Love Bank: Jobs From Hell #1

by Ray, Marika

  I cupped her jaw and forced her to make eye contact. “I will never, ever ditch you for someone more fun. How can a woman who blackmails a law enforcement official while opening a spank bank be boring?” I chuckled, shaking my head at her belief. “You’re the only woman I see and I want us to be exclusive. I don’t date. But I want to with you. I want to know everything about you. Say you’ll date me and who the hell cares who knows.”

  Her eyes went soft, the color coming back to her cheeks as she melted into me. “I’ll think about it,” she finally whispered.

  My heart sank, but I was nothing if not determined. “I’ll hold you to that, gorgeous.” I kissed her forehead, my lips aching for her mouth. “Now how about we go check out that sea cave?”

  Her jaw dropped open and she pushed me away. I gave her a wink, knowing full well she wouldn’t agree, but wanting to see her laugh anyway. Arguing with her was better than nothing at all.

  “Maybe one day, Bain Sutter, but today is not that day.”

  22

  Lucille

  “Oh God, oh God…” I chanted, my back sliding dangerously with each thrust of Bain’s hips.

  The tiled wall became slick, the hot water steaming up the shower stall, water flying everywhere in the small space. I was at Bain’s mercy, my legs dangling as he held me pinned to the wall. This was a very excellent position to be in. I had full view of his rippling muscles as he pistoned into me over and over. I held his shoulders, finding purchase on those boulders, trying to help him hold up my weight when the assist was completely unnecessary.

  Bain let loose an expletive between clenched teeth. His hands gripped my hips harder, his chest smashing me against the wall. The closer position lit up my entire core and made my nose go numb. The friction of his pubic bone on my clit was everything a girl needed to find sweet release.

  Then he bit my neck and sucked, trying to mark me. He’d done it once before, causing me to have to wear my old turtlenecks for a few days to cover the mark. The bastard did it on purpose. Fortunately for him, I was too far gone, at that tipping point of pending orgasm where I’d let him do anything he wanted as long as he delivered. And deliver he did. I let him know with a loud groan, my eyes squeezing shut and instantly missing the view of a wet Bain gazing at me with that intensity of his that made my knees weak.

  When his own groan broke the seal on his hickey in the making, I opened my eyes again, needing to see his neck strain and his jaw lock tight. There was nothing sexier than the moment Bain lost control and spilled himself into me. I’d been memorizing his every detail, tucking away the information for later when he moved on and I no longer had access to these private moments. That day was coming, despite all his gestures lately that falsely said otherwise.

  He set me down and kissed my forehead before soaping me up thoroughly with a devilish gleam in his eye.

  “Nah-huh, mister. We both have to get to work,” I warned him when his hands lingered a little too long on my breasts.

  He hung his head like a little boy reprimanded, but didn’t argue for once. We took turns rinsing off before stepping out of the shower. Bain gestured for me to go first, ever the gentleman.

  “There. Two positions not in your precious Kama Sutra. Wall sex and shower sex,” Bain said from behind me.

  I dried my body and left the towel on the floor just to piss him off. Bain was a bit of a control freak when it came to picking up his house. It gave me great pleasure to get him riled up. Riling him up usually led to revenge sex and I’d quickly learned I liked him a little on the wild side when the clothes came off.

  I rolled my eyes. “Those aren’t positions. More like locations.”

  He snapped his towel, narrowly missing my naked buttocks. “Whatever. You liked it well enough.” He began to mimic me in a falsetto voice. “Oh God, oh God…”

  I giggled, even as I ran into the bedroom to escape him and his taunting. I jumped onto his bed, where we’d just gotten up to get ready for work. “You’re failing your end of the bargain. You’re supposed to be teaching me new positions.”

  He stood in the doorway of the bedroom, his towel swiping through his dark, wet hair. The rest of him was on display, a playground of ropey muscles, veins under tan skin, and a dusting of hair in all the right places. Holy hot boys, he just gave me an orgasm that left me lightheaded and wobbly legged and I wanted him again.

