Nothing But Trouble

by Ashley Bostock

  She gave him that intent stare again, and he couldn’t help but wonder what was going through her mind. She surprised him by nodding ever so slightly. He rolled down the divider and instructed Aslan to head to his penthouse before she changed her mind.

  Once inside Michael’s penthouse, Sophia went straight to his bay of windows that overlooked the city. He admired her backside as she gazed contemplatively out the large glass structures. As he watched her, he realized he couldn’t explain why he had the urge to bring her here. He didn’t bring women here, period. His closest friends, yes—who were men. Women? Hell, no. He knew bringing her here had more to do with than just their fake engagement. Deep down, he knew. He didn’t understand what it was. No scratch that, he understood what it was, what he didn’t understand was where it was coming from. It was good for the two of them to be seen at his place. Although, he doubted anyone saw them come into the parking garage, let alone his penthouse.

  What was he doing? Minus the fake engagement, he wanted her. He wanted her badly. Despite what Julia insisted, sex wasn’t off the table. Not with him anyway. Never with Michael. Especially when Sophia stood there looking the way she did. Then she turned around, and the view got considerably better.

  Getting an eyeful of the curves of her breasts, he was having a difficult time not thinking about sex around her. How he would treat her in bed, how he would get her to dance with him and later, for him. How turned on he knew she’d get him. Her chest …he was practically on his knees worshipping her, and it was infuriating to say the least. His cocked ached with desperation for her small hands to touch it and stroke him into ecstasy – to guide it into the wet folds between her thighs.

  “Would you like a drink? More hot-buttered rum? Water?” He could plainly hear the huskiness in his tone.

  “Sure. Water would be nice.”

  She followed him into his kitchen where he opened two bottles of water, and he tried to imagine what she was seeing through her eyes. The dark wood cabinetry, black marble countertops and immaculate stainless steel appliances Irma, his housekeeper, had polished to a nice shine. Nothing sat out on the countertops, and as he glanced around the open expanse of the rest of the kitchen and into the living room, he realized he had nothing. Not a single item in there looked as if he lived here. No photos, no papers or books. Not even a handy pen laid around. It looked clean. It looked like he found a house rental and was merely staying overnight.

  “Do you actually live here or just come and spend the night?” she joked, reading his mind.

  “No, I actually live here. Never noticed how impersonal it is though until now.” It was like having her around breathed fire and warmth and light into his world, and he was seeing things he’d never taken the time to see before. All with a fresh set of eyes.

  “Why is that you think?”

  He shook his head, unwilling to explain his thoughts. Laughing at himself for allowing this innocent, young flower to meddle with his mind the way she’d been. He was treading on dangerous territory. Did she do that to every man she met?

  She drank from the bottle, and he watched her delicate throat once again as it bobbed up and down. He wanted to kiss that throat. Show her all the things he was thinking. Nothing which pertained to why his house was impersonal. The naughty thoughts wouldn’t stop coming. Before he knew it, he’d set his water down and was on her like a panther, pulling her into his arms, kissing her neck and cheek. She let loose a throaty purr, and Michael told himself he had to hold back. He couldn’t do all the things he wanted to do to her. Not tonight and since this was ending in less than thirty days, probably not ever.

  He came undone when she threaded her arms around him and into the hair at the back of his neck. Her chest pressed into his and he knew he had to have her. He wanted her too badly to give a second thought to Julia’s conditions and whether they could keep up their fake engagement once they’d fallen into bed together. He had to do something to satisfy the crazy desire she’d cast upon him. He grasped her ass tightly and hoisted her up on one of the bar stools.

  “I have to feel you,” he pleaded as she tipped her head back and his lips touched her neck.

  His hands roamed over her back, coming up to the undersides of her breasts where he finally felt the weight of them in his palms. Had he not jacked off earlier, he would have surely came in his pants right then. They felt too perfect. Their fullness felt like he’d found the most-perfect fruit at the produce stand. Heavy. Perfectly round. She moaned as he kneaded them. Finding her erect nipples through the fabric, he rolled his thumbs over their hard points.

