Billionaire Bad Boys

THE COMPANY INK SERIES

*Amazon Top 100 Best-seller, 4.5 stars, 230 reviews!*

WARNING: The Billionaire Bad Boys Box Set is so steamy it might melt your panties off. Please have a glass of water handy to douse your reading devise when it ignites!

This box set contains all three Billionaire Bad Boys novels. All stand alones with happily ever afters and no cheating!

DAWSON

I run my business like I fight and like I f*ck; deep. Savage. Made my first billion before I was 30. I want for nothing now. There’s nothing that walks through the doors of my building which I cannot possess—until Lexie. Sweet, shy Lexie. So innocent. She doesn’t want an office romance… but giving over her soft body right now is an order.

ASHTON

I’ve always had to fight. I fought my way into this wild life. I fought for every shingle on my roof, and I’ll never back down from my goddamn dreams. I met Laura in a bar fight, and I’ve shown her body love many times—but she has no idea how real and how deep that fire burns.

JACKSON

I know what people think about me. I don’t belong. Not to this world of glamour and riches… I just found a back door that wasn’t locked. But they’re wrong. I work hard and I work alone. That’s how I got here; talent and heart. I finally want to show that to the beautiful Hope, but she won’t have anything to do with me. She doesn’t see it yet. I belong right here.

1

AS HE WATCHED the woman get dressed, Dawson held back a sigh of frustration. He’d enjoyed the previous night; he’d have to be dead not to have enjoyed having sex with a beautiful woman, even if he couldn’t remember what her damn name was.

But as he watched her getting ready to leave the warmth of his bed, he felt cold inside. She turned to face him as she started to put on her bra and flashed a smile that was all perfectly straight, white teeth and false eyelashes, and he knew what she was going to say even before she uttered a word.

“So, gorgeous, when will I see you again?” Her voice was as fake as her tits were, and the coldness he felt inside quickly turned to a feeling of disgust. “And could you possibly give me some money to pay for a cab home? I seem to have misplaced my purse.”

And there we have it, he thought. Another fucking gold digger out for what she could get off him. He was so sick and tired of being treated as a meal ticket by almost everyone he knew, especially women, that he was at the point where he could quite easily throw in the towel and move to a secluded island.

There were just two flaws to his getaway plan: he loved money and the power it gave him over people, and he loved sex with beautiful women, even if it meant he had to use his money in order to get it. Miss fake-sexy, whatever-her-name-was seemed oblivious to the fact that his expression had grown cold as he swung his legs off the bed and reached for his wallet on the nightstand. He withdrew a hundred-dollar bill and walked over to where she stood, ogling his muscular nakedness, before thrusting the money into her hand.

“You won’t see me again, but thanks for a good night,” he said.

The woman’s expression turned petulant, and he was reminded of a sulky child who had been told she couldn’t have any more candy, which, considering the things they’d done the night before, made him cringe.

Thankfully, she took the not-so-subtle hint though, and a short time later he was alone in his penthouse apartment mulling over his life and where the hell it was taking him. He supposed that he had no one to blame for the way people treated him but himself, but knowing that didn’t make it any easier to swallow. He knew that he’d been dealt a rough hand from the minute he’d been born, but he’d managed to make something of himself despite that – or maybe it was because of that – so why couldn’t he find someone decent to share his life with?

Because you can be an asshole. Your mother was an asshole. Your father was probably an asshole, and you can definitely treat people like assholes, which is probably why you get treated like an asshole in return. What else can you expect? He knew that he wasn’t really an asshole – not in the grand scheme of things. Too many people had told him otherwise for it to be true. But sometimes it was hard to ignore the demons of his youth that reared their ugly head during times of self-doubt, and during his formative years, he’d been told so many times that he was a good-for-nothing waste of space.

He shoved at the mental voice that had decided to answer his rhetorical question, pushing it resolutely back down into the recesses of his mind where it belonged. He refused to think about his parents or their effect on his life any more than he wanted to think about the ‘system’ he’d been raised in as a result of their non-parenting skills. That was a dark road that he really didn’t want to travel down – not if he could help it. At least he had one thing to thank them for; they’d made him determined not to turn out like them.

Unfortunately, once he started to think about it, the thoughts were hard to shut off, no matter how hard he tried. As he took his shower and got ready for work, he couldn’t help but dwell on his past.

He hadn’t been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, despite what a lot of people thought when they found out that he was filthy rich. Hell, he hadn’t even been born with a plastic one either. If truth be told, he had no idea if his birth mother had known anything about spoons, other than to use them to do whatever drug users did with them to get the filth into their wasted bodies. He’d been born premature – tiny and suffering from the effects of his mother’s heroin addiction, and despite not being given much hope of surviving, he had recovered and thrived, thanks to the care he received from the neo-natal nurses.

Of course, he couldn’t remember any of that. His earliest memory was probably when he was about three years old, and it was the memory of children crying in their cribs or playpens at the children’s home he’d been taken to when he’d been well enough to leave the hospital. Most of his memories since then were carefully tucked away in some dark recess of his mind where they couldn’t escape to haunt him.

Occasionally, especially during adolescence, he hadn’t quite managed to keep them held back, and they would resurface when he least expected it, resulting in him being expelled from numerous schools and being labelled as a rebellious thug who would never amount to anything. Rather than adhere to everyone’s low expectations of him, he doggedly worked his way up the food chain until, eventually, he owned his own business. It felt good to actually employ those same people who’d said he’d never get anywhere in life except jail. As he thought about that, he smiled for the first time that day.

2

ALEXA HUNG UP THE PHONE with shaking hands and then gave a whoop of glee.

“Woohoo!! I’ve got an interview, Laura!”

She tried not to get too excited about it as she shouted through to the kitchen, but it was hard not to be, especially after the conversation she’d had with her best friend and roommate, Laura, earlier that day. Feeling disillusioned with city life in general and being unable to find a job in particular, she’d told Laura that she was just about ready to call it a day and move back home with her parents. It wasn’t what she wanted to do, but if she couldn’t find a job before her meagre savings ran out, then she wouldn’t really have an option. Laura had told her that she needed to at least give it a couple more months, but she wasn’t sure that she could wait that long.

Running in from the kitchen, Laura gave a cheer of her own and high-fived her friend. “See? I told you something would come along, didn’t I?” She ran around the room shaking imaginary pompoms and wiggling her hips, and Alexa couldn’t help laughing.

“I don’t have the job yet, Laura. It’s just an interview, and there’s nothing to say I’ll get it.” But she hoped against hope that she would. She loved her parents, and they’d given her an amazing life, but she really didn’t want to move back to the small town she’d spent her whole life dreaming about escaping from. Working on the small family farm had kept her physically fit, but it wasn’t what she classified as a real job, and there sure as hell wasn’t any chance of her improving herself or her future there.

“So where is it, and what will you be doing there?” Laura was acting as though the job was already hers, and Alexa had to admit that her excitement was more than a little infectious.

“It’s just a temporary job at the Dawson James offices as a receptionist while their regular girl is on maternity leave. Nothing to get too excited about, but it’s better than what I have right now, right?” You don’t have anything right now, so of course it’s better, you dweeb, she thought to herself.

Laura stopped jumping around and stared at her. “Dawson James? The Dawson James?” She sounded more than a little envious, and when Alexa shrugged her shoulders and looked at her as though she was speaking a foreign language, she also looked incredulous. “Alexa, please tell me that you’ve heard of Dawson James? I mean, how can you not have heard of him? He’s only the most eligible bachelor this side of the equator!”

“I have absolutely no idea who or what you’re talking about.” And she really didn’t. “All I know is that the job is at the Dawson James offices.” What the hell is so special about the guy, she thought, unable to push away the curiosity that ran through her head.

The next hour was spent with Laura, enthusing over the wonderful Dawson James and how he’d built his empire from nothing and was now one of the richest men the planet had ever seen, which Alexa was pretty sure was a complete and utter exaggeration.

“So how did he build it up? What kind of business background does he have?” She would admit to being more than just a little curious, especially considering the way her friend was rambling on about him.

Laura shook her head. “Nobody knows. In fact, nobody seems to know much of anything about him or his past. He stays out of the limelight as much as possible, it seems, so it kind of makes him even more mysterious, doesn’t it?” She threw a grin in Alexa’s direction. “I have heard that he’s incredibly handsome though, so that certainly adds to his allure.”

It was Alexa’s turn to shake her head. Laura was an incorrigible flirt, and even though Alexa loved her dearly, she was under no false illusions as to her friend’s downfall, which happened to be men. She loved to party, and if the partying involved members of the opposite sex – and even better, sex itself – she was in her element.

The two girls were almost total opposites, with Laura being outgoing and extroverted and usually having a string of men at her beck and call. Alexa was quieter, shy, and had only had two boyfriends in her life – neither of which were serious, even though she had indulged in sex a time or two. If she was totally honest with herself, she thought she may be frigid, because she’d never really enjoyed the carnal part of either of her relationships, and the act itself had left her feeling rather cold. She really wasn’t sure what all the fuss was about, and sometimes she even wondered how she and Laura were so close, considering the differences between them.

But close they were, and their friendship had lasted through thick and thin. They’d always had each other’s backs even during their school years, and Laura had done everything in her power to persuade Alexa to move to the city with her and for them to get a place together. Things had worked out well, apart from Alexa not being able to find a job. She was starting to feel as though she was sponging off her friend, regardless of how many times Laura reassured her otherwise.

“So, what are you going to wear for the interview?”

She was brought out of her reverie and back to the situation at hand by the question. Shit! What am I going to wear?

The next hour was spent in her bedroom while the two women went through the contents of her wardrobe, with one item after another being discarded in disgust by Laura.

“Alexa, do you really want to come across as a country bumpkin, or would you rather look professional and at least stand a glimmer of a chance at getting the job?” She didn’t wait for an answer as she got up from the bed where she’d been sitting and walked out of the room.

Alexa heard her rummaging around in her own room, and a short while later, Laura returned, carrying a couple of outfits and throwing them on the bed decisively.

“Choose one of these.” Alexa looked at the clothes in horror. There was no way she could wear a skirt that short or a blouse that didn’t button all the way up. Could she? Considering the only other option she had would be to wear her stuff, it didn’t look like she had much choice. So with Laura making her try the clothes on and persuading her that she looked perfectly acceptable for an interview, the decision was made.

She spent a restless night; she tossed and turned as she worried about the interview the following day. She got up three times to write down a few things that had popped into her head at random times – questions to ask whomever was interviewing her as well as possible answers to some of the questions she might be asked.

It felt like she’d only been asleep for an hour when the alarm went off, and she dragged herself out of bed with a groan. She got showered and dressed, applying just enough make-up to cover the bags under her eyes without making her look like she was ready for a night on the town. After she got dressed in Laura’s clothes, she took one last, final look in the full-length mirror and gave a sigh of relief.

Not half bad, Lexi. You’ll do, she thought to herself.

3

HER INTERVIEW was mid-morning. After a couple of cups of coffee to wake herself up a little more, she decided to get the early train into the city center so that she wouldn’t have to worry about rushing. If there was one thing she hated, it was being late for something. Especially something as important as this.

She followed the directions up to the fifth floor of the impressive office building and, after giving her name at the front desk, she sat down on one of the leather chairs in the small waiting area.

Her hands were shaking so much that she could barely hold the manila envelope that held her resume, and she was sure that people walking by would be able to hear her knees knocking together. There were some other women who were obviously waiting to be interviewed also, but when Alexa gave them a friendly smile, each of them turned their noses up and totally ignored her, which only added fuel to her nervous state of mind.

If they can see I don’t belong here, then I don’t stand a chance of fooling whoever interviews me.

It felt like she’d been waiting forever, but when her name was called by a woman in an obviously expensive skirt suit and an air of haughtiness that could only come from good breeding, she got to her feet and followed on unsteady legs. She hadn’t had many interviews, and they had only been one-on-one. As she walked into the office, it quickly became obvious that that wasn’t going to be the case this time.

Three people sat behind a long, glass-topped desk – two men and a woman – and they all looked at her intently as she walked across the plush carpet and took the seat opposite of them. She grinned anxiously and was rewarded with an answering smile of encouragement from one of the men, but the other two stared at her emotionlessly.

Oh wonderful, they hate me already, she couldn’t help thinking to herself. She made a conscious effort not to fidget or try to pull the skirt down over her knees, wishing that when she’d tried it on the night before she’d actually sat down in it to see how high it would ride on her thighs.

“Alexa Ryan?” The question came out almost as a sneer, and Alexa’s nerves elevated even higher. She nodded, afraid to use her voice just in case it shook as well. “We need to inform you and ask your permission to videotape this interview, Ms. Ryan. Unfortunately, Mr. James is unable to attend, but he does want to see the interviews of all of the possible candidates prior to making a final decision. Will that be okay with you?”

It was an unusual request, but in light of the fact that this was a well-known company and there were three people in the room besides her, she didn’t feel overly uncomfortable with it.

“That will be fine.” She gave her permission, and was quite proud of the fact that she didn’t stutter.

The interview commenced in earnest, and lasted for almost forty minutes with the usual questions regarding background, work history, and capabilities being asked. Toward the end, there were some more difficult ones that made her stop and think about her answers a little more carefully, as well as an opportunity for her to ask some questions of her own. She was thankful that she’d taken the time to prepare, and at the end, she was dismissed after being told that she would be contacted within a couple of days.

She made her way back home, feeling relieved and a little hopeful, but as she recounted the interview with Laura that evening, she started to feel the doubt creep in.

“I probably won’t get it. I mean, who in their right mind would hire me when there were at least three other women I saw in the waiting room who looked as though they’d been groomed to work at a place like that?”

“You never know, Lexi. Maybe they want someone a little more serious and not as superficial. And from the way you described them, they seem stuck so far up their own asses that they hopefully came across as little office bitches.” As always, Laura was encouraging and optimistic. “Besides, even if you don’t get the job, at least you got some more experience with interviews under your belt.”

4

DAWSON LOOKED around the room with interest, and he couldn’t help but feel more than a little smug as he spied a couple of familiar faces in the crowd of people looking back at him. They were faces that belonged to people who had told him he would never amount to anything in life. And, oh man, it felt good to prove them wrong.

I own your asses now, you sorry sons of bitches. He thought the words, but held back from saying them out loud, knowing that this wasn’t the time or the place. They were teachers – staff from a couple of the children’s homes he’d lived in who hadn’t had the time or inclination to help him out – as well as a few of his old boxing club sparring partners who had actually encouraged him in the past. Of the former, he took great delight in proving them wrong, and the of the latter, he felt great about being able to help them out with jobs when they’d all had such a crappy start in life.

The school he’d gone to had closed down a year or so back, and even though he didn’t have time for most of the staff there, he was aware that some of them had young families of their own. And if there was one thing that Dawson hated, it was the thought of a child going without because their parents couldn’t find a job. As for the people who’d worked at the children’s home – he took a perverse sort of pleasure in proving them all wrong and showing them that a boy from the bad side of town who’d started out with nothing was capable of turning his life around and making something of himself – and if he could help others in the process, then he was a happy man.

The weekly meeting was called to order, with reports, schedules, and points of interest being raised by numerous people in the room. This was the part of his job that he hated the most because he hated public speaking and addressing a crowd of people, especially if he had to call someone out or things weren’t being done properly or to his satisfaction. But it was one of his responsibilities that he took seriously, and it was something that needed to be done by him. He never wanted the people who worked for him to forget who their boss was, nor did he ever want to forget his humble beginnings and his fight to get to where he was.

The meeting ended after what seemed like an interminable amount of time, and Dawson escaped to his own office and closed the door behind him with a grateful sigh. There was a pile of paperwork that needed his signature on top of his desk, along with a memo from his personal assistant and a DVD of what he presumed were the interviews he’d been unable to go to.

I suppose I should take a look now while it’s quiet, he mused, knowing that if he put it off, his current receptionist was likely to go into labor and begin her maternity leave before he’d had a chance to find someone to take her place.

“Hold all my calls, Sheila. I’m going to be busy for the next thirty minutes or so.” Dawson didn’t wait for his personal assistant to respond. He simply hung up the phone, put the DVD into his computer, and proceeded to watch one boring interview after another.

Dear God, wasn’t there anybody available who wouldn’t bore him or his clients to death? He’d just about given up hope when the video of the next interview came on, and he sat forward in his chair as the first ember of interest piqued through him.

He watched the video intently, noticing how nervous the young woman seemed at first, but then how she seemed to become more animated as the interview went on. By the time the panel had reached the question and answer stage of the meeting, she sat in her seat with a look on her face that was almost excitement as she explained why she thought she would be a suitable fit for the company. Dawson listened intently, but it was his eyes that made up his mind for him. This girl had potential, definitely, but she also seemed to have a lot more than that going for her – drive, ambition, and a sense of purpose that he’d found completely lacking in the rest of the women who’d been interviewed.

She’s not too bad on the eye, either, he mused. In fact, he could get quite used to looking at her, with her vivid blue, almond-shaped eyes and full lips that seemed to accentuate her smile. He couldn’t see much of her body because she was on the other side of the desk, but from what he could see, she was most definitely right up there with regards to his preference in women.

He stopped the video and picked up the phone. “Sheila, I want to hire Alexa Ryan for the receptionist position. Please call her and make the arrangements.” He was about to hang up the call when Sheila said something that had him stopping in his tracks. “Excuse me?”

“I need to make arrangements to advertise for a personal assistant for you, Dawson. It’s not that I’m unhappy here, but I’m getting married and my fiancé and I have decided to take six months off and travel across Europe for our honeymoon.” She laughed softly. “Close your mouth, Dawson, you know how unbecoming that is.” She was probably one of the few people in the world who could get away with talking to him like that, but she’d been with him since day one, and she’d kept him in line and been his moral savior on more than one occasion, which was probably why he was so surprised to hear her saying what she was saying.

Sheila was still laughing when she hung up the phone after convincing Dawson that she knew what she was doing. She reassured him that if he still wanted her back after her honeymoon was over, then she’d be more than happy to return. She calmed herself down and eventually stopped laughing, and then placed the call through to Alexa Ryan to formally offer her the job.

“Seriously? I really have the job?” Alexa sounded incredulous, and Sheila couldn’t help but like the young woman immediately. “Monday? This coming Monday? Yes, of course I can make that. I’ll see you then. Thank you so much.”

Alexa hung up the phone and ran into the kitchen where Laura was preparing lunch. “I got it!”

Her friend looked at her as though she’d lost her marbles.

“Do you need to see a doctor?”

“No! The job! I got the job, Laura. At Dawson James!” She was so excited that she felt she was going to burst at any second. “I can’t believe it! Oh, my God, what the hell am I going to wear? I had to borrow your clothes for the interview, but I’m going to need to get some of my own if I’m going to be working there.” She grinned again. “I’m actually going to be working there, Laura! And the salary is fantastic, and the hours are perfect, and I’m so happy!”

Laura laughed out loud at her friend’s excitement. “Well I’m off today, so how about we go clothes shopping right now and get you sorted?” Alexa couldn’t really afford to spend that much on a new wardrobe, but she figured that she’d be earning decent money now, so it was really an investment. The remainder of the day was spent revamping herself and her clothes with a new haircut and more than a few new outfits.

Before she knew it, Monday morning had arrived, and after much deliberation, she decided to wear a knee-length, black skirt and a white blouse. She tied her long, dark, wavy hair up in a loose knot and applied some mascara and a little lipstick. She wasn’t conceited by any means, but she did know how to accentuate her best features. If she did admit it herself, she looked damn good as she went into work for the first time.

She was met at the office by the woman who had been on the interview panel, whose name turned out to be Julie. After being shown the main reception desk and how to use the telephones, she was pretty much left to her own devices. She quickly worked out the computer system, sending up a fervent prayer of thanks to her predecessor for leaving her such detailed notes and instructions on how to reach specific departments and where to direct people when they came in asking for certain people.

She’d been working solidly for almost an hour when she sensed someone walking up to the desk, and she looked up with a smile, ready to help whomever it may be. As her eyes met the most stunning pair of dark green ones she’d ever seen looking back at her, she felt herself blushing and feeling flustered for the first time that day.

“Can I help you, sir?” She couldn’t help but give him a quick once over, and her heart started to pound in her chest.

Holy shit, he’s gorgeous, she thought as she took in his almost black hair and chiseled features, glancing quickly to his broad shoulders and trying not to visibly drool. She’d never been one to fawn over a man, but she could seriously make an exception in his case.

“You must be Alexa. It’s good to finally meet you. I’m Dawson James.” Even his voice sent shivers down her spine. It was a mixture of melted chocolate and thick honey, wrapped up in an accent that she couldn’t quite place, but which sounded divine. She had the random thought that she could quite happily listen to him talk for hours, and even if it was all in her head, she wasn’t going to stop him from talking or herself from listening.

And then his words sank in. Dawson James? Her boss? Oh shit! She half stood and reached across the reception desk with her hand, ready to shake his and hoping that hers wasn’t shaking too much as it was engulfed in his huge one.

“Pleased to meet you, Mr. James,” she said nervously.

Dawson laughed softly. “Dawson. Just Dawson. No need to be so formal here.” That wasn’t strictly true, and he usually expected people to use his last name when they addressed him. But for some reason, he wanted to hear her call him by his first name and not his last. The videotape he’d seen of her interview hadn’t done her justice, he thought. She was even more beautiful in person, but not in a superficial way. And her demeanor was definitely more refreshing than most of the female staff he employed.

Alexa was feeling more than a little uncomfortable with the fact that he was still shaking her hand. Although, to be fair, it felt a bit more like a caress than a handshake, and she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

“I’d rather call you Mr. James, if you wouldn’t mind. It makes for a better working relationship, in my opinion.” Her voice was cool as she addressed him, and she gave a gentle tug on her hand to remind him that he was still holding it. He let go almost reluctantly, and Alexa wasn’t sure as to whether she felt relief or disappointment.

Making a mental note to make sure he got to know her better, and not just as a receptionist, Dawson half-turned away from the reception desk before turning back to face her. He could take the hint that she wasn’t interested in him, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to get his own way eventually. He always did.

“Never say never, Alexa, because you never know what the future might hold.” She had absolutely no idea if there was a hint of a double entendre in his words or not, and she really didn’t want to think about it too much if she could help it. “If you have any questions or problems and you can’t find someone to help, put a call through to my personal assistant, Sheila.” He gave her a wink that left her gaping at him. “For that matter, call up to my office directly and don’t bother with anyone else first.”

And with that, he was gone. Alexa watched him leave with a mouth that wasn’t quite closed and an appreciative gleam in her eyes as she took in his equally impressive back, including an ass that looked as though you could bounce pennies off it.

Pull yourself together, for goodness sake! It’s not as though you’ve never seen a man before, even if you haven’t seen one quite like him. She gave herself a mental shake and reminded herself that he was her boss and the owner of the company that she now worked for. There was also the very pertinent fact that she wasn’t interested in having any kind of a relationship with a man right now. Especially one who seemed so self-assured that he could quite easily come across as conceited. Was she?

5

THE REST OF THE MORNING seemed to pass by in a busy blur, and even though she concentrated hard on learning as much as she possibly could, every time that she had to put a call through to Dawson’s office she couldn’t quite help the goosebumps that tumbled over her skin. The first time that she’d had to call his office to put someone through, she’d been expecting Sheila to answer, but it quickly became apparent that he preferred to screen the majority of his calls himself.

Unbeknownst to her, the fact that Dawson was answering his own calls from the reception desk was something that he’d engineered specifically so he got the chance to hear her voice. He knew that it made her a little uncomfortable, but he’d seen the flicker of interest in her eyes that she’d tried desperately to hide, and he was going to play on it for all it was worth. There was something about the woman that intrigued him, and he was going to do his best to figure it – and her – out. Even if it meant he had to talk to a few people that he would have otherwise avoided.

Such as one of his best friends, Ashton, who’d called to try and set him up yet again with another bimbo. “I don’t want another self-centered female as a playmate, Ashton, so will you please stop trying to hook me up with your sister’s damn friends?” Dawson’s voice was as frustrated as he felt as he listened to his friend outlining the sexual credentials of some more women he thought would be suitable candidates for Dawson to hook up with.

He gave a loud sigh and then tried to get through to Ashton’s thick skull one last time. “Look, I’ve just about had it with women who just want to milk me for whatever they think they can get out of me and who are willing to sleep with me in order to achieve their gold-digging fantasies. In fact, I’ve had it with all women for now, but if I was on the lookout for one, it would be someone who actually gave a shit about me and not about my bank balance.” He hesitated as the familiar bitterness rose up and stuck in his throat. “And we both know that a woman like that just doesn’t exist.” Over the years, he’d actually been starting to hope that he might be wrong in his way of thinking, but as of yet, he hadn’t met anyone to prove it to him.

Ashton didn’t try and argue that point, which was just as well because Dawson would have called him out on it. They’d been friends for almost two decades, both of them being raised in the foster system, and both of them having an equally similar contempt for members of the opposite sex. That’s where the similarities between the two men ended though, because whereas Ashton wanted to be proven wrong and was almost desperate to find the woman who could provide that proof, Dawson, on the other hand, was convinced that no such proof could or would ever be found. He was sick of only ever finding women who couldn’t seem to show him otherwise.

He pushed back the mental picture of Alexa that popped into his head. He was damn sure that she would turn out to be exactly the same as the rest of them, so he needed to stop fantasizing about what she would be like outside of the working environment. There was just something about her that he couldn’t quite put his finger on, and for the first time in a long time, he felt curious, and more than a little hopeful that maybe she would be the woman who would prove all of his conceptions wrong.

Unbeknownst to him, while he was thinking about her, Alexa was busy trying not to think about him. She really wanted to do well in this job and was trying to take in and memorize everything she was being taught, but she couldn’t get the mental sound of his gruff voice out of her head. It was like liquid sex in her ears, and it was driving her crazy. She’d never been so drawn to a man before in her life, and even though she knew that nothing would or could ever come of it, the feelings were enough to make her almost wish that she had met him some place other than at work, and that he wasn’t her boss.

As lunchtime approached, she was more than a little grateful when one of the office girls came to the reception desk and invited her to lunch with a few of the other women who worked there. “We’re going to a small café just down the road. It’s only about a five-minute walk, so we go there a lot because we don’t have to rush. It’s way better than using the break room here, and you’ll get to meet a few more of us, too, which is always a good thing when you work in a place as big as this.”

Alexa didn’t usually like to mingle with people she didn’t know, but she actually enjoyed her lunch and learned quite a lot about the inner workings of the company at the same time. In particular, her attention was caught when the subject of the conversation turned to none other than their boss, Dawson James, and Alexa’s ears pricked up as she leaned in closer to take in what was being said.

She couldn’t quite hear everything that was being said because she was at the other end of the table with a handful of people between her and the few women who were talking. But phrases such as, ‘She said he’s the best lover she’s ever had,’ and ‘I’d happily commit adultery for just one night in his bed,’ let her know that she wasn’t the only one who had a bit of a crush on Dawson.

“Yeah, but he’s an arrogant bastard who’ll fuck you once and then totally ignore you afterwards. Just ask Donna from personnel and Rachael from finance, and they’ll both tell you the same thing.”

Her heart sank at that. It looks like you were right to be wary of him, Lexi, she thought.

“Yeah, he took Donna to a really expensive restaurant, wined and dined her, then took her back to his place where they had sex all night, and he hasn’t wanted anything to do with her since.”

The girls carried on talking with Alexa listening unashamedly. “I guess he thinks that spending money on her for their night out was all it would take for her to fall into bed with him.” There was a general nodding of heads around the table. “And, let’s be honest, he’s probably right.” There was a murmur of laughter that Alexa didn’t participate in. She couldn’t think of anything that she would ever let a man buy her body with, regardless of who he might be or how much he intrigued her.

The small group headed back to the office after lunch, and Alexa’s mind and stomach were both full. It felt as though a million and one things were clamoring through her brain all at the same time, and the majority of thoughts were to do with her boss. Was he really as bad as they’d said, or need she remind herself that there were two sides to every story and all anyone had heard were the opinions of the women he’d taken out. It could all be sour grapes because he hadn’t treated them the way they’d wanted to be treated for all she knew.

Yeah, and he could be the biggest user of all time and really did regard sex and women’s emotions as something he could buy off or toy with, she mused.

She got back to work and settled down with determination to finish off her first day on a positive note, and was grateful to find that Dawson James had left the office for the day to attend meetings and other business-related things that she had no idea about, nor did she care. She was just thankful that she wouldn’t have to see or talk to him again for the rest of the day. The afternoon went relatively quickly and she was surprised when she looked at the clock and realized that it was time to finish up for the day and go home.

6

BY THE TIME SHE GOT HOME, she was both exhausted and elated. She’d managed to make it through her first day without messing anything up and had met a few people who could become friends if she was there long enough to actually get to know them. And then there was Dawson, although she tried really hard not to think about him too much.

She was doing pretty good about keeping her thoughts from straying to him, too, until Laura asked the question that brought everything about him rushing back to the forefront of her mind. “Soooo, what’s he really like then?”

“Who?” She knew full well who her friend was referring to, but feigning ignorance might work. Right? Wrong.

Laura gave a laugh that was almost a sarcastic sneer. “Don’t give me that crap. You know exactly who I’m talking about.” She looked at Alexa and raised her eyebrows in a very maternally expectant way. “Dawson James, Lexi. Tell me about Dawson James. And don’t you dare try leaving anything out, because I’ll know by your face, young lady.”

Alexa could feel her face getting hot as she blushed at her friend’s words. Laura knew her all too well, so she really didn’t know why she’d even contemplated lying to her and telling her that she hadn’t met the man in question yet.

“He’s okay, I suppose.”

“Just okay, or drop-dead gorgeous okay?” It was clear that Laura wasn’t going to let the subject drop.

Giving an exaggerated sigh of resignation, Alexa sank down into one of the comfy chairs. “Laura, he is, without a doubt, the most gorgeous man I’ve ever met in my entire life.” She laughed as her friend gave a squeal of excitement. “He has eyes that you could literally drown in, and his body...oh my God, Laura. His body is to die for!”

“I knew it! I just knew it!” To say that Laura sounded smug was an understatement. “Wait! Don’t tell me anything else until I’ve poured us both a glass of wine.” She almost ran out of the living room, and Alexa breathed a heartfelt, yet temporary, sigh of relief. She knew that no matter how hard she tried to deny it, Laura was going to know that she was attracted to the man.

Her friend was back in no time, carrying two glasses and a full bottle of their favorite wine. She opened the bottle, poured them both a glass, and then sat down on the edge of the couch looking at Alexa intently. “Okay, I want to know all the details.”

“There’s nothing much to tell, really. He’s handsome in a rugged type of way, and he has a really fit body from what I could tell, although he had a suit on, so it was a little hard to judge.” She tried to sound as nonchalant as possible, but Laura wanted more detailed information.

“On a scale of one to ten, how handsome?” She was determined to get a more accurate account of Alexa’s opinion on her new boss.

Oh geez. She’s never going to give up on this, is she? Alexa blushed some more and gave up trying to hide the fact that she found Dawson incredibly handsome.

“Oh, I’d say he’s probably a twelve.” She blushed some more as Laura gave a ‘whoop whoop’ sound. “Seriously, Lau, he’s drop-dead gorgeous. But it’s not all about looks, and from what I heard today, he can be a conceited asshole who uses his money to get what he wants – especially with women.”

“Well let’s face it, Lexi, wouldn’t we all do the same thing if we were as rich as he is? I mean, if you want something and you can afford to pay for it, then why shouldn’t you?” Alexa wasn’t really surprised at her friend’s perspective on it. After all, Laura was a typical party girl, and if she could get a man to pay for everything, she would have no qualms about it at all.

Shaking her head, Alexa tried to reason with her friend. “I can understand and even agree with that if it was just material things, Laura. But he does it with women, too. I’m not saying he pays for prostitutes or anything, but he treats women as objects, and as soon as he’s finished doing whatever he wants with them, then he doesn’t want anything more to do with them. It’s almost as though he just discards them like trash, and that’s just not right. Not in my book.”

“I’m assuming that you’ve heard all this from other women, correct?” Alexa nodded her head. “Have you not considered the fact that if what you’ve just told me is the truth and all of those women knew about it from the start, that they were just as bad as he is supposed to be? They obviously had no problems letting him treat them that way, otherwise they wouldn’t have gone out with him in the first place, so why is he considered the bad guy?”

Alexa let Laura’s words sink in before replying. Her friend did have a good point, but she was still unsure about the man in question. “It’s all immaterial anyway. He’d never look twice at someone like me, and even if he did, I wouldn’t be interested.”

Laura laughed out loud at that. “The hell you wouldn’t. You can’t tell me that if you had the chance to go out on a date with the man and with the prospect of spending a night in his bed, that you wouldn’t jump at it. Shit, Lexi, you’re only there temporarily anyway, so a fling with him would be perfect because you wouldn’t have to worry about seeing him again when the regular girl returns to work.” She laughed again as Alexa blushed some more. “Just the thought of it is getting you all hot and bothered.”

Even though the thought of having a night of unbridled passion with Dawson made her insides quiver, the fact that it would be meaningless to him sent chills of revulsion running through her veins. “No way, Laura. I can honestly say that doing something like that is the last thing on my list of to-dos.”

The debate rambled on through another glass of wine, with both women arguing over the whys and why-nots of Alexa hooking up with Dawson, until eventually Alexa threw in the towel, realizing that it didn’t matter what she said to Laura, she was never going to change her opinion of casual sex with a relative stranger.

“I need to get to bed, Lau. It’s been a long day, and I want to get into work early in the morning to give myself time to make sure I remember everything I learned today.”

The two women said goodnight, and Alexa headed off to her bedroom to spend the night tossing and turning in between having dreams of rampant sex with her new boss. She woke up the following morning feeling eager to start the day while at the same time feeling nervous about the possibility of seeing Dawson again. Hopefully, her reaction the previous day was just because she had never met him before, and with any luck there wouldn’t be a repeat performance today.

