Water would cascade down her perky, full breasts and stream down her stomach. It would create rivulets that wound their way to her core, some filtering down her thighs, others collecting in the soft bush above her center. We would kiss, and she would take my cock in her hand, guiding it to her like a siren, and lift her leg to open herself to me. I would press her against the wall of the shower, her breasts pushing into my chest as I entered her, and she would gasp.
My eyes clenched hard as I stroked faster, imagining myself inside her. Her mouth would droop open, and she would moan as I fucked her. Then, just when I was about to explode, she would drop to her knees and take me in her mouth. I came hard as I imagined emptying myself onto her tongue, and shook, holding myself up by pushing against the wall with one hand as I exploded into the bottom of the tub.
When I was done, I cleaned myself off, made sure the tub was similarly spotless, and turned off the water. I wrapped myself in the towel, waiting to get back to my suitcase to put on clothes, and opened the door a crack. She was still asleep, and I breathed a sigh of relief. It felt so wrong, and yet, it felt so incredibly right.
I marveled again at her beauty as she slept and then made my way for the other room. As I got dressed, I decided to leave her a note and got out a paper and pen. When my message was written, I signed it and left it on the table where our laptops were, and I left, a smile threatening to cross my face.
* * *
It was later in the afternoon, the sun disappearing behind trees before peeking through again as it went on its way toward setting. The five brothers had collected, and at my suggestion, we all decided to take a little stroll to Danny’s bar. Jordan was the most excited by the prospect of a showdown, and I had to go over with him a few times that there was to be no threats and no fighting. He sounded like he understood, but I knew him well enough to know that keeping an eye on him was for the best.
As we walked into the bar, I noticed how dank it was. The sunlight from outside was completely filtered out, and the color of the bar was a mixture of dark brown and dark blue. As if the whole bar was a bruise. The other brothers filtered into the bar, taking random positions at the few seats around the place, but Jordan and I went to the bar and sat on two empty stools next to each other.
Danny looked up from where he was putting away shot glasses and saw us reflected in the mirror and turned. The grimace on his face was etched deep into his cheeks, and I readied myself to duck if he happened to throw something at me.
“What in the blue hell are you doing here?” Danny asked, his voice gravelly.
“Came in to get a drink,” I said quickly, before Jordan could interrupt. “Since our bar is kind of, well, nonoperational.”
Danny made a sound that told me he was still leery of us being there.
“Well, I am always open to welcoming new customers,” he said, casually putting the last of the shot glasses away, “but I’m not selling.”
“We aren’t here to buy your shitty dive bar,” Jordan said from behind me, and I raised my hand to shush him. Danny’s eyes turned to him and widened like a mad bull. When he spoke, it was low and even but full of contempt.
“You talk shit, and you start shit. I have no reason to serve belligerent customers,” he said.
“We aren’t here to start shit,” I said, cutting Jordan off from responding. “We’re here for beer. At least I am. Jordan?”
“Whiskey and soda,” Jordan said, his eyes not leaving the rather large roughneck in the corner. Whoever he was, he seemed ready to jump into the fray should there be one. I made a mental note to go after him first if things went south.
There were a few moments of silence after everyone asked for their beverage of choice and Danny handed them out without incident. Mine was last, and he placed it in front of me with just a little too much force, so it foamed up a bit and spilled over the edge.
“Whoops,” he said, deadpan.
With that, Danny left us to go serve other customers, and I began eyeing the rest of the crowd. There was the big guy in the corner, but he seemed like more of the fist-fighting bouncer type than an arsonist. Several other old drunks littered the remaining tables and booths. A haggard old woman sat at the bar several seats from me that I could only describe as a leather Barbie. At one time she might have been a very attractive woman, but what looked like sixty years of booze, cigarettes, and hard living had worn lines deep into her face, and her skin was orange with bronzer. She had a lit cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other, and for the first time I noticed the bar wasn’t smoke-free.
I kept scanning the customers, looking for someone who stood out. Someone who maybe was uncomfortable seeing us there or seemed itchy to start something or run. But everyone there was minding their own business, only giving us the barest passing attention. I took a slug of my beer and grimaced. It was just a little too warm and right on the edge of being skunked. And mostly foam.
“Man, I got so drunk last week,” Jordan said beside me. I turned to respond to him but noticed he wasn’t talking to me. He was directing his words all the way across the bar to Danny, who looked over his shoulder at him. “I went right the hell home and passed out. Good thing I didn’t have a girl with me—I would have been no fun at all. What about you, Danny? What did you do that night?”
My lips pursed as I watched my brother walk right up the edge of starting a fight, draw a line in the sand, and then proceed to erase it immediately.
“What night?” Danny asked gruffly.
Jordan grinned, his teeth shining in the dim yellow light of the bar. He was turning on the asshole charm, being the sarcastic bastard that had annoyed me on so many occasions.
“You know, the night our bar burned down,” Jordan said, his smile never faltering. But his eyes were like daggers.
Danny’s face settled into an expression of hatred, and he lifted his head so his chin stuck out, and he looked down his long, pointy nose at Jordan.
