He grinned. “Please don’t throw it this time.”
What had he done? For the next two days, he had never experienced such panic. It had just come over him, like some creature taking over his body. The smell of her, the taste of her. When he felt her skin under his hands, he couldn’t stop. It had been the most powerful, exquisite experience of his life.
He’d never felt so strongly about someone. Which was a problem since he was currently engaged to marry someone that he should’ve felt that way with. The act had been done. From that point, there was no right decision. No matter what he did, he’d lose everything.
The real trouble was that he didn’t know who it would be worse to lose. The connection with Tallah was instant, and deep. He knew she realized it too the second he kissed her. What they had was unlike anything. But his fiancé Kelly had been there first. They’d been through a lot together of the last couple of years. He owed it to her to be loyal.
Over those two days, Justin did his best to not be alone with Tallah. Anything he needed he requested through email, or would be conveniently on a phone call if she came in to see him. It was maddening. He could see the desire in her eyes, and the way she smiled at him. It filled him, every corner of his soul. There was nothing more that he wanted in the world than for her to smile at him like that every day. But it just couldn’t be.
How could he tell her? Kelly hadn’t come into the office since Tallah started working, and always just called his cell phone directly. Had he been secretly keeping her from finding out as well?
Justin sank his head in his hands. “I am a despicable person.”
He needed to tell her. There was no right decision. Hearts were going to be broken, he’d lose everything, but damn it if that was how it was to be, he was going to go out with some honor. It wasn’t like he was a cheater! In all this life, this was the only time anything like this had even happened. If he came clean, was honest and up front about it, it might redeem him. Maybe not to Tallah, or to Kelly, but to himself.
It was the middle of the afternoon when he called her into his office. “May I speak with you a moment?”
He knew his schedule was clear, so they’d have a minute to talk. When she came in, she closed the door behind her and fixed him with a little smile.
“Wait,” he said, his hands held in front of him.
All joy fell from her face, and her mouth pinched into an annoyed quirk. He loved it. “What is going on with you?” she asked him. “I thought we had a nice time, but you’ve been avoiding me ever since.”
“I know.”
“You kissed me, remember? Are…” she crossed her arms. “Do you regret what happened?”
“It’s not like that,” he said. “It’s not totally that,” he corrected.
Why couldn’t he stop shaking? The thought of hurting her like he knew he was going to was keeping all of the words from forming. He’d lost track of what he was going to say, how he was going to say it.
“Tallah…” Even just saying her name gave him a thrill. “What happened was amazing, really, but I need to tell you—“
The office door opened. Both he and Tallah jumped. Kelly, his fiancé, walked through the door. Justin’s heart seized, and sank.
“Excuse me,” Tallah said, “you can’t come in here without an appointment.”
The breath caught in Justin’s throat and he coughed to try and make a sound over what she was saying.
Kelly, though, laughed. “Oh she is a feisty one. It’s okay darling, I don’t work for or with Mr. Gilmore, here.” She came right up to him and planted a kiss. “Hi sweetie. I’ve been calling you. Busy day?”
Justin looked past her head to see Tallah standing behind her, eyes wide, face looking ready to explode.
“Swamped,” he said, and in that moment, had never felt worse about himself.
Tallah stood in frozen shock. He had a woman? He never mentioned her. Why hadn’t she come by before, or called? The woman said she’d been calling all day, but Tallah never received any. Private line. Must have been. What was he thinking? Was she supposed to be some side-piece why this skinny bitch gets all of the status? Bullshit. Tallah didn’t share, and she sure didn’t play around with trampy scumbags like him.
“If that will be all,” she said.
The woman laughed and turned toward her. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. Sometimes I forget he’s someone around here. I just see him as my Justin.” She pinched his cheek playfully and laughed. “Were you in the middle of something?” she asked him. “I can come back, sweetie?”
“No no,” Tallah said sharply. “We’re done here. Stay as long as you like.”
“Oh, thank you,” the woman said with a smile. She was nice, too! Genuinely sweet. Tallah couldn’t hate her, but she could hate Justin.
She marched out of his office and sat at her desk. For a moment, she toyed with the idea of murdering him. The act would be simple enough, but what would she do with the body?
Instead, she sat at her computer and typed up her resignation. It had only been a couple of months, but there was no way she could come into this place again after today. Not after this.
She printed it up, and when his woman left with a smile and a wave, Tallah walked right in and slammed the office door closed behind her. There was going to be yelling, and it was nobody’s business but her own.
“Tallah, wait,” he said coming around the front of his desk again. Apparently he sat down thinking he was going to get some work done? Hell no.
“This is my official resignation. I am no longer under your employ.”
“Please, you have to believe me, this wasn’t how I wanted you to find out.”
“Oh I understand,” she said, convincing herself again that murdering him would be a bad idea. Somehow. Somehow it would be a bad idea, even though in that moment she couldn’t come up with a single reason why. “I wasn’t meant to find out.”
“No,” he said quickly, “that’s not it. I was going to tell you.”
“When were you going to tell me?”
“Just when she walked in!”
Tallah laughed. It was spiteful and entirely without joy.
