“You look a little too comfy.” I had woken up an hour before Greg and I knew the moment my eyes opened I needed coffee. We had been awake into the wee hours of the morning and I wasn’t used to staying up that late, especially on a night before work.
“So do you.” Greg smiled at me from the bed as I stood leaning against the door frame in nothing but his dress shirt, with my favorite “I don’t do mornings” mug in hand. I took a long sip of the black liquid magic in my hands and shrugged a shoulder. I was comfortable and I wasn’t going to apologize for it. “Why don’t you come back to bed?”
I looked over to the alarm clock to see that we needed to be to work in ten minutes.
“Aren’t you supposed to be my boss?” I tsked at Greg and used my mug to point towards the clock. I brought the cup to my mouth and took the last swig, grateful that there was still half a pot left I could put into a travel mug with me to take to the office.
“Oh,” Greg jumped from the bed in his naked glory. “I’ll show you, boss.” I wasn’t expecting him to jump off the bed and run towards me, but I took quick action and ran to the living room, dropping my mug off at the bar, and ran around the couch. We were on opposite sides of it and neither of us had an advantage here.
A laugh burst out of me as I took in the scene of Greg naked in my living room and me wearing his dress shirt. If you had told me a week ago that this is where I would be, I wouldn’t have believed you.
“I’m thinking we have plenty of time for what I have in mind.” The darkness came back into his eyes and I shivered at the thought of Greg grabbing for me, throwing me over his shoulder again, and Reenacting what we had done last night. That was going to take longer than the ten minutes we had.
“Lilly!” Erica’s screeching came from the other side of my front door, Erica, and then came the banging. Greg stood up straight and looked between me and the door.
“Surprise!” Alexa’s voice joined in the tension that filled the room. “We know you’re awake! We can see the light on and I smell coffee!”
Greg and I made a beeline for the bedroom, rushing to put on clothes. Once Greg was dressed, he dashed to the patio door that opened off the bedroom. We were lucky enough that our balconies lined up with each other, the only ones that did in the whole building, and also that Greg always kept his back door unlocked, just in case.
Before he was out the door, though, he turned around, pulled me into his arms while I was still only in a bra and panties, and planted a kiss directly on my lips. I dove into the kiss, pulling him towards me, not wanting to let go.
“Tonight.” His whisper was a promise and one I hoped we could keep.
Once the coast was clear, I quickly put on a dress and boots, shoved my phone into a pocket and made my way into the living room.
“Give me a moment!” I tried to make sure there was no sign that Greg or any man had been in this apartment last night. The girls only needed the slightest of excuses to start questioning me and if we managed to get to work without any issues, it would be a miracle.
“We have doughnuts!” My first thought wasn’t food, but when the hell had they made time to get them, and then I remembered that Erica was the morning person out of the three of us. I was hoping that her habits had brought her to wait in the horrid line of Garrison’s Doughnuts two blocks away and that she got my favorite, salted caramel.
I swung the door open to a box being shoved in my face with an open lid. Not only was there one salted caramel, but there were four. I had a whole box to myself.
“Oh my gosh,” I left Erica and Alexa at the door and quickly brought the box to the nearest counter and shoved a doughnut in my mouth, literally shoved the thing in there. I thought I heard Greg curse when a moan escaped me, which was followed by a loud bang.
The girls were still standing in my doorway when I watched Greg pop up behind them.
“Are those Garrison’s?” I didn’t have to turn around to know his mouth was watering just like mine was. He had the same kind of sweet tooth that I did, but I was not sharing my doughnuts this morning. I may have shared my bed with this man, but I tried to never share my food.
“Where did you come from?” Alexa asked Greg, but we both ignored the question. She looked back and forth between us in confusion.
“Mine.” I mumbled with a full mouth and pushed in any food that tried to escape. I blocked the box with my body and moved it with me while I filled up my travel mug so we could leave.
I was at the door and ready to head out when I realized my purse was still in the bedroom. Both girls were giving me questioning looks, but the one on Greg’s face was amusement. He was all too excited to see me flustered and all out of sorts. I went to go turn around to grab my purse, but Greg moved in front of Alexa and Erica, moving them out of the doorway.
“You don’t need your purse today, come on.” Greg made a grab for me, pulling me out of the apartment. He closed the door behind us and locked it up. Erica shot me a wide-eyed look and then Alexa mouthed “what the fuck” to me, but I ignored them both again. So much for that miracle I needed this morning. This was why Greg and I always tried to text each other with what was happening. These two loved surprise visits and typically Greg would have been in the office half an hour ago, but not this morning. Everything that could go wrong seemed to be going wrong this morning.
