Dirty Deeds (Irresistible Book 3)

by Stella Rhys

  I had no clue what mushy, girly reaction took over me, but it made Emmett laugh and pluck the wine glass from my hand, setting it safely on the table.

  “So you in?” he asked, looking like a vision from my dreams. Every muscle on his torso rippled as he angled towards me, grinning as he cupped my jaw and watched me nod.

  “Obviously,” I breathed out as he pressed the sweetest kiss to my lips. “I’m in.”

  24

  EMMETT

  She wound up late the next morning because I couldn’t keep my hands off of her.

  It was impossible when she slept next to me the whole night in just my T-shirt and no panties. Apparently, I’d “destroyed” them last night by walking around shirtless, and my punishment was sleeping next to her naked pussy and trying to keep my dick down till morning. It was torture, and it was really no surprise that I pounced on her the second she woke up.

  If anything, the surprise came in the kitchen when I found her cooking me breakfast – still wearing only my T-shirt.

  Christ. I couldn’t stop thinking about the view of her ass each time she lifted her arms to get something from the cabinet. It made me groan out loud as I headed straight from Aly’s restaurant back to the helipad.

  I’d left the city an hour ago, but now I was headed right back for a 10AM appointment with Iain. Yeah, it would’ve made more sense for me to just stay in the city this morning, but I also couldn’t pass up the extra time with Aly.

  I couldn’t get enough of her. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I was still thinking about her sweet laugh this morning when I walked into Iain’s office, and it was probably the only reason I didn’t immediately clock Drew in the head when I saw him.

  “Hey. I come in peace, alright?” he laughed since I was already shaking my head at him.

  “You’re a fuckin’ asshole, you know that?” I said just as Iain walked in holding a coffee.

  “Whoa, hey, what’s going on?” he asked, knocking Drew’s feet off his desk on his way to his chair.

  “Nothing. Emmett’s just pissed that I’m an exceptional wingman,” Drew said, wearing shit-eating grin of his.

  “Yeah? Is that what that was?” I snorted, leaning against the wall and kicking his feet down when he propped them up again. “Somehow I’m lost on how you kissing Aly is winging for me.”

  Iain coughed on his coffee before squinting at Drew.

  “You kissed his girl? The fuck is wrong with you?”

  Drew held his hands out.

  “What? It wasn’t real. There was no tongue. I was just doing it to piss off Emmett to piss off Beth. Because Beth pissed off Ellie. Does that make sense?”

  I rolled my eyes when Iain looked at me with confusion.

  “He didn’t get any of the names right,” I explained.

  “Ah.”

  “Whatever,” Drew smirked, leaning back in his chair and flipping his cap backwards on his head. “I maintain that I did a good thing there,” he said to me. “If it weren’t for me, you would’ve wasted your time on that platonic shit for who knows how long. And at some point, someone would’ve snatched her up, and you would’ve turned into a mopey little shit because you’ve pretty much wanted this girl since your balls dropped.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Drew laughed. “Dude. Whether you realize it or not, you talked about this girl fucking constantly. Even before she came back into the picture. You never mentioned her by name but half your stories from childhood involved ‘that friend I grew up with,’ and you always referred to that friend as a she so I put two and two together.”

  “Wow,” Iain said as I stood there actually kind of impressed myself.

  “That’s right,” Drew said, looking smug. “I know you think you’re slick, Hoult, but you’re not. I mean I’m not the most detail-oriented guy, so if I noticed that you’re in love with this girl then you’re in love with her. And you shouldn’t have even wasted your time on the friends shit. End of story. Mic drop.”

  I rolled my eyes. “It was good until the last few words.”

  “Yeah. I’m gonna take that as a thank you, and to that I say fuck you. Now I’m the only bachelor left in the group.”

  I grinned, pretty happy to be on this side of the argument for once.

  “Yeah, well maybe if you stop chasing girls with a history of trespassing and stalking,” Iain muttered while doing ten things at once at his desk.

  “Hey, a lot of the crazy ones happen to be beautiful,” Drew shrugged as if it were out of his hands.

