by Alina Jacobs
"You gave an impressive debut performance in the tiny house," I replied, grinding against the hand he held against my panties.
"For the past few days, I've been dreaming about fucking your tight, hot pussy, all soaking wet for my cock. And in none of those dreams did it take place in the tiny house," he growled in my ear. Then he picked me up and carried me to the back stairway.
"I fantasized about fucking you in the office," he murmured, "listening to you moan and whimper every time I slid my thick cock into you while you bent over your desk." I moaned.
"I also wanted to fuck you in the car," he said, nipping my ear as he pushed through the upstairs door. My legs were wrapped tightly around him as he carried me down the hallway. I undid his shirt buttons, wanting to feel the hardness of his chest against my bare tits.
"But my bed is closer," he continued, pushing through another door and setting me on the dark-colored bedspread. That delicious smell was everywhere. I couldn't help myself. I turned over and buried my face in the fabric.
"It smells so good," I moaned. There was a soft whumpf as Mace's clothes hit the floor. He pulled off my rumpled skirt and shirt. My nipples were hard against the bedspread, and I grabbed fistfuls of it as Mace spread my legs and began to slowly lick me.
"I thought you wanted to fuck," I groaned as his tongue lapped at my pussy, circling my clit.
"I want to draw this out."
"And I want your cock," I gasped. "You're not the only one with fantasies. One of mine involves drizzling chocolate all over you and very, very slowly licking it off."
He laughed against me. "You'll have to table that because I'm the one licking you slowly tonight."
I cursed as he slid two fingers into me, crooking them slightly.
"Why don't you replace those with your cock?" I moaned.
He moved to hover over me. Still stroking me, Mace whispered in my ear, "You want my cock, huh?"
"Yes," I gasped. There was the tearing sound of a condom wrapper, and I almost came right there from the anticipation. I spread my legs and lifted my hips slightly, letting out a cry when he slid into me. One of his hands reached up to pinch and roll my nipple as he slowly thrust into me.
"Harder," I moaned. "I want to feel you."
He ignored me and continued to slowly thrust into me. The pleasure was excruciating. My heart yammered, and my legs felt tight.
"I want you to make me come," I whimpered, my head back, my ass arched up to him. "Faster, I need it faster."
Mace pulled me up on my knees. My arms felt like marshmallows, and I rested on my forearms as he finally started to pound into me. My hips rolled against him, and he held me up while he fucked me. I whimpered in time to his thrusts then cursed him when he stopped.
"I want to see your face when you come," he whispered and flipped me over.
Then he was back inside me. His cock rubbed against my clit every time he thrust into me. I wrapped my legs around him and tangled my nails in his hair as he fucked me. My nipples rubbing against his hard, muscular chest felt every bit as good as I imagined.
My legs tightened as he brought me close to the edge. His thrusts sped up, sending me over a chocolate waterfall of pleasure. He came right after me, kissing me hard.
Mace moved his head down to nuzzle my breasts. "I guess there are certain types of candy I do enjoy after all."
I made some noncommittal noise. In the fading haze of pleasure, my mind spun in the dark. I had just slept with my boss. It wasn't a cute candy innuendo. We had fucked, in his house. And he didn't know the truth about why I was working for him or in Harrogate.
Would Mace feel like I had duped and lied to him when he found out? Was I just like my mother? Worse? Was I like Anke?
40
Mace
Josie was cuddled against me when I woke up the next morning. It was as perfect as I had imagined. I kissed her awake.
"This is so much better than the tiny house," she said sleepily.
"Your tiny house is very tiny," I said, kissing the nipple that peeked above the edge of the sheet.
"And you haven't even been in the loft," she said, smiling, her eyes still closed.
"I don't think I would even fit," I replied, my hand caressing the curves of her body under the sheet. "It would be very cozy."
I dropped feathery kisses up from her breast to her neck then to her mouth.
"I thought you would be done by now," she murmured against me.