7

SHE WAS MORE than a little relieved when lunchtime came and she hadn’t had to see or talk to her boss once all morning, although she had to admit to herself that she was also a little disappointed. Every call she put through to his office had been answered by Sheila, and there had obviously not been any reason for him to come to the reception desk.

The afternoon was different though, and by the end of the day it was starting to feel as though Dawson was making any and every excuse under the sun to have to come and see her. Her nerves were on edge every time the phone rang in case it was somebody asking to be put through to his office, because he would answer the calls himself. It quickly became apparent that her reaction to him the day before wasn’t going to be a one-off occurrence, and Alexa was starting to get on her own nerves because of it.

For God’s sake, Lexi, will you get a grip on yourself? This is probably how it’s always been here, so stop feeling as though there may be an ulterior motive or that he’s seeking you out. She felt better after her pep talk to herself, and at the end of the day, she made her way home feeling a little more positive.

She became even more convinced that he wasn’t giving her any kind of special treatment as the following days progressed and she settled into the office routine. She discovered that during the morning hours, Sheila would deal with all of Dawson’s business. Then, during the afternoon, the man himself would take over. He was always friendly and courteous to her, and if on occasion she had the feeling he was flirting with her, she would just put it down to her overactive imagination and her lack of experience in dealing with men in general.

She ended the week feeling really good about her job and looking forward to the next few months there. She was actually a little disappointed that it was only a temporary position, but she was going to enjoy it while she could and make the most of the experiences and new skills she was learning.

She was finishing up her final task of the day on Friday just as Dawson came up to the reception desk.

“Hey there, Mr. James. Was there something you needed me for?” Her heart skipped its usual beat, but she ignored it because it happened every time she saw him.

“Are you ever going to drop the Mr. James crap and call me Dawson?” He gave her a mocking scowl that almost made her laugh out loud. “You always make me feel as though you’re talking to my father when you call me Mr. James, and I hate feeling that old.” He grinned at her this time, and Alexa couldn’t help but smile back at him as he joked with her.

She shook her head as she answered his question. “Probably not, in all honesty. Old habits are hard to break, and I was always taught to respect my elders and address them correctly.”

Oh my God, I did not just say that to him, she thought to herself as she realized what had come out of her mouth.

Dawson threw back his head and laughed out loud, much to her relief and mixed embarrassment as a few other employees turned to look. “Respect your elders, huh? I’ll have to remember that, young lady.” Alexa blushed beet red at his joke, but thankfully, he kept on talking before she could say anything else to embarrass herself further. “So, how did your first week go for you? I’ve been hearing some good things about you, but I just wanted to make sure that there were no issues or problems that you were having and that you’re getting any help you need.”

Alexa was pretty amazed that he’d actually thought to check on her like that. She was sure that not many employers did that to new staff – especially those on the lowest rung of the corporate ladder, and especially when they were billionaires who could get anyone to carry out the seemingly simple task of checking up on someone.

“I’m getting plenty of help. Mr. James, but thank you for asking.” Well that’s one for the books, she thought.

“You know I will break you of that eventually,” he said.

She raised her eyebrows inquisitively.

“You using my last name instead of my first.” He explained. “One of these days you’ll be calling me Dawson.”

Hell, one of these days, I hope you’ll be screaming ‘Dawson,’ he mused, before cutting off the errant thought and letting his imagination make him say something he’d regret. He had the feeling that she didn’t have much experience when it came to men, and the last thing he wanted to do was scare her off before he’d had a chance to break through the invisible barrier she’d erected around herself. Starting from next week, Sheila wasn’t going to be around as much while she made plans for her upcoming wedding, and Dawson fully intended to use that to his advantage with Alexa.

“Anyway, you have a great weekend, and don’t forget to ask if there’s anything I can do to help. I’ll see you on Monday,” he said.

“You have a great weekend too, Mr. James.” She needn’t have bothered replying because he’d already turned and walked away, so her cheekiness was completely lost on him. She watched him exit the building and then turned her concentration back to finishing up her last task of the day before shutting down her computer and leaving herself.

8

LAURA HAD WANTED to go clubbing either Friday or Saturday night, but by the time Alexa got home, all she wanted to do was relax. The two women settled for a pizza and a bottle of wine instead, enjoying their lazy supper while they watched trashy television and talked about nothing in particular.

On Saturday, Alexa caught up with some of the chores that she’d neglected during the week, spending the day doing laundry and housework before going grocery shopping to replenish the dwindling supplies in the pantry. By the time Saturday evening rolled around, all she wanted to do was curl up and read a good book, much to the good-natured grumblings of Laura.

“I’m not stopping you from going out, Lau. I just don’t have the energy for it right now. I think I’m going to take a long, hot bubble bath and then curl up in bed to read.”

Laura shook her head sadly. “You know your trouble, Lexi? You’re getting old before your time. You need to let your hair down and have some fun once in a while.” She paused and then grinned mischievously. “Or maybe you just need to give that gorgeous boss of yours a call and get laid.” She ducked as Alexa threw a couch pillow at her, laughing as she made her way upstairs to get ready for a night on the town.

Once Laura had left the house, Alexa made her way to the bathroom and filled the tub with hot water, adding a generous dollop of her favorite scented bubble bath. She stripped off her clothes and threw them in the laundry hamper before stepping into the bath and sinking down into the bubbles with a blissful sigh. After washing herself down, she leaned her head back against the bath pillow and relaxed until the water started to chill.

Climbing out of the tub, she wrapped herself in a large bath towel and made her way to her bedroom, drying herself off before climbing into bed without bothering to put any pajamas on. If there was one thing she loved, it was getting out of a hot bath and climbing into a bed with freshly laundered sheets.

Picking up her book from her nightstand, she opened it to the page she had last read, quickly getting lost in the love story that was unfolding before her. As she read paragraph after paragraph, she couldn’t help but visualize the main character as her boss. It was driving her crazy. She eventually gave up trying to read and threw the book back down with a restless sigh of annoyance.

She turned off her light and gave her pillow a thump of frustration, trying to get comfortable and clear her mind enough so that she could go to sleep. Her eyes started to grow heavy and her body finally started to relax, but as she started to drift into sleep, Dawson’s voice sounded in her ears. In her sleep-drowsy state, she couldn’t make out what he was saying, but just hearing him talking to her was enough to wake her up again.

Seriously, Lexi. You can’t even stop thinking about him when you asleep? Jesus, get a grip.

She was really starting to get on her own nerves now, but the more she tried to push him from her mind, the more her body came alive with thoughts of him. She wondered what he would be like as a lover. Judging by how many women he had supposedly slept with, she figured he would be good at sex. But was he gentle, or did he prefer things to be a little on the rough and ready side? Alexa’s nipples started to tingle as the thought ran through her mind, and without even thinking about it, her hands came up to cup her breasts and her fingers gently pulled at the hardened buds.

She gasped as a feeling of pleasure shot through her and she imagined that it was Dawson’s hands touching her. She pinched a little harder and her clit throbbed in response, making her moan softly. She had next to no experience when it came to men, but she couldn’t help wonder if he would be well endowed and how he would feel sliding into her body. She could feel her clit starting to swell in reaction to her thoughts, and one of her hands meandered down over the flat plane of her stomach until her fingers found what they were looking for.

She’d never really been one for pleasuring herself, and as her finger rolled over her sensitized nub, she was amazed at how wet she was and how good it felt. Her fingers slid between her folds and she slowly pushed one inside her, gasping again as another bolt of pleasure hit her. With one hand still massaging her tit and teasing her nipple, the other started to move in and out of her wetness, slowly at first, and then picking up speed as she rubbed her clit over and over. She closed her eyes tightly and let her imagination run riot as visions of Dawson flooded her mind.

Her breathing started to quicken as she tended to her body’s needs, and as she brought herself to orgasm, her legs clamped together tightly as wave after wave of pleasure engulfed her. She’d never been able to make herself cum before, but as her eyes finally closed and she fell asleep with her hand still trapped between her legs, she made a vague mental note to make sure that she did it more often.

9

ALEXA SPENT HER SUNDAY just lazing around and catching up with her favorite television shows that she’d missed during the week. When she woke up on Monday morning, she felt refreshed and ready to face whatever the day brought. She showered and dressed and ate a light breakfast before making her way into work, looking forward to the day ahead and deliberately pushing the memories of Saturday night and her fantasy out of her head.

She’d just taken off her coat and pressed the power button on her computer, and was getting ready to sit down and start the day when the very voice she’d been trying not to think about startled her.

“Don’t sit down just yet, Alexa. I need you to come up to my office, please.”

Wondering what on earth she’d done wrong to be summoned to the big boss’s office, she followed Dawson on legs that weren’t quite steady, trying desperately to think back to Friday and if she’d made any mistakes. She hadn’t been there before, only ever having to deal with him over the telephone or when he came to the reception desk. As she walked into the luxurious room with its plush carpet, leather seating, and glass-topped desk, her eyes were immediately drawn to the panoramic view that the floor-to-ceiling windows offered.

“Take a seat.” As Dawson spoke, he walked around the desk and sat down in his own chair. He leaned forward to place his elbows on the desk and rested his chin on his interlocked fingers as he looked at her without saying anything else.

Alexa could feel her nerves escalating. She couldn’t think of anything she might have done wrong, but she felt guilty nonetheless. That’s probably because of the erotic way you were thinking about him last night, Lexi. She pushed the errant voice in her head away, trying not to blush but failing miserably.

“Have I done something wrong, Mr. James?”

He smiled at her for the first time, and as the smile reached his eyes, she felt herself relax a little.

“I live in hope, Alexa.” She frowned a little as she tried to figure out what he meant, and he just grinned at her devilishly. What I wouldn’t give to have you do something wrong with me, he thought to himself. And one of these days, it might just happen, especially if I have anything to do with it. “Ignore me. It was just a private joke.” He gave her another reassuring smile and then sat back in his chair. “No, you haven’t done anything wrong. It’s quite the opposite, actually.”

“I’m not sure that I understand.” To say Alexa was confused would be an understatement.

Dawson laughed quietly. “I’m sorry. I’m being a little cryptic, aren’t I?” She gave a nod, but didn’t voice a reply because he didn’t really expect one. “I’ve called you up here because I need to discuss something with you. My personal assistant, Sheila, is going to be taking some time off work, which has left me with a little bit of a problem. I don’t have the time or the patience to advertise for and train a new assistant, whereas getting a new receptionist is much less of a hassle.”

“At the risk of sounding like a complete idiot, I still don’t understand why you need to discuss it with me.” If anything, Alexa was even more confused now than she was at the start of their conversation.

“I don’t think you could ever sound like an idiot, not even if your life depended on it. But, I’m not making myself very clear, and for that I apologize.” He was probably not making himself clear because all he could seem to think about was bending her over his desk until she was incapable of standing on her own two feet.

Get your mind out of the gutter, Dawson. He had to remind himself that he was supposed to be discussing a new job opportunity for her, and not imagining all the things he wanted to do to her. For some reason, Alexa had got under his skin in a way that he wasn’t used to, and he had to almost physically push the instant attraction he felt towards her determinedly away. You’re not looking for a new plaything right now, remember? He’d almost forgotten that he’d decided to take a break from bedding every woman that caught his eye, and he fought the bubble of desire that curled in his belly.

“Mr. James?”

He was brought back to the here and now as Alexa spoke his name questioningly. “I’m so sorry. Where was I?” He didn’t even attempt to try and explain why he’d spaced out a little. It wasn’t in his nature to explain his actions to anybody, and he wasn’t about to start now. “Ah, yes, I was explaining about needing a new temporary personal assistant, wasn’t I? Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? I’ve heard nothing but good things about you and the way you work from numerous sources. I’ve also personally witnessed it firsthand. So I’ve decided that you’re going to stand in for Sheila, and I will advertise for another receptionist.”

To say that Alexa was dumbstruck was an understatement, and she wasn’t quite sure how to react. “I’m flattered that you’d consider me, but I’m not really sure that I’m qualified enough for that position, Mr. James.” There was also the little fact that she wasn’t sure if she could handle being in such close proximity to him day in and day out.

“Why don’t we let me be the judge of that? I know you’ve only been here for a week, but I really think that you’re up to the task. And in all honesty, Alexa, there really isn’t that much difference between what you’re already doing and what you’ll be doing for me. You will also be well compensated financially while you’re filling in for Sheila, so it’s a win-win situation, isn’t it?”

Alexa was nodding her head thoughtfully as she listened to him. She really didn’t have a valid argument against working for him, other than her own personal reasons. “I suppose it is, but I’m still going to be calling you Mr. James.”

They both laughed at her words and then Dawson’s expression grew more serious and businesslike. “Then that’s settled. Let me take you to Sheila’s office so that you can get settled in. She’s left plenty of notes for you to follow, and I’m sure that she’s included lists of where to find everything you may need. She also told me to tell you that if there’s anything you’re unsure of, then you can find her phone number in the top drawer of her desk and you can feel free to call her at any time.”

Dawson got to his feet with Alexa following suit. As he walked toward the door to what she assumed was Sheila’s adjoining office, she had to physically restrain herself from staring at his ass. As they entered the room, Alexa was struck by how different it was to the relatively small reception area where she’d been working for the last week. There were numerous bookshelves filled with box files and the usual stuff one would expect to find in an office, such as paper, pens, and ink for the printer. There were also three large filing cabinets and a mahogany desk in which the computer sat.

She’d been totally unaware of Dawson watching her with an intent expression on his face as she looked around. She had no idea how beautiful he actually found her, and if she could have read his thoughts, he was sure that she would have died from embarrassment. He was used to being surrounded by beautiful women who would fall over him with the eagerness to do whatever he wanted. However, their beauty was superficial, whereas Alexa’s was totally natural and more becoming and attractive to him. There was also the fact that she seemed totally oblivious that he was attracted to her. Moreover, she didn’t seem to be attracted to him in return, which made her even more appealing as far as he was concerned.

Alexa had been so engrossed in looking around her new surroundings that she jumped when Dawson spoke. “I’m going to leave you to it for now, but I’ll be calling periodically for you to take some notes or transcribe my dictations for letters that need to be sent out. There are a couple of things that you need to remember, and those are that you never let anyone come into my office without buzzing through to me first. The second and most important thing is that you always wear skirts to work. It would be absolutely criminal to cover those legs up with pants.”

She didn’t have time to respond, and in all truthfulness she wouldn’t have known how to anyway. She just stared after him as he disappeared through the door into his own office, wondering if she’d really heard what she thought he’d said or if her imagination had been playing tricks on her again. There is no way he could have said what you thought, Lexi. No way on earth.

Walking around to the other side of the desk, she sank down into the oversized office chair and pushed all thoughts of Dawson and what he may or may not have said out of her head. She looked around the office in disbelief, and wondered if it was some kind of record to be promoted after working for just one week. He’d told her that she’d be compensated financially, but actual figures hadn’t been discussed. Even so, Alexa was already thinking about the fact that she would be able to send money home to her parents every month so that some of their financial burdens could be eased.

She read through the notes that Sheila had left for her and then turned on the computer, typing in the password that she’d found in the notes and opening up the files that Sheila had told her she would need to concentrate on first. To her relief, everything seemed to be straightforward enough, and she quickly settled down to work. There were a few telephone calls that she had to put through to Dawson, but other than that, she had no contact with him for the rest of the morning, much to her relief.

10

ALEXA DECIDED TO EAT LUNCH alone that day, and as she was eating, she sent a text message to Laura to let her know about what had happened.

‘I can’t believe it!’ She typed at the end of her message. ‘Who would have thought that a country girl like me would be a personal assistant to a billionaire?’

She had a reply from Laura within minutes. ‘Yeah, and to think that just a couple of weeks ago you were ready to throw in the towel and move back to the country. Aren’t you glad you listened to me now?’ Alexa could almost hear the smugness in her friend’s words. ‘You can thank me later. LOL!’

She was paying for the bill for her lunch when her phone dinged again to let her know that she had another text message. ‘Oh yeah, and don’t forget that now there is even more opportunity for you to jump your boss’ bones.’ Alexa didn’t even bother replying to that one. She just turned her phone off and made her way back to the office, trying desperately hard to not think about what Laura had said.

As she passed the reception desk, she made sure to say hello to the girl who now sat in her place before making her way up to her new office. She had just taken her coat off and sat down when she heard raised voices coming from Dawson’s office, and her ears pricked with curiosity even as she tried not to eavesdrop on what was being said.

“I don’t give a flying fuck, Robert. He can take his contract and shove it up his ass as far as I’m concerned. I made myself perfectly clear on my terms and conditions, and if he thinks he can try to bully me into changing my mind, then he can think again and take his business elsewhere.” To say that Dawson sounded more than just a little aggravated would have been an understatement, and Alexa couldn’t help but be curious as to what he was talking about.

She heard the muffled and quieter voice of another man talking, and from his tone she would guess that he was trying to calm Dawson down or talk him around. She heard the words ‘reasonable’ and ‘practical’ being used, but other than that she couldn’t make anything else out.

“So what exactly have I been paying you for?” It was obvious that whoever Robert was he hadn’t been successful in placating Dawson. In fact, it sounded as though he’d pissed him off even more. “How about we do this instead? How about I fire your sorry ass and you can go and work for them instead, because it is blatantly obvious that your loyalties do not lie with me or my company anymore, if they ever have.”

There was the sound of the man blisteringly trying to apologize or backpedal, but Dawson was having none of it. His mind had obviously been made up, and he wasn’t about to be swayed.

“Just get out, Robert, and take your farce of a contract with you. It’s not worth the paper it’s written on, and I wouldn’t give it to a homeless man to wipe his ass with.” Alexa cringed at how cold Dawson sounded, and even though she didn’t know the circumstances, she couldn’t help but feel more than a little sorry for whoever Robert was.

She jumped at the sound of Dawson’s office door being slammed, and then jumped again as the intercom system on her desk buzzed to let her know that Dawson needed to talk to her. “Yes, Mr. James?” She couldn’t help but sound nervous as she answered him.

“Come through please, Alexa. And bring a notepad with you.” He didn’t sound angry with her, but she could hear how tense he was, and she hurried to do his bidding, knocking timidly on the adjoining door.

“Come in.”

She walked into his office nervously and sat down in the chair opposite his at his desk with her notepad and pen poised at the ready. She’d never mastered shorthand, but she was confident enough in her own abilities to know that she could write fast enough to keep up with whatever it was he wanted dictated.

“I suppose you heard all that?” He looked at her in such a way that even attempting to lie wasn’t an option.

She nodded her head slowly before answering. “I did hear some of it, yes. But I don’t know what it was about, and it’s none of my business regardless.”

Dawson looked at her intently before saying anything else, and she had the distinct impression that he was trying to sum her up. “Well, whatever it was you did hear does not leave this office. There are enough rumors flying around this place without them being added to. Understood?”

“Yes, Mr. James.” She’d never been one to gossip, and she wasn’t about to start now.

Giving a decisive nod of his head, Dawson gave her one of his irresistible smiles and then turned the conversation to the business at hand. “Take this down, please.” For a split second, Alexa thought that he’d actually said, ‘Take your panties down, please,’ and her heart leapt into her throat in reaction as her eyes shot to him in surprise. She breathed a huge sigh of relief when she saw that his head was tilted back and his eyes were closed in concentration.

Are you sure that’s relief? She ignored the voice in her head and started to write as Dawson dictated.

“It has come to my attention that the terms and conditions of our agreed contract are no longer agreeable to you. As per the clause in the said contract, I would like to remind you that any monies already spent on the project by my company are to be paid in full and forthwith by you should this contract be terminated by you for any reason, with no exceptions.”

The letter went on in much the same vein, outlining Dawson’s expectations and brutally stating the fact that if compensation was not made for wasted time, then further action would be taken by him and his company’s lawyers.

By the end of it, Alexa was starting to feel quite sorry for the recipient of the letter as well as even more curious as to what it had all been about. It was obvious that Dawson hadn’t gotten where he was in life by being a pushover, although without knowing the full details, it was hard

to judge whether he’d established his company by being a bully or not. Either way, she felt compelled to say something.

“Will you really take further action if they don’t pay up? I feel a little bit sorry for them, in all honesty. Maybe if you tried talking to them first you could get more out of them.”

As Dawson opened his eyes and looked at her with an incredulous expression on his face, she wished that she had kept her mouth shut. “For your information, Ms. Ryan, there have been plenty of discussions both before and during the duration of the contract, and the project in question. In fact, there have been numerous occasions when I could have taken further action already, but chose to give them the benefit of the doubt in the hope that they wouldn’t let me or my company down.” He glowered at her across the top of his desk. “Might I suggest that you keep your opinions to yourself in the future, at least until you are aware of all of the facts.”

Alexa felt absolutely mortified, and her expression showed it. “I’m sorry, Mr. James. I won’t let it happen again.”

Are you crazy? You could have just lost your job before it’s even properly begun, you idiot! She literally felt like crying, but she held the tears back.

Dawson felt something that he didn’t think he had ever felt before: contrite. She looked absolutely dejected at him telling her off and he reminded himself that she wasn’t like the other women he’d employed before her. She was green and naive and, as such, he should treat her with a little more gentleness than he had other employees.

Gentle? Since when have you ever been gentle with anyone? What the hell is so different about her that she’s making you question your own judgement? He wished he knew the answers to his own questions, because right now he was feeling so confused that he was getting pissed off at himself.

He gave a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry, Alexa. I forget sometimes that you’re new to all this, and this business with the Grant Group has me really rattled. But it was unfair of me to take it out on you, at least without explaining a little about it all first.”

“This is your company. You don’t have to explain anything to me.” Alexa was feeling somewhat mollified by his apology, but the mere fact that he’d been right in what he’d said still gnawed at her. She was so used to always trying to think the best of people, and of trying to always be as kind as possible no matter what the situation, that she’d lost sight of the fact that she now worked in a cut-throat business world where deals were made and broken on a daily basis.

“I know I don’t have to, and I won’t go in depth, but I do want to at least give you the basic facts.” For some unknown reason, it was important to him that she didn’t think badly of him. “I requested multiple bids for a construction company to build a gym in an area of town that’s run-down and almost derelict. It’s an area where the crime rate involving teenagers is on the rise, and I thought that maybe if they had somewhere to go to channel their energy instead of being on the streets causing trouble, it could only be a good thing.” He wasn’t about to tell her exactly why this project meant so much to him on a personal level.

“You don’t have to explain anything to me.” Alexa was glad that he felt that he wanted to though.

“I know I don’t, but I’m going to at least give you the bare bones of the situation. The Grant Group submitted a bid along with floor plans and timelines of when the project could be expected to be completed. After further talks with them, I accepted their bid and my company paid them a percentage upfront. That was almost six months ago, and since then, it’s been one excuse after another as to why the only work that’s been carried out so far is the ground leveling.” He gave another frustrated sigh. “I really wanted the gym up and running by Christmas, because that’s when the kids get into the most trouble. But now, I’ll be lucky if it’s open by next summer, because I’ll have to put it out for bid all over again.”

Alexa didn’t know what had surprised her the most – the fact that he was willing to tell her all of that, or the fact that he felt it was such an important issue that the kids have better options available to them that he’d take the time to build them a gym. “I’m sorry, Mr. James. It sounds like a sucky situation to be in.”

“A sucky situation?” He grinned at her, his eyes twinkling in amusement at her childlike terminology, and she blushed as red as the blouse she was wearing. Little did she know that her wording had conjured up all kinds of mental pictures in his mind, and his humor was his way at trying to hide it. “Okay, young lady. Back to work with you. Will you get that letter typed up for me this afternoon, please? The address to mail it to will be in one of the files Sheila left for you.”

Returning to her own office and sitting down at her desk, Alexa didn’t start writing the letter immediately. She sat there and contemplated everything that had transpired between her and Dawson first. The man was a complete enigma and she was starting to wonder if everything she’d heard about him so far was actually true. Okay, so he was a ladies’ man; of that, there was no doubt. But with regards to his business dealings and the way he conducted them, well, she really wasn’t sure anymore.

He’d opened up to her about why he had been so angry concerning the Grant Group contract, but she had a feeling that there was a lot more to it than what he’d told her, and her curiosity was overwhelming. She gave a sigh and settled down to the task at hand.

If he wants you to know, then he’ll tell you, so stop being so damn nosey or you’re likely to get yourself into some seriously hot water, she warned herself as she typed. She’d subconsciously made it her personal goal to show him that being kind was much better than being a bully, but now she was having doubts as to whether he really needed to be taught that, especially by her.

Maybe you’ll be better off being kind to him, instead of trying to get him to be kind to others, she mused.

11

SHE SETTLED INTO an easy routine in the following weeks as she became more comfortable dealing with Dawson and her job. Her mornings would start with her bringing him a cup of coffee and him drinking it while he gave her his instructions and tasks for the day. She would make any telephone calls and set up meetings before her lunch, and then after it, she would spend the rest of the afternoon sending out emails, typing letters, and doing any other general assignment he’d given her. Throughout the day, she would transfer a myriad of calls through to him that came up to her via the reception desk, and she quickly learned who he wanted to talk to, who he hated talking to, and who he absolutely refused to talk to.

Sometimes, she would be sitting in her office working, and she would hear him arguing with someone over the telephone. It always amazed her that he had been able to work his way up the corporate chain until he actually owned his own thriving business when she heard some of the things he said. In all honesty, if it was her on the other end of the line, she would probably refuse to do business with him ever again if he spoke to her that way, but the conversations always seemed to end on a slightly better note. Once Dawson got over his little tantrum, his attitude always improved. She still hated the way he treated people sometimes, but then at other times, he would do something totally unexpected and so nice that she still couldn’t make out which side of him was the real Dawson James.

She had also become used to the fantasies she would have about him on a nightly basis, just as much as the daydreams which annoyed her so much. She’d come to the conclusion that Dawson flirted with anyone of the female variety that he came into contact with, and as such, she’d stopped taking it personally, and it no longer flustered her when he threw a wink in her direction or made some kind of remark that would have once had her blushing like a schoolgirl.

Dawson looked forward to their morning meetings just as much as she did, even though he would never admit it to anyone but himself. He found himself trying to think up ways to prolong the meetings and even went as far as creating tasks for her to do that he could have quite easily delegated to someone else.

And, for some unknown reason, he went out of his way to please her and make her smile, even if it was about something inconsequential or if it was something that made him look totally ridiculous. He didn’t know what it was about Alexa Ryan that made him want to strive to be a better person, but whatever it was, it both annoyed the crap out of him and excited him all at the same time.

12

HALFWAY THROUGH ALEXA’S fourth week of working for the company, she took Dawson his usual cup of morning coffee and was about to settle down in the chair opposite his to take some notes as she typically did when he stopped her.

“Do you usually have a cup of coffee back in your office when you leave here in the mornings?”

She nodded with a perplexed expression on her face.

“Then go and get you a cup now and bring it in here to drink. We may as well share our coffee break while we discuss things, right?”

It was something that he’d never suggested before, and Alexa was pretty sure that Sheila never used to take her morning coffee with him. But who was she to argue with the boss-man himself? She placed her notepad and pencil on the chair she had been about to sit down on and turned to leave the room, half turning back to make sure that she’d heard him correctly.

“Are you sure?”

“When have you ever known me to say something I’m not sure about?” He raised an eyebrow at her inquisitively. “Go and get your coffee, Alexa.”

His tone allowed no argument, and she turned to do as he’d instructed, returning a short time later with a cup of her own. She placed it on the side of the desk closest to her chair before picking up her notepad again and finally sitting down.

They went through the usual daily lists of things to do with Alexa taking notes as he gave her his instructions. Periodically, they would both pause and take a sip of their coffee before continuing where they left off.

“I think that’s all for now, Alexa, but before you go there are two things that I’d like to discuss with you.” She felt her heart sink. I just knew that having coffee with him was a bad omen, she thought to herself as she tried to calm her racing heart down.

“I’m listening, but if you’re going to fire me, can you make it quick and not drag it out?” She was only half joking.

Dawson looked at her with an incredulous look. “Fire you? Why on earth would I fire you?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. “Unless you’ve done something totally wrong that I haven’t found out about yet, in which case you need to confess now or forever hold your peace.” Or you could just hold my piece and then your job is definitely secure, he thought to himself, enjoying the dirty thought even as he tried to quash it. Now is not the time, Dawson, so behave yourself.

“No, Alexa, I’m not going to fire you. Not any time soon, anyway.” He chuckled softly at her relieved expression. “Actually, the first thing I want to discuss with you is your wardrobe.” Her expression became even more befuddled. “Do you remember me telling you that you must always wear skirts at work?”

She nodded her head slowly.

“Then why are you wearing a pants suit? It’s very becoming, but it’s strictly against what I told you, isn’t it?”

“I didn’t think that you were serious, Mr. James.” She’d never heard of anything so preposterous.

Dawson laughed again. “I never say anything that I don’t mean. Well, hardly ever. And I meant it when I said that it would be a criminal act if you were to cover your gorgeous legs up. So no more pants, okay?”

She scowled at him prettily. “I’ll try my best, but I can’t make any promises.” If you think I’m going to let you dictate what I can and cannot wear, then you’re sadly mistaken. Her thoughts were defiant, but she knew that she was going to try her best to do what he’d told her, and that pissed her off more than anything.

“Okay, the next thing I want to discuss is that I need you to attend a business function with me over the weekend. I know that you don’t usually work weekends, and I had originally intended to take somebody else, but she’s now unable to go with me.” Not strictly true, but I don’t think she’d be impressed to learn that I cancelled my plans with Hannah so that I could ask her instead, he thought wickedly. Alexa was eager to hear more, as her quirked eyebrow indicated. “It’s a high-class event that will mean us being out of town for three days. You’ll obviously be paid for doing it and there will be a nice bonus in with your wages also.”

He had been fully expecting her to jump on board as soon as she heard that there was going to be extra money in it for her, but she surprised him. “I’d like to know a little more about it before I agree, if that’s okay, Mr. James.”

“It’s a charity event that will benefit numerous organizations as well as individuals. As I said, it’s a high-class gala and there will be quite a few celebrities and high-powered people attending, so I can’t really go into too much detail because of how strictly a lot of the people going to it guard their privacy.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, extracting a card and sliding it across the top of the desk toward her. “You’ll need to buy a dress suitable for the occasion; a long evening dress or cocktail dress will do. You can also charge anything else you think you might need for the weekend to this company credit card. And please don’t be worried about how much things cost; the card has no credit limit.”

Alexa reached forward and picked the card up off the table. Was he being serious, or was this some kind of test, she wondered. “I’ll use it to buy a dress and accessories for the evening in question, but other than that I shouldn’t need to buy anything else that I don’t already have.” Using a card that belonged to someone else, even if it was a business card, and being told that she could spend however much she wanted both terrified and excited her.

“So that’s settled then. Take tomorrow off to go shopping, and I’ll pick you up on Friday evening around seven, if that suits you?” He wanted to get everything organized now before she could change her mind on him.

Alexa left his office in a daze, and it was at least another thirty minutes before she could get herself organized to get some actual work done. She couldn’t believe that she’d actually agreed

to go away with him for the weekend, and she hoped that it wasn’t some kind of ploy on his behalf.

Why the hell would he make something so elaborate up, Lexi? Quit being so cynical for once in your life and just go with it. She felt a little better after admonishing herself, but she couldn’t wait to get home and talk it all over with Laura that evening.

13

“YOU’RE GOING WHERE? With who?” Laura sounded as incredulous as Alexa felt.

“You heard me. I can’t quite believe it either. Do you think I’m doing the right thing, Lau?” She was still nervous and wondering if there was an ulterior motive behind Dawson’s request, but her best friend had no such qualms.

Laura’s eyebrows had risen up into her hairline, and she looked at Alexa with an open mouth. “Are you doing the right thing? Did you really just ask me that? Have I not been telling you for weeks that you need to jump this man’s bones?” They were obviously rhetorical questions and Laura poked her tongue out childishly in response. “This is a good thing, Lexi. Wait, scratch that. This is a great thing! You actually get to go away with the guy for three whole days, he’s given you his company credit card to buy everything you need, and he’s giving you a bonus in your wages on top of it all. You’d be absolutely crazy if you turned him down.”

Alexa couldn’t help but laugh at her friend’s excitement. You’d swear that it was her going away for the weekend the way she was carrying on.

“Oh my God, Laura. What the hell am I supposed to buy to wear to a charity gala?”

“Panic not, my friend. I know just the place to go, and it so happens that I’m also off work tomorrow, so we can spend the day shopping together on your boss’ dime.”

“I’m not going to go crazy with it, so don’t go getting too excited. I know he said to make sure that I buy something suitable, but that doesn’t mean that I have to spend an absolute fortune.” Alexa was starting to get excited herself, but there was no way she was going to go overboard with someone else’s money. That would go against the grain as far as she was concerned, and it didn’t matter whether Dawson could afford it or not.

The two girls were in the heart of the city’s shopping area early the following morning, which, considering the fact that Laura usually stayed in bed until lunch time on her day off, was a miracle in itself. The first place that Alexa was dragged into was a boutique to a richer clientele than she was, considering the fact that there wasn’t a price tag in sight, which in itself made her cringe. After spending at least an hour trying on dress after dress, she finally put her foot down and told Laura that they needed to find somewhere else.

“I just don’t feel comfortable in here.”

Laura gave an exaggerated sigh of frustration, but she gave in to Alexa’s request, and they left the store empty-handed. The second place they went into felt a lot less exclusive, and Alexa immediately felt much happier.

“I’m looking for something to wear to a charity event. It doesn’t necessarily have to be something exclusive, but it does need to be a gown that will keep my boss happy.”

The middle aged lady serving her smiled at her reassuringly. “First things first. Is your boss male or female?”

“Male. Why?” The question really confused Alexa.

