by Parker, Ali
Stephanie stuck a spray bottle and a cloth in my hand and told me to make myself useful. Whatever was in the bottle smelled lemony. I tried telling her my housekeeper would do it all, but she wouldn’t hear it. Then she made all kinds of naughty promises to get me to cooperate.
“All done,” Stephanie announced, proudly surveying our handiwork. She was standing in front of the windows in my living room, morning light streaming in around her. Hands on her hips, she squinted her eyes and scanned the room, nodding when she was satisfied with how it looked.
She was still wearing my T-shirt, but she’d put her hair up in a messy bun before we started cleaning. Face clear of makeup with a satisfied grin and a spray bottle of her own in one hand and plastic gloves in the other, she looked like a domestic goddess.
My domestic goddess.
“Is it time to do what I want to do yet?”
Laughing, she nodded and crossed the room to loop her arms around my neck, pushing up on her toes to give me a chaste kiss. “What did you have in mind?”
Instead of answering her, I hooked my arms around her thighs and picked her up in a fireman’s carry over my shoulder. “You’ll see.”
I carried her all the way into the shower without stopping to take off clothes. After flipping on the water, I backed her up until her back hit the wall, caged her in with my arms at the sides of her head and claimed her mouth with mine.
Stephanie responded immediately, her tongue eagerly matching every touch and stroke of mine. I swallowed the moans she emitted as my hands came up to massage her breasts and tweak her nipples.
My cock was fully erect and throbbing by the time I broke our kiss and slid to my knees in front of her, nudging her legs open so I fit between them. Her pussy was swollen and glistening, completely bare except for a thin strip of hair on her mound.
Grinning up at her, I trailed my fingers along her thighs before leaning forward and giving her one long lick. I would clean my apartment every day if it meant ending here with her. “I plan on cashing in on some of those promises now.”
Her fingers wound into my hair as her neck arched and she pushed her head back against the stone tiles, droplets of water clinging to her smooth skin. “Oh god, yes. Please, Jeremiah!”
“I’ll take that as a yes,” I murmured against her skin before I lost myself in her slick wetness, all thoughts about what could be happening with my father at Williams Inc. long forgotten. This, and a variety of other things just like it, was exactly what I needed and planned to do with the rest of my day.
Chapter 61
STEPHANIE
“This is delicious,” I told Tiana between mouthfuls of her home cooked seared steak dish. She was experimenting with new recipes to present to her boss, who was in the process of redoing the menu for the restaurant where she worked. “This is a definite winner.”
She smiled radiantly, tucking tendrils of her dark, wet hair behind her ears. “Yeah? I’m going to be trying some others this week. I really want one of them to make it onto the new menu. How awesome would it be to have something I created on an actual menu?”
“I’m already proud of you just for being one of the chosen ones who gets to have a shot at it,” I said, regretting that I was on my last bite.
“Yeah, well, not all of us can be wrapped up in the new guys in our lives,” she said, her tone light and teasing. “You were still going to tell me what happened after you got to his apartment.”
Bursts of happiness floated through my veins as I thought back on my weekend with Jeremiah. “I can honestly say the last few days have been some of the best days of my life.”
“Regular orgasms tend to do that for a girl.” She smirked, refilling her glass water bottle. We’d put in a few hours at the gym this afternoon when I got back from Jeremiah’s, even though my muscles were already sore from spending every single minute of the last couple of days with him.
I flushed thinking of all the positions he’d had me in. He was determined, creative, and insatiable. Three qualities I found I liked when it came to lovemaking. “He’s definitely talented, I’ll tell you that much.”
She chugged her water and refilled the bottle again, then did the same with mine. “You better stay hydrated. After all that exercise this weekend and again in the gym this afternoon, your body might go into shock.”
I laughed, sticking my tongue out at her but accepting the bottle she held out to me. “If I ever moved in with him, that would be a real possibility.”
Tiana paused where she was standing, carefully cleaning her professional set of knives with a special cloth now that we were done eating. Her olive eyes widened. “Have you guys talked about moving in together already?”
I choked on a sip of water, sputtering as I banged my palm against my chest and shook my head. “No. God no. Sorry, that came out wrong.”
Her shocked expression faded, and she started giggling. “Your brain must really be fried after spending all that time with him. Although, this is you we’re talking about. You do have a way of talking before you think.”
I bumped my shoulder against hers when I walked past her to rinse my plate. “What can I say? I’m an honest person.”
“An honest person who nearly gave me a heart attack and almost choked herself, but yeah. I guess you are.”
Resisting the urge to stick my tongue out at her again, I realized that while we hadn’t talked about moving in, I also hadn’t told her what we did talk about. “He asked me to go steady with him.”
Tiana lifted a dark brow, her eyes glittering with humor. “What is this, high school? Did he actually ask you to ‘go steady’?”
I rolled my eyes, rubbing between my brows with a specially chosen finger. “It was sweet. Besides, the way he asked doesn’t matter. It’s that he asked. I officially have a boyfriend.”
