All She Wants for New Years:
A Contemporary Erotic Romance Story
By NATHAN STRATTON
Copyright 2012 Nathan Stratton. All rights reserved.
Reproduction of this work prohibited unless the author grants permission.
Art credit: Nathan Stratton, with license from www.depositphotos.com.
Approx. word count: 8,600
If you’ve purchased this book, please consider leaving a review after reading it.
I read all my reviews, and I take feedback very seriously. Thank you.
Contact Nathan at [email protected].
After finishing this book, check out the new erotic romance by Nathan Stratton… SERVING MR. STEVENS: PART ONE – THE CONTRACT
"Fifty Shades has got nothing on this!"
SERVING MR. STEVENS, An Erotic Romance Novel in Five Parts
Part 1 of 5 - The Contract
What if all your fantasies came true -- but at a price? Would you give in to the dream?
What if there was no turning back?
Candace craves a real man, and alpha-male billionaire Thomas Stevens seems like just the man to give her what she wants. But after she enters into a contract with him, she soon comes to realize that with Mr. Stevens, anything goes. Has Candace found the lover of her dreams, or is she in over her head?
Handcuffs, spanking, and rough sex with a dominant hunk who knows what he wants... what could be better than SERVING MR. STEVENS?
Click here to check it out on Amazon!
TABLE OF CONTENTSChapter 1: Bah, Humbug
Chapter 2: Trouble Ticket
Chapter 3: Sparks Flying
Chapter 4: Save the Date
Chapter 5: Counting Down the Hours
Chapter 6: Party Favors
Chapter 7: Trouble in Paradise
Chapter 8: A Hot and Heavy Holiday
Chapter 9: Happy New Year
All She Wants for New Years
Chapter 1: Bah, Humbug
Jessica hated the holidays.
It wasn’t the lights, the shopping, or the Christmas carols. She didn’t mind those, and even thought they were nice. It was the fact that every December, she was surrounded by images of happy couples, laughing and singing and celebrating the together. And every time she saw one, it was a sad reminder of her own loneliness.
Jessica was never the type to wallow in depression. Self-pity just didn’t suit her strong, willful personality. So every year, she put up a strong front all through the holidays, keeping up her usual, cheerful personality even when she was hurting inside. Sometimes, though, that cheerfulness just didn’t come to her as naturally as she would like.
This holiday season had been no different. Her parents had asked her to come home for Christmas, and she’d reluctantly obliged their request. Just as she’d suspected, they’d invited one of the neighbors’ sons over for Christmas dinner, the latest in a line of “eligible bachelors” they’d hand-picked as potential suitors for Jessica. Never mind that this one was fresh out of college, while she was twenty-seven. It also didn’t help that his name was Freddie. Jessica could have sworn she’d named one of her teddy bears “Freddie” when she was younger.
This guy may have been twenty-two, but he looked no older than seventeen. He had big ears, an earnest-looking gleam in his eyes, and a dusting of freckles – God help her. Sitting next to him at dinner, listening to him blab on and on about college football, she felt like his baby-sitter.
“What’d you think of Freddie?” her parents asked anxiously, as soon as he and his family had gone home that evening.
“I told him to call me when he gets his drivers’ license,” Jessica had replied, rolling her eyes in exasperation.
She’d left early the next morning, making the long drive back from Connecticut to her house in Pennsylvania, amid hordes of traffic that indicated many people were doing the same thing. She worked in the HR department of a big healthcare company in Philadelphia, and the holidays were their busiest time of the year. That, of course, was another big reason Jessica loathed the holidays: it was hard to feel the Christmas spirit when you were back at work on December 26th.
Jessica walked in just after 10 AM, an hour later than she normally got in. No sooner had she sat down at her cubicle than her creepy boss, Peter, oozed his way over to have a chat.
“You’re late,” he said brusquely. He sure had a nice way of breaking the ice.
“Yeah, well, the traffic was terrible this morning,” replied Jessica. “And a very merry Christmas to you, too, Peter.”
“I don’t want to hear your excuses anymore, Jess,” said Peter, with a steely glint in his eye. She hated when he called her Jess. “There’s no excuse for being late, you got it? No matter what you were… up to last night.” He grinned lecherously, his eyes raking over her body from head to toe. Just the way he looked at her made her feel violated.
“You keep your eyes to yourself, Peter,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “And leave me alone, or I’ll write up another incident report.”
Peter laughed callously. “Ooh, an incident report,” he scoffed. “Who are you going to report me to? Human Resources? In case you forgot, Jess, we are Human Resources! I run this department, and I’m going to run it the way I want. You’re lucky I don’t write you up for chronic tardiness. Now get to work!” Feeling satisfied that he’d gotten the last word in, he slithered off down the hall.
