by Karina Halle
“Is she seriously going to work here?” Neil asks. It takes me a moment to realize I’ve been staring dumbly at the door ever since Riley abruptly got up and walked away.
I manage to look at him, trying to shake some sense into me and ignore the erection in my jeans. Damn it, that was just from talking to her. How the fuck am I going to survive everything else?
“Yes. She’s Riley Clarke,” I tell him, doing my fucking hardest to act like the boss. Neil is a bit of a loser and always trying to undermine what I’m doing. It was always there in the past but ever since I was promoted to head of the department, he’s gotten shittier. He’s the type of guy who would throw me under every bus if he could and then brag about it.
He nods, biting his lip. There’s something about his expression I don’t like and I’m afraid to ask. So I don’t. I wait. Neil also has a bad habit of sharing too much information.
“Damn,” he eventually says to himself, flopping down in the seat where she just was. “Damn, damn, damn.”
“Something the matter?”
“Have you seen her, Mav?”
“I have eyes, dipshit.”
He shakes his head. “Oh man. Oh…fuck. I shouldn’t tell you this because I don’t want to get in trouble but…”
I sit up in my chair. “What?”
“Nah,” he says, squeezing the bridge of his nose while smiling at nothing. “Nah, forget it.”
I fight the urge to roll my eyes. “What the fuck is it, Neil?”
He takes in a deep breath, completely over dramatic, which already makes me want to punch him, so it’s not starting out good. “Okay. Okay. Dude. Okay. So…”
“I swear to God, Neil…”
He grins. “That girl? That fucking hot piece of ass we just saw stroll out of here. Well…guess what?”
I stare at him.
He slaps his hand on the desk, making my coffee cup jump. “Guess!”
“What?”
“I met her last night.”
I jerk my chin back. “What? Where? How?”
“At Altitudes. She came in, drunk and smiling and she came straight over to me. Out of everyone in the bar, she came to me.”
I shouldn’t feel anything as he’s telling me this except the annoyance I get every time he speaks, but I am. Jealousy. The red-hot kind that hits your gut like a poker. The kind I rarely feel.
I don’t want him to go on.
But he does.
“Before you lecture me, she told me her name was Candace. I believed her. More than that, I didn’t care. Soon she was all over me and she took me back to her place.”
You fucking asshole.
“I’ve never been one to kiss and tell,” he says, flashing me an overly smug smile as he tugs at the collar of his jacket. “But I fucked that pussy all night long. She couldn’t stop moaning.”
I manage to swallow, my jaw tense, everything inside me wanting to rise up and kill him. “You didn’t.”
“Oh, I did. Didn’t you just see the way she looked at me? She wants me. Bad. And I’ll give that blondie whatever she wants.”
“Fucking hell you will.”
Neil rolls his eyes as he gets to his feet. “You jealous, Mav? The town’s lady-killer can’t bear to share, huh? Can’t stand that I got the hottest chick North Ridge has ever seen, while you didn’t.”
I give him an acidic smile. “What do you think this is, a pissing contest on the playground?”
He shrugs, his hands on the back of the chair and leaning over me. “Maybe. I’m just saying, I’ve never seen you look so bothered before. Everything usually rolls right off you.”
“It’s because I am bothered, Neil. I’m bothered that I have such a fucking douchebag on my team. And yeah, I’m talking about you. You know that you absolutely cannot touch her again.”
“Yeah, sure. Stop me.” He scoffs, completely playing the part like he’s in some sort of bad 80s movie.
I get up and cross my arms, knowing I’m more than intimidating when standing next to him. “I have a million ways of stopping you, believe me. But the only one worse than my fist is the fact that it’s against the goddamn rules.”
“What rules?”
“The rules, assface. I’m your boss, I think I’d know them.”
“Pretty sure it’s against the rules for my boss to call me assface,” he mumbles.