  “Quit looking at me like that, Lucy.” His voice had dropped, the command clear even though his hardening body told me he quite liked the way I looked at him.

  I arched an eyebrow and pushed my breasts out. I was learning how to work my feminine wiles. “Any chance you have time for a quick lunch visit today?”

  Bain stalked toward me, his cock jutting out. “Only if you’re thinking what I’m thinking.”

  My foot dragged along my leg before I let my knee fall to the side, giving him a full view between my thighs. His gaze instantly dropped and he swallowed hard.

  I nodded. “I want to crawl under your desk and give you a blow job.”

  He dropped the towel and rubbed the back of his neck. “Jesus Christ, woman. I was thinking more like you in one of those long wool skirts flipped up and high heels, bent over my desk with your ass mine for the taking.”

  I nearly groaned, picturing it. What had he turned me into? I was sex crazed. Sex addled. Sex obsessed.

  His cell phone rang, breaking the moment. He gripped his cock, like he was trying to rope it in and tell it to calm down.

  “Down, boy. Later, I promise,” I told his erection, giving it a sexy wink and an air kiss.

  His laughter made me smile while I got dressed and Bain took his call. He was stressed with work, so every laugh I got out of him felt like a victory. He had some consultant dogging his every move, looking over every damn detail of his prison. As much as I teased him before over his procedures when an inmate was released, I’d come to see he was an excellent warden, caring about every single procedure, employee, and inmate who came through his doors. To have to answer to an outside consultant tested him sorely.

  I pulled on the wool skirt and high-necked blouse I’d brought over in a small duffel bag, planning on spending the night when Bain had begged me. He’d been so patient with me, letting us keep things secret while my mom was in town. I hadn’t told Bain my reluctance to share that piece of me with her, and frankly, why should I when we were just a temporary thing? Mom had left last week to catch up with some friends of hers on a Mexican cruise and I’d gotten a little looser with our affair, staying the night at his remote house more often than not. It would take quite the snoop to see my car was parked in Bain’s driveway all night long.

  Which meant Poppy probably already knew, the little minx.

  Honestly, while I enjoyed my time with Bain immensely, I felt like there was a ticking clock in my head, counting down the days, hours, minutes of our time together. He’d tire of me eventually and move on, the novelty of showing me new sexual positions not being enough to keep his interest for much longer. The thought made my chest ache, so I tried to push it aside as soon as it flitted across my brain.

  He and I were such opposites. He took risks like I made to-do lists: constantly and religiously. He was bold to the point of reckless, defiant in his confidence, barking orders with complete trust he’d be obeyed. He was obstinate and damn me to hell if all that wasn’t hot.

  But Mom hadn’t raised a doormat, and where she failed, that magical goat had taken over, sparking alive the devil in me who couldn’t help but push Bain’s buttons. I got in his face and tempers flared. His eyes would flash and he’d clench his jaw. I’d flash back to his fist strangling his cock, that same jawline alerting me to his rising blood pressure, and before I knew it, clothes would come tearing off and his mouth would devour me.

  We flamed hot and bright. I reveled in it.

  But all flames burned out eventually. I dreaded it.

  * * *

  My phone dinged on the table in front of me. I could see
it was a text message from Mom. Probably a quick hello with a cloaked question aimed to suss out what was going on with me. She’d been texting almost daily, a marked uptick in her normal pattern of communication. She smelled a rat, or more specifically, a man. She wouldn’t leave it alone until she knew every detail. She’d probably even enlist Lavender in due time to come question me down.

  “Hey, Lucille?” Keva called me from the front lobby.

  I put down the tray of samples I was in the middle of shipping off to the lab to be tested and walked out into the hall to see what she needed. At least I had a reason to ignore Mom’s text for a little longer. Dear God, let it not be Poppy, here to discuss why I’ve been examining the warden’s penis so closely and repeatedly.