“Because a female boss wouldn’t want to be upstaged by an employee wearing something better than she is, whereas a male boss wants the employee to look as hot as possible at these type of functions so that he is the envy of every other male there.” The lady gave Alexa a conspiratorial wink that had her and Laura laughing out loud. “Women can be such bitches, and men are fickle creatures. We just need to know how to play the game, and that’s where I come in.”

She proceeded to bring out a few dresses and pointed out a few more that were strategically placed on mannequins around the store. “Why don’t you take these through to the dressing room and try them on while your friend and I take a look around for a few other options.”

Alexa took the dresses and walked to the dressing room where another assistant waited to help her change. The first two were totally unsuitable, with one being way too short and the other way too tight. “I wouldn’t mind something that was a mixture between the two, if that was possible?”

The assistant smiled and stepped back through the door into the main area, returning a short time later with another couple of possibilities for her to try on.

The same thing happened a few more times, and each time Alexa found something wrong with the dress. Until she tried another one on and turned to look at herself in the full-length mirror. She hardly recognized the person looking back at her, and her hands smoothed the material down over her hips in awe.

“Would it be okay for my friend to come back here and take a look?”

Her friend was with her in the blink of an eye, almost as though she’d been waiting impatiently outside the door.

“Oh my fucking God, Lexi. That looks absolutely beautiful on you.”

“If you don’t mind me saying so, I believe that it’s you who makes the dress look beautiful.” The lady who had first greeted them when they walked into the store had followed Laura through to the dressing room, and her words made Alexa blush shyly.

She wasn’t quite sure what to say in response. “So you both think that this one will do?”

There was a united chorus of agreement and the decision was made. Alexa gasped at how much the dress cost, but she knew that it was a lot cheaper than any of the ones they’d seen in the previous store, so that made her feel a little better as she walked out of the place with her gown carefully wrapped in tissue paper and a gift box.

“Holy shit, Laura. I’ve only ever walked out of a store with a plastic bag before. I’ve never had anything wrapped up and put in a box.”

Laura burst out laughing. “That makes two of us, girlfriend. And we are not done yet. You still need to buy shoes and a bag to match.”

Alexa let out a groan. “Can we stop and get something to eat first? I never knew that shopping was such hungry work.” She was shocked to realize that it was almost two o’clock in the afternoon. They’d already been shopping for hours and they’d only been to two places so far.

They found a small café and had a bite to eat before their shopping spree continued. Thankfully, they managed to find a pair of shoes and a matching purse in the next store they stopped at, and Alexa breathed a sigh of relief. “Can we go home now?”

“Are you crazy? We still have to find you some new makeup as well as some sexy lingerie to wear underneath that stunning dress.”

“I already have makeup, Laura, but I do agree that I need some new underwear. I don’t think I have anything that would work under that dress because of the style of it. There’s no way I’m charging that to the business credit card though. That would just be wrong as far as I’m concerned.”

Laura laughed at her words. “You can be such a prude sometimes.”

It took them almost another two hours before they were finally done and on their way home, and Alexa was loaded down with bags and boxes. She couldn’t believe how much money she’d spent, even though she’d really tried to be as thrifty as possible. She hung everything up to let any creases fall out before she and Laura had a light dinner, followed by an early night to bed.

She carried Dawson’s coffee to him the following morning and placed his credit card on top of his desk along with all of the receipts she made sure to save. He looked at them in surprise before saying anything to her.

“Well that’s a first. I’m not used to women showing me receipts for what they’ve spent. You didn’t have to do that, but I appreciate it, Alexa. Thank you.” To say he was dumbfounded was an understatement. Maybe she really is going to prove you wrong about women, he thought, and was surprised by how much he wanted that to be the case.

“It wouldn’t have been right for me not to do it, but you’re welcome.” She smiled at him as she sat down. Picking up her notepad and pencil, she missed seeing the appreciative gleam in his eyes as he noticed that she was once again wearing a skirt. “I tried not to spend too much, but it’s still a lot, I’m afraid. If you need to, then don’t pay me the bonus you were talking about. That way, I won’t feel quite so guilty about it.”

She didn’t know it, but as soon as she said that, Dawson made his mind up to double her bonus, grudgingly admitting to himself that she really was a one of a kind, special woman. He didn’t think that he had ever met a female quite like her, and considering the fact that she came from a humble, hard-working background, he thought it was pretty phenomenal of her to tell him not to pay her a bonus.

He cleared his throat and put on his business head. “Okay, so this is what I need you to do today.”

Less than twenty minutes later, Alexa was back in her own office making phone calls, sending emails, and fielding calls for Dawson. She was relieved at how normal the day seemed to be going so far, especially in light of how guilty she had felt about using Dawson’s credit card and spending so much of his money. She’d expected things to feel a little tense and awkward between them, but it was business as usual, thankfully.

14

FRIDAY ARRIVED QUICKLY, and during their morning meeting, Dawson told Alexa to finish work at lunchtime so that she would have time to go home and get ready for their trip. “I’ll pick you up at six, but the journey’s going to take a while, so it will probably be a good idea to make sure you eat before then. I’d usually stop off for a meal on the way, but I want to make sure we make good time so that we’re not too tired to enjoy the event tomorrow.”

Even though she was pretty much already packed for the weekend, Alexa was grateful for the extra time off work that gave her the opportunity to go and get her hair trimmed and relax for an hour or so before Dawson was to pick her up. She had a nice, long bath and washed her hair, blow drying it and leaving it down to hang in long, soft waves down her back. She always wore it up at work, so it made a nice change to leave it down for once.

She’d thought long and hard about what to wear for the trip, and even though her initial choice had been jeans and a soft cashmere sweater, she changed her mind, opting for a short-sleeved, white, button-down blouse, a black and gray plaid skirt, and a pair of knee-high boots instead. She applied just a smattering of makeup and a spray of perfume before carrying her small suitcase downstairs to wait for Dawson to arrive. She was checking her purse to make sure that she had her cell phone and charger when there was a knock at the door.

Quickly gathering everything up, she opened the door and gave a gasp of surprise when she saw a uniformed chauffeur standing in front of her.

“I’ll take your case, ma’am. Mr. James is waiting for you in the car.” He took the suitcase from her hand and walked down the pathway with Alexa staring after him in disbelief.

A limousine? He’s picking me up in a freaking limousine? She couldn’t quite believe that there was a stretch limo parked outside her house, and she wished that Laura had been home to see it.

She quickly pulled herself together and followed after the driver, snatching her hand back when she went to open the door and his got there first. “Allow me, please, ma’am.” Alexa stood back and let him hold the door open for her before she ducked her head and stepped inside the dimly-lit interior of the luxurious vehicle.

She’d never been in a limousine before, and she wasn’t quite sure what she’d been expecting. But whatever she’d expected, it certainly wasn’t what she stepped into. Her feet sank into a carpet that was thicker than any in her house, and the smell of the leather upholstery was only rivaled by the shine of the windowed partition and the glass cocktail cabinet that had been installed along one side. The limo was obviously not one that was used for the typical parties that she’d seen around the city, because there were only two seats in it – one along the longer side of the car opposite the cocktail cabinet, and the other at the back, facing forward. Admittedly, they were long seats, but she still couldn’t imagine a crowd of people having a raucous, drunken party in the back of the pristine vehicle.

“Are you going to sit down, or are you going to stand up for the whole way?” Dawson’s voice made her jump, but the humor in it eased her nerves as he brought her back to the here and now.

She gave a small laugh of her own that was filled with self-consciousness. “I’m sorry, Mr. James. I’ve just never been in one of these things before and I don’t know what I’d been expecting us to travel in, but, well, it wasn’t this.” She sat down on the back seat, looking across at her boss who was seated opposite of her. “This thing is huge!”

She couldn’t quite keep the excitement at bay, and Dawson outwardly laughed, while inwardly he was thinking about how refreshing she was.

She has absolutely no idea just how lovely she is, he thought to himself. “Are you really going to call me Mr. James this whole weekend?” He still had the same playfulness in his voice, and Alexa grinned at him without answering. “Okay, how about this? I absolutely forbid you to call me it. I insist that you call me Dawson, at least until we get back to work on Tuesday, and even then, I’d prefer you to call me that. But if you’re still not comfortable with it, then I’ll stop trying to badger you and you can go back to calling me Mr. James.” He gave a mocking shudder that made Alexa laugh.

“Don’t hold your breath on that, but I suppose I can do as you want for the few days we’re away.” She could hear Laura’s voice in her head telling her that she could do whatever he wanted at any time if she’d just stop being such a prude. Thank God it’s relatively dark in here, she thought. At least he won’t be able to see me blushing.

It was just as well that she couldn’t hear what was running through Dawson’s mind, or she probably would have jumped out of the moving car. He was also thinking about her doing what he wanted for the weekend, but it had nothing at all to do with her calling him Dawson, and everything to do with how many positions he’d love to get her in while he made love to her. Just the thought of it had his cock thickening, and he pushed the thoughts away reluctantly.

“Do you mind if I ask why we’re not flying? I half expected you to have a private jet on standby, or something.” She was only half joking.

“I’m absolutely terrified of flying, but if you tell anyone, then I’ll deny I ever admitted it.” He grinned at her. “Can I get you something to drink? A glass of champagne, perhaps?”

Alexa wasn’t completely sure that drinking alcohol with him in such close confines was a good idea, but she needed something to help her calm her nerves and her wayward thoughts. “Is there any orange juice? If there is, I wouldn’t mind a glass of champagne and orange juice, please.”

Dawson stood up and moved to the cocktail cabinet, opening a door that housed a small refrigerator and pulling out a bottle of champagne and a carton of orange juice. “It looks like you’re in luck.” He made her drink and then poured himself a glass of whiskey, completely missing the appreciative gleam in her eye as she finally realized that he was wearing jeans and a T-shirt.

She couldn’t take her eyes off the way the denim hugged his backside or how the T-shirt showed off just how muscular he really was. As he turned toward her to hand her the drink, she threw up another prayer of thanks for how dark the inside of the car was.

“Thank you.” She took the drink from him and took a generous gulp, thankful to have something to do to take her mind off of him.

“I forgot to tell you to bring a book or something to do during the drive. I’m afraid that I have quite a bit of paperwork to catch up on that I want to get out of the way, but I don’t want you to be bored while I do it.” For the first time, she noticed his briefcase, and it was a good reminder that their trip away was purely business.

She was quick to reassure him. “I actually have a book with me that I can read while you’re busy. I can’t get to sleep at night unless I read at least a couple of pages.”

You’d sleep like a baby without having to read if you were in my bed. Dawson’s cock gave another twitch as the thought popped into his head, and he quickly reached for his briefcase and extracted some papers and a pen.

The next couple of hours were spent in relative silence as Dawson concentrated on his work and Alexa alternated between watching the scenery pass by and reading her book. Occasionally, he would get up to make them both another drink and they would make small talk for a few minutes before returning to what they were both doing. Alexa found herself growing sleepier with each passing mile.

“Hey, sleeping beauty. It’s time to wake up and stretch our legs for a few minutes.”

As her eyes opened and she became aware of her surroundings, Alexa was mortified to realize that she’d fallen asleep. She wasn’t sure when or how, but she was now lying down on the seat with a small pillow beneath her head and a lightweight cover over her. As she realized that Dawson must have tended to her without her even knowing it, she didn’t think that she had ever been more embarrassed.

She swung her legs around and sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and stifling a yawn. “Oh, my goodness. I am so sorry, Mr. James.”

Dawson laughed at her softly. “There’s nothing to be sorry about, Alexa. It’s past midnight as it is, so it’s not surprising that you were tired.” The door was opened by the chauffeur and Dawson stepped out of the car, holding his hand out and taking hold of hers to help her exit also. “And I thought we’d agreed that you were to call me Dawson.”

“I’m still half asleep. Leave me alone, Dawson.” She was only half joking because she was never completely ‘with it’ when she first woke up. But he chuckled as she said his name for the first time.

“See? Now that wasn’t too hard, was it?” Not as hard as my cock is at hearing my name on your lips, he thought as he adjusted himself discreetly.

They stretched their legs for a few minutes and both went off to use the restroom facilities at the rest stop before getting back in the car and resuming their journey. Dawson had finally finished the work that he’d had to do, which meant that he could also relax now. “So tell me something about yourself, Alexa. I don’t mean the usual boring work stuff, but something a little more personal. Tell me about your life so far.” He turned to face her as he spoke, marveling once more at how lovely she looked.

“There’s not really that much to tell, to be honest.” She wasn’t really sure where to begin, so she decided to start at the very beginning. “My whole life has been spent living on my parents’ farm in a small town with a population that could probably fit in the back of this limo.” Dawson laughed at that. “There was one school in the place that catered to every child, from kindergarten all the way up to high school, so each and every kid grew up knowing each other. We all used to complain, but it really was a great community to grow up in.”

She didn’t miss the look that crossed Dawson’s face, although she couldn’t quite tell what it was, other than it being a private thought and possibly something that he didn’t want to share.

“In fact, my best friend, Laura, is actually the one that persuaded me to move from there to here. I loved helping my parents out on the farm, but with regards to actually building a career for myself, well, let’s just say that there would have been no chance if I’d stayed there.” A tender smile crossed her face that made Dawson wish that he’d known her as she was growing up. “I’m really glad that I came here though, because now I can send some decent money home to my folks to help them out. It also means that they don’t have to work quite so hard, which makes me happy.”

“It sounds like you had a wonderful childhood, and helping your parents out now is a wonderful thing to do.” His voice could only be described as wistful, and Alexa couldn’t help but wonder why.

She nodded her head in agreement. “I really did. I was lucky.” She looked at him curiously. “So what about you, Dawson? I know you’re a billionaire now, but what gave you the drive to ‘make it,’ or were you just born into money?” She couldn’t believe that she’d actually asked him such a personal question, and as soon as the words were out of her mouth she wished that she could take them back. “Never mind. It’s none of my business.”

“I asked you first, so it’s only fair that you get to ask the same question of me.” He paused as he tried to find the words to describe his upbringing. “No, my family wasn’t rich. In fact, I don’t even know who my family is. All I know is that my mother was a heroin addict and I was taken away from her and placed in the foster system as soon as I was born. Well, as soon as I was well enough and big enough to leave the hospital.” He gave a wry laugh that was totally devoid of humor and Alexa could have cried for the mental picture he’d just drawn.

“I’m so sorry, Dawson. I shouldn’t have asked.” It was obviously painful for him to talk about, and she hated to know that she’d been the one to make him remember.

He shook his head and gave her a smile. “It’s okay, Alexa, honestly. It’s been so long since someone has genuinely cared enough to ask that it actually feels good to talk about it. Kind of cathartic in a way.” He gave a gruff cough before continuing. “Anyway, as soon as I was old enough I was fostered out to a couple, but within a few months they found out that they were expecting a child of their own, so back to the children’s home I went. And it was like that on and off for the next ten years or so. I’d go to a foster family, but they always found a reason to send me back again, until I started to realize that they weren’t the problem. I was.”

“Don’t say that! How can a young child possibly be to blame because the adults in his life failed him? That’s just bullshit!” It wasn’t very often that Alexa felt outraged, but right now she would have loved to go and find some of the so-called ‘parents’ who had fostered Dawson and punch them in the nose.

Dawson shook his head again. “Well, I don’t know whether it was the foster parents, myself, or the whole foster system in general that failed, but it got to the point where I just didn’t care anymore and I totally rebelled against anyone or anything in authority.” He gave another mirthless laugh. “I was expelled from so many schools for fighting and vandalism that if it hadn’t been for Ralph, the guy who ran the local boxing gym, I would have probably ended up in prison. In fact, most of the adults I came into contact with swore that that’s where I was going to end up. But Ralph taught me discipline in the right way, as well as self-control. He also let me know that it was okay to dream big and aim for the stars, because I was capable of doing anything I set my mind to.”

“How did you meet Ralph?” Alexa was genuinely curious.

“It’s a long story, and I won’t bore you with all of the details right now. But Ralph was an older gentleman who’d lived in our rough part of town for as long as any of us kids could remember. He had a knack for finding out which kids needed help or support, and he opened the gym so that they’d have a place to go that was safe and which kept them off the streets.” Dawson smiled as the memories of his old friend flooded back. “He never turned anyone away, and he was always ready to listen or part with a few words of wisdom – whether we wanted to hear them or not. His gym was my safe haven, and it was where I used to unload most of my anger and frustration.”

Alexa was totally unaware of the tears that rolled unchecked down her face, and Dawson was so engrossed in telling her the unedited version of his life so far that he didn’t notice either.

“So, I worked hard and got myself a job at Ralph’s place. After a few months, one of the regulars I had come to know had offered me an even better job working as a janitor at his corporation. When I saw how the other half lived, I was more determined than ever to do something better with my life, so I enrolled in an online college course for business management, and went from strength to strength. It took me over ten years and a lot of hard work, but I built my own company, and now I actually employ some of the very same people who’d told me that I would amount to nothing.”

He finally looked across at Alexa, dreading seeing the look of pity or revulsion that he was sure would be on her face. But, when he saw the way she was crying, his heart almost stopped beating. “Alexa? What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” He quickly moved across to her seat and placed a hand on her shoulder, and her floodgates opened up even more as she broke down and openly sobbed.

“I’m crying because no child should ever have to go through what you went through. I just don’t understand how people can be so cruel.” She was hiccupping with the force of her sobs, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. “Don’t people realize that a child is a precious thing and that they should all be nurtured, loved, and encouraged to do whatever makes them happy?” She looked up at Dawson with a fierce look in her blood-shot eyes. “I hope that you make their lives hell!”

Dawson let out a chuckle at how adorable she looked with her snotty, red nose, blotchy face, and watery eyes. “Whose lives should I make hell?”

“The ones that work for you that were supposed to look after you when you were a little boy!” Her waterworks had started anew as she thought about how small and defenseless he must have been and how much suffering he must have gone through. “It’s not fair, Dawson!”

Wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her into his chest, he smoothed back her long hair as he tried to calm her down.

“Shhh. It’s okay. I had the last laugh, didn’t I? Look where I am right this minute. I’m being chauffeured around in a limo on my way to a charity gala with a beautiful woman. Life doesn’t get much better than this.”

He was shocked to realize that he was actually speaking the truth. Life didn’t get much better than this, and for the first time in his life, he had a woman to thank for that fact.

15

“COME ON NOW. Dry those beautiful eyes for me. No more crying, okay?” He used his thumb to wipe away an errant tear, and as she looked up at him with sad eyes, he found himself unable to resist and dipped his head slowly toward hers, giving her plenty of time to pull away before his lips claimed hers in a kiss that was both tender and genuinely caring.

Alexa wasn’t sure why she didn’t pull away. She’d been determined that nothing sexual was ever going to happen between them. But as she looked up at him and watched his mouth descend toward hers, she tilted her head and raised herself up slightly, letting him wordlessly know that she wanted him to kiss her.

Dawson paused for what felt like an interminable length of time until Alexa couldn’t stand the wait any longer. Her hand crept up around his neck and she gave a gentle tug, pulling his face even closer to hers until she could feel the warmth of his breath against her lips. A split second later, it was his lips against hers that she was feeling as they met in a kiss that was as tender as it was passionate, and as erotic as it was tentative. They kissed in such a way that it was as though their mouths were learning from each other, and as his tongue came out to run lightly across her bottom lip, she couldn’t help the almost silent moan of lust that escaped her.

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in closer, turning his own body so that he could get to her easier as the kiss deepened even further. Their tongues came together and they explored each other’s mouths as her hand tangled in his thick hair, and one of his hands gently stroked up and down her back, sending shivers of awareness trickling down her spine.

“We can stop at any time. You know that, right?” Dawson had pulled away just enough to utter the reassuring words, but Alexa was in no mood to stop now, and she pulled his head back down to hers for another kiss.

Dear God, he tastes wonderful, she thought to herself almost incoherently. It was a mixture of whiskey and something else that she couldn’t quite put her finger on – and she couldn’t get enough of it. She felt Dawson change his position again and he effortlessly lifted her and placed her on his lap so that her legs straddled him on the seat and her body was cradled in his arms. Their mouths remained locked together even as he moved her, and as she settled into his lap she could feel the distinct bulge of his arousal pressing into her bottom.

Dawson groaned at the contact her body made against his, and he had to fight the urge to rip her clothes off and ravish her. She’s not that kind of woman, so control yourself, he reminded himself, as she moved slightly and another groan was torn from him. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her away, especially when they were in the back of a moving vehicle and she had nowhere to run. He might have the reputation of being a total asshole, but he did have enough morals to instinctively know that Alexa was a lady and not just his usual type of lay. And you’d better remember that and treat her right, the inner voice of his conscience piped up.

“We really shouldn’t be doing this.” Alexa’s voice was a breathless, husky whisper that sent another lightning bolt of lust to the ever-growing bulge between his legs. “I never do this. Not ever.” It was as though she was trying to reassure him that she wasn’t a slut and that she didn’t sleep around, but he already knew that about her on a deeper level than he’d ever experienced before. And the knowledge both thrilled and terrified him.

His lips grazed hers in another kiss before he raised his head to look at her. “Alexa, you only have to say the word and we can stop.” It would be a near impossible task, but he would make sure he did it. “I promise you that I won’t think badly of you either way.”

He’d been half expecting her to pull away from him and put a stop to whatever this was that was going on between them right now. So when she wrapped both arms around his neck and tugged on his hair to pull his face back down to hers, he was elated. Taking his cue from her, he whispered something unintelligible against her mouth, and then took control of the kiss from her.

It was a kiss that left Alexa’s head spinning as he nibbled and licked, using his tongue to thrust and invade her mouth until her body was shuddering and her bones were weak. With his arms supporting her, her head fell back against the seat as heat pulsated throughout her body. Between her thighs, a fire raged almost out of control. She could hear herself whimpering with need, but she was totally oblivious to their surroundings. She knew that she had never been kissed so thoroughly before, and she was in no rush for him to end it.

Dawson eventually relented, pulling back just a little and smiling as Alexa’s mouth immediately sought his again. He was eager to satisfy the need that they had for each other, and while he was enjoying kissing her more than he had ever enjoyed kissing a woman before, he knew that they both needed and craved more. He knew that she was relatively inexperienced and that he would have to make the next move, but he wanted her to feel as though she had the final say and control over how things went from here.

“Touch me, please.” The deep, husky timber of his voice as he spoke the request had her eyes opening wide as another bolt of desire shot through her. Even in the dim interior of the car, she could see the almost desperate need in his eyes and she knew that it mirrored her own expression. She hesitated as she looked at him, not sure if she had the guts to do as he’d asked, but wanting desperately to be brave enough. “Please, Alexa.”

Hearing the almost desperate plea in his voice was her undoing, and she slid a hand down between their bodies until her palm grazed across the steely hardness of his manhood. Dawson’s breath left his body in a hiss at the touch, and his own hand came down on top of hers, pressing down against the material of his jeans and leaving her in no doubt as to just how turned on he was.

“See what you do to me? Just kissing you has me on the brink of cumming, Alexa.”

She knew exactly what he meant, because she could feel the wetness between her own thighs and her body ached and throbbed with desire. She’d never felt this kind of desperate need before, and right at this moment in time she would have done absolutely anything he’d asked of her without giving a second thought.

“I feel the same way.” Her voice was a husky whisper – almost unrecognizable even to her. “I want…” Her voice trailed off in embarrassment as she realized what she’d been about to say.

“What do you want, baby? Tell me.” He’d have given her the moon on a stick if that’s what she’d asked for.

She could feel herself blushing, and was once again grateful for how dark it was inside the limo. Oh my God! There were in a limo, with a driver! What if he could see what they were doing? She shot a nervous glance at the glass partition that separated them. Dawson interpreted the look and was quick to reassure her.

“It’s okay. He can’t see or hear anything back here. I promise.” He smiled at her sigh of relief. “Now, tell me what you want.”

“I want to feel you touching me.” She stammered just a little, but felt proud of herself for being able to get the words out.

Dawson’s cock gave another, almost painful twitch as he heard her say the words. “I want that, too. So very badly.” He moved her off his lap and lay her down on the longest seat of the limo, bending to plant another steamy kiss on her lips. She held her breath as his lips left her mouth, and he kissed along her jawline before moving his attention lower to her collarbone. He raised his head to look at her, wanting to gauge her reaction as he asked her once more if she was absolutely sure. When she nodded her head shyly in agreement, his fingers started to undo the small buttons of her blouse.

It was Alexa’s turn to watch him as he concentrated on his task, and she was mesmerized by the intent expression on his ruggedly handsome face. As the last button was undone, he parted the cotton material, and she held her breath as he looked down at her exposed upper body. She had never been so grateful for having the foresight to wear a lacy, white bra and matching panties, rather than her normal, plain underwear. She heard him groan as he looked at her full breasts in their lace confines, her hardened nipples jutting at the delicate material almost as though they were begging to be released.

His hands came up to cup her tits and his thumbs grazed over her pebbled buds. “I want to go slowly with you and do things to you for hours that will leave you trembling and incoherent with pleasure.” His voice was a gruff whisper. “But I’m not sure that I have the patience or the willpower this first time, and the close confines of a car don’t leave me with much room to maneuver.”

Alexa shocked herself with the words that came out of her mouth. “I don’t want you to go slowly. I don’t want you to be gentle. I want you, Dawson.” As soon as the words left her mouth she wished that she could snatch them back and pretend she’d never said anything.

But Dawson had no intention of ignoring what she’d said, and he quickly unsnapped the front fastening of her bra and lowered his mouth to suck a throbbing nipple between his lips. As his tongue flicked over the top of her sensitized flesh, his thumb and forefinger of his other hand pinched and teased at her other nipple, making her gasp in pleasure. Without thinking about it, her hand tangled in his hair, holding his head to her breast as he suckled and tormented her delightfully.

“That feels so good.” She wasn’t sure if she’d said the words out loud, but as he gave an appreciative moan against her skin, she knew that he’d heard her. “I want to feel you inside me. Please, Dawson.”

He didn’t say anything as he moved away from her, just far enough so that he could undo his jeans and push them and his boxers down over his hips. She was in awe as she watched his massive cock spring free, and then he was reaching forward, pushing her skirt upwards as he took hold of her lace panties and pulled them down her legs and off her ankles.

“Sweetheart, this seat isn’t big enough for me to be on top of you, so I’m afraid that it’s going to have to be the other way around.”

“That sounds good to me.” The couple of times that she’d had sex in the past had never involved her being on top, and it had always been something that she’d wondered about.

Dawson didn’t need to be told twice, and in one swift movement, his arms wrapped around her body, and he lifted her up as he turned and sat down on the leather upholstery. Facing him with her legs straddling his, Alexa could feel his cock pressing against her entrance and, for the first time, she felt nervous at how large he felt.

There’s no way that’s going to fit inside me, she thought nervously. But as he reached down between their bodies and took hold of himself with one hand, her nerves disappeared. She knew that he wasn’t going to do anything that would hurt her, and he was obviously experienced enough to know what he was doing.

“Kiss me.” She bobbed her head forward and their mouths melded together, and as she got lost in the taste of his lips, he slowly slid his cock into her pussy. Alexa forgot to breathe as he slowly pushed upwards; his hands on her hips held her in place. He pulled out and then shoved upwards again, going in a little further as she lowered herself onto him until her warm wetness sheathed him completely. “You feel so tight.”

She knew that it was a compliment rather than an insult, and she smiled against his mouth as she pushed down even harder. She moaned as he filled her completely, his shaft touching every nerve ending inside her and making them both groan with passion. Alexa placed her hands on the back of the seat behind his head, and her own head was thrown back as she raised her body up his length and then slammed it down onto him again. For the very first time she knew what it meant when women talked about ‘riding a man.’ As her hips rotated and her body bounced on top of him, it felt like the most natural thing in the world to her.

Dawson’s fingers tightened and flexed on her hips as she let go of all her inhibitions and fucked him as though there was no tomorrow. He didn’t think that he had ever seen or felt anything as erotic as what was happening right now. He moved one of his hands from her hips up to her full breast, cupping it and holding it up to his mouth so that he could suckle at her as she fucked him.

Alexa moaned, and she ground her hips even harder into his as her inner muscles squeezed him unmercifully. She could feel the fire building between her legs, and her clit throbbed almost painfully as her body readied itself for the climax she craved. It was as though Dawson instinctively knew what she needed, and he let go of her tit and slid his hand down between them, rubbing his thumb over her aching nub as she continued to ride him.

She didn’t know what happened, but something inside her exploded and her head fell backwards as her mouth opened. She cried out as her body fell apart; wave after wave of pleasure washed over her.

“Dawson! Oh my God, Dawson.” She called his name again and again as her body shook and trembled with ecstasy and her pussy pulsated around his shaft.

Dawson didn’t think that he had ever seen or heard anything as beautiful as her falling apart on top of him, and as he felt her squeezing his length as her juices coated him, his own climax hit him like a ton of bricks. He placed both hands back on her hips and bowed his head, resting it just above her breasts as his mouth opened and he made an animalistic sound of pleasure and greed. His balls tightened almost painfully. His cock jerked inside her, and he spewed hot, thick cum into her still quivering pussy.

They sat, still locked together, for what felt like a lifetime; gasping for breath as their sweat-soaked bodies chilled, and they slowly came back down to earth.

“Are you okay?” Dawson’s voice was soft and tentative, almost as though he was afraid of her answer.

“Better than okay.” Her voice was equally as soft, but that was probably because she felt suddenly and totally exhausted. She tried to stifle the yawn that escaped her by burying her face in his shoulder, but he either heard or felt it and he let out a quiet chuckle.

“Are you tired, baby?” She nodded her head into his shoulder, unable to find the energy to speak. She felt Dawson move and without quite knowing how, the next thing she knew, she was lying down on the seat once again with the pillow beneath her head and the cover over her body. “We still have quite a way to go yet, so get some rest.”

She turned onto her side and brought her knees up into the fetal position, tucking a hand beneath her cheek as her eyes started to close.

“You do know that this will probably never happen again, don’t you?” She was hardly even aware of what she was saying, and she wasn’t even sure that she’d said the words aloud.

Dawson placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and his hand brushed her hair away from her face. “We shall see, sweetheart. We shall see.”

16

SHE SLEPT FOR the remainder of the drive and only woke up when Dawson shook her gently to rouse her. “Time to wake up, sleepyhead. We’re here.”

As she became aware of her surroundings, she remembered what had happened just before she’d fallen asleep, and her face flamed with embarrassment. Thankfully, Dawson didn’t seem to notice and he handed her clothes to her and then turned around so that she could get dressed with some modicum of privacy. The chauffeur opened the door and they both exited the limo, stretching their backs and legs for the first time in hours and both giving a grateful sigh at being able to do so.

Alexa looked up at the luxury hotel in awe, hardly able to believe that she was actually going to be spending a few nights there. There was even a doorman standing outside the large, smoked-glass entryway, and as she watched, he beckoned to a porter to take their luggage from the chauffeur. She felt like royalty, but then she noticed a homeless man huddled against the wall and her happiness turned to sadness in the blink of an eye. She didn’t have much money on her, but she felt compelled to go to him and give him half of what she had in the hope that he would be able to get something to eat at the very least.

The porter carried their luggage into the hotel as the doorman touched his hand to his head in greeting. “Good to see you again, Mr. James, sir.”

“Thank you, Arthur. It’s good to be back.” Alexa shouldn’t have been surprised that he was on first name terms with the staff at one of the most prestigious hotels in the States, but she was. They both followed the porter inside where he was greeted by name by the receptionist who informed him that the penthouse suite was ready for him.

The porter started to make his way toward the bank of elevators, and Alexa started to follow him, but then she heard Dawson call to someone. She watched from a discreet distance as he exchanged a few words with a young woman before handing her what looked like a wad of money.

What on earth is that all about, she wondered suspiciously. She couldn’t quite help the bad thoughts that ran through her mind, and she couldn’t help but remember how some of the girls in the office had talked about how he liked to party and that some had heard rumors that he also liked to have fun with call-girls while he was away on business trips. She hoped that it wasn’t anything like that and that it had just been gossip-mongers at their worst, but the secretive way that Dawson and the woman seemed to be talking definitely made it look like nothing good was going on, and she felt her heart sink at the thoughts that raced through her mind.

The elevator ride up to the top floor was made in silence with Alexa not knowing what to say to him, and Dawson not knowing why her attitude toward him had cooled. Maybe she’s regretting what happened in the back of the limousine, he thought to himself as the porter opened the double doors to the penthouse suite.

He waited until they were on their own before questioning her about it. “What’s wrong, Alexa? And don’t tell me it’s nothing, because I’m almost getting hypothermia with how cold you are toward me right now.”

“How dare you involve me in your illicit dealings?” She was absolutely furious, and he became even more convinced that it was because they’d had sex.

Well, hell, he thought. It’s not like I forced her or anything. Her next words completely took the wind out of his sails.

“If you’ve just brought me here to use me as a decoy so that you can have some out-of-town fun with a hooker, then you can just take me home again. I wanted no part in it, Dawson.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” He was completely and utterly confused.

The fact that he seemed oblivious to why she was so mad just infuriated her even more. “What do you mean, what am I talking about? I saw you downstairs, sneakily handing money to that woman. What else could it be for if it wasn’t to pay for something illicit, like a prostitute?”

It was Dawson’s turn to get angry now. Was she being serious?

“A hooker? You really think that I was paying for a hooker?” Just the thought of it made him sick to his stomach. “I can’t believe that you would even think that of me, especially after what we shared in the car.”

Alexa’s heart sank to her stomach. Way to go, Lexi. You’ve really gone and done it this time, girl. “I’m sorry, Dawson. I jumped to all the wrong conclusions and you didn’t deserve that.”

“No, I didn’t. The reason I handed that woman some money was because I saw you with the homeless man outside. I gave her enough money to pay for a room at the hotel, buy him some clothes from the hotel boutique, and to make sure that he ate well.” Alexa felt like the meanest bitch on the planet as she listened to him. “I also gave her one of my business cards and told her to tell the man to call me so that we could make some arrangements for a job for him, as well as trying to find him somewhere to live.”