“Please, would you just hear me out? I didn’t mean for any of this.”
“Don’t you worry,” she said, “I’m no longer your problem. Enjoy your life.”
She turned her back on him and strode across that damned carpet to the office door.
Strangely she wasn’t worried about her bills. Come what may, she’d take care of it. In that moment, what hurt the most was realizing how much she’d actually come to care for him without realizing it. In that moment they shared, it all fell into place. Now she realized it had all been a lie.
Her bills would be fine, but she wasn’t sure her heart would ever be again.
Justin sipped from his wine. Kelly sat across from him, going on about shopping with her friends. They were out to dinner at her favorite French restaurant. It was quiet, romantic. The gentle glow of the candles on the table set her hair under soft tones and lit up her eyes. Kelly was a beautiful woman, kind.
As Justin smiled at her, swirling the wine in his glass in a lazy motion, he wondered when he’d stopped being in love with her. It was a terrible thing, but everything happening had snapped him out of whatever rock he’d hidden himself under. Work, life, the demands on his time and attention. He’d never stopped and thought about himself, about his happiness, about how he felt about… well, anything. Tallah had been a fire. She woke him to his own life. Now that she was gone, so was the only joy he’d felt in… Justin did his best to mask the sigh as he realized that sentence ended in years.
How had everything gotten so out of hand? Things had been simple. Well, simple, but not what he needed. Not what he wanted. Tallah had been what he wanted, and now that was destroyed. She’d never have him, not after this.
So, instead, Justin sipped his wine as he thought about a life with Kelly.
Tallah
sat in the reception area of a new office and tried to keep her leg from bouncing. She’d received a call from this company requesting she come in for an interview. After a few failed interviews she realized she’d have to give up on any sort of a corporate job and began looking for work doing what she had been. This, though, was with a very prestigious company and the work was just like what she’d been doing for Justin. She didn’t feel confident going in with only a couple months experience, but they had called her in, so she wasn’t about to say no.
During the interview, she expected some uncomfortable questions about why she left, but he never asked any. By the end, he just smiled at her and asked, “Can you start Monday?”
Tallah was so overjoyed that she laughed. “Yes, of course. I’d be happy to.”
They shook hands and as he closed her file and stacked some papers he asked, “Did you have any questions for me?”
“Well to be honest, I was surprised to receive your call. I don’t remember having put in an application.”
“Oh, no, you didn’t. You came highly recommended by Justin Gilmore. He’s a friend of mine.”
“Is that so.”
He gave her a little smile. Her tone had betrayed her, she knew he heard it, but he was smart or kind enough to let it go. “Yes. Spoke very highly of you. I guess it’s to our benefit that you left his employ, huh?”
“I’m sure he and his fiancé will get along just fine without me.”
“Oh,” he said, surprised, “you haven’t heard, have you. No, they broke up. He kept it quiet to avoid any news in the tabloids, but yeah.” He clicked his tongue against his cheek and drummed a quick rhythm with his fingers on his desk.
By the time she got home she found herself thinking about Justin. She didn’t want to, but damn him, he snuck into her thoughts like a snake. Why would he have recommended her for the job? A guilty conscience probably. The same for breaking up with that woman. Guilty conscience. Had to be.
She paced around her home unable to settle herself. If his guilty conscience was that bad, enough to help her find another job knowing she didn’t want to talk to him, and breaking up with his fiancé without telling Tallah about it, did that make him such a bad guy? What if it wasn’t just out of guilt?
Her heels clacked against the floor of her kitchen as she slowly paced. Finally her eyes fell on the card he’d sent her. She never brought herself to actually throw it away.
Picking up her phone she dialed the restaurant. When they answered she said, “Yes, I’d like to order some soup for delivery.”
Justin took a deep breath and knocked. After a few uncomfortably long moments, the door opened and Tallah stood there looking understandably surprised. “I got your soup,” he said.
She gave a small smile. “Did it help?”
“A little.”
She stepped back, opening the door wider as an unspoken invitation. He bowed his head and stepped in, his heart beating fiercely. His fingers were numb, and he found himself flexing them repeatedly to try and get the blood flowing.
“I’m sorry,” he spurted out. “I never meant to hurt you.” He turned around to face her. She stood, arms crossed casually over her chest, her face still but pensive. When she didn’t say anything, he decided to plow on. There was nothing to lose at this point.
“It was unexpected. You were unexpected. At first, I panicked. I was so drawn to you it was terrifying. I didn’t know what to do.”
“So you were an ass.”
“I was an ass. It was the only way I could think to hide how I felt.”
Tallah walked around him to her couch and sat down. “Well, it worked. All the way up until you kissed me.” She patted the other side of the couch.
With a sigh he steeled his will to continue and sat down. “That, too, took me by surprise. It wasn’t planned. I don’t want you to think I had any master plan. I never felt for anyone what I do for you. Did for you.”
“Did,” she repeated quietly. “Then why did you break up?”
Justin rubbed the back of his neck. He could still see in his mind the hurt on Kelly’s face. It was unavoidable, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. “I realized it wasn’t the life I wanted. I knew I’d never be able to convince you to talk to me, but it felt dishonest to continue with her. I told her what happened, and apologized. We separated. That was it.”
