New Beginnings

by Elle M Thomas

  “It's not funny,” insisted Sam, “Gray, don't encourage her and Kirsty, would you have a word with her, please?”

  “Tell her I have a girlfriend who is very much my type and is the complete opposite of her if it helps,” suggested Gray who had taken a seat opposite his sister and brother-in-law and was picking up a cup of coffee as he fished his phone from his pocket.

  “I thought you were a pain in the neck before you found love, but you are a right royal pain in the arse after discovering it,” commented Kirsty as she left, making Tim laugh loudly.

  “I'm not,” claimed Gray as the words spoken resonated in his mind.

  “You are a pain in the arse, Gray,” agreed Sam.

  “I know that, but I am not in love,” he insisted.

  “The smile that has been a permanent fixture on your face for the last week would dispute that.” Grinned Tim.

  “Oh, piss off, Tim!” snapped Gray before reinstating the smile to his face as he read his message.

  Good morning, why didn't u wake me b4 u left? Oh yes I remember, because u can't resist getting back in2 bed & shagging me senseless in the mornings! Hope ur morning is going well. Mine is! The agency have just called 2 c if I am free 2 work 4 Frontiers, a well-known P.R. company. The agency are confirming some details & calling back.

  That's fantastic baby, well done. We've worked with Frontiers in the past, they have a good reputation. Let me know how it goes. Maybe we could meet for lunch or something? Can't talk about shagging u senseless as I am meeting with Sam & Tim.

  Not sure about lunch until agency have been in touch but will let u know.

  “If we're not holding your obvious flirting up, maybe we could discuss work?” Grinned Sam, enjoying seeing her brother's smitten expression and behaviour.

  Gray slipped his phone back into his pocket and grinned a more self-satisfied grin than normal, then remembered the accusations that he had discovered love and suddenly felt less sure of himself.

  Eve nervously waited for the agency to call her back and when they did, she squealed before answering her phone.

  “Hello.” She tried to sound calm and professional before listening to the information being given to her as she scrambled around for a pen and a piece of paper to record the details she needed.

  Hanging up, she could feel that she was wearing a huge grin and immediately text Gray with her news after rejecting a call from Annette, the third that morning, but things were going too well to have her mother-in-law spoil the day.

  Agency have called back & I have appt with Frontiers @ 12.30 in your building! Could pop up & c u afterwards if ur free? Do u know Leon Markham, he is bloke @ Frontiers.

  Gray was reading his message as Sam finished an 'urgent' call that had come through and decided to play things carefully, and relatively honestly.

  Baby that's brilliant. Yes we've worked with Leon a few times, he's a nice bloke. Yeah come and visit me when you’re done, I'll let Kirsty know to expect you.

  “What are you up to?” asked Tim suspiciously.

  “I don't know what you mean,” insisted Gray before getting to his feet as Sam hung up from her call.

  “Gray, come to dinner tonight, at ours,” said Sam.

  “Can't, I'm seeing Eve tonight,” he said apologetically.

  “I meant Eve too, both of you,” clarified Sam.

  “Ooh like a double date.” Tim laughed, sounding more camp than the feminine he'd hoped for.

  “That's enough reason for me to say no.” Gray was at the door now and preparing to go through it.

  “Tim, shut up!” snapped Sam before approaching Gray. “Please, bring Eve to dinner, let us meet her properly and I promise not to be embarrassing.” She smiled, holding her brother's sleeve.

  Sensing him softening, she stepped closer.

  “What about your idiot husband?” Gray felt his urge to waver growing stronger.

  “Well, your best friend there,” she said, pointing towards Tim. “He will be on his best behaviour, he promises, don't you?”

  “Of course I will, scout's honour.” Tim grinned with a comedic salute.

  “Half seven, no baby photos, no stories of uni and definitely no references to Sienna,” he said, leaving his sister jumping up and down on the spot and his brother-in-law laughing at her.