“I really am sorry, Dawson.” And she was. “I think I’m going to go and unpack.” She wasn’t sure how she was going to make it up to him, but at that moment it felt like the best thing she could do was to give him some space. The porter had already taken her suitcase into her bedroom, so she went in and closed the door behind her.

She was close to tears at upsetting Dawson so much, but was also relieved at being wrong in her assumptions about what he’d been doing. If nothing else, the whole matter had taught her that she shouldn’t have let her emotions get the better of her, and she sure as hell shouldn’t listen to gossip. It was obvious that their relationship needed to get back to that of employer and employee. At least that way, neither of them were going to get hurt by misunderstandings or miscommunications.

With her mind made up, she decided to have a shower and take a long nap. Even though she’d slept in the car on the way there, she was still mentally and physically exhausted. With the gala just a few hours away, she wanted to be a little more refreshed.

She woke up with an hour to spare, and after taking another shower, she applied her makeup, coiled her hair loosely on the top of her head, leaving wispy tendrils framing her face, and then turned her attention to getting dressed.

She put on her new lingerie and then zipped herself into the dress she’d bought for the occasion before putting on her new high-heeled shoes and taking a look at herself in the full-length mirror. The black, strapless figure-hugging sheath of the dress came to just above her knees at the front and then dropped to her ankles at the back. The finishing touch was one of her pride and joys in life – her late grandmother’s rhinestone choker that her grandfather had bought for his bride to wear on their wedding day.

She was a bag of nerves as she left her bedroom and entered the living area of the penthouse. She hoped that Dawson approved of what his money had bought, but more than that, she hoped that she looked the part and wouldn’t let him down in front of so many influential people.

As Dawson’s door opened and he walked into the room, he looked across at Alexa and stopped dead in his tracks. He could honestly say that he had never seen a woman more beautiful than how she looked at that very moment, and as he walked toward her, he was literally lost for words.

“You look…” His words trailed off as he watched the delicious blush spread across her cheeks. Dear God, I could rip those clothes off you right now and do so many bad things to you, he thought to himself before clearing his throat and trying again. “You look absolutely stunning, Alexa. Maybe we could skip the function and just stay up here together.”

He was only half joking, but even though he’d obviously forgiven her for her outburst earlier, Alexa was having none of it. “Absolutely not, Dawson.” But, you’re tempted, aren’t you, Lexi? She gave the devil on her shoulder a shove, determined to try and get their relationship back to where it had been before she’d got in the limousine with him.

Dawson gave an exaggerated sigh of disappointment, and without saying another word, he held the door open for her. They left the room together to make their way down to the large function room where the event was being held.

The evening was to start off with a charity auction, and after checking the table plan that was set up by the door, the two of them made their way to one of the round tables that was situated around the dance floor. Discrete place names displayed their allocated seats. A paddle with a number on it sat in Dawson’s chair, ready for him to bid if he chose to do so.

The room was a hive of activity as more and more people arrived, until, eventually, every seat in the room was taken and the evening could begin. Alexa looked around her with interest, amazed at how many influential and stunningly beautiful people had gathered under one roof.

The room was called to order by the master of ceremonies tapping on the microphone, and he proceeded to make a small speech before the auction commenced. He thanked everyone for coming and for giving their support to so many different charities. He went on to read a list of the different items up for auction as well as saying which person or company had donated said item, and Alexa was shocked to find out that Dawson had donated many of them.

There were so many different things being auctioned off that it took almost two hours to reach the final item, during which time Dawson bid on so many things that she lost count. She was absolutely riveted by the event and was thoroughly enjoying herself. The champagne was flowing freely, and she completely lost track of how many glasses she had to drink. She wasn’t drunk by any means, but she was definitely tipsy, and Dawson couldn’t help but smile as he watched her let herself relax.

Once the auction was over, a live band took the stage and various couples took to the dance floor. A few women came up to Dawson to ask him to dance, but he politely refused each time.

“You know that you’re breaking their hearts, right?” Alexa was tipsy enough to joke with him, and he laughed her comment away.

“There is only one woman I’m interested in dancing with tonight, and I’m looking at her.” Normally there was no way that Alexa would let herself be talked into dancing with anyone, but in her slightly inebriated state, she was helpless to resist as he took her hand and led her to the dance floor. As the music changed tempo to a slower song, Dawson wrapped his arms around her and she in turn wrapped hers around his neck as they swayed together.

With her head resting on his shoulder and her face snuggled into his neck, Alexa smiled against the pulse in his throat. “You do know that I’m on to you, right?”

Just like I want to be on you, he thought lustfully. “What do you mean, on to me?” He was curious about what she meant and more than just a little turned on by his proximity to her.

“I know that you like to make everyone think that you’re a bad boy, and you might be able to convince them, but I know differently.” She was slurring just enough to make herself sound even cuter than she already was. “You’re not really a bad boy at all, are you? I don’t care what those assholes said when you were growing up. I know that you have a heart of gold, even if you do like to keep it covered up with steel.” She knew that the alcohol had loosened her tongue, but for the life of her, she couldn’t quite seem to reel it in and shut up.

Dawson didn’t know what to say to her in response. He didn’t think that he’d ever heard anything as nice as what she’d just said to him, and he was deeply touched. So touched that he was afraid that if he tried to talk, she would hear just how emotional she’d made him with her words. Instead, he satisfied himself with tightening his arms around her and continuing to sway in time with the music.

He’d almost gotten himself back under control when the song ended, and Alexa placed the most tender of kisses right on the side of his neck. Then, his control snapped. He took a step backward and looked down into her face, smiling darkly before lifting her up into his arms. Then, in front of everyone, he carried her out of the room and purposefully strode to the elevator, taking her back up to their suite without saying a word.

17

HE KICKED THE DOOR closed behind them and lowered her to her feet. Alexa was powerless to resist as he slowly started to undress her, although if she was completely honest with herself, she would have to admit to wanting him just as badly as he seemed to want her.

“You have been driving me crazy all damn night.” Dawson’s voice was low, but she could hear the passion in it. He moved slowly, walking around behind her and lowering the zipper at the back of her dress inch by tantalizing inch.

Alexa couldn’t help but feel a little self-conscious, even in her tipsy state. For the first time, he was going to see her naked, and even though they’d had sex in the limousine, the light there had been dim. Now, she didn’t have the cover of darkness to hide her embarrassment. Dawson seemed to instinctively know how she was feeling and he was quick to reassure her as her dress fell in a puddle around her ankles, and she stood there in her new lingerie.

“You are absolutely exquisite.” She really was a vision of loveliness in front of him, and he couldn’t believe how lucky he was that she’d agreed to come away with him.

He reached forward and pulled her into his arms, removing the pins from her hair as his lips met hers in a kiss that was more tender than passionate and wringing a moan from her at the contact. He pulled her even closer into him, and she moaned again as she felt the thickness of the erection that was fighting to break free from the confines of its tuxedo-pants prison.

Dawson moved his mouth from hers and kissed his way to the tender spot just beneath her ear, making her tremble and sigh in response. She loved the way he kissed her, but she wanted so much more, including seeing him naked. Her hands reached for his tuxedo jacket, pushing it from his shoulders and letting it fall unheeded to the floor before turning her attention to the buttons of his shirt. It quickly followed the same fate as the jacket, and her nimble fingers turned their attention to his pants, undoing the button and zipper, and pushing them down over his hips along with his underwear.

Dear God, he is magnificent, she thought to herself, as she stepped back and looked him up and down. In her mind, he was absolutely perfect and the broadness of his muscular chest and arms perfectly matched his powerful thighs. The only thing more impressive than his physique was the cock that stood proudly to attention under her greedy gaze. It seemed to be getting harder still as he watched her inspecting him.

“I want to touch you. I want to taste you.”

Her words were almost his and with a growl he lunged forward and swung her back up into his arms, carrying her to his bedroom and the king size bed that awaited them. He’d told himself that he was going to go slow with her this time and make sure that he met all of her needs, but in all honesty, he wasn’t sure how much more control he was going to be able to maintain, especially when she said things like that to him.

He laid her gently down on top of the bed and removed her bra and panties before laying down beside her. Her hand started to move down his body, but he placed his own on top of it to stop her movements.

“Dawson, I said that I wanted to touch you.” Her voice was a sexy whine that almost sent him over the edge.

“I know what you said, but if you touch me now it’s going to be game over.” He leaned down to give her a kiss. “Roll on your side for me, baby.” She looked confused, but did what he asked anyway, rolling on her side and facing away from him. She felt him move in close behind her, the warmth of his body only rivaled by the heat of his shaft as it brushed against her buttocks. He trailed a hand from the back of her shoulder, down the side of her rib cage and over her hip before he moved it around to the cheek of her ass where he kneaded the flesh gently.

Alexa trembled as he maneuvered between her legs, his fingers skimming across her own heated moistness and making her gasp in reaction. Her whole body felt alive in a way that she’d never experienced before; her puckered nipples and aching breasts cried out for the attention he was lavishing on the lower part of her body. She trembled again as he unerringly circled her clit with one of his fingertips, and then she cried out as he slid his finger inside her.

He maneuvered his other arm beneath her and wrapped it around her waist, holding her tightly as he rolled over onto his back and pulled her onto him so that she was looking up at the ceiling. He started to move his finger inside her, twisting his hand so that he could stroke her clit with his thumb at the same time. Cupping her breast with his free hand, he started to tease her nipple, and Alexa’s body tightened and tensed up as she felt her climax already building inside her.

Dawson gently bit the lobe of her ear and then spoke softly to her. “Just relax and let it happen, sweetheart.”

Even as her mind argued with him, her body followed his instructions, and her first rippling orgasm of the night floated through her body as she called out his name and bucked on top of him, fervently wishing that she could feel him inside her.

He moaned against her ear as he felt her wetness against his hand. “That felt so good. Cum for me again.”

She was helpless to deny him as he slid a second finger into her, scissoring them and rubbing across the top of her g-spot as the palm of his hand pressed down onto her swollen clit. She cried out again and clamped one of her hands over the top of her mouth. She started to thrash against him as he held her firmly in place. “Please, Dawson! I need to feel you inside me. Please!”

He laughed softly against her ear. “I thought you said you want to touch and taste me?” He couldn’t help teasing her, but she found strength from somewhere and pulled herself away from him, turning to face him and smiling down at him with an intent expression on her beautiful face.

“I did, didn’t I?” She scooted backwards down the bed and settled herself between his legs, looking down at his hard shaft with a lustful gleam in her eyes. She tentatively reached forward

and wrapped her small hand around his girth, wondering how he could be so hard and yet feel like velvet in her palm.

She’d never tasted a man before, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her, and she licked her lips greedily before leaning down and touching her tongue to his tip. The taste of him was a heady sensation – basic, delicious and pure sex. Dawson’s hands found their way to her head, tangling in her long hair as he fought the urge to pull her head down onto him.

Alexa lapped at his knob, testing him out as she tasted him and letting her tongue slide across his slit. She heard his breath speed up and felt his grip get tighter in her hair, and she relished the power she seemed to have over him right now. “Do you like that?”

“Oh shit. You have absolutely no idea just how much I like that.” His voice was hoarse with longing, and once again he had to fight the urge to pull her face down onto his cock. His body arched up off the bed as she began to flick her tongue quickly back and forth over his tip.

Fucking hell! If she carries on like this, I’m going to cum within minutes, he thought.

She loved the taste of him. The thought of tasting a man had always revolted her in the past, but now she understood, and she couldn’t get enough of him. She held his shaft toward her mouth with one hand, and with the other, she cupped his balls and gently massaged them. As he groaned again, she opened her mouth wide and sank it down onto him, taking as much of him in her mouth as she possibly could and loving the taste of his leaking pre-cum on her tongue. Because of her inexperience and his size, she could only manage to suck halfway down his length, so she tightened her hand around him and moved it in time with her lips.

Dawson felt as though he had died and gone to heaven. He didn’t think that he had ever felt anything more pleasurable in his entire life, and he never wanted it to end. Without conscious thought, he began to move his hips in time with her movements, his climax drawing ever closer with each passing minute until he came to his senses and jerked her away. “As much as I’m loving this, you’re going to make me cum way too fast. Besides, it’s my turn to give you pleasure now.”

Alexa just had time to give a moan of disappointment before he expertly flipped her over onto her stomach and took hold of her hips, pulling them upwards and backwards so that her ass was in the air and the top half of her body was on the bed. She felt his long legs straddle her, holding her own together as he dipped his hips and she felt the head of his cock press against her opening. She held her breath as he used his hand to guide his way into her, and then he was splitting her in two as his hands gripped her hips and he slid into her, going impossibly deep.

“Take hold of the headboard.” She followed his command and he started to thrust in and out of her. There was nothing tender or gentle about it this time – just pure animalistic need. Alexa was overwhelmed with the sensations that were coursing through her body, and as Dawson fucked her from behind, she met every thrust with one of her own, pushing back onto him as they both grunted and groaned in pleasure.

When Alexa’s orgasm hit, it took complete control over her. Her pussy ached, throbbing sweetly with her climax as Dawson increased the tempo and slammed into her so hard that the breath was knocked out of her body. She clung to the headboard and screamed into the back of her hand as waves of pleasure so intense that they left her incapable of rational thought cascaded through her.

Then, with a sound that could only be described as a roar, Dawson came too, pumping streams of hot, molten liquid deep inside her and triggering another trembling climax from her ravaged body. Her pussy milked him, clenching and pulsating around him as they both gasped for breath. Their bodies shook in the aftermath of what had been the most intense pleasure either of them had ever experienced, both on a mental and physical level.

She could hardly breathe, but she didn’t care. Dawson was still wrapped around her, his arms holding her tightly even as he softened inside her. If she had thought that she was frigid before, he had proven otherwise, and she reveled in the knowledge. He groaned and reluctantly pulled out of her, rolling over and pulling her with him to nestle her in the crook of his arm with her head on his chest.

They were both completely exhausted, and even though Alexa tried her hardest to stay awake, her eyelids were just too heavy. They fluttered closed as she started to drift off to sleep. She wasn’t sure if she was dreaming, but just before she lapsed into slumber, she thought she heard him say something.

“My idea of heaven would be to spend all night, every night here with you like this.”

18

WHEN ALEXA WOKE UP the following morning, it took her a moment to remember where she was. And then the memories of the previous night flooded in and she wanted to pull the covers up over her head and hide in embarrassment. She wasn’t ashamed at what they’d done, but she did feel a little appalled that she’d gotten so drunk during the gala.

What on earth must Dawson think of me, she thought, feeling absolutely mortified by her behavior. Not only had she thrown accusations at him at the start of the night, she’d then proceeded to get drunk in front of some of his business partners and competitors.

She peeked over at the other side of the bed and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that he wasn’t there. He’s probably halfway back home by now, trying to get as far away from you as quickly as possible. She knew that he would never actually abandon her like that, no matter how much he might think about it, but she wouldn’t have blamed him if he had left.

“Good morning, beautiful.” The bedroom door opened and in walked the man in question. He gave her a smile that could only be classed as beaming and she found herself smiling shyly back at him. “I wasn’t sure what you like to eat for breakfast, so I ordered a little bit of everything. I figured that after last night’s exertions, you’d be ravenous.”

Alexa gave a moan of embarrassment and dragged the covers up over her head to hide the fact that she was blushing, much to the amusement of Dawson. “A gentleman wouldn’t have reminded me of that.” She felt the bed shake as Dawson started to laugh, and she grabbed the pillow beside her and threw it at him playfully.

“Wait. Did you say breakfast? Did you really bring me breakfast in bed? That’s another first for me.”

“That’s a crying shame. You deserve breakfast in bed every day, as far as I’m concerned.” She could hear the sincerity in his voice and was touched by it.

They shared the contents of the breakfast tray, making small talk about nothing in particular as they ate. Then, Alexa remembered what she thought she’d heard him say as she drifted off to sleep the night before.

“Can I ask you something, Dawson?”

“Of course. You can always ask me anything you want.”

She wasn’t quite sure how to broach the subject, so she just came out with it. “Just before I fell asleep last night, I thought I heard you say that your idea of heaven would be to spend every night with me like we did last night. What did you mean, exactly?” She sounded obtuse, even to her own mind, but she really wanted to know so that they didn’t get their wires crossed again.

It was Dawson’s turn to blush, and that was a sight that she’d never thought she’d see. But he didn’t try to change the subject or avoid answering the question. “I meant exactly what I said, even though you weren’t really supposed to hear me. You’re making me see the world through different eyes and in a different light, Alexa. You always show compassion to people, even people you don’t know, and you’re making me want to see more of the good in people, too.” He held her gaze as he spoke and she could see that he really meant what he was saying. “Ralph always told me that I should never try to judge them and that I should always try to see things from other people’s perspective, and that’s something that I think I’ve lost sight of a little. In the car yesterday, you cried for a little boy you’d never met and for the man that he would become. I watched as you gave money to a homeless man, and I know that it was money you could ill afford to give away, but you did it anyway, because his need was greater than yours.” His voice was filled with an emotion that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. “I find myself wanting to be a better person because of you, even though I don’t think I’m necessarily a bad man.”

“You’re a good man, Dawson – no matter who may have told you differently in the past.”

He smiled and leaned over her to give her a kiss that left her breathless. “I have no idea where our relationship is going to go, but I would like a chance to see where it might take us. That’s if it’s what you want to as well.”

“I’d like that, Dawson. I’d like that very much.”

The End

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Billionaire Bad Ass

Book 2 of the Company Ink Series

Prelude

AS HE WATCHED Candy get dressed, Ashton’s stomach made a slow drop into his knees. Her body was okay – whip thin and covered with taut skin – but her face showed her age in every line.

Now uncomfortable, Ashton looked away, his dark blue eyes searching out the cobwebs in the corners of the room. One hand went up and raked through his thick, wheat-colored hair – a nervous habit. His morals, never strong or present, always leaped into existence after every one of these little romps in his current foster mother’s bed. It was inconvenient that his morals should pop up and bring with them a sense of shame and guilt he didn’t like having to feel. It wasn’t his fault he was in that bedroom or that king-sized bed. He was just a convenient hunk of hard flesh, and nothing more. He just happened to be closer to hand, so to speak, than whatever other guy she was cheating on her husband with at the time.

Candy was the local ride for all sorts of guys. How her husband hadn’t found out yet was anyone’s guess, but Brody’s temper was legendary, and Ashton knew he damn sure didn’t want to be around when he did find out.

Candy stuck a cigarette in her mouth and lit it. Her other hand yanked at the covers, twitching them into place. Ashton’s belly dropped again. His foster dad, Brody, would come home later, and he and Candy would get busy right in that same bed on the same stinking sheets.

Gross and a pervert – that just about summed Candy up. The fact that he’d just had sex with a gross pervert wasn’t lost on him. That he’d wind up on the streets if he didn’t was equally not lost. He was weeks away from an eighteenth birthday that was bound to bounce him out of the foster system and onto the streets, and he needed to take advantage of every situation he had a grip on between now and then if he was going to survive.

The truth was that Candy expected any boy who walked through her door to cater to her. She gave him, grudgingly, a couple hundred bucks of the money she got for taking care of him in return, and Ashton added that to the money he made doing bullshit jobs. Sleeping with Candy was about as appetizing as eating a five-day old donut, but that small sum of money helped bolster his hopes that he’d be okay come his final birthday in the harsh system.

Her voice, all hard rasp and smoke, asked, “Why are you still here?”

Good question. Ashton headed for the door. The whole house was just about as dingy and smoke-tinged as that bedroom, and he needed to breathe. He headed to the front door and went outside, squinting as bright sunlight hit his eyes, burning away the dimness that Candy preferred in every room.

Jackson, a kid who lived down the street, walked toward Ashton, calling out, “Hey.”

Ashton lifted his chin and asked, “Hey, what’s up?”

Jackson’s feet stopped just short of the driveway. Brody had a reputation for being an asshole, and that rep was deserved, and so most of the kids in the neighborhood steered clear. Jackson said, “I managed to hack past that stupid level in that new video game.”

“No shit?” Ashton wasn’t really that interested just then, but anything was better than hanging out in the house with creepy ass, cougar of the year, Candy. “That’s cool.”

“Yeah, you want to come check it out?”

“Sure.” They headed down the street with Ashton still thinking hard. His dad had been dust in the wind before he’d even been born, and his mom had decided to take off when he was five, way past the ‘cute and little’ stage that would have helped him get adopted by loving parents. He’d spent his entire life bouncing from place to place. If there was one thing he wanted most, it was to have a place that was all his and that he would always be able to call home. If things didn’t improve fast, that home would likely be a cardboard box behind the cleanest dumpster he could find.

Ashton’s best friend, Dawson, another system kid, had just turned eighteen and hit the bricks. Unlike Ashton, he’d had a soft place to land thanks to Ralph, the guy that ran the gym where Dawson worked. Ashton knew Dawson would fight to get him into the room Dawson had there if it came to that, but the last thing Ashton wanted to do was screw up one more thing for Dawson. Dawson had gotten tossed out of school before he was supposed to graduate for a fight that involved Ashton. Dawson was guilty by association but tried his best to cover for Ashton. Not that it mattered. The knife-wielding rich prick ran home to tell, and he got a pat on the back and a college career out of the deal. Ashton had gotten stitches in his abdomen and a short stint in reform school. Never mind that the rich prick had been the one to pull the knife.

Life wasn’t fair, and unlike a video game or computer program, there was no way to hack the system. If there had been, Jackson would have found it already.

“Uh-oh.”

Jackson’s word made Ashton’s feet stop. His eyes went to the group of guys coming their way, and Ashton’s shoulders tightened. Gerald Manning was a cocky and arrogant punk who never let anyone forget that his dad, a local dealer of blow and weed, ran the three-square blocks of cinderblock houses and sagging rowhomes.

Gerald was eighteen and in the senior class with Jackson and Ashton. The other guys with him were all graduates of the street. They were also looking for a fight – everything about the way they came stalking toward Ashton and Jackson said so.

Jackson, a skinny dude with a habit of chewing his bottom lip, spoke up. “Dude, should we run for it?”

“Probably.” Definitely. Jackson was no chicken. He’d go up against anyone he had to, but the two of them were no match for half a dozen dudes known for carrying weapons and leaving whoever they decided to fight smeared across the sidewalk. Ashton was tough, too, though, and strong. His body had been honed by years of bad food and the need to stay active and to keep moving, because he never knew what might be coming at him. Even so, fighting those guys was sheer stupidity, and the odds were not in his and Jackson’s favor.

Jackson took a step back. Ashton did, too. Running wasn’t even in Ashton’s DNA, but even he knew the odds of walking away from that crew were too low to even risk. Still, he remained stuck. His brain yelled at him to run.

Jackson echoed that. “Dude, come on. Let’s buck it.”

Too late. Gerald strolled up, the smile on his acne-scarred face far from pleasant. “You,” he thrust his chin toward Ashton. “I got a bone to pick with you.”

“Yeah?” Ashton’s lips parted in a smile too cynical for his years. “Over what?”

“You know what. You’re horning in on my action, and I don’t like it.”

What was Gerald talking about? “No clue what action you are referring to,” Ashton said.

“Then how come I hear it all over the block that you’re doing lookouts for Pete?” The words came out of Gerald’s sneering mouth and hit the air. “Everyone knows this is my dad’s block, and nobody gets to creep in here and work.”

That was true. Pete paid well. Ashton didn’t have to carry or sell dope. He just had to watch the end of the street, check out the cars that didn’t usually cruise through, and use a walkie-talkie to let Pete know when a car that looked like it held a narc was headed down to the little corner where Pete did his street business.

It was easy money, but he’d known going in he might get caught up in a street feud between Pete and Gerald’s dad, and it seemed that he already had.

Ashton knew he should lie his head off and try to walk. But he didn’t. His mouth blasted off. “Your dad’s slipping. Nobody wants to buy what he’s peddling, because he’s too busy doing too much of his own product. Then he cuts whatever he doesn’t put up his own nose so he can still sell some. That’s bad business, yo.”

Jackson groaned. “Wow man, you should’ve just kept your fucking mouth shut.”

Yeah. He should have. Gerald closed in, arms already swinging. Ashton ducked the flying fists aimed at his face easily enough. His fist went right to where he knew it would do the most damage: Gerald’s balls. His other fist landed right on the point of Gerald’s chin.

Gerald didn’t go down though. Jackson sailed in as one of Gerald’s buddies tried to make it a two-on-one fight, and soon the two were fighting wildly and losing badly. Blood spilled down Ashton’s forehead, getting into his eyes and stinging hard. It impaired his vision, and he had to wipe it away, but when he did, he had to stop swinging on Gerald who was still punching and kicking so hard that Ashton’s body could barely absorb each blow.

He saw Jackson go down just as Gerald landed a hard blow in the center of Ashton’s gut. Ashton doubled over. That was bad enough. The cop cars pulling down the street was even worse.

The cops jumped out of the car. Ashton didn’t fight it and neither did Jackson. The cops had itchy fingers, something everyone knew. They’d shoot or tase or work a guy over with the business end of the baton just for the sheer hell of it.

The cop holding Gerald slammed him head first onto the hood of the car. The resounding ‘gong’ would have made Ashton happy if he hadn’t just realized the seriousness of the situation.

Gerald was holding.

The drugs – seven or eight baggies of assorted illicit things – came out of Gerald’s pockets and landed on the hood. Ashton, on the opposite side of the car, could practically count the felonies stacking up as each bag joined the others.

He hadn’t started that fight, not in the practical sense, but he had in the only sense that the street would care about.

He’d worked for a guy who’d been horning in on Gerald’s dad, and of course Gerald had had to jump him.

Nobody would say Gerald should have emptied his pockets first, either.

All of this was going to be pinned on his shoulders, and Ashton knew it.

Gerald was going down hard unless he ratted out his supplier – his dad – and no way was he doing that. Gerald was eighteen, so he was stuck in that adult collar now.

Gerald lifted his head and sent a vicious grin Ashton’s way. “I’m going to kill you for this one. Just you wait.”

The cop jerked Gerald up and said, “Well, he’ll be waiting a mighty long time, bud. You’re on your way to the big house. Him? He’s juvie bound.”

Just perfect.

Gerald had plenty of friends in juvie, too, and they both knew it.

***

Jackson, who’d never been in trouble before, made bail and swore that he’d try to get Ashton out of there.

Ashton had told him not to bother. He already had a record anyway, and there was no way he was getting out. He was shackled again and led to the van that would take him to the center. He kept his head up despite the fear and worry nagging at him.

He landed at the Bedford, a notoriously bad juvenile detention hall. Intake was hellish, and by the time he was in a uniform and being led down the tiered walks that led to the cells, he already knew he was in for some hard time.

He’d do it, but he would be damned if he would do it lying down.

His cell was in the center, in full view of the other tiers. All the doors were open just then. The school hours were over, and young boys and older teens sat around on their bunks, watching him with wary eyes.

His roommate was a small and skinny guy with a nervous habit of ducking low and not meeting Ashton’s eye. The first five minutes in that cell told Ashton he’d find no ally in his bunkmate.

He was right. He’d barely unrolled the thin mattress and sheets across the steel ledge that served as a bed frame before three dudes walked in.

Ashton recognized one of them immediately – a guy from the block who ran weed and dope for Gerald’s dad. He called himself Speedy for a lot of reasons, and the twitch in his jaw told its own tale. He was sixteen and already drying out and doing time. In other words, he was one bad dude, and he was loyal to both Gerald and his dad.

And news traveled fast.

“Get out,” Speedy said to Ashton’s new roommate.

The guy didn’t even bother saying a word. He just bolted. Speedy and his buddies crammed into the cell.

Speedy said, “I hear you got my boy jammed up and locked down.”

Jammed up meaning arrested; locked down meaning in jail.

Ashton was exhausted. His whole body hurt from the earlier beating, and naturally, nobody had considered sending him to a doctor.

He didn’t answer. He ran at Speedy full force. His shoulder hit Speedy, and they went flying back out of the cell. What happened next would make sure Ashton was left alone for the rest of his stay there, but it would also end with him in the infirmary for two months.

Ashton used his legs like pistons. He shouted, “You want to die? Is that what you’re saying? Then let’s do it! Hell, I’ll kill myself to take you out!”

Speedy tried to grab the rail, but Ashton hoisted a knee into the other boy’s groin, and then he backed off just to run forward again. His hands grabbed Speedy’s uniform shirt, and momentum carried them forward. Ashton dug deep, knowing what he was doing was stupid and that he really might die for his troubles but also knowing that if he got lucky and didn’t die, he’d have a much easier time.

He was all in, because he had no choice.

“What are you doing?” Speedy’s shouts were frantic now as their bodies met the rail, and Speedy grabbed at it, fear showing on his face.

His buddies had melted away. Clearly, they had not planned on Ashton being a psycho, and they sure hadn’t planned on getting involved in what could potentially turn into death.

Ashton answered with a grim, “Testing your loyalty. You ready to die for Gerald? Because if you come at me, you’d better be.”

He shoved hard again, his feet digging into the cold concrete and they went over the railing, tumbling toward the floor three stories below them.

Speedy screamed all the way down.

They hit the floor below, bones meeting concrete. Ashton’s fall was slightly broken by Speedy’s thin body, but the shock reverberated through him so hard his teeth met together and the taste of blood filled his mouth. An awful snapping sound boomed across the common room that they had fallen into. Pain shot up through Ashton’s body, and blackness wavered on the edges of his vision.

Speedy, pinned and hurt below Ashton, screamed, “No, man! I got nothing for Gerald! Nothing, man!”

It wasn’t done yet. As soon as they healed up, Speedy might rethink that, unless he had something to remind him why he shouldn’t.

Summoning up all his fading strength, Ashton lifted his head and drove his skull into Speedy’s face, hearing the satisfying crunch of bones and seeing blood before finally passing out.

When he woke, he was in the infirmary. A doctor stood over him, and Ashton’s wrists were neatly cuffed to the bed rails. The doctor said, “I hope you’re proud of yourself. You came close to killing that boy.”

That boy was a speed junkie and a dealer known to carry guns and pistol whip anyone who got in his way. Ashton didn’t bother saying so. The doctor would go home to his nice house and wash his hands and face and pretend that his day was just a long series of patients who weren’t already hardened criminals. The speech was probably just one more way he managed to live with himself.

The doctor added, “I hear they’re tacking more time onto your sentence, too.”

Well, so what? At least in there he would have one guarantee: he wouldn’t have to pack up and move again until he was eighteen.

***

He was eighteen and free. Granted, free just meant he was taken to the front of the youth detention center, given his stuff, and sent down the road. But either way, he was done.

There was no sense in going back to Candy and Brody’s place. Jackson had told the cops that Gerald and his guys had jumped them. They’d gone to jail, too, for the drugs and weapons in their pockets. Jackson’s mom had gotten up the money to pay the fines that kept Ashton locked up, and it was Jackson who was waiting to pick Ashton up when he stepped out of the center.

Jackson asked, “So do you have a plan?”

Ashton winced. He’d hoped Dawson would be able to show up to spring him, but Dawson was working too many jobs while trying to keep his own head above water. “No. I got some money in the bank, but that’s about it.”

“I got into a tech school, and I got a job at a lawn company out there in Lake Crescent,” Jackson said.

Ashton whistled. “Wow, man! Those houses cost in the millions.”

Jackson said, “I know, and you should see the yards. Hey, my boss was just saying he could use a good helper to push a mower. You willing?”

“Does it pay?”

Jackson said, “Define pay. I mean yeah, but it’s not great.”

“Not great beats no money at all. Hey, can you run me by the bank and then over to that little apartment complex – you know the one, over by that auto parts store.”

“Sure. Why?”

“They rent by the week, man.” And he had maybe enough money for two. He shifted in the seat. “I might need a ride to work for a while, too, until I can get one of my own.”

“No problem.” Jackson said, and headed for the apartments.

***

Three years later, Ashton climbed out of a bed, watching as a woman dressed carefully. Not much had changed. Now the women he bedded were as toned, taut, and carefully honed down to the perfect weight and style as the diamonds on their fingers. Their sheets were silk or satin, and their husbands paid the bill for the ‘services’ that Ashton provided.

He still pushed a mower for his boss, but now he also took fast breaks with the lady of the house during working hours, too. Nobody noticed. Or, if they did, they didn’t say anything.

“Let me give you a tip, sweetheart.”

The words hunched his shoulders. He hated feeling like a gigolo. He wasn’t really in it for the money; he liked sleeping with them. The power they held was intoxicating, and he liked to pretend it was his house, his lawn, and his beautiful wife that he was with, but as always that fantasy crashed down around Ashton’s ears as soon as slender fingers bearing rings loaded down with precious stones extended a couple hundred dollars in his direction. “Yeah, thanks.”

That house had a ten-acre lawn. A quick glance out the window showed the rest of the crew getting closer to the section he was supposed to be working. Ashton bounded out of the room and grabbed the mower, cranking it and pushing fast. Sweat had gathered on his bare and wide chest earlier, and it started to gather again as he pushed hard under the thick and heavy sun.

Jackson jogged up. “You’ll never believe what just happened.”

Ashton didn’t stop working. He had work to catch up on. “What?”

“I got into the game design program! The one I told you about!”

Ashton’s spirits sank again. Jackson was a good guy, and he was fun to party with. He was also great as a wingman, especially since Dawson was still busting his ass and working too many hours to really party. “So, you’re out of here, huh?”

“Yeah.” Jackson’s forehead screwed up. “I have to get out of here to be anyone at all. You should think about getting out of here, too, you know. I mean, you’re going to get caught banging these women eventually and dude, what Gerald did was something you can fight. You can’t fight a pissed off rich guy.”

Ashton sighed inwardly. Jackson was right on that last bit. The only way to fight a rich guy was to be richer than he was. He was nowhere near rich. He still lived in that crappy apartment, still worked hard at menial jobs, and the money he got as ‘tips’ went into a bank account that grew steadily but way too slowly.

