Hard SEAL: A Dark Bad Boy Next Door Romance

by Jessica Ashe

  Tanner’s trouble. You only have to take one look at him to know that.

  It’s one thing to fool around with a guy like him on a night out after finishing my exams. It’s quite another to get involved when I’m about to start work as a junior detective. Something tells me my new boss won’t take too kindly to a detective dating a man like Tanner.

  I’ll resist him for has long as I can.

  I just don’t think that’s going to be very long.

  Chapter Six

  Tanner

  I’m still smiling when I get to work in the evening.

  Seriously, what are the fucking odds of that?

  I thought I’d missed my chance. I spent the last two months kicking myself for not going to see her in the morning. It wasn’t my fault, but I still beat myself up about it. That’s my way of dealing with these things.

  I didn’t get either of their phone numbers, so all I had to go on was her first name, and her friend’s first name. Plus, they both sat the Illinois bar exam. I got so desperate to see Elena again that I came up with a plan.

  The Illinois State Bar lists the contact details for all its attorneys. All I had to do was wait for them to get the bar exam results and be sworn in. I could then look up the details of where they work and pay a little visit.

  God, that makes me sound like a stalker. Probably best never to mention my plan to Elena.

  In the end, I didn’t need to do any of that. Elena fell right into my lap. She’s next door. Not just next door, her bedroom window looks straight into mine. I still can’t believe my luck.

  I won’t let her slip through my fingers again. I’ve never wanted a woman as much as I want her; she will end up on my cock. It is going to happen, one hundred percent.

  It might take time, though. Elena’s just as stubborn as I remember from two months ago. It’s hard for me to understand her mindset. Physically, she wants me. I might even go as far as to say she needs me. The way her body reacted to the slightest touch from me was insane. I only had to graze her stomach with my fingers to have her breathing uncontrollably and dripping between the legs.

  She briefly gave in. Her body sank back against mine. I got hard the second she did that. There must be something in her head stopping her from giving into me. Is it just the fear of casual sex? I can do the dating thing if that’s what she wants. I’ll take her on as many dates as it takes to get inside that sweet, wet pussy.

  Where do lawyers like to go on dates? On the rare occasions I’ve had to take a woman out before fucking her, a bar has usually sufficed. That didn’t work two months ago. Would a nice dinner do the trick? Man, I’m out of practice at dating. Sadie can probably help me out; she wants me to fuck her friend almost as much as I do.

  The bar is quiet tonight. Just Daron and his idiot friends, plus a few of the tough guys. Most of them have their attention fixed on the three women in the bar. Britney is a regular, and the other two look vaguely familiar. I remember fucking all three of them; two on my desk and one out back. Damn, no wonder Elena doesn’t want anything to do with me. I’m a bit of a slut.

  “What’re you having, Daron?” I ask.

  “Same again.”

  I grab a bottle from the fridge, flip off the lid, and hand it over. “This one’s on the house.”

  “Can you do that?”

  “You care?”

  “Good point. Why’re you in such a good mood? I would say you just got laid, but you’re usually miserable after that as well.”

  “Remember that night when it was really busy in here after the bar exam?”

  “How could I forget? I fucking hate lawyers.”

  “Remember the girl in the little black dress?”

  “I remember you kicking me off my table so she could sit down,” Daron replies. “You were trying to get with her, weren’t you?”

  “Yeah, although things didn’t go as planned.”

  “Wait a minute, do you mean to tell me that infamous ladies’ man Tanner Rockwell actually struck out for once?”

  “She was playing hard to get. Anyway, she’s back in town.”

  “Chased you down?”

  “Moved in next door to me.”

  “Fucking hell, the lengths women will go to for a piece of you. It never ceases to amaze me. Just how big is your cock exactly?”

  “It’s not the size, it’s what you do with it that counts. Of course, mine’s fucking massive, so that helps.”

  “So have you hit it yet?”

