by Sandi Lynn
“How much?” I arched my brow at him.
“This one is fifty-five hundred, but since you seem like such a sweet girl, I’ll give it to you for five grand. Like I said, it’s the cheapest car I have.”
“And like I said, no more than four grand out the door. Did I mention I was paying for the car in cash?” I cocked my head innocently at him.
“Cash? Do you have four grand with you now?” His brow raised.
“Yes.” I grinned.
“Congratulations on your new vehicle, Kinsley.” The corners of his mouth curved into a wide smile. “Step inside my office and we can fill out the paperwork.”
I gave Reece a hug and thanked him for being so kind.
“Thank you for everything, Reece. This truly is the city of Angels.” I smiled.
“You’re welcome, Kinsley. Now that you have that car, don’t be a stranger. I’d like to have you over for a barbeque to meet my wife and kids.”
“I’d love that.”
“I’ll text you, okay?”
“Okay.” I smiled.
After signing the papers, Bill handed me the keys to my car. I climbed inside and ran my hand over the soft black cloth seats with a smile on my face. Pulling out the paper from my purse, I checked off three items on my list. The bank would have to wait until Monday since they closed at noon and it was already one thirty. I punched in the address to the motel into google maps and followed the directions back, missing a turn and ending up in downtown Los Angeles. I was starving, so I decided to grab a bite to eat before attempting to find my way back to the motel. After pulling into a parking space, I got out of my car and walked along the street, stumbling across a restaurant called Cabbage Patch. It sounded interesting, so I stepped inside and ordered a BLTA sandwich and an order of fries. While I was eating, I finished setting up my phone, and as I connected my new email address to it, I received one from the temp agency I applied to last night, asking me to call them as soon as possible.
“TeamOne staffing agency. How can I help you?” A friendly voice answered.
“Hi, this is Kinsley Davis. I just received an email asking me to call you as soon as possible.”
“Just one moment, Miss Davis. Let me see who is handling your application. That would be Miss Johnson. Hold please and I’ll put you through to her.”
“Miss Davis, this is Charlotte Johnson speaking. Thank you for your prompt response. Is it possible for you to come in for an interview right now?”
“Umm. I’m out at the moment and I’m afraid I’m not dressed appropriately for an interview.”
“Well, what are you wearing?” she asked.
“A maxi dress,” I replied.
“Good enough for me. How soon can you get here?”
“I don’t know. Where are you located?”
“2999 Overland Avenue, Suite 212, Los Angeles.”
I hurried and typed the address into google maps while she rattled it off to me.
“According to my GPS, I can be there in fifteen minutes,” I spoke.
“Perfect. I’ll be waiting.”
I hurried and finished the last of my sandwich, got in my car, and carefully followed the directions to the TeamOne office. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Pulling into a parking space, I climbed out of my car and walked through the large glass double doors.
“Miss Davis?” A dark-haired older woman smiled at me.
“Yes?”
“I’m Charlotte Johnson. Follow me up to my office.”
Once we reached her office, I took the seat across from her desk as she took hers behind it.
“I was impressed with your resume and we would like you as part of TeamOne. We have a job available for you to start on Monday if you’re interested.”
“I’m very interested. Thank you. I didn’t think temp agencies worked over the weekends.”
“Normally, we don’t. But when we have very important clients, we do anything we can to accommodate them. I will text you the address to the office building you’ll be working at. The job will only be available for about eight weeks. When your time is close to expiring at that job, we will be working hard to place you somewhere else.”
“Okay. Don’t you need to interview me? Ask me my skills or any questions?”
“No. No. Trust me. Just by looking at you, I can already tell you’re perfect for the job.”
“Oh. Well, thank you.”
“All of our other temps who would be perfect as well are already placed elsewhere, so we are kind of in a pickle and we can’t afford to upset our client.”
Chapter Six
Chase
My alarm was going off, and I sighed as I opened my eyes, grabbed my phone, and shut it down. If I didn’t love the waves so much, I would be sleeping in for another two hours before heading into the office. The weekend was crazy fun but exhausting. Saturday night with Steven at the Skybar landed me in a hotel room with Sophie and last night’s escapades didn’t get me home until two a.m.
It was six a.m. before I officially climbed out of bed, grabbed my surfboard, and headed into the water. The number of sexy women that were already on the beach doing yoga in their tight as fuck pants and skimpy sports bras was enough to wake anybody up.
“Hello.” I smiled as I passed by each one of them. “Beautiful way to start the day.” I grinned as I stared at their perfectly shaped asses.
I threw my board into the water and paddled out, waiting for the waves to hit. The sun was rising as I sat on my board and stared at the beauty of it. The only real place I felt any kind of peace was out here, in the middle of the open water, letting the waves break over me. It wasn’t too long before I was joined by others who felt the same way I did. A lot of people went to the gym to get their morning exercise in before starting their day, but not me. I got in my morning exercise by surfing and having sex. I saved the gym time for either midday or early evening after the office, depending on what my plans were. I surfed for about an hour and then headed back up to the house to shower and get ready for work.
“Good morning, Lexi.” I grinned as I walked past her desk and into my office.
