I got in late after another long day of work. I really needed to hire more help. The jobs were coming in faster than I could get them done. We did quality work at my company, but I was finding that the more work that came in, the more I had to delegate and not actually do the physical labor. And that was why I had gotten into home renovations to begin with. I loved to get my hands dirty, to create something amazing and see the finished project. I liked feeling productive during the day. I couldn’t imagine ever sitting behind a desk like my brother, Robert, did. He loved being a lawyer, but the stress of the job was killing him.
My job was also stressful, but I had this cathartic release every time I ripped out a wall or framed in a new one. It was my passion, but that passion was waning the more that I had to sit behind a desk. I needed to hire a manager for the office to field the calls and do all the grunt work that I hated. I just had to find the time to do it.
I tossed my keys down on the side table by the back door and sighed when I heard grunting coming from the other room. There could only be two possibilities as to who was fucking in the other room, Andrew or Joe. I constantly wondered if I was always going to be living with them. As far as I knew, neither of them had a job, but they always paid rent. There was potential there for both of them, but for some reason, neither of them seemed to have any ambition. Andrew could have gone to college and gotten a degree in computer science or something. He was really great with computers, but he hated school. And Joe…I had no fucking clue what that guy was going to do. He just seemed to drift through life on beer and pretty women. I knew he made money, but he was pretty shady about it right now. I knew he was gone a lot at night, but I didn’t know if that was from partying or some side gig that he didn’t want any of us to know about.
I pulled open the fridge, not wanting to know what was going on in the other room. I didn’t want to know who it was or on what piece of furniture it was happening. If they were even using furniture. I was tired of living with my brothers. It wouldn’t be so fucking terrible if they actually had jobs and behaved like respectable, young men, but they were young and acted their age. I couldn’t remember ever being as immature as they were. I always had goals in mind. I went to school for engineering and then opened my business with the help of my parents. They gave me a small loan, and when they decided to move to North Carolina, they basically handed over the house to me with the stipulation that I take care of my brothers. I never had to worry about Derek. He had a good head on his shoulders and had a woman he loved. I knew they would get married one day and he had a solid job. There was nothing to worry about there.
Robert was on his own in Chicago, taking care of himself just fine, but that didn’t stop me from worrying about him. He worked long hours and the stress was obvious in his voice every time we spoke. I was more worried that he would have a heart attack more than anything.
Will taught a few towns over and he had his own house. I usually saw him on the weekends. He hadn’t settled down yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did soon. As far as I knew, he wasn’t a player. Well, I knew he dated from time to time. He taught history at a neighboring school district and seemed to be pretty happy.
I took a long drink of my beer and closed my eyes. That left Josh. I hadn’t heard from Josh in years. He just disappeared one day and none of us had heard from him since. Robert had used his contacts to investigate anywhere he might be. We filed a missing persons report, but had yet to come up with anything. My parents were devastated. It hit my mom the hardest, but they continued to live their lives, pretending like he was just off on an adventure. It broke their hearts though. We dug into anything that might have been going on in his life at the time, but came up empty. He was just gone, in the wind with no trace left behind.
My brothers and parents didn’t know it, but I had hired a PI two years ago. That’s part of the reason I was working so much. It wasn’t cheap to have an investigator constantly looking for someone, but Josh was my brother. I couldn’t just pretend that he was okay. I needed to know for sure. But the longer he was gone, the more I worried that he was dead, just another unidentified body out there that no one claimed.
I slammed back the rest of my beer and tossed the bottle in the garbage, shutting down the thoughts of my brother being dead. If I thought about it too much, the guilt ate me up inside. I knew realistically that it wasn’t my fault that he was missing, but I was the oldest brother. I should have seen something. I should have known that something was wrong, even though the last time I saw him, he was smiling and didn’t seem to have a care in the world. What could have changed?
I walked into the living room, forgetting about why I had stayed in the kitchen, and was immediately hit with the sight of Joe bending a woman over the side of the couch, fucking her hard.
“Shit,” I swore, quickly turning away. “Goddamnit, Joe. Can’t you do that in your bedroom?”
“Hold on,” he panted. “I’m almost finished.”
The woman groaned and I heard a slap right before a low groan from my brother. I shook my head in disgust as I waited for them to cover up. I wasn’t sure why I waited around other than the fact that this was technically my house and I didn’t want to have to hide up in my bedroom.
“Let me give you a ride,” Joe murmured to the woman.
“That’s okay. I called an Uber before. It should be here any minute.”
She strutted past me, wiping the lipstick from her lip as she winked at me. I shuddered and turned to my brother. “Nice.”
“I know, right? She was totally on fleek.”
“She looked like she was seventeen,” I scowled.
“Whoa, swerve, man.”
“What?”
“It’s not like she’s my bae.”
I rubbed a hand across my forehead and took a seat far away from where he had just fucked that girl. If she was legal, it was definitely up for debate. “Can you just talk to me like a normal guy? How the fuck do you expect to get a job when no one can understand a fucking word you say?”
“I have a job,” he said defensively.
“Right,” I snorted. “I’d love to know what that is.”