“I can’t leave here, but I’m going to get a different job.”

Jackson said, “Yeah, you might want to do it fast, too. I think Tony’s on to you.” Tony was their boss.

Ashton said, “I vote we go out tonight and celebrate our asses off. You in?”

“Sure,” Jackson grinned.

They did go out, and Jackson did leave. Ashton got another job, selling used cars at a small lot in a low-income section of town. He kept working and time kept passing. He moved out of that first apartment and into another one. He partied hard. The women came easy, and so did the good times, but Ashton often felt like he was just wasting time and getting by but not really living at all.

Jackson came back and, after a night spent drinking, Ashton said, “Man, you know what would be awesome?”

“Don’t say more alcohol,” Jackson slurred. “I’m going to be fighting this hangover until Monday morning.”

Ashton, so drunk his head reeled, blurted out, “What if you could skip the bar?”

Jackson managed to give him a slightly unfocused stare. “You can. Go buy a few bottles and a six pack and get drunk at home.”

Ashton rolled his eyes. “That’s not what I mean at all.”

“No? Then what do you mean?”

Ashton stared at the mess in the apartment. They’d picked up a couple of women the night before, and there was a lacy bra draped across his battered coffee table, someone’s socks on the floor, a bunch of bottles, and a cup one of the women had used as an ashtray now filled with cigarette butts. An idea was forming behind the thundercloud of his headache, but he couldn’t quite focus in on it.

Jackson said, “Hey, you really want a different job? There’s a sales position opening in the company and you’d be great at it, but you’re going to need some basic tech know-how.”

“So, teach me.” Ashton’s mind stayed on that forming idea even as he spoke. There was something there, right behind the front part of his brain and on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t quite figure out what it was.

“No way, dude. You actually have to have credentials. You can take the classes for free if you get a grant, so go down to the community college and apply.”

“I hate school.”

“It’s not like high school. It’s way cooler. Besides, the job pays three times what you’re making now.”

***

He put the idea out of his head for the moment. On Monday afternoon, he went down to the community college and signed up for a course. He hadn’t expected to like it. He hadn’t expected to do well, and he was pleasantly surprised when he did both.

He was even happier when he got the sales job. No more selling old cars dressed up to look nice, no more selling cellphones in kiosks, and no more crummy jobs that came with no salary and no benefits.

The company was a large one, and he had to keep adding to his education to stay ahead of the game and make sure he could answer questions posed to him by prospective or even current clients. He had to spend his own money to attend those classes, but he didn’t resent either the cost or the time. In fact, he liked it a great deal.

After he landed a large account and the large bonus that came with it, Ashton and Jackson went out partying again. But that time, the idea that Ashton had first thought of several years before was wholly formed, and rather than stay at the bar and pick up women, he and Jackson went to Ashton’s place and created an app.

It was intended as a joke – a little drunken prank. But they launched it that same night, and the next day, they were looking at revenue in the thousands of dollars.

Jackson, pale from excitement and too much alcohol, asked, “Dude, what do we do?”

“We need help. If we ask for help at the company, they might scream it’s theirs because we work there.” Ashton ran his hands through his hair, mussing it further.

“Dawson,” Jackson said, snapping his fingers.

“Exactly. I’ll call him.”

Six months later, Ashton was the boss of a successful company he co-owned with Jackson. The app was one of the most popular in the world. Ashton woke up in the mornings no longer feeling empty and cold. He woke up with a grin, eager to start the day. His nights weren’t filled with an endless succession of drinks lined on a bar and women whose names he couldn’t remember, either. They were filled with plans and ideas. He bought a huge apartment in the hip section of the city and a fast sports car. For the first time, he didn’t have to worry about money, and he liked it.

Then, Jackson got an offer to sell. They fought over that offer, but Jackson was adamant. He wanted to use his share of the money to finally create the video games he loved so much – video games he was sure would make him not just the millionaire the app and its sale would make him, but a billionaire.

Ashton eventually gave in. Jackson’s dream was so big, and the amount on the check so shockingly large that Ashton couldn’t see a way to say no.

He thought he’d be happy, but as it turned out, he wasn’t.

His whole reason for happiness had been that success, and now he was barely treading water. He was thirty-one years old, and he felt washed up and useless.

LAURA

“That blouse is not your color, Laura.”

Laura sighed inwardly, but she just said, “Ok, mom.”

Her mother added, “Why you insist on trying to look so unattractive is beyond me.”

Laura brushed that comment off, or tried to. As always, she felt the tiny sting made by her mother’s unkind words. Over the years, that sting had lessened, but it had never completely gone away. “Me, too.”

Her mother twisted her hands. “You should do something nice with your hair, too.”

“I like it the way it is.”

Laura’s mother didn’t say anything, but her silence spoke volumes. Laura headed out the door, ready for another day of boring office work and small town life.

God, I have to get out of here. I really want Lexie to go with me, but if she just can’t I’m going to make a break for it on my own, she thought to herself. Laura got into her car and started the engine, her spirits deflating. There was a whole life and a big city just waiting in the wings. She wanted to go and she needed to go.

She would go, just as soon as she could find a job that would pay her bills make her dream a reality.

At twenty-seven, Laura was ready for a change. She’d been a rebellious teen, and she’d gotten in plenty of trouble. Her parents had not approved of course, but when had they ever approved of anything she did?

Never.

“See you later mom, I have to get to work.”

“You make sure to do a good job now,” her mother said, like Laura was still sixteen and rushing out of the house, fast food uniform on and a visor clutched in her hands.

“I always do.”

Laura walked outside, squinting up and down the street at the rows of houses that all looked alike – small and neat brick ranchers on postage-sized yards. The same sedate little sedans sat in every driveway. The same short fences surrounded the same flowers in every neatly mulched bed.

“I have to got to get out of here, and now. I can’t do it anymore,” Laura said aloud to herself.

That was beyond true. Every single day brought a fresh sense of slow suffocation that grew more unbearable every passing moment. She’d never moved out of her folks’ house because rental property in a small and very rural town was hard to come by. She’d saved like a fiend, and she had enough money to do what she wanted to do, which was move on. Now, if she could just figure out how to light that fire.

Laura’s phone dinged as an email came in. She coasted the car to a stop at the stop sign and idly checked that mail, but the words in the subject line were enough to make her boredom and the growing despair shatter.

She’d gotten the job! The one she had applied for in the city she wanted to live in so badly!

Laura danced in her front seat, anticipation and excitement mingling to make her yell out a long, “Hell yeah!”

She called Lexie who answered on the third ring. Laura said, “Hey, you know how we always said as soon as one of us got as job in the city we’d get out of here?”

Lexie chuckled. “Yeah, why?”

“I got a job. I start next week!”

Dead silence. Trepidation set in. All the plans that Laura had made to get out of the colorless, small town had had Lexie in them.

Laura hated to admit that anything scared her, but the idea of being all alone in such a large place scared her shitless. Lexie going with her would mean that she would not be alone, and that she would still have her bestie by her side.

But had Lexie ever really wanted to leave? She said she did, but did she really? Lexie’s life was so much better than Laura’s. Maybe she was content there.

“Oh. Why, that’s great but…but I got turned down for all the jobs I applied for and…and well, I mean…”

That stupid boyfriend of hers, of course. Laura twisted the wheel hard as she started driving again. She said, “How about we go out and celebrate tonight? We’ll figure something out for a job for you, and we both have our savings. I mean, we have been saving for this since we were teenagers, so we should be okay.”

“I can’t tonight,” Lexie said slowly.

Laura gritted her teeth. Damn it! Lexie was probably dreaming of a big wedding, and that jerk she was dating was likely the groom of her fantasies.

“Tomorrow then?”

“Yeah, that would be great.”

“Cool. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

Laura hung up, her spirits dropping slightly as she pulled into the parking lot of her job.

She leaned her head back against her seat, and said, “If she won’t go, I’ll go alone. I don’t want to, but I won’t stay here anymore. I can’t. I absolutely can’t. Not even for Lexie.”

***

As it turned out, she didn’t have to. Lexie’s Prince Charming pulled a move that made Lexie see him for what he really was – a selfish jerk – and so the two of them rented a place via the internet, packed their things, and headed off to the city in a haze of laughter and elation.

It was late evening when they crested the last big hill that led down a long stretch of highway to the city which dropped into a bowl-like valley. Lights flashed and gleamed. The vastness of those lights and the city that they outlined took Laura’s breath away. Pure joy filled her veins.

“Oh, my God!” Her tone carried her happiness. “Check it out, Lexie! We made it!”

“Yeah, I see.” Lexie’s tone held fear. Laura immediately sent Lexie a reassuring smile. They’d been friends – best friends – for a very long time. Lexie was the only person who knew just how badly Laura’s parents really treated her, and she’d always been grateful that Laura, who’d always been popular, had stopped the bullying Lexie had endured for so long, but she had never learned to stand up for herself, which often frustrated Laura.

Laura said, “It’s party time now!” and gunned the gas.

The city was a whirl of partying and work. Time flew by. A new neighbor moved in one day – a sharp and inquisitive young woman named Hope. Hope was a medical researcher, but most of her work in the early days of their friendship seemed to center on finding a cure for her and Laura’s massive hangovers.

As Lexie met and got into a relationship with Dawson – a billionaire internet tycoon – Laura and Hope started spending more and more time together.

They met one day for lunch, and Hope came flying up to the table, her stunning face alight with a smile. “Hey, Laura! Sorry I’m late!”

“Don’t worry about it.” Laura gestured to the menu she held in one hand. “I was torn between ordering a full-on feast and a salad anyway, and I’m still in doubt.”

Hope sat down. She said, “God, you’re so lucky. It wouldn’t matter what you ate; you’d stay thin.” Hope’s hand patted at her flat tummy. “I’m always in the gym, hoping to work off something.”

“You look great.” Laura meant it. “Hey, did you see that new bar opening downtown? That looks like a great place, and tonight’s their soft opening. Ladies get in free, and they have half-priced drink specials.”

Hope unfolded the menu. “I saw it. I have to work extra late tonight though, so I don’t think I can make it.”

“Damn.” Laura peered down at the menu, vaguely disappointed but also a little relieved. Lately, she’d felt a little ambivalent toward her lifestyle. Maybe it was Lexie falling so deeply in love with Dawson and having a real boyfriend. Maybe it was because all the guys she had dated here seemed to be the same guy.

Handsome, charming, and good to party with, but not at all interested in anything else. It seemed like every guy she met was too busy with a career or trying to get a career, or too busy holding out because there were just too many gorgeous women in the city who might be their next fast lay.

Hope asked, “Are you okay?”

Laura fiddled with the menu before setting it aside. “I don’t know. Mike broke up with me.”

Holly’s brow creased. “Were you guys dating or just hanging out?”

“I don’t know that either. I think that’s what has me so confused though. I mean, we kept going out, not just to bars and not just for hookups. It felt like we were actually dating, you know? Then, he stopped calling or texting. He went like, ghost or something.”

Hope set her menu aside and sipped at the soda that Laura had ordered for her. “Have you talked to him at all?”

“Yeah. This morning, I finally got a hold of him, and he gave me the whole ‘it’s-not-you’ spiel.”

Hope sat back in the chair. “Wow.”

Laura grimaced. “I know, right?” Her mouth snapped closed over what else she had been about to say as the server approached and took their orders. Once the server left, Laura leaned forward and added, “I don’t get it. I mean, I don’t even know if what we were doing was dating, and then I don’t know if I just got broken up with by a boyfriend or if I just got disconnected from a hookup. It’s sort of…I don’t know…weird.”

Hope said, “Yeah, I get it. I often think that I really need a real relationship, you know? But I’m so busy, and I like my life. I don’t know if I even want to put in all the time and effort something like that would take, and even if I did the guys in the city are so –”

“Terrible,” Laura finished. “The ones who want more than a hookup usually end up being sort of creepy. The ones who don’t want anything more than a hookup are cocky assholes. I mean, how do you find a good guy – one worth spending all that time on anyway?”

Hope shrugged, “Beats me. If I could answer that question, neither of us would be single or discussing how you may or may not have been broken up with by a guy you may or may not have been dating.”

Laura chuckled and reached for her soda. She took a long pull on the straw. “So true. And I had boyfriends back home. The kind that wanted to marry me, get me pregnant, and come home to a full dinner on the table and all that. No, thanks. That’s not what I want at all. I don’t want that, but I don’t think I just want to keep hooking up either. There has to be some kind of happy medium.”

Hope said, “Let me know when you find it.”

They toasted each other with their drinks, and Holly added, “So are you going to that new place tonight?”

“Probably.” Why not? It beats sitting at home, watching the same old movies and shows on Netflix anyway. Lexie had a big date with Dawson, so it also beat sitting at home alone.

Their food came. Hope had ordered a salad while Laura had gone all out and ordered a bacon cheeseburger and fries. Hope said, “It’s a good thing I like you. If I didn’t, I would totally hate you right now.”

Laura surveyed their plates and grinned. “I have an idea. Let’s split it. You take half my food, and I will take half your salad.”

“Not going to argue,” Hope said.

She didn’t. They finished the meal and then headed in opposite directions. Laura knew Hope had just gotten a huge grant from some large research group and was going to have to work a lot in the next few months to fulfill the obligations that went along with that grant, and she worried that now she’d have nobody to hang out with.

Maybe I should stay home more, she thought as she got into her car.

“No way,” she muttered to herself as she cranked up her car and headed out of the parking lot. “I hung out around the house enough to last me a lifetime. I came to the city to live, and I’m damn well going to!”

***

After work that day, Laura went home. The apartment was empty. Lexie had gone on her date with Dawson straight from the office it seemed. The idea of going out was hardly appealing, but the idea of staying home was even less appealing.

“Oh, screw it. I’ll just go, have a drink or two, and come home.” Laura strode into her bedroom to find an outfit suitable for a new club’s opening night. “I mean, it’s probably going to be lame anyway, and there probably won’t be many people there, but if I go to my usual place I’m bound to run into Mike, and that’s the last thing that I want. Really, what’s the worst that could happen?”

As she pulled out a set of skinny jeans, tall boots, and a silk blouse in a shade that would perfectly compliment her dark hair from her closet, Laura had no idea that her entire life was about to change in a drastic way.

She decided against driving just because her job was at stake. Getting fired was entirely unacceptable; she had to have that job if she was going to stay in the city, and there was no way in hell she was ever going back!

The cab showed up and she got in. The ride was long and boring, and she found herself regretting that she had taken the cab just because the fare was so expensive. On the plus side, maybe she would not have to pay the fare back home.

There was a thick pulse of thwarted desire in her body. Lately, she had been ‘dating’ that jerk, and what a waste of time that had been! He had not even been that good in bed, for God’s sake!

The cab let her out in front of the club. To her dismay, it wasn’t very packed and the doorman gave her a bored look before yawning out a demand for five dollars. She handed it over reluctantly. Maybe she was just wasting money she could be putting to better use.

She paid and went past the doorman, standing in the doorway and letting her eyes adjust while she looked around the place.

It was set up well, but the opening had not drawn a big crowd. There were about a half-dozen guys gathered around the two pool tables and a couple of skanky looking women hanging out near them. The bar’s tables were about a third full, and most of the people sitting there were not even looking at the empty and deserted dance floor.

A man seated at the bar caught her eye. He was hot and she paused, her brow wrinkling. She knew him from somewhere, but she couldn’t figure out where until one of the skanky looking women hanging at the pool table suddenly walked up to him and said something, making him turn his head so that the neon bulb overhead lit up his features.

Oh, right. Dawson’s friend. What was his name again? She thought to herself.

Ashton.

She took a seat at the bar, watching him and the woman. He didn’t seem to know her, but he ordered her a drink. She gave him a coy smile and said something that made him shake his head. Laura turned her eyes back to the bar just in time to see the guys at the pool table.

Her gut said trouble was about to happen. Not one of them had a happy look on their rough faces, and all of them were staring right at Ashton and the woman still talking to him.

1

ASHTON

“KNIFE!”

The shouted word jolted Ashton back in time – back to the fight that sent Dawson out of school and Ashton into reform school.

The anger came surging up with the memory. He had bigger reasons to be angry than just the memory of a knife striking along his abdomen just then, too.

Gerald. The creep who’d once beaten Ashton into the dirt was now twice as big and even uglier than before. Gerald still had it out for him – that much was clear.

Ashton was the reason Gerald had spent five long years in a maximum-security lockup, and by the time he got out and back to the block, his dad was locked up and his street rep was shattered. Gerald’s dad had done the unthinkable and turned on his suppliers to get a reduced sentence. As a result, Gerald came home to nothing – not even a place to lay his head.

Naturally, it was all Ashton’s fault.

Gerald felt like if he had been free he could have taken over before his dad got too far gone to do anything more than front out big shipments of dope that somehow never got sold and before he could get locked up and rat on his suppliers.

Because his dad owed so many debts, Gerald couldn’t even get into the family business. Now he spent his life working at a low-wage job in a shabby garage down on the same block his dad had once ruled over.

Ashton groaned inwardly as he studied Gerald, the two guys flanking him, and the wicked gleam of the blade flashing in Gerald’s meaty grip.

He had time to wonder what kind of idiot he had to be to not only get into a fight with Gerald, but over the woman who was now cowering behind Gerald. Obviously, she was thrilled at this turn of events. She had her man and another dude fighting over her dubious charms.

Not that Ashton had really been interested in her at all. She’d sashayed up to him at the bar and cooed a few words in his ear. He’d bought her a drink mostly to get rid of her. Gerald had pounced and now they were all out here in the dimly lit parking lot: him against three guys, a woman who may or may not jump in, and a knife.

Great odds, if he’d been on the other side of it all.

On his side was him.

Oh, and her.

Her being that friend of Lexie’s. What was her name? Lori? Laura?

She’d come hauling ass out of the bar, all long legs in skinny jeans and high boots, firm breasts in a body-hugging sweater that also emphasized her flat midriff.

The perfect distraction.

And the last thing he needed right now.

Laura – that was her name he remembered just then – stormed closer, her glorious hair spilling across her narrow shoulders, the ends trailing across her tits. He had to restrain an urge to reach out and brush one lock of hair away from her right tit – just give her a smile and wish he could have had her before this wholly ignominious death thing that was about to happen to him in the parking lot of a club that was already showing all the signs of being a huge flop.

After all, the only people who’d shown up were Gerald and his crew, him and Laura, and the usual debauched set that swarmed to any bar offering half-off drink specials and free pretzels. And he had only come because he’d been driving by and seen the sign for the soft opening. It was a bar he had never been in, and he had been hoping to find distraction from his current bad mood and the case of the blues that had settled over him lately.

Well, he certainly wasn’t feeling depressed or bored. That was something.

Gerald gave him a lazy smile. Laura, who’d been the one to shout out ‘knife,’ took up a stance next to Ashton. The wind blew up just a little, giving him a whiff of her perfume – light, spicy, and somehow so sexy that, despite everything, his dick started to harden yet again.

It had begun to harden the moment she’d come running out the door of the club, breasts bouncing and face slightly red from exertion.

Laura said, “You want to fight one-on-one, that’s cool. But why you would think he wants her is beyond me. He’s here with me.”

The woman with Gerald stuck her dried platinum head out from behind Gerald. “Then he should not have bought me a drink!”

“You shouldn’t have asked for one. Believe me, I’m pissed at him for buying you a drink, but I’m more pissed that you came walking up and asked for one.”

What the hell was she doing? She had been sitting right next to him, and he had nodded at her. He remembered her vaguely from some party he had gone to at Dawson’s request and that she was Dawson’s girlfriend’s friend. That last was exactly why he hadn’t hit on her instead of buying the woman behind Gerald a drink.

Dawson was seriously protective over Lexie, his girlfriend, and if Ashton screwed over her friend he would have to hear about that from Dawson.

No, thanks.

“Go fuck yourself! You should keep your man’s dick in his pants then!”

Ouch. Ashton was busy watching Gerald’s hand and trying not to laugh at the sudden comedic turn that whole thing had taken.

Laura put her hands on her hips and said, “His dick? Are you fucking serious? When did you ever see his dick? He felt bad for you, and he bought you a drink. You know, sort of the thing any nice guy would do.”

Oh, God. He was going to laugh. No way was he a nice guy – not by any stretch of the imagination.

Blondie stuck her head back out and gave Laura an imperious middle finger. “Yeah, you keep on thinking he wasn’t totally into me?”

“Oh? And you’re such a tramp you were willing to ditch Prince Charming there if he had offered you more than a drink? For real, guy, that’s the woman you think you need to fight over.”

Uh oh. Gerald’s eyes narrowed. “What are you saying about my girl, you bitch?”

“Don’t call her a bitch,” Ashton was no longer tempted to laugh. He was mad as hell. He stepped closer, disregarding the knife now. “If you’d kept your freak on a leash and off the guys in the club, you wouldn’t be out here in the parking lot trying to defend whatever she passes off as her honor.”

Gerald’s hand moved. Ashton’s stomach sucked backward. A thin stream of some vile smelling stuff flew past his face and he closed his eyes as soon as his brain told him what it was.

Mace!

Laura had just maced Gerald!

Gerald screamed, but he didn’t drop the knife. Ashton, never one to waste an opportunity when the odds were so stacked against him, drove his right foot right into Gerald’s balls. Naturally, Blondie was the first to come out swinging. Ashton ducked away. Laura responded by whipping out the mace again and sending a jet of it into Blondie’s eyes.

The two guys with Gerald rushed in. Gerald was on the ground, holding his balls with one hand and the knife with the other. If he got up, it was over.

He need not have worried. Laura dropped the empty can of mace and stuck a hand into her purse. The unmistakable sound of a Taser lit up the night just as the two dudes swarmed in.

One of them yelled and flailed around, then dropped, leaving Ashton with just one guy to deal with.

Way to level the odds!

Gerald was attempting to get up. Ashton managed to land a few punches and still deliver a brutal kick to Gerald’s thigh. The tased guy was down; Blondie was clawing at her face, and it looked like the best chance Ashton and Laura had to get out of there.

Fast.

He gave the guy looping punches toward his head – a hard-right cross followed up by a speedy jab to his gut. The sound of sirens approaching fast diverted his attention away from the fight.

Laura yelled, “Come on! Where’s your car? We have to go!”

She grabbed him by one arm. Ashton didn’t argue. He hurtled across the parking lot, aiming for his expensive sports car. He popped the locks with the remote and started it before he even got the door open.

Laura ducked into the passenger seat. Unbelievably enough, she was laughing! Now, there was one hell of a woman. He studied her more closely despite the need to watch where he was going. He knew she was friends with Lexie, but why hadn’t he paid more attention to her before, even if she was?

A woman like that…that was his dream woman.

Ashton peeled out of the lot, heading west. On the other side of the median, blue lights flashed and sirens wailed. Laura said, “Whew! We got out of there just in time!”

“Yeah, no shit.” He gave her an admiring stare even as he slowed the car down, just in case any of the cops decided to come after him for speeding. “Thanks.”

“Thank you. It was a pretty boring night, and I had to call a cab to get there, too.”

He found himself at a total loss as to what to say to that. “Oh. Okay.”

“What a waste of cab fare that place was.”

He eyed her carefully. “What’s wrong with your car?”

“Nothing,” she settled her tall and elegantly carved figure deeper into his leather seat. “I just don’t want a DUI. My boss is an asshole and a real puritan. I have enough issues just keeping my job there.”

“I can see that. You’re Lexie’s friend, right?” He knew she was, but he was just hoping to get a conversation started.

“Yeah, we came to the city together, and we were real close back home and here, too, until she got all into dating your friend.”

“Dawson’s a good guy.”

Laura said, “I didn’t say he wasn’t. I said Lexie is too busy with him to really hang out with me anymore.”

Ashton said, “Yeah, I get that.”

“You and Dawson don’t hang as much either since they started dating?”

“It isn’t like that. We’re tight, but Dawson’s always been nose to the grindstone. He’s never really been a ‘hang at the bars all week’ kind of guy.”

“Lexie’s not much for partying either. She never really was.” Laura shrugged. “I don’t know that I am much anymore either, but I like to have fun and a good time. It just feels a little forced lately.”

God. She’d just said exactly how he felt so much of the time. He asked, “Where’s your place?’

Her slender fingers pointed to the right. “Right over there.”

He pulled up in front of the bland building. Laura bit her lips and then asked, “Hey, you want to come in? Lexie’s gone for the night, and really I’m just sort of…”

She stopped there. Her fingers twisted together. Then she added, “I’ve got some good wine. I’d hate to drink it alone.”

He should say no. He knew that. The last thing he needed to do was get into something with Lexie’s best friend. If something went even remotely wrong, he’d been on the fire for sure.

But damn. It was not every day that he met a woman like her either, and he was not ready to walk away from her yet.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’d like that.”

2

LAURA

Okay, it was stupid.

Definitely stupid.

The last thing she should be doing is offering Ashton anything, and she knew damn well that he knew – just like she did – that wine was the least of what she was offering.

He was hot, but that alone wasn’t enough to risk Lexie’s disapproval. There was just something about him.

Laura felt a sense of kinship with him. He was the yin to her yang or some Zen shit, she mused as they entered her apartment and stepped inside. The lights were off, she had forgotten, again, to leave a few lights burning. She hit the switch on the wall, bringing the living room into view. It was tidy enough. She pointed to a small sofa and said, “Grab a seat, and I’ll get the wine.”

She headed into the kitchen to fetch the wine and some glasses. Back in the living room, she popped the cork expertly with a corkscrew and poured them both a generous amount into the glasses.

She held her glass up and said, “Here’s to surviving a bar fight!”

Ashton laughed and clinked his glass to hers. “I’ll drink to that.”

He sat close to her, his leg pressing against hers. The heat of his body made her want to lean closer so she could get more of it into her skin, and so she could smell the wonderful and faded scent of his aftershave.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, sipping their wine. Anticipation curled through Laura as she watched his face and looked down at his long hand resting on his knee.

She tried for small talk, but all the words she wanted to say died behind her lips and went unspoken. That feeling, that unfurling passion, kept her silent, and the heavy, electric tension riding through her body made thinking difficult if not impossible. She felt a little blush heat her face. Did he think she was dumb? That she had zero ability to speak? She turned her face to his and saw his heavy-lidded gaze scan first her face and then drop to the swells of her breasts. Her nipples betrayed her, thrusting against the fabric of her bra and sweater and sticking out in strong exclamations of longing.

There was no way to continue to pretend that she did not want him. She did, and she knew he wanted her, too. The passion was igniting between them. Holding back was useless, and what was more, she didn’t want to.

Their heads tilted toward each other. Her pulse pounded hard against the delicate skin at the base of her neck, and a slight sweat broke out on her face as anticipation spilled through her. Butterflies erupted in her belly, and his head came closer. His hand lifted, and his fingers caught in her hair, fisting it as he brought their faces closer still, and then his lips slanted down hard on hers, stealing her breath and making her nipples stiffen until they ached.

Their lips met and held. His tongue met hers, and they let the kiss grow stronger and more passionate with each thrust and connection of their tongues. His hands rested on her narrow waist, and her hips arched upward slightly so that his hardened manhood rubbed against her crotch. Tingles shot through her lower belly, fluids trickled into her panties, and her gasp was soft and low, lost in his mouth.

“God, I want you,” he breathed when he finally broke that searing kiss off.

That he was thinking the same thing she was made her heart flutter. Her panties grew sticky with sweet juices. They dripped from her, and she knew that by the time he touched her she would be soaked.

Suddenly shy, she pointed down the hall, “My bedroom is that way.”

“I would like to see it.”

He didn’t say anything else, and she didn’t need him to. She took him by the hand, and they walked down the hall together. In her bedroom, she switched on the light and said in a voice that was slightly higher pitched than usual, “It’s not a big bed.”

It wasn’t. She had a double bed that generally sufficed since, out of respect for Lexie, Laura didn’t bring guys home. Oh, she had in the beginning, but it worried Lexie, and Lexie, in her sweet and sincere way, sometimes lectured Laura about safety and other things, which drove her nuts.

The bed was not just small; the room was also messy. Laura spotted a few items that should be anywhere but where they were: a pair of panties she’d tossed on the floor, a black lace bra hanging off the edge of the bed, and she’d forgotten to toss her dirty clothes from earlier into the laundry hamper.

Groaning inwardly, she added, “It’s not usually this messy. I swear.”

“It’s big enough.”

His words set her on fire. But his touch was even more heated. His fingers tangled into her thick auburn hair and tilted her head back so that she could reach her mouth more easily.

The kiss in the living room had inflamed her. This kiss ignited her. Her legs and knees literally went weak. Her already damp panties became so wet that they were uncomfortable.

Her boots – those boots that looked so good on – were difficult as hell to get off. Laura yanked at them, tugging hard. Ashton lent her hand, getting them off finally amid a flurry of kisses, her apologies, and a few giggles. He stripped the rest of her clothes off her neatly and quickly. It took nearly no time at all before she was bared to his gaze and her ass cheeks clenched a little as he stepped back to survey her.

His voice was slightly hoarse as he said, “Beautiful,” in a low murmur that made her body respond by sending more juices to collect along her pouty lower lips. Her clit pounded and throbbed. She wanted his hands and mouth there on that aching flesh. She wanted him inside her and to feel her heels locked around his waist, banging against the small of his back.

Rich, thick juices gushed from her, and she squirmed. Her hands moved down along his body as his mouth met hers in yet another kiss. As she found the buttons on his shirt and got it open, her mouth went to his nipples. She teased the small points into erect hardness and was rewarded by his gasp and an involuntary thrust of his hips against hers.

Her fingers stroked his rock-hard abs. Her nails skated across his belly button and down to the buttons of his jeans. He kicked his shoes off, and she managed to get his jeans and underwear down all at once. They fumbled around on the bed, struggling to get out of their clothes – he was trying to get out of his jeans, and she was struggling to get her panties off.

Finally, they were both naked. Ashton lay on top of her, skin to skin. His skin was smooth and velvety, but below it his muscles were iron. His fingers caressed every inch of her body, sending her careening towards the edge of ecstasy.

She took his throbbing member into her hand, running her fingers lightly along the shaft and around the head. Her thumb found a slippery drop of fluid on the tip of his cock, and she rubbed it into that delicate skin, lubricating it.

Ashton shattered as her touch aroused him even further. His mouth found her nipples, while his fingers slid down her body. He ran his fingers tenderly through the neatly trimmed curls that covered her mound, teasing her for a moment.

He parted her labia with his thumb and finger, holding them open as he slid lower. He wanted to taste her. He kissed down her body until his tongue snaked out and touched her, causing her to groan and arch her back to get even closer to him. The sensitive, butterfly-like labia were slippery with her juices, and he licked them, wanting to taste her sweetness.

Laura wriggled and squirmed below his caress. She wanted him so badly. His tongue found her clitoris and circled it then massaged it before lashing across it from one side to the other. Her fingers curled into fists, her nails digging into her palms. The sheets grew messy beneath them as she writhed in absolute pleasure.

He began to use his fingers. He slid first one and then two inside her hot, well-oiled tunnel. He moved them into her, sliding them in and out, while his clever tongue continued to drive her crazy.

She wanted to touch him as well. She wanted to please him. She wanted to give him something as exquisite as he was giving her. She put her hands on his shoulders and pulled hard, even though she was so close to an orgasm that she badly wanted. Ashton came up. His mouth came down on hers and imparted her own flavor to her.

His tongue was coated with her salty – sweet aroma and taste. The kiss was long and hungry, and when it ended Laura rolled over on top of him. She moved down his body, her tongue met his nipples and belly while her nails raked lightly at the flesh of his upper thighs.

She took his pulsing rod into her mouth. Her tongue went to the base of his shaft and then upward, making circular motions until she reached his head. She slid back down, taking him fully into her mouth while tightening her cheeks and lips to apply pressure so that she could give him even more pleasure.

Her fingers slid down to the area between his testicles and his anus. She gently caressed him there, and his hips shot up and forward while his fingers dug into her hair. More of his hot organ slid down her throat and she cupped his testicles in one hand, letting her thumb stroke them as she did so.

She felt them tighten and began to move upward on his body. She worked harder, opening her mouth wider and using her tongue to create a duel sensation on his hard cock.

“You need to stop now.” Ashton’s words were a harsh and ragged moan.

She knew how close to the brink he was, and he wasn’t ready to come yet. She wasn’t ready for him to come yet either. She needed him; she needed him more than she could say.

Ashton rolled over on top of her. His long, strong body arched above hers as he positioned himself on his forearms. His cock pressed at the wet and slippery entrance to her body.

He entered her slowly and gently. He was large, and she had to stretch to accommodate him. Her legs spread wide her as she opened herself further. Her fingers went to his back, her nails raking down it as she reached for his flexing buttocks.

He was all the way inside her now. He lay there for a moment, allowing her heated oil to encase him. Neither of them moved, because they knew if they did, they would go right over the brink, and neither of them wanted that just yet.

When he did move, he did so slowly. He withdrew from her all the way. She felt empty, desperate with lust. She could smell her wet sex mingled with his sweat. His hands went to her wrists, and he held them down gently as his hips began to move faster and faster.

Her ass lifted and rose towards him. They moved together in a rhythm that was undeniable. His hips began to pump faster and faster, and her fingers clutched at his ass cheeks. Her nipples were hard points, poking up at the ceiling. Her mouth opened in a cry that was loud with pleasure.

Laura felt the orgasm hit her. It took her along like a wave, lifting her before crashing her back into a shore, only to pick her up and take her back out again. It was not aftershocks; it was multiple orgasms. She was lost, drifting in a haze of satisfaction that was tinged with the absolute need for more.

Ashton came as well. She felt him pulsing and throbbing inside of her. His face buried into her shoulder and his moan was muffled, but she heard it anyway. His weight felt good on top of her body; she wanted to feel it there for the rest of her life. It was amazing the way he made her feel.

