Sold As Is

by Holley Trent

  “When are you moving out?”

  She shifted her lips to the left side of her face and chewed what skin was left on the right side of her mouth. Part of her knew she’d be asked to leave, but had for some reason hoped he’d be magnanimous enough to let her stay until that first paycheck from CTW hit her bank account.

  Not happenin’, girlie.

  “As soon as I pack,” she said through clenched teeth.

  Archie took his hand off the bills.

  She snatched them up and stomped out of the office, paying no heed to her mother’s muttering under her breath in Spanish. After grabbing her purse and keys from the staff coat closet, she stomped down the stairs.

  Mike was talking to a potential customer at the far end of the lot and Mandy decided not to flag him. He’d find out what happened soon enough, so it seemed the least distracting thing to do would be to leave without disturbing him. She threw herself into her coupe and peeled out of the lot so fast her tires squealed.

  She drove hard and fast, growling under her breath and pounding the steering wheel, unsure of why she was so damned angry, but knowing she just was. She was at a stoplight almost near the house before she had a chance or the mindset to count her little pay-off. She counted it twice. The jackass had shafted her five bucks.

  Hardly seemed worth arguing for, but she’d certainly never forget it.

  CHAPTER 10

  “What are you thinking about, Aaron? You’re being way too quiet.”

  He helped Tina move the heavy conference table into the large open square configuration. The hotel staff looked on, already bored with the construction activity. They were supposed to be the ones shifting the tables, but Aaron had gotten frustrated explaining the simple geometry to people whose first language obviously wasn’t English. Probably not their second language, either, judging by the faces they made when he resorted to making an L7 with his fingers. He’d even drawn them a sketch and returned from his late lunch to find instead of the tables forming a perimeter with an open middle, they’d made one solid square. What was he even supposed to do with that? Use the tables as a stage and do back flips across it?

  “Nothing.” He assessed the large square that would seat forty of his growing staff then headed to the wall of chairs.

  “I don’t believe you. Do you believe him, Chas?”

  “Nope.” Chas picked up a stack of four chairs and shook his head. “He’s either plotting someone’s demise or thinking about sex.”

  Tina paused there between the two men, looked from one to the other, and giggled. “I think both!”

  Aaron cringed. Of course she was right. Tina knew her boss far too well. When he didn’t provide one of his usual quick comebacks, Chas mumbled “Uh huh,” and started pushing chairs under tables.

  “Well, well.” Tina leaned against the square and crossed her arms over the chest of her CTW heather gray polo. She twisted one of her long thin braids around her index finger and plastered on her most know-it-all smirk. “Who are you killing, and who are you banging? Hope it’s not the same person, because that’s kind of sick even for you.”

  Aaron turned his back and picked up a stack of six chairs, hardly noticing the weight with all he had swimming through his mind. “The only person I can think of at the moment who requires killin’ is Rick.”

  “Per usual,” Chas said.

  “Yeah. Per usual. Banging?” Aaron glanced over at the hotel staff. He didn’t trust them, even if they were behaving as if it was their first day on the planet. “None of your business.”

  “Ha!” Tina shrieked and danced in front of him like a mahogany leprechaun.

  “Oh, ho, ho!” Chas leaned against the closest table and let a broad smile span his face. Aaron pretended not to see it. He just kept right on shoving chairs against the square’s four sides.

  “Chas, I do believe our man of mystery is being more coy than usual which probably means there’s a real woman involved in this scheme. Isn’t that right, Aaron?”

  Aaron disregarded the question and whistled some old jazz standard.

  “Anyone I know?” Chas asked, sidling up to his life-long friend. “Is it one of the Richardson sisters? You know, Veronica has been ogling you for at least the past eight years.”

  As interesting as that revelation was to Aaron, he didn’t want to answer. Chas was a talented young attorney and was better than anyone Aaron knew at taking circuitous routes to have his questions answered. If he replied in the negative, he’d just keep on asking seemingly irrelevant questions until he uncovered a clue. The best thing Aaron could do was zip his lips.

  “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  Aaron thought he must have been imagining things.

  They all turned in the direction of the husky voice any lounge singer worth her stage name would have given up a lung to possess. It took every ounce of fortitude Aaron had to not run to the owner of the sexy alto and wrap his arms around her. He stood firm, cutting his gaze left to Tina and right to Chas, who were both walking toward the newcomer.

  Aaron didn’t like the expression on his best friend’s face. He’d seen that look numerous times before. It was his conquest forthcoming! face and it was almost enough to set him into action. He pulled his pen out of his shirt pocket and squeezed it hard to fortify himself before following his staff.

  Tina was first to greet her. “Hey, Mandy. You took the job? Good for you! We’ve got to get you a phone and computer and stuff so you can dive right in tonight.”

  “I’ll take care of it.” Aaron shouldered his way into the clump somewhat rudely and tried to keep expression off his face. Chas would be all over any emotion he showed and would pick it apart like some kind of preppy psychic.

  “Can you two finish up in here?” Aaron dropped his pen into his shirt pocket and rolled back his to expose the face of his gold watch. “We’ve got about two hours before the welcome session. I want to get her up to speed — let her know who she’ll be meeting tonight.”

