Taboo Boss: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance

by Black, Natasha L.

“What?” she asked.

  “Everything I’ve read has said that right around at this point some women start to experience symptoms, which obviously I have. Early in the first trimester, there aren’t as many cravings as there are later. But I’m definitely craving pie,” I said.

  “Pie?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Of all things, I have a major hankering for pie.”

  “Well, I don’t know how much stock I put into whatever you were reading saying cravings don’t start until later. I think I was pregnant for approximately six minutes when I started craving deviled eggs like nobody would believe.”

  “I don’t know if that is more or less strange than pie,” I said.

  “To each baby his own,” Ava said. She pulled the menu toward her and flipped through it. “It doesn’t look like this place has any pie. But I happen to know of a little bakery not too far from here.”

  I grinned. “Let’s go.”

  The little bakery was adorable, and the massive slice of pie served up to me on a cute porcelain plate hit the spot. But as soon as I finished the last bite, the nausea hit me again. I rushed into the bathroom, and Ava came in right behind me. She was there for me throughout the episode. I couldn’t bring myself to be embarrassed. I was so happy to have her support and encouragement; that was all I thought about.

  “I’m really going to miss you,” I said as I rinsed my mouth out.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “Because we’re not going to be around each other anymore,” I said.

  “Then why don’t you stay? For at least a little while. Just a few days,” she said.

  “Ava, we already talked about this.”

  “I know,” she said. “And I didn’t get the answer I wanted.”

  I laughed. “This just doesn’t feel like it’s going to have a good ending.”

  “Maybe that’s because there isn’t going to be an ending,” she said. “Maybe there’s going to be a beginning. As a matter of fact, no matter what Tom says or does, there is a beginning. Why don’t you just wait and find out what else could be beginning, too? Just stick around for a few days.”

  Finally, I caved. “Alright. Just for a few days. But I’m really burning into my vacation time here.”

  Ava laughed and rubbed my back. “I think you have some leverage with your boss right now.”

  35

  Tom

  “Hello, Ava,” I said, answering the phone. “The last time you called me, I got ambushed and my world completely turned upside down. What is it today? You turned my brother into a werewolf?”

  “I deserve that,” Ava said on the other end of the line as she sighed. “No, I did not turn your brother into a werewolf. Can one even do that? I thought you were born a werewolf and changed with the full moon.”

  “I don’t know, and I don’t particularly care,” I said. I knew I was being gruff, but at the moment I wasn’t terribly happy with Ava. I hadn’t seen or talked to her or Mason since yesterday, and it was probably for the better. I was extremely upset about how everything had gone on top of the shock and confusion surrounding what Amanda told me. I had no idea what I was supposed to do, but I had an idea of who I could be at least a little frustrated at.

  “I had lunch with Amanda,” Ava said, and I stopped cold.

  “She’s still in town?” I asked, my voice rising a bit higher than I intended.

  “For now,” Ava said. “You really upset her at the restaurant.”

  I put my head in my hand and closed my eyes. If Ava had somehow convinced Amanda to stay, she might get back on my good side in record time. But this also meant I needed to deal with how I’d acted when Amanda told me about the baby. I had not been particularly helpful or even communicative. My brain had shut down, and I acted like a damn fool.

  “I know, and I hate that I did that,” I said. “Do you know where she is right now?”

  “I do, but I need to know something first,” Ava said.

  “Anything,” I responded.

  “I need to know that if I tell you where she is, that you won’t hurt her again,” she said. “I know you didn’t mean to before, but she is really sensitive, Tom. You really hurt her, and she needs you to be better than that.”

  It was tough to hear her talk to me that way, but she was right to do it. Ava had never really shied away from telling me her opinions, and this time I knew they were coming from a place of someone who knew Amanda well enough, and cared for her enough, to not want her subjected to me at my worst. She probably felt as bad about how yesterday went as I did. She had talked her into coming in the first place.

  “I will be,” I said. “I just need to see her.”

  There was a pause on the other end, as if she was thinking about it and deciding if I was worthy of her trust. Then she sighed.

  “Do you know the motel you stayed at when you first came into town. The one you said was woefully out of date and unequipped to be more than a flophouse?” she asked.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “She’s there,” Ava said.

  “What?”

  “Well, she couldn’t go back to the hotel you were staying in, could she?” Ava said defensively. “I got her to stay a few days, but she wasn’t going there, and she needed her space. So that’s where she ended up. Now go get her.”

  I jumped in my car and didn’t bother with the GPS. I knew how to get there, and I knew a quicker route than most turn-by-turn systems took people anyway. It might be a slightly longer distance, but the two main stretches of the drive were straight roads with no police presence, and I was accustomed to doing ever so slightly over the speed limit on them when I was in a hurry.

  The engine revved and I pulled out, heading toward the hotel with words filtering through my brain and out of my mouth as I rehearsed what I wanted to say. No matter how good I started, though, nothing seemed right as I kept going, and I would give up halfway through and start over. I finally settled on trying to say very little other than apologizing for my actions and hoping she would at least listen. If she let me talk without me blabbing when I first saw her, I might be able to explain the complicated emotions I had.