He stayed inside her, rocking his hips gently from side to side every now and then as he gradually went limp. The aftershocks that had worked their way through them subsided until they lay tangled together, satisfied and drowsy.

His mouth rained tiny sweet kisses down on her face, throat, and breasts. She stroked his back and massaged his shoulders while he did that, both taking comfort in the small, soothing motions.

He looked amused. He asked, “Do we cuddle now?”

“If you want.” The laughter in his voice made the question – one that would have been awkward under other circumstances – feel funny and cute.

“I don’t mind.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulders to illustrate the point, and she snuggled in beside him. A huge yawn cracked her face, and she rested the heel of her hand against her lips before saying, “I have to admit it. This was probably the best time I’ve had in months.”

“Is that because you were out there kicking ass in the parking lot, or because of this?” His hand swept over them.

“I think both.” Her smile was radiant. “You sure know how to show a girl a good time.”

His laughter joined hers, and Laura rested against his body, her skin meeting his. She’d just been satisfied so well, but she would not have minded just a little more.

Before she could act on that thought, the adrenaline rush she had been riding since stepping into the fight wore off and sent her hurtling first into exhaustion and then into sleep.

***

Morning light hit her eyes and the taste of wine filled Laura’s mouth. She cracked an eye open. Ashton lay beside her, obviously waking up, too. His hair was rumpled and mussed, and when he turned his face to hers, she saw a red stripe across his cheek made by a crease in the pillow case.

“Too late to sneak out,” she said groggily, correctly reading his thoughts.

He smiled. “I see. I was actually going to wake you up.”

“Yeah?” She sat up. Ashton had kicked his way out from under the covers at some point, and she had time to appreciate his magnificent body once more. “Let’s make a deal, okay? Don’t lie to me, and I won’t lie to you.”

“Okay. I was going to sneak out. I hate morning afters and when women want me to stay.”

“Well, you’re in luck. I hate guys who expect me to cook breakfast.”

His laughter spilled into the room. “You cook?”

“Nope. But if you want breakfast I could give you a couple of bucks so you can stop by the local drive-thru.”

She snapped her lips shut after she said it. Most guys didn’t appreciate her humor, or her wanting to not be bothered. Ashton just laughed again and slid out of the bed. He bent over to get his pants off the floor, and she felt a small pulse of desire that she fought back.

Ashton shrugged into his pants and turned to face her, his fingers working the buttons. “Thanks, but I can afford breakfast.”

“Glad to hear it.” She watched him slide his shirt over those incredibly tight abs of his.

Ashton paused, one hand reaching for a shoe. His eyes met hers. There was amusement in the depths of his and, she was sure, hers, too. He asked, “Did I ever thank you for saving my ass?”

Laura smirked. “I’d say yes. Several times.”

He grinned at her. “You’re a hell of a woman, Laura.”

“Thanks.” She knew she should say something else, but she couldn’t think of anything to say. This was, by far, the most pleasant morning-after conversation she’d ever had, and she wanted to ask if he wanted to do it again, but his shoes were already on and he was headed for the bedroom door.

He went out of it with a last wink and smile.

Laura heard the front door close and she slumped into the pillows. The room still smelled of them, and of him. She rolled over, letting her face rest on the pillow where his head had lain. It smelled of his cologne, and she sighed.

It just figured she would meet the perfect guy, and he was as imperfect as all hell. He was no more interested in a relationship than most guys she met, and he was at least brutally honest about it.

She was not truly interested in a relationship either, but that honesty of his was massively appealing and so was the memory of how well he had made love to her.

She shot the clock a look and got up, heading naked toward the shower. It was a work day, and while the night before had been one for the record books, it was over.

3

ASHTON

DAWSON ASKED, “So what are you going to do now?”

Ashton took a fast gulp of the strong drink that he held. The party was in full swing and was far more sedate than he would have liked. Dawson had a reputation to protect, so there was a decided lack of craziness happening. In truth, the only reason Ashton had even come was because he was hoping Lexie might have talked Laura into showing up too.

So far, she hadn’t shown up, and Ashton was a little frustrated with himself. In the week since he’d seen Laura and spent the night with her, he had thought about her a lot more than he would have liked to.

Realizing he hadn’t answered Dawson, Ashton said, “I have no idea. I guess I should have some idea, but I can’t seem to think past it all. I mean, it’s a lot of money, and while I like expensive stuff, I don’t like it enough to end up broke again. So, I was thinking about making some investments or something.”

“Good idea. I’ve got a guy that can help you with that.”

Nothing sounded less appealing than sitting down with some guy to discuss his money. Ashton summoned up a smile. “Thanks. I’ll get with you on that.”

Dawson chuckled. “It seems weird that the two of us have so much money, doesn’t it? I mean, I keep remembering that one house we stayed in. You remember, the one where the walls were so thin and all we got to eat was bologna sandwiches and Hamburger Helper.”

Ashton grimaced. “Don’t remind me. That was not even the worst one either.”

Dawson shook his head. “No, it wasn’t.”

Ashton’s eyes went back around the room. Still no Laura. “Man, I can’t believe we got out of there and did so great.”

“Me neither. But we did.” Dawson nodded toward a lean blonde in a very expensive cream-colored sheath. “Some advice. Stay away from that one.”

“Oh yeah? Why?” Hell, if Laura wasn’t showing up he might as well try to find some fun.

Dawson said, “She’s looking for a husband, and a rich one.”

“Thanks for the warning.” Ashton chuckled. “No way am I interested in getting married. Not to a woman who doesn’t want me for my money and really not to one who wants me for that and nothing else.”

Speaking of women…Laura strolled into the room, wearing a stunning red dress that accented her amazing figure and dark hair. Ashton’s dick stiffened, and he grinned.

Dawson asked, “What’s so funny?”

“Oh nothing. Just thinking about what all those assholes who said we’d never amount to anything would say if they saw us now.”

That was true. That had been exactly what he had been thinking right before Laura walked in, and he lost all ability to think about anything but her and that dress, and ways to get it off her.

She spotted him and smiled. Lexie and Laura were deep in conversation; that was easy to see. No way was he going over there and interrupting her. His eyes scanned the room as he considered ways to get her into a corner so they could talk privately.

Dawson turned away to talk to someone else, and Lexie crossed the room, leaving Laura standing alone. Ashton strolled across the room and asked, “What brings you to a party like this?”

She gestured with the glass she held in her slim fingers. “The same thing that brought you, I’d say. It’s hard to say no to friends.”

He sipped from the heavy tumbler filled with a single ice cube and scotch. “Yeah.” He’d been hoping she’d say that she’d come in the hope of seeing him again. His grin drooped a little at the corners of his mouth. Damn. The first woman he’d had a one-night stand with that made him want more, and she wanted nothing else.

Someone up there hated him.

Laura sipped from her glass. “Did I miss anything?”

“I’d be lying if I said yes.”

Her low, throaty laughter stroked along his senses. He shifted a little and asked, “Why so late?”

She pulled a face. “Work. They’ve got it out for me. I swear to God, I need a better job.”

“Then why don’t you get one?’

Laura sighed. “I was just so happy to have any job here in the city I took the first one that would get me out of that shitty small town – hindsight, as they say. It’s tough in my field. The whole city’s crawling with accounting and IT companies, both of which are my only specialties.”

He nearly spewed his drink out of his nose. “You’re an accountant?”

Her eyes danced. “I am. So? I would love an IT job, but if I don’t get one soon I’m afraid I am going to be left behind. Tech changes so fast and what I have in the way of education might be obsolete tomorrow if I’m not careful.”

“Believe it or not, the local community college has great classes, and they’re cheap if you only sign up for the continuing education and not the full program. That’s how I stay afloat in the tech world. That, and I read every book I can find on the subject. But having the cred on paper is helpful.”

“Wow. I never would have thought you were so serious. Or so up on tech.”

A grin tugged at his lips. “What did you think I do for a living?”

She surveyed him over the rim of her glass, then lowered it. Her tongue snaked out and licked along her lower lip, whisking away a few drops of the wine she was drinking. “I don’t know. I guess I never thought to ask.”

He shrugged, “I do a little tech stuff.”

They were interrupted by a friend of Dawson’s, who obviously had the intention of hitting on Laura. The man, older and carrying himself like he had every right to everything in the world – that rich, trust fund kid arrogance blatantly emanating from him – horned right in.

“Well, hello,” he said to Laura, ignoring Ashton completely.

“Hello.” She frosted him right out, giving him an icy smile and making her words chilly enough to freeze the air between the two of them. Ashton fought back a sudden spate of jealousy and sipped at his drink again, interested in seeing what would happen next.

Obviously, the new admirer was not used to women who didn’t just fall right at his feet. He shot her a smile that was a little less assured than his original one. “I’m Richard Davenport.”

He said nothing else. Laura just gave the dude a blank expression, obviously discomforting him. Richard shifted on the balls of his high-end loafers. “Of the Davenports, of course.”

Laura’s face stayed blank. “But, of course.” There was a thread of contempt below the words – thin, but there.

Richard looked even more uncomfortable. He looked around, said, “Well…er…”

“Nice to meet you.” Laura’s tone held sheer dismissal.

Richard took the hint. Ashton lifted his mouth in a half-grin. “Wow. I’m glad you didn’t run me off like that. That was harsh. Hell, that was the work of a master.”

Laura’s eyes gleamed, and she grinned right back at him. “Oh well, thank you. I’ve had a lot of experience with douchebags, unfortunately.”

“I bet.” He twisted the glass in his hands. He had no idea where he stood with her, but he was eager to find out. “I’ve had a few experiences with them, too, usually after they find out I right-swiped their girl while she was mad at them.”

Laura giggled, then said, “Now I’m dying to know. Is that what happened? I mean, I wondered why those guys at the bar were so mad, but I wasn’t sure if I should ask, all things considered.”

“Gerald’s had it out for me since I was a kid. We grew up in the same hood, sort of. I was a foster kid and none of the fosters that took me and Dawson in lived in the better places. Gerald’s dad…well, he’s a dope dealer, or was. I heard he got locked up for the rest of his sorry life not so long ago. Gerald was always a bully, and I used to have to fight him every now and then. It would not have shocked me at all to find out he put that chick up to asking me for a drink just so he could try to fight me again. But to answer your question, no, sleeping with her was not why he was mad. I would never have swiped right for her on any app.”

“Yeah you got to be careful with those apps. The worst one has to be Fly by Night.”

That was his app and it had made him rich. Biting back a grin, Ashton asked, “How so?”

“It’s all for the guys, haven’t you noticed? There’s no way to block dick pics, and the guys on there are animals. The women who use it are usually aware of what they’re getting into. Hell, I used it a few times. It’s okay for what it is – no apologies, no strings attached – but women must fill out detailed questions and give photos and then take a picture of themselves holding a sign saying ‘this is me’ just to prove that’s really us and all. But guys get to lie like hell. None of them have to prove how hot they are, and I know a lot of women who got stuck with some knuckle dragging, potbellied jerk as a result. Myself included. Oh, and let me tell you, when I walked out, he came after me yelling at me that I owed him four bucks for the coffee I had ordered.”

Wow. Why hadn’t he and Jackson considered those things?

Because they were guys, and like a lot of guys, they’d been pissed off about a woman who didn’t look anything like their pictures showing up. It had never even occurred to him that some guys were liars, too.

Damn.

Laura said, “You know what would be great? An app that’s somewhere between the hookup and the ‘oh my God, I love you forever’ app.”

His ears perked up. “Come again?”

“Me and my friend, Holly, were just talking about this the other day. I don’t want to get married. It freaks me out just to think about it. Seriously.”

Well, at least now he knew she was absolutely against marriage. But was she totally against seeing him again? He debated asking and chose not to. Yet. “I get that.”

Laura laughed, “If you’d had to live in the small-town hellhole I grew up in where all anyone ever does is get married and die, you’d really get it.”

“You said before that you grew up in a small town. That bad huh? And about that app, that sounds like an amazing idea.”

He wanted to know more about her and that app. He had the same giddy feeling he’d had the night he and Jackson had created theirs. Besides, it wasn’t a bad idea. Lots of people wanted more than a one night stand but a lot less than marriage. He mulled that over until she spoke again.

“It was just that bad. Maybe not as bad as foster though. That had to suck.”

There was something guarded in her eyes – something troubled and sad. He was good at reading people, and what he read right there on her face was that her childhood had had its own issues. “I guess it depends. Some bio families can be a real nightmare, too.”

The crowd swirled around them but they were alone, two people lost in a crowd with only each other to talk to. They were the only two people either of them wanted to talk to just then, too.

His dick stiffened yet again, shifting his mood from thoughtful to urgent. The hard press of his cock was helped along by her sudden movement, one that sent the dress sliding across her curves in a way that made his entire body ache.

Laura said, “I wish I could ask you if you wanted to get out of here.”

His dick gave a tremendous pulse. “Why don’t you?”

She gave him a regretful smile. “Because I’m swamped at work and sure to be passed over the one, measly promotion my tyrannical boss offers a year. Not for each person, but company-wide. I need that promotion, so I need to get some sleep.” She swayed closer. The scent of her perfume washed into his nostrils, making him harder than ever. “I know you’ll keep me awake all night.”

She was trying to murder him. Period. His cock hurt it was so swollen, and now he had to find a way to get past all the people in the room without anyone seeing that he was sporting a boner.

“You should call me.” He gave her an inviting smile. Her smile was equally inviting.

She said, “I don’t have your number.”

Hell, no woman had ever had his number. It was safer that way. He could walk away without having to worry that he’d be drowned by phone calls and cute little texts. By the time he saw those women again, they’d usually moved on or were so pissed off they just wanted to scream at him for a little while, which he solved by just walking away with a shrug and leaving them hollering at the empty air.

He reached for his pocket to take his phone out. His pants were tighter now than they had been when he had shoved that phone into his pocket, and he took the opportunity to give his throbbing rod a quick but deliberate squeeze, a painful one at that. To his relief, it started to subside a little. Just enough that he could think past the rushing desire spreading through his entire body.

They exchanged numbers. The party had begun to wind down a bit, and Laura said, “I’ll see you later. I’ll call you, too. What’s a good day?”

Now. Right now. He stifled that. Jesus, he thought, one night with her and I’m suddenly whipped!

No, not whipped. Captivated. There was a sense of something bigger than even the ardor he felt every time he looked at her. He just didn’t know what that feeling was.

He said, “Any day you’re free.”

She asked, “After six or so good for you?”

“Perfect. You sure you don’t need a ride home?”

She shook her head, that glorious cloud of dark hair swaying and rippling, catching the light. “No, I drove. I also only had the one glass of wine.”

She walked off. Ashton stared after her, his heart thundering in his chest and his dick – still semi-erect – giving off a few residual pulses. The single largest thought in his mind was that Laura was the woman he would have wanted if he had wanted a relationship made to last.

4

LAURA

God, he was so hot. But it wasn’t just his hotness that drew her to him. It was something else. Laura had had too many relationships back home that had ended with a guy trying to force her into more than she was ready for. Suddenly, she was having fantasies of having a relationship with Ashton.

Oh, not marriage! God no. She still didn’t want, that but she did want to see him again. That last guy she had dated had been such a jerk and the casual dates/hookups had not been meaningful to her. But the weird breakup and his words had somehow dropped her self-esteem a few inches anyway.

Maybe because she had had no idea of how to answer a guy who thought he was breaking off a real relationship, one she had had no idea that she was even in with him.

Was there something wrong with me, she wondered as she got into her slightly battered and older car and cranked the engine. How could she not have seen that her…what was he exactly? Ex-boyfriend? She had not thought of him that way, but it had been clear he had thought of himself that way. It didn’t matter really, she decided as she pulled out of the parking garage and headed down the bustling city streets. She had to have been blind not to see that he felt that way.

Or maybe he was blind not to see she didn’t.

Sighing with impatience, she took the exit that would lead her to the apartment. She would have really liked some company. Holly was working like a fiend lately, and Lexie had all but disappeared from Laura’s life. Sure, she still paid her rent on the apartment, but she was rarely there since she was, for all intents and purposes, living with Dawson.

Letting Ashton be that company had been a tempting thing, but she knew she had to get up early and be clear-headed. That promotion could mean the world of difference when Lexie decided to make her living with Dawson official and pulled out of paying her share of the very expensive rent.

Laura’s spirits flattened. She felt alone and lonely so much of the time lately. Everything seemed to have lost its luster. Everything she had come to the city for she had gotten, but she was restless and bored and emptied out.

After she’d parked and unlocked the door to her apartment, her cell rang. Hoping it might be Ashton, Laura answered without looking at the screen, and immediately wished she hadn’t as her mother’s disembodied voice came across the line.

“Hello, Laura.”

Laura’s shoulders tensed. That was the last thing she needed! “Hi, mom. How are you?” She managed to keep her voice pleasant, but her belly dropped as she took a seat on the sofa and stared at the wall with unseeing eyes. All it took was a few words to drop her right back into the past and all its grief.

“We’re fine. I just wanted to check in on you. It’s Matthew’s birthday, you know. I just wanted to make sure you remembered him.”

Laura wanted to weep. Her thoughts jumbled and tangled, and all the old resentments came flooding back in. Her birthday was nearly always forgotten. She could remember exactly four birthdays that she had been remembered and celebrated, if buying her a cake from a bakery and tying a few balloons to the kitchen chair she sat at could be called being celebrated.

Matthew’s birthday was never forgotten, however. Her mother spent hours in the kitchen, whipping up a cake and all the foods he had loved most. She cleaned his room for hours, too, lovingly caressing all his clothes, which she washed and refolded and hung again then as well. They’d have that dinner and eat that cake, and there would be a present added to the growing pile of unopened gifts in his bedroom.

“How could I forget?” Laura couldn’t keep the anger from her voice. “You know, I don’t care. I really don’t care that today was his birthday. You can care if you want to, but I don’t, and I don’t ever want you to call me again to remind me. Tell dad not to call me to remind me that it’s the anniversary of his death either. In fact, don’t bother ever calling me ever again – either of you – until you decide that you actually want to know what is going on in my life.”

A long gasp whooshed through the line. Panic and pain and a sense of freedom all hit at once, leaving Laura dizzy as her mother choked out, “How dare you?”

“How dare I what?” What are you doing? Laura’s brain went into hyper-drive, trying to quell her runaway tongue, but her mouth was having none of it and just kept moving. “How dare I what, mom? Demand that you finally stop seeing me as the kid who should have died in his place? Demand that you see me as more than a collection of body parts and organs that were supposed to go to him so he could live? Tell me, when you came up with the grand scheme to have me, did it ever, even once, occur to you that I’d be a real person? Have you ever even noticed that I’m a real person and not some walking donor for your precious son?”

Her mother cried out, “I can’t believe you’re saying this to me!”

“I can’t believe I didn’t say it sooner.” Laura’s eyes closed. Tears streaked down her face. “I really can’t believe I didn’t. Here’s something else I should have said a long time ago. You are a shitty mother. Dad was a shitty dad. To me. You might have been great to Mathew, but you were horrible parents to me. In fact, you weren’t parents at all, you were just bitter people who hated me for ever having been born and not having the right stuff to give to a dying kid you actually loved.”

“You’re going too far.”

Or not far enough. All the years of hurt and loss and being ignored and disregarded bubbled out of Laura just then. “I’m alive, and you don’t give three fucks for that fact. Mathew’s dead and has been for a long time. You might not want it to be that way, either of you, but that is how it is, and I’m alive. But you’re dead to me. Dead, do you hear me? I was never alive to you, and I know that. So, stop using me as a gap between your loss. Stop trying to force me to celebrate a boy who’s been dead for all these years because all it does is make sure I know just how little you ever cared for me.”

She hung up. Her hands shook. There was a large, trembling panic closing in, threatening to sweep her away. Her body folded in on itself and she let it. Doubled over, unable to stem or stop the tide of anguish, Laura wept. Ugly sobs tore themselves from her throat and wrenched her chest wide open.

Her cheeks were raw and her eyes swollen from crying. Her nose was clogged and her body curled up in abject misery, but still she wept. She was unlovable. Always had been. Always would be. No way was she ever having kids, and no way was she ever going to let her parents back into her life. She’d stay alone forever before she fucked up some poor innocent kid the way her parents had fucked her up.

The doorbell rang, startling her. She went to the door, her spirits sunk low. Maybe it was Lexie. Maybe she’d come home and realized she had forgotten her keys or something. Laura hoped it was Lexie. Lexie didn’t know all of what happened in Laura’s childhood, but she knew enough to comfort her a little.

Laura peeked through the peephole to see Ashton standing there, holding a bouquet of flowers and a small box.

What the hell? Laura swung the door open, prepared to tell him now was not a good time, but as soon as he took one look at her face he dropped both the box and the flowers on the hallway floor and moved forward, gathering her into his arms.

“What is it? Are you okay?’

His strong arms enfolded her. His body pressed against hers. Laura was grateful for the sheer strength of him just then. “No,” she whispered, “Not at all. Why are you here?’

“I…I figured a little…I mean…” He gestured toward the fallen gifts. “I was just going to leave these with you as a sort of positive whatchamacallit, you know, for your promotion…”

He leaned back slightly, his eyes surveying her face. “Jesus, what happened? Do I need to kick someone’s ass?”

She should tell him to go. She was a raving mess and heartbroken. She was raw and vulnerable, and now was not the time. “No. I mean it’s just my folks.” Her eyes went to the box. “What’s in there?”

“Chocolate cupcakes.” He gave the box another glance. “Um, they might be ruined.”

Laura stepped out of his arms. “It’s impossible to ruin cupcakes.” She leaned over and picked up the box and the flowers. She held them like a shield. “Do you want to come in?”

“Do you want me to?”

She knew it was stupid and foolish. She had too much to handle as it was, and Ashton just might turn out to be the guy who totally broke whatever was left of the fractured pieces of her heart if she let him get too close. Still, she said, “Yes.”

He followed her inside as he had done the last time he had been there. She set the box on the coffee table. “I’m sorry. I’m a huge mess right now. I don’t really know what to…” Her arms crossed over her chest and she stood there, biting her lips.

Ashton took her hand and sat her down on the sofa, settling himself next to her. He reached into the box and produced a few paper napkins, now liberally smeared with chocolate. He sorted through them until he found one that would do and handed it to her. Laura wiped her eyes and blew her nose, smiling weakly. “Thanks.”

“You want to talk about it?”

“It’s my brother’s birthday.”

Ashton looked confused. She didn’t blame him. She sighed. “He died years ago, back when I was still an infant. He was really sick and…and my parents had me to possibly supply him with organs and tissue that he needed to stay alive. Only, I was born with the wrong blood type.”

His mouth fell open. His words went to the very heart of the problem. “Jesus, what were they going to do with you after they harvested your organs? Put you to sleep or something? I’m sorry…I mean…how you could have lived if they had managed to…”

The look of shock and horror on his face mirrored her thoughts and the feelings that had haunted her entire life since she had been old enough to understand why her parents did not love her.

Her fingers twisted, shredding the napkin. “The plan was to use my bone marrow and liver, one of my kidneys, and maybe a few other things, too, to save my brother’s life. All of what they would have taken from me…well it would not have killed me. People can live with one kidney and the liver grows back or something. It must have sounded like a great plan when they cooked it up.

Ashton’s face went dead pale. “And a doctor agreed to that?’

“Yes. It’s not so unusual and like I said, it was nothing that could or would have killed me.”

Ashton wheezed out, “Holy fucking Christ. No wonder you’re so upset.”

“I’m upset because after he died, it felt like they didn’t want me, but it would have been unseemly to just ditch me, you know. My folks are nothing if not big on appearances. They never let me forget that I failed to do the one thing they’d expected of me – to keep him alive. I don’t know why, but when my mom called just a few minutes ago, I freaked out on her and I said all kinds of things – mean and hateful things – to her.”

“Were they true?’

The question socked into her solar plexus. “Oh, yeah.”

“Then don’t be sorry for that.”

“I don’t want to be sorry, but I also don’t like feeling like I’m a terrible human being for saying what I said. It was an awful thing to say – all of it – even if it was true.”

Ashton’s hand found hers and squeezed. Laura wiped more tears away. “Don’t you want to know what I said?”

“I already have a pretty good idea, and I do not blame you. If it had been me I would have said the same.”

“You don’t know that.”

Ashton snorted. “You obviously weren’t a fly in the wall when my dad finally decided to crawl out of the woodwork.”

Laura gave him a careful look. “Oh?”

Ashton shifted slightly. His knee pressed into hers for a moment and her heart stuttered in her chest. That she could be so turned on by him and at a time like that was telling. She knew that being near him – as weary and in need of comfort and as turned on by him as she was – could have high consequences, but that didn’t stop her from leaning against him just a little.

Ashton said, “Oh, yeah. You know, he left me when I was a kid, and when I got to be too much of a hassle for my mom, she dumped me into the system. As it turned out, she had a boyfriend who didn’t like kids, and so it was me or him. He won.”

The bitterness in his words was not disguised by the bland way in which he said them. Laura felt his pain. “I’m sorry.”

“Oh, don’t be. I wasn’t saying that to make you feel sorry for me. I was just saying it because I wanted you to know why, when he finally showed up in my life, I sent him out my door right quick, and with a proverbial boot up his ass, too.”

“Did you say stuff you regretted?”

“Yes.”

That shocked her, she had been so sure that he would say no. His face hardened as he added, “I’m not a total jerk. Of course, I regretted some of what I said, but it didn’t make it any less true. I told him exactly what kind of life he and that mother of mine had consigned me to. I told him what it was like in the system, and how awful my life was a kid.”

Her hand found his knee. “What was it like?”

His face was bleak. “It was …it was a lot of being unwanted. It was a lot of being shipped from place to place and living with people who didn’t give a single shit about me. My only asset was not in myself, but in the check they got for being my foster parents. I was not wanted because they cared or wanted me, not even because they thought I could be somebody one day. I was just wanted for what I could give them, to make their lives better. And their lives didn’t include me beyond that either.”

God, she knew that feeling. Her fingers tightened on his knee, and he gave her a tired smile. “Sound familiar?”

“Too familiar.” She wet her lips with her tongue. “My God, that is exactly what it was like for me. I knew they didn’t want me except for what I might have done for Mathew. I knew I was nothing to them and that they had no use for me. I knew…man did I ever know…that nothing I ever did would make them love me, but it never stopped me from trying, not even long after I figured out exactly how futile that trying to make them love me really was.”

Ashton nodded his head in agreement. “That about sums it up. I kept trying to be the perfect kid for every family I landed in until I was about nine or ten. Then, I figured it out. They had their own kids. I was just the kid they had to tolerate to get the money they were going to use to better their real kids’ lives.”

“The real kid. I get it. For me, it was like I knew they’d trade my life if they thought it would get him back. I really worried for a long time that they wanted me dead. I still do. I honestly think they would have much rather I died than him, and then I worried that after they figured out I was worthless, they’d just leave me one day. They did, too, even if they were right there.”

Ashton sighed. Their hands met again. Their fingers squeezed. They sat there, two people who got each other more than anyone else in the world. Laura finally asked, “You met Dawson in foster, didn’t you?”

“I did. I think we talked about that already.”

“We did. You two seem really tight, and I’m guessing it’s because you had to deal with a lot of bad stuff together.” Talking about his life made hers fade a bit, and she hoped he would not stop now. He shrugged. “Some places were worse than others.”

“How so? I mean, if you don’t mind my asking.”

“I don’t mind. I’ll tell you how Dawson and I met, too. Our social worker handled both our cases, and she found a couple that was interested in taking in more than one kid, so Dawson and I went together. It was the first time we’d ever seen each other.

“The couple had four girls. Dawson and I were younger than the girls; we were ten, and they were teenagers. But every single fucking night the parents would lock us up in the bedroom in case we decided to go full on rapist or something. I remember once, one of their daughters was having a party, and there were all these kids there. We were locked into our room of course; they had this great big lock on the door, and our room was up on the third floor, not quite a dark and creepy attic but real close.

“Anyway, we’d done something that day. I don’t recall now what it was, but it got us sent to our room without food for the sin. That happened a lot. You see, those girls were – two were twins – all in high school. The oldest was a senior. The twins were juniors. They were all headed off to college, and they had a lot of expenses so...ta da! Foster kids to foot the bills. We were in that room starving to death because it was a weekend…”

“Wait, why were you starving because it was the weekend?” She hoped the question was not too pushy.

It seemed it wasn’t, because Ashton said, “We only got dinner there. If we ate breakfast and lunch, we ate it at school. On weekends, we got dinner because there was no school, but we’d had nothing that whole day. The party was down on the first floor, but they were cooking out for it, and the backyard patio was right below the little window in our room. Dawson got the bright idea of sneaking down the drain and grabbing some food. So, we did. We grabbed a bunch of stuff, whatever they’d left out there, and hauled ass for the drain, but we couldn’t get back up it. So, we ate all that we could standing in the side yard and then we marched right into the house into the middle of the party and announced we were being held prisoner and had escaped by crawling out the window.”

Laura was torn between amusement and despair. “What happened?”

“A parent of one of the younger kids who was there got pissed off and charged upstairs, then came back down screaming that it was true, that we’d been locked in like captives. There was a big hubbub and Dawson and I got hauled out of there and that couple had to handle being called slavers and shit. But in the end, nothing really changed because we, Dawson and I, got the reputation of being difficult to handle because of that. We had to mostly stay in group homes.”

“Shit.”

“It was what it was. We got through it. You’ll get through this. Sometimes you have to get pissed off and say how you feel about all of it to get over it and move on. I’m guessing you never said anything like it that before.”

“You’d be right.” Damn, he was perceptive. She was more grateful than ever that he had come over, even if she had not invited him to come.

Come. The word hovered in her mind. Now that her grief had dimmed, the desire was rushing back, making her painfully aware of just how much she wanted him.

“You need to get some sleep.”

The words jolted her. That desire plucked at her body, making her nipples hard and her panties wet. She wanted him to stay more than anything. She protested, “If you want to stay, I will be fine with that.”

He leaned toward her. Her lips parted as she anticipated the kiss. But he just left a gentle kiss on her forehead and not her lips. He said, “I would never do anything to make you regret anything you did with me. I’m afraid you’d wonder why you slept with me tonight if I stayed.”

“I would never regret it.” The words were soft and yet forceful.

Ashton gave her a lopsided smile. “I’d rather not test that theory. How about a date tomorrow night?”

A date? She asked, “You mean a real date?”

He looked a little self-conscious. “Sure, why not? I’d like to see you again, and I would love to talk to you about that idea you had at the party.”

“What idea?” her brow crimped as she tried to recall what he meant.

“The dating app thing.”

“Oh.” Well why not? It would be a good reason to see him again, and maybe, just maybe he was just using that as a reason to see her, too. After all, it wasn’t like he was used to really dating. “Okay. I’d love to go out with you tomorrow.”

“I’ll pick you up. Say, seven thirty? Or is that too early or late for you?”

“No, that’s perfect.” That time would enable her to get home, shower, and change into something slinky below whatever she wore on their date. “That sounds great in fact.”

Now that she knew he was leaving, she felt a small sense of loss. She still wanted him, but that desire had been tempered by a giant sense of anticipation that tingled along her nerve endings and made a pleasurable little pool well higher deep down in her crotch.

He left and she stood there, her back against the door and a smile on her face. It had been a day of mountainous highs and cavernous lows. She felt slightly better about what she had said to her mother. She had been wrong for being so cruel, but if she had ever been allowed to express her hurt and misery as a child she might never have needed to say those things as harshly as she had.

She headed into the bedroom but stopped again. The flowers sat on the table, and she picked them up and went to the kitchen. She rummaged around until she found a tall glass which she filled with water and sugar, then she took the flowers from the wrapper and arranged them in the vase. She scooped up the flowers and a smashed cupcake, using one finger to swipe a hunk of frosting off the lid of the box then headed for her bedroom.

She hummed as she stepped into her dark and quiet bedroom, licking the chocolate frosting off her finger before disrobing and putting on a thin t-shirt and a pair of pajama shorts.

The anticipation mounted as she lay there, sure that she would never get any sleep at all. Despite both that anticipation and her worry that she wouldn’t, she began to drift away.

Ashton was amazing.

And amazingly wrong for her, too.

5

ASHTON

ASHTON COULDN’T BELIEVE how terrible Laura’s childhood had been. He seethed in an anger born out of a sense of helplessness as he drove home. Just when he thought his life was the worst one anyone could have had, he found someone who’d had an even worse childhood.

The pain she was in was obvious. He could see it, and that pain had been the only thing that kept him from bedding her. There weren’t many times in his life he engaged in chivalry, but just then he had wanted to be the good guy.

Thinking of sleeping with her while she was hurting, afraid, and dealing with the fact that her parents did not love her was stupid anyway. She needed an ear and a shoulder, not a dick in her bed.

But man, walking away like that had been so damn hard!

He didn’t regret it. In fact, it felt good to do the right thing. The sight of her eyes, drowned in tears and rimmed in red, had made his heart ache for her.

He would see her tomorrow. A funny little throb hit his heart, and his belly made a weird flip. He had never been so excited by the prospect of seeing a woman again, and his smile got wider as he turned down his street, heading home.

He had still not moved past the old neighborhood. He should and he knew it, but part of him was so sure that he was going to go broke and end up right back there anyway that he just stuck around.

He parked and stared at the façade of the place. It was the nicest apartment building in the neighborhood, true enough, but it was a far cry from what he could have easily afforded. Jackson had wasted no time in getting the hell out of the neighborhood, and Ashton knew he should, too. He was a multimillionaire even if his neighbors didn’t know it, and if they found out he was likely to be a target for them.

The fancy sports car got too much attention as it was, and even though the building had a secure garage below, it was probably just a matter of time before the damn thing got jacked. He sighed and opened the door, stepping out into the dimness of the garage before locking the car and heading for the creaking elevator on the right.