"I'll never have enough of you," I whispered. "You're more addicting than candy."
"Yes," she said as my hand slipped under the sheet to stroke her. "But what kind of candy?"
My phone vibrated, and I ignored it. I had more important things to do. I was kissing down to that more important thing when I heard people running up and down the hall, calling my name.
Josie sat straight up, almost banging into my nose. "You better go; it might be an emergency!"
"This early?" I said, pushing her back down. "One of the kids probably just forgot they had a project due."
My phone rang again. Josie grabbed it and handed it to me.
"We have a problem." Garrett's voice was urgent. "Payslee is at the gate. She says she wants Henry. And she has a lawyer with her."
When I walked outside, I could hear Payslee yelling. The driveway was a straight shot from the front door down to the gate lined with trees. I could make out Payslee's silhouette against the front gate.
"Should we let her in?" Adrian asked. He was standing on the stairs next to Remy, who was holding a large ax.
"Absolutely not," I said. "I know she's your mom, Adrian, but she's acting like a lunatic. Call the police. Where are all the kids?"
"Hunter said just to pay her off," Garrett said, holding up his phone. "He said there's cash in the safe."
"I'm done with Hunter," I growled. "This is insane."
Josie walked out while Adrian called the police.
"Go back inside," I ordered. "We're dealing with something."
"Who is that?" she asked as Payslee started yelling again about how she was going to sue us and send us to jail for kidnapping.
"Evil stepmother," I said, ushering Josie back through the front door.
My brothers and I watched on the security feed as Hunter's car drove up, followed by the police thirty seconds later.
Garrett and I hurried down the driveway. When we slipped through the gatehouse door, Payslee and her lawyer were arguing with the police.
"They have my son. It's kidnapping." Her voice sounded like she was whistling every so often. In the early-morning daylight, I could see it was because several of her teeth were missing. She had to have been only a few years older than me, but she looked decades older.
"I have permission from his father to have guardianship of Henry Svensson," Hunter countered.
As mad as I was at Hunter, he was a lawyer, and I felt more secure having my older brother talk to the police.
"He was abandoned," Hunter continued in that semi-bored, condescending tone he had. "We have the paperwork. He was sent here with a birth certificate and a social security card."
"It was temporary guardianship," Payslee's lawyer argued. "And his mother is revoking it." I didn't like him. He had a doughy face with the cauliflower nose and broken cheek blood vessels of a major alcoholic.
Garrett's mouth twitched. He held up his tablet. "It was abandonment. Payslee hasn't seen Henry in fourteen months. She hasn't just abandoned Henry. She abandoned her other six sons, who are here now. Instead of taking care of them, she chose to go to Las Vegas"—he flipped to an image on his tablet—"where she hooked up with this man." A mugshot came up on the screen. "We have eyewitness accounts."
The police officers looked at the tablet.
Garrett kept talking. "Then Payslee came to New York and shacked up with this man." A picture of Payslee making out with the lawyer came up on the screen.
The police looked at the lawyer.
"This is the twenty-first centu
ry," he sputtered. "You can't keep a mother from her child just for being a sexual being."
"That's right," Payslee said, nodding. "He's my son."
"Why now?" I countered. Garrett elbowed me.
"I made a mistake," Payslee said. "But I'm ready to fix it. I want to be a good mom. Not just to Henry but to all my boys."
I snorted. I didn't believe her for a second.
"You need to make them give him back," Payslee said to Susie.
The police officer looked between us and Payslee. Was Susie going to take Henry just to spite us? I tried to silently plead with her. She nodded to me then turned to Payslee.
"I can't just hand a child over to someone who says she's his mother. There's a process. I need identification and a Harrogate, New York, residency confirmation. It can be a driver's license, utility bill, or voter identification card. Otherwise it's not my jurisdiction, and I can't entertain the complaint," Susie said.
