Chapter 6
Kason
Mason and I hit up the speakeasy again, and I was happy when he handed me his proposal for the website. He proposed three different tiers: I could pay $10,000 for an entire redesign and information update that came along with a monthly maintenance fee of $500, I could pay $7,000 for just an information overhaul and a $300 monthly maintenance fee for just the information, or I could simply contract him out for hourly work at $100 an hour to redesign as necessary, update the information, and work with us on different plugins we could use for our website.
“It would save me time, it would give you the best value for your buck, and it would give me a way to advertise what I can do without having to put a logo on the website. You could just add me to the employee directory and that would be that,” he said.
We negotiated the terms over drinks and talked about compensation beyond the hourly wage. If I was going to create an entirely new position for him, he was going to be a legitimate employee. What he chose to do with that position in terms of marketing himself was on him. I wasn’t going to make him sign a non-compete agreement or anything. He wasn’t getting unfettered access to my developments; he was just maintaining the website and keeping it up to date.
We talked about starting a company blog, and he said he could maintain something like that as well. I told him I’d write it all into his job description if he took $150 an hour plus medical benefits, three weeks of paid vacation, and the ability to work fully remote for eight weeks out of the year. I didn’t think the man could hug me harder than he did, but really, he was doing me a fucking favor. I was tired of spending days updating that useless website, and he was talking about moving some of our products to sell online and keeping an updated blog of the company’s ethics and policies and adventures in the technological field. He was rattling off the difference between a static and an active website and what an active website could do to increase revenue. I tried to listen, but my thoughts drifted elsewhere.
I knew I’d hired the right man for the job, but I couldn’t get my mind off Hanna. Christ, she had looked good at that dinner party. When she’d sat down next to me, I had practically smelled what was cookin’ between her legs. I figured if I came to this speakeasy and shot the shit with Marcus, I could find that little bunny of mine and get another suck off to distract me from my filthy thoughts of Hanna and her insane body.
The girl wasn’t there, and I couldn’t keep my dick in check long enough. I kept thinking about how hot that dress had looked on Hanna and how high her tits had been shoved up onto her chest. Her ruby red lips had practically made my back sweat, and she’d known she was laying it on thick.
God, I was a fucking sucker for a woman who knew exactly what she wanted.
I woke up the next morning knowing I needed to apologize for the way I’d left Hanna. She’d been obviously looking for a quick little romp and I’d just left her before grabbing her brother and slamming the door in her face. It had been rude and not the way to treat anyone, much less the girl I considered a little sister. I was also sure my parents had wanted me to stick around longer than I had to shoot the shit with their friends.
So, when I woke up that morning, I decided to sit them down and hand them a proper apology.
The truth was, I had to leave. There had been a legitimate passion that had vibrated between Hanna and I when she’d sat down, and I had told Marcus I wasn’t going to cross that line. Honestly, I just didn’t think I could do it. Yeah, Hanna had blossomed into this thick little goddess with curves I wanted to sink my teeth into, and god knew she had smelled incredible last night when she’d scooted closer to me. She was at the top of her class at Stanford, which meant she was fucking intelligent and wasn’t just a bimbo prancing around in tight clothes. She was also mature for her age. She held herself with a poise I’d never seen in another woman, and she constantly batted off her mother’s insistence that she settle down and start a family.
Dear god, it was gonna kill me to stay away from her.
Still, I had to. This was Hanna Rendon! I’d grown up with her! I had fended off bullies on the bus and walked her to school when the bully followed her home! I had held her hand while she’d cried because she had to get her braces readjusted. I had laughed at her while I’d helped her get her fucking contacts out because they had hurt. She was Marcus’s little sister and she was practically mine as well.
Fuck. She was perfect. But she was little Hanna Rendon and I wasn’t fuckin’ with that. I couldn’t.
“Mom. Dad. Can I talk to you guys for a second?”
“Hey there, sport!” my dad said. “Want some coffee?”
“Sure. I actually wanted to apologize for dinner last night.”
“Why, honey?” my mom asked in her usual soothing voice.
“Well, I just sort of shot off with Marcus without saying anything or really talking to anyone. I figured that probably angered you guys.”
“Oh, Kason, it’s fine,” my dad said. “Here. Have some coffee.”
“We know you and Marcus haven’t run around like this in a while. Though you should think about inviting Hanna sometime. She looked really distraught when you left her like that.”
“Shit. I-I-I mean, you saw that?” I asked.
“Yeah. You just shot up without a word and left. She was probably hoping you’d invite her to go out with you guys. You know Hanna always looked up to you two—ever since she was little.”
“Yeah. She was always wanting to climb the trees like you boys did and play ball like you boys did,” my father said as he slid my coffee over to me.
