Cover Copy
Some jobs come with unexpected benefits . . .
Alyssa runs her personal life just like her professional one: smoothly and efficiently. She learned in the worst way possible that investing her heart in a relationship only leads to disaster, and she won’t take that risk again. Pleasure is still on the table though—as long as there are no feelings involved. Until a one-night stand leaves a lasting impression.
When after-work drinks lead to an after-hours hookup, Grayson finds himself playing by Alyssa’s rules—but she leaves him wanting more. Even when they discover they work for the same company, Alyssa is all business—on the outside, at least. As far as she’s concerned, keeping Grayson at a safe distance is now part of her job description, even if it’s her most challenging task. But when her living situation falls apart, Grayson makes her an offer she can’t refuse . . .
The terms of their new merger are strict: roommates only; hands off. But every contract can be broken—and every heart can be melted—if the deal is sweet enough . . .
Also By Allison B. Hanson
Help Wanted
Never Let Go
Nick of Time
When Least Expected
Getting Down to Business
An On the Job Romance
Allison B. Hanson
LYRICAL SHINE
Kensington Publishing Corp.
www.kensingtonbooks.com
To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.
LYRICAL SHINE BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
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Copyright © 2017 by Allison B. Hanson
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Lyrical Shine and Lyrical Shine logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
First Electronic Edition: December 2017
eISBN-13: 978-1-5161-0339-3
eISBN-10: 1-5161-0339-4
First Print Edition: December 2017
ISBN-13: 978-1-5161-0340-6
ISBN-10: 1-5161-0340-8
Printed in the United States of America
Dedication
To all the people at DAS who spend their days on the job with me.
Thank you for your support in my writing job as well.
Chapter 1
Shutting the door as quietly as possible, Alyssa turned for the stairs to complete her escape. The phone in her bag buzzed as her feet hammered down the familiar steps. Once outside her building, she breathed in a lungful of freedom and frowned at the humid heaviness of the air.
It was going to be a hot day in Manhattan. Her lips pulled up, remembering how hot the night before had been.
“Morning, sunshine.” She answered her friend’s call knowing Mia would be anything but sunny this morning.
“Shut up. I hate you.”
“Remember, it was your idea to go to ladies’ night on a Wednesday when you had to be at work this morning. I said it was stupid.”
“Are you outside already?” Mia brushed over her responsibility in their predicament.
“I’m going to the gym to shower. My apartment was…crowded this morning.”
“The guy stayed?”
Yes, the guy stayed.
Grayson Hollinger III had sat down next to Alyssa the night before and offered to buy her a drink immediately. When she politely refused, he let out a breath of defeat and explained that his friend had promised him hordes of desperate women. She found his honesty intriguing. Paired up with the sexy smile and haunting blue eyes, she was more than interested. While she hadn’t been desperate, she was willing to have a little fun on a Wednesday night.
Having nothing to lose but time, she proposed a simplified method to get them from point A to point B. She laughed now, remembering the shocked look on his face when she suggested they enjoy each other’s company for the evening with no expectations or bullshit afterward.
The sex had been phenomenal. He’d even managed to get her to point B—something that had been nearly impossible for the last few years. When he asked to stay longer, she agreed, greedy for another chance with him. She hadn’t been disappointed.
But now it was morning. Time to get back to reality.
Sure she wished she could have more with a man. Who truly wanted a life filled with strangers and uncertainty? Unfortunately, the option had been taken from her five years ago. These brief encounters for pleasure were all she was capable of now. She didn’t deserve a happily-ever-after.
“Yes, he stayed,” she answered Mia’s question. “Which is why I’m going to the gym, so I can shower without waking him.”
“So courteous,” Mia chuckled, knowing it was more cowardice than courtesy.
“I’ll see you at work.”
“Yeah, about that.”
“You’d better get your ass to work,” Alyssa threatened.
“Travis stayed too. He suggested we spend the day in bed together. I have to say, his offer sounds better than yours, so…I’m calling in.”
Mia was the opposite of Alyssa in most every way. From her short, black hair and chocolate eyes to her petite curvy stature. But the biggest difference was what they were looking for from men.
Mia was full of hope that one of the men she took home from a club would turn out to be Prince Charming.
Alyssa knew there was no such thing as Prince Charming. There were only short glimpses of happiness with strangers—and making sure her heart never got involved. That last part was fairly easy since her heart had frozen over.
“You remember what Millie said would happen if you called off again,” Liss reminded her.
“Damn.”