Despite his tough-guy talk, Jessica knew he was worried about her threat. She’d reported him once already this year, for blocking her passage coming out of the women’s bathroom one day in August. Nothing had happened, but she’d been intimidated enough to say something about it. The report had gotten passed up to corporate, but without further evidence of wrongdoing they couldn’t do anything besides give him a warning. Peter was a total slimeball, but for the time being Jessica was stuck with him. At least he knew she wasn’t afraid to stand up to him.
“Whatever,” she sighed, and tried to forget about their conversation. It was her first day back after a long weekend, and she wasn’t about to let that creep Peter start it off on the wrong foot. She switched on her computer, and it flickered to life. But as soon as she logged in, she saw an error message: “SYSTEM ERROR. CODE #3756c. MEMORY CORRUPTED.”
“Oh, great,” she said, and tried the old Control-Alt-Delete method. Nothing happened. She turned the computer off and then on again, and the same error came up – only this time, her desktop wallpaper had disappeared, and the background had turned completely black. This didn’t look good.
It appeared that this day was going to start off on the wrong foot, after all.
Groaning, Jessica grabbed her computer. “Why do you hate me?!?” she asked it. “After all we’ve been through together.”
Shaking her head, she flipped through her directory for the I.T. helpdesk phone number. She picked up her handset and heard a dial tone; at least the phones still work, she thought scornfully. She punched in the number for the help desk and took a swig of coffee. After just one ring, a man’s voice picked up.
“I.T. Helpdesk,” the voice said impassively. “This is Brandon, how may I help you?”
Chapter 2: Trouble Ticket
She hadn’t expected the I.T. person to pick up so quickly, and she still had a mouthful of coffee to swallow. She gulped it down as fast as she could. The line was silent for a second. “…Hello?” the voice asked.
“Hi!” she said abruptly, as soon as she could speak. She was still a bit
flustered, and spoke too loudly into the phone. Easy, tiger, she thought mockingly to herself, shaking her head. “Uh, hi, Brandon,” she repeated, much more calmly this time. “How are you doing this morning?”
“Just fine, thank you,” he said politely, a business-like tone in his voice. “And who am I speaking with, please?”
“Oh, right,” she said. “Sorry. Um, this is Jessica Bradley… from HR?”
Brandon’s tone brightened considerably. “Oh, Jessica!” he said. “Of course! I should have recognized your voice. Hey, it’s been a while – how are you doing these days?”
Crap, thought Jessica. This happened a lot to her. When new hires came in to the company, she was typically the one to walk them through their orientation training on their first day. As a result, they all knew her, but she had trouble remembering them. She racked her brain now, trying to remember a Brandon from IT, but she was drawing a blank. She went into what she called “fake-smile mode,” an essential skill for people working in Human Resources.
“Oh, I’ve been great!” she replied cheerfully, a smile plastered on her face. “Just super. And how was your Christmas, Brandon? Spend some time with the family?”
There was no answer for a second; suddenly, Brandon burst out laughing. “…You have no idea who I am, do you?” he asked.
Jessica’s false smile relaxed into a real one, as she couldn’t help but laugh herself. “…You got me,” she said finally. “I’m sorry, I just – there’s so many people coming in, it’s hard to keep track of you all. When did you start here?”
He chuckled some more. His laugh had a nice ring to it. “I’m pretty new,” he said. “Just started in September. But don’t worry, I completely understand. This place is huge, it must be hard for you guys.”
“You’ve got that right. But am I really that transparent?” asked Jessica. She was surprised he’d picked up so easily on her insincere banter. No one had ever said anything to her about it before.
“My ex was in business school,” he said, by way of explanation. “I can spot it a mile away. We used to call it ‘fake smile mode.’ You know what I mean?”
She laughed again, astonished. “That’s what I call it too.”
“It’s a good name for it,” he agreed. “Anyway, no problem – how can I help you this morning?”
Rather than throwing her off-guard, Brandon’s unexpected joking had put Jessica more at ease. She still couldn’t picture his face, but she now felt comfortable speaking to him casually. “It’s my computer,” she said. “I think it’s totally fried. It keeps giving me this error message, and the screen’s gone all black now.”
“Uh-oh,” Brandon replied. “The black screen of death, huh? Is it showing an error message at all?”
“It sure is,” she said, reading the code on the screen. “Um, it’s error number 3756c? Does that mean anything to you?”
He gave a low whistle. “Unfortunately, yes,” he said. “Sounds like your memory’s corrupted. I’m probably going to have to come over and check it out… is now a good time for you?”
Jessica glanced at the clock. “Well, it’s not like I’m able to do anything with my computer on the fritz, anyway.” she said. “Sure, come on over. And thanks, Brandon, I really appreciate it.”
“No problem,” he said. “Be there in a sec.”
