by Ramona Gray
Jackson though, he practically radiated goodness and light. She had to stop herself from giggling inappropriately. What was wrong with her? Guys didn’t just radiate goodness.
“Chloe?” Luke’s voice startled her a little. “Do you need a glass of water?”
She was still staring intently at Jackson’s face and she blushed again and tore her gaze away. God, this was embarrassing. But what were the odds that she would meet not just one, but two Greek gods in her lifetime?
She forced herself not to look at Jackson again, not to study those high cheekbones and the smooth jaw that she suddenly wanted to lick. She studied his hands instead. They were big hands, big and weirdly rough and callused looking for a guy who worked with computers.
What did he do that made them so rough? How would that roughness feel against her skin? Would it feel as good as her mystery man’s hands had? Would they do just as well at touching her, making her come? Would he hold her down while he rubbed her clit and -
Chloe! Stop it! Have you gone insane?
She clenched her hands into fists. Her pussy was throbbing and her nipples were hard against her bra. She thanked God she was wearing a suit jacket as she shifted in her chair. No, not insane. Just suddenly and incredibly sexually frustrated. One night of mind-blowing sex with a stranger and she was suddenly a nympho. At least, that’s what she told herself over the weekend as she’d repeatedly masturbated to the memory of the stranger’s low voice, his hard body and his incredible dick. Of course, tonight she might substitute Jackson for the stranger and –
Chloe! For fuck’s sake! Get it together!
Luke had moved to his credenza and when he returned with a glass of water, she took it with a nod of thanks. She sipped at it and it eased the dryness in her throat as Luke returned to his chair and sat down.
She could feel both Jackson and Luke staring at her and she cleared her throat. “Sorry again. Jackson, it’s nice to meet you.”
“You as well, Chloe. Luke’s told me good things about you.”
“Well, that’s very kind of him.” She stared straight ahead, afraid if she looked at Jackson again, she might ask him something highly inappropriate… like whether he could give a woman multiple orgasms.
A spat of nervous giggles erupted from her chest. She turned it into a coughing fit and then took another drink of water.
“So,” Luke was giving her an odd look, but it was obvious he had decided it was best to just move on, “I wanted you to meet Jackson one-on-one before Maria introduces him at the staff meeting in an hour. Jackson comes highly recommended from Herrod’s Clothing Downtown. He developed the software for their inventory database and was instrumental in helping turn the company around.”
Chloe glanced at Jackson and he gave her another easy grin. “A slight exaggeration.”
“That isn’t what Ron says,” Luke replied. He turned to Chloe. “Ron owns Herrod’s and recommended Jackson after his contract was finished.”
“So, you’re only contracting with Dawson’s?” Chloe asked.
“That’s what I’ve been doing the last ten years or so,” Jackson said. “I work with a company to update or create a new software program and then once the software is up and running, I train existing staff on how to use it and move on when they’re proficient at it.”
“But, luckily for us, Jackson decided he’d like something more permanent,” Luke said. “So, he’ll not only be creating the software for our new digital storefront, but he’ll also be updating and improving other existing software within the company and sticking around to maintain it.”
“Which means you’re stuck with me,” Jackson said.
His gaze dropped to her mouth for the briefest of moments, but it was enough to make her nipples stand to attention again.
“Anyway, Jackson will be with Maria in HR for most of the morning, but you and he can meet in the afternoon and get better acquainted,” Luke said.
She’d love nothing more than to get better acquainted with Jackson. In fact, her brain was coming up with all sorts of delicious ways to get to know him better, and not one of them included her or Jackson wearing clothing. Was his dick as big as her mystery man’s? God, what she wouldn’t do to find out.
“Chloe?”
She pulled her mind out the gutter with a hard jerk and smiled at Luke. “Yes?”
He was giving her another odd look. “I said, that’s it for now. You can head back to your office.”