“Isn’t that how she almost broke her neck? Falling out of the tree because she was too young to get up there?” I asked.
My mother sighed. “She’s always been a go-getter. When she knows what she wants, she takes it.”
“Cream? Sugar?” my dad asked.
“Sure.” I sighed.
“Oh, and what about the time she jumped in the pool after you two because she wanted to swim without her floaties?! Damn, I thought she was gonna drown,” my dad said.
“It was a good thing you were there, Kason,” my mother said.
I remembered that day like it was yesterday because it had scared the shit out of me. Hanna had been only seven years old and Marcus and I had just finished swimming in the pool. We were babysitting and we told her she couldn’t get in unless she could find her floaties, but that was just Marcus’s way of getting her out of our hair so we could hang out. We ate snacks all day while Hanna played inside, and when Marcus finally went in to order us pizza for dinner, I got out of the pool to dry off.
Before I knew it, Hanna had taken off for the pool and jumped in. I turned around and tried to see what happened, and when Hanna didn’t surface, I jumped in and pulled her out. She was coughing up water and tears were streaming down her face. To this day, every time I looked at her, I can’t help but remember the fear in her eyes as I slapped her back to try to get her to choke up all that water.
Yes, Hanna was grown, but to me she was still that seven-year-old girl half-drowning in a pool she couldn’t yet swim in.
“Anyway, you don’t owe us an apology. You’re a grown man! Though you might owe one to Hanna.”
“I think so, yeah,” I murmured.
“Well! Your mother and I are off for most of the day. I promised her a day on the town today before we knew you were coming in. Wanna join us?” my dad asked.
“Nah. I think I’m gonna stick around here and rest. I actually just hired Marcus on as a new employee, so I’m probably gonna walk him through some things.”
“Oh! That’s fabulous! Do you think his parents know yet?” My mother squealed.
I smirked. “I’m sure they’ll know soon.”
“Oh, hush now. Well, don’t forget to have fun while you’re working.” My mom smiled.
“You guys have fun.”
I sat there and drank my coffee while my parents gathered themselves up and left. I wasn’t sure what I was going to get into today, but I knew I had to apologize to Hanna before I did anything else.
Then, like clockwork, the doorbell rang.
“Got it,” Maria called out.
“Maria?! Shit. I didn’t even know you were here! Lemme go get changed. Hold on.”
I figured it was Marcus coming over to talk shop, and I never talked business in my pajamas. I told Maria to seat him at the kitchen table and get him some coffee. She kindly reminded me that she was the housekeeper and not the maid. I took a quick shower and dressed myself in a pair of slacks and a polo shirt, but when I came down the stairs, it wasn’t Marcus I saw.
When she turned around, I was met with the beautiful green eyes of Hanna Rendon.
She was here. Alone. In my parents’ house. And damn if she didn’t look wonderful. Her hair was up in a messy bun and her yoga pants framed her pert little ass just right. Her T-shirt gave her this homey feel while still teasing the beautiful rack beneath the fabric. I slowed my walk as I moved down the stairs, and she smiled up at me. I figured this would be as good a time as any to apologize.
“Hanna, I wanted to say that I’m sorry about dashing off like that last night. I should’ve invited you to come out with Marcus and me. It was rude and I’m sorry.”
“Why did you dash off like that?” she asked. When I didn’t step closer to her, she moved toward me, and I shoved my hands in my pockets to keep from physically reaching out to her.
“I guess I just…needed fresh air. I ran into Marcus and we had plans anyway, so I took him along and we just left,” I said.
“Why, though? Why did you suddenly need fresh air?”
Her voice was smooth as silk, and she took a few steps closer to me. I could feel her body heat radiating off her skin. If she stepped any closer, her tits would be pressed into my chest. Her eyes were dark and wanting as wisps of her hair framed her face in a way that highlighted her innocence. In the sunlight of the morning, I felt my body magnetically drawn to hers.
Fuck, I was in so much trouble.
“Why, Kason?” Hanna prodded.
I couldn’t give her an answer because I didn’t have one. What was I going to tell her? That I left because I wanted to stick my dick in her? That I left because I was three seconds away from crashing my lips into hers and taking her on her family’s couch? That I left because she felt so warm and her tits called for my teeth and I could smell her want wafting up from between her legs?
“Kason,” she said, her voice soft and urging, “why did y—”
I wrapped my tattooed arm around her and pulled her in for a kiss. My other hand left my pocket and cupped her cheek tightly. I shoved my tongue into her mouth and lapped up the sweetness of that sultry tongue that sounded so good saying my name. Her body melted into mine and her hands clung to my back. In that instant, I knew I’d crossed a line I could never come back from.
The little girl I’d grown up with had become a young woman, and my body was ethereally tethered to hers.