by Kenna North
Nora helped me to my feet and I wanted to just lean into her, then and there. But she led me to the bathroom, reaching into the shower to turn it on. Once it was warm, she stepped inside and gestured for me to follow. Even though my legs were shaking with lingering sensitivity, I managed to make it under the streams of water.
The next twenty minutes were spent kissing and caressing each other under the hot water as we cleaned up.
The rest of the day was similar to the previous afternoon. After we ate breakfast, we went to Nora’s office and worked side by side. I suggested a marketing plan and outlined how it would work. Nora gave her blessing, much to my giddy surprise, and I began to put it together.
I was happier than I had ever been, working next to Nora, helping her with her second love, now that I knew I was her first love.
Nothing could possibly be more perfect. Could it? I somehow even managed to forget about that bitchy Michelle.
For the moment.
Chapter 12
I couldn’t believe the week flew by so fast. Abby and I worked side by side every day, and had incredible sex every night. I fell asleep with her in my arms and woke with her next to me. We spent every moment together and, now that the time had come, I couldn’t stomach the idea of her leaving. I knew I had to ask her to stay.
I was as amazed by her mind as the rest of her. In less than a week she’d outlined, prepared, and put into play a plan to attract new business and increase old business. Already the office phones were ringing with new buyers wanting my family’s wines.
I just couldn’t let her go, but I had to find the right time to ask her to stay.
“Here’s to an incredibly successful week,” I said, holding up a wine glass on her final Friday morning in the office. Everyone had gathered in the main warehouse to see the table displaying our new ideas. With more and more new customers ordering from us every day, this was definitely an occasion to be toasted.
“So early in the morning?” Abby asked, smiling at me.
“Of course, you wouldn’t understand,” Michelle said, sneering at Abby. “Wine drinking is not for getting drunk and can be done any time of day. Of course, it takes a certain kind of sophistication to understand that.”
“Michelle, please.” I glared at the woman. “I think she knows enough, considering she’s the one who came up with the marketing plan. You have nothing to worry about anyway,” I said, turning back to Abby. “You’re taking a taxi to the airport. Though I wish you’d agreed to let me send a driver to drop you off.”
She blushed becomingly, dipping her head so her blonde waves fell around her face. I wanted to brush them away and kiss her. But I also had to maintain my composure with my employees. Rather than contemplate Abby’s hair a moment longer – or take the chance that my body would do the contemplating for me – I turned back to the assembled group.
“Here’s to what can be done with a little know-how, new ideas, and good old fashioned elbow grease!” I raised my glass and the two dozen employees did the same. I smiled as Abby raised hers and we clinked glasses. I knew this was the last chance I would have to ask if she would consider staying.
“Okay, good,” Michelle said, putting her hand on my arm and smiling at me. “Now you’re little experiment is done, your temp intern can leave and go back home, and we can get back to business without distractions. I assume you got everything you wanted from her and conquered the new challenge with flying colors?”
I saw Abby’s eyes go wide, tears brimming the edges. Turning away, she wiped at her eyes. “My taxi should be here any minute,” she said, her voiced strained. “I think I’ll wait outside and let you get back to work.”
“No, wait,” I said, pulling my arm from beneath Michelle’s unwelcome hand.
Abby lifted her suitcase and walked toward the door. “I think the waiting is done. I’ll let you get back to work without this conquest becoming even more distracting. I wish you all the success in the world. Thank you for everything you’ve taught me about your business. I’ll let you know if I need a professional reference.”
The door swing closed behind Abby and I set down my glass and moved toward the door. Michelle’s hand went to my arm again, this time gripping at my sleeve, stopping me.
“Oh, let the little girl go,” Michelle said, smiling like the cat who ate the canary. “She’s obviously done with you and didn’t get what she wanted. Let’s go back to the office and finish this bottle of wine while everyone gets back to work.”
I spun toward Michelle and the fire in my eyes made her pull back from me.