He glared at me and plopped down on the couch. “You need to get laid. You’re way too fucking grumpy.”
“I do get laid.”
“Pics or it didn’t happen,” he shot back.
“You want me to take pictures of me fucking women? You’re fucking disgusting.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m just saying that it’s so rare to see you with a woman.”
“Then why can’t you just fucking say that?” I asked angrily. “Seriously, I’m fucking tired of trying to figure out what the fuck you’re saying. I can’t understand a damn word you or Andrew say.”
“You need to get laid more often,” he said, leaning forward and enunciating every fucking word. “What about that chick that was here a few weeks ago?”
I thought back to that very uncomfortable experience and grimaced. She was hot as hell, but I was so mortified that I hadn’t remembered anything from the night before that I decided it would be best if we just never saw each other again. That wasn’t me. I wasn’t like my brothers. I was a one woman man, and when I met a woman, I dated her for a while before I slept with her. I didn’t want there to be any miscommunication between us. I wanted her to know that I respected her for who she was and not what she could give me. It was the way I saw my parents’ relationship and what I planned to have for myself.
“I haven’t seen her since the next morning.”
“She was thirsty,” he grinned.
I quirked an eyebrow at him. “That morning?”
“Oh yeah. Totes.”
I thought back to that morning, trying to remember if I wasn’t a gentleman like I normally am the morning after. “I know we didn’t have tea, but I offered her coffee.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “You need to learn the language. She was fucking hot. She wanted you, but you were all cancel.”
<
br /> That I thought I understood. “We are completely different people. It would never work out between us.”
“Only because you don’t want it to. You could have asked her to Netflix and chill. I bet she would have gone for it.”
“We don’t have Netflix,” I reminded him.
“The point is, she was into you, and you blew it. You could have had that woman in your bed every night, but you didn’t want to adult.”
I sighed and scrubbed a hand over my face. “I’m done with this conversation. I can’t understand half of what you say and I’m tired of trying. I’m going to shower. I have an early morning.”
“You don’t have to be so salty. I get it, the struggle is real. But when you find that bae that you’re looking for…” He nodded and grinned, shooting me a wink.
I spread my arms wide, frustration building at a rapid pace. “When I find her what?”
“You know. Goals AF. That’s all I’m saying.”
Apparently, he wasn’t saying much of anything. I turned and stormed up the stairs to my room, slamming the door behind me. I really fucking needed him to move out so I didn’t have to hear that shit every day. It’s not that I minded him being here, but fuck, I couldn’t stand the way he spoke. He wouldn’t last five minutes in a job interview. They would look at him like he was a fucking idiot, and that was what concerned me most. I would never get rid of him, because he would never qualify for an actual job.
I pulled off my t-shirt and flung it in my laundry hamper, but then walked over and shoved it all the way in when I saw it was draping over the edge. It was bad enough that I lived with frat boys, my own room wouldn’t look like that. Shucking my pants, I walked to the bathroom and turned on the shower, letting the steam fill the room. I was exhausted after such a long day. I hadn’t even eaten dinner yet, but I was too tired to care. There was no way I was going back downstairs to deal with my brother.
I rested my head against the side of the shower wall and let the water cascade down my back. I thought back to my conversation with Joe and wondered if he was right. Was Katherine into me? Had I totally missed that? All I could think about was the mistake I had made, but what if it wasn’t a mistake? I couldn’t remember much from that night, but I did remember her waking me up several times during the night for sex. I just wished that I could remember the actual act.
My cock grew hard as I remembered her walking downstairs in only my t-shirt. I could still remember the way her tits looked in my shirt. I grabbed my hardening cock and gave a stiff tug. God, what I wouldn’t give to get laid right now. And since I wasn’t seeing anyone and had no chance of bringing a woman home anytime soon, I imagined Katherine as I stroked my cock.
My breathing sped up as a flash of that night shot through my brain. She was straddling my lap, her tits right in my face. I was tugging one of her nipples in my mouth as she rode me hard. I remembered squeezing her ass as she threw her head back and groaned. I could feel her fingers digging into my shoulders. I stroked myself faster, my cock growing fatter in my large hand. God, what I wouldn’t give to remember all that happened that night.
I swore I felt her wet pussy grabbing my cock just before I shot off in my hand, spilling thick ropes of my cum all over the shower wall. I stood there panting, shaking my head slightly. Was it really that good that night or was I just imagining it? It was pointless in wondering. It wasn’t like I was ever going to see her again. Even if I hadn’t given her the shove off when I dropped her at her car, it wasn’t like I had any way of tracking her down. Not unless I went to the children’s hospital and searched her out, and I wasn’t that desperate. She was just a really good memory. One that I would use every time I needed a release until I found the woman I was meant to be with.
I unlocked the office and headed over to my desk that was filled with paperwork that had piled up over the last few months. I really needed to get started on this shit, but I had a job over at Mrs. Cranston’s house. She called me over every few months to fix something. Sometimes it was fixing a screen in a window. Other times, I fixed a plumbing issue. I didn’t normally do small jobs, but she never took no for an answer. The first time I tried, she just pushed on as if I hadn’t told her I wouldn’t take the job. She said she would see me soon and that she had a pie waiting for me. It’s not like I could let her pie go to waste, so I headed over there.