  Chas shrugged.

  Tina narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m normally the one who does all the up-to-speeding. Are you setting me up for the okie-doke? You aiming to fire me?”

  Aaron laughed. “No, Tina. I’m simply letting you get back to doing the job you were hired to do. Haven’t you been bitching about that? Besides, Mandy’s going to be the lady between you and me. Training should probably come from the top.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Tina rolled her dark almond-shaped eyes and walked away singing toward the boxes of training materials stacked near the partitions. Chas followed and returned to chair dissemination.

  Aaron gave Mandy the blankest look he could manage. “If you’ll follow me, please?”

  The corners of that succulent mouth of hers twitched. “Certainly. Are you leading me to my computer and cell phone?”

  He started walking. “Yeah. They’re in your room.”

  “I don’t have a room yet.”

  “Yeah, you do.”

  When they were alone in the deserted hallway, he added, “Your room overlaps mine. It’s like magic.”

  • • •

  They hardly made it into Aaron’s hotel room before his hands were at the bottom of Mandy’s tank, peeling it over her head to reveal her lacy bra for the second time in a day.

  “I didn’t expect you today,” he said, his hands already on the buttons of the jeans he wanted off her immediately. She was playing along nicely and was already pulling his belt through the loops and shoving his pants down his hips.

  “Archie and I had a little chat.” She kicked off her shoes and stepped out of her jeans as his hands seemed to be everywhere on her all at once. Her waist. Ass. Spine. The crook of her neck.

  “Good chat or bad chat?” His shirt buttons popped free with her brazen yank, revealing his rock-hard abdominal
s and tight pecs. She allowed herself one scant moment of indulgence and flicked at his nipple with the tip of her tongue.

  “Bad chat. I quit, and he kicked me out. I’ve got 245 smackeroos to my name and nowhere to live.”

  He kicked his shoes across the room and stepped out of his pants and boxer briefs. Once naked, he seemed very interested in getting her to the same exact place and unlatched her bra in two seconds flat.

  “God, you’re beautiful. Take those off.” He looked down her nearly see-through panties. She got the hint, and did a slow, seductive wiggle out of them, keeping her eyes locked on his.

  He rolled his watch off his wrist and dropped it onto the pile of clothes on the floor.

  “Well, you’ll stay with me at least for the next couple of days.”

  “Fine.” She felt his hands on her bottom then she was scooped up and her legs wrapped around his waist. “And after that?”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of you. I want to take care of you.”

  And she believed him. Maybe it had something to do with the way he pressed her against the wall with her hands bound over her head, her wrists pinned by his large palm. Or maybe it was his cock at her entrance, teasing and stimulating her clit as his mouth seized upon her lobes and neck, then her mouth.

  The light growth of hair on his face tickled and made her let out a soft giggle. “You know, I like horizontal sex every now and then.”

  “You look like a scratcher. The last thing I need is to open up a training session tonight with bloody scratches sticking to the back of my shirt.”

  “Aren’t you a cocky so-and-so?”

  Apparently he was. Without further preempting, he pushed his thick cock just past her tight entrance and stifled her moan by putting his mouth over hers. He held her there, very still for just a few seconds to give her muscles time to adjust to his size, and pulled out almost completely, only to sheath himself almost to the hilt.

  Pinned there against the wall, she felt completely useless without the use of her hands and inability to work her hips. He was holding her absolutely still, gliding in and out of her, squeezing her ass with the hand holding her up and pressing her tongue into submission with his. With every stroke, he ground the front of his body against her aching clit, making her toes curl and muscles clench around him.

  The way she saw it, there was nothing to do for it but go along for the ride. To not try to take control for once. She closed her eyes and cleared her thoughts of everything that didn’t matter. The car lot didn’t matter. Her homelessness didn’t matter. The illicit nature of what she was doing with the governor’s son didn’t matter. All that mattered was feeling so full and having her body wanted by someone so much for the first time in … well, she’d lost track.

  “Aaron — ”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  He pulled his tongue back from her mouth before she bucked between him and the wall with her orgasm. She might have taken it off with the force of her clamping teeth. Instead, she bit down into a bit of shoulder. It was all she could reach. He didn’t seem to mind. He was too busy relocating her to the bed where he laid her flat and pulled out in time to spill his seed all over her belly.

  He lay there panting, staring at the ceiling while he caught his breath.

  “Bad timing, sweetheart, and I know it. Are you on anything? Birth control, I mean.”

  She felt like her stomach turned inside-out at the ramifications of the question. She’d been so hot for him and eager for his sex she hadn’t even bothered to consider safety concerned. It was unlike her. Condom-less sex was usually a deal-killer for her. Always had been.

  “I have an IUD. Doesn’t protect me from cooties, though.”

  He chuckled and sat up to hang his legs over the edge of the bed. He walked into the bathroom, ran water, and came back moments later with a damp washcloth.

  She took it and wiped her belly clean. “What’s so funny?”