  “Not yet. Give me a week.”

  A week sounds like a fucking long time, but also not long enough. I can’t think of any other woman I had to chase for an entire week before getting my dick wet. That said, I can’t think of any woman like Elena.

  Things with Elena will be different. I know I can convince her to go on a date with me, but it might take more than one to seal the deal. What’s the magic number for normal people? Three? Elena will be worth it. She’s not frigid, she’s just stubborn. Once I’ve taken down her barriers, she’ll let out her wild side.

  Speaking of wild women, Britney comes up to the bar, all tits and no brains. Fake tits at that. They don’t look bad when she’s dressed, but when I had her naked lying on my desk, I could see they weren’t moving normally when I pounded her. That was three months ago, and barely a week goes by without Britney trying to get herself another helping.

  “Give us a vodka orange, sexy,” Britney says. She rests her elbows on the bar and thrusts her chest at me. I suppose when you pay that much for a set of tits, you want to show them off.

  I make her a drink, and don’t charge her. That’s nothing to do with me being in a good mood or wanting to fuck her; it’s just good business sense. The owner of this place lets me do what I please so long as we turn a profit. Having trashy women like Britney around the place keeps the guys here and keeps them spending while they’re at it.

  “You on your own tonight?” Britney asks.

  “No, Stacy should be along in an hour or so.”

  “Good. When she gets here, why don’t you take a much-deserved break and meet me out back.” She leans over the bar as if it’s she’s going to whisper something in my ear, but she ends up speaking in exactly the same volume anyway. “None of the guys here measure up to you. Mitch can’t even get it up after a couple of drinks. I need that monster between my legs again, Tanner.”

  “I wouldn’t want to spoil you for other men.”

  “Too late,” she replies. “I’ll let you fuck me up the ass.”

  “Tempting, but I don’t like mixing business with pleasure.”

  “That’s never stopped you before. Come on, Tanner. Do I have to beg? I don’t mind dropping to my knees for you.”

  “Not tonight,” I say firmly.

  Britney grabs her drink and walks off in a mood. She goes over to Burton and immediately straddles him and starts kissing him sloppily. In any other bar, this would probably get a reaction from the locals, but Burton’s friends carry on talking amongst themselves as normal. Britney places Burton’s hands on her tits for good measure. Such a classy lady that one.

  Since when did I care about classy ladies? Wait, I know the answer to that question.

  “How the fuck do you do it?” Daron asks. “Seriously, you just stand behind the bar and women throw themselves at you. I would happily shove it up Britney, but she doesn’t even look in my direction. Lucky bastard.”

  “She’s nothing special,” I reply. “She gave a really shit blowjob, and then just lay there when I fucked her. I wouldn’t recommend her unless you really need a hole to come in. I have higher standards these days.”

  “Like a posh lawyer for example?” Daron asks with a grin. “One who you’re desperate to screw.”

  “What’s all this about?” Jay asks as he slams down an empty bottle of beer on the bar. “Is the place being invaded by law students again?”

  “Fuck me, already?” Chet asks. Evidently these two are bored of watching their friend fondle Britney in
front of them.

  “No, they won’t be here again for a few months,” Daron says. “We’re talking about the posh lawyer that Tanner has his eye on.”

  “A lawyer?” Jay asks. “Not your usual type.”

  “Not his current type either,” Daron says. “She rejected him.”

  “Damn. Probably a stuck up bitch anyway, but they still squeal like the rest of them when you’ve got your cock nine inches deep inside the whore.”

  “She’s not a stuck up bitch,” I say angrily. “And I better not hear you describe her like that again.”

  “All right, calm down. Fucking touchy tonight, aren’t you?”

  “I don’t know why you’re bothering,” Chet says. “I went home with one of those lawyers that night, and you’d think she was a fucking virgin from the way she performed. Barely even took my entire head in her mouth, and once I was balls deep, all she did was fidget and squirm around. When I came on her tits, you’d think she’d never seen the stuff before.”

