Chase shook the man’s hand. “I’m doing well, Marvin. How are you?”
It took everything I had not to roll my eyes at Marvin. “Oh, well, I’m great, great, sir. You just caught us finishing up a budget meeting. You just missed the rest of the team.”
Chase nodded towards Olivia. “Olivia, how are you?”
And just like the Cybil twenty personality bitch that she was, she purred for him. “Oh, Mr. Alexander, I’m doing very well.” She leaned in closer giving him a better view of her tits and I almost grinded a molar clean through. “I’ll be getting in touch with you next week for a couple of clarifications on the Survirno account.”
Chase gifted her with one of his signature people smiles and I wanted to punch him in his face. “No problem, Olivia. If you get with Sylvia, I’m sure she can open a time slot for you.”
And because I was a dick…“Mr. Alexander, I’m actually glad you’re here.” He raised his eyebrows at me because he knew I was anything but glad he was here. “We were in the middle of a discussion and since you’re the A in SMA, you are probably just the person who can settle this-”
Olivia did have a talent for shooting daggers. “Oh, Quinn, let’s not bother Mr. Alexander with these minor…uh, details. I’m sure he’s way too busy to-”
I gave Olivia and her reptilian sidekick my biggest, brightest smile. “Are you sure, Ollie? I wouldn’t want these…uh, pesky little minor details to keep you up at night.”
Her façade cracked just a little. “Thank you, but I sleep just fine at night, Quinn.”
“Ahhh, okay. Well, don’t let me keep you.” I beamed.
I stood there in silence and I watched them scatter away through the door and then down the hall to the elevators. Most of the time, these glass walls irritated the shit out of me, but not now. Now I just kept smiling as the elevator doors shut on a very sourpuss looking Olivia and Marvin.
Chase smiled at me. “Ollie?”
Chase~
I didn’t know what I walked into, but if it involved Quinn, I’d say the odds were that my timing probably saved her from a felony assault charge.
She gave me her famous stink-eye. “Yes, Ollie. I was being immature.”
“Ahhh, okay. That makes sense.”
“Don’t start with me, Chase. I don’t have the energy it takes to deal with you today,” she growled at me.
I grabbed my chest in a wounded fashion. “Awe, babe, don’t say that. Who’s going to deal with me, if not you?”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know. Maybe the harem of random women that just throws themselves at your feel whenever you walk by? Try one of them. As a matter of fact, if you hurry now, I’m sure you can catch Olivia and her twin weapons of mass destruction before she gets away.”
I let out a low whistle. “Damn girl, Olivia must have really hit a sore spot.”
Her stink-eye again. “I don’t have sore spots, Chase.”
I reached for her and tugged her closer to me. “Come home with me tonight and I can guarantee you’ll have sore spots for days.”
Am I being unethically unprofessional?
Hell yeah, I am. But that’s what this woman did to me.
I couldn’t be near her without my mind delving into the swamps of depravity. This woman thought I just wanted to fuck her a’la one-night-stand fashion, but that wasn’t true. With her small, slim stature and big as brass balls, I wanted to devour her. Forever.
Never mind that Quinn was absolutely beautiful with her light brown hair that she often had dyed any color of the rainbow and those sharp as razors brown eyes of hers. Her brows were delicately arched and her lashes reminded me of Bambi. She had a petite, slightly upturned nose and lips that called onto Hell every time she slathered lipstick on them. Her package was complete in a body that was toned and fit. Her tits were the perfect size for my hands and her hips were the perfect size to cushion my thrusts inside her hot, tight, little body.
Super unethically unprofessional.
“Seriously, Chase, anyone could walked in and see the boss violating fourteen different ethical codes of conducts here,” she reminded me.
God, I wanted to shut her smart mouth with my dick. “True. However, it would be our word against theirs and last I checked; two is greater than one.”
She threw me a smirk. “That confident that I’d side with you, huh?”
