The Super: A Bad Boy Romance

by Connor, Anne

  My panties are getting wet at the idea of having him in my bed again. His hand holds onto mine and his arm flexes, and I remember how good he is with his hands.

  We get out of the car in front of his building, on Madison and 65th Street, and he tosses the keys to a parking attendant outside the lot on the ground floor of the building. It isn’t far from my office, but it might as well be a world away.

  The lobby of his building has a series of modern, abstract statues and a fountain in the middle, and a fully-staffed security desk, even though it’s after hours.

  Drew is dressed to kill. I noticed his clothing when we were back in Brooklyn, but somehow, they didn’t register in my mind. I think it was because he looked so out of place in his duds. Like a fish out of water. He’s wearing a jet-black suit and perfect shoes, and he’s trimmed his beard. I love a longer beard, but I also love how his manscaping is done perfectly to show off his hard jawline.

  I settled on the little black dress I wore to my college graduation. I was a few pounds thinner back then, and the way the dress fits now looks better than it used to.

  When I came out of my room to show Drew, the look on his face said everything.

  What the hell am I doing? I should be at home in some yoga pants and vegging out in front of the TV.

  I do not need to be going out on some kind of fancy date with a man who is way out of my tax bracket and who will soon realize I can’t keep up with him. It’s a good thing it’s just a fling.

  Just keep reminding yourself of that: just a fling! Harmless and fun. Not a big deal.

  “Now, don’t embarrass me in front of my brother,” Drew says, waving to the security guys at the front desk as all of the electronic turnstiles open simultaneously. “I know you’re a lot smarter than me, but there’s no reason to remind my brother of it.”

  “I’ll try not to bring up any high-brow topics during our little pop-in. So, nothing about the large hadron collider? What about the multiverse? Speaking of, are you, like, microchipped, or something?”

  “What do you mean?” He taps on the up button in the elevator bank and our elevator arrives.

  “I mean, you didn’t have to swipe a keycard or anything.”

  “Oh. The guys buzzed us in.”

  “Wow. In my building, if I want to bring a guest in, they have to show a form of ID and sign their name in blood.”

  “Well, it helps when you own the building.”

  “You...own this whole building?”

  “No, not the whole thing. 50% of it. Just the good half. My brother owns the rest.”

  We step onto the elevator and the car ushers us to the top floor.

  “The Penthouse, huh? That’s pretty fancy.”

  Drew lets out a little chuckle.

  “Is this why you’re with me? Because I have money?”

  He grabs me by the waist. I’m not expecting it. He draws me deeply into him and our mouths collide, the stubble of his beard against my chin a shock to my body, in deep contrast to the warmth and softness of his mouth on mine.

  “Yes, Drew. It’s because you have money. That’s why I’m with you right now.”

  Wait. I’m with him?

  I guess I am. I can’t help myself.

  Money is the last thing on my mind, but it’s absolutely at the forefront, too. It’s just another thing Drew has and I don’t, another thing that would make him realize how different he and I are.

  “It’s not because of all of my other good qualities?”

  He slips one of his hands along the front of my dress and locks eyes with me as he slips his fingers up and inside the hemline.

  “Drew, what are you doing?”

  I breath the words heavily, my question hanging in the air.

  “Tell me you don’t want this,” he teases as he slips his hand into my panties. “Tell me you don’t want me to fuck you right now in this elevator.

  I want it more than anything in this moment.

  Drew Anderson has turned me into some crazy lady, making out in an elevator and not knowing what I’m doing.

  The elevator dings and his hands and mouth are off me before I know what’s happening. It’s as if I’m in a state of suspended animation - like the moment was frozen in amber, and time is moving along without me.

  He does that to me. I should have just stayed on the elevator and taken it down to the first floor and said goodbye to him for good.

  “Molly,” he says, exiting the elevator ahead of me. “This is us. You coming?”

  He doesn’t know how much his words mean.

  “Yeah. I’m coming. And I’ll have you know,” I say, speeding up to keep pace with him, “that your money is most certainly not why I like you.”

  “Ah,” he says. “I know. But just so I have this straight, you are admitting, right now, that you like me.”

  “Oh,” I say, slowing down and stopping.

  He stands before me and I try not to stare at him, but he’s so confident, so cocky, so infuriating, that I don’t know what to say.

  “It’s okay. I sort of like you, too,” he says, slipping his keycard out of his pocket and holding the door open for me as I enter the vestibule of his office space.

  “So this is where all the magic happens?”

  “Here, and in my bedroom,” he says, flipping on the lights in the entryway. “But you already know that.”

  My cheeks blush and my face gets hot.

  “Right.”

  Everything inside me is screaming for Drew. I almost feel embarrassed that this guy I barely know is doing this to me.

  To me - even tempered, level headed, walking down the straight and narrow Molly. My middle name is practically “stability.” And here is this brazen guy who just swept into my life and took me away with him.

  Took me to the executive suite of one of the city’s leading commercial real estate firms, and after hours, no less.

  “Molly, would you mind chilling out here for a few minutes? I’ve got to go check in with my brother.”

  “Of course.”

  “Do you want anything? Water, coffee?”