  “Yeah, well Emmett just scored him a beautiful, sane woman so stop making excuses and get out of my office,” Iain said, barely looking up from his work. “I have a meeting and you have physical therapy in an hour.”

  “Jesus. Fine,” Drew said, getting up. “What are you doing, E? Wanna get food?”

  “I’m Iain’s meeting,” I said, snorting when he rolled his head back and groaned at the ceiling. “But I owe you dinner for your non-traditional winging, alright? It’s going to take me a second to believe that you pulled that shit for noble purposes, but if you did, you did a damned good job,” I smirked.

  “Yeah, yeah. Probably gonna be my last night out with you before you get all wifed up,” Drew said, returning my laugh as he dragged his feet out the door.

  When he was finally gone, I heaved a sigh and sat across from Iain.

  “Nice client you’ve got,” I laughed.

  “Hey, I’m only associated to that prick through work. What’s your excuse?” Iain grinned before pulling up the profile on a new venture we’d been looking into. After turning the screen to me, he leaned back in his chair and fixed his cufflinks. “So you bringing Aly to the gala?”

  “Hopefully. I haven’t asked her yet.”

  “Why not?”

  “Haven’t really had the time. It’s kind of been a whirlwind.”

  “Well, how serious are you two?”

  I narrowed my eyes up at Iain. “Why are you grilling me?”

  “You know why,” he said, typing away on his phone. “I’m curious about whether or not you’ve told her about – ”

  “No,” I cut him off bluntly. “I haven’t. And I don’t plan on it either.”

  “Whoa.” He held a hand up. “That’s fine, Emmett. I’m just wondering so I know what I’m allowed to say around her when I see her at the gala,” he said, holding eye contact till he knew I’d relaxed a little. “What are you so tense about?” he asked. “You really don’t have anything to feel guilty about. What you did was ages ago. Well before you thought you’d ever see Aly again.”

  I nodded in agreement but I wasn’t completely convinced. I just didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t know how to word what bothered me anyway. All I knew was that I felt like I’d somewhat deceived Aly – that she maybe didn’t have reason to trust me completely.

  And after the past couple days, it was fucking tearing at me.

  “Trust me, Emmett. You’re good,” Iain said. He cracked a smile. “I mean if all the things Drew said before were true, then this is the one and only girl you’ve really cared about your whole life. So if she ever finds out about all the shit, I’m sure she’ll be able to look past it. Trust me on that?”

  “Yeah,” I lied just to get the meeting back on track. “Sure thing.”

  25

  EMMETT

  My last meeting of the day was with the gala sponsors, and it wound up running so late that Aly texted just a big frown emoji that made me laugh in the middle of dinner.

  ME: What’s the face for?

  ALY: Come home to me and Ozzy pleeease

  I stared at the text. Fuck did it pull at my heartstrings. I chewed my grin as I reread it, pretty sure that a single sentence had never made me so happy and sad at the same time.

  ME: Trust me there’s nothing I want more right now than to be with you two. I’m trying to get out here fast. What time are you going to sleep?

  ALY: Sometime after you come home : )
>
  Following that text was a selfie of her on the couch with Ozzy on her lap, grinning at the camera like he was gloating. I smirked and shook my head.

  Goddammit. Just seeing the picture made my need to be home about a thousand times worse. I was honestly ready to just fake an emergency to get out of dinner. The meeting was technically over – this was just the part with the schmoozing that Julian was way better at.

  I wound up lasting another ten minutes before giving some excuse that sounded solid enough for everyone to nod along and say, “Go, go, go.”

  It was well past 9PM by now, but I still had a car ride from where I was on the Upper East Side down to the heliport on 34th Street. Then I had about a forty-minute flight to the Hamptons, and another fifteen minutes to the house.

  At one point in my life, this felt like nothing. This commute last summer was actually ideal because by the time I got back to the Hamptons, all my friends were already out, and I didn’t have to spend even a minute in my quiet house before hitting whatever lounge or club the crew was at.