After setting down the knife she was cleaning, Tiana squeaked and launched herself at me in a big hug. “I’m so happy for you. You deserve that smile he puts on your face and so much more.”
I returned her hug and smiled at her heartfelt enthusiasm. “Thank you. I mean it, by the way. I would never have met him if it wasn’t for you.”
She released me and waved her hand dismissively. “You two would’ve found each other somehow, I’m sure. And it was you who turned him from rich bastard into someone worthy of dating.”
“I didn’t turn him into anything. It was all already there. I think he just has a hard time letting people see past the billionaire into the man.”
Tiana rocked her head from side to side, then shrugged. “I’ve never been a billionaire, but I guess it makes sense. People would expect things from you, treat you differently.”
I nodded. “I don’t think it’s always easy to know who’s around you for you and who’s around you for the money or the chance at an appearance in a tabloid.”
Scrunching up her nose, Tiana went back to her set of knives. “I would hate that. It makes me happy for him too that he found you. When you got home that first day after your interview, who would’ve thought the bastard would ever win you over?”
“His cocky side is still there, trust me. I just find it charming rather than annoying now.”
Tiana laughed. “It’s ironic that the personality trait that almost made you run the other way is now something you find charming. Maybe I should revisit all my annoying exes. You never know, maybe there was a charmer in there somewhere.”
She ducked when I chucked a dish cloth at her, neatly sidestepping it. “I didn’t say he was that bad, did I?”
Raising both her eyebrows, she nodded. “You made him sound like the villain in a Disney movie.”
I sighed, accepting that I might have thought that way about him once. He was always gorgeous and alluring, but boy did the arrogant bastard impression get to me at first. “It’s amazing how good he is at hiding what a wonderful guy he actually is underneath all that.”
“Wonderful?” She smirked, rolling her knives carefully into the leather pou
ch she carried them around in. When she was done, she hopped up on the counter and swung her legs while I washed up.
“Wonderful,” I repeated. “He’s sweet and playful at times, but then he can also be soulful and serious. He makes me laugh, and he’s really smart.”
“If he makes you laugh, he’s got my vote,” she said easily. Tiana’s parents were one of those couples who still flirted and laughed every day after more than two decades of marriage. Her mom always talked about how laughter and communication were the two ingredients any relationship needed to be successful. “Sparing me the naughty details, what did you guys do all weekend for him to convince you how wonderful he was?”
“Lots of naughty details to omit,” I said, turning just in time to avoid the dirty cloth she threw back at my head. “Okay, okay. We just spent time together, every minute from when I got to his apartment on Thursday night to this morning when he dropped me off.”
“That’s a long time,” she said. “You never got tired of him or felt like you were overstaying your welcome?”
I shook my head. “Strangely no. He was a perfect gentleman about it. He made me feel so at home, and he kept insisting I stay. I didn’t get bored at all.”
Tiana nodded, impressed. “That’s a good sign. Have you thought about the future at all? What you’re going to do at work?”
I washed my hands when I was done with the dishes, then got out two wine glasses and pulled a chilled bottle from the fridge, filling both glasses. “We haven’t talked about it, but I’m worried about going back to Williams Inc. tomorrow.”
“Because of your relationship?” She sipped the wine I handed her, meeting my eyes over the rim of the glass.
“No, it’s not that.” I thought back to the morning Jannie took Jeremiah and everything that happened after that. “I think it’s going to be awkward after the whole Jannie thing. Not to mention that I yelled at his dad.”
“It was necessary at the time.” Tiana was firmly on my side as she always was. I could count on her to be honest with me, to give me her opinions on everything I did without fear of her judging me.
But I also knew that no matter how widely our views differed, she was always on my side. She would always support me, same as what I did for her. The first time I realized I had unconditional support from her, it was like something clicked for me.
Not only did I realize how very wrong my parents were for always sticking conditions on everything, but also that having someone support you no matter what made you stronger. It gave me strength and confidence to know I could count on her to support me, even if that support was in the form of a much-needed reality check sometimes.
She looked at me now, squaring her shoulders as though she was the one about to face an adversary the next day. “Just remember, you’re a badass. You can handle whatever happens. We’ve weathered worse storms than anything Jance Williams can throw at you.”
Matching her change in posture, I sipped my wine and nodded. It was amazing how much better confiding in my best friend could make me feel. One day, if and when I got there, I would have to get my guardian angel a huge gift basket to thank her for sending a friend like Tiana across my path.
Chapter 62
JEREMIAH
An annoying buzzing woke me up from a deep sleep on Monday morning. Again. I sat up, disoriented at first.
Shaking off the cobwebs, I realized the buzzing was my phone ringing. Neil. Again. I scrubbed my palms over the stubble that had grown on my cheeks overnight and sighed, knowing that I had to take his call.
The long weekend with Steph had worked wonders for me. Despite everything that happened last week, I felt revitalized, refreshed, and ready to face my father and whatever rampage he started on Friday.