“No, Michelle,” I growled, looming over her. “It isn’t Abby that should be going anywhere. It’s you. I think you’ve done enough here. Clean out your desk and get the hell out of my sight. Hiring you was the worst decision I ever made. If I can get Abby back here and she can find a single nice thing to say about you, then and only then, can you expect a professional reference from me.”
I turned away from Michelle as she stared at me with her mouth agape. I walked with purpose, shoving the door open. I would catch up to Abby and explain to her what just happened. I couldn’t let her leave, especially not thinking what Michelle had said held any truth.
Stepping outside, I saw the taxi pulling away, with Abby inside.
Chapter 13
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I told Marie. “Not another word. I’ve said all I want to say about it.”
“Well,” Marie said, passing me a tissue to dab at my red, puffy eyes, “I think she sounds like a real piece of work. Do you think she was fucking that hag of a secretary too? I bet she was. These young women who come into money have no moral code or restraint. We’ve seen it all before, thanks to reality TV. What are the odds she’ll get her own show someday?”
“Marie!” I sobbed, fresh tears coming unbidden to me.
“I’m just saying she doesn’t realize what she let walk out of her life.” Marie swept my bangs back, tucking them behind my ear. “You’re beautiful, smart, talented, and educated, plus you can play Skyrim or Grand Theft Auto for hours, then go out and kick some college dude’s ass at foosball without blinking. Who could want a better woman than that?”
I didn’t know what to say to my bestie. She was trying to help, but I could only think of Michelle’s words and the look on Nora’s face. She was so angry that her little secret was out before I was gone. I should have known I was just a trophy, another notch in her belt, and I guess I could live with that. But the fact that she’d been sharing all that with his secretary, and that she may have been sleeping with her too... I collapsed into crying again.
“Someone’s at the door,” Marie said, confirming that the distant pounding noise I heard wasn’t just all in my head. “Do you want me to get it or ignore it? If you want, I’ll chew them out for bugging us. That might make you feel better, especially if it’s some religious nut wanting to save your soul.”
I hadn’t even really registered the knock in my mind until she said something. I’d been so caught up in my grief. I didn’t want to see anyone right now, not even the mailman. I looked horrible and felt worse. My heart was breaking, and the damned world could wait until I was ready to talk to them. How could Nora say such sweet things to me and then let Michelle talk to me like that?
“Just tell them to go away,” I mumbled, blowing my nose and turning my back to the door.
Marie pushed away from me and strode across our apartment. The squeak of the door opening penetrated my thoughts, followed by a low, urgent voice.
“I don’t care who you are and I never did, not even when you were hot shit in high school,” I heard Marie say a few seconds after she left my side. “Just fuck off and never come back. She doesn’t want to see you ever again.”
“I want to hear her say that.” There it was, Nora’s voice. “I need to explain to her what happened. I love her and I won’t leave until she tells me to go.”
Wait.
Nora was here? She flew all the way out here and she loved
me? Did I really hear that? She couldn’t have said that, because she’d said it in California and clearly only meant it in the heat of the moment.
It seemed pretty obvious that I was just some silly kid who showed up to fawn over her, stroke her ego, be an easy lay, get a few business tricks from her, and then be thrown away before I became a nuisance. I saw the way Michelle looked at her and I knew I couldn’t have heard her right.
“Maybe I didn’t say it slowly enough,” Marie snarled back at Nora. “Do you want me to use smaller words so you can understand? Get your foot out of the door and fuck off.”
I moved to the hallway where I could see the door. Nora was towering over my friend, who was fiercely scowling up at her. It was like watching a small housecat hissing at a huge dog.
“Marie,” I said, and she turned to look at me, and so did Nora. “I want to hear what she has to say.”
Nora looked at me and her face softened. I would almost say she looked at me with love, instead of pity, but she was definitely concerned.
“Okay,” Marie said, turning back to Nora and putting a hand on her shoulder to keep her from coming inside. “You can talk, but that doesn’t give you a right to push your way inside when you were such a bitch to my best friend.”