Payslee opened her mouth to complain, but Susie held up a hand. "You are trespassing on Mr. Svensson's property, and you need to leave."
We watched as Payslee got into the car with her lawyer. She seemed furious.
"I'm going to get that boy!" she yelled through the passenger window as the car sped off. "You don't have any right. No right!"
"Thanks, Susie. We owe you," I said gratefully.
She snorted. "Please. The city of Harrogate may have turned around, but when you go into greater Harrogate, you still have the trailer parks and methheads. I've dealt with too many domestic violence calls to take an innocent child from a lovely home and give him to someone like that." She took her sunglasses off her collar then looked each of us in the eye. "You all need to sort this out, legally speaking," she warned. "Payslee could escalate."
Josie was sitting on the steps of the grand staircase in the foyer with my little brothers huddled around her when I walked in. I stood in front of them, doing a head count to reassure
"You heard Payslee outside, I'm sure. Now, none of you talk to that woman. Don't look at her. Don't contact her, and if you see her, tell me."
41
Josie
"I don't understand what happened with Payslee," I said to Mace when we were alone in his office at PharmaTech. He had been on the phone the entire drive over. I had heard several men yelling on the call.
"Doesn't she just want money?" I asked. "Could you pay her to make her go away?"
"Hunter tried that. It didn't work. I think it just emboldened her," he said tersely. "And then that leech of a lawyer stuck to her, and I'm sure he's egging her on too."
I rubbed his back, and he pulled me close and wrapped his arms around me.
"I never got to thank you for last night," I murmured.
"Please," he said, tipping my head back and kissing me. There were echoes of last night and promises of future pleasure in that kiss. "It was my pleasure."
"Actually it was mine," I whispered to him. His hands inched under my skirt. "It's too bad your office is glass."
"That doesn't have to stop us," he said, smiling at me wolfishly.
"For someone who doesn't like eating junk food, you sure are willing to take risks in other ways," I said, raising an eyebrow.
There was a knock on the door, and Adrian came in. "We need you downstairs, boss."
"Sure, I'm coming," Mace said, straightening his jacket.
Adrian looked at him oddly. "No, I meant Josie. She's the boss of marketing."
"Ah," Mace said.
I elbowed him in the stomach. Not that it hurt him—his abs were rock solid.
"I'm right behind you," I told Adrian, grabbing my laptop and following him out of Mace's office.
"How are you holding up? This morning was scary, huh?" I asked.
Adrian looked down at the floor. "My mom was always nutty. She believes in aliens and that the government was controlling us with radio signals. We weren't allowed to have anything metal. She was miserable to be around and a terrible mother. It's good you're here," he said, stopping to look at me. "It's nice to just have a woman who's really kind around. And"—he blushed—"for what it's worth, I think you're good for Mace. He's a lot more relaxed and easier to deal with since you arrived."
"Aw," I said, hugging him. He was almost as tall as his older brothers, but I still pulled his head down under my chin to snuggle him. "I wish I could help more," I said after I released him.
Adrian shrugged. "Hunter and Garrett will deal with it. They always do. Though no one else's mom has shown up at the house before. That's a new one."
All that morning, as I worked on the marketing material, I wondered how I could help Mace. Payslee was out of my league, but Mace had other problems I could solve.
"Hey, Adrian," I said. "You busy?"
"Just finishing up pulling some data for Willow," he said, swiveling around in his chair.
"I don't want to take your time away from the marketing project," I told him, "but I was wondering if you could do some research for me on that factory and new research facility your brothers want to build."
"Mace had me working on it," he said, navigating to the folder on the network. "What do you want to know?"
"I want to know if there's another place they could put it," I said, looking at his screen.
"There are lots of good places," he said, pulling up the map. "But we own all this land." He showed a satellite view of the big greenfield and wooded area to the south of the city where PharmaTech was currently located.