“Right, okay. Thanks.” She stood up, Jackson and Luke both stood up with her, and she discreetly wiped her sweaty palms on her suit jacket before holding out her hand to Jackson. “Good to meet you.”
“You too. I’ll see you this afternoon.”
“Of course.” She walked out of Luke’s office, managing not to fall flat on her face despite the way her legs were shaking. The moment the doors were closed behind her, she leaned against them and fanned her face.
“I know how you feel. He’s something else, isn’t he?” Mary said from her desk.
Chloe straightened. “Uh, what do you mean?”
“Please, that Mr. Black is straight out of GQ. He’s super hot and unbelievably charming. We chatted for a few minutes before he met with Mr. Dawson and wow… I mean, I’m a lesbian and I still wondered what he looked like naked.”
Chloe gaped at her before slapping her hand over mouth to muffle her laughter. Mary grinned at her. “Good luck working with him.”
* * *
Jackson paused in the doorway of his new office. He’d just finished having lunch with Luke, Mark and Amy, and he thought it went well. He’d been a little apprehensive about lunching with all three bosses at once, but they had made him feel welcome and at ease. It was obvious that Luke and Amy were close for siblings, and while neither Mark nor Amy had made any indication, he was almost certain that they were a couple. They hadn’t held hands or even touched one another, but the occasional look between them, the way Mark stiffened whenever another guy even glanced at Amy – they were banging.
He grinned a little as he thought about the pretty purple necklace Amy wore around her neck. He recognized a slave collar when he saw one. He and Ian had gone to various BDSM clubs around the city over the last few years, and while he wasn’t into the real kinky stuff that went on, he had seen and learned a lot.
For a while, he’d thought Ian might go full on Dom with the women they fucked – his best friend was a control freak through and through – but it eventually became obvious that it wasn’t Ian’s thing either.
Ian liked being the one in control during the fucking, but apparently that control didn’t extend to putting collars on women or spanking them beyond the occasional butt smack here and there. And hell, who didn’t occasionally love smacking a woman’s smooth, firm ass when he was fucking her? The way her pussy or ass clenched around his dick at the sharp bite of pain, the way their pale skin would turn red… fuck, you didn’t need to be full on kinky to enjoy that.
Speaking of pale skin turning red… he could see the back of Chloe’s head as she worked at her desk. Their desks were side by side, both facing the row of windows that dominated the far wall. It was a nice office, bigger than he was used to, with a small leather loveseat pushed into one corner, and a bookshelf at the other. Truthfully, he’d been a little annoyed at the thought of having to share an office, but that was before he met Chloe.
He studied her long red hair and squeezed the doorframe when immediately an image of that red hair wrapped in his fist, flooded through him. Christ, what he wouldn’t do to see her on her knees in front of him, her full lips stretched around his dick as she sucked him off.
He shook his head and tried to curtail his thoughts. It wasn’t easy. He’d wanted Chloe from the moment he’d turned and saw her. Her slender body, that pale skin with the surprisingly small number of freckles for a redhead, her gorgeous green eyes and that mouth…
His cock twitched and he cursed inwardly. Shit, resisting her was going to be very difficult. He was already pic
turing how she would look between him and Ian, her pale body sandwiched between their tanned ones as he took her ass and Ian took her pussy.
He was starting to get a fucking hard-on and he immediately looked away from Chloe. What the hell was he doing? He had been at his new job for half-a-day and already he was trying to get himself fired. Fucking a co-worker was a bad idea.
But not against the rules.
His inner voice did have a point. He’d read through the employee handbook that Maria had emailed after he’d signed the paperwork. There’d been no mention of sexual relationships with coworkers. A bit odd for a company this size, but not his problem. In fact, it made things that much easier if he decided to go ahead and seduce Chloe.
Stop thinking with your fucking dick for once.