  “What, no caviar?”

  “Let me check the kitchen. I’m pretty sure I asked Sarah to order caviar the last time she put in a WB Mason order.”

  Is he serious? Is caviar a thing rich people really eat as an evening snack?

  As he walks away, I sit down in the waiting area near the front desk. The place is certainly beautiful. It’s all new and bright, very unlike the office space I work in. I’m nearly in a basement, with stacks of newspapers and folders everywhere. And my work area doesn’t have any windows. I have to sneak a glance past my boss to get a view of a sliver of sky from outside his office.

  Drew comes back a moment later with a bottle of Evian water and granola bar.

  “In case you need something to hold you over until dinner,” he says.

  “This is a very beautiful office you have here.”

  “Oh, you like it? Want me to come to your job and design a new interior?”

  He quickly walks away, disappearing down a long hallway lined with offices, and takes a right turn out of my view. I can only hear his muffled voice, and the voice of another man.

  That must be Eric. Let the boys talk shop now.

  There are a few magazines fanned out on a low, glass and steel table in the middle of the room. I don’t even recognize the names of many of them. Even though I work in media, the most highbrow magazine I’ve ever heard of is Vogue. I flip through one of them and see Drew and Eric in print, talking about how they made their business and their attempt to differentiate themselves from their father.

  The large flat-screen TV against the wall displays MSNBC on mute. There are some financial analysts on, talking about stocks and the NASDAQ.

  What the hell am I doing here?

  The whole environment makes the hair on the back of my neck stand at attention. It’s exciting and new, and it is so Drew Anderson.

  But that is the proble
m.

  I told him I liked his office, and he told me he designed it.

  I asked him about the building, and he told me he owns half of it.

  He asked me out on a date, and he brought me here.

  Cocky, arrogant. He takes what he wants. He took me.

  But I let him.

  He does what he wants. He excels.

  Even my struggle toward independence and success looks like a vacuum of mediocrity compared to what Drew has been able to accomplish.

  I hear a door close down the hall and Drew’s voice.

  “You ready to go, babe?”

  “What’s happening with the lawsuit?”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’m going to take care of everything.”

  “You don’t seem too happy about it,” I say, getting up and starting with him toward the door.

  “It’s not that. It’s just that I have so many other things on my mind right now.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like you. What I want to do with you. To you.” He puts his hand in mine and slowly interlocks his fingers with mine. “Hey, would you like to see something cool? Something I think you’ll really like?”

  “Is this something you show all the girls?”

  His eyes pierce mine, the soft glow of the overhead lights on the high ceilings illuminating us, the rest of the office dark.

  “No. It’s not. This is only for you.”

  We walk down another hallway to a glass door with nothing but darkness behind it. Our reflections stare back at us, and Drew opens the door, letting the warm, balmy atmosphere in.

  “Here, come,” he says, stepping over the precipice and offering me his hand.

  “Does this door lead outside?”

  “Just come. And let’s not keep this door open too long. Sarah will kill me if our electricity bill goes up because I let a little bit of warm air into our perfectly temperature-controlled space.”

  I laugh and step up the one small step outside. We’re on a terrace, with the city laid out before us, just beyond our reach.

  “This is breathtaking, Drew.”

  “I can’t take credit for this. This view came with the building.”

  A 180-degree view of the city is before us. I stretch out my arms at my sides.

  “I’ve done that a million times, babe. You can try, but you won’t be able to touch the other buildings. It’s fun to try, though, isn’t it?”

  He walks over to the ledge of the terrace and puts his elbows on it. A glittering, sparkling dance of red and green lights play on the street below, and all around us are the lights and sounds of the city.

  “This reminds me of when I was in college. Jess and I would go to her parents’ roof and look out at the city. We always wanted a part of it. To be part of it, not just to have it, but to be it. And I think this is the closest I’ve ever been.”

  “I could give this to you, Molly.” He keeps his distance. He leans against the edge of the terrace and looks me up and down like he did the first time we met, before I knew him. Before he knew me.

  “You could give me the city, Drew? All of it?”

  “No. I don’t mean that. I mean, I could give you what you want.”

  “I thought you said that I don’t even know what I want.”

  The warmth of the air envelopes us. It’s one of those special nights, when it feels like the air around you is the exact temperature of your skin, of your body. Like you’re one with the atmosphere, one with the world around you.

  Not just in the world, but part of it.

  “I think you do know what you want, but you just haven’t admitted it to yourself yet.”

  “I’m not sure I follow what you’re saying,” I respond impatiently. “I wanted to be a journalist, so I got all the right internships and now I have the right job to get my foot in the door. I wanted to go to grad school, so I didn’t just go to grad school, I went to the best grad school. I wanted my own place, so I got it. You’ve seen it. You’ve fixed my leaky sink, for goodness’ sake.”

  “Wow, you’re so full of yourself,” Drew says, cocking his head to the side, grinning. “I thought you were a nice girl from Brooklyn. But you aren’t. You’re cut-throat. I like it.”

  “Come on, Drew. You know what I mean. Of course I know what I want. And I have it.”

  “Why are you here with me, then? What can I offer you?”

