Forbidden First Times
A Contemporary Romance Collection
Sofia T Summers
Copyright © 2020 by Sofia T Summers
All rights reserved.
The following story contains mature themes, strong language and sexual situations. It is intended for mature readers.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Rival Attraction
Fake Bride
Dear Boss
Secret Baby
Boss’s Baby
The Temptation
Baby for Brother’s Best Friend (Excerpt)
Connect with Sofie
Rival Attraction
Description
I’m never walking down that path again.
Even if he kisses better than any other man.
We’ll always be bitter rivals.
Eight years ago, he ruined my life. Now, the grade-A jerk is back to do it again.
Christopher Kinnison is many things.
Cruel.
Arrogant.
Handsome.
Conceited.
One thing he absolute is not is kind.
He proved that eight years ago when he destroyed my dreams and career along with my heart.
What the hell did I ever do to karma that she sent him back into my life?
And we are supposed to be working together – again!
The devil might be easier to work with than Chris.
At least I could resist the beast with the horns.
But the flesh and blood man in front of me is another story.
We’re not the same college kids we were back then.
Being single parents means we both have bigger priorities than our own hang-ups.
But the same sizzle between us is impossible to ignore.
He may be my sworn enemy, but love isn’t always logical or fair.
Prologue
Hollie
Tuesday (Eight years earlier)
I was a horrible person.
Sure, I made mistakes in my life which were pretty bad, but suddenly it seemed insignificant compared to what I was about to do. Let me just make this abundantly clear, I was not the kind of person who liked hurting people and stabbing them in the back, but this needed to be done.
I needed to do this for myself.
I was raised by my amazing parents to stick up for myself and not let anyone stand in my way of getting to the top. And by top, I meant in life, and not sexually speaking. Although, being on top was quite fun, especially when I had the best view of my sexy boyfriend.
The same sexy boyfriend that would pretty soon hate my guts.
Chris shifted beside me and I glanced over at him. He had his back to me, his shoulder muscles moving under the rhythm of his breathing.
Don’t get me wrong, he was sexy as f*ck. Dark hair, dark eyes, and an intense gaze that melted my clothes right off my body. He was funny and smart and did well in his classes without really trying too hard.
Chris was also very competitive, and it wasn’t always a good thing, especially since we worked at the same advertising company as interns. He tended to be controlling at times and believed that his ideas were the best, regardless of anyone else’s.
Which was exactly the reason why I had this knot in my stomach.
We argued last night, about work, of course. We had to do a presentation in the morning for a room full of potential clients, and Chris had knocked down every single idea I had. Some of them were good, really good, but he believed that his idea was better. I believed mine was.
I had it all worked out. I would simply replace his presentation with mine. Sure, he was going to be pissed, but I believed in my presentation, and I believed that it was better than his.
Of course, when the argument reached its pinnacle, Chris came on to me with those chocolatey eyes and that crooked smile and before I knew it, we were making love in his dorm room, while music blasted down the hall.
How romantic.
I enjoyed every second of it, but couldn’t stop thinking that he was doing this simply to keep my mouth shut and forget all about the presentation.
It didn’t happen like that, obviously.
I stared up at the ceiling, thinking of the USB drive on my desk with my presentation on it, and the repercussions of my soon to be released actions. I figured it was better to sneak out of his room before he woke up and noticed the tension I held between my eyes.
Luckily, I had the ability to creep out of his bed undetected and quietly got dressed. I buttoned my jeans and pulled my t-shirt over my head, the logo of the University of Chicago proudly printed in white, contrasting perfectly against the maroon color. I tied my brown hair into a messy bun and quietly lifted my bag from the floor.
When Chris let out a snort, I hurried to the door and quickly left. God forbid he had to wake up now and see me sneaking out of his room.
Either way, I was doomed.
My alarm clock sounded sooner than I had hoped, and I groaned as I rolled over in bed. After a lengthy stretch, I climbed out of bed and noticed that there was no text from Chris, much to my relief, to be honest. I ate breakfast – as my mom always said it was the most important meal of the day – and started to get ready. I traded my casual college girl attire for something a little more professional, and to be honest I looked more like a lawyer than someone who was in advertising. My high-waisted pencil skirt hugged my hips snugly, and my soft white shirt was tucked into the band of my skirt, slightly loose to soften the hard lines. I parted my hair to the side, curling only the ends, and applied simple makeup, with a smoky eye and nude lipstick. A pair of pale pink high heels finished off my look, and I was more than satisfied with my reflection.
I arrived at the office before Chris did, and as I began to set up the projector in the conference room, a strange feeling filled up inside me.
Traitorous and fickle.