“I’ll call you whatever the fuck I want to until you listen to me. She is off-limits, you got it? Not that I think she would dare touch you again, but regardless, she’s just your colleague from now on.”
“What are you going to do, fire me for that?”
I take in a deep breath. “No. I wish I could. But I would have to report it to the higher ups and then what? Fraternizing with colleagues is against the rules. Maybe at an office job you could let it fly, who the hell knows, but when it comes to what we do, when we put our lives on the line as well as the lives of the people we rescue, we can’t afford to get involved with each other.”
He looks me over, thinking with that stupid expression still on his face. “Didn’t you get in shit for something like this once before?”
“It doesn’t matter. What matters is, right now, going forward, if you touch her, I have to report you. It’s the government man, you know how they operate. You’ll be gone.”
Now he’s full-on glaring which has the same intensity of a mouse trying to stare down a cat. “And if she touches me? Is this a personal thing, Mav? What happens to her?”
“She’d be fired too. But I’ll make sure she knows the rules in case she doesn’t.”
He makes a growling sound as he pushes back from the chair and points at me. “This is all because you hate me, isn’t it?”
“I don’t hate you. I tolerate you. And these are just the rules. If you were in my position—”
“Yeah, if I were in your position. We both know I should have gotten the promotion, not you.”
“Right. Well, them’s the breaks, ain’t it, kid?”
He shrugs, throwing his arms out and heads toward the door. “I don’t even know why I came here today.”
“Me neither, but as long as you know why you’re leaving.”
He opens the door and pauses at it, cold air rushing in. “Fine. She’s off-limits to me, which means she’s off-limits to you. Don’t think I didn’t notice how you were looking at her, what you were thinking. I doubt you’d want my sloppy seconds anyway, but even so, if you’re watching me, I’m watching you.”
“Fine with me.”
“I guess the only thing I have over you, boss, is that I know what it’s like to be inside a fine specimen like that. And you never will. Hope that eats you up inside every day you end up working beside her.”
And with that he leaves, slamming the door behind him.
I exhale loudly, trying to dispel the bad energy inside, and run my hand over my face. Jesus, that all escalated fast. I’m pretty sure I scared him off from trying anything with Riley, but now I have to stick to my own fucking word. And it doesn’t change the fact that Riley will be starting here in a bit of a sticky situation.
After that morning, I have no urge to stick around the office anymore so I lock up and head to the resort to hit the slopes. You’d think when I work in the mountains most of the time I’d end up going elsewhere for stress relief, but the truth is the mountains always have a way of bringing me down to earth. It’s not even that it’s the wild, there’s something about being high up and looking down that helps you look down on your own problems. When you’re on the ground, you don’t know what’s above. When you’re above, you know everything—where you’ve come from, where you’re going.
I snowboard for a few hours, alone, just whipping along the snow until I’m numb on the outside and alive on the inside.
It’s ridiculous, really, for me to get worked up over Neil. We never see eye-to-eye and honestly, now that I’m his boss, I shouldn’t let him get to me at all. We’re no longer on the same playing field and
in order to lead my team, I can’t be seen as a friend anymore. Not that I ever was with Neil, but I had gotten close to Tony, Tim, and Jace over the years. I still don’t think they see me as a leader or someone in charge, just good ol’ Mav, always up for a laugh and a good time. I need to work harder at being taken seriously and that’s only going to happen when I stop thinking of these guys as my friends. We have a job to do and it’s a serious one.
But, damn it. Riley. I know there was never any reason to think she’d even be interested in me. I mean, I know I’m a good fuck, I know I’ve got the tattoos and muscles and I can both clean-up and dirty-down real well. But my ego isn’t so out of control as to think every woman wants me. Usually they do, but sometimes there’s a wild card out there who throws me for a loop. Riley might have been that.
Not with the way she was looking at you, a voice says. This is the voice that continuously gets me in trouble, the one that tells me I can do things like hit on a married woman or try and date two sisters at once. You know she liked what she saw.