“I’ll see you girls at the office.” Greg made his way in front of us, taking the stairwell at the far end of the hallway, while we waited for the elevator next to the apartment door. Once the stairwell door shut, the screams began.
“What the hell was that?!”
“He has a key!”
“When did this happen?!”
“What does this mean?”
“Are you guys dating?”
“Where does he live?”
“Does he live here?”
“Stop!” I snapped at both girls, not even trying to decipher who was asking what since they weren’t allowing me time to breathe or answer their questions.
I took a deep breath and got on the elevator when it opened. Erica made her way in, but Alexa stood in the doorjamb until the warning bell started ringing.
“If you don’t get in this damn elevator, I won’t tell you anything.” I stomped my foot at her to get my point across since both my hands were full.
“Fine.” She crossed her arms and made her way in. I waited for the door to close before I started up.
“Yes, he has a key.” Both girls gasped and I could see Erica’s mouth already opening, but I stopped both of them before they could start again. “You two wait for me to tell you everything and then we do questions one at a time.”
I waited for either of them to answer.
“Understand?” I looked between the two of them.
“Yes.” They both responded together.
“Greg has had a key for a long time. The apartment actually used to be his and, when I needed a place to live other than my parents’ house, Greg let me stay with him. That was after he gave me the job at The Ink Well. After a few months of my living there, he bought out the apartment next to his and moved himself out and let me keep it free of charge.”
We stepped off the elevator and made our way across the street towards work.
“It doesn’t mean anything because it isn’t something. He’s always had the key, and I even have a key to his place, just in case anything ever happens. That answer everything for you guys?”
Alexa raised her hand like a child.
“Yes?” We were stopped at the curb as I waited for her to ask her question.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Alexa asked.
“I agree with that question.” Erica commented back.
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and lifted my head to the sky, praying that I could answer this in the best way possible without offending anyone.
“I never knew how to tell you guys.” I started off as we crossed the street after a few cars passed us. “ It’s one thing to live next door to your boss, it’s another that he gave you his apartment, that we were best friends and hung out every night together, and that I was madly in love with him. It wasn’t so simple just to say, so it was just easier to keep a secret.”
“What about when I moved in?” Alexa asked her next question.
“We made sure to let each other know when we were coming and going from the apartment so there wouldn’t be any run ins.”
“I feel a little hurt that you never told us.” Erica added.
“It hurt not to tell you all, but I knew once you knew just a part of what was going on, you would want to know it all, and a selfish part of me never wanted you two to know about how close Greg and I used to be.”
“Used to be?” Erica asked the question next.
“When Alexa moved in things became more strained. We never saw each other like we used to and I stopped going to family dinner every Wednesday like I had been before.” I waited for Alexa to open the door to the office building as we all trucked inside.
“Family dinner?” Alexa questioned.
“That’s why you were always late on Thursday! Ah! The mystery is solved!” Erica pointed at me with such excitement that a few people in the lobby were looking our way now.
“Shush.” I scolded her.
“I’m just so happy to finally know what’s been going on.” She spoke quietly this time and let out a giggle at the end. God I loved this woman. She was the sweetest most innocent person I knew and it radiated off her in the best ways. You could only see perfection when you looked at Erica.
“Okay, we basically know what’s going on now, but you never answered the most important question we asked,” she hissed at me. I scrunched my eyebrows together in confusion. “Are you two dating?”
Shit. I forgot that one.
“Kind of.” Erica slapped me on the shoulder.
“How the hell do you ‘kind of’ date your boss who just so happens to be your husband?” She gave me this evil look that had me questioning whether our little pixie was actually a little devil the way she was turning red.
“We went on a date last night.”
“What?!”
“Holy shit!”
“Shut up!” I elbowed both girls as the elevator came to take us to our respective floors. I waited for the doors to close before I continued. “We had a date last night that went well. At one of our counseling sessions, we were given a homework assignment, to go on a date.”
“Where did you two go?” I looked over to Erica to answer her question, and the light that shined in her eyes made me feel giddy to talk about Greg with someone finally.
“So, we went to Finnagin’s to watch the rival game last night. We had wings, we laughed, we kissed.” I bowed my head, but there was no purpose because the blush showing on my face could be seen across the building.
“What’s the catch, though?” It was Alexa’s turn to ask the question, and I knew what she meant. No matter how well something was going for me, I always found a way to see the worst.
“How do I know he’ll stay?”
“How do you know he’ll leave?” Erica countered my question.
