Bending the Rules: Wicked Warrens, Book 5

by Marie Harte

  A little Southern charm and a Yes, Mistress goes a long way.

  Wicked Warrens, Book 5

  Rex Samson is at the top of his game. His business is booming, his family loves him, and there’s no woman—or man—he can’t charm. Until he meets Natalie Wielder, a tough-as-nails city planner. She’s firm, sexy, and exactly what he needs—a woman to put him in his place. She’s also all work and no play, and that won’t do at all.

  Nat has better things to do than play with the mayor’s golden boy, but orders are orders. Accompanying him to a mandatory social function, she’s shocked that she thoroughly enjoys herself. The light-hearted Rex likes the finer—and kinkier—things in life…but freaky, no-gender-barred sex is a definite no-no in the conservative Deep South.

  When Rex hands over the reins in bed, she can’t resist taking them. And soon she’s breaking rule number one: no dating the enemy.

  Before long, she realizes there’s no living without him. But Rex’s kinky proclivities mirror hers—neither of which is good for her career—and she’s forced to figure out what’s really important. Her rules, or love?

  Warning: Contains a successful, carefree hedonist who wants to be dominated, and a sexy, career-minded vixen who is more than willing to oblige. Not one drop of vanilla in sight. Enjoy!

  Bending the Rules

  Marie Harte

  Chapter One

  Augusta, Georgia

  June

  Nodding at something the mayor said to Ty, Rex Samson subtly tuned out the dull conversation about city revenue and taxes. He tried not to be obvious as he stared into the hallway outside the office at a tall, thin brunette chewing out the guy standing in front of her.

  Despite her low voice and attempts at being discreet, Rex knew well the signs of a man getting his ass handed to him. Curious, because something about the prickly woman intrigued him, he made an excuse about needing to use the restroom and ducked out of the mayor’s outer office.

  Walking slowly past the pair engaged in a tongue-lashing, he took his time at the water fountain behind them.

  “Jesus, Mike. It’s like you’re stuck in slow motion. When I tell you we need that information like yesterday, what exactly does that mean to you?”

  Mike looked on the verge of tears, despite the fact he had to be at least ten years older than the woman, who seemed closer to Rex’s age.

  “I’m sorry, Nat. But I—”

  “But nothing. You’ve been working here longer than I have. You have no excuse. And don’t give me any bullshit about having a tough time at home. I saw you playing tonsil hockey with Brad yesterday, after your long-ass lunch. This is two strikes for you. One more and you’re out. Now get me that information by end of day, or you’re gone.”

  “Okay. Okay, Nat. Sorry. I swear, it’ll be on your desk before I go home tonight.” The older man pulled at his tie, then dashed down the hallway.

  Staring after him, Rex shook his head, amused by the guy’s timidity. Then he felt the woman’s gaze and turned to see her focused on him. Before he could say anything, he caught the scent of her perfume, a subtle blend of sultry and sexy, and his body instantly reacted.

  Well, well. Mean, arousing and fascinating. He had to get her number. Today.

  “Something I can help you with?” she asked. Aggression laced her tone.

  Never one to go for nice, he found Nat’s antagonism more than a bit attractive. She wore her long brown hair in a ponytail, and it hung straight, no curl in sight. A fringe of bangs saved her from looking too austere, yet the plain package couldn’t hide the striking, impatient woman waiting for him to answer her. She was downright sexy as hell.

  So he’d let her wait a moment longer while he studied the rest of her.

  Angry eyes that couldn’t decide whether to be brown or green glared at him. She had a narrow face, high cheekbones and a full lower lip. He wondered if she’d bite if he drew closer for a kiss…and prayed she would.

  The rest of her was just as lean. She seemed built for efficiency, with the look of a runner—that or she had a naturally high metabolism. She wore a long-sleeved, white button-down shirt rolled up at the sleeves, and black slacks. Sexy black pumps, gold hoops in her ears and a manly watch completed the outfit. No ring, he noticed with a satisfied smile. The big watch should have looked out of place on her but didn’t. Her boyfriend’s maybe? No, that wouldn’t do.