Hell, his inner voice was hitting all the right notes today. He did have a habit of letting his dick lead the way, although he’d never actually gotten fired over it. But if he was honest, the reason he and Ian got laid so much was because of him. Ian wasn’t a monk, by any means, but it was Jackson who always suggested they go out. Jackson who normally chose the woman to seduce. Jackson who refused to let anything get serious.
Yeah, and why is that exactly? You and Ian aren’t getting any fucking younger. You want kids and you know Ian does too, so why are you still acting like you’re horny twenty-two-year old’s who want to fuck which ever woman catches your eye?
He knew the reason, but hell if he wanted to think about it.
Of course you don’t want to think about it. Settling down, finding a woman to marry and have babies with, means never getting to fuck a woman with Ian again. That terrifies you, doesn’t it? For whatever goddamn reason, you can’t even get it up with a woman anymore if Ian isn’t there. As soon as Ian decides he’s done with this little tag-teaming effort you’ve been doing for the last five years, you’ll never fuck a woman again. You know it, and that scares the hell out of you. So, you keep pushing him not to get into a relationship, and what kind of fucking best friend does that? Huh?
“Jackson?”
Her soft voice made him jerk. What the hell was he doing? Was now really the time to start wondering what the fuck was wrong with him? To wonder what kind of mental instability he had that made it impossible for him to sleep with a woman unless she was being fucked by his best friend at the same time? No, it goddamn wasn’t.
“Are you all right?” Chloe had stood up from her desk and moved closer to him. Unlike their initial meeting in the office, she was poised and confident sounding. She had a soft look of worry on her face, and he made himself smile at her.
“I’m good. Sorry, didn’t mean to be standing in the office like a creeper. I was just, uh, thinking.”
Christ, now he sounded like a moron.
“Oh, that’s okay.” She gave him another hesitant smile – shit, she had a beautiful smile – and returned to her desk. “How was lunch?”
“Good. I met Amy Dawson, she seemed…cool.”
Cool? She seemed cool?
He wanted to smack himself in the head. Normally, he was excellent at flirting, at disarming women with nothing more than a smile and his words, but he couldn’t seem to get it together with Chloe. Not that it mattered, he absolutely could not and would not flirt with his damn co-worker.
Just before lunch, he had grabbed his box of stuff from his car and dropped it in the office. Chloe hadn’t been in their office and he’d been weirdly disappointed. Now, he crossed the room and sat down in the chair at his desk. He took the picture frame out of the top and set it on his desk. Chloe was staring at her laptop, but she gave the picture a quick look.
“That’s a nice picture.”
“Thanks. It’s me and my mom at the Grand Canyon. She’s always wanted to go there so I took her last year.”
“How nice.”
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “She raised me on her own and we’re pretty close. I mean, I’m not like a mama’s boy or anything like that, but she’s pretty great, and I spend a lot of time with her. She’s really…uh, great.”
Fucking hell, he sounded like a complete dork.
“Are you close to your parents?” He could feel sweat dripping down his back.
“No,” she said. “They moved to Iowa when I was nineteen. We don’t talk much.”
She turned back to her computer and while his ability to charm women might have taken an abrupt nose dive, his ability to sense when he was being told to mind his own business hadn’t. He silently emptied out the rest of the box, setting some of the items on the desk and putting others in the drawers. He opened his laptop and logged in with the username and password Maria had given him, before changing the password and setting up his email.
He had a few emails, most of them company-wide announcements, and he read through them before opening up Dawson Clothing’s website and studying it. He’d already looked at it a few times, but the thick silence coming from Chloe’s side of the room was making him tense. He didn’t think she hated him or anything, but it was obvious that he’d said something to upset her.
He was about to apologize when she said, “I’m sorry. I – I’m being rude and that’s not like me. I’ve had a strange day and…well, I shouldn’t be taking it out on you.”
He gave her an easy smile. “That’s fine.”
“It isn’t,” she said. “There’s a Starbucks down the street. I was going to grab a coffee. Can I buy you one to say sorry?”