Nora looked back at Marie, a smile spreading across her face.
“I wouldn’t want you to kick my ass,” she assured Marie, her voice full of amusement. “And I have no doubt you would try your best. You must be Marie. She spoke highly of you, and seeing how you protect her, I can see why she loves you so much. Maybe I’ll have to find a position for you too. Can’t have my wife being all alone while running a business.”
“Um.” Marie’s hand dropped and she took a step back, clearly unsure what to say to all that. “Just say what you came to say, and then fuck off. That’s all.”
Nora nodded and took a deep breath. She looked at me and I could see her stiffening as our eyes met.
“Abby,” she began, “I am so sorry I hurt you. That was the last thing I wanted to do. I loved every moment we spent together and want to spend the rest of our lives together the same way we spent last week.”
“What about Michelle?” I asked, my voice thick with emotion.
“I fired her.”
“What?” I put a hand on the wall to support myself. Had she really just said what I thought she said?
“I fired her,” Nora repeated, “because she was out of line to talk to you the way she did. No one talks to the woman I love like that and gets away with it. Look Abby, it was always you, all these years, in my head and my heart.”
“Really?” Marie said, her eyes going wide. “A babe like you, stuck on Abby? She doesn’t even try to get anyone interested in her.”
“Hush Marie,” I hissed. “Go on, Nora. I want to hear whatever you have to say.” Inside, my heart was doing little flips. Could there possibly be more than this declaration of love?
“All these years, I only wanted you,” Nora continued as Marie looked back and forth from her to me. “I thought it would never happen, considering our age difference, but I never stopped thinking of you. When you contacted me, asking to come out, I couldn’t even begin to hope things would go the way I wanted them to. I tried to control myself, but once you were there I couldn’t stop myself. All the feelings I had bottled up for years, channeled into the winery, all came out. I built a kingdom, but only wanted one woman to be my queen. That’s you, Abby. I want you to come home with me, forever.”
I was stunned. This wasn’t at all what I thought she would say. Marie and Nora both stared at me, waiting for me to say something.
“Want me to throw her out?” Marie broke the silence, but didn’t sound like she wanted to do what she suggested.
****
We arrived at Nora’s home, my home, a week later. Everyone was waiting for us, just like they had the first time I arrived. As before, it surprised me to have people treat me with this kind of courtesy. I didn’t know if I would ever get used to it.
Even more stunning was the fact that her family accepted her choice of spouse. In a way, Nora had forced them to, by getting married in a very private, very secret ceremony. But once she brought me home to see her parents and gave her mother permission to plan a more elaborate wedding, all was forgiven.
I felt like a queen when I got out of the car at the vineyard, with everyone lined up to receive me. Well, except for my clothes, which were just the same old ones I’d always had. I wasn’t royalty, but Nora made me feel like it as she linked her arm through mine and went down the line introducing the staff to me.
Epilogue
It was our one-year anniversary. Well, one year since Abby had come to visit. We’d been married six months and my beautiful wife already had my family and staff wrapped around her little finger. It didn’t hurt that she let me mother get away with murder when it came to planning a ridiculously elaborate wedding for us back in New York.
Abby looked up from her computer, and her smile was radiant when she caught me watching her. I smiled back. She glowed with life and I couldn’t have been happier. I think part of it was the fresh air and the long walks in the vineyards we both enjoyed every day. My body tingled, and I stood, squeezing my legs together. I wanted to take her right then and there on the desk, as I had so many times before...
“We have another account,” Marie said, as she barged into the office, opening the door without knocking. “I think every distributor and restaurant in California now has your wine in it.”
“Marie,” Abby said, her eyes never leaving mine, “you should really learn to knock. Now go back and answer the phone. I think my wife and I are about to have a very private conference.”