  “Take a picture. It’ll last longer,” she snapped.

  He laughed. “Sugar, I’d love to take a picture or two. Maybe over a beer?”

  She snorted, opened her mouth to respond, then after a look over his shoulder, seemed to change her mind. “Sorry, slick. I’m busy.” Without another word, she stalked down the hallway and turned the corner.

  “Rex, you done harassing that woman or what?” his friend Ty asked from the doorway.

  Rex rejoined them, this time in the mayor’s inner office.

  “Oh boy. Please tell me you didn’t,” the mayor said. “I try not to deal with Nat until I’ve had at least three cups of coffee.”

  Rex stared at the closed door, puzzled by the suddenness of his attraction. For months he’d been beyond bored with women, preferring to work instead of date. Threesomes and orgies had become stale, and even his quickie romps with men had begun to tire him.

  He knew who to blame for his lackluster love life. His best friend Brian, that ass, had once been a fun-loving ladies’ man. Now engaged to the ultra-fine Faith Sumner, he’d turned into a stay-at-home stud. Granted, the few times the couple had let Rex play in some voyeuristic games, he’d gotten off, but the experience had been lacking. Brian and Faith were in love. Their connection showed him how much in life he didn’t have. As if he needed reminder with his parents just returned from vacationing overseas.

  He turned his head back to watch Ty and the mayor joke about dates and dancing at the upcoming gala at the Savanna River Club.

  Rex nodded and settled back into the conversation. “Oh, right. I’ll be there. My parents should be too. They returned from Europe last week.” And thus, his reprieve from their constant meddling had come to an end.

  Ty said something else, to which Mayor Tom Jessup laughed. Tom and Rex’s father were golf buddies, so he did his best to tolerate the blowhard.

  “I think the boy is still distracted,” Ty mused and nodded at the doorway.

  Tom grinned. “Can’t blame him. Nat’s great, but I wish she’d use that tongue for something other than ripping my guys a new one.” Tom wiggled his brows, and Rex forced a laugh. The city mayor was just as big a womanizer as he’d been before he’d taken the election.

  “Nat?” he asked.

  Tom nodded. “Natalie Wielder, our urban planner. Girl is a genius with figures and strategy, but she’s tough to work with. Has the whole damn city council scrambling to stay out of her way while she works her magic.”

  Ty grinned. Married and disgustingly happy about the fact, Rex’s friend ribbed the mayor. “Yeah, I heard your son talking about her the other day. Tough for him to get her job if she’s so damn efficient.”

  Tom grunted. “You got that right. Much as I’d love to work with Josh, truth is, we need Nat to keep us afloat.” He smiled at Ty. “But now we’re not so desperate for funds, since you and Rex brought us some much needed revenue. You two gave the city a real boost, and I can’t thank you enough.”

  Ty shrugged. Arrogant but not obnoxious, he knew his company’s new headquarters had made him a popular man. “It was between here and Atlanta, but Jan’s parents live here, and Atlanta�
�s crowded enough as it is.” His warehouse club chain sat a few rungs below the giants in competition and was steadily gaining ground.

  Tom continued, “And Rex, S&F has become a staple at over half the local restaurants. You’re in all the supermarkets and liquor stores. Kudos, young man. I know Harry and Sue are pleased.”

  Rex’s parents had always encouraged him to follow his dream. A finance major who didn’t want to be known as Harry and Sue’s little boy for the rest of his life, he’d found his calling and jumped on the opportunity to be his own man. His pride and joy—Squirrel & Feather Microbrewery—had delivered. Their beer had become so popular he’d had to build another center for manufacturing and distribution in Charleston, with plans to expand in Florida down the line.

  “Rumor has it one of the big chains is interested in buying.” Ty watched him. “You interested in selling?”

  “Maybe in the far future. Not now.” Not when he was on top of the world. He had money, charm, fabulous parents—when they weren’t nagging for grandchildren—and friends. Not to mention Rex could have his pick of the fine women in town.

