Sneaking Around (Sneaky Love Book 2)

by Chelle Pimblott

  1. She grabbed my hand and is still holding on tight!

  2. Max is a fucking man!

  3. She told Max no to crashing our lunch.

  4. Fucking hell, Max is MALE. I wonder if Alex knows this?!

  “Does Alex know that Max is a guy?” I blurt out.

  Mia laughs and replies, “I’m pretty sure he put two and two together when he met him, yes. Why do you ask?”

  “Ahhh no reason, really, just curious. I can’t see Alex being happy with you sharing any amount of time or intimacy with a guy that’s all.”

  “Do you mean you or Alex?”

  She’s standing there, hands on her hips, glaring at me. We’ve made it to a café, but we’re not inside. At this point, I’m wondering if we’ll make it inside to have lunch! Mia’s looking pissed at me! I meant Alex but if she really wants to know the truth, then yeah, I’m not really enjoying the knowledge either. How do I tell her that without sounding like a caveman?! I don’t think it’s possible.

  “Ok Mia, honestly?” She nods her head and waves a hand for me to continue. “I did mean I can’t see Alex being too pleased with the situation but if he’s met Max and he‘s ok with him, then ok.” She nods her agreement and I continue, “But, I have to say, in the spirit of this thing between us being new and everything, I don’t like the idea of you spending that amount of time with a guy that isn’t me!” Mia starts to speak but I shake my head and she closes her mouth. “I doubt you’d like it either, if I was spending huge amounts of my day with another female! I’m sorry but that’s how I feel.” I feel like an arsehole. I’ve never felt this possessive before, it’s like I want to club her on the head and drag her back to my cave so no other caveman can claim her in any fucking way!

  I shake my head in disbelief as her body starts shaking and then she bursts in a fit of laughter. I don’t see the amusement is in this at all. I basically just declared I don’t and won’t share her with another guy and she’s laughing uncontrollably right in front of me! Talk about a blow to the ego! I turn and start to walk away. I’m not that much of a masochist that I want to stand there and listen to her laugh at the feelings I just dropped at her feet!

  I feel a hand on my bicep and Mia says, “Please Dan, don’t walk away. Stay please. I’m not laughing at you or your feelings. In fact, I love that you don’t want to share me, with anyone but that’s never going to happen. Especially not with Max, he is my best friend, both at work and outside of work. Max and I will never work though, I’m not his type!” She’s giggling again!

  “How the hell you can you not be his type? You’re gorgeous, funny, adorable and smart. He’s fucking crazy!!”

  “So you want him to be attracted to me? Really Dan?” She says with the biggest shit eating grin on her face! “Make up your mind!”

  “No that’s not what I’m saying, sweet cheeks. I’m saying that if he doesn’t find you physically attractive, then the man must be gay or something, because you are drop dead gorgeous, babe!” I’ve turned around to face her and she’s just standing there looking at me with a face that’s saying, ’Are you really that stupid?’ Then it hits me! Max is gay! “Oh my god! He’s gay isn’t he?” She nods, laughing quietly.

  “Yes, Dan, Max is gay but that doesn’t matter either way. If he’s my friend and if I say that’s all there is to it, then I would like to think that both you and my brother would accept that. Max is my friend and even if he were straight, I wouldn’t be attracted to him. He’s not my type. Now, with that that all sorted, can we go grab some lunch please? I’m starving!”

  “Lead the way sweet cheeks.” We move in to the café and order food with our coffee. We sit down and catch up while we eat, until suddenly Mia squeals a little and then swears.

  “Shit! I’m sorry Dan, I’m going have to head back to the office. I have a meeting in 10 minutes with my boss about a project she has me working on and I don’t want to be late.” She grabs all her stuff and gathers up the rubbish.

  “Don’t worry about all that, I’ll take care of it.” I kiss her lightly on the lips. “You get to your meeting, I don’t want you to be late. I need your boss to let me take you to lunch again.”

  When Mia looks at me, the air leaves my lungs. She hugs me tightly and replies, “Thanks Dan. I want more lunches too. I’ll see you tonight? At your place?” She kisses me quickly again as she starts to move towards the door.