He was too busy thinking about Laura to pay attention to his surroundings.

That was his first mistake. He didn’t see Gerald come up behind him until he caught a glimpse of a wavering reflection in the polished steel of the elevator doors. He dismissed that, and it was his second mistake.

“Hey, you little shit.”

The voice sent him spinning around, fists already coming up, but it was too late.

The steel bar Gerald held met Ashton’s ribs. He heard them crunch and he gasped, blood rushing to his head and his mind going blank.

He fought back of course, but it was he and his busted ribs against a much larger guy with a steel pipe. In the end, Ashton wound up on the floor of the garage, broken and bleeding and unconscious.

***

“Hey, mister.” A hand shook him awake.

Pain lanced through his body, and Ashton grunted out, “No, God. Leave me alone.”

“Easy, buddy. I called the cops already.”

Ashton opened one eye. The other one was stuck fast. His lips ached and cracked as he asked, “Why?”

“Because someone worked you over, and I don’t care to have you die here on the floor. The union would have my ass.”

The security guard the building paid for. Ashton tried to focus his one open eye, but everything looked dim and unfocused. He tried to speak. The guard added, “He didn’t have time to rob you. I got here and saw him whipping up on you and scared him off but…anyway, I was too busy trying to get an ambulance and the cops here to chase him. Sorry.”

“No worries.” Was he dying? He sure felt like it. There was not one inch of his body that did not hurt.

An ambulance came crashing in, its flashing lights splashing and flashing across the concrete walls of the parking garage. The noise and the lights made Asheton’s head feel like it was about to explode. He wanted to vomit. There was a stabbing and burning feeling in his side.

He passed out again as the paramedics leaned over him, their voices coming from a long distance away.

6

LAURA

Ashton stood her up.

Upset and angry, Laura paced the apartment, her feet carrying her back and forth across the floor. Her nerves were on the ragged edge, and she kept glancing at her watch and phone. Eight-thirty came and she sighed, knowing that there was no other explanation other than he was not coming.

He had changed his mind. Maybe he had decided that a woman who had such a huge amount of baggage was not one he wanted to be with, or maybe he had found a woman who he liked more.

What did it matter? Either way, he was not there.

The doorknob rattled. Laura dashed toward the door but it swung open to reveal Lexie. Laura’s heart sank as the hope that had come died again.

Lexie asked, “You okay?”

“Yeah, just…restless.” She wanted to tell Lexie that she had seen Ashton and had a date with him but that he had stood her up, but she didn’t. Dawson was still a friend of Ashton’s, and she didn’t want to get between them. She knew Lexie would be angry and say something and that might cause not just a problem between Dawson and Ashton, but a problem between Lexie and Dawson. She added, “What are you doing home? Did you miss me too much to stay away?”

Lexie sighed. “Oh, Laura, I have been a bad friend, haven’t I? I really haven’t been around much at all, and I am so sorry.”

“Oh, it’s okay. You got a great guy. Of course, you want to be with him as much as possible.” She understood; she really did.

Lexie said, “He is great, but you were always a great friend, too, and I have really been a terrible friend by not being here for you more often. I’m sorry.”

“No worries. So, what brings you home tonight?”

Lexie set her bag down and sighed, her fingers running through her hair. “Oh, it’s awful. Ashton’s in the hospital and Dawson’s with him. They’re only letting in family right now, and Dawson told them that he’s Ashton’s brother, so…”

No! She had to have misunderstood. Her voice was strained. “Did you say Ashton is in the hospital?”

“Yeah. I forgot you knew him. I saw you talking to him at the party last night, didn’t I?”

“Yeah.” Her lips were numb. “What happened to him?” Visions of a bloody car crash filled her mind, and she had to blink that away to keep from screaming aloud in horror. “Is he okay? I mean, is he…is he…?’

Lexie’s brow furrowed. “Laura, you okay?”

“Yeah. No.” Damn it, now she had to tell her. “Lexie, look. Ashton and I were supposed to go out tonight. We, uh, well we hooked up after I helped him out during a bar fight, and we hadn’t seen each other since, but we met up again last night at the party. I came home alone, but he dropped by with some flowers and cupcakes, and he found me freaking out because my mom called me because it was Mathew’s birthday and…”

“I wasn’t here. Oh, Laura, I am so sorry!” Lexie rushed up and hugged her, hard. “I know how much that hurts the hell out of you every year. I should have remembered. Now I feel like a really awful friend!”

“Don’t,” Laura said sternly. “I was okay after…well, I actually don’t know if I am okay. But what I really want to know is if he’s okay?”

The expression on Lexie’s face made Laura’s heart nearly stop. Lexie said, “He got robbed or something. Whomever did it worked him over really bad. He’s got some broken ribs and a massive concussion. He’s also got a lot of bruises all over his body. The doctors say whoever did it must have been trying to kill him.”

Laura’s fingers clenched together. “Oh, no. But…but will he be okay?”

Lexie said, “I don’t know. I mean, he’s alive and all. That’s the big thing. He’s just really hurt. They’re keeping him overnight because of the concussion and some blood on his brain.”

“I have to get to the hospital.”

Lexie’s brows elevated. “Wow. What kind of hookup did you two have anyway?”

Laura rubbed her hands over her face. “It was not just that. There’s…we have a lot in common. He got it, why I was so upset last night.” She paused. Lexie had never really known what it was like for Laura at home, because every time she was around, Laura’s parents managed to connect to reality if not be affectionate toward her. From the outside, it must have looked like she had such a happy home life, although one colored by tragedy beyond imagining. Lexie didn’t even know that she’d just been born to save a brother who had been beyond saving.

Lexie picked up her bag. “Okay, if that’s what you want, I will drive, but I don’t know if they’ll let us in. If they don’t, we can always go down to the cafeteria and get updates from Dawson.”

Laura’s eyes blurred from the tears forming. “See? You’re a great friend.”

***

They weren’t able to get in to see Ashton. Dawson had been shut out, too, as the doctors were busy doing something to make sure his head injury wouldn’t cause any permanent damage. If Dawson thought Laura’s being there was odd, he didn’t say anything.

Instead, he directed the two of them to a cafeteria while he took up post in the waiting room, promising to call Lexie’s phone if anything changed.

Now, Laura and Lexie sat in the nearly empty cafeteria, a tray of chicken strips and fries in front of them. Despite not having had dinner, neither of them were particularly hungry.

Lexie said, “I knew they had it rough. I mean, I heard the story of how they met, too. I didn’t know it was that bad at home for you though. I am so sorry. I wish I had had the guts to leave that town long before I did. I feel like you just didn’t leave because you were too worried about me.”

Laura snorted. “Don’t even. I love you, you are my best friend, but I didn’t leave because I didn’t have the guts. It had nothing to do with you. Sometimes you pick the devil you know over the one you don’t.”

Lexie sighed and pushed a fry around the tray before picking it up and popping it into her mouth. She chewed and swallowed. “You do know he’s the first guy I have ever seen you care about?’

Defensiveness set in. “What do you mean?’

Lexie dusted off her hands. “I mean, you dated a few guys back home, but when things got serious you always broke it off. Heck that one guy – the one that had the motorcycle –”

“Jim.”

“Right. Jim. He caught the flu and had to break a date with you, and you broke up with him.”

“He was a jerk. The flu had nothing to do with it.” That was true. “I didn’t break up with him over the flu. I broke up with him because he tried to force me to go to Vegas with him and get married.”

Lexie’s mouth dropped open. “What?”

“Not even kidding. I really do not want to get married.”

“You’re always saying that.”

Laura said, “Because it’s true. I don’t. I don’t even know for sure if I ever want to have a long-term relationship either.”

“But here you are, sitting in a hospital, worrying about a guy you were supposed to have a date with tonight.”

“That’s not a ‘oh I want to date him’ statement.”

Lexie looked amused. “If you say so.”

“I do.”

Lexie’s expression turned serious. “You know he’s a player, right? I mean, he’s not the kind of guy to stick around. He’s sort of…well, just like you – commitment shy and all that.”

Laura did know. At first, that had been what made him so attractive. But now that fact had become slightly more problematic, and she knew exactly what Lexie was trying to tell her.

“I know that, and I’m not looking for anything he can’t give. He isn’t looking for anything I can’t give either, so it’s all good.”

It was. She knew better than to fall for a guy like Ashton. She liked him and she wanted him. That was enough, at least for now.

No, wait. Had she just thought that?

Her phone chirped. Lexie took it out of her handbag and answered it. She said a few all rights and okays, and then hung up. She gave Laura a smile that filled her with relief. “Dawson says the doctors say he can have a little company, but just for a few minutes.”

Her legs went liquid, but Laura managed to stand. Lexie had hammered something home she had not even wanted to admit to herself. She really liked Ashton, she knew that, but she liked him a lot more than she was comfortable with. She also had no idea how he felt about her, but she did know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he really wasn’t the kind of guy to stick.

In his room, she stepped up close to the bed. His face was swollen and his strong body swathed in a field of white bandages, but he was awake. He gave her a wry grin as she said, “Wow, you will go a long way to break a date.”

He chuckled. “I guess the cat’s out of the bag now. I let someone run me over with a truck because I got cold feet.”

Dawson and Lexie walked out, giving them some privacy. Ashton said, “I am sorry about standing you up.”

“I guess you couldn’t really help it.” Her eyes flicked to all the bandages and fear lanced through her. “What happened?”

“Karma, I guess.”

She understood then. “Oh, the guy from the bar.”

“Yeah, I got to do something about him.” His eyes were unreadable.

“What the hell does he have against you anyway?”

Ashton groaned, “You don’t want to know.”

“Do you mean you don’t want to tell me?”

He winced. “Are you going to think less of me?”

“Probably not. You did stand me up after all.”

He laughed then coughed. “Shit, that hurts.” He winced, and she moved toward the bed, concerned but he waved it off. “Look, way back in the day – when I was like fourteen – I was in this house. The woman there, my foster mom, she was a slut. I mean for real. I don’t call women that, usually. But this one – man, every guy in the hood and then some. Me included. It was part of my room and board, in her words.”

Horror hit her hard. “She made you sleep with her?’

He gave her a dry look. “I was fourteen. I would have stuck my dick in a sewer grate if I could have gotten off. I wouldn’t say she made me, but it was clear from the minute I got there I was expected to. Only, she was sleeping with everyone else, including that dude. He didn’t take it well.”

“How did he find out?’

“Hell if I know. I just know him and his goon squad came after me and my buddy Jackson one afternoon and damn near killed me over her. The only good thing to come out of it was that I got sent off to juvie and out of there and, from what I hear, her old man finally decided to leave her ass. Also, she had to move to a real craphole of a house and they took her off the foster rolls because she couldn’t provide real shelter. So, everything worked out.”

“Except this guy still hates you. Or he still loves her and feels like he lost her over you, which all sort of equates to the same thing. I hope you told the cops who did it.”

His smile made her groan. “You didn’t.”

“Nope.”

“You do know you can’t keep on like this? You obviously have a thick skull, but eventually it might get busted beyond repair.”

“I’m going to handle it.”

“How?” She held up a hand. “Never mind. I am not about to get into that with you. If I…look I don’t want to press you.”

She didn’t. It came back to her that he had the same tendency to leave behind anything that got too complicated that she did. She’d always been proud of her ability to walk off from anything and anyone, and she had no doubt that he felt the same pride in that ability. Pressing him might just make them too much for him to take, and, more than anything else, she wanted to spend whatever time with him she could.

Oh, it would end. She knew that. But if she played it right, they could both walk away when it was time, and neither of them would get anything more than some pleasant memories as a result. Why fuck it up by pushing him to press charges on a guy he obviously was not interested in pressing charges against?

Ashton visibly relaxed. Laura managed a long breath, quiet and slow. He said, “It’s a personal thing, so I appreciate that.”

“No problem.” She laid a hand on the bed – not on his, but close enough that if he chose to he could reach the hand not covered in IV lines and bandages out and take hers.

He did. His fingers brushed across hers, and he said, “Anyway, I am really sorry about missing our date.”

The nurse stuck her head in and announced visiting hours were over. Ashton waved her out. He said, “I think they’ll let me go tomorrow or so. But if not, how about coming and keeping me company after you get off work?”

“Sure. I’ll smuggle you in a pizza or something.”

His eyes danced. “I really have to know how you’re going to hide an entire pizza box.”

Laura said, “Oh, I was planning on walking right past the desk with it like I had every right to. You ever notice if you act like whatever you’re doing is cool, nobody ever objects?”

Ashton chuckled. “You have a point. People never question others who act like they have every right to be doing whatever it is that they are doing.”

She wanted to kiss him, but the nurse had come back. She stood in the doorway, tapping an impatient foot and clearing her throat loudly. Laura said, “I think that’s my cue.”

Ashton said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow,” she echoed, and headed for the door.

7

ASHTON

ASHTON DID GET OUT OF THE HOSPITAL the next afternoon. He called Laura and arranged to have his stuff picked up from his apartment. He’d have to pay the rest of the lease and that was okay, but that beat down from Gerald had opened his eyes to some hard truths.

His ugly past was never going away, not even if he left the hood, but he didn’t belong there anymore. Laura’s face when he told her about sleeping with his foster mom, and the words she had said to him about that, had loosened a hard knot in him, one he had never been able to release. Her words had made him take out a lot of the past and examine it closely, see it through new eyes, and while most of it was still ugly and awful, he could see where much of what he had done had been based on a need for survival and how those things had led him to be the man he was right then.

It also struck him that he had refused to give anything but his body and a few nights to any woman, because hard experience had taught him that he could measure his self-worth by the amount of pleasure he could bring a woman. That was exactly how he weighed himself, too – by how hard he could make a woman come – but once that conquest had been made, he had always run away. Of course, he had. He’d always been afraid that once that wore thin he’d be rejected by whomever he was with.

He’d slept thanks to the pain killers, but he had always jolted awake again thanks to the constant noise and the nurses who came in to wake him to find out how he was sleeping, something that both irritated and amused him, and as Dawson drove him toward the hotel where Ashton had reserved a room, he was tired and sore.

Dawson dropped him off, and Ashton stared around at the luxurious room – thick carpeting, marble surfaces, deep leather sofas, and a king-sized bed covered with fine linens.

This was his world now. He had the money to be there, but deep down he wondered if he even deserved that. The app that had made him rich had been a lark and fun, but he had never thought it would make him rich. He had also never considered that he might hurt people with it, that it was unfair to women and slanted in favor of men. Now that he knew that, he was glad it was gone and that he had nothing else to do with it.

The hole under the floor was always there, Ashton thought as he settled himself down onto a sofa, wincing as his ribs gave off a low throb of pain. There’s always been a hole under his feet, and he’d always dropped straight down into it.

He could recall with bitter clarity the day his mother had led him into the social services office. The sterile and cold room. The long face of the social worker who’d asked a series of blunt questions he had not understood at the time. The horrible sinking feeling as he was led into a room and left alone while his mother escaped from him.

The first family that had taken him in and then given him back because he cried too much. The days he’d spent at the adoption fairs, trying to be as funny and charming and happy as possible so somebody would want him. The hurt of being passed over or ignored.

Going from place to place, something always happened to send him packing.

Ashton had not cried since he’d been a small child, but just then a single tear rolled down his cheek. How could he deserve to be rich, to be happy? How could he possibly believe that he deserved a good life and a good woman when everything in his experience had shown him that he didn’t?

Laura had him thinking about a lot of things he was not sure he wanted to think about, like having something real and meaningful.

She was a hell of a woman. He thought that every single time he thought of her. But she was also a woman who didn’t want a relationship, and one who had no idea that he had money.

There was a problem. Lexie didn’t even know about his fortune. Dawson had always respected Ashton’s wishes that nobody would know about his money, and so Lexie could not possibly tell Laura, but she would have to know sooner or later, and he wondered if that would drive a wedge between them.

He had seen Dawson struggle with women who wanted him for his money and nothing else. The women who lived in the fancy houses and expected him to fuck them before going outside and cutting their grass had taught Ashton that women were willing to do anything to keep the money they had married into.

How could he trust Laura to be any different?

He got up and walked to the little mini bar, but he didn’t pour a drink. The strong painkillers might kill him if he mixed alcohol in with them, and he knew it.

He paced the room. After a few turns, his head began to ache and he sat back down.

He could see his reflection in a nearby mirror, and he winced. He had one hell of a black eye, and there was a large bruise on his left cheek. His head hadn’t been busted after all; the bleed the doctors thought they had spotted on his scans had proven to be not a bleed after all, and the concussion, while serious, was manageable.

The ribs were the worst, and they’d take a while to heal. Ashton didn’t like feeling helpless or sick, and he was restless as well as tired just then.

His phone rang. He took it out and saw Laura’s number on the screen. A smile crossed his lips as he answered with a cheery, “They released me. I’m free!”

Her laughter was a cure for his troubled thoughts and spirit. “Awesome. I was going to ask. So, are you okay?”

“I am.” He added, “I’m in a hotel though, thanks to Dawson.” It was partially true. Dawson had driven him there. He didn’t want to lie to Laura. He wanted to be as honest with her as he wanted her to be with him, but that distrust he held kept him from being able to. “It’s probably a good thing. I’d hate to get my skull busted again and so soon.”

That was all true. He had had a lot of time to think about that fact the night before. Gerald had a lot to be angry about. His father going to jail had taken whatever luster Gerald had in the hood. He had been reduced to trying to get a few side hustles and calling in favors, but he was a joke in the hood. Gerald was a coward, and everyone knew it. He never got into a one-on-one fight, and sneaking up on Ashton while his back was turned and Gerald had a pipe in his hand just showed what a coward he was. But Gerald being a coward didn’t make him any less dangerous. New worries sprang up. Laura didn’t live in the hood, but what if Gerald found out where she lived?

“Yeah, me too.” Laura said, then she fell silent. His heart beat picked up. Below the dry tone of her voice lay real concern. Maybe they might have a chance at something, but what?

He said, “So, how are you feeling?”

“Pretty good, all things considered.” He managed to inject a note of cheer into his voice. “It only hurts when I laugh or cough.”

“Then I’d advise you not to do either.”

He laughed. Laura said, “Shit,” and he laughed harder, one hand going to his ribs to try to stem the ache there. When he quit laughing, he said, “Are you busy tonight?”

“Not at all.” A long pause. Then, “Would you like some company?”

“I’d love it. I owe you dinner, so how about room service?”

“Oh, room service, is it? Fancy?” There was laughter bubbling up in her voice. “I’ll take it.”

“Great. What time?”

Laura said, “Well I am sitting in my car in the parking lot, so if you’re closer to my job than my place now might be a good time to know that.”

“I’m at the Swaros.”

“I don’t know where...oh wait, is that the big one downtown? The one by the park?”

“Yup.”

“Okay that’s not far from me. Would it be okay if I came now, or do you need to rest or something first?”

“Now’s great.” His voice dropped a little. His body, despite being battered, was awash in desire. He didn’t know how he was going to manage to make love to her, but he knew that he wanted to.

They hung up and he stood, making his way to the bathroom. He needed a shower. He couldn’t get the bandages around his ribs wet, but he would figure out a way to get clean. He smelled like blood and the astringent hospital odor, and he wanted that gone before she got there.

The shower – a massive thing made of marble and cultured tile – had a bench in it. Ashton muttered, “Well, here’s to hoping I don’t accidentally somehow turn my bandages into some kind of mummy wrapping,” and disrobed.

He caught sight of his body in the mirror and paused. His face was bad. His body was worse. His heart raced so hard he could feel the dangerous quickness of its pace in his ears.

He’d had worse, sure. But the sight of the ugly bruises – black and blue and turning yellow and green in spots – brought home to him again that he didn’t want his old life anymore. His fingers dropped to the scar on his abs, the old scar that had come from a knife a rich guy had cut him with, and a fight that had caused he and Dawson to nearly lose the friendship that had been all either of them had ever had to depend upon.

That life needed to be done. He knew that. The boy he had been and the man he had become needed to grow up a lot. It was time for him to try to be a better man, and he knew that, too.

The question was, who was he going to be, and how was he going to be that better man?

He had the money to buy himself a great place, sure, but he knew all too well that a nice house didn’t make a person better.

As he showered carefully, he thought about that. He found himself wondering how many women that app he and Jackson had made had hurt. That was an uneasy thought, but he thought about it anyway.

It wasn’t cool the way they had set it up. He knew that now. There was no way to fix it since he no longer owned it, but what if he created an app with Laura that was less sex-centric and more focused on helping people find actual dates?

Maybe he could help make the world a better place in some way. Wouldn’t that be a change?

8

LAURA

“Maybe I should dash home and change.” Laura looked down at the outfit she’d worn to work that day. She had on a rather sedate blouse in a pretty cream color and a set of dark slacks that emphasized her long legs but didn’t cling. That was accessorized by a wide belt and a pair of boring loafers. Hardly the stuff of seduction.

Not that it was likely Ashton could be in any shape for seduction.

A wry grin twisted her lips, and she quickly dug around in her handbag. She had a small can of dry shampoo and she sprayed it into her hair because she hadn’t washed it that morning, then she quickly brushed her tresses with quick hard strokes. A fast application of deodorant, a short burst of perfume, and a hasty rinse with a trial-sized bottle of mouthwash followed by a quick flossing had to do.

Laura quickly reapplied her lipstick and a thin line of eyeliner over the faded liner already on her wide and long upper lid and a dash of fresh mascara, and she was done. The five minutes of grooming made her feel much better, and she cranked her car and headed out of the parking garage, groaning when she saw the heavy flow of traffic streaming down the avenues.

She took a right. Downtown was massive – set between four highways that led to the suburbs on three sides of the city and the industrial parks on the eastern side of the city. Traffic was congested and the noise near deafening. As she sat in her car, fiddling with the air conditioner to get the temperature to one she could bear, Laura had to admit that the traffic was something she could live without.

The traffic back home had been an occasional back-up around the local strip mall. She grinned as she recalled how often she’d cursed that mild traffic and how many times she had thought that that traffic was the worst thing in the entire world.

She finally got to the hotel. The lobby was huge and gracious, and the elevator whisked her up nearly twenty stories before she landed on the floor Ashton’s room was situated on. He opened the door wearing a smile, a pair of jeans undone at the top, and the heavy bandages around his ribs. His hair was soaked and still uncombed. The scent of soap and cologne wafted to her nose, turning her senses to him.

She shouldn’t sleep with him. It was dangerous to sleep with him. She already had some emotions tied into him that frightened her, and she knew it. The bandages gave her pause. Just then, he stepped forward and her body went right to his. She hugged him gingerly and their mouths met. That kiss was raw and passionate, it invoked all the things she wanted to say, wanted done to her body and to do to his.

She closed the door with her foot. Ashton muttered, “Jesus Christ you’re going to kill me.”

She muttered back, “I’ll try not to.” Their bodies moved toward the bed, their fingers working on each other’s buttons and clothing. Her arms locked around his neck, and their bodies swayed together.

Ashton stepped across the floor and she went with him, her legs tangling up into his. His hands ran up and down her body, sending more thrills along her skin. Her nipples went rock hard and tight. Her belly filled with butterflies of anticipation.

She breathed, “Shit, your ribs. What if we do something to hurt them?”

“Fuck them,” Ashton muttered.

“I don’t know that position,” she retorted, earning a brief laugh.

He said, “The worst that could happen –”

“Is that we do something to cause one of them to pop a lung or something and have to call an ambulance,” she gasped as his mouth found her neck, and then his fingers went to her breasts, rubbing them hard through her blouse.

“They’d think I was a lucky guy,” he muttered, “Besides, as long as we don’t lay down, I think we’ll be okay.”

“Don’t lay down?”

His mouth was still on hers, robbing her of her ability to think or breathe. Her fingers tangled in his hair and his mouth devoured hers yet again, sending all thoughts of his ribs tumbling right out of her head.

His mouth never left hers. His fingers teased at her nipples through her blouse and bra. A button flew off her blouse, and she made use of what skin she could safely touch, letting her hands wander across his steely abs and dark-brown nipples.

Their mouths broke apart, their tongues untangling. Her tongue went to his ear and then to his neck. He shuddered once, then growled out, “Damn woman, I can’t even think of anything but how much I want you.”

All she could think of was how much she wanted him, so she figured that they were even. She knew they shouldn’t, not as injured as he was, but she couldn’t stop herself from reaching for him and trying to get closer while not hurting his abused body. It was a delicate balance, and she was terrified one wrong move would totally destroy the mood but he didn’t seem to notice his aches and pains just then.

His breath came back, blowing against the wetness that his tongue left behind, and she squirmed and cried out, her fingers digging into his thick hair.

Her whole body arched and trembled. Her pants were down around her ankles and his hands were running across the front of her damp panties, testing the moisture there and then pressing the scrap of lace into her cleft, massaging her clit through the material.

Her ass jerked forward. Her feet flexed, and she lifted herself up and down, trying to ride his fingers as he teased her stiffened bud. His fingers pressed harder. Her cries were no longer muffled; they were loud and clear in the silence. The soaked panties were chafing her vulva, rubbing against her labia, and she felt her lips parting for him.

More fluids trickled and ran into her panties, but then he yanked them down, bringing the scent of arousal to her nostrils. Her fingers dug deeper into the flesh of his shoulders as he pressed against her.

The hard press of his cock, the soft denim barely restraining that thick hardness she wanted in her body so badly, and his hands wrapped around her waist all made her body shake and tremble. Sensation soared through her body, and a slight pant became her breathing as his fingers moved back to her pussy, cupping it hard, his fingers squeezing rhythmically.

Her panties were halfway down, holding her legs open and yet keeping her from being able to spread them as much as she would have liked to. The predicament was astounding as were the sensations that were filtering through her body with every touch and caress – every moment.

His hands went back to the panties, tugging them down along her thighs, and then they were falling toward the floor. They landed on her shoe and she stepped neatly out of one side of them. The panties dangled from her ankle, but she didn’t know that and didn’t care. All that mattered was his fingers stroking her wet center, parting her lips and then going deep inside of her.

His kiss lit up her senses and made her knees go weak. Her bottom hit the desk that sat against the wall, and then she was being turned around. Her bottom was up in the air, and his fingers rubbed the round slopes of her ass, his breath a hard gasp now, too.

A shiver broke out along her limbs, and her hands clasped the edge of the desk as he rubbed his hard cock against the soaked and swollen entry to her tunnel.

He sank into her flesh, her fluids easing the passage for the hard flesh he was pressing into her deeply within her walls.

She cried out, her body aching with the need to come as his stiff cock opened her walls even further and sank deeper into her. Her ass shot backward as she strained to get him inside her. She needed to feel that heavy muscular dick inside her swollen and creaming walls. Her back arched and her legs shook. He was so large that her walls had to stretch and stretch again. Her teeth grit together and pleasure rocketed through her. Her breasts bounced as he withdrew and thrust into her yet again.

His cock filled her again, making her whimper as he created friction within her lower body. Her walls opened and closed, and she sighed as his cock left her dripping inner folds and came back. His hand slid around her front to rub her high standing clitoris, and she began to thrust backward even faster, desperate to reach the climax that was hovering just at the edge of her reach and pleasure.

Her eyes were still closed and her mouth hung agape. She could feel the slackness in her face. Her body was tight though; it was shaking and aching. Her desire had gone even higher than it ever reached before, and she cried out – a long pleading cry.

His hand squeezed her buttocks, gripping them tightly as she cried out once more. The massaging motion raised heat on her bottom, making it ache and throb at the same time. He kept that up and she felt her opening widen as he did so. Her breath was coming harder and faster. Her hands clenched more tightly at the counter, and she began to push her hips backward frantically. Her heartbeat sped up and she moaned, losing all the control she had left, which was not much.

She felt her walls tighten. The orgasm hit her hard, making her entire body go rigid and then loosen. She almost fell, and would have if it had not been for his strong hands around her waist. His finger was still stroking her clitoris, and that drove her over the edge as her juices splashed onto his pulsing cock.

Her pussy closed around his stiffened organ. Ashton worked his hips harder, driving every inch of his cock into her pussy. The sound of their flesh slapping together was very loud, and the smell of sex filled the air.

They were both close to coming. His breath washed over her cheek as he bent over her body, drilling hard and fast as he began to come, his dick spurting hot, thick come into her slippery and soaked walls.

Laura sobbed out a ‘yes’ while Ashton filled her hot tunnel with the long, thick flesh that was taking her to such great heights. Her fingers scrabbled across the desk, knocking a note pad and ink pen to the floor. Her ass jerked and jiggled, and her knees went completely weak.

She let him help her upright and turn her around. He gave her long kiss and she sighed, resting her head on his chest. Her knees were weak and her heartbeat had yet to return to normal. “I guess this was different huh?”

He asked, “Are you okay?”

Laura said, “I’m absolutely great, thank you. How are you?” Then she burst into giggles. “That has to be the weirdest thing I’ve ever said to somebody after sex.”

“Let’s lay down for a second, okay? I’m a little tired.”

Instantly, remorse hit. “Are you okay?”

“Darling, I’m perfect.”

He was pale despite his words, and she pulled the covers down and helped him into the bed gently. Her pussy, swollen and pleasantly sore, gave off a few low throbs as she climbed into the bed, too, and carefully settled in next to him.

He said, “I was going to ask how your day was.”

She chuckled. “Lousy, up until I got here. I hate my job.”

“Quit.”

She wished! “No way. I like being able to eat.”

He caught her hands. “Maybe we could make some money on that app.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “I don’t think many people make money on apps. I know some folks get lucky with one, but it’s more miss than hit in the market, isn’t it?”

There was a strange look on his face that gave her pause. He looked like he wanted to say something and had changed his mind just before he had. He said, “I guess it depends on the app. So, tell me why your day was lousy at work.”

Laura sighed. “Oh, I work with a bunch of older people and the whole thing, accounting I mean, is really boring. It might be a lot more exciting if they ever let me do something like run the programs or write them, but they do everything with several checks, which I understand, and with all kinds of other outdated regulations that makes it so much more tedious than it really has to be.”

“I see.” He surveyed her face. “You don’t like anything tedious huh?”

“I don’t like being bored.” Her words were strongly stated. She softened her tone. “I think I was bored enough back there in my hometown.”

“Small towns. I don’t have any experience with that. I grew up here. I guess I never noticed it’s such a big city until I was way older. It just always felt like the place I lived. Sometimes, when I’m out driving around, it hits me just how big and crowded and crazy it is.”

“I know.” Her fingers caught his. “Sometimes, I still get as excited as I did the day I came up the big hill out there on the highway. It was dark and all the lights were on, and that’s how I first saw it. It was just this giant glittering place, and I couldn’t believe I was lucky or crazy enough to live here. Sometimes I still don’t believe it.”

“Do you miss home at all?”

She shook her head. “No. It was not all bad either. It was just boring and suffocating. Everyone knew everyone. I always felt like I was living in a fishbowl, and I hated that feeling. I like being free, and I need freedom I guess.”

She fell silent. Had she just seen something shift in his eyes? Had she said something wrong or really right? Given how fast he was to run, she hoped he heard a promise that she wouldn’t ask more from him than she could give.

Ashton sat up carefully. He said, “I can see that.” There was a guarded tone in his voice, and she had the feeling she had just reassured him in a way. But she wanted to take it back. She wanted to tell him she would not press him for anything but that she would be willing to trade all the freedom in the world for whatever time he would give her.

He said, “I forgot to order our dinner. Do you like steak?”

“I love it,” she said.

He picked up the phone and hit a button, then said, “Hello, room service? I would like to order dinner please.”

“I’m starving,” she put in. She was. She’d skipped breakfast because she had heartburn from the meager amount of cafeteria fries and chili she had had the night before, and she had worked through lunch as well.

Laura giggled as Ashton spoke into the phone that sat on the small oak desk. “We’d like steak, oh, scampi. Shrimp and crab please. Two orders. No, steak and scampi. We’re starving.”

He threw her a wink over his shoulder. Laura, still naked and flushed, suppressed a giggle with one hand. She was starved, no doubt about it. She was sure she was about to die from hunger in fact, but not all that hunger was in her belly.

Ashton was also still nude, and her eyes roved over the sleek skin and muscles of his body as he shifted from one foot to the other while trying to make sure the room service order was right. He added, “Oh and bread – lots of it. We need our strength.”

Now, she did laugh. Her laugh was restrained though by her hand. Ashton had a way of making her laugh, and she loved that about him.

Loved.

Her heart sank.

Nope, she told herself, loving something about someone is not the same as loving them and don’t you forget it either. You barely know this man and even if you did, you already know he’s not in it for the long term. What’s wrong with you anyway? You never wanted something like love in your life.

Ashton hung up the phone and padded back to the bed. He sat down on the edge carefully, and she sat up. The sheets were a tossed and tousled mess. Outside through the windows, she saw dusk falling in dark shades that accented the jewel-like tones of the city skyline.

She said, “I suppose we should get dressed so we don’t shock the staff.”

“I’m sure they’ve seen things far more shocking.” He smiled but fished his pants off the floor and slid his legs into them, standing to get them the rest of the way on.

Laura left the bed and dressed hastily. “How are your ribs?”

“Good.” He smiled at her, and they went to the sofa. He leaned his head back and said, “Listen, about that app. I wasn’t kidding about that. I really want to work on something like that. I drew up a few ideas but they’re in my car, so if you can grab that laptop over there I can give you a rough idea of what I had down, but I can’t promise I remember all of it.”

“Cool.” Now that the desire had been tamped down, she, too, was interested in creating that app, though she was more interested in it as a reason to spend time with him than in actually creating something.

Ashton opened the laptop, a top of the line model that was both functional and sleek, and expensive. He hit a few keys and buttons, and said, “So here’s what I was thinking. I heard you the other night when you said you hated Fly by Night because it’s geared toward men. And I wonder just how many people are more interested in having like a fun date that means a second without pressure to find their perfect match.”

“Lots.”