  I pushed open the door and saw Keva sitting behind her desk, a huge smile on her face. My gaze snagged on a large vase of red roses sitting on the counter, a white card nestled in the blooms.

  “What’s all this?” I asked, bewildered. As far as I knew, Keva didn’t have a boyfriend.

  “They’re for you!” she squealed and clapped her hands.

  Her enthusiasm was contagious. A smile stretched across my face before I could school it into vague disinterest. My heart leapt in my chest, getting caught up in the flattery of receiving roses for the first time. I dared to hope they were from Bain.

  I pulled the card out and bent to smell the flowers, grinning harder at the floral smell only roses could provide.

  “See who it’s from!” Keva hopped up, unable to contain her excitement sitting down.

  I straightened, my eyes suspiciously misty and accompanied by a lump in my throat. Maybe I was allergic to roses.

  I pulled the card out of the tiny envelope, seeing Bain’s chicken scratch handwriting. Keva breathed over my shoulder, trying to get a glimpse at the note too. Her gasp confirmed she could see it.

  My sincerest apologies for the seagull situation. Let me take you out to dinner to officially say sorry. Yours, Bain

  I rolled my eyes, secretly swooning, though I tried to act like I was unaffected by his sweet gesture. He’d already apologized for the bird drama a few weeks back, so this was nothing but a sly way of bringing attention to our “relationship.” Everyone at the flower shop knew he sent me flowers, Keva knew I received red roses from Bain, and now he wanted to take me out to a very public dinner?

  Apparently his patience had run out. He was tired of me dragging my feet.

  Bain wanted to go all in and I had a decision to make.

  I scooped the roses up and brought them back to my office, their presence transforming my office into a lush space any woman would love to have. I retrieved my phone from the sample room and sat back down at my desk, staring at the roses. Before I could talk sense into myself, I pulled up my texts, ignored my mom’s, and went right to Bain’s thread.

  Lucille: The roses and apology are unnecessary but delightful nonetheless. Dinner is a yes.

  I hit send and dropped the phone down on the desk like it bit me. Fear gave way to excitement, the kind that gets under your skin and makes you glow with energy. I felt high as a kite, much like I did after the goat rubbed some sense into me not long ago. I rubbed my sweaty palms on my scratchy skirt, forcing myself to take deep breaths.

  Bain and I would be officially dating.

  And if he asked again tonight, I’d say yes to being exclusive.

  To hell with the consequences.

  * * *

  Bain convinced me to drive my little convertible with the top down, despite the colder temperatures once the sun sank into the ocean. That thing he did with his teeth and then his tongue on the back of my neck was highly persuasive indeed.

  We hit a bit of a traffic jam at the stop sign leading onto Main Street. I figured there was some sort of emergency happening as traffic wasn’t an issue in our little town.

  “Quit frowning, Lucy. Everyone’s just looking to drag Main.” Bain’s big hand left my thigh, where it had been creeping higher and higher under my little black dress. Instead, he took my hand off the shifter where the knuckles had turned white from a worried death grip and forced my fingers to unfold and slip between his.

  I glanced over, a little lost. “What’s ‘dragging Main’?”

  Bain gawked at me. “You know, driving your car through town and seeing who’s around?”

  I scrunched up my nose. “Why would I want to sit in traffic just to see who’s around? It’s probably just people I see every damn day as it is.”

  Bain smirked. “It’s about being seen and having a good time. Why is the city boy having to explain this to the small-town girl?”

  I scoffed. “Probably because I’m not a big enough dumbass to waste gas cruising down the same damn street I go down every damn day to see the same damn people.”

  “That’s a lot of damnation in one sentence, Lucy. Might want to be careful, considering we’re cruising through Hell.”

  The car in front of me lurched forward and I untangled my hand from Bain’s to shift into first gear to follow. He just put his hand back on my thigh, riding high under my skirt. The scratch of his callouses on that sensitive skin made me squirm in my seat. Maybe dinner was a bad idea. I could think of at least ten things that hand could to do me back at home that was far nicer than a public drive through.