And while that may be true, it doesn’t mean a thing. The last thing I need is to complicate shit as a new boss by sleeping with the new hire. That ship has sailed and I should thank Neil for that one. He probably, and inadvertently, saved me from making a big mistake.
I just wish he hadn’t slept with her. It’s not that I’ve lost any respect for Riley—after all, I just met her—and a woman’s body is her own business. If she wants to get some, good for her. But I don’t think Riley has any idea what kind of a tool Neil is. She seems too smart and good for that.
Plus, Neil did say she was drunk. For all I know, it was a colossal mistake on her behalf. Even so, I know I have to talk to her about it. The last thing I want is to bring it up, but if she is under the impression that any of that is okay, I have to tell her before things get worse.
I have to cockblock her against Neil—ironically, I’ll also end up cockblocking myself.
Later that evening, after I’m spent from boarding and have watched an obscene amount of Netflix with Chewie, I convince Fox to go with me to The Bear Trap. Not that he needs much convincing, it’s practically his second home. My theory isn’t because there’s beer there, it’s the company.
Over the years I’ve become increasingly convinced that he has it bad for Delilah. He denies it when I bring it up, of course. The girl is practically a sister to us and it’s her mother, Jeanine, that raised us boys after our mother died. But even so, I swear there’s something there. It’s none of my business, but sometimes I think that Fox would calm down a bit if he finally let it all out.
Compared to Shane’s celebrations last night, the pub tonight is quiet. There’s only old-timer Joe—the pub’s drunk—and a few other locals that Fox knows from the resort, Del behind the bar, and…
Riley.
Sitting right there on the bar stool, sipping on a beer and tossing peanut shells to the ground.
And fuck me.
She’s even hotter than before. Now I can see more of her body and skin and I’m floored to find her arms have tattoos. I see some vibrant colors, a rose and a heart peeking out underneath the three-quarter length sleeve of her white sweater, bright reds that match the bright red stain on her lips.
She looks over at me and her eyes widen for a second, gorgeous baby-blue saucers that drink me in, before she gives me a quick smile and looks back to Del.
Del is loving this a little too much.
“Hey boys,” she says with a big smile. “What are you having?”
Fox returns the grin as he sidles up to the bar. “Why do you even ask?”
Del shrugs. “Bad habits die hard.” She jerks her head at Riley. “Fox, have you met Riley before?”
He nods at her. “You’re the newcomer.”
“Word travels fast in small towns, doesn’t it,” she says, though she looks at me as she says it.
“Why are you standing over there?” Del asks, waving me over. “She doesn’t bite.”
“Not usually,” Riley says under her breath, holding the top of her beer bottle loosely between her fingers.
I come over, feeling strangely awkward about this whole thing. “I didn’t know you’d be here,” I told her, hoping she doesn’t think I’m stalking her.
“Well I figured you might be here,” she says, nodding at the stool beside her. “Are you going to sit down or what?”
She’s a fucking firecracker.
“Actually,” I tell her, leaning in close enough that I can smell her, a faint lemon and sugar scent that courses through me, “now that you’re here, there’s something I’d like to talk to you about. In private.”
Fox clears his throat and nods at the dart board. “Think I’ll do better tonight. Del, you’re not serving anyone, have a game.”
I don’t have to look at Del to know that the last thing she wants to do is leave her post and throw darts when she can just eavesdrop on us, but as usual, Fox wins her over.
Riley watches as they go, chewing on her lip momentarily and looking as if she wishes she could be anywhere else but here. Not me though. I’m more than enjoying being this close to her. I could fucking smell her all day. Up close, her skin looks even more tempting than before.
“I hate to ask,” she says slowly as she brings her eyes back to meet mine. “But am I in trouble?”
I take the seat next to her, one arm leaning against the bar. “No. It’s nothing like that.” I pause. “Not really.”