“Sure. But only if you let me go with you. We can talk about your thoughts on how the current digital storefront looks and what you have in mind for marketing strategy.”
“All right,” she said. “Let me grab my coat and we’ll leave.”
* * *
Ian read the text from Jackson. He’d left the office twenty minutes ago and was almost home. He turned the broiler on. The steaks were prepped and ready to go. He’d start them in about five minutes and then make the salad when Jackson got home.
He sat down at the table and took a swallow of beer, staring out the window at the falling snow. Work was uneventful today. A few traffic stops, a domestic, and a couple of stupid kids making a drug deal right on the street corner in broad daylight. After the hellish week he’d had last week, he should have been happy. Except, it had given him way too much time to sit in his damn car and think about the hot-as-fire redhead who’d given him the best ride of his life.
He muttered a curse and propped his feet up on the chair beside him. Why the fuck didn’t he wake up when she left? He was a light sleeper, always had been, but he hadn’t heard a damn thing. Sure, it was an insane week at work and he’d hadn’t gotten much sleep before that night, but still…
He took another drink of beer. He’d fully planned on convincing the woman to give him her name and her number. One night with her wasn’t enough. He’d known it the minute she slid her tight little pussy down over his cock. The way she moved, the way she looked and sounded when she was coming. He wanted more. He needed more.
Only he’d fucked up and now he’d never see her again.
He stood and put the steaks in the oven before setting the timer. Maybe it was for the best. It was ridiculous, considering he didn’t even know her name, but he could see himself wanting more with her. Wanting to build a life, settle down and make sweet redheaded babies with her.
He shook his head. Christ, what was wrong with him? Imagining a life with a woman he’d had a one-night stand with was ridiculous. He was losing his mind. Besides, he might be ready to start looking for the one, but Jackson wasn’t. He’d never specifically said that, but it was more than obvious. He wasn’t ready for the white picket fence lifestyle and was perfectly happy to continue with things the way they were. The two of them banging women in a casual, no strings attached way.
Are you sure you’re really ready to settle down? Once you start down this path, there’s no going back. You won’t be with Jackson and a woman together ever again. Is that what you want?
The hell
of it was, he didn’t know. He wanted to be married, he wanted to have kids, but he also wanted Jackson there with him. But it’s not like they would find a woman who would want the both of them for the rest of her life. For most women, sleeping with two men at once was a chance at making a fantasy come true, nothing more.
Being fucked by two men was great. But actually living with two men for the rest of her life? Finding a woman who wanted that would be close to impossible. Even if they did – what would they tell their friends and family? They already thought it strange that he and Jackson lived together. Hell, most of them believed they were secretly gay.
A smile crept across his face. If only they knew the real truth. He wasn’t sexually attracted to Jackson nor was Jackson attracted to him, but they both got off on watching each other fuck a woman or fucking a woman together. Hell, even with his mystery woman, there’d been more than once as he was fucking her, that he’d wished Jackson was there with them.
He drank half of his beer in three big swallows. He really needed to stop thinking about her. He’d never see her again and he needed to accept it. The idea of going back to the bar had crossed his mind more than once over the weekend, but he was one hundred percent certain she wouldn’t be there. She’d only been there because it was the closest place to her mother’s – he stopped and thought for a minute – no, grandmother’s place. She’d said grandmother. He had a good memory for details, it was partly what made him good at his job, but the redhead had him so mixed up, he didn’t know if he was coming or going. She’d been at the bar because it was close to her grandmother’s house and she’d had a fight with her alcoholic sister.
He sighed. The woman was hot and gorgeous but a little broken, and he’d be fooling himself if he didn’t admit that was partially his attraction to her. He liked helping people, liked finding a solution to the problem, and liked protecting those who couldn’t protect themselves. It was his driving force for becoming a cop.
The front door opened, bringing a draft of cold air into the kitchen. He opened the fridge and pulled out the bagged salad as Jackson walked in and dropped into a chair.