When their old boss, Ruth, had been fired, they thought they were home free. But Millicent wasn’t much of an improvement.
“Do you want to end up like Kenley?” Kenley had worked with them for years before she was falsely accused of sleeping with her boss’s husband and fired.
“Do I want to end up fired so I can get a new job with a dreamy guy who marries me?” Mia asked. “Yes. The answer is yes.”
Maybe Alyssa had asked the wrong question.
“Get to work. I don’t want to lose another work friend. I’ll only have Freddie left and he can’t sympathize on PMS issues.”
“Fine. I’ll see you soon.”
Alyssa dropped her phone in her bag and headed off toward the gym, only to see the devil striding toward her. Liss might have looked for a place to hide, or an alley into which she could duck, but it was obvious by the glare in Sasha’s eyes that she had already spotted her.
Better to get it over with.
“What the hell, Liss?” Sasha held up her phone. “You send me a text telling me I can’t come home?”
“You’ve sent me texts like that so many time
s that I’ve started carrying a change of clothes in my bag.” Alyssa held up her bag, grateful to have had it packed for her quick escape this morning.
“It’s my apartment. You can’t tell me not to come home to my own apartment.”
“I pay rent too. So it’s my apartment as much as yours.”
“Well the landlord won’t see it that way since my name is the only one on the lease.”
It was always like this.
In the beginning, Sasha had been her friend. But friends don’t always make the best roommates. Sasha had gotten the apartment in her name because Alyssa’s past had adversely affected her credit score. They’d agreed to take turns, one of them getting the tiny bed and the other sleeping on the loveseat a week at a time. But eventually, Sasha claimed the bed because her name was on the lease and Alyssa’s wasn’t. It just spiraled from there.
“I knew you were working until two, so what were a couple more hours?” Alyssa pointed out. She’d texted her roommate at ten, telling her she had a guest. That should have been plenty of time for Sasha to work her magic and find an alternate plan.
She had a feeling the issue was more a matter of sticking it to Alyssa than of not having a place to sleep the night before.
“I have to go now or I’ll be late for work. We’ll discuss it later, okay? Maybe we can make up a schedule or something.”
Without waiting for an answer, Alyssa hurried away knowing she was screwed and that pushing the discussion off until later probably wouldn’t change the outcome.
* * * *
Gray was shaken awake by an angry woman. For a second, he thought the vixen he’d slept with three times the night before had morphed into this harpy by the light of day—but then it spoke.
“Liss left. You need to get out.”
So this wasn’t the woman he’d slept with. Alyssa had simply run off, not changed into a nightmare.
The woman tossed a crumpled piece of paper toward him.
“Get out of my bed, and no you can’t shower here.”
“You must be Sasha,” he guessed.
“Yes. I’m Sasha. And this is my apartment.”
“Okay, okay. I’m gone. Can you give me a second to get dressed?” He was still naked under the sheet.
“Sure.” She flopped down on the sofa, six feet away, and crossed her arms as if waiting for a show.
Alyssa had warned him that her roommate might make a scene. She’d expected the other woman to show up at some point during the night and demand to be let in, which was why she had double-checked the chain on the lock to ensure their privacy.
Conflict wasn’t Gray’s thing, but he hadn’t been willing to walk away from Alyssa the night before. He was more than intrigued by her suggestion that they enjoy each other’s company and then go their separate ways in the morning without any pressure to continue the relationship.
The alarm on his phone went off, reminding him he had to be at work this morning. With a sigh of determination, he tossed the sheet aside and got up.
After getting dressed to a few impressed sounds from Alyssa’s roommate, he checked for his phone, keys, and wallet before rushing out of the apartment. It had been a great night, but it was over.
He hesitated as he opened the wrinkled note from Alyssa, wondering if she was hoping for more—or worse, that she wasn’t. He was new at this one-night thing. He knew he should want it to fade away in the light of day, but he couldn’t help but feel a little saddened by that thought.
Grayson,
I had a great time last night. Sorry there’s no food. You can help yourself to coffee. Maybe I’ll see you around sometime. Maybe not. No worries.
Liss
She hadn’t even given him her phone number.
Sure Alyssa had talked a good game, but he didn’t think it was really possible for people to have sex and walk away without any strings at all. He’d never encountered such a thing. He wanted some kind of string.
On the sidewalk, he pulled out his phone and made a note of her address, just in case.
He took a cab to his apartment across town and showered quickly so he’d have time to stop for real coffee on the way into work.