  “Tonight at my place Mia. Is straight after work, ok?”

  She nods with a huge smile on her face and walks back to her office.

  I can’t wait to see her tonight. Just then my phone rings and I answer it without looking to see who it is first …. And there’s the voice I didn’t want to hear right now.

  “Hey Dickwad, what ya up to? Have you had lunch yet?” Alex’s voice wipes the smile right off my face! “We need to catch up on a few things. Meet you at The Bakery in 15 yeah?”

  “Sure Alex, see you then.” I hang up and hang my head. I don’t want to spend any time with Mia’s brother because now I feel like I’m lying to my best friend/brother.

  I’m lying to him by omission, even if Mia asked me to and I understand her reasoning behind the request. It’s still a lie!

  Chapter Seven

  MIA

  I make it back to the office with a few minutes to spare. Grabbing my laptop, so that I have the transcript with me, to show Tonya the specifics of my edits if she wants them I head straight to her office.

  When I get to her office door, Tonya waves me in before I can knock. She’s looking at her computer screen with a frown on her face. I don’t know if she’s concentrating or pissed off! Guess I’ll find out soon enough.

  After a few minutes, I say, “Did you want me to come back a bit later Tonya?”

  She shakes her head and holds her finger in the universal sign of ‘just give me a minute’, so I wait. And wait. And wait some more. It’s not like my boss to miss a meeting or should I say, ignore a meeting like this. I decide that I’m not going to sit here and wait any longer and she can call me back in when she’s ready. I start to stand up to leave and she looks up at me, confusion written all over her face!

  “Tonya, are you ok? What’s wrong?” I’m a bit worried about her now, she’s very rarely quiet! She gets serious, obviously she‘s the boss, but she‘s rarely silent! “Tonya?”

  She looks up at me, a little surprised I’m there and says, “Oh yeah, umm hi Mia.

  We’ve got a meeting don’t we? I’m a little preoccupied with something else…..sorry.”

  “Is everything ok? You look …… lost.”

  “Yes, yes I’m fine thanks Mia. What can I do for you?”

  “Ummm we had a meeting set up for the book you gave me last week that you wanted me to read through and edit.”

  “Yes, I remember that. Sorry Mia, I’m a bit distracted by some news I just received but go ahead. Talk to me, tell me your thoughts on the book, I’m all ears.”

  “Well, I’m curious about who the author is still but I get the feeling you’re not going to tell me if I ask, again. So the book is well written. It’s a good story arc but it could definitely do with some editing and tweaking.” Tonya nods and waves her hand, asking me to continue. “Did you want to go through the changes that I think could be made to what I’ve already read?”

  “Let’s get to it, Mia.”

  So I do. We sit in her office going through the manuscript for just over an hour, before Max interrupts to tell us Tonya’s next meeting is in 5 minutes. We finish up and she tells me to make the changes we discussed and forward them on to her so that she can have another look through them. I’m still a little confused, that isn’t the usual process, but I guess it’s not my job to know everything that’s happening around here. It is Tonya’s though, so I head back to my desk and get on with entering all the changes we agreed on.

  DAN

  I open the door to the bakery and walk in. There’s a heavy, sick feeling settling into my stomach and weighing me down. I
know it’s from the lying by omission to my best friend but I understand why Mia doesn’t want to tell her brother what’s going on just yet. I mean, I’m not even sure we know what it is yet. That doesn’t mean I have to like it though, I’m not that guy. The one who keeps things from the people in his life, been there and lived that, I don’t like doing it to the people I trust.

  I look around to find Alex and he’s standing at the counter talking to Ally. Of course that’s where he is, generally speaking, if these two are in the same room and you find one of them, then you’re likely to find the other one too. They’re fucking glued to each other! Yeah ok, so I’m pissed off that they can openly be together. Fucking sue me!

  Ally looks up and smiles, “Hey stranger! How are you?” She tears herself away from Alex and drags me in to a hug. I can’t be mad around Ally, she’s just so sweet. Baking is definitely her true calling.