Now, as I stared at the mountain of paperwork on my desk, I wished that I had just turned down the damn pie. It was really good pie, but I couldn’t say no to it. I could call her up and tell her that she was going to have to find someone else for the job, but I knew that wouldn’t work. Maybe one of the guys would come in and they could do it for me. Hell, I was the boss, I would just order one of them over there.
Nodding to myself, I pulled out my phone and dialed R.J. “Hey, I have a job for you.”
“I’m kinda in the middle of a job, boss.”
“This won’t take long.”
“Yeah, but-“
“R.J., just do what I fucking ask,” I snapped.
“Okay, but then you’re leaving Pete to drywall by himself.”
Fuck. I scrubbed my hand down my face and sighed. I couldn’t leave him to do the drywalling by himself. Not on that kind of project. It was too big.
“Never mind.”
I hung up and dialed Mike. “I got a job for you.”
“Yeah, I know you do, but that’s not happening today.”
I could hear the humor in his voice. Everyone knew that when Mrs. Cranston called, it was going to be a bad day for me. Nothing ever went right.
“Why the hell not?”
“Lacy has that doctor’s appointment up in Chicago today. I’m afraid you’re on your own, boss.”
“What about Rex?”
“He’s starting the Colson project today. It wouldn’t look too good if he didn’t show up on time on the first day.”
I sighed and resigned myself to the fact that I would be the one to work for Mrs. Cranston today. Fuck, I really hated days like this.
“Yeah, alright.”
“Relax, boss. What’s the worst that could happen?”
I heard him snort in laughter before I hung up on him. Fucking dickhead. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I needed help, and there was only one person I knew of that could take care of this for me. I hated the administrative side of things, but finding a person that could deal with it was even worse. So, I swallowed my pride and called my baby brother.
“I’m just about to head into a meeting,” Robert answered.
“I need your help.”
The line was silent.
“Did you hear me?”
“Yeah, I did, but I just never thought I would see the day that you would come to me and ask for it.”
Whatever. Robert could be the corporate dickhead all he wanted. I didn’t want to suck it up and ask for his help, but I didn’t have a choice at this point.
“Look, I need an office manager and you know I suck at this shit. Can you find me one?”
“I don’t know. I’m pretty busy-“
“I really need this.”
“And I’ve got meetings all day.”
“You have an assistant,” I pointed out. “Have her reschedule one of them.”
“And this wouldn’t just take one day. I mean, I would have to do interviews, which would probably take up my Saturday.”
“You’re always here on the weekends anyway.”
“On Sundays.”
“You’re still here. Giving up one Saturday won’t kill you.”
“Not necessarily, but still, it’s a big ask.”
I rolled my eyes and sighed. “Fine, what do you want?”
“Who said I wanted anything?”
“Well, you said that you were heading into a meeting, but you suddenly have the time to sit here and bullshit with me.”
“I don’t want anything. Not right now.”
“Fine.” I gritted my teeth, hating that he was pulling
this shit with me. He was a lawyer and would always think like a lawyer. “When you need something, all you have to do is ask.”
“I’ll start looking into it immediately.”
He hung up without further discussion, leaving me no choice but to go along with his way of doing things. I tossed my phone on the desk and went over my meetings for the day. I had a few jobs that I had to go check out before the end of the day, but first I had to get out to Mrs. Cranston’s house. Fuck, I really hated this part of the job.
I snatched my phone off the desk and walked out of the office, ignoring the mounting work that I had to do. I drove over to Mrs. Cranston’s house and walked up to the front door, preparing to knock. She beat me to it, pulling the door open with a smile.
“Eric, thank you so much for coming over.”
“It’s no problem, Mrs. Cranston. What did you need done today?”
“Oh, please. Call me Jane. I’ve known you since you were in diapers. I used to give your mother tips on how to keep your little tushy from getting diaper rash.”
I smiled uncomfortably at her. I really hated hearing these stories from her. Mrs. Cranston had to be at least seventy years old, but the way she spoke to me sometimes made me think of a perverted little grandma. You wouldn’t think that her talking about diaper rash would be perverted, but if you could see the look on her face, you would realize there was a gleam in her eyes that said not only was she thinking about my tushy, but she was also planning out what kind of cream to use if she ever got my pants off me.
I walked past her into the house and made sure to put my backside to the wall. I always felt like she was checking me out, but I could never catch her in the act. She was a sly fox, a woman always on the prowl.
“So, what’s the job?”
“Oh,” she laughed lightly and shook her head, placing her hand on her forehead. “You know, I almost forgot what needed to be done. I guess I’m just more forgetful than I used to be. Next thing you know, I’ll forget that I didn’t put underwear on this morning.”
The twinkle in her eyes had me shuddering slightly. I was all for cougars. She was just a little too much of a cougar for my tastes. “The job?”
Maintenance Required: A small town romance (The Cortell Brothers Book 1) Page 3