I truly wished that I didn’t have to resort to such an underhanded tactic, but Chris didn’t take me seriously. I had to prove once and for all that I was more than capable of having great ideas for a client. I wasn’t going to blow our presentation with the clients because Chris was being his usual stubborn self. Plus, I had a point to prove to myself. I was one of the few women interns in the office, and I wanted to prove that I was good enough, or even better than any male intern. In fact, my future career in the advertising business depended on it. Mr. Dalton, the owner, and CEO of the company only hired two interns, and I was going to make sure that I was one of them.
No matter what.
Did this include throwing my boyfriend under the bus?
Technically I wasn’t throwing him under anything. I was just replacing our entire presentation with mine.
I glanced up at the clock against the wall and swallowed hard as I noticed that the clients, as well as Chris, would be here in a few minutes.
“Morning, babe,” Chris suddenly said beside me and I turned to him. “You’re here early.”
“Hey,” I said as Chris leaned closer to me and kissed me swiftly on the lips. “I just wanted to make sure that everything is perfect.”
“As long as you say exactly what we rehearsed the whole of last week, it will be,” he assured me. “We’re going to kill it.”
I pursed my lips and nodded slowly.
Oh god. What have I done?
By the time the clients were all
seated, my heart was already pounding painfully in my chest. I glanced at Chris and said to him, “Are you sure you want me to start?”
“Of course. You have a room full of men at your mercy, so smile that beautiful smile of yours, babe.”
A bitter feeling of nausea bubbled up in the pit of my stomach and I cocked my head at him. This is going to end badly, for sure. “Okay.”
“Just like we practiced,” he answered with a wink.
I approached the podium – only it wasn’t really a podium per se – and clutched the electronic clicker which controlled the digital presentation. “Good morning, gentlemen. My name is Hollie Jameson, and this is my colleague Christopher Kinnison. Today we wish to welcome you to Michael Dalton Advertising and hope that you will find our presentation of value to you. If there are any questions, I do urge you to wait until the end of the presentation,” I said with the utmost confidence.
I noticed Chris readied himself to step forward, and I drew in a quick breath to give me the courage I needed to continue. “We all know that advertising is the most important aspect of spreading the word for your company, and I have the perfect solution to suit all your needs. The times have certainly changed from flyers to all things digital, and my approach will give you the benefits of word of mouth distribution along with the cost-effective benefits we deserve in a digital age.”
From the corner of my eye, I noticed Chris growing increasingly frustrated with me, but I dared not look at him.
Chris suddenly laughed out loud and the clients shifted their attention to him. “Don’t you just love a woman’s enthusiasm?”
He stepped forward and cleared his throat. “Let’s be honest, gentlemen. How many times have you heard a pitch like that from our competitors? Claiming that there was a way to maximize distribution reach, while at the same time minimizing your costs to a point that they are non-existent? Countless.”
“Chris, what are you doing?” I whispered through a forced smile.
“Let me handle this,” he turned briefly to me before addressing the clients. “Miss Jameson’s introduction was the perfect lure to entice you into agreeing, while there are so many underlying costs which our competitors will only make you aware of.”
“Excuse my colleague, but that’s not the case here,” I interrupted, and he glanced at me, his jaw clenched.
“Hollie…” he warned. “Sit down.”
“No, I am not going to sit down.”
“This is not the presentation that we agreed on.”
“You mean it’s not what you agreed on,” I pointed out to him. “Mine is better and they deserve to listen to the better presentation.”
“Yours is not better, Hollie!”
“Can you stop belittling me and just admit that my ideas are better than yours?” I asked and made the mistake of glancing at the clients, who looked stunned in their seats.
“Miss Jameson and Mr. Kinnison, my office, now.” I suddenly heard my supervisor’s voice behind me and sighed as I turned towards him. He stood in the doorway; his eyes angry. Both Chris and I quietly left the conference room and I heard Mr. Carlton apologize profusely to the clients.
“This is all your fault,” Chris muttered as he walked to Mr. Carlton’s office. Chris opened the door and stepped in, and I followed him inside.
“How is this my fault?” I muttered. “If you hadn’t undermined me and shot down my ideas, ideas which were really good, I wouldn’t have been forced to do what I did.”
“We worked on this presentation together, we worked so hard-”
“You worked hard? I tried so hard to please you that I compromised my opinion to suit yours,” I spat. “At every opportunity, I asked you to hear me out, and every single time you dismissed me like I didn’t matter. Do you know how that feels? Do you know what it feels like to be a woman in a predominantly male workplace? You get flirted with constantly, no-one takes you seriously, and the one time I tried to stand up for myself and prove that I’m not just another hot piece of ass who got the internship by sleeping her way to the top, you call me out on it and embarrass me in front of a room full of clients!”