“Good morning, Chase,” she spoke as she set my coffee down on the desk.
“How was your weekend?” I asked.
“It was good. Ben and I spent a couple of days in Napa.”
“Ah. Got filthy drunk on all that wine?” I smirked.
“I wouldn’t say filthy drunk.” She grinned. “Don’t forget you have a meeting with John Koppelinger at eleven o’clock.”
“Thanks. I did forget. Is my father in yet?”
“Your father’s been here since six a.m., and he wanted me to tell you that you are to be in his office the minute you get in.”
“He and Penelope must be fighting again.” I smiled. “One can only hope. I can’t stand that wretched woman.”
“That wretched woman is going to be your stepmother.”
I shrugged. “Maybe not. I think dear old Dad is finally seeing her for who she really is. Anyway, thanks for the coffee. I’m going to head over to his office.”
As I was walking down the hallway, I noticed a beautiful blonde sitting at the desk outside his office.
“Well.” I smiled brightly as I stopped. “You aren’t Isabella.”
She looked up and her blue eyes pierced me.
“No. I’m Kinsley.” She smiled.
“Kinsley.” I gave a cunning grin. “What a beautiful name for an extraordinarily beautiful woman.”
“Chase, get your ass in here!” my father shouted.
“As soon as I’m finished, I’ll be back to properly introduce myself.” I winked as I headed into his office and closed the door behind me. “Good morning, Dad. You seem a little on edge this morning. Everything okay?”
“No, Chase, everything is not okay. What was the one thing I told you to do?” he spoke in a stern authoritative voice.
“I don’t know. You ask me to do a lot of things.”
“For fu
cks sake. I specifically told you to stay away from the temp! Didn’t I?”
“Oh. You mean Isabella?” I smiled.
“She quit, and I know you had something to do with it! You slept with her, didn’t you?”
“Listen, Dad. I took her to the fundraiser. The one you,” I pointed at him, “made me attend because you didn’t want to. I didn’t want to go alone, so I asked her to tag along. There was drinking involved and one thing led to another. I politely told her the next morning that it was a one-time thing. It’s not my fault she couldn’t handle it.”
“You have a million women you could have asked! She was actually a very good temp.”
“Please.” I rolled my eyes. “She worked for you for one day. How could you possibly know if she was any good? Wait a minute. You two didn’t—” I wiggled my fingers.
“Of course not! I’m engaged to Penelope!”
“Well, Dad, that never seemed to stop you before.” I cocked my head.
He glared at me as he rested his hands on his desk and then shook his finger at me without saying a word. I could see the anger splayed across his face.
“Don’t even try, Dad. You’re the one who set specifications on who you want sitting outside your office, and now look, Kinsley out there is even more beautiful than Isabella. So actually, you can thank me.”
“Thank you? For what?!” he loudly voiced.
“For the departure of Isabella. You’re welcome.”
“You literally have two seconds to get out of my sight before I disown you!”
“Fine.” I put my hands up and walked out of his office, shutting the door behind me.
I looked at Kinsley, who sat there looking down with a grin on her face.
“You heard all of that?” I asked.
“Really only the part where he said he was going to disown you if you didn’t get out of his office.” She began to laugh.
“Don’t mind him. He tends to get wound up over nothing. Anyway.” I smiled as I extended my hand. “I’m Chase Calloway, son of Dean Calloway.”
“Kinsley Davis. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Calloway.” She smiled back as she placed her hand in mine, sending my cock twitching beyond control.
“Trust me.” I cocked my head. “The pleasure is all mine.”
“Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to work,” she spoke as she got up from her seat, grabbed some files, and headed into my father’s office.
“Of course. Enjoy your day.”
I swallowed hard and placed my hand in my pocket as I walked back to my office. She stood about five feet eight with legs that were long and lean. Her hair was blonde, naturally blonde with loose waves at the ends that flowed perfectly over her shoulders. Her eyes were heightened by the arch of her perfectly manicured brows. The color of them wasn’t your typical blue. They were more of an aquamarine color, the perfect mix of blue and green. Her slender jawline and perfectly shaped lips and nose made her face pure perfection. She captivated me and left me momentarily at a loss for words.
I let out a deep breath as I took a seat behind my desk.
“Hey, Chase,” Steven spoke as he walked into my office. “I have—hey, are you okay?”
“I don’t know. I think I just saw an angel.”
He chuckled. “Who is it this time?”
“My dad’s new temp. Her name is Kinsley Davis.”
“Wait a minute. I thought your dad’s new temp was Isabella?”
“She quit.” I waved my hand.
He rolled his eyes. “And I’m sure that had nothing to do with your rejection of her.”
“Who cares. We’re talking about Kinsley here. I want to go out with her. No, I take that back, I NEED to go out with her.”
“You mean you NEED to fuck her,” he spoke.
“Yeah. That too. Dad wasn’t too happy about Isabella quitting. He just laid into me a few minutes ago.”
“Then you better back off of Kinsley.”
“No can do, man. I’ll figure out a way to get to know her without compromising her job here. Plus, how long is she really going to be here? I’m sure Audrey will be back in a couple of days. I’ll just wait until she gets back and Kinsley is no longer working here.”