  “Elena’s not like that,” I reply. And hopefully I’m nothing like you, I don’t add. Sure, there were quite a few girls here that night who looked like average ladies, but that just means you need to spend more time warming them up. Chet probably just shoved his dick straight in there and then wondered why she wasn’t gushing all over his cock.

  Britney seems to have noticed we’re not paying her any attention, so she drags Burton over to the bar in a not-at-all-subtle attempt to make me jealous. Daron is the only one who seems a little put out by the excessive PDA. Eventually, Burton manages to free himself for long enough to order another drink.

  “Why don’t you take that thing out back,” Jay says. “We’ve got shit to discuss tonight, and we don’t need that trash hanging around.”

  I hate these guys so fucking much. They’ve even managed to make me feel sorry for Britney, and that takes some doing. They aren’t in here every night, but it sure feels like it. I’ve heard enough about their ‘business’ to know they’re only idiots pretending to be big players. Maybe one day this bar will go upmarket and we’ll get some of the more sophisticated criminals in here.

  “You’re just jealous,” Burton says. “Here, have a smell of these.”

  He shoves his fingers under Jay’s nose, but Jay pushes them away in disgust.

  If it weren’t for Daron, I’d kick the shit out of every one of these guys right now and ban them from the bar for life. Fuck it, I would’ve done that a long time ago.

  But I can’t. I made a promise, and I’m not going to fuck it up just because of these loud-mouth jerks.

  “We’ve got a job on tomorrow night, if you’re interested,” Jay says to me.

  “What kind of job?” I ask.

  “Nothing huge, but the pay is good. We could use the extra set of hands for crowd control.”

  “Dangerous?”

  “No, shouldn’t be.”

  “Then I’ll pass.”

  Jay and Chet both laugh, but Burton has gone back to sucking Britney’s face.

  “You’re the only person I know who turns down the safe jobs, and volunteers for the dangerous ones,” Jay says.

  “What can I say? I like the thrill.”

  Daron sits there, quietly drinking his beer. Sometimes I wonder whether he knows. He must be suspicious by now. I’ve tagged along on some serious jobs. Jobs with weapons. Jobs where weapons were used. Jobs that occasionally haunt my dreams. He knows I’m not scared, so he must wonder why I turn down easy work.

  “Let me know if you change your mind.”

  I serve Jay and Chet their beers while Burton is dragged out back by Britney. I hope she gets some satisfaction out of it at least.

  “I’ll have another one,” Daron says.

  “Four dollars,” I say, as I slam the beer down on the bar.

  “What happened to it being on the house?”

  “You went and ran your mouth about Elena, that’s what happened.”

  Daron sighs and pulls four dollar bills from his wallet.

  “Don’t forget the tip.”

  Jay and his crew don’t deserve to know anything about my life outside of this bar. That’s not what’s got me so worked up though. It’s not Jay knowing about Elena that’s the problem, it’s Elena knowing about Jay.

  I’m not just going to have one night with Elena. I want her too much for that. One night won’t be enough; I’m going to need her again and again and again. That means she might come back to the bar and she might meet Jay and his crew.

  That’s where we could have a problem.

  Elena is a lawyer, and a strict one at that. Something tells me she wouldn’t take kindly to Jay and his friends. She’d be even less enthusiastic if she knew what I do when Daron needs my help.

  Even I can’t come to terms with some of the things I’ve done. How can I expect her to?

  Chapter Seven

  Elena

  Sadie insists I can’t avoid Tanner forever. I’ll show her.

  I put more thought into it than I care to admit, but eventually I come up with a plan. Monday through Friday should be easy. I’ll leave the house for work early in the morning, and Tanner is bound to still be in bed because he works late. If I hang around at work until about six, then by the time I’ve arrived home he should’ve already left for his job at the bar.