  Just then, Natalie Wielder came to mind. He’d have to find her and ask her out, if only to see why she’d been so captivating. Was it her temper, her attitude, that slender build that went against his usual type? Nothing about her screamed “flashy”, yet he’d been drawn to her. Considering it had been years since he’d last been so fascinated by any particular person, he decided to follow up on her. Besides, he needed a date for next week. Why not take the prickly Ms. Wielder?

  Determined to get a yes out of the woman, he angled the conversation back toward her. Pleased when he learned she had to go to the gala as well, he ended the meeting, then went in search of the urban planner’s office. Time to put the Samson charm to good use.

  Nat sighed when she saw the fifty emails she’d gotten while she’d been handling Mike’s slack. She hated inefficiency with a passion. Why couldn’t everyone work as hard as she did? She got things done, on time every time. But at the rate she had to save everyone else’s ass, she worried she’d grow an ulcer.

  Plunging back into her day, she made phone calls, worked on Derrick Warren’s laughable changes to the budget on the new convention center, wrote a note to call Harper to deal with it—thank God at least her assistant knew how to make things happen—and darted back and forth between emails and her current project.

  She pointed in the direction of the knock on her door. “Yes?”

  “Well aren’t you sweet.” That deep, husky Southern drawl had the effect it no doubt intended.

  Nat tensed, stopped working and looked up at the model Southern boy she’d done her best to ignore earlier. Talk about the Monday from hell.

  No man should have a face that handsome, eyes that rich a brown, or hair so dark it looked blue-black in a cut that probably cost as much as one of her car payments. She’d seen him and Ty Burnell hanging out in the mayor’s office earlier, chatting with each other. Though she didn’t know Ty personally, she liked what she’d heard about him. The man had money coming out the wazzoo but didn’t act like it. Unlike Mayor Tom Jessup—one of the good ol’ boys who looked on most women as ornaments to fuck or impress.

  She pitied that man’s wife. And his son, because if Josh Jessup thought he could handle her job, he had another thing coming—namely, her foot up his ass.

  She sighed. “What can I do for you, Mr.…?”

  The man took her question as an invitation and closed her door behind him, then sat across from her desk. He wore a charcoal suit with a white shirt and snazzy blue tie. The guy looked like a million bucks, and that wasn’t counting the outfit. Where did they make men like this, anyway?

  “Rex Samson, at your service.” He nodded, then winked. “And you’re Natalie Wielder.”

  “Thanks for filling me in.” Her natural sarcasm never seemed to turn itself off. A testament to her acumen in her job that she’d never been fired for it.

  Rex laughed, a deep chuckle that invited her to join in with the merriment. God, this guy was too much for her to handle on a good day. Certainly not at ten o’clock on a Monday morning before she’d had a cup of coffee.

  “You’re a real smartass. No wonder I’m in love.” He patted his heart, and her own took a dive.

  “Is there something I can help you with, handsome?” There. I admitted it. Now go away. I’m busy. Too busy to wander down the wrong path. Again.

  He grinned.

  Yes. Very, very busy. Rex seemed way too chummy with the mayor for comfort. A potential adversary, at the least.

  “I’ll bet there’s a lot you could help me with, sugar.” No ignoring that innuendo. “But I actually came in here for a reason.” He stared around her office, then brought his deep brown-eyed gaze back to her.

  “O-kay. The reason?”

  “I need a date.”

  “Try a dating service.”

  “Next week. The Savannah River Club. Lots of networking to be done, and I need someone savvy about city politics who’ll look good on my arm.” He smiled at her.

  “And?”

  “And that’s you, sugar.”

  “Okay. First of all, my name is Natalie, not ‘sugar’. You can call me Natalie or Ms. Wielder.”

  “Not Nat?”

  “Nat is a name I reserve for my friends. Since I don’t know you, I can’t exactly call you a friend, can I?”

  His slow smile turned her on, and for that reason, she hardened her resolve.