  “Nothing. It’s been a long time since a girl has accused me of having cooties. I’m thinking second grade. It was funny then, too.”

  “Call them what you want, but I’m serious. I don’t know how much you get around, no matter what you claim. You’re a goddamned public figure. For all I know you could have multiple baby mommas paid off very handsomely to stay quiet.”

  He let that movie-star grin span his face then disappeared into the bathroom.

  She heard the sound of water drumming against the shower floor, and when he returned, he leaned against the wall beside the bed and crossed his arms over his chest.

  Jesus.

  She had to turn away from him. His cock was at half-staff as if he was ready to go at it again, and those thighs and calves were just as magnificent out of clothes as she’d imagined. Muscular and sinewy with just the right amount of tan.

  “No, no, sweetheart. I leave the carousing to Elly. I’m clean, but you don’t have to believe me. Have any allergies I should know about? Latex? I’ll sneak out during the mixer later and pick up a bucket of prophylaxes if it’ll make you feel better.”

  “What makes you think we’re doing this again, you smug bastard?”

  He shrugged then leaned over the bed to pluck one of her traitorous perked nipples.

  “Fine.”

  “Hate to make you put wet panties back on, but without your luggage I don’t see where you have much choice. Shower with me? Then I’ll drape you in the finest heather gray staff polo shirt available in a unisex size medium.”

  “What girl could refuse an offer like that?”

  “Oh, I have better offers saved up for later.” He scooped her up by the bottom and pressed her front against his.

  She wrapped her legs around his waist and let him carry her to the bathroom.

  • • •

  Mandy was hard to ignore, sitting there in the square between Frank, who’d arrived last-minute right before opening, and Chas who kept nudging her with his elbow and leaning in to whisper who-knows-what. If he kept it up, Aaron was going to have a little chat with him about employee fraternization. It was a total “Do as I say, not as I do” situation and it probably wasn’t fair since Aaron hadn’t made a public claim of the woman, but still — she was his.

  Nothing to do for it at the moment. Everyone, except Chas that is, was looking at him, waiting for him to start.

  “It’s great to see all of you here in one place. Some of you I see almost daily. Some, I see every few weeks. Some of you I haven’t seen since I hired you.”

  A chorus of chuckles.

  “What we’re going to do over the next three days is redefine how Cars to Work does business. At the rate we’re growing, organizational changes are going to happen frequently. This staff will probably double in size in the next year. Those of you who have been with me since day one … ”

  He rested a hand on Tina’s shoulder.

  “ … may find yourselves elevated to leadership positions over the next few months. We’re changing the way we procure cars. We’re working on building a sort of closet, as it were, of vehicles we can reach into and distribute from rather than scrambling to acquire after the fact based on needs.”

  He walked to the laptop connected to the projector and activated a slideshow. “We’re changing our eligibility guidelines, our screening procedures, and our delivery timetables. We’re bringing on more certified mechanics and salvage experts so we can scoop up those well-loved vehicles that need a little TLC. I’ve got finance people here we didn’t have last year.”

  He nodded toward a cluster of new hires seated closest to the front of the room.

  “We gave away a lot of free cars last year. Going forward, we’re opening up our program to people who can pay a little. That’s where our finance crew comes in. Now, as you all know, I’ve had some trouble in the past keeping up with
the staff. I’ve double-booked a lot of you on numerous occasions, sending you out to two different client locations on different ends of the state at the same time. I’m not very organized.”

  Someone, probably Tina judging by the sucked teeth, mumbled, “That’s for sure.”

  He chose not to respond knowing full well Tina’s next trick would be her rolling her eyes. He didn’t want her to lose a contact lens.

  “That’s why I’ve brought someone in to handle all the personnel issues. Make a note in your handbook. Going forward, any issues involving scheduling, PTO, payroll, or equipment should be directed toward Miranda McCarthy instead of me or Tina. Please leave poor Tina alone. She has no idea about your wage withholding. And, in case you haven’t met her, Miranda’s the tiny brunette enduring our Chas’s never-ending chattering.”

  Mandy smiled and gave everyone a little wave. Winning over the crowd already. He realized the potential.

  “She’s mean as a snake and full of toxic venom, so don’t bug her too much. I hear she bites.”

  More chuckles from the peanut gallery.

  Mandy raised a brow at him.

  “Not kidding, she’s really vicious. All right, let’s plow through this new policy information. I know you’re all itching to get to the open bar. That reminds me to make the following admonition. Keep the shenanigans down to a minimum this time and make sure you’re parked in your seats right after breakfast tomorrow, because I don’t have time to drag a bunch of hungover mechanics out of their rooms.” He cut his eyes toward the greasemonkey contingency. Eleanor saluted.

  Then he got down to it.

  Later, he paced in his suite with the door propped open by a box of spare polo shirts while trying to figure out how exactly to deal with his latest disaster.

  Elly was sprawled across the chaise in the separate living area, calmly flipping through a magazine as if she wasn’t the cause of the day’s Owen scandal.

  “Really, Elly? Really? What the Hell were you thinking?”

  She patted her open mouth as she yawned, then continued turning pages.