Chapter 3: Sparks Flying
When Brandon arrived at her cubicle, Jessica immediately remembered him. Just like he said, she’d trained him in September. It was hard to forget a face like that – or more precisely, a body like that. She didn’t know what he was doing in I.T., but he had a body like Channing Tatum. She’d been expecting some kind of computer nerd.
She couldn’t stop herself from giving him a quick once-over as he walked in, from his fitted dark green sweater to the shine on his brown leather shoes. It was all she could do to keep a straight face when he looked at her with those big hazel eyes of his, as he said with a smile, “Jessica?”
“Hey, Brandon,” she managed coolly, grinning back at him. “Thanks for coming over on such short notice.”
“No problem,” he said. His presence filled the cubicle, and she was sure that his strong baritone voice could be heard down the hallway. She realized she was still sitting in her chair, looking up at him. She quickly leapt to her feet, as if suddenly remembering her manners.
She extended her hand politely. “It’s nice to meet you again,” she said. “Sorry about earlier. I do remember you now.”
Brandon took her hand and shook it, an amused half-smile on his face. “Ah, don’t worry about it. I figured you wouldn’t remember me. I certainly remembered you, though.”
As he finished speaking, he let go of her hand and looked pointedly into her eyes – or at least she imagined he did. Confused thoughts raced through her head. Is he flirting with me? ...Don’t just stand there, say something!
“Y-you did?” she stammered.
“Yeah, of course!” he replied cheerfully. “I mean, you were the one who went over my salary information packet with me!”
Her face fell. “Oh, right,” she said flatly. “Of course…”
She turned quickly away from him, with the pretense of looking at her computer. In truth, she felt embarrassed, and she didn’t want to look at him in case she was blushing. Of course he hadn’t meant anything by his comment; of course he wasn’t flirting with her. She didn’t know why she always fell for the most unattainable guys, or why she got so flustered around attractive men. Maybe her parents were right. Maybe she should have given Freddie more of a chance. Maybe—
“Earth to Jessica!” Brandon said, interrupting her train of thought. She looked up at him, startled. He laughed. “You still with us?”
Splendid, she thought to herself. Now he thinks I’m crazy.
“Uh, yeah!” she said, a little too loudly. “Yeah, sure am. Sorry, I was just thinking about this damn computer. It’s really messing up my train of thought this morning!”
He grinned at her again. “Well, don’t you worry about that,” he said. “I know I may not look like much of a tech guy, but I’m a pretty big geek when it comes to computers. We’ll have you up and running in no time.” He motioned to her desk chair. “Mind if I sit down and have a look?”
“Oh, yes, of course!” she said, surprised and relieved that he apparently hadn’t noticed any awkwardness on her part. She smiled in spite of herself. “I could actually use another coffee,” she said, grabbing her empty mug. “Want me to make you one?”
“That’d be fantastic,” he said. He made excellent eye contact, she noticed. “Cream, no sugar?”
“You got it,” said Jessica. “Coming right up.” She stepped out into the hallway, thankful to get some fresh air.
Focus, Jess, she scolded herself. Just because a guy is cute, doesn’t mean you have to get all blabbering-psycho on him. She couldn’t help but laugh at the situation. It’d be funny if it weren’t so sad, she mused.
By the time she came back with their two mugs of coffee, Brandon was standing in her cubicle with a pleased expression on his face. She glanced at her desktop, and realized with shock that it was back to normal. Her wallpaper had returned, and the error message had gone away. She did a double take, looking from his face to her desktop and back again.
He folded his arms across his chest smugly, waiting for her to speak; he was trying to be nonchalant, but she could see that he was trying hard to suppress a satisfied grin. His emotions were so transparent that she had to laugh.
“Well, mister computer whiz, you seem pretty pleased with yourself,” she teased him. “Guess you don’t need this coffee anymore.”
“Aw, it was nothing,” he said, a bit bashfully. “I just did a hard system reset, and it seemed to take care of things. Then I just cleared the memory cache to be sure.”
Jessica nodded, mock-seriously. “Excellent. I have no idea what any of that means, but it sounds great.”
He laughed. “It’s like the first thing they teach
us, to be honest. The computers here are prone to it for some reason. But hey, if you see that error again, you just give me a call.”
“I’ll do that,” she replied. She held out his coffee in front of her. “So I guess you’ll be taking this to go, then?”
Brandon glanced at his watch and frowned. “Unfortunately, yes,” he said, looking back at her with what she thought seemed like genuine disappointment. “I’ve got a bunch of service tickets lined up this morning. But thank you, I really appreciate it,” he said, taking the mug from her graciously.
As he finished speaking, he looked directly into her eyes. “And if there’s anything else I can help you with…” he trailed off, letting the rest of the sentence hang unspoken. She suddenly felt like the air was sucked of out the room, somehow, as if time had stopped all around them. She realized with a start that she was holding her breath.
All She Wants for New Year's -- A Contemporary Erotic Holiday Romance (All She Wants #2) Page 1