"This used to be the town dump. That's why it's on a hill. The land was cheap, which is why Hunter and Greg bought it. Svensson Investment also owns all these other properties, see in purple?" He pointed with the cursor. "But none of them are big enough or in a good location. They ideally need to be on the train line or a track spur."
"Could they buy others?"
Adrian nodded and pointed to an area in orange. "These properties together would be great. They're on the same large block as several of the ones Svensson Investment already owns. Unfortunately, each one is owned by a different entity. A couple are owned by the city, further complicating the situation. It's highly unlikely any of the owners would sell. And all of them? Forget about it."
"Can't you just make a good offer?" I asked.
"Greg's investment company bought as much land as they could, but now all the residents know that if some random LLC is trying to buy your property, it's the Svenssons. The owners either hold out for a lot of money or flat-out refuse to sell," Adrian explained.
"It's tricky," I remarked. "Can you give me the addresses and names of the owners of those properties you would have to buy?"
He typed a crazy formula into his software, and it spat out a table of properties with the acres and the owners. I took the printout from the printer.
"I'm going to pick up lunch," I told the team. I wanted to visit Ida.
Ida was behind the counter at the general store.
"How's the tiny house?" she asked. "Actually I suppose I should ask you how's the giant man. Is he proportionally big all over?"
I mean, yes, but… I shouldn't tell Ida that.
"There's a pool going on when you two will get married," Ida chattered. "I'm betting April of next year. So don't disappoint me!"
"I'll try not to," I said then pulled out the property list. "I'm trying to fix your bird-watcher problem."
"Oh, Bert!" she said. "Yes, that's all he talks about. You try to get a man fascinated in these"—she cupped her boobs—"and all he talks about are the birds."
"The Svenssons would be open to putting the factory somewhere else." I showed her on the map. "They need to buy all of these properties to do it. But they think they can't convince anyone to sell," I explained.
"Let me see that list," Ida said, putting on the glasses that hung at her neck.
"Hmm. Oh, this one is Art's. He goes apple-picking in the forest."
"Do you think he would sell?" I asked.
She pursed her lips. "Unknown. He always
had designs to put a brewery on that spot. Though between you and me, the man is in his seventies, and while he makes good cider, he never keeps enough of it to sell. The man drinks like a fish."
"What about the other sites?" I asked.
"One of them belongs to my sister," Ida said, running her finger down the list. "She hates the Svenssons."
"So that's it," I said, feeling demoralized.
"I'll think on it," Ida said and tapped her head. "We'll figure something out, lass."
I had done all that I could do. Hopefully Ida would come through for me. The French café had the bags of soups, sandwiches, salads, and pastries I'd ordered sitting on the counter.
"Lemon tarts, chocolate tarts, and caramel tarts," the clerk said. "We bring them in from the Grey Dove Bistro."
"I can't wait!" I said, taking the bag.
The clerk looked at me. "My aunt said you knew the Svenssons. Since they're all friends with Chloe, do you know if she's opening up a franchise here? That's what everyone's saying," she said in a rush.
"They are?" I squealed. "I would die if she put a bakery here."
"I know!" the clerk swooned. "Her life is so perfect!" We collectively sighed, and I walked out dreaming of having Chloe's perfect life.
My own life was far from perfect. I made terrible decisions, and as I turned the corner to walk back to where I parked my car, one of my problems was walking down the street toward me.
"Anke?" I choked out.
"Darling Josie!" My ex-friend ran to me, hugging me like she hadn't scammed me out of tens of thousands of dollars.
"You've put on weight. It looks good on you," Anke said.
"What are you doing here?" I sputtered. "And where's the money you promised me? You said you'd pay me back for that luxury hotel suite in Morocco."
"Darling, I told you I had a plan! Marnie told me all about your job. I see you already have your own scheme in motion. You don't need me!"
"The job's not paying that much," I said flatly.
Anke grabbed my hand. "I don't mean your job." She winked. "I mean the man at the job. I'm impressed, Josie. Marnie says you've already moved into his house."