  Eve arrived for her appointment at twelve fifteen and was nervously brushing her hand across her grey pinstripe trousers that she’d teamed with a white shirt style blouse and black tie loosely knotted then partially covered it with the waistcoat that matched the trousers. A pair of black, heeled ankle boots completed her outfit. She knew it was appropriate and professional, but without giving off the impression of a woman in a man's world trying to look like a man. Her hair was pulled tight and high in a bun whilst her make-up was minimal, with a natural hint of colour to her cheeks, eyes and lips.

  “Miss Mariner?” enquired a man of around thirty with sandy hair and brown eyes that radiated warmth when he smiled which he was doing now.

  Getting to her feet, Eve grabbed her document case with one hand and extended the other to the man before her. “Mr Markham?”

  “Yes, pleased to meet you. If you'd like to follow me,” he suggested before leading her towards a door at the bottom of a long corridor.

  Watching him, Eve decided he was older than thirty, but maybe not much. He was tall and lean, not as tall as Gray and certainly not as muscular, but he had a naturally healthy look about him. He opened the office door and gestured for her to enter and closed the door behind them.

  It was two hours later when Eve left Leon and headed straight up to Sharpstone where a girl on reception viewed her suspiciously when she said Mr Sharp was expecting her.

  “I'll need to verify that with Mr Sharp or his secretary,” the red headed receptionist replied tartly.

  “You do that,” replied an equally curt Eve. “Kirsty is expecting me too,” she added sharply.

  She picked up a phone and after a few words she turned back to Eve, pushing the visitor’s book towards her, “Sign in please.”

  Eve quickly scrawled her name and Gray's for who she was visiting, the time 'in', her vehicle registration, and under business she paused, sorely tempted to put 'shagging your boss' especially for the young woman with a tongue piercing she now noticed, but resisted.

  “I'll get someone to take you down,” she told Eve who shook her head.

  “I know where I'm going,” she told the other woman, remembering being frogmarched down the corridor to Gray's office over a week before.

  With a raise of her eyebrows and a wave of the hand, she authorised Eve to make her own way to Gray's office where she found Kirsty and a pretty, petite blonde woman sitting at a desk near Kirsty's.

  “Miss Mariner?” Smiled Kirsty.

  “Yes.”

  “Please, take a seat. Mr Sharp shouldn't be long, he's just popped out,” Kirsty explained. “Tea, coffee?”

  “I'm fine, thank you.” Eve sat in the leather tub chair near the window looking down onto the street.

  “Who's that?” whispered the other woman to Kirsty who now looked embarrassed as Eve raised her head from looking down into her lap briefly.

  “Holly, I think Mrs Stone would probably appreciate her afternoon tea now,” said Kirsty, ignoring the younger woman's question making Eve smile.

  Holly took the hint and disappeared briefly before returning with a tray that she took into an office and returned empty handed. Eve looked up and smiled at her, amused by her bluntness.

  “Kirsty?” started Holly. “How long have you worked here?”

  “I've worked in this building for ten years, but for Mr Sharp, it's almost five years,” she replied smiling.

  Eve chastised herself for feeling such a thrill that Kirsty was obviously fond of Gray, as her boss, but no more.

  “What's he like?” asked Holly.

  “What?” asked Kirsty nervously.

  “Mr Sharp, what's he like, properly? Has he really got a g
irlfriend? Everybody except you says not but I can't believe that he wouldn't be attached ‘cause he is well fit, isn't he?” She grinned, presumably as she thought of Gray. “Or maybe he has lots of girlfriends which you could understand, right? I mean I would happily spend a night with him, no questions asked, even if he was married, although I know he's not and it's common knowledge that I’m just his type, aren't I?” asked Holly, staring at Kirsty who was beyond embarrassed now, aware of who Eve was and the fact that if Holly was his type then she couldn't be.

  “We've discussed this, Holly. Now, I think you should get on with your work and stop daydreaming about things that aren't even real,” snapped Kirsty before smiling at Eve who was standing now.