  When I got to the hotel, I knew which room she was in. The rest of the hotel was empty, and there was only one room with a light on in the window. And a box fan separating the curtains. I parked right in front of it and got out, taking a deep breath. All or nothing, this was it. I knocked on the door.

  The bed inside creaked, and I heard her make her away across the room and pause. She was probably looking out the peephole at me, and suddenly I realized I should be holding flowers. Or chocolate. Or a chocolate croissant. Something. Instead, I smiled like a goofy idiot and waited. The door unlocked, and after what seemed like an eternity, it inched open.

  “Hello, Amanda,” I said. She didn’t respond but left the door open as she turned around and went back to the bed. Sitting on it, she curled up her legs under her and picked up the remote for the TV, turning it off.

  I followed her inside and sat down on a chair by the bed. Sitting on the bed felt like I would be pressuring her, but I didn’t want to seem intimidating by standing either. The chair was the safest place. Amanda turned her eyes to me and stared for a moment.

  “What?” she asked, coldly.

  “Look, I know I came off awful at the restaurant,” I said. She rolled her eyes. “I was in shock. I’m sorry. Really, I am sorry. I just…” I paused as I tried to find the right words. “I just never thought I would have kids at this age.” I looked down at my feet and swallowed. Here it was. The big admission. “Or someone I loved.”

  The words hung in the air for a moment, and then I heard the sound of her taking a slow breath out. When I looked up at her again, her eyes were on me, and they were brimming with tears.

  “You love me?” she asked, her voice on the edge of breaking. It clenched my heart to see her so emotional, and I stood, going to her and sitting on the bed next to her, as close to her as I could be without touching.
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  “Yes. I love you. I love you, Amanda. I know it hadn’t seemed that way, but it’s only because I have trouble conquering the truth of my own feelings and I’m just so sorry…” I trailed off.

  “I love you, too,” she said, leaning forward to capture my words.

  I caught her with a kiss, and our arms wrapped around one another. Her lips parted, and I brushed my tongue against hers. Tears that had run down her cheeks and collected at the corner of her mouth slid onto my tongue, adding a twinge of saltiness to the taste of her. I wanted to kiss them away. Forever.

  Our lips parted for a moment and she held my face in her hands, searching my eyes. “I love you, Tom. I’ve been sure about that for a while I think. Emotions are scary.”

  “That is true. But I know for sure now that I love you, Amanda,” I said, and we both smiled in spite of ourselves. It felt like a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders, and I crushed my mouth into hers again, both of us tumbling to the bed.

  She curled into me, her thin T-shirt and loose pajama pants barely concealing her body as it molded into mine. I didn’t want to push her, but the need for her skin was too strong to resist. I slid my hand inside her shirt from behind her, letting my fingers run up her spine, and my lips moved to her neck. She gasped as my tongue flickered out and licked the skin at the crook of her neck and shoulder, and then she placed her hands on my chest and gently pushed me back. Afraid I had moved too fast, I leaned back and searched her face.

  “Just a second,” she said and grabbed the hem of her shirt. She lifted it quickly, tossing it away, and then leaned across me to shut the curtain over the fan that sat in the window. “There,” she said as the world outside was hidden away, but she still hovered over me. I took one of her heavy, perfect breasts into my mouth, and she cooed as my tongue glanced over her nipple. “Much better,” she said.

  I rolled her to her back and hovered over her, my hips grinding into hers as she undid the buttons on my shirt. I helped her pull it off me and then grabbed at the waistband of her pants. They slid off easily, revealing her delicious mound. As soon as I was over her again, her hands were digging at my belt, and I shimmied the pants off as she unbuttoned and unzipped them.

  I grabbed the blanket and pulled it over us, blocking the light, and all that was left was our bodies. Naked, hers wet with anticipation and mine hard with desire, we melted into each other, and I sank into her deeply. The feeling of her body wrapping around mine, her tight pussy clenching over my cock, was an ecstasy I had never even imagined.

  I rocked into her, my arms wrapped around her to hold her back and the back of her neck so I could continue to kiss her at will. Her mouth opened and sounds of passion escaped with each thrust, and I continued to lavish her breasts with my attention. Her fingers slid down my back and then raked back toward my neck, as her legs began to tremble and her voice began to rise. I knew she was getting close, and I increased my speed, slamming into her until our skin clapped together, and she cried out into the heavy blanket above us.

  Suddenly she threw the blanket away, exposing us both, and the sudden rush of sensation overloaded my senses. I exploded into her, and she locked stiff as her body convulsed. Her thighs trembled and her back arched as we came together. I sank deeply in her and draped my body across her before rolling to my side.

  Pulling the blanket back over us, she settled in the crook of my arms and sighed happily. I kissed the top of her head and moved the blanket over my shoulder. Closing my eyes, I drifted off to the first good sleep in a long time, naked and wrapped up in Amanda.