“You told her?” Tallah asked, genuinely surprised. “About me?”
Justin nodded.
“You had the perfect job, the perfect woman. I just don’t get why you would give that up.”
Justin shrugged and looked at her. Even with her hair pulled back casually, sitting on her couch in her pajamas, she was the most fetching person he’d ever seen in his life. “It just wasn’t what I needed.”
Tallah took a deep breath, the movement pressing the fabric of her shirt against her chest. He could see she wasn’t wearing a bra, her excitement pronounced against the material. Her eyes dipped to his mouth and she licked her lips. “What do you need?”
“You,” he said. It was simple, but it was the truth.
“Please,” she whispered and threw herself toward him. Catching his face in her hands, she kissed him. The relief inside of him nearly broke him.
All he wanted in life was her forgiveness and love. In that kiss, he knew he had both.
The passion of the kiss only increased as they quickly worked to undress one another. Now there was nothing stopping them, nothing holding him back No fear, no anxiety. Just the two of them.
When she climbed on top of his lap and lowered herself on top of him, he was able to allow himself to enjoy it without any guilt. The skin of her body rubbed along his as she worked her hips, moving him in and out of her. He took her nipples into his mouth one at a time, playing across each with the tip of his tongue.
On top, Tallah was able to work a magic he didn’t realize she possessed, and she found the spot she needed him to be in. Riding him in tight controlled motions, she brought herself to orgasm before his finally rose up and claimed him.
They rested against one another after, their bodies slick with sweat, their breathing heavy yet satisfied. For the first time, he was exactly where he wanted to be.
Now that he had her, he was never letting her go, and the way she looked into his eyes as she playfully moved her hips in slow circles, he knew she felt the same.
THE END
Bachelor For Hire
“You have to ask him. Go right up to him and say, you’re absolutely gorgeous and I want to take your picture. Shirtless. It’s perfect!”
Ava laughed at her friend’s exuberance. “Sophie you’re crazy. If I say that I’ll sound more like a horny stalker than a photographer.”
Sophie shook her short brown curls. “That’s where you’re wrong. It’s because you’re a photographer that you can say things like that. Call it a…professional observation,” her hands flourished to make her point.
Ava shook her head at Sophie. She could really use the help of someone like Kade Steele to get her revamped photo studio, Bow & Arrow, off the ground. She’d been open for three months and all she’d done were portrait studios for anniversaries, first birthdays, headshots and the like. Ava loved being a photographer but an actual photographer not a human tripod. Her grandmother loved studio portraits because she loved the controlled environment and documenting special occasions. She spent two years traveling the globe capturing the most spectacular images of poverty in Africa, war in the Middle East, natural disasters everywhere and all the beauty the world had to offer. Those two years revitalized her and fostered her love of photography and she was on her way to becoming a great photojournalist. Then grandma got sick and she had to return to Rainbow Springs. “I don’t think that will work Soph.”
She shrugged, tucking her hair behind her ear. “It’s worth a shot. What else are you going to do?”
Wasn’t that the million dollar question? She had a few ideas swirling around in her head but she had to pick one
and figure out how to make it work. “As soon as I figure it out, you’ll be the first to know. I promise.”
“You better figure it out soon girlie, you can’t afford another three months without making a profit.”
Ava groaned. That was the problem. She knew she could come up with a good idea and make it work. Eventually. She needed a great idea that would work almost immediately and only one man in Rainbow Springs could do that. Kade Steele. “I guess I better go see Mr. Steele.”
Three days later Ava was dressed in her best outfit to meet the billionaire who could save her business. She’d worn all white because it complemented her cocoa brown skin, a fitted white tank dress with a trendy white half jacket. Her stilettos were a vibrant sexy red, the only nod to color. I look good, she thought as she twirled in the mirror to make sure she looked like a respectable businesswoman. Her brown waves were still sun kissed a dark gold color from the years spent in warm climates and she let them hang free. “Okay we’re ready to go.”
She was nervous about her meeting with Kade. Not only was he more handsome than any man ought to be, he was as rich as an oil sheik and as ruthless as any psychopath. She’d never met anyone like him, ever. In her travels she’d come across dignitaries and celebrities but out in the field the job was to focus on those who needed you, needed resources, so they were all equal. Actresses wore ponytails and khaki pants, and slathered their skin in sunscreen, they didn’t worry about makeup and designer clothes.
Ava needed this to work. She needed to keep some form of her grandma’s studio thriving to maintain a connection to her and to this town that had taken in a young distraught and instantly orphaned Ava and welcomed her. She couldn’t fail.
She wouldn’t.
“Dammit! Violet get in here, now.” When he didn’t hear the familiar shuffle of her nude colored pumps, Kade added an annoyed, “please.”
Two seconds later the grey haired dynamo who was the keeper of his secrets, his life, his business and his schedule scurried in with an amused glint in her eye. “Yes, Mr. Steele?”
ROMANCE: Sleeping With The Sheikh (Billionaire Alpha Male Sheikh Romance) (New Adult Forbidden Series Short Stories) Page 24