  “In addition, I don’t know why you’d want me when there are dozens of well-connected people out there who’d love to be called ‘sugar’ and hang off your arm. Sorry, I’m busy. As in, I work for a living.”

  “Ouch. You have teeth.” His smile faded as he looked her over a bit too thoroughly for her system to handle. His sly grin told her he no doubt noticed her nipples rising through her thin blouse. “But I like ’em feisty. So, I’ll pick you up at six next Thursday?”

  “I’m pretty sure I just said no.”

  “But sugar, I work for a living too. And the mayor said you’d be happy to escort me. I’ve been so busy with business that my social calendar is all but empty. Consider this a favor for your boss. You get to keep an eye on me and get him off your pretty little ass. A win-win.”

  She blinked. “He’s not on my ass.”

  “But he’d like to be. I think we both know what kind of man Tom Jessup is.”

  She hadn’t expected Rex to be so honest about the mayor. “Oh?”

  He snorted. “Everyone knows he’s a womanizing dickhead with a history in this town. Got elected because folks loved his daddy, and his momma makes a killer red velvet cake.”

  Nat grinned. “Eileen does at that.”

  “You have to go to this thing anyway. I know. So you might as well go with me.” He paused. “Unless you’re married or have a boyfriend I don’t know about?”

  “You know nothing about me.”

  He smiled, like a cat who’d just consumed, feather by feather, a canary. “I know you have to go to next week’s gala. I know you don’t have a significant other, or you’d have said by now.”

  “I don’t have a boyfriend. But you didn’t ask if I had a girlfriend.”

  “Do you?” He looked intrigued by the idea.

  She sighed. “No.”

  “Too bad.”

  She’d been asked out before, but never by a posh Southern charmer in her office. How surreal. “Is this a joke?”

  “Nope.” He stood and stared down at her. “I need a date. I like you. So I’ll pick you up?”

  “Hold on.” She stood as well, frowning. “I don’t know the first thing about you. And I—”

  He shocked her by leaning over her desk and putting a finger over her lips. “Hush, sugar. You can look me up online. I run S&F. You know, the best microbrewery in th
e South? Anyhow, I have people who can vouch for me. And I have something you want.”

  When he didn’t take his finger away, she pretended to nip it. To her bemusement, his eyes darkened in what looked like lust as he pulled his hand back.

  “Oh, a biter. I knew it.”

  Her face burned. “Look, Rex. This is just weird. You’re asking me out. On a Monday. In my office.” He stood staring at her, and against her better judgment, she asked, “So just what exactly do you have that you think I’ll want?”

  “How about all the juicy gossip I’ve got on some of the heavy hitters in town? Including our esteemed mayor.”

  “Really?”

  “Yep. I’ve got dirt on a lot of people. Anything you want to know, it’s yours.”

  “And for this, all I have to do is show up with you?”

  “Well, you’ll have to smile while we dance, too. Think you can do that?”

  “Only that,” she warned. “You’re not buying anything else. Got it?”

  “Sure thing, sugar. But let me tell you something.” He leaned closer and whispered, “I don’t need to buy it. Ever.”

  “I believe you. And you know what? Neither do I.”

  Satisfaction curled his lips. “Yeah, I like you just fine, Ms. Wielder. All that mean wrapped up in a sexy-as-hell package. Hmm. We’re gonna have fun next week.”

  “One date. I don’t do office relationships, and I’m sorry, but your connection to the mayor puts you in the do-not-date category, regardless of what secrets you might have. So—”

  “I’ll pick you up at six Thursday night. We’ll go as friends. Don’t worry. And don’t keep me waiting.”

  Then he left. Without asking for her address, which he’d no doubt weasel out of Personnel.

  She stared at her open doorway. Such a strange Monday morning. Being hit on, then asked for a date to the swanky party she’d been dreading. All by a gorgeous charmer who looked as if he’d been born in that suit. Had she ever liked being called sugar before? She couldn’t remember. But despite what she’d said she’d liked it just fine today.