  “Hi Ally. I’m doing ok. How’s about you? Is this cocksucker treating you right? Just tell me if he doesn’t and I’ll drag you away from him and into my bed Allycat. Anytime you want.” Ally takes a swipe at my arm and walks back to Alex, who is glaring daggers at me. I can’t help but laugh at him. Does he really think that I would or could take Ally away from him? She’s as in love with him, as he is with her. I only say it to stir him up, if he stopped reacting, I’d stop saying it!

  “You keep your hands to yourself, friend.”

  “Come on boss, let’s get this meeting done with, so we can both get back to what we want to be doing, yeah?” I say laughing and walk to an empty table.

  “I’ll bring you both over a coffee and a slice of cake, any preferences for the cake?” Ally asks.

  “Chocolate please.” Alex and I say in unison, which causes Ally to laugh but she goes and gets it for us.

  Alex and I discuss the current projects we’re working on, the ones that we’ve done quotes for and then the projects that we have lined up for the next few months.

  Three coffees, too many of Ally’s sweet treats and almost two hours later, we’re finally done! It’s one of the best meetings we’ve ever had. We don’t actually have an ‘office’ so to speak and normally just get together at a jobsite or one of our homes.

  “Well, that was better than any of our previous meetings. Sweets, coffee and you’re not so grumpy cause you can watch Allycat walk around and sneak a smile or nine and a few kisses you think I didn’t notice!”

  “Shut up Dickwad, you’re just jealous I’ve found myself a woman who wants to keep my grumpy arse.” He says with a grin.

  If only he knew just how close to the mark he really is. I have the one woman I’ve always wanted but never thought I’d have and I can’t tell a soul. Especially not him!

  “You are one lucky son of a bitch, that’s for sure. How that gorgeous woman puts up with you and all your shit, I’ll never know! She’s a fucking saint!” Alex gives me a strange look but I don’t give him a chance to ask any questions. “I’m out of here dipshit, my boss is a grumpy arsed bastard and he’ll get pissy with me if I don’t go and check on the current jobs on my books.”

  Alex gives me a grunt in reply. There’s the arsehole I’m used to!

  “Hey, Allycat, can I get one of those delicious chocolate cakes we had at your place the other day, please?”

  “Sure you can Dan.” She hesitates as she goes to put it in a box, “You’re not going to eat all of this on your own are you, Dan? That’s a lot of cake for one person.”

  “Don’t you worry about me, I’m not eating it all alone. What we don’t eat, I’m sure I can manage to finish off though.” I pat my stomach, “I’m more than willing to take one for the team, this cake is the best thing I’ve ever eaten!”

  “So who are you sharing it with? What’s her name?”

  “Who says I’m sharing with a lady friend, that’s pretty presumptuous, Miss Richardson.” I pretend to be offended.

  “Well, Mr Robson, I guess I assumed if you’re buying a chocolate cake to share, it’s going to be with a ‘lady friend’. It’s certainly one sure way to win her over.”

  “I know! This cake is sex without the penetration!”

  With that little nugget, I leave the shop, Ally and Alex’s laughter follow me out. Alex wouldn’t be laughing quite so heartedly if he knew who I’m sharing the sex cake with!

  Chapter Eight

  MIA

  I’ve been buried under the changes that Tonya and I discussed on this fucking transcript. I didn’t even break for a break! I stopped briefly when Max bought me over a coffee, along with one his muesli bars and watched me with his arms crossed until I’d almost finished both. I’m on a roll and I don’t want to stop. Once I’m in the zone, I always want to just keep going.

  Max drops a bottle of water onto my desk and shakes his head. “Unlike some people around here, I have a life outside of the building, so I’m going home! See you tomorrow, Miss Mia, don’t stay too late.”

  Jeeeez, I didn’t even realise that much time had gone by! Max is walking away and my phone vibrates across my desk. It’s a text, from Dan. Fuck it, I forgot about dinner.

  *Hey sweet cheeks, are you on your way here?*

  *Ummmm, I’m sorry Dan, I’m leaving now, I’ll be there soon*

  *Did you forget about me?! I’m wounded, deeply wounded sweet cheeks* Argghhhhh jeez, I know he’s kidding but he’s making me feel bad!