  Wanting to feel more, he managed to pull himself away long enough to delve under the hem of her sweater. Her soft skin was ecstasy. Smooth, firm and made to fit perfectly into his hands. He flicked the bra hook open and managed to find his way beneath the thin material all the while kissing her neck, sucking her earlobe and being very careful to avoid her mouth. Even when she kept nudging her lips toward his. Careful. It would be so easy to put his mouth on hers. He wanted to kiss her, plain and simple. An urge he hadn’t felt for a woman in some time. He knew it would be good, too. He could feel the promise of it. As he played with her nipples, big and hard as they were, he knew her mouth would feel ten times better.

  Not now. He couldn’t do it. He forced his mouth down.

  Down past her collarbone where he sucked her right through the thin cottony fabric of her sweater. Her hands messed up his hair, her cries of pleasure filled his ear and he wanted to fuck her so badly, it hurt. He wanted to claim her innocent body. Brand her as his by bending her over his impersonal countertops which held nothing that defined him as a person, and spank her ass cheeks so low that he spanked half ass cheeks and half pussy lips. She grabbed his hand and pressed it between her legs.

  She was hot.

  On fire.

  And as if it had a mind of its own, his hand fumbled along her stomach until his fingers skimmed the barely-there hair along her pelvis. Ever so slowly, Michael’s fingertips slid across her wetness, and he gravitated toward the seam where he edged his finger in ever so slightly.

  “More, Michael. I have to have more,” she pleaded.

  She gripped his neck and moaned, her hips pushing into his hand, and once again his face and his mouth came so close to her lips. He grazed her cheek, her earlobe, her neckline and then finally he pushed his finger all the way inside of her, giving in to her request. So damn tight. As she whimpered against his ear, he worked her – knowing by her frantic movements that she’d come. The intensity of his finger and palm against her as he stroked her insides, eliciting the wetness to gush around his fingers, didn’t halt. Simultaneously, her nails dug into his back, and her orgasm tightened around his finger.

  He looked into her eyes, seeing the desire he knew she must see in his too, and even though it was terrifyingly difficult to, he stepped a hair’s breadth back, his cock uncomfortably hard.

  “That’s enough. If I don’t stop, I’m going to do things that aren’t fake engagement friendly.”

  Things that were messy.

  Like kissing.

  And fucking.

  Chapter Ten

  “It’s not like I want the prescription! The doctor prescribed it for her. It’s what she needs. I don’t have the money to buy it.”

  Sophia paced back and forth in her little kitchen, furious at her grandmother’s stupid insurance company for not wanting to cover the tiny prescription for her. Out of pocket it would cost thirteen hundred dollars. Who had that kind of money solely set aside for medicine? As the insurance lady droned on and on in her ear, Sophia added up the number of additional shifts at the club she could take on, as well as how many private lap dances she could do in order to get the money. Maybe two weeks? If she busted her ass and explained to Jericho that she needed the hours and the money, he would understand.

  “Ma’am? Ma’am? Are you still there?”

  “Yes. I’m still here. Yes. Email me the form and I will fill it out. How
long will it take to review my request?”

  “At least two weeks.”

  “Fine.” She rattled off her email, and once she hung up, she called the doctor’s office. Of course, getting the doctor directly was like trying to get ahold of the President. She explained her situation to some stranger who had nothing to do with the any of this and was promised that said stranger would relay Sophia’s information to the doctor’s nurse – not even the doctor himself!

  “Damn it!” She threw her phone onto the counter and burrowed her face into her hands. She wished, just once, something would be easy. It was always one step forward two steps back for her. That was the story of her life. Did other people have this many problems? Michael didn’t seem to. He seemed like he was on top of the world. She had been too for those brief moments last night. She had almost let him have sex with her right there in his kitchen. She’d let him unbuckle her bra and stick his hand into her panties. Her first real orgasm. Done by someone other than herself. On their first official date as a fake couple nonetheless. Keyword fake, Sophia.