“Pfft…of course, you would,” I retorted. “Like you would want to be responsible for the downfall of SMA, therefore causing Julian to lose his job and upsetting Isabella. No one wants to upset Izzy.”
Q chewed on her lower lip. “Okay, you got me there.”
As much as I loved our verbal sparring, it was time to get serious. “So, you want to tell me what was going on with you and Olivia?”
“Ugh, nothing, I just don’t like the woman.” She shook her head slightly. “I guess she was more irritating today than usual.” She dropped her head back and rolled her neck. “Or maybe I’m going to start my period and it’s just me being irritable. Who the fuck knows?”
I didn’t like seeing her stressed out and upset. I mean, yeah, I couldn’t recall ever wanting a woman the way I wanted Quinn, but that aside, we had become friends. So, it did actually bother me that she seemed so un-Quinn-like. It concerned me as her boss, also.
SMA Global, Inc. is a major financial institute, and Nick, Julian and I worked hard to make it such. We also work our asses off to keep it one of the top financial powerhouses in the world. Julian, Nick and I grew up in Oakland, California and our childhoods consisted of almost every nightmare you can think of. Nick’s mother was a dope fiend whore who neglected Nick severely in favor of drugs and men. His parents had been married briefly, but none of us could remember why or exactly when it was that Nick’s father split.
Now Julian’s mother? That whore was the devil incarnate. While Nick got neglected, Julian got neglected, beaten and emotionally abused. His bitch of a mother didn’t limit her torturing of him either. She would let whichever man she was fucking at the time beat Julian, as well. It wasn’t until Julian started growing into himself that the physical abuse waned. Julian was a big motherfucker when we were younger and he’s a big motherfucker now. That fucking cunt kept on with the neglect and emotional abuse though until we were old enough to get out of The Deep East.
I’d have to say my family was probably the most ‘healthy’ out of our three. My parents were married and my mother had been a good mother considering what she had to work with. My father was a cheating, abusive bastard, though. He treated my mother worse than dog shit and my younger brother, Kane, and I were present for every hurtful word and every first thrown her way.
Jonathan Alexander was an indescribable piece of shit. At times, he would even go so far as to have his latest whore actually drop him off at our apartment. Kane and I even had a half-sister somewhere, and while I don’t have anything against the unknown woman, she’s just not someone I was ever curious to meet.
The beatings stopped when I was old enough to actually do some damage when I hit back. There were times he still got a hold of my mom, when we were at school or running the streets, but at least they had subsided a bit. But because my house was the most stable, Julian and Nick spent a lot of time there. My mother loved them like they were her own and she always included them in the sacrifices she made for me and Kane. As a result, Nick and Julian would do anything for Teresa Alexander.
When Nick, Julian and I were sixteen we decided we weren’t going to let the quicksand of poverty drag us down and drown us. We each got part time after school jobs and when I turned eighteen, we invested all our money in a high risk stock that Nick had vetted. We came up thousands, and with Nick’s ingenious insight, were able to keep turning out money.
By the time we were twenty, we had moved out of Oakland (along with my mom and brother), were enrolled in college and were building the foundation of SMA Global, Inc. Ten years later we have more money than we’ll ever need and we have a company with
a good, honest, reliable reputation. We’re proud of all we’ve accomplished and we work the sixty hour weeks to ensure that this company and all its employees keep flourishing.
So, then you’re probably wondering why, after all our hard work, I would risk my and this company’s reputation to fuck Quinn? Well, it’s simple. I’m not out to fuck her. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have every intention of fucking her.
Lots of times.
In many positions.
But that’s not all I’m after.
Now, I love women. I think they’re the greatest creation on earth. I’m not talking about tall, hot blondes. I’m not talking about short, curvy brunettes. I’m not talking about lethal, sexy redheads. When I say I love women, I mean I love all women.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that my healthy respect for women is a result of all my mother’s sacrifices. But it wasn’t only my mother I took notice of. Growing up, I saw poor single mothers dig out change from their purses for the bus. I saw women hauling groceries home because they couldn’t afford a car. I saw women lose their sons and daughters to gang violence because it was a choice between staying home and protecting them, or going to work to feed them.