To her credit, Marie’s cheeks heated with a fierce blush as she backed out of the office and shut the door firmly behind her. I didn’t waste a moment, sweeping Abby into my arms to steal a kiss and then even more.
I couldn’t have loved this women more if I tried. She made my world complete.
Excerpt from The Only One
This chick looks completely mortified. She would look less shocked if she walked onto an airplane naked. Or got caught fucking in public. Her huge hazel eyes are scared shitless, like a wounded animal. I know what scared shitless looks like. I work for one of the most ball-busting women in fashion, after all.
I turn on my smile and watch her study my face. She’s guarded... I see it. A challenge. Not an easy lay. Not my type at all. I glance at her cute friend, a babe who looks easy as poker with a blind man. She’s exactly my type. No strings. I’m not even sure what drew me to the doe-eyed girl in the first place. That’s the type I avoid at all costs.
The friend chuckles a little and pushes Hazel Eyes toward me. The friend must be taken. “No... th-thank you,” Hazel Eyes stutters, finally responding. Sinking my hands in the pockets of my jeans, I narrow my eyes.
“Are you sure? I’m good at fixing things.” Her cheeks are so red, I think she’ll turn into flames any second. I laugh. I could let my little charade go on all night. When she stays silent, I nod at her bare foot and then the shoe she clutches in her hand. “Is your heel broken? I can fix it,” I tell her, extending both my hand and an offer to put her out of her misery. I’m a fashion editor. I know all the tricks. She visibly relaxes when she realizes I’m not talking about munching on her. The joke was too easy.
Balancing on one foot, she slips her shoe back on. I catch a glimpse of her purple toes before she covers them. It reminds me of how all women get dressed after I’m done with them and I get wet just thinking about it. I alter my stance to keep my panties from sticking to me uncomfortably. Her eyes dart down to my crotch. Perfect. It’s exactly where I want her attention.
“My shoe is fine. Some idiot spilled on me,” she says, as her gaze wanders back up to my face. I make sure the smile is in place when she does. I like to watch them squirm before I leave them in the dust. She’s different though. Her expression hardens even further. “I won’t be needi
ng your services tonight.”
Ouch. Hazel Eyes isn’t even pretending; she doesn’t have any interest. Which amuses me, because that means I’m wrong. Mentally, I lower my woman targeting percentage. I’m intrigued even more. Studying her small frame, hugged inside a tight black dress, I want to see more. Because I know the challenge is steep, I want it that much more.
Her friend peeks over her shoulder. “Or maybe you do need fixing tonight, Jane?”
Her name. Something as small as a name holds a huge part in seduction. I use it to its full advantage. If the friend thinks she needs fixing, it must be really bad.
Hazel Eyes shoots her friend a death glare and hisses something under her breath. She yanks down her dress. “Despite what my soon-to-be-former best friend says, I don’t need fixing. Especially the brand of fixing you probably think you’re skilled at dealing out,” she says. Her eyes don’t waver. Her shoulders don’t sink. She stands proud as she shoots me down. The problem is I haven’t even propositioned her yet. Not really, anyway. Not flat out. Game on. Challenge accepted.
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about, Jane. I was just going to ask this fine bartender to fix you a drink. What’s your pleasure?” I ask. I don’t take my eyes off hers as I throw my hand in the air to get Barb’s attention. Surely Jane won’t turn down a drink. She is out at a bar after all.
Her poker face is tight. Almost better than Ms. Wintour herself. I’m pretty sure she’ll turn me down and it annoys me. I don’t like to waste my time, but I also don’t like being rejected before I’ve even made a move. I’m used to getting what I want and I haven’t even told her I want her. Her friend leaves and starts dancing with a girl in a tiny skirt. Hazel Eyes looks at them longingly. She bites her bottom lip. The thought of those sweet lips between my thighs pops into my mind.
“A martini. Vodka. No ice. No olives. Dirty,” she says, leaning in. Barely suppressing a groan, I order her drink and motion for her to take the seat next to me at the bar.