  36

  Amanda

  I had already gotten back into the routine of waking up far too early, but all it took was being back in Tom’s arms for that to go by the wayside. The combination of feeling so comfortable and at ease wrapped up with him and the ongoing tiredness of my pregnancy meant I slept deeply late into the morning. And it didn’t bother me in the least. I was more than happy to just curl up against him and stay hidden away from the rest of the world for as long as it would let us.

  It didn’t let us for nearly as long as I might want it to. The sound of Tom’s phone ringing broke through the happy fog of being somewhere in between deeply asleep and fully conscious. It was that foggy time of morning when I would usually want to just curl up closer, put my head on his chest, and drift.

  Instead, I shifted out of the way so Tom could reach for his phone. He looked like he was ready to ignore the call, but when he saw that it was the private investigator, he climbed out of bed.

  “Hey, what’s up?” he said when he answered the phone.

  He moved around the room, pulling his clothes back on. That was one of the little quirks of his personality I caught on to over the weeks we were together that particularly amused me. Not that it happened terribly often, but if anybody ever called Tom while he wasn’t dressed, he put his clothes on. They couldn’t see him. They had absolutely no way of knowing he was on the other end of the line naked. Yet, he couldn’t bring himself to carry on a conversation without being fully dressed.

  This time, though, he seemed to be getting dressed with more urgency than usual. He wasn’t just pulling on his clothes so he didn’t feel strange talking to whoever was on the call naked. Instead, he was getting dressed quickly, and his expression was getting more and more intense with every moment that passed.

  “Are you absolutely sure?” He paused as the other person answered. “But I don’t…” He paused again. “No, I understand. I get it. That sounds… I’m just shocked. It doesn’t make sense.” One more pause. “Alright. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  He got off the phone and tossed it back to the dresser so he could finish getting dressed.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  I sat up, moving my hair away from my face. The way he was acting worried me. Something was definitely happening, and I had a sinking feeling it wasn’t good.

  “I have to go do something,” he said.

  “What? What do you have to do?” He didn’t answer, and I climbed out of bed to get clothes on. If he was going to be addressed and this on edge, I felt strange not being dressed as well. “Tom, what’s going on? What did he say?”

  “The investigation has confirmed that it wasn’t Danny,” he said.

  “What do you mean it wasn’t Danny?”

  “The arson that destroyed the bar. It wasn’t Danny. They have evidence and have been able to absolutely clear him,” Tom said.

  I stared at him for a few seconds, not knowing how to react. I was completely shocked. This definitely wasn’t what any of us were expecting. We were all completely convinced Danny had been the one to burn down the Hollow. He was envious of the success of the bar and had always been horrible to the Anderson brothers.

  Even more than that, he joked about the destruction of the bar and tried to buy up the new building out from under them. He was the only explanation that really made sense. And there was evidence to confirm it. Even the investigating officers believed it. Now everything was thrown completely off track.

  “What are you going to do?” I asked.

  “I need to call my brothers and tell them what’s going on. Then we have to get together and talk about it,” he said.

  I finished getting dressed as he called Mason. He explained what was going on, and they each agreed to call another of the brothers. It was like watching the ultimate phone tree. Rather than one of them calling all of them, they each called another until everybody knew what was happening.

  “What’s the plan?” I asked when he was done calling Tyler. “What do they think?”

  “They’re just as shocked as we are. We don’t know what to think, but we’re going to get together at Mason’s house. Do you want to come?” he asked.

  “Definitely.”

  We got to Mason’s house right around the same time Tyler and Jesse were arriving. Jesse’s eyes widened when he saw me get out of the car.

  “Amanda!” he said. “I had no i
dea you were back in town.”

  He came toward me and greeted me with a warm embrace. Tyler did the same, telling me how happy he was to see me again. In that moment, I knew for sure they knew Tom loved me. That told me so much, and I felt my heart swell.

  I glanced over at Tom. We were sharing a secret. But it would have to wait for us to share it with everybody. Right now, we needed to handle this situation. Then we could tell everybody the good news.

  Within a few minutes, all of the brothers were at the house and we were inside. The men were talking, their voices overlapping with each other and getting more animated as they went. Ava and I looked across the room at each other, and she gave a sideways nod over to the kitchen. I agreed and followed her in there.

  Ava laughed when we got away from the room. She shook her head as she pulled out a tea kettle and filled it with water, then set it on the stove.

  “I hate when they do that,” she said.

  “Do what?” I asked.

  She went to the cabinet and opened it to take out a big wooden box of tea that she set on the counter.

  “Have conversations like that. I mean, with so many of them it makes sense that they would have to talk over each other sometimes. But listening to them is like listening to a conversation that’s been condensed. Like if they each took their turns talking it would take far too long for them to say everything they want to say, so they have to layer it all on top of each other to save time,” she said.

  “Do they do that a lot?”

  “All the time,” she said. “Anytime there’s something really important for them to talk about and they feel rushed, this is how it ends up. I have this vision that they started doing it when they were really young and just got so used to everybody talking at the same time that they were able to understand it. Almost like some siblings, especially twins, have their own language.”

  “I feel like there’s so much I still don’t know about them. You’ve known the family for so long. I feel like I’m just kind of showing up and I’m behind everybody,” I said.