told me, you know.”

“Jane,” I said as calmly as I could, “I know
you have expectations of what this… thing we had going on between us was. But
you aren’t my girlfriend. We ended this. I don’t owe you anything.”

“See,” she said, taking a step toward me,
“that’s where you’re wrong…”

I stepped back into the wall as Jane
approached, sliding her body up against mine like a cat in heat. I could feel
her taut stomach stretching over my abs as she purred, one hand sliding up over
my shoulder as the other delved down between my legs.

“Jane,” I started, but she cut me
off.

“
Shh
. Easy there,
big guy. You’ve had a rough day. Family drama. I get it.” She rubbed me through
my slacks, and for a moment, a ripple of pleasure pulsed through me. “You’ve
had all kinds of unexpected things happen to you today. How about we make this
one a good one?”

She began working my belt, trying to slip the
tongue through the buckle. Despite my own desires—or lack thereof—I could feel
myself hardening at her touch. Jane could feel it, too. She had that look in
her eye, that smugness that always came over her face when she knew she had
won.

Except she hadn’t won. Not this time. And as
she tried to tug my pants down past my waist, I grabbed her arms again and
gently pushed her away. “Stop. Christ, what were you going to do, blow me right
here in the hallway?”

Jane licked her lips and grinned. “If that’s
what you want…”

“It’s not,” I said. “This isn’t something you
can fix by putting my cock in your mouth…” I let her go and set about fixing my
zipper. “We’re not doing this anymore.”

She stared. “What does
that
mean?”

“It means that you showed up in my house
uninvited, harassed my housekeeper, and then interrogated me about what I was
doing with my sister. You’re not my girlfriend, Jane. You’re not even my fuck
buddy. You’re my personal assistant. This is wildly inappropriate, and I think
you should leave.”

Jane looked at me for a long time, a longer
amount of time than I was comfortable with. Every second that ticked by, the
air in the hall seemed to become thicker, colder, like the intensity of her
glare was sapping the life right out of me. I was sure I’d find the house
plants wilting later when I walked into the living room.

But I held her gaze.
Maddy
was right. Jane had crossed a line—again—and things weren’t going to get any
better until I stood my ground.

“Fine,” she said. I hated that word,
especially coming from her mouth. “I’m not your girlfriend.
Whatever.
I’m just the girl you fuck at
your desk when you’re having a bad day, I guess.”

“You drugged my coffee and handcuffed me to
the chair!” I shouted indignantly. Sure, I’d hired her because I wanted to get
into her skirt, but the way it happened wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.

“I didn’t hear you complaining,” she replied,
the anger evident as she turned away.

She was right, I hadn’t complained at the
time. Hell, I’d liked it. Jane was nuts, but she breathed a little excitement
into my life. Trouble is, she didn’t understand boundaries and her
ever-escalating sexual escapades had started to become even more dangerous.
Sooner or later, our little office romance was going to bite me in the ass. I
was trying to put an end to it for good reasons.

She walked back into the kitchen, grabbed her
purse off the back of one of the kitchen island chairs, and came storming back
down the hall toward me. The sounds her heels made on the tiled floor were like
bones snapping. They gave me the shivers.