“Hey, Lexi, can you come in here for a minute?” Steven yelled from my office.
“Yes, Steven?”
“What’s going on with Audrey? Does she have the flu or something?”
“No. They found some suspicious tumors on her uterus. She had to have a hysterectomy. It really happened so fast.”
“So how long will she be out of the office?” I asked with great concern for my getting to know Kinsley.
“About eight weeks.”
“For fucks sake.” I shook my head.
“I don’t understand?” Lexi narrowed her eye at me.
“I feel bad for my dad. I mean look, Isabella already quit after one day and now there’s another new temp. God knows how long she’ll last.”
“Stay away from her and I’m sure she’ll last the whole eight weeks.” She smiled.
Steven let out a laugh.
“Don’t you have work to do, Lexi?”
“Yes. Actually, I do.”
“Great, now what am I supposed to do? There’s no way in hell I’m waiting eight weeks,” I spoke as I looked at Steven.
“I don’t know, bro.” He sighed. “Good luck with that one. By the way, I finished the Lexington program. Take a double look and let me know your thoughts.”
“I will. Thanks, Steven.”
Chapter Seven
Kinsley
Everything was happening so fast that I didn’t have time to think about anything else, and for that, I was grateful. Excitement overtook me because I had an appointment after work to look at a furnished apartment that was for rent in Santa Monica right across from the water. The monthly rent wasn’t listed, and from what I could tell by the pictures online, it looked nice. When I asked Mrs. Graham how much she was charging, she told me to come look at the apartment first and then we’d discuss the rent, which I found a little odd. I prayed that I liked it as much in person and it was in my price range, because all I wanted was a permanent place to call home.
I was sitting at my desk when Chase Calloway walked over.
“Hello there, Kinsley.” He grinned as he planted himself on the edge of the desk.
“Hi. Can I help you with something?”
“Oh, darling, you can help me with a lot of things.” His grin widened. “But, anyway, is he in there?” he asked as he pointed to the office door.
“No. He’s in a meeting right now.”
“Hmm. Okay. I’ll have to catch him later. I wanted to ask you if you would like to have dinner with me tonight. I would like to personally welcome you to Calloway Tech.”
My brow arched as I stared into his blue eyes.
“No thank you. I have plans.” I lightly smiled.
Chase cleared his throat as he stood up.
“Oh. Of course you do. A beautiful woman such as yourself certainly wouldn’t be sitting home all alone.” I caught him looking at my left hand. “I’m sure you and your boyfriend already have dinner plans.”
I knew exactly what he was trying to find out, and if I didn’t let him know that I was onto him, he’d probably think I was stupid.
“No.” I shook my head.
“No what?”
“My boyfriend and I don’t have dinner plans.”
“Well, then you must have other plans with him.”
“No.” I smirked.
“No, you don’t have any plans with him?”
“No. I have plans with myself. I don’t have a boyfriend, Mr. Calloway.”
“I see. Well, I can honestly say that I’m shocked. You’re too beautiful not to be seeing someone.”
“Thank you for the compliment. I appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome.” The corners of his mouth curved up into a smile. “By the way, just call me Chase. Mr. Calloway remi
nds me too much of my father.” He sighed.
Just as Chase was about to say another word, his father walked up behind him and placed his hand on his shoulder.
“What are you doing, Chase?”
“Actually, Dad, I was looking for you.”
“I’m here, so come into my office,” he spoke.
“We’ll talk soon.” Chase winked as he followed his father inside his office and shut the door.
I let out a breath. He definitely was the sexiest man I’d ever laid eyes on. But, despite his six-foot-two stature, obviously fit body, short blond hair that sported a messy textured top like a piece of art, electrifying blue eyes, chiseled cheekbones, and a strong masculine jawline that held the perfect amount of stubble across it, I wasn’t interested. And even though he looked like he just stepped right out of a GQ magazine, I couldn’t be interested. Okay, I lied. I could be if I let myself. He was a freaking Adonis and incredibly sexy, but I hated men at the moment, and I didn’t need any distractions in my life, especially when I was starting over and reinventing myself. Plus, he was a playboy, a charmer, a seducer, a one-night kind of man who left a path of shattered hearts and souls wherever he went. That much I could tell.
Chase opened the door and walked out of his father’s office, giving me a wink and a smile as he passed by my desk.
“Kinsley, can you come in here, please, and shut the door?” Mr. Calloway asked.
“Yes, Mr. Calloway?”
“Have a seat please.” He motioned for me to sit down. “I know my son can come on pretty strong.”
“It’s fine, Mr. Calloway. I’m not bothered by it.”
“Listen, you seem like a really sweet girl and I don’t want to see you get hurt. So, it would be in your best interest to not entertain Chase.”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t go out with him, and for god sakes, don’t sleep with him.”
I couldn’t help but let out a light laugh.
“I’m assuming he does this thing quite often.”
“More than you want to know.”
“Thank you for the warning, Mr. Calloway, but you don’t have to worry. I’m so anti-men, I didn’t even give your son a second look.”