“Oh shit,” she says and then slams down the rest of her beer.
“Look, I know we only met each other today and we’re going to be working alongside each other for hopefully a long time. So I want to start things off on the right foot. I want this to be a good working environment for you. We have an important job to do. It’s taxing. It’s stressful. I get that you need as much support from the people you work with as possible.”
She stares at me and I have to ignore the heat that’s building inside me, that pure primal urge that makes me want to stop talking and kiss her. I think her mouth would taste like cherries, it looks like cherries. Sweet and red and shiny.
“But,” I go on, tearing my eyes away from them, “I have to set something straight. I don’t want you to think that you can’t talk to me about anything and vice versa. So, well, as awkward as this is for me to tell you, I know what, uh, happened between you and Neil last night.”
She pinches her eyes shut with a heavy sigh. “I knew it.”
“And it’s fine. I don’t want you to think I’m judging. Okay, I am a little. Neil, if you haven’t realized it by now, is a complete shitburger and you can do a million times better. But it happened and I get that.”
“This is so embarrassing,” she moans, pressing the tip of her beer bottle repeatedly against her forehead, her blonde hair falling across her face.
“I get that too. As your boss, this is the last thing I want to talk to you about. But it has to be said. You’re not in trouble for what happened, but just know that there are rules. Unfortunately in some cases, maybe not so unfortunately in yours. But we’re not allowed to date each other.”
She looks at me through the strands of hair. “You mean, we can’t date each other?”
That catches me off guard. “Uh, well yeah. We can’t. But I meant you and anyone you work with. Same goes for me. I’m not sure if you had plans for Neil again, but I have to tell you that would be against the rules. It’s a fireable offence. I just gave him this lecture so it was only fair I deliver the same one to you.”
“God, I’m such a mess,” she says and I still can’t see her face through her lion’s mane.
Without thinking, I reach out and tuck her hair behind her ear.
Her hair is soft, like silk, her skin even softer.
I should not have just done that. That’s way too inappropriate of a gesture considering what we’re currently talking about.
And damn it, now she’s looking at me in a way I can’t read.
“You’
re not a mess,” I say quickly, taking my hand away. “Shit happens.”
“I was so drunk last night.”
“It’s fine. You don’t have to explain anything to me.”
“And lonely,” she adds.
Hell. That one goes straight to my heart. A girl like her should never be lonely.
I swallow. “Oh, well—”
“And he was there and I don’t remember much of it. I was just frustrated, you know. I didn’t even give him my real name. The whole thing was a giant mistake. One big fucking mistake.”
The thing is, I can see the remorse in her eyes. Selfishly, it brings me a lot of relief. She regrets the whole thing, as she should. As anyone should.
“As I said, shit happens. Just don’t let shit happen again.”
She shakes her head, tapping her slender fingers anxiously along the bar. “I won’t. God, you probably think I’m such an idiot.”
I laugh. “I may not know you well, but I definitely don’t think you’re an idiot. You obviously had beer goggles on.”
“Did I ever.”
“And didn’t realize you were sleeping with the biggest tool in town.”
Now she bursts out laughing.
“What?”
“Nothing,” she says, shaking her head. “Nothing at all. Anyway, don’t worry. It will never ever happen again. I just…oh man, if I had only known.”
“Well you probably knew a little, otherwise you wouldn’t have given him a fake name. Which, by the way, doesn’t get you very far in this town. Believe me, I’ve tried.”
“Why, do you have a reputation?”
I give her a curious look. “Why would you think I have a reputation?”
Her eyes dart over to Del and back.
“What did she say?” It figures Del would say something. I guess as a bartender she hears more than her fair share of sob stories from some of the women in this town.
“Oh, not much,” she says. “She just asked how today went and I told her that I met you and then she told me to watch out.”
“Watch out?”
“You’re a lady’s man, apparently.”
“Not when it comes to the people I work with,” I point out.