I’ve seen men fall apart and fall into spirals of despair, while their wives and mothers stood strong amidst the storms around them. There is no sight more magnificent than a real mother defending her child; I can tell you that shit. That Mama Bear instinct is real. It’s one of the reasons Nick, Julian and I made sure our salary packages are generous enough to support single parents. Woman or man. SMA Global offers scholarships, daycare discounts, carpool incentives, etc., etc.
I’m very proud of what we’d built and that’s why going back to Quinn, it bothered me on both a personal and professional level that she seemed unhappy.
“So you want me to believe you’re being unreasonable towards Olivia because you’re going to start your monthly exorcist sessions?”
She harrumphed. “You are such jerk, Chase.”
I circled around her and started massaging her neck and shoulders. “I know, babe.”
She let out a soft moan and rolled her head forward giving me better access to the tight muscles bunched up at the base of her neck. It was these small, unguarded moments that kept me after her. She could protest all she wanted, and she could deny her attraction to me until the second coming of Jesus, but I knew she felt something for me. I just had to figure out what that something was.
“God, that feels so good,” she whimpered.
My dick was rock hard before she even finished saying the word ‘good’. I wanted her moaning that shit while she was naked, withering beneath me. I quickly scanned the other conference rooms, as far as I could see, to make sure we were alone. Once I was satisfied it was just me and her up here I leaned down and started placing soft kisses down the side of her neck.
Quinn tilted her head to the side, giving me permission to continue. “Just for the record, this is wrong and I am most vehement in my disappointment regarding our unprofessional behavior.”
I slid my hand around her neck using her chin to tilt her face even farther to the side as I brought my teeth into play along her skin. “Duly noted, babe.”
I wanted to keep going until she was undress and bent over the conference table, but the mere fact that she was letting me touch her without protest told me she must really be having a tired, stressful day. I wanted Quinn like I wanted to wake up every morning, but I was not going to take advantage of whatever she’s wrestling with today. When we finally come together, I want her to be hot, frenzied, violent and insatiable…not tired, stressed out and too exhausted to put up a fight.
And I wanted this woman fighting.
I stopped kissing her and removed my hands from her person. Fuck, this must be what the Seventh Circle of Hell felt like.
I walked around to stand in front of her again and perched myself against the table. “What’s going on, Q?”
She met my blue stare with her chocolate one and I could see the indecisiveness warring in them before denial won out. “It’s nothing, Chase. I’m fine.”
I knew she was lying, but I also knew there was no way I was going to get it out of her without a full blow battle of the wills, so I let it go. “You’re going to be at The Shack tonight, right?”
She raised one of those perfectly arched brows at me. “Of course, I’m going to be there. Why would you even need to ask?”
The corner of my mouth lifted just to irritate her. “I’m just making sure. You seem so beat I thought maybe you didn’t have it in you to drink and party tonight.”
Quinn narrowed her beautiful brown eyes at me. “Is that your subtle way of saying I look like shit, Chase?”
“Nope,” I replied. “If I thought you looked like shit, I’d tell you, babe.”
“And quit calling me ‘babe’. Someone might overhear and get the wrong idea,” she admonished.
“One, they wouldn’t be getting the wrong idea. I want you, Q. That’s never been a secret. Second, I’m not going to stop calling you ‘babe’ because…well, you’re my babe.”
“I don’t know what the city of Oakland has in its water, but it must be toxic to the brain because you, Nick and Julian are all fucking crazy,” she snipped.
I could only offer her a shrug. I may not be in love like Nick and I may not be obsessed like Julian, but I was half-ass out of my mind with wanting this woman. So, maybe SMA did need to fund a project to see just how safe Oakland’s city drinking water really was.