  She felt sick. She'd been amused by Holly's obvious crush, knowing that Gray was hers, but now? Was Holly Gray's type, did he even have a type? He'd admitted that he didn't do girlfriends and wasn't used to being the jealous boyfriend. That he was inexperienced in relationships and she'd accepted that without question, but what did that mean, because he certainly wasn't inexperienced where women and sex were concerned. Was she the latest in a very long line or worse, just a boredom breaker if Holly fitted his true type?

  Fight or flight was flooding through her mind as her phone rang, Annette. She rejected the call and almost immediately a message came through from the mother-in-law she hadn't spoken to since what would have been Max's thirtieth birthday. The night she’d met Gray again. The night they'd become a couple, if that's what they were.

  Reading her message from Annette she sighed, but it blocked out anything else for a moment.

  Evelyn as you appear to be ignoring my calls I have resorted to text!! This isn't helping either of us and we should be supporting each other, it is what Max would want? Expect? Please contact me!! Annette

  Staring down at the message and then rereading it Eve wondered if Annette insisted on calling her Evelyn just to piss her off, and why one exclamation mark appeared to be inadequate for her needs. What did she mean, support each other? Well she knew exactly what Annette meant by that. No, thank you. Is it what Max would have wanted, expected? No, it wasn't, but how could she tell Annette that without hurting her further.

  She would contact her, tomorrow. For now, she needed to refocus on the blonde blabbermouth that was Holly, and Grayson, maybe they should talk more and shag less. They should and now they could because her period had arrived that morning.

  “Miss Mariner, are you sure I can't get you something while you wait?” Kirsty stared at Eve standing up with a startled expression on her face.

  “No, no thank you. Kirsty, would you just pass on a message for me? Could you tell Mr Sharp,” was as far as she got before a familiar voice spoke.

  “Or you could just tell him yourself.”

  Turning, Eve found Gray grinning at her. Drawing in a very sharp breath when he drank in her appearance he stepped forward and with an arm around her waist led her towards his office.

  “So?” he asked. “How did your meeting with Leon go?”

  “Okay,” Eve replied flatly.

  “Okay? You had a meeting with a man dressed like that and it was only 'okay?'” He pulled her down next to him on the charcoal grey, leather sofa that sat along one of the floor to ceiling windows that occupied the corner section of his office. “If I had been interviewing you dressed like that, well you wouldn't have stayed dressed too long,” said Gray salaciously.

  Eve pulled away from him and curtly replied as she turned to face him. “Is that how you recruit then, by fucking any applicants and depending on how good they are depends whether they're hired or not? Is that how your 'type' is so widely known amongst your staff, because they have all been through the same rigorous recruitment process? Now, what about Holly? How did she come to be employed here when she fits the 'type' requirement but still wonders what you're like?” Eve attempted to stand but struggled to break free of Gray's grip.

  “What the fuck? Where's this coming from, and what does it mean? And stop swearing,” said a serious and confused Gray.

  “This—” she said wiggling her fingers to imply inverted commas “—is coming from your staff in your office and from you and the comments you make on the occasions when we speak, oh, and what it means is that I am pissed off and confused about what is happening between us,” she said after eventually being released.

  Standing himself, Gray stared down at Eve. “I don't know what you've heard while you were waiting for me, but I can hazard a guess, and I will be confirming the details, believe me, so, let me be clear. I was talking about fucking you dressed like that, looking absolutely amazing and if this is your corporate persona, I fancy her like you wouldn't believe. As for my type, what do you want me to say? That I have never had a particular type? I can't control what my staff gossip about and if it doesn't affect their work I probably wouldn't want to, until now. I can, however, control what I say and if we don't communicate enough then let's change that, but that is not solely down to me. You use sex to avoid conversations you don't want Eve, so don't hold that against me. Now I am pissed off too and as confused as you are if not more, so can we pretend the last five minutes didn't happen on the understanding that we talk more, to each other and work through our mutual confusion, together? And that you stop swearing.”

  “I suppose so.” Eve pouted with a shrug making Gray smile at her with an arched brow.