“Because they all leave. He finally has what he wants.” The elevator opened to the finance floor, but I pushed to close the doors with my elbow, so we could ride up to the top floor with Alexa. “We went on a date, we’ve had sex a few times now, I went to family dinner with him and I told his mother last night we were going on a date. He has the power to break my heart. I just don’t know if I can afford to allow even the possibility of it.”
When the doors opened to the fifth floor, Greg, Chase, and Jack were there waiting. Alexa exited with a smirk on her face, and the guys rode back down to the second floor with Erica and me. No one spoke, and when the doors opened again, Erica and I filed out onto our floor. The guys stayed on, with the first-floor button highlighted.
I didn’t have to look at Greg to know that meant they were leaving for the day. I was going to be running the floor on my own today, so I prepped myself at the desk where he had left a note for me.
Meeting at Tally’s, be back after lunch.
He was probably meeting with a client. I felt a little better, but it didn’t help that I still wanted to see him and see if his touches from earlier in the week would continue. When he didn’t come back after lunch, worry began to set it. I didn’t go for lunch with the girls because I wanted to be here when he came back.
When six o’clock came around, I looked at my phone and saw nothing from him. I sent off the last email I needed to and made my way over to Erica’s desk.
“Dinner?” I asked.
“I really want some Mexican food. Like chips-and-salsa me up!” I laughed as Alexa popped up behind us. “Apparently the guys are still at their meeting and said it would probably mean a late night back here at the office, so I wouldn’t expect to hear from them tonight.” I knew she wasn’t just talking to me about Greg but the peeking up of her eyes in her cute way was a mock to Erica. Erica might have thought we didn’t know, but we totally saw that she was crushing on Chase, and she was typically private, so Alexa and I never pried.
“Then let’s get some Mexican food!”
I led our way out of the office and called for an Uber to come and take us to the opposite side of downtown to Malek’s, one of the best Mexican food places here in Atlanta. I felt my phone buzz in my pocket.
Greg: I’m sorry. I should have texted you sooner. We are heading back to the office. Wait for me.
Me: Going out to dinner with the girls.
Greg: Tell me where, I’ll meet you there.
I left him with the cliffhanger of not knowing where we were.
“If one of the guys asks where we are, don’t tell them.” It was like magic because both girls’ phones lit up, Chase asking Erica what she was doing tonight and Max trying to call Alexa. They both ignored their phones and put a hand on my leg since I was squished in between them.
My phone buzzed again, but I put it back into my pocket so we could have a girls’ night and that’s what we did. We drank, ate and just enjoyed ourselves. We hadn’t really done this since Alexa had moved out of my apartment, but I was glad we had taken the time to ourselves tonight. I could clear my head and just relax without the worry of what was to come.
It wasn’t until our Uber had dropped me off first at my building that I pulled out my phone to see five missed calls and at least ten more texts from Greg. I didn’t bother to read them or listen to the voicemails he left, but made my way up to my apartment and quietly let myself in.
The moment I stepped foot in the doorway, the living room light flicked on. Greg was standing there in the black slacks and white button-down shirt he had worn into work this morning. He looked pissed and it just amused me more, or maybe it was the tequila flowing through my veins right now.
“Hey, hot stuff!” I giggled to myself, yup, the tequila, that was what was taking over right now. “What’s cookin’?”
I laughed out loud at my own joke and made my way into my room, peeling off clothes as I walked away from him. I didn’t need to turn around to know he was following and from the shuffling noises behind me, I knew he was taking his clothes off as well.
At this point I was wearing only panties and bra. I turned around to see Greg standing there, just as he had been last night and this morning—completely naked.
I bit my lip at the fact that I knew he was going to shove his cock inside of me. The way it was pointed at me with a purple and blue color meant he had had that hard on for at least a few hours. Did him being angry at me turn him on, or did my disobedience.
I slipped back onto the bed while still facing him. He stalked over, taking precise steps to get to me in the most agonizing way.
“You didn’t answer my texts or my phone calls.” He was standing in front of me now. “You smell of tequila and the way your skin looks flushed and ready for me has my anger subsiding in ways I don’t want it to.”
I had no idea what he meant, as his hands reached for my hips.
“I thought I was going to just take you the moment you walked in that door, but now…” He leaned in, and unclipped my bra and slowly slid it down my arms, baring my breasts to him, but he didn’t touch them. “I’m going to be tantalizingly slow with you. I’m going to make you beg for it.”
He leaned me back onto the bed and I sprawled out before him in just my lace hipsters.
“I’m going to show you exactly who you belong to.”
His hands moved back to my hips, and gripped at the thin fabric covering me and then ripped. The material shredded instantly and the sound filled the quiet room with anticipation and lust.
He showed me who I belonged to that night.
I belonged to Greg Moran.
Heart, body, and soul.