“If you are here to accuse me of burning down your bar, I didn’t do it. Okay?”
The sound of chairs sliding across the wood filled the silent bar, and I shot both arms out, one to block Jordan from hopping over the bar and lighting into Danny and the other to ward off my other brothers from doing anything similar.
“That’s enough,” I said, and Danny’s gaze went to me.
“I think it might be time to roll out,” Tyler said behind me. “A man can only take so much warm beer and cheap cigarette smoke.”
“Better than god-awful costumes and fancy girl drinks,” Danny muttered behind the bar. I turned to lock eyes with Mason and stop him from jumping down Danny’s throat. Thankfully, Mason seemed almost amused at how ridiculous the statement was.
“Yeah, God forbid, a bar for people who aren’t the comic book definitions of the town drunk,” he said, and several pairs of eyes moved to him.
“Yeah, it’s time to go,” Jordan said, pushing his chair back into the table. He took his shot and slammed it down, placing the glass back on the table. “How much do we owe you?”
“I got it,” I said, cutting them all off. I didn’t want to give Danny the satisfaction of counting up all our tabs, or the argument and pettiness of my brothers arguing over prices or tip.
Instead, I opened my wallet and pulled out a crisp hundred-dollar bill. I folded it once and placed it in front of me. In my peripheral, I could see Jordan’s mouth turn up in a huge grin.
“This should cover it,” I said and stood.
“Get the hell out of my bar,” Danny muttered, but I watched him as he grabbed the bill and tucked it into his apron as we walked toward the door. I opened it to let my brothers out and then turned to face him one last time.
“If it was you, Danny,” I said and left the sentence unfinished, leaving and shutting the door behind me. Nothing else needed to be said.
12
Amanda
I woke up the next morning with my mouth feeling sticky and parched.
I spent the first
few moments of being awake with my eyes closed, not wanting to move too much just in case a raging hangover was waiting in the corner of my head somewhere and would get shaken loose and attack if I moved too fast. After a few seconds of lying there without any pain taking over, I braved opening my eyes.
Everything still felt pretty good, so I went through the slow, painstaking process of climbing out of bed. By the time I got my feet on the floor, I was pretty confident I had managed to avoid feeling too horrific this morning. It felt like somewhat of a miracle considering how ridiculous things got the night before.
I’d needed that time off and a bit of fun, but maybe it had gone a little bit too far. Once out of bed, I cautiously opened the door to the bedroom and looked for Tom. When I saw he wasn’t asleep on the sofa bed, I checked the time. It was far later than I usually slept. By this time back home, a good portion of my work for the day was already done.
It was disorienting having slept so late, and at first, I didn’t know what exactly to do. The room was quiet, so it seemed Tom wasn’t there. I was considering calling him when I found a note telling me he had gone to meet with his brothers again.
In a way, that was a relief. I didn’t exactly feel presentable at the moment, and I really needed to focus on getting work done.
After a shower to cut through the fog and a quick breakfast, I sat down at the desk and settled into work. My productivity kicked in, and I was getting things done when my phone rang. Without looking at it, I scooped it up and answered.
“Hey, Amanda,” Tom said. “I didn’t wake you, did I?”
I was about to answer him when I realized he was teasing me for being asleep when he left.
“Very funny,” I said.
“What are you doing right now?” he asked.
“I’m working.”
“Would you want to meet my mom?”
My heart fluttered in my chest a little. “Sure. I’d like that.”
“Good. Go ahead and get ready.”
“Get ready?”
“Yeah. I’m going to come pick you up, and we are going to have dinner with her,” he said.
Meeting his mother shouldn’t seem like that big of a deal. It probably would have been stranger if he didn’t ask me to go with him to see her or bother to introduce me to her at any point while we were in Astoria.
And yet, there I was. A bundle of nerves.
My mind drifted back to the night before and the tripping incident. The memory of stumbling into his arms and the way Tom had looked at me gave me a little shiver and brought a whole new wave of butterflies. I needed to call Emily.
I dialed her number and put the phone on speaker as I looked at all my clothes.
“I was wondering if you were ever going to call me,” she said rather than greeting me. “What’s going on? Tell me everything.”
“Actually, I just have a question for you,” I said. “What should I wear to meet Tom’s mother?”
Emily gasped so loud it sounded like she might inhale her phone. “He asked you to meet his mother?”
“Not like that.”
“What do you mean not like that?” she asked. “Did he or did he not ask you to meet his mother?”
“He did,” I admitted. “We’re going to have dinner with her, but I’ve already met everybody else in his family. His brothers and his sister-in-law. Doesn’t it make sense that since we’re in town, I would meet his mother?”
“You know what I think,” she said. “I’ve said it before, and I’m going to say it again. The two of you need to stop hiding your feelings for one another. Yes, it makes sense for him to introduce you to his mother since you’re in town. Does that mean having dinner with her? That’s up for debate.”
“Debate with who?” I asked.
“I’ll find somebody if I need to,” she said, making me laugh.