  But now, things were different. Because now this commute home felt like a fucking eternity.

  By the time I got back it was midnight, and when I walked into the house, all I heard was the murmur of some movie turned way down low. I emptied my pockets quietly in the foyer, a little smile touching my mouth as I anticipated finding Aly asleep on the couch in a few seconds.

  And… yep. There she is.

  My grin spread wide when I walked into the living room to find Aly sleeping on the couch with her knees scrunched up to her chest. My guess was that she’d been making room for Ozzy before he hopped off the couch to go sleep on his favorite bed. Little prince, I snorted when I glanced at my boy lying completely stretched out with his legs hanging off the oak frame and velvet cushion chaise that Mom bought him.

  I laughed to myself and for a second, I did what I’d pretty much never done before in my life: I enjoyed the peace and quiet. I normally hated when things were still and silent. Whether it was at home, at dinner or a game, I usually preferred to be surrounded by people.

  But as I gazed at Aly on the couch, I found myself pretty quickly understanding why Julian always preached about quality over quantity.

  “Emmett?”

  Aly’s voice was breathy when she blinked her sleepy eyes open.

  “Shit. I’m sorry,” I said, tossing aside the squeaky toy I stepped on while walking over to her.

  I felt everything in my body stir as Aly stretched out on the couch, pushing her tits against her T-shirt as she arched her back tight. She let out a soft mmm as I ran my hand up the back of her leg before climbing on top of her, kissing up her neck as she asked me about my day.

  “Mm. Sounds like a long day,” she said groggily. Her eyes were still partially closed as she stretched and squirmed underneath me, getting me hard as a rock without even trying.

  “It was pretty long. But it felt longer because I was away from you,” I said, my breaths getting heavy as I watched Aly grind sleepily against my dick. I grinned. It was so fucking cute and sexy. It was like she couldn’t pass up on taking care of my hard-on, even if she was half-asleep. “Listen, I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” I murmured, grinning when she blinked her eyes open a little more, giving me her full attention – rather, as much as she could at this hour.

  “What’s up?” Aly asked, circling her arms around my neck.

  “I was wondering if you’d be my date for the gala next week,” I said, smirking when her eyebrow went up. “Why do you seem surprised to hear me ask that?”

  “I don’t know. Because I’m sleepy and I have trouble hiding my reactions when I’m sleepy,” she giggled softly. “And I guess because it’s just… such a big, important thing for you. Full of fancy people. I just thought you might not want to bring me as a date. ‘Cause then you’ll have to introduce me to everyone.”

  “Yeah. Exactly.”

  Aly smiled. “You want to introduce me to everyone?” she asked. “As your… you know?”

  “Girlfriend?” I laughed, watching her cheeks flush pink at just the sound of the word. “Yeah, Aly. I do.”

  “So I can call you my…”

  “Boyfriend? Jesus Christ. Yes,” I said, pretending to be impatient with her. But even the act of it didn’t last long because she looked so fucking adorable beaming and blushing underneath me. And for the next ten minutes or so, she let me just hold her and kiss her. We honestly wouldn’t have stopped if she didn’t suddenly gasp. I blinked at her wide-eyed look. “Aly. What?”

  “I don’t have anything to wear,” she blurted.

  “Huh?”

  “To your gala. If it’s black tie, I definitely don’t have anything appropriate to wear.”

  I chuckled at the frantic look on her face.

  “So? Then I’ll just have to take you shopping tomorrow,” I said, watching her big eyes crinkle slowly into a smile.

  “No. Don’t do that, Emmett…”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t have the money to pay you back for a nice dress,” she frowned. I squinted at her.

  “Have you never had a boyfriend buy you gifts before?”

  “I… have. But small things,” she said in a small voice. “Not big things. Or expensive things.”

  “Yeah, well, we’ve already established that your exes were idiots, so let’s make this the last time you compare me to them ever again, alright?” I laughed, eventually making her laugh too.