  “How about we drag ass back home instead?” I waggled my eyebrows, hoping he’d catch on to my suggestion and be properly swayed to give up our plans for the evening.

  Instead of taking me up on my generous offer, he pulled his hand out from under my skirt and looked straight ahead with quite the stony expression.

  Ah shit, he’s done with me already.

  My stomach lurched and dinner sounded like the worst idea in my present condition. Maybe he was just taking me out to dinner as a final farewell. A “I had a good time but now it’s over” dinner. Now I knew the expiration. Three weeks. That was the extent of my sexcapades with Bain.

  I reached the stop sign, pausing and letting the other traffic go before putting it into first again and creeping onto Main Street. My head started to pound like all the blood flow was now in my skull, fighting to figure out a way to get out of this scenario. I didn’t need a public breakup. Not that we’d been dating for real anyway.

  “Smile, sweetheart, or people will think I’m a bad date,” Bain teased me, his hand coming to cover mine on the shifter. He winked at me and then turned to smile and wave at someone on the sidewalk outside Hell’s Tavern. Was this all for show?

  “Well, will you look what little gold nugget turned up tonight!”

  Poppy’s loud voice reached me over the sound of my engine. Not hard considering we were only going two miles per hour following the long line of cars. She gave me a huge wink and then turned her sharp eyes to Bain, drinking him in greedily. I could see the questions forming in that head of hers and knew I’d have an extended visit from her at the clinic tomorrow when she delivered Saturday’s mail.

  We made it down Main in similar fashion, seeing pretty much everyone I’d ever known from Auburn Hill. More than once we got a hoot and a holler about the two of us being together in my little convertible. As soon as we turned off Main, I released a huge sigh. I felt like I’d just driven down a social gauntlet, coming out relatively unscathed on the other end aside from an anxiety level not healthy for chances of longevity.

  Bain’s laughter hit my ears and I scowled at him, knowing he’d done that drive through Hell on purpose too.

  “What’s your deal, Warden of Wanktown? You out to kill me before I’m forty?”

  He only hooted louder as I drove around side streets, making our way to a restaurant just a few miles out of town along the coastline. If I hurried, we could make the reservations Bain said he made for seven.

  I pulled into the parking lot and put the car in park, turning her off and swiveling to face Bain. He finally sobered enough to talk. I opened my mouth to light into him, to get him to state firmly what we were doing here tonight because
my nerves couldn’t take any more second-guessing.

  Bain took the reins before I could speak, holding my hands in his and staring into my eyes like he had a huge confession. His features, so familiar to me now, went hazy around the edges. I tried to hold on to his image in perfect clarity, needing to memorize every detail in case this was it. His shoulders were so big and broad in my tiny car, it felt like he took up all the oxygen too.

  “Lucy, I’ve waited a few weeks like you asked. We’ve seen each other every single day and I still haven’t gotten enough of you. I think about you all the time, even when I should be focused on all the things I said I wanted with this move to Auburn Hill. You’re distracting me to no end, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I don’t know how I got to this place after you blackmailed me over my swimmers, but I can’t deny it any longer. I’m—well, I’m in love with you.”

  His words sounded choked, like they got stuck in his throat on the way out into the sound waves. Which I understood, because now they were stuck in my head, echoing over and over, yet not making any sense.

  “You’re not cutting off my sex access?” I asked, the question coming out far too loud and disjointed for the small space and the intimate moment.

  23

  Lucille

  Bain sputtered and then coughed, still not releasing my hands. If anything, the look in his eyes went even more steely, like he was ready for a fight.

  I squeezed my eyes shut, needing just a second without his eyes burning a hole in my head and discombobulating me. It wasn’t every day a gorgeous man told you he loved you and I needed a minute or three years to come to terms with it.

  My head was no help, simply spinning the words over and over, so I checked in with my body. There was a bit of a pukey feeling in my gut, but it was paired with a racing heart and a flush to my skin normally only present when Bain was sliding into me and whispering dirty words in my ear.