  Weekends might be more difficult, although again, I doubt he’s up early in the morning, and he probably works Friday and Saturday night. The way I see it, the only problem areas are during the day at weekends, and whatever nights he happens to have off during the week. I have a ready-made set of excuses in case I bump into him.

  Sorry, I can’t talk, I’ve got to go meet Sadie for a drink.

  Can’t stop, I brought a ton of work home with me and have to get on with it.

  I’ve had such a long day, all I want to do is lie in front of the television and watch The Big Bang Theory.

  I spend so long thinking about Tanner that I don’t have time to be nervous about my new job. Truth is, I’m terrified. I spent three years of law school imagining I’d end up working for a law firm doing eighty-hour weeks and moaning about how much I hate document review.

  That dream crashed and burned when I found out about Bastard McFuckface and all the women he’d been screwing while I was in New York studying. My emotions were all over the place and I made a mess of every interview that came my way. I graduated without a job and no real chance of getting one.

  The police force isn’t exactly desperate to recruit naïve kids fresh out of law school, but there are some advantages to having a father who used to be a cop. God only knows how many strings he had to pull and favors he had to call in, but somehow I got a job as a junior detective.

  I’m under no illusions about how boring the work will likely be. I’m going to be stuck at a desk in front of a computer just like every other new lawyer. It should be boring. I hope it’s boring. I’m terrified in case it isn’t. What if they want me out there on the streets, chasing down leads and making arrests?

  That’s not the type of person I am.

  I can just imagine the look on a drug dealer’s face if I try to arrest him. I doubt I’ll even finish saying ‘you have the right to remain silent’ before he bursts out laughing. I think it’s fair to say I don’t look scary.

  Still, a job is a job, and there are plenty of new law graduates who don’t have one. I’m grateful.

  My first day is more eventful than I’d expected. Sadie’s first few days are just introductory tours, and presentations on ethics, using the legal databases, and—most importantly—how to charge your time.

  My first hour is a tour of the building, but then I’m shown to my desk and given an assignment.

  “You any good with PowerPoint?” Arlene asks. She’s been assigned as my ‘partner’ which makes the whole thing sound like a Hollywood movie. In reality, she’s my boss, and she no doubt has better things to do than mentor a new recruit.

  “I can do basic presentatio
ns, import tables, do a few flowcharts, things like that. I wouldn’t exactly say—”

  “That’s fine. Probably puts you in the top five percent here. I can barely open the thing. Here’s what I need you to do.” She dumps a box of files on my desk. “There’s a new spate of organized crime in the city. I say ‘organized’ in the loosest sense of the word. These guys are amateurs, but they’re still dangerous. The real pros, they play by rules. I don’t particularly like them, but at least I understand them a bit. These new ones, they’re like kids who just do what they feel like. It’s small-scale at the moment. I want to tackle this before they get more confident, but to do that I need to convince the guys and gals upstairs that it’s worth devoting resources to. I want you to go through these files and put the alleged offenses into some kind of chronological order. I think we can show that the crimes are getting progressively worse and if we can do that we can justify investigating them.”

  “Okay,” I reply. I stare at the files, but have no idea what’s in them. This could be a one hour job or a one month job for all I know. “Does the department have a particular template it uses for PowerPoint presentations?”

  Arlene laughs heartily and pats me on the back. “Oh, you’re being serious. Make the presentation good, and then I guess we will have a template to use. Let me know if you have any questions.”

  “Thank you for the assignment.” That’s what my career advisor said I should say, but Arlene just looks at me blankly and walks off.

  I start hunting through the files. Each file is a different suspect with a list of the crimes they’re linked to in one way or another. It’s obvious that no one’s looked at this yet, and I quickly find four suspects who probably have nothing to do with organized crime.

  The rest do appear to be linked; some more than others. Three of the men have an almost identical file, so I figure they work together on the same jobs and aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. Either that, or they’re just incompetent and get caught a lot.