  “Fine,” she said, her fingers playing with my hair as she looked me in the eyes. “It’s no contest anyway,” she added in a whisper before kissing me.

  Fuck. This woman.

  Every word out of her mouth had me even more hooked than before. She didn’t even know it, but she was addicting me to her so hard so fast that all I could think of was the next thing I wanted to do with her, the next thing I wanted to see with her. All I wanted was to see and hear every little smile and laugh that she had in her. Just that was enough to make me feel full – complete in a way I never thought I could feel.

  Shit.

  I shook my head as I pulled back to look into Aly’s gorgeous eyes.

  If this was what it meant to get soft, then as usual, Julian was onto something.

  26

  ALY

  My entire staff hawked me with big, dopey grins when Emmett came to pick me up after work the next evening.

  He arrived a little prior to closing to grab a bite before our shopping trip, and since he sat at the raw bar, he chatted up Teddy, miraculously getting the poor kid to come out of his shell for literally the first time all summer.

  “Poor Teddy. I don’t think he even knew how much this estrogen-fest of a restaurant was affecting him,” Evie snorted as she and I hung out with Hannah by the espresso machine.

  “Yeah, he just needed a boy to talk to,” I giggled as Hannah finished making three macchiatos for us to sip on.

  “Yeah, that’s not a boy though. That’s a man. That’s like, the Merriam-Webster definition of a man.”

  “Really? So if I look in the dictionary, there’ll be a picture of Aly’s boyfriend?” Evie asked Hannah as I grinned awkwardly, trying to act unfazed by the word “boyfriend.” Yeah. Totally. So used to it, I nodded to myself.

  I figured I’d try to fake it till I made it because I definitely didn’t want to go to Emmett’s fancy gala and blush every time he introduced me to someone. I knew well that I’d already feel out of my league and nervous there, so getting used to the whole boyfriend-girlfriend thing would give me one less thing to fret about.

  “Hey. So I have good news and bad news,” Evie said later when we were doing the closeout paperwork in the office.

  “Hit me with the bad news first,” I said.

  “Got it,” Evie nodded, rearranging her desk in a million unnecessary ways because that was what she did when she was trying to play off being nervous.

  “Evie,” I snorted. “I already know that they canceled thei
r reservation for Sunday. Hannah told me when I came in.”

  Evie blinked. “Oh.” She stared at me. “And you’re not upset?”

  I chewed on my lip, unsure of how to answer the question. I was upset that Dad had backed out of his fourth promise to visit the restaurant, but by now, I wasn’t really surprised. Looking up at Evie, I gave a shrug.

  “I honestly knew this was going to happen the day my mom called and said ‘book that day, we’re coming.’ She wants to make it happen, but he doesn’t, and in the end she’ll always yield to him,” I said, making Evie furrow her brow. “But don’t be upset. I’m… slightly more at peace about this whole thing now.”

  “Because of Emmett?”

  “Maybe,” I admitted. “I just feel a little clearer in my head, if that makes sense. And I feel happy now in a way I don’t think I’ve… ever been? In my whole life?” I said unsurely, with a nervous laugh. “And it makes me kind of anxious because I feel like there’s gotta be a catch. But it feels way too good for me to stop, so I guess I’m just gonna ride the high till the other shoe drops.”

  Evie gave me a funny face. I could tell she was on her way to grinning big, but the end of my spiel made her scrunch up her nose.

  “Woman. There is no need to be that negative. Sometimes good things last,” she said. Then she rolled her eyes at herself. “I know I’m not the best person to sell that point because me and Mike are… whatever we are… but if I can tell you one thing for sure, it’s that I’ve never seen you smile as hard as you’ve smiled all day today.”

  I bit back my lip.

  “He’s definitely helping me relax and enjoy myself for once,” I said quietly. “Which is… still kind of weird to think about.”

  It felt like I’d spent my entire life on edge – like every second was devoted to trying to prove myself or please someone. A lot of that was due to Emmett, too, so I’d never in a million years expect him to be the one responsible for finally teaching me to breathe. To just let myself live in the moment and actually have fun.