  *No I didn’t forget about you, I was just working. I’m in my car now…ok?*

  *Don’t text and drive, I’ll see you soon x*

  OH MY GOD! I don’t know how to take that. He signed off his message with a ‘kiss’, was it just a reflex or did he mean it? I can’t even contemplate what that could mean, I have to drive out to his house and have dinner with him. Nothing unusual there, we’ve done this hundreds if not, thousands of times. Yes, even when it was just the two of us and not part of a group. This one is no different, right?

  DAN

  It’s just dinner, why am I nervous? We’ve had dinner together so many times, I can’t count them! I’ve cooked, she’s cooked and we’ve ordered in. This is just us having dinner, like normal, but this isn’t like normal. We’ve had sex, I’ve had her in my bed and we’ve decided to see where this thing goes. Whatever this thing is, I’ve wanted it for so long that I’m struggling to believe she’s coming over. Even if it is just dinner!

  My jumbled brain registers a knock at the door. Seriously, since when does the woman ever knock to get in to my house? Ok, so she knocks but walks right in! Maybe I’m not the only one feeling a little nervous!

  Opening the door, I say, “Don’t you just walk in the door anymore? Or did you forget how, just like you forgot our ……..” My voice trails off as I see who’s standing on the other side of the door, ALEX! Fuck me! Tonight of all fucking nights he decides to show up! “Didn’t I just see your ugly face not a few hours ago? WHY are you here now, couldn’t get enough of my handsomeness huh?” I laugh trying to make light of the way I opened the door and hoping it’ll distract him. It’s then that I notice Ally standing next to him with an apologetic but amused look on her face.

  She knows I have someone coming over because I told her as much when I bought that cake! I look at her for a bit longer and she shrugs one shoulder, like she’s saying, ‘I tried but he wouldn’t change his mind’.

  “Well, Dickwad, the ever polite and lovely Ally, didn’t want to just walk in without warning, ‘just in case you were busy’ and I said it wouldn’t be the first time I’d walk in on you being ‘busy’. She kinda said she didn’t want to witness that and when I thought about it, I didn’t want to her to witness your bare naked arse either. So, here we are, you gonna let us in?” He asks as he pushes past me to let himself in.

  “Alex, why don’t you let yourself in and make yourself at home? It’s not like I had other plans or anything!” I shake my head and as I look back to Ally I see Mia’s car turn into the driveway. So does Ally!

  From behind me I hear Alex say, “Is that Mia
’s car? What’s my sister doing here?”

  “Well, Alex, we were going to have dinner and watch a movie. You know, like we do sometimes to keep each other company.” I could and should come clean with him now but I don’t want to do that without talking to Mia first. Ally’s looking between the two of us as Mia walks towards the front door where we’re still standing.

  “Hi Ally, how are you? Is my idiot brother here too?” Mia asks as she hugs Ally and gives me a ‘what the fuck’, look. I can’t answer her, because I have no fucking clue, so I just shrug my shoulder.

  “Yeah, he’s made himself at home inside. We just got here after Alex said we had to come by to see Dan about something. Don’t ask me what, he wouldn’t say.”

  Ally walks past me and into the house to sit with Alex on my couch. When Mia walks past me as well, she gives me another, ‘what the fuck’ look but I shrug my shoulder again and whisper in her ear, “I have no fucking clue but now I can’t touch you like I want to and it’s going to fucking kill me!”

  MIA

  Holy fuck! How can I sit here with my brother and my soon to be sister in law (let’s face it, it’s inevitable if my brother ever pulls his finger out!) when Dan says shit like that to me? He didn’t touch me and yet I can feel him right behind me! His breath skims the shell of my ear, as he whispers his promises to me. My whole body shivers with anticipation, until……

  “What are two doing still standing in the doorway?” I jump at the sound of my brother’s voice. I have nothing to be feeling guilty about and yet that’s exactly how I feel.

  Dan walks past me and says, “Don’t talk to your sister like that dipshit.”

  “Like what, dickwad? All I did was ask her why the hell she’s still standing in the doorway! What’s up your arse? Did we interrupt a date or something?”

  Dan doesn’t look at me when he says, “No, no date, just Mia coming over for dinner.”