  Who was she and what happened to the Sophia who was saving her virginity?

  Before she knew it, she was mixing flour and sugar and rolling out dough to make not one, but two peach cobblers. Baking relieved her from thinking about all the stupid shit going on in her life. All she wanted was to take care of her grandma, to make sure her grandma was comfortable and pain-free. Was that too much to ask? Sophia knew her grandma was elderly and with that came some health issues, but it was a struggle every damn time.

  As she stirred the mixture, Sophia’s thoughts drifted back to Michael and their fake engagement. Three weeks left of their charade, and she was already sad to see it end. She was even more shocked that she was willing to give herself so freely to this man—a man she hardly knew—without any uncertainty whatsoever. This proved to her that she needed a life. She needed to make friends—why had she graduated high school and drifted away from her friends?—get out and date more, because being with him had been the highlight of her week and…well, it shouldn’t be so exciting. Hot. Making her insides heat the way they were.

  It shouldn’t make her want to give herself to him with only knowing him for the short amount of time she had. It was incredibly difficult not to kiss him on the mouth. Her instinct was to do just that because that was what people did. They kissed. Sometimes tenderly, sometimes fiercely. But not Michael. No. He fucked. And he kissed other places. The feral look on his face when he told her that, well, her panties nearly incinerated right there from all the heat that had pooled between her legs.

  He was potent. A fire in her belly. A hot-blooded, rock hard C.E.O. that got her panties drenched just thinking about what kind of bedroom trickery he had in his repertoire. The catch of a lifetime, if this weren’t a sham. Taking both cobblers from the oven, Sophia barely noticed the delicious scent of warmed peaches as her thoughts tumbled from the sexy web mogul to the heartless insurance company. She cut two pieces from the pan and carefully placed them on paper plates and headed to her grandma’s room.

  “Are you awake?”

  Her grandma slowly turned her head toward Sophia. “I’m awake. The smell woke me up,” she said in a dry, groggy voice.

  “I brought you a slice. Do you think you can eat it?” Sophia asked sweetly.

  “Of course.”

  Sophia raised the head of her grandmother’s bed to an upright position and once she was situated, Sophia helped her with the cobbler.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Doing just fine.”

  “I called the insurance and they won’t cover one of the prescriptions Dr. Ranger prescribed. So, I have to file a form to see if they’ll make an exception.”

  Her grandma’s weak hand drifted up into a slight ‘no thank you’ gesture. “I’m going to die soon anyway.”

  Sophia reached for her grandmother’s hand and squeezed, blinking back the already present tears. “Don’t say that, okay? I’m not ready to let you go,” Sophia said.

  “Tell me about this young man you’ve been seeing.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t call it seeing, technically.” Sophia explained everything about Together.com and all the things that had happened since she met him online. She told her grandmother about his ex-fiancée and the way she blurted out the two of them were now engaged. She excluded the part where he ravished her in his penthouse, of course.

  “I still can’t believe I did that, Grandma.”

  “But you like him, don’t you?”

  “Gosh, yes. With surprising ferocity. But he’s made it clear that he isn’t a relationship kind of guy, so there isn’t much there for us. This Mindy lady really messed him up.”

  “Never settle for less than what you want. You’re smart, Sophia. You’ll figure out a way to weave yourself into his heart. Spending time with you will do the trick, and if he can’t see what’s in front of him, then he doesn’t deserve you.”

  “Thanks, Grandma. I signed up to volunteer at the art center. I’m so excited to be around painting again.”

  “We always enjoyed painting together, didn’t we?” Her grandmother was the one who introduced her to painting. The two of them shared the hobby for as long as Sophia could remember. Vivid images of watching her grandma oil paint on large canvases as she allowed Sophia to finger paint, were strong set in her mind – distant and still-happy memories that warmed her heart. Sophia learned quite a bit from her over the years including how to mix the perfect combination of colors and how no ordinary paint brush would work.