  He walks toward me, a slight breeze between us rustling my hair. Drew gathers my hair into his hands and draws it gently at the nape of my neck.

  My body is on fire, the heat in my core growing as he kisses me. He guides me slowly so I’m standing against the terrace wall.

  He kisses my face, my neck. A hand slips up my leg and into my dress, and as my eyes close and my head tilts back slightly, Drew gathers my dress and pushes it up so it’s pooled around my waist.

  I open my eyes and look down at him through fluttering lashes. He’s gentle but firm, like he knows what he’s doing, but only wants to do it for me.

  “Is...is anyone else around? What about your brother?”

  “He’s gone. I saw the light in his office turn off. Just relax.”

  Relax. That isn’t something that comes easily to me.

  But as my body melts into pure bliss, the heat between my legs growing, I feel my body become tense and slack at the same time, relaxation and danger mixing into a purely delicious combination.

  Drew slides my panties to the side and slips a finger past my folds. He draws my clit into his mouth and works it between his lips, his tongue sliding over it.

  The rhythm he’s using feels like a song in my mind. He holds me steady as my heart beats wildly in my chest, my throat, my ears, between my legs. The humming in my body grows, threatening to spill over into the night.

  Drew lifts one of my legs up so it’s draped over his shoulder at the knee. His tongue dances over my clit as he keeps pushing his fingers into me.

  “God, you’re so fucking hot. I need you come all over my mouth.”

  It’s a dizzying thrill to have his tongue on me, lashing my mind with the filthy words coming out of his mouth, overtaking my body with the pleasure he gives me.

  He keeps kissing me until a pure white release overcomes my body, the dark sky of the night colliding with the silence bursting from within me. I hold onto him and struggle to stifle my moans, and he gives me everything he has within him.

  23. Drew

  “You’ve been to the pier, right?”

  The pier is the place where lots of guys bring dates. There are all kinds of fun activities. The inky black sky is dotted with stars - it’s the kind of sky you don’t see often in the city. It’s the kind of sky that you usually only see in the country, away from the city’s bright lights. Up in the country, nature isn’t competing with the skyscrapers. It gets to be on its own without having to be overshadowed.

  But the city is fun. I love it. And the pier is fun, and what Molly and I just did back at my office was fun.

  I’m watching her ass move in her little black dress, but she would honestly look just as fucking good in pair of old overalls. Or what about one of my white button-down collared shirts on a Saturday morning when she wakes up at my apartment for the first time? I’d love that. I can imagine her sitting on the couch watching her beloved retro sitcoms while I make pancakes for her.

  “Yeah, I think I’ve been here,” she says, walking ahead of me excitedly. “I remember that my mom and dad brought me here when I was a kid. I think they had ice skating here. Or maybe it was in Queens. I don’t really remember.”

  “That’s okay. We’ll make lots more fun memories together that I’m sure you won’t forget.”

  “So where are we going, anyway? Ice skating? Rock climbing? What else do they have here? Hot dog eating contest?”

  “Wrong borough, wrong day. And I don’t want to bore you with go-karts or anything like that. I was thinking we would go up.”

  “Oh! Rock climbing?”

  “High
er.” I point up and she grabs my hand excitedly.

  “Sky diving?”

  “Not that high.”

  I weave my fingers through hers and start walking toward the water, where the heliport is located.

  “You ever been on a helicopter before?”

  “Ohh!” She squeals and jumps up and down, clapping her adorable hands together.

  “So you do like me,” I say.

  “My friend had a birthday party where she did a helicopter tour when we were in junior high. I had the chicken pox so I missed the party.” She turns toward me and puts her arms around my neck. There is still some hesitation in her touch. I haven’t completely captured her mind or her heart yet.

  “Baby, come on. Let’s go.”

  We walk to where the helicopters are assembled and her bouncy, natural brown hair whips around in the air. The lights of the heliport shine on her like a spotlight. I know she doesn’t like attention, so I’m happy we’ve been able to connect during a time that the cameras are focused on some other bastard, despite the chaos going on in my life at the moment.

  I guide her to the helicopter reading Anderson Equities on the side. Eric and I argued over whose name should go first, so we decided to just have it say the name of the firm.

  “What?”

  Molly’s mouth hangs open as she turns to me and points to the helicopter. “I thought we were renting one for a couple of hours. Why’s your name on the side of that thing?”

  “It’s one of my toys, baby. It’s not a big deal.”

  “Hi, captain,” I say to my friend, Toby. He’s a guy Eric and I grew up with, and he always loved flying. I texted him when I left Molly alone in the reception area of my office and asked him if he wanted to come to the West Side to help me out for a few hours. He’s been a licensed pilot for years, and I envy the guy.

  He’s got a wife and two kids. He’s the picture of perfect married bliss.

  “I just got my two most important clients into bed, so this was perfect timing,” he says as he reaches out to shake my hand.

  “This is my new girlfriend, Molly. Mol, this is Toby. She’s my most important client right now. I’m trying to woo her into entering this deal with me.”

  Molly flashes me a smile, her brown eyes grinning and the hint of a dimple forming on her left cheek.