Neil updated me throughout the day as he promised he would, but neither of us could really figure out what Dad was up to. According to Neil, he raised hell, but he kept his cards close to his chest.
No doubt today would be the day that changed. My father was a great chess player. He strategized as well as any king ever had, which was probably how he managed to build Williams Inc. into the multinational conglomerate it was in a few decades.
Companies the size of and with the reach of Williams Inc. usually took generations to build up. Jance had done it all himself.
But it also meant he only let you see his moves when he made them, in his own good time and not a minute before. Whatever he got lined up on Friday, we would see him start knocking the chess pieces over one by one this week.
Taking a moment to brace myself for the first hit I knew was inevitably about to land, I reached for my phone and answered Neil’s call. “I’m assuming you’ve got news.”
My eyes slid to the digital black numbers on the clock on my nightstand. “He’s on the move early this morning, it’s only six thirty,” I said.
“I don’t know what time he got in, but I think he’s been busy with this all weekend anyway. He called me at four and told me to get my butt down to the tower immediately,” Neil said, his tone clipped and tense.
“Let’s have it then, what’s going on?” I got out of bed, walking over to my bedroom windows while I waited to hear what my fate at Williams Inc. would be.
I yanked open the blackout curtains just as Neil started talking, his words fast and almost dazed. Like he didn’t quite believe he was saying what he was. “Jance removed your name from every company file, the letterhead, and every platform we have.”
I sighed, gripping the hair at the nape of my neck. The bastard was going through with it, apparently. “He’s finally firing me?”
“I think so. Probably later today,” Neil said. Stress weighed down every word out of his mouth. “I don’t think he’s bluffing, Jer. At first, I thought he was just trying to make his point, but he’s got the whole army of lawyers in his office. And I accessed our employee platform earlier, you name’s not even on payroll anymore.”
“I’m not surprised.” I had given him an ultimatum, after all. Dad didn’t appreciate being told what to do. The only ultimatums he tolerated were those he issued. “I wasn’t sure if he’d go through with it, but I knew what I was doing when I told him to make a decision. I knew there was every chance he was going to fire me.”
“I never thought he would,” Neil said, still sounding incredulous. “I thought it was just another blowout that would pass.”
“It might have.” If I hadn’t followed up standing up to my father at the office with that visit to his home. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“One more thing, Jer,” Neil said, trepidation in every syllable.
I gritted my teeth, bracing myself. “What?”
“It’s probably going to happen as soon as you get here, seeing as your dad’s already here. I thought you should know before you arrive that he’s firing Stephanie as well.”
My blood chilled. I wouldn’t have wanted her working for a tyrant like him without me in the building anyway, but I was planning on having Neil look out for her. After all this time she was finally settling in at Williams Inc., I knew the job meant a lot to her. “On what grounds?”
“Does he need grounds?” Neil asked. His voice muffled and then became clear again like he’d had his hand briefly stuck over it. “I can’t talk long. Apparently, the fun is continuing elsewhere in the building. I have to go try and do damage control.”
“Got it. Just tell me about Steph, then I’ll let you go. I need to prepare her.” The news was going to devastate her. If I could’ve wrapped her in bubble wrap to protect her from the blow, I would have. Of course, she wouldn’t let me. She would insist on standing on her own two feet for this as well, even if it was the last thing she needed after finally overcoming her parents’ abandonment and going after what she wanted.
Over the weekend, we talked a lot. I knew she felt like she was finally starting to come into her own and was rightfully proud of herself for it. One thing was for sure, I wasn’t going to stand idly by and watch her struggle o
r be unemployed until we could get things figured out.
This wasn’t her fault. I wasn’t going to let her pay for mistakes she hadn’t made.
“There’s another young woman sitting at Stephanie’s desk,” Neil said. “Your father planted her there and said she wasn’t to move a muscle until you got in. She’s going to call him as soon as you do.”
“He’s already got someone else manning her desk?” Barely contained fury gripped my gut. He was playing a dirty game. If he thought I was going to lie down and take it, he had another thing coming.
Neil sighed. “Since six o’clock this morning, yeah. Stephanie’s termination has already been processed. There’s not much to be done about it at this stage.”
Taking a deep breath, I looked out over the city skyline and absorbed Neil’s words. Surprisingly, when I exhaled, I found I wasn’t as angry as I thought I would be. The rage from a minute before started dissipating when I realized the news of how dirty he was playing didn’t come as a shock at all.
Stephanie’s termination already being processed might even be a good thing. She had bigger dreams than being my secretary at my father’s company, and so did I. I had only stuck around to honor Jack’s memory and to help out my family.
Apparently, my father didn’t need my help. I inhaled another breath and relaxed my grip on my phone. When I looked out of my window again, it was like I was seeing things differently. Just a tad, but the tiny shift that happened inside me was an essential one.
“Thanks, Neil,” I said sincerely. “I appreciate the heads up, as always.”
“Sure, man. I’m sorry to have woken you up with this news.” He had woken me up, literally and in a different way.