  “Those are my fondest memories of you, Grandma.” It warmed Sophia’s heart and she couldn’t wait to remember the feeling all over again.

  But even with her extensive background, the volunteer program didn’t simply throw the volunteer in with a group of students to begin teaching. Rather, she had to accumulate so many hours of volunteer service before she could be admitted to their training program where she would then be able to instruct her own art classes. Right now, Sophia was going to help with the east wing refurbishment project by cleaning out and painting a few of the empty rooms, which would then be used as classrooms in the future.

  “I’m proud of you, Sophia. I wish your mother knew what a gem she left behind.”

  “Oh, well. I have you, Grandma. You’re all I need.”

  “I’ll have the New York Strip as well. Baked potato. Butter and sour cream. Do you have any bacon for it?” Justin asked the waitress as Michael took a sip of scotch.

  “I sure do. I will have your orders out soon. Would you guys like some fresh bread to go along with your appetizers?”

  “Please,” Cole answered.

  “Sure thing.” The waitress walked away and Michael let out a breath, relaxing into the plush leather seat of his booth. The five of them had managed to meet for dinner and as always, it felt good to be in their company.

  “Oh man, this is exactly what I needed. My dad has been on my ass at the hotel nonstop,” Justin said.

  “Over what?” Michael asked.

  Justin shook his head. “Over everything. I knew when he retired and the hotels became mine that he’d hover. I didn’t think it’d be this bad. His idea of retiring is coming into the office every day. I’m thinking of deactivating his key card so he can’t enter the offices.”

  They all chuckled. “I don’t think Senor Hollinsworth would like that. Send him on a vacation. That’s what you do when you have to get rid of your parents,” Zander chuckled again and unfolded his cloth napkin into his lap.

  “Where’d you send your parents off to?” Michael asked.

  “To Spain. They freaked. Luckily, I had them on a tour so they had some guidance. You know they’d never been out of the barrio before that?”

  Zander’s parents still lived in Globeville, which wasn’t a great neighborhood in North Denver and even though Zander had promised them he could give them a better place to live, they’d refused. Globeville was their home and they weren’t going anywh
ere. Especially at their age. It never stopped Zander from trying though.

  “That’s rough, man.” Dylan, who’d been noticeably quiet, spoke up. “My dad wouldn’t step foot in the barrio, even if you paid him. He’s so high and mighty it’s exhausting.”

  “Quit sharing your fame and fortune with him,” Cole said. “Take away the cash.”

  “Sadly, that’s the only thing I can do for the guy.”

  Michael shook his head. Dylan was close to his dad but his mother was a different story and even though Michael’s parents were exhausting, he’d gotten lucky. They were great parents. “Parents are a pain in the ass and can be equally wonderful.”

  “Cheers to that!” Justin lifted his beer and the four men raised a glass.

  “Cheers!” They said collectively and all took a drink.

  Michael studied his friends over the rim of his glass. Cole with his light brown hair and recognizable green eyes, along with his parents, who would be forever heartbroken over Francesca. Justin’s perfect face that looked like he belonged on a magazine rather than in a board room. Dylan who was on plenty of magazine covers with his cropped brown hair that covered his head and half his face, making him look like he belonged in the woods as a lumberjack. Then, Zander, who was the only one of them that stood out with his brown skin and almost black hair.

  To Michael, when he looked in a mirror, all he saw was the five of them inside himself. They were all friends who looked similar with varying shades of brown hair, similar colored eyes, similar builds. They all worked hard. They all held on to their Christian beliefs – admittedly more so since Francesca died. And they all loved women and, equally, their freedom.

  They were alike in so many ways and he couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if any of them were to ever find a woman that found them worthy enough to keep. And vice-versa. Would they drift apart? Would a woman understand their bonds of friendship? His heart squeezed unnaturally as he thought about the future and what theirs held.