“You embarrassed me too!”
“Oh, boo-fucking-hoo.”
“That’s enough!”
Mr. Carlton was in the doorway again, as if he magically appeared and I pursed my lips.
“What the hell is the matter with you two?”
“In my defense, Mr. Carlton, this was all Hollie.”
I raised my eyebrows in disbelief, but I honestly wasn’t surprised that he threw me under the bus. Although Chris was loyal to me, there was one thing more important to him than I was.
His career. And proving that he had what it took to be successful.
“I was just trying to-”
“Will you both be quiet!” Mr. Carlton bellowed, which silenced us both. “I don’t care who’s fault this is, or who started what. I can’t allow anyone to behave like that in front of potential clients. It’s unprofessional and goes against every single company policy we have!”
I opened my mouth to point something out to him, but he raised his hand, and I stepped back.
“You interns think that the sun shines out of your ass, doing as you please, behaving as you please, but I will not allow it any longer. You’re both fired.”
“What?” both Chris and I gasped.
“You heard me. Now get out of here. I have your mess to clean up.”
Mr. Carlton stomped out of the office and I drew in a deep breath.
“What the fuck, Hollie?” Chris exclaimed. “You just got us fired!”
“We got ourselves fired.”
“No, this was all you? Why did you have to do that? Do you honestly feel so insecure about being a girl that you will do anything to make me look bad?”
“It’s not about me being insecure. I just wanted to prove to you that my idea was better.”
“But it’s not! Now I’m fired from the one job that could have gotten me out of that shitty dorm and into a place where we could live the way we wanted to. With no loud music coming from across the hall, no drunken people barging into my room. I thought you wanted to be better than that?”
“I guess I thought I wanted to be a lot of things,” I muttered and turned away from him.
I didn’t wait for him to respond. I simply left Mr. Carlton’s office, grabbed my handbag from under my small cubicle and proceeded to the elevators.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” he asked behind me, already in the elevator with me.
The elevator doors closed, trapping me inside with him and I glanced up at him. “If you have to ask, you’re not as smart as you think you are.”
“You think this is a game?”
“You’re the one who’s acting the fool, Chris. I was trying to win us that deal, not make you look bad, or get us fired. I wanted them to be impressed with us-”
“Well, clearly you failed,” he retorted snidely as the doors reopened.
I stepped out into the parking garage and turned to him. “So did you.”
I turned back on my heel and walked to my car.
“Where are you going?”
“Away from you.”
“This isn’t over,” Chris called out as we stomped off in two opposite directions to our cars.
“We both know that’s not true,” I said simply.
Despite my cool, calm and collected demeanor, inside I felt as though I was breaking.
Had it all been worth it? Was my insistence to prove that I was worthy of working successfully in a male-dominated workplace so important?
I just lost my internship, and possibly my relationship with Chris, but if he couldn’t support me in the things that were important to me, then what I had done had just saved me from a life of misery and regret.
Either way though, I wasn’t sure about my future anymore. What I was sure of was that it did not involve Chris Kinnison.
1
Chris
Mo
nday: Eight Years Later
Strong coffee was made for Mondays, because damn, Mondays could be a bitch sometimes. I especially needed it today, as a busy day still lay ahead of me. I had hordes of emails to still get to, but they had to wait, for now. The board members had a meeting in the boardroom in ten minutes, and I just couldn’t help but smile in complete satisfaction.
The company I worked for, Marlow and Steede Media, was in the process of merging with a marketing start-up company and we’re about to launch a massive new campaign in the next coming weeks. Everything was still kept under wraps, treating our business plans and strategies like it was a state secret.
And they were.
Top secret plans to make this merger, and the campaign, take over the entire continental U.S. We were even going to tap into the international market which could mean billions and billions of dollars in investments.
As the marketing director for Marlow and Steed Media, I expected to be put in charge of this campaign, as I possessed the skill to communicate well with clients, and of course my extensive knowledge in my field. This would be the largest account under my belt, which would make me look good in front of the president of the company, Mr. George Marlowe himself. His sister, Nicole Steede operated from her office in New York, where she kept a close eye on everything even from a distance.
If everything went well with the campaign, the title of Senior Vice President was as good as mine. In fact, I expected George to mention it at the meeting.
I drank the last mouth-full of coffee and as I placed my cup back on my desk, a tap sounded on my door, followed by George’s head peeking through the gap.
“Meeting in five, Christopher.”
George was practically the only person who still called me by my full name – everyone else just called me Chris – except my mother, even after all these years as my boss.
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