I stood up and plucked the papers and folders out of her hands before putting my free hand on the small of her back to usher her out of the conference room. “I have some phone calls and clients to check up on, so I’m not sure what time I’ll be there tonight, but I’ll get there as soon as I can.”
We just stepped into the elevator when Quinn found her bearings again. “And why would I care about what time you’re showing up? Odds are I’ll be too busy with the karaoke mic to even notice if you’re there or not.”
I dropped her papers on the floor and pushed her up against the elevator wall placing my hands on either side of her head, caging her in. “You need to care because things will not go well for you if I walk into the bar and you’re running around making new friends, Quinn.”
She snapped her body straight and leaned into my face. “Be careful, Chase. It almost sounds like you’re trying to tell me what to do.”
Fuck, this woman had my cock harder than steel. “Test me, babe.”
The elevator door pinged and Quinn rushed out before I could hit the emergency stop button.
And without any of her paperwork.
Chapter 2
Sloth: Because best friends don’t need to dress up for each other or bathe…do they?
Quinn~
I sat on the edge of my bed wishing I could just fall back and fade away into a twelve hour nap. Normally I was down for a night of drinking, karaoke and sex-if the occasion called for it-but tonight was more than just a carefree night with friends.
About a month ago, Avery was attacked by her douchebag of an ex-boyfriend and it did a number on all of us. It had been horrible. And as friends often were, we were all riddled with guilt at not being able to prevent the attack, even though logically, we all understood that we couldn’t have.
Well, tonight would be the first time she’s been out since that night and there was no way I was going to miss it. Honestly, it’s a wonder Nick lets her out of his sight at all. He had moved her in with him the same weekend of the attack.
So, while there was no force on this earth that was going to keep me from hanging out with Izzy and Ace, that didn’t mean I wasn’t tired as all get out. Maybe I could go in sweats and a t-shirt. I mean, we were going to The Shack, not to The Met.
The Shack was a small, hole in the wall, San Jose gem of a bar. They played dance music and catered to the karaoke crowd. Now, don’t get me wrong, I was very aware that none of us girls could s
ing, but that didn’t stop us. We went to have a good time, not to be discovered by the latest up and coming talent agency.
If I was being completely honest, sweats and a t-shirt would work just fine if it wasn’t for the fact that the guys were going to be there. Isabella and Avery have seen me passed out next to the toilet bowl numerous times, so I knew neither of them cared about what I looked like…but the guys? While I’m sure the guys didn’t care what I looked like either, but I was girly enough to admit I was intimidated by their looks. I didn’t think there’d be anyway I could go out with them in haute couture homeless when those men were as good looking as they were. They really were detrimental to the female libido.
Especially Chase.
Nicholas Savage was gorgeous in that sensual, serious, full of love kind of way. Julian Moretti was spell bounding in his dark, brooding, violent kind of way and the man had dimples when he smiled; a set of deep, wet-the-panties dimples. He didn’t smile often, so when he did, they flashed at you like a stun gun.
But back to Chase…Chase was good looking in that hot as sin sexy way. One look at that man and I just knew he could fuck the polish off a girl’s toe nails. The only reason I still had polish on my toes was because I knew guys like Chase, and while I have no problem with no-strings, fun, casual sex, sex with Chase would be anything but casual.
My phone rang brining me out of my all-things-Chase trance. I flung myself back on the bed and thrashed my arms all about over my head until I found my phone. I looked at the caller I.D. and didn’t bother sitting up. “Hey, Hooker.”
“Hey, Medicated Psycho.”
I laughed at my younger sister. “What’s the haps, girly?”
“I was wondering if you wanted to have lunch on Sunday.”
I covered my eyes with my forearm. “You are out of your goddamn mind if you think I’d ever go to lunch with you again after what you did to me last time, you evil wench!”
Chasing Quinn Page 2