“As compelling as your arguments are,” I said, “you’re wrong. There are no feelings for us to hide because there are no feelings. Tom is my boss. I am his secretary. That’s it. No feelings.”
“Liar,” she said without hesitation.
“How about you?” I asked, giving up on getting any recommendations from her in favor of changing the subject and choosing an outfit. “How about your love life? I haven’t heard any updates from you recently.”
And just like that, any need for her to talk about me and what feelings may or may not exist between me and my boss were gone.
“I just met this incredible guy. His name is Xavier. He’s an artist,” she said.
“Where did you meet him?” I asked, shucking off my clothes so I could change into the outfit I chose.
“On Tinder,” she said.
I laughed to myself and rolled my eyes. I had to give it to Emily. She was the only person in existence as far as I knew who’d managed to make meeting somebody on Tinder sound romantic.
“Have you met him in person yet?” I asked.
“Yes. We just went on the most amazing date. You wouldn’t believe how romantic he was. Just right from the beginning. As soon as he showed up…”
Right as she was saying that, the door to the hotel room opened and Tom walked in.
“Emily, I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to go. I’ll call you back in the morning and you can tell me everything else, okay?”
“Sure,” she said, stumbling a little. “Oh, is he there?”
She had dropped her voice so he wouldn’t be able to hear her over the line, not realizing I still had her on speaker, and he could hear her even if she was whispering. I grabbed the phone and turned speaker off.
“Yep,” I said casually. “So, I’ve got to go. But I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
I hung up and offered up a somewhat awkward smile to Tom.
“You ready to go?” he asked.
“Just give me a couple more minutes,” I said.
He nodded and I rushed into the bathroom to throw on some makeup and brush my hair. I tried to tell myself I didn’t need to go to too extensive an effort. This wasn’t a date, and he wasn’t bringing me home to his mother. We were just going for dinner. That was it.
Even still, I couldn’t shake the nervousness that stayed firmly lodged in my stomach and my chest as we left the hotel and he brought me down to his rental car.
“Where are we going to eat?” I asked, feeling the need to fill the silence that existed between us since I’d made a run for my makeup bag.
“Over to my mother’s house,” Tom said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
I didn’t know if that made the situation better or worse. Going out to a restaurant would have its own pressures and would feel very date-like. But this was going into her home. It was even more personal.
Trying to think through all of that made me even more nervous as we drove for her house. I couldn’t help but wonder if any of Tom’s brothers would be there, but I didn’t want to ask. It would certainly feel less intimate if they were.
“Here we are,” Tom said a few minutes later when we pulled up in front of an adorable house that looked like belonged in a Christmas movie. It should be perpetually draped with twinkly lights and dusted with a soft snow.
A pleasant-looking woman opened the door before we even made it all the way up onto the porch.
“Tom!” the woman, who I could only assume was his mother, gushed. “I’m so glad you’re home.”
“Hey, Mom,” he said, walking up to her and giving her a hug. He stepped back and gestured to me. “This is Amanda.”
I wanted for him to define who I was, ready to use that to gauge what he was thinking about me and this meeting. But he didn’t. It was entirely possible she already knew who I was because he’d told her I was coming over. Yet it still felt significant somehow.
“Hello,” she said, smiling brightly at me. “I’m Susan. It’s so nice to meet you. Please, come on in.”
We went inside, and I immediately breathed in the incredible smell of something cooking.
“Som
ething smells wonderful,” I said.
Susan waved her hand in front of her like she was brushing away the comment. “It’s just spaghetti carbonara and bread.”
“My mom bakes the best bread in the state,” he said.
Susan grinned and shook her head. “And Ristolli’s bakery down the road makes the best cannoli, which is why I picked some up for dessert.”
A big salad was already sitting out on the table when she invited us to sit down, and Tom served some up to each of us. We settled in to eat, and the nervousness faded away. It was an amazing meal with great conversation that gave me some new insight into my boss.
Including hilarious stories about when he was a little boy his mom delighted in telling and I delighted in hearing. Tom, not so much. But he was a good sport about it. Especially since us talking gave him free rein over the pasta bowl.
We went back to the hotel still laughing and joking from the pleasant evening spent with his mother. There were no more tripping incidents, but we shared a slightly lingering gaze as I closed the door to my bedroom. I got ready for bed with my heart beating a little faster. Maybe Emily was actually right.
13
Tom
I woke to the sound of the shower running and my body immediately reacted to the knowledge that Amanda would be naked under the spray. The very thought was enough to make my stomach churn and my cock twitch.
In order to try to brush the thought of water drizzling down her naked body, I sat up and grabbed my laptop, pulling it onto my lap. I opened the browser tab, and as usual the only page open at all times was my email. I began to do the daily routine of browsing through the various questions, complaints, and reports that filled my inbox to the brim every morning.
I was in the midst of a particularly mind-numbing report when my phone buzzed on the dresser beside me. I opened the lock screen to see a text from my PI.
Call me, it read.
I was just about to press the call button when the bedroom door opened across from me, and Amanda walked out in nothing but a towel.
Taboo Boss: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance Page 7