When he moved to the city, he’d promised himself he wouldn’t turn into a hipster coffee snob, but there he was in the immense line to order his double vanilla latte with foam.
The line shifted, and he looked up from his phone to notice a blonde woman in front of him. He tilted his head and studied her legs in the understated but sexy black pencil skirt. He knew those legs. They’d been wrapped around his waist for most of the night.
“Liss?” he said.
Her head instantly snapped up and she turned to face him. A look of confusion took over her subtly made-up face. With less makeup, she looked even prettier than she had the night before.
She allowed the patrons between them to go in front of her so she could stand next to him.
“What are you doing here? Are you following me?” she hissed, and tucked her damp hair behind her ear.
“No. This is where I get coffee.” He looked up at the sign above the counter. “Every morning for the last year and a half to be exact.”
“Really?” she said, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“Yep.”
“I’ve never seen you here before.”
“Maybe neither of us was looking before.”
“Maybe.”
“Let me buy you coffee,” he offered. It seemed the least he could do since they’d been intimate.
“You don’t need to do that.” She pulled out her wallet as she ordered her double vanilla latte with foam.
His brows rose in surprise, and he quickly came up with a morning beverage alternative. She would surely think he was nuts if he ordered the same drink. Even if it was his normal drink. He wondered what the odds of that were as he ordered a mocha.
“Which way are you headed?” he asked.
“Up,” she answered, pointing in the direction he was going.
“Me, too. Are we allowed to walk together?”
“Sure. I’m not far.”
“I got your note and wanted to tell you I also had a really great time last night.” Great wasn’t the right word. From the ease of talking with her to the way they’d connected in bed, it had felt so different. Then she let him stay when he asked. Holding her while he slept felt right on so many levels.
“Great. We both had a great time.” He smiled at her overuse of the word he found lacking. “But now it’s the next day, and we agreed there would be no next day.” Alyssa had made it very clear she didn’t want anything from him but sex. Was there a reason? Had someone hurt her in the past? He swallowed down his urge to ask, knowing it would lead to him wanting to help.
If his past relationships had proven anything, it was that he couldn’t help everyone.
“We’re just two people walking up the sidewalk. Don’t panic.” He gave an easy shrug, at odds with how he felt. He wanted to see her again. Maybe they could have dinner and get to know each other better. Would that be so strange? People did it all the time.
“Suit yourself.”
“I’ve had sex on the first date before, and it’s generally kind of stressful because you don’t know what to expect from the other person. Last night wasn’t like that. I was completely relaxed. Maybe because I knew you weren’t expecting anything,” he shared.
“I was expecting one thing.” She laughed and licked foam from her upper lip. He wanted to do it for her. “You delivered, which is impressive because, like you, I’m usually not able to relax enough to get to point B.”
“Nice,” he said as she stopped walking at the same time he did. They were standing in front of his building.
“This is me,” she said.
“Seriously?” he choked.
“Yeah.”
<
br /> “This is me too. Hasher Borne, twenty-ninth floor.”
“Hasher Borne, twenty-third,” she said, eyes wide.
“Oh, shit. Do you believe in fate?”
“No way,” she said firmly.
“Okay, good, because this could easily be misconstrued as fate interceding.”
She laughed.
“What department do you work in?” he asked.
“I’m an account rep, but I’ve been trying to move up for years.” She sounded irritated, but stopped herself from continuing what he was sure was going to be a rant. “What department do you work in?”
“Senior accountant.”
“Oh.” Her eyes flared and she looked away.
“What is it?”
“Nothing. Have a great day.” She moved toward the front doors, but he stepped in front of her to keep her from getting away.
“There’s obviously something. Even if you don’t want to be friends, we are coworkers, and apparently, we both work for the number-crunching side of the business. What’s wrong?”
“Have you ever had any family members work here?”
“No. None.”
She seemed relieved, and explained.
“I’ve been passed over for a promotion to account manager three times because people up in your office have brought in their unqualified family members.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah. I’m doing many of the account manager functions, but I’m not getting paid for it. And I don’t have the fancy office up on twenty-nine.”
“I think I might know who’s responsible for that.” Randy Taber had also filled their department with people from his large family. “It wasn’t me. My family is in Connecticut.”
“Why are you telling me about your family? You’re sharing personal information.” Yes, he was breaking the rules from the evening before. But in his defense, the rules should be null and void at this point.
“Are we really going back to the original plan now? We work together.”
“No more so than we did before and never saw each other.”
Getting Down to Business Page 1