  “I bet you were a nightmare teenager. Maybe I should ask your parents when I get to meet them!”

  “I was a wonderful teenager in spite of my parents that you are unlikely to meet, ever,” she snapped.

  “Now this is one of those occasions where we need to discuss that last comment of yours, but I have to meet with a client. So later, and over the weekend let's talk a little more, okay?” He tilted her chin up so that he could place his lips against hers for a single, gentle kiss.

  “Sorry. I am confused and Annette seems to be stalking me,” explained Eve, feeling foolish suddenly.

  “Have you still not accepted a call from her?” Gray frowned. “She has been trying for what, two, three days now?”

  “Four actually and after I received a text from her whilst waiting for you, I promised myself that I would call her tomorrow.”

  “My sister has invited us for dinner tonight, but if you'd rather not.”

  “No, that's fine. Maybe I can speak to them without it getting weird this time.” She smiled.

  “I'll pick you up at seven and we can go back to yours tonight, and if you want you could stay at mine over the weekend,” he suggested for the first time, startling her slightly. “I know I usually opt for us staying at yours, but maybe it's time. I never have girls, women stay at my home Eve, I just don't, but yet again it would seem that you're different, baby. Now how did you get on with Leon?” he asked, suddenly back on an even keel and confident again.

  “Thank you, for inviting me and telling me about your home. Leon was really nice, and he's offered me a six-month contract, just as a general gopher, but with the promise of some P.R. work so I’m really pleased. I start Monday so we'll be in the same building every day.” She smiled coyly.

  “Don't you go stalking me or buying Kirsty her favourite cakes to keep you informed of my every move.” He laughed.

  “Dream on.” She laughed back.

  “Seriously though, Eve, if that is your typical work wear, I am going to have to keep condoms in my office and you'll need to keep spare underwear in yours.”

  “You are a degenerate!”

  “And I know that is not a complaint. Let me walk you to the lift and show the staff in my office exactly who my type is.” Gray took her hand and led her towards the door.

  “Will I be getting any of my knickers back?” she suddenly asked at the door.

  “Unlikely, baby. Especially not those satin ones from last week,” he said seriously.

  “Why not? What have you done to them?” she asked suspiciously.

  “Well, normally I like to keep
them smelling of you,” he revealed making her pull a distasteful expression, “But yesterday, when I woke up alone in my own bed, missing you, I decided I should fully utilise them.”

  Eve swallowed hard suspecting what was coming next.

  “So,” continued Gray. “I found your skin coloured satin knickers that felt so fucking sexy and I lay in my bed imagining you lying naked on your bed like that morning, when I unsuccessfully tried to sneak out and kicked my toe up and I wrapped them around my dick and pretended it was you, your pussy and then, when I came all over them I closed my eyes and imagined coming inside you.”

  Eve was almost breathless with excitement and could feel the slickness between her legs and cursed the timing of her period as she was now absolutely desperate to be with Grayson, for him to touch her, to roughly remove her clothes and to bend her over his desk, like he had the bed at The Stanford that first night, and fuck her hard. These thoughts were not helping in the slightest and he knew it as well as she did, although he didn't know that wasn't possible.

  “Evie,” he whispered.

  “Mmm,” was as much as she could say in response.

  “Whatever you're thinking right now remember it for later.”

  “I can't,” she admitted. “I can remember, but I can't deliver, my period started this morning.”

  “Shit!” he cursed. They both laughed as he rested his forehead against hers and placed her hand against the erection straining behind the trousers of the dark navy suit he was wearing. “So, what would you suggest I do with this?”

  “You have enough pairs of my pants to deal with it yourself, but that seems a bit of a waste to me,” she answered with a seductive lick of her lips.

  “How the fuck am I going to work every day knowing you and your very talented mouth are so close by?” he asked with a grimace.

  Eve shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly and opened the door a little.

  “This is not over Evie,” he told her before kissing the back of her neck, immediately heating her whole body, inside and out.