Laura was not really paying attention. She was focused more on Ashton. His excitement was palpable, and he seemed truly interested in the app! That was a side of him she had never seen before, and a sudden surge of excitement filled her, too. If it meant that much to him, she’d help.

9

ASHTON

TWO MONTHS LATER, the app was nearing completion. Ashton had moved into a nice place near Dawson – not in the same building but in a far more decent section of town than he had been living in. His place was not far from Laura’s either. Dawson asked him why he didn’t just buy a great home, but Ashton was not ready for that. For one thing, Laura had no idea just how wealthy he was yet, and while keeping that a secret had been something that soothed him at first, it had begun to chafe at him lately. What if she was pissed at him for withholding such a huge secret from her? She’d see that as a sign he didn’t trust her, and he knew that he had not trusted her at first. He trusted her now, but that secret was causing him a lot of problems.

The other issue was within himself.

The more time he spent in her presence, the more it was clear that he had fallen head over heels in love with her.

Laura was still not giving him any signals that she felt the same way though, and his guard began to rise as the days passed and the app drew nearer to completion.

It was apparent, too. Not that he hadn’t meant it to be, but he could sense Laura getting frustrated with him as the days began to wind down, and he began to put less effort into being with her and focus more on simply working with her. It only made sense as far as he was concerned. She’d leave sooner or later, and the thing that was holding them together – the app – was about to be finished, so why would she stay?

Ashton knew he was running, and fast. He managed to find every excuse to not spend the night, and quite often he found himself leaving before they could make love, too. He didn’t want to, but he knew how badly he was going to miss her, and he knew that he had to sever that relationship before she did if he was going to have any kind of control over his heart afterward, and to make sure he was not left hurt.

He knew what hurt felt like. He never wanted to feel that ever again. He didn’t think he could take it. He’d blocked himself off from hurt for so long, and now that he was trying his best to keep from getting hurt, he knew all too well that he had a lot of hurt coming. Laura made him feel things again: joy in life, excitement, hope, and love. All the things he had refused to let himself feel for so long. It was going to hurt, and he knew it. Now, he was just trying to minimize the damage.

There would be damage. How could there not be? He had felt all those things again, and now he would never feel them ever again.

There was no other woman like Laura anywhere in the world. He could sleep with every single woman in the city and never find a one like her.

And he had to let her go.

Had to.

10

LAURA

“I don’t understand,” Laura said as she leaned over Ashton’s shoulder. He’d been sitting there, lost in thought for the last few minutes, and she was desperate to have him say anything at all.

She’d sensed he was withdrawing from her for a while, now but she did not know what to do about it. She had hoped, as time passed and they continued on together, that they’d be able to keep dating. But while she had had a huge change of heart and found herself wanting more than just a friends-with-benefits thing or a passing fling, Ashton still didn’t want that.

It was obvious he didn’t want that, and she had no idea how to change his mind or to tell him how she felt. Her tension mounted when he looked at her with a carefully blank expression on his face that just made the distance growing between them seem even wider. Her heart ached, and the words she wanted to say to him quivered on her tongue. I love you. I want you. I want us. Please talk to me. Please try to stay with me.

Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes and a lump formed in her throat. She had known from the start that this – that they – would end, but now that it was so clear that they were, she was being sideswiped by a pain unlike any she had ever felt or known ever before, and she didn’t know how to deal with it, or his withdrawing from her the way that he was doing.

Ashton said, “Well basically, we upload it and wait.”

“Wow. I mean, it’s never really felt real until just now.”

She was not talking about the app. She was talking about the two of them breaking things off. Ashton said, “Yeah I get that,” in a voice so neutral she wanted to scream and yell at him to look at her, to hear her and understand what she was trying to say to him. Her heart ached so much, it hurt all the way down into her bones. Her body missed his, and the increasing lack of sex between them frightened her. Were they so far gone that they didn’t even have passion anymore?

Ashton took a slow breath and hit a button. He stood up, snapping the laptop closed. “I’m sorry to say it, because it’s been such a big night, but I have a super early morning, and I need to head out.”

Laura licked her lips. Lexie had moved in with Dawson officially now, and Laura hadn’t bothered looking for a new roommate yet, because Lexie had insisted on paying a final month of rent before going. Now she wished that she had. The place was lonely and too quiet.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, sorry.” He dropped a casual kiss on her cheek and headed for the door. Laura stood there, staring at his back as he went out the door and closed it. Her lips pressed together. The tears sprang out of her eyes and fell down her cheeks. It was true whether she wanted it to be or not – and she didn’t want it to be true, not at all – they were done.

11

ASHTON

THE DAYS PASSED. Ashton put as much distance between himself and Laura as possible, even though their app was an overnight sensation. He sat at a bar one night, his head down and his eyes locked on the melting ice at the bottom of the glass. His body hurt. He missed Laura so much he could barely breathe.

“Well, look who it is.”

God damn it. This was all he needed. Ashton lifted his head and stared Gerald in the eye. His voice was weary. “Yeah, it’s me. Tell me something, did you even consider I might call the cops after you jumped me like that?”

“Nah,” Gerald’s rotting teeth gleamed as he leaned against the bar. “You’re from the hood. You know how that would play out.”

“Yeah, I was. But you know what? I am a really fucking rich dude now, Gerald, and I could tear your world out of the frame without ever calling the cops. Because that’s what rich fucks do. You know that. You know what else? I can’t believe after all these years you’re still trying to run up on me over that arrest of yours. You came at me with that shit in your pockets. I didn’t have a choice in that fight, but you did.

“You could have handed that dope off before it ever got started, or something. You came at me trying to defend your dad’s block and got yourself jammed up as a result. That’s how it was, and I am damn tired of your pretending otherwise.”

Gerald’s face shifted. He looked uneasy. “You shouldn’t have been running lookout for the enemy.”

Ashton shot back. “Pete had the right to do business, and I’d be real careful calling him your enemy if everything I hear about him is true.”

Gerald went pale. “They say he’s a killer.”

Ashton said, “That’s what I hear, too. You sure you want to keep running that road with me or get yourself twisted into a mess with Pete because you’re still pissed about your dad slipping the way he did? It was his own fault, you know, just like you deciding to beat me down while you had that much dope in your pockets was your fault. But I’m telling you right now, you pull some shady shit like you pulled in that garage on me ever again, the next stretch you do won’t end until you’re wearing that underwear that keep old folks from pissing their pants.”

Gerald sighed and leaned against the bar. “He’s dead, you know. That’s why. I mean, I was reeling over it that night at the bar and after you and that chick went crazy on us, I had to break even with you. You got to know that.”

“I’d say we’re even.”

Gerald’s eyes went to the glass in Ashton’s hand, and he licked his lips in a gesture he probably wasn’t even aware of. Ashton pointed to the bartender and held up his glass and two fingers. The bartender set a glass in front of them, and Gerald said, “Thanks.”

“I didn’t know he was dead. I’m sorry if you’re miserable about it, but I can’t say that I care.” Ashton swallowed the whiskey in his glass in one shot. Gerald sipped his slowly, his beady eyes walking across the bottles behind the bar.

“Course I’m miserable,” Gerald said softly. “No matter what, I loved my Pop. Yeah, he was dumb, and yeah, he went down like a little bitch but…well you know…it is what it is.”

Ashton wanted to give out some caustic retort to that, but he didn’t. “I wish it hadn’t been the way it was, but I doubt if I had told you that you would have listened back then.”

“I guess you might have a point. I mean, you know how that is right? You got to take care of your own. You have to take care of your family, man,” Gerald said. “What can you do?”

“Nothing.” Ashton stood and headed for the door. The last thing he wanted to do was keep up a conversation with Gerald or think about the woman who’d stolen his heart so easily.

12

LAURA

“Oh, my God!” Laura sat down on her sofa, her mouth hanging open. It was impossible! But the truth was right there in front of her. Ashton had put her in charge of payments through the app because of her accounting degree, and that he trusted her with that had not seemed odd at the time. She had not expected that they would make a single dollar off it.

But they had. They’d made a million dollars in fact, and in just a matter of days!

A low squeak came from her lips. The room swayed around her. Panic set in. She had to tell Ashton! Now!

She grabbed her phone and then stopped. He would probably not answer anyway. So, fuck that. She’d go to his place.

But what if he didn’t answer the door, or worse, he did and he had another woman with him?

That was enough to leave her standing there, stunned with indecision. God, she could not take it if he had moved on already and she had to see that firsthand!

Her heart told her that she didn’t dare risk it. That she was too fragile and she needed him too much. That if he was with someone else that was okay, as long as she didn’t have to face that woman.

But the strong and resilient part of her called bullshit on that. She had to see him. That app was blowing up, and whether they were over or not, that app was a marvel – something they had created together and now they were partners in. It was time to go to him and tell him that.

And everything else, too.

It was time to tell him just how she felt. To lay it all out on the table and leave nothing unsaid. If they were over, she had the right to know that, and she had the right to tell him how she felt, too, even if he didn’t feel the same way.

Laura grabbed her handbag and headed out the door.

***

She stood outside his door, her resolve slowly dying away. Her hand, raised to knock, hung in the air and a lump formed in her belly. Should she do it, or just leave him a message that they were rich and walk away?

“Laura?”

His voice came from behind her, and she turned slowly, her heart pounding in her chest. He stood there, his wheat-hued hair disheveled and a slight tang of alcohol rising from his clothes. “Hi,” she said softly. “I…do you care about me? I mean, I know you need your freedom. My God, I do know that. I just need to know – are we over? Is there any chance that we’re not? Any at all?”

Jesus. Now she was in a hallway, saying things she had planned to say to him in private, with tears running down her face. It would not have surprised her at all if he had called security and had her hustled out of the building!

Ashton stepped forward. His arms went around her, and he hugged her close for a moment before muttering, “Let me get the door.”

He released her and opened the door. He held it open, and she stepped inside with him close on her heels.

He looked at her, and the expression on his face tugged at her heart strings. He said, “I do, Laura. I do. I shouldn’t because I know you don’t want what I want…”

“What do you want, and how do you know I don’t want that, too?”

His face showed surprise and something else: hope. He licked his lips. “I want you but I want you all the time. I don’t want to let you go. I know you need your freedom. I know you don’t want marriage and you don’t want kids. I want marriage, but I’m with you on the kids. Jesus. No way do I want to screw up some little kid’s life, and I’m pretty sure I would.”

Her voice was thick with tears. “I do want that: marriage, and maybe even kids one day. I know we’re both screwed up and neither of us know the first thing about love, but…but I love you, Ashton. I don’t know why or how this happened. All I know is that I love you, and I want to be with you. I’m done running wild. I have been for a long time I think. Ever since the day you came into my life.”

He moved toward her. “Do you mean it?”

She swallowed hard and nodded. “I do. I mean it with all my heart. I love you, and I want to be with you. I want us. I want us to be a couple – a real one. I want us to have a whole life together, but you have to want all of that. I am willing to wait for kids. I am. I am not willing to wait for you to decide that you love me.’

His smile was bright. “You don’t have to wait to know if I love you. I do. Holy shit. I have no idea what happened. I tried so hard not to fall in love with you because I was so sure that you would never want us, not in the way it seems we want us to be. But I fell so hard for you, and I got scared and I ran, because I was afraid I would get hurt and I have had so much of that already in my life. I was a first-class dick. Can you forgive me?”

“Only if you can forgive me for not talking to you and for not telling you how I felt. I wanted to, but I was just so afraid you would say no to it all.”

They began walking toward each other. His arms went around her again. Their bodies collided and met. His head lowered, and his eyes burned into hers. “I guess we were both guilty of being stupid and not talking. I wasn’t honest with you about how I felt, and I wasn’t honest about something else either.”

Her heart stood still. Terror caught her up in a cold grip. What? What could he have been dishonest with her about? “Ashton…”

“I’m rich. I created, with a friend of mine named Jackson, that app Fly by Night. It was ours first, and we sold it for a massive amount of money after we had already made a giant fortune off it. I made that site and app and…I’m rich.”

Laura’s mouth fell open. Confusion struck. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

The look on his face said it all. “Because I thought you’d leave anyway, and I didn’t want to keep you by buying you.”

“I see.” Her heart loosened and a laugh came bubbling up. “I guess lightning does strike twice then.”

He frowned, “What do you mean?”

Her smile filled her entire face and lifted her cheekbones. “I mean, our app is a huge success. It’s made nearly a million bucks already! So, you don’t have to worry that I want you for your money now, because it seems I have plenty of my own.”

His laughter was long and booming. He grabbed her and swung her in the air, spinning her until she was dizzy. Her feet touched the ground finally, and he kissed her, making her feel like she was still in his arms, flying in circles.

He loved her! He loved her and she loved him, and they were going to have a life together and be together.

His hands stroked across her hair, then slid down to her shoulders. His fingers, long and strong, curled up there, digging into her skin just slightly as he brought her closer so that he could kiss her again. That kiss was far more serious and passion awakened. Laura had always wanted him, and now that she knew why he had been avoiding sleeping with her, and knew that he wanted her as much as she wanted him, she felt no fear or shame at all.

They undressed each other slowly in his bedroom, letting the sexual tension coil and rise between them. Her legs shook as she stepped back to stare at the utter magnificence of his body. Everything about him was gorgeous, even the small scar on his abs that she knew had come from a knife fight.

He was tough and gorgeous. He was wounded just like her. Their mouths met and held, his tongue going deep into hers to taste and tease hers into meeting his. His body followed hers down into the bed, and she let out a low cry of satisfaction as his hands found her breasts and then his tongue followed. He bathed her nipples with his tongue. His teeth tugged gently at the erect peaks, and then his lips closed over them while his hands squeezed the soft flesh of her breasts in a slow and maddening way. Laura’s body was on fire. She needed his touch so much that when he ran his hand down the curve of her waist and then fluffed her pubic hair in a careless gesture, she sucked in a long breath.

Her fingers explored his body. She found his member, already stiff and thick. His head was swollen and purple, and the vein around it throbbed as she whipped one leg over him and flipped him neatly onto his back.

She wanted to please him. She wanted to see him going as crazy with passion and need as she was. She needed him so much, but first she wanted to please him, to drive him crazy and to give him pleasure.

She scooted lower and took him into her throat, her tongue swirling along his flesh as she sucked in her cheeks and tightened her lips around his flesh.

His hips thrust forward, and her hands captured the heavy sack below his organ. She let her fingers cup it and then she moved her mouth to it, sucking gently as he gasped and moaned out her name.

Her mouth tightened around then eased away from his flesh. Her fingers caressed him, and she tickled his balls, stroking the sensitive skin between his nuts and asshole, relishing the way his breath sucked in and out as she did so. His balls tightened as she took them into her mouth and sucked on them gently along the shaft, stroking the belly with her tongue.

Her tongue swirled across the tight helmet and then rubbed the indented spot right below it. She nipped gently at the head, and he hissed in a breath. She kept it up, giving him as much pleasure as she could. She took her mouth off his cock and began to lick and suck at his testicles, putting them both in her mouth and sucking hard while her tongue swirled and dipped across the smooth surface of that flesh.

“Oh, God,” Ashton panted. “Laura, I can’t hold out very long. I’ve been going crazy trying to stay away from you. Get up here.”

His fingers tangled into her hair, tugging hard. She went and he grinned at her. Then he crawled down her body, licking and caressing her trembling flesh with real fervor. His breath tickled her and her pubic hair grew even wetter, more tangled as his tongue slid between her inner and outer labia to find her hood and the nub of sensitive flesh nestled below.

His fingers continued to move in and out of her. His breath blew against the warm fluids coming from her and caused even more sensation to spike through her being.

Her hips arched, and her heels dug into the mattress as he moved faster, his tongue stroking and circling her clitoris. Her ass jerked up and down, and she groaned as the first spasms of a climax began deep within her.

Ashton came up slowly. His mouth was wet with her fluids, and he kissed her again, bringing the taste of her body to her mouth. Laura drank it in eagerly. His tongue slid out of her mouth as he spread her legs with his knee while his fingers and tongue went to her breasts.

Ashton moved swiftly, driving within her just as she began to come. Her walls closed around his rigid flesh, and her fingers gripped his bottom as he withdrew and thrust again, impaling her on his hard and throbbing flesh.

Their cries rose higher. The bed squeaked loudly, but Laura didn’t care. All she cared about was the orgasm bursting form her body, the feel of him inside her tight and oily tunnel, and the feel of his muscles clenching and releasing as he worked faster and harder.

They finally lay still. Ashton buried his face in her shoulders and her fingers traced his shoulders, his back, finding the knobs of his spine and then the smooth flesh of his buttocks.

***

They lay in his bed, breathing hard. Ashton said, “I can’t believe how lucky I am.”

“I can’t believe how lucky we are,” Laura returned. She was completed by his love, and felt completely whole from his lovemaking, and her voice was hushed and throaty as a result.

Ashton placed a hand on her sternum and rubbed downward gently, his thumb leaving a slim band of sensation in its wake. Laura shivered all over and wondered if he would think she was a nympho if she said she wanted more of him, and right then. “I agree. I mean, two people who never wanted to settle down or fall in love, did.”

“I know. That’s crazy.” She closed her eyes, just enjoying the feel of his finger stroking the flesh between her breasts.

“I think we are crazy, but the best kind of crazy. I’m never letting you go either, woman.”

“You better not,” Laura cracked an eye open and peered at him. “With all the trouble you get into, you never know when you might need me and my can of mace to come charging up to the rescue.”

“Oh, I agree with you, but I do think that you’re about the biggest, and best, trouble I ever got into, and I have a feeling you’re going to keep me on my toes enough that I don’t have to go looking for trouble anywhere else.”

“That’s funny. I was just about to say the same thing about you.”

He put his hands on either side of her face and leaned in for another long kiss. When it ended, he whispered, “So, here we are.”

Her smile was huge. “Here we are.”

He said, “You know, I have a feeling that app we made is going to work. I mean, it brought us together, didn’t it?”

“It did.” Her smile was huge and wide. “But I think it’s us that will keep us together.”

They held each other tight. Laura whispered, “I never thought I would ever be loved by anyone. I am not even sure I ever thought I deserved to be loved before.”

“I know that feeling so well. But it looks like we both can be in love and loved by other people, or at least each other. As to what we deserve,” his hands traveled down her body and his dick, already stiffening again, pressed into her thigh, “I think we deserve this. After everything we have been through, after all we suffered, we deserve happiness and love, and don’t you ever forget that.”

Laura managed to speak past the lump in her throat. His words touched her so deep and washed away the residual fear and certainty that she was never going to matter to anyone; that if she had been so unloved by her parents, then surely nobody else would love her either. Looking at Ashton, she knew he understood the same thing. That their pasts – painful as they had been – were over and done and all that lay before them was a glorious and passionate future. A future they would see together, forever.

The End

Billionaire Created

Book 3 of the Company Ink Series

1

JACKSON TOOK A GLASS of champagne and stood near the door, surveying the room. The glittering crowd parted and then slid back together in a wide pattern that reminded him of a kaleidoscope.

He hated these kinds of things and would have refused to go if the party had not been for one of his best friends, Ashton, and Ashton’s girlfriend, Laura.

The crowd was made up of most of the city’s wealthy young professionals, all brought together by Dawson, Ashton’s former foster brother and self-made billionaire. The apartment was Dawson’s as well, and Jackson gave the place a quick once over. Coming in at a stunning seven or eight-thousand square feet, the penthouse apartment sat at the top of the most exclusive building in the city, and the long floor-to-ceiling windows gave off views of the night and the city, the long skyline accentuated by the twinkle and glow of a million bulbs.

He shifted on his feet, trying not to look out of place even though he felt that way. Nobody took much notice of him, and he was glad for that even as he was irritated by it.

He was richer than many gathered there thanks to an app he had worked on with Ashton and the video game platform he had created recently, a platform he had sold for so much money that the number still staggered his brain every time he thought about it.

He regretted selling the platform, in truth, but he had been unable to resist the idea of all that money – or the idea that the buyer had been able to take it into a global market in a way he, himself, could never have done. The truth was he would have made a great deal less if he had not sold it, but now that it was gone and the frenetic joy of creating something was too, he was bored and restless, and not even the large amount of money he had could make him feel any more content.

Or at ease with the people in that room.

Jackson had grown up in a rough neighborhood. He had been the kid who wore used clothes and ate free lunch. It had never occurred to him that one day he would be standing in a luxury high-rise, watching people with more money than they knew what to do with scarfing down expensive wine and snacks and congratulating other rich people for being smart enough to get rich.

“Hey, bro.” Ashton appeared at his side, and Jackson grinned at him. He and Ashton went way back. They had gotten arrested together, been each other’s wingmen in every bar in the city, and they had made millions together. Through it all they had managed to stay friends – and not just friends, but friends who respected each other.

“Hey, yourself. It’s quite the shindig, isn’t it?”

Ashton grimaced. “It’s Dawson, so first class all the way. I keep wondering when they are going to figure out I don’t really belong here and chuck me out of the nearest window or something.”

“Probably right after they hurl me through it. But be grateful for that. You will have less flying glass to worry about.”

Ashton laughed and dug an elbow into the taut span of Jackson’s waist. “Yeah. I hate to sound ungrateful. I was just hoping that, for once, Dawson would just do a barbecue or something, you know?”

Jackson did know. Dawson had never had to leave the nitty gritty behind, because he had never really had it in him. Oh, he was tough and he was a fighter, too, but Dawson had always had one eye out on the horizon, looking for any break that would get him off the streets that they had all grown up on like he knew somehow that they were never meant for him.

“Before you and Laura head out of town you should stop by my place. We’ll throw some pig on the smoker and crack open some beers.”

Ashton nodded, “Cool. I will. How’s the new house?”

“Great.” It was great. It was also way too big and way too empty. “I even managed to not throw that crazy decorator Dawson had sent over out on his ass.”

Ashton’s eyebrows nearly hit his hairline. “Say what?”

Jackson rolled his eyes. “I needed furniture. I had no idea that would entail having to look at swatches and paint samples.”

Ashton burst into laughter. “You hired a decorator?’

Jackson gave him a withering glare. “No, I told Dawson I needed furniture, and he sent that guy over. I said thank you and refused to sign on the dotted line to have the guy do whatever it was he was talking about. I went to the store and bought some furniture myself, thank you very much.”

Ashton sucked in air, and said, “Wow.”

“That’s what I said, too.”

Ashton said, “Well at least you can afford a house, right? I remember when we could barely afford rent at that crappy little pay by the week place we lived in.”

“Those were good times.” They had been. They had both been so young and stupid – barely eighteen – and working for a pittance at a lawn care company. The days had been hot and long, and they’d often had to sweat out the beer and liquor they had drank the night before, or work through a blistering hangover that would not let them go from its vicious grip.

“The best, man.” Ashton spotted Laura and added, “But I think these are good times, too.”

“Yeah, they are.”

Ashton wandered off to speak to Laura. People drifted around but Jackson didn’t want to talk to any of them. He had just spotted Laura’s friend, Hope, and he stood watching her for a moment.

Hope was gorgeous. She was also cold enough to freeze a man’s balls off from a hundred paces away. He sipped the dry champagne, wishing it were whiskey, then set the glass aside.

He’d met Hope a few times, and he had always felt a serious interest in her. She never seemed to notice he was flirting though, or if she did she was not at all interested in him.

She was by herself now, standing near a small potted plant on a tall and graceful table. Well then. They were both alone, so why not go start up a conversation with her?

He strolled over and said, “Hey there, Hope.”

2

GOD, NO. NOT HIM. Hope’s lip curled as she watched Ashton’s best friend, Jackson, saunter across the floor. The man was so arrogant, and so…

So hot.

Irritated by that thought, Hope deliberately turned her back and stared at the far wall, sipping her glass of wine.

“Hey there, Hope.”

She looked at him, hoping that her withering stare would knock him back about ten feet. He just curled up those full lips of his into a smile that revealed his perfect, white teeth. His thick, chestnut-brown hair had been neatly combed when he had arrived half an hour before, but it was already becoming mussed thanks to his habit of running his fingers through it when he was deep in thought.

That she knew that irritated her even more.

“Hello.” She kept her tone icy. It didn’t matter. That chill bounced right off of him.

“Nice party, huh?”

“Hm.” She sipped her wine again, hoping he would lose interest and wander off. Jackson just planted his feet and spread his long and trim legs in a stance that said he was not going anywhere.

Hope sighed inwardly. The party was nice. It was being thrown by Dawson, who was the guy that Lexie was dating. Lexie was Laura’s best friend’s – and one of Hope’s good friends as well. Ashton, Laura’s boyfriend, was one of Jackson’s best friends. At one time, Ashton and Jackson had created a megabuck dating app that had made them both multimillionaires. Then, Ashton and Laura had created an app that had made Ashton even richer and Laura a newly minted millionaire.

That party was a celebration of Ashton and Laura’s success. They had just sold the app and were planning on doing some travelling – going on a sort of semi-permanent vacation that would take them to the different corners of the globe.

Jackson grinned at her, and she gave him a filthy glare. He let his eyes sweep over her in a slow way that made her nipples stiffen and her temper – and temperature – rise. “How’s the research going?”

“It’s going.” She sighed. “It’s always the same struggle. I have to get as many grants as I can, and the boards are always screaming for results.”

Jackson asked, “Are you not having any luck?”

“Some, but it’s always slow, because clinical trials have such a long list of hoops to go through before we can ever get to the proper government channels to ask for human trials. The grant boards know that, but they act like they don’t all too often. It’s frustrating.”

His hand grazed her shoulder. Little tingles erupted along her skin. “I can only imagine.”

Dang it! Now, she’d just given him a chance to swoop in and play the nice guy, the one who listened and was understanding.

She might have bought it, too, if she was not all too aware of what a player he was. Jackson was such a player, he had co-created an app to help him get laid.

Well, so had Ashton, and he had turned out to be a really nice guy – one who truly loved Laura and wanted a long and happy life with her.

Not that she had any reason to think Jackson was like Ashton.

Jackson said, “How long do you have before the grant money runs out?”

She snorted. “Oh, it did already. That is part of the reason why my work is crawling along. I really can’t do anything without money. Even with a lot of interns and passionate researchers willing to wait out the grants and forego salary for now, there’s still not enough money.”

Jackson frowned. “Tell me again why the grant board is stalling.”

Hope looked around the room. Everyone was gathered into little clusters, talking away. She and Jackson stood alone near a small corner of the extravagant room. She knew why she was not enjoying the party very much, despite being friends with Laura – everyone there was an entrepreneur or married to one. The aura of money and wealth was everywhere and, as usual, her defenses were up.

That was it, in a nutshell. The feeling of being out of place and being somewhere that she didn’t really belong was making her even snippier than usual. Jackson was a player, sure, but he was probably just being nice by talking to her. After all, nobody else was, and she felt guilt for trying to ice him out. So she said, “I can’t get them the results they want.”

“Because it takes a lot to get to clinicals. Got it. But what about the results that come in daily? Do you report them?”

Her forehead creased. “No. I mean, results can be false positives or negatives. There can be a lot of data pouring in at one time, and it needs to be sifted through, which draws out the process further. If I had a program that would go through all of that in a reasonable time and in a faster way than the programs we use–”

He interrupted her. “How old’s the program?”

Hope groaned. “Old. And, before you ask, I can tell you all about every piece of equipment I use, but I suck at computer tech so I have no idea.”

His hand stroked his chin. His body shifted. The slacks he wore clung nicely to his long and lean legs, and for a moment she spotted a thick and chubby bulge in the front of those slacks, but then he shifted again and it vanished from sight.

The memory of it – hard and thick flesh pressed tight against the fabric of the slacks – stayed burned into her mind though, and a sudden and entirely unwanted desire ran through her body.

“Interesting,” Jackson said.

He stepped closer. His cologne came to her nostrils: slightly spicy and musky, very masculine – just like him. For a moment, she felt like he was talking about her when he said that word, and not some program. She hastily stepped back just a bit. “I guess, if you find that kind of thing interesting.”

“Tech’s my thing.”

“I thought you built apps for the masses.” Damn it. The sarcasm was real and thick, and she immediately regretted both the words and the tone that she had delivered them in. “I am so sorry. That was uncalled for.”

“No worries. It is true. I do make apps. Successful ones. Four so far. But the apps are just to keep cash coming in. The gaming platform was my real dream.”

She had no idea what a gaming platform was, but it sounded like he was excited about it. Maybe it was like an oil drilling platform or something. “And you created it.”

He nodded. “Yes.”

She floundered and said, “Well, congratulations.”

“Thanks.” He titled his head back, “So how about you? What is your dream?”

“To save lives. I thought you got that earlier in the conversation.”

“Wow, and ouch.” He shifted. Her eyes dropped. Her face heated. The bulge was back. She yanked her eyes up, hoping he had not seen her checking out his package.

That desire running through her, and the fact that Jackson seemed to be toting what was likely a really big dick in those pants threw her into a momentary confusion. She recovered enough to ask, “I am sorry, did you say you created a gaming platform? What is that, exactly?’

His eyebrow tilted, and he said, “It’s a system on which to play games.”

More confused than ever and remembering only that he had created a dating app, the first thing that came to mind was that he had made some kind of game for people trying to get laid. That could not be correct, so she asked, “Oh? What kind of games?”

“Mostly interactive.” He grinned and added, “It’s supposedly going to revolutionize the video gaming world.

She got it then. “You make video games?”

He shot her an amused look. “You don’t like video games?”

She didn’t know if she did or not. They had been forbidden as a waste of time when she had been growing up, and she had never played them as she had gotten older. “Um, I never played them. Sorry.”

“You should, sometime. I could teach you how.”

There was dare in his eyes, and then his eyes raked along her body yet again in a way that made her core clench and her toes tingle.

“I prefer more adult pursuits,” she shot back, but just then her mind insisted on fetching up an image of the two of them engaged in a very adult clinch. Her breath hitched in, and she licked her lips which had now gone dry. “Um…I meant…”

He didn’t, thank God, decide to put that up for further discussion. Instead, he said, “A lot of grownups play video games. Besides, it’s an industry that will stand the test of time and let’s not forget, extremely lucrative.”

Hope surveyed his handsome face. “Is money the end goal for you with everything you create? I mean, do you never make something just for the sheer joy of it? And why not create something that could be helpful to people instead of just a waste of time?”

He said, “The people who play video games do not see them as a waste of time, but I could see how and why you would. Yes, by the way, I like making money from what I do, but if I did not love what I did I would not do it. The gaming industry is forever evolving and challenging to stay relevant. And it’s a challenge I gladly accept.”

Shame burned high as she realized she had likely given him the impression his career wasn’t meaningful. She knew what that felt like all too well. “I didn’t mean to make it sound like I think that what you create is pointless.”

“No, just a waste of time.”

She gritted her teeth. He was so infuriating! She was trying hard to make it up to him for being so rude earlier, whether she had meant to be or not. “I didn’t mean it that way either. I just wanted to know if you ever considered building something that would be actually helpful.”

“And video games aren’t?”

Oh, great. Now they were arguing. She did not want to argue with him.

She wanted to make love with him.

That thought careened across her brain, and her nipples stiffened noticeably. She crossed her arms over her chest, hoping to hide those tight little points. She saw from his face that he thought the gesture was a sort of closing off the conversation.

She said, “I am sure people who use them find them very helpful for…for whatever reason. I was just wondering, with all your tech skills have you ever considered trying to create, say, a program that could be used in medical applications – you know, in life saving and changing ways.”

“Not everyone is you, Hope.”

Her defenses had caused her to argue with him, but those few words of his shattered her armor. She looked away. “You’re right. I…I am so sorry if it sounded like I was knocking what you do. I wasn’t. It’s just…oh, hell. I always get a bit bitchy when I feel like I’m in a place I don’t belong.”

“Me, too.”

She blinked as her head came back up to see him giving her an understanding look. She asked, “You get bitchy?”

His laughter was warm and dark, and it made low ripples of desire run across her lower body. He said, “No. I just don’t know how to put my shield down when I am in a room with the one person who gets why I don’t want to be in that room. Or party, in this case.”

She stared at him. He was not comfortable there, either? “Oh. I see.”

“I think we both sort of offended each other by accident. How about we start over?”

She laughed. “I would like that a lot. So, this is not your typical thing, huh?”

“No, not at all. I’d rather be anywhere but here, actually.”

She looked around. “Me, too.”

Now that that they had made it past that first, horrible part of the conversation and they had both admitted that they were uncomfortable, they could relax a bit, and they did.

Jackson asked, “Did you come by yourself?”

“Yeah, I told Laura I could not stay long so I could duck out as fast as possible, but I have not even gotten close to her yet so she could see that I made it. So I am sort of stuck for the duration.”

“Ah, well I have already seen Ashton, so I could leave.”

Was he hitting on her? Was he asking her to leave with him?

A waiter appeared, having finally noticed the two of them alone there, and his appearance broke into her thoughts. The waiter extended a tray holding delicate little shrimp puffs and other delicacies as well as a stack of cocktail napkins. They both took a few of the offerings, but as soon as the uniformed waiter walked off, Jackson said, “I’d love a pizza.”

“Me, too.” She bit into the light and airy shrimp puff, chewed and swallowed, then said, “With extra cheese.”

“Pepperoni,” Jackson added.

“Olives.”

Jackson paused with a small bit of pastry-wrapped bacon and cheese hovering close to his lips. “Black or green?’

“Both.”

He said, “You are a girl after my own heart.” He popped the morsel into his mouth, chewing in a slow and sensual way that made the little shiver steeling across her body get longer and wider.

“So, how is the video game business?” Hope asked finally, not because she cared, but because she had to say something to take her mind off the wicked thoughts wandering her brain every time he licked that tongue across his full lips.

He said, “It’s good. For the record, it’s not just about the money, even if the money is nice. I never planned on making any money, to be honest.”

“No?” She dabbed at her lips with the now empty napkin and found herself wishing she had about two dozen more of the shrimp puffs. They were delicious but about as filling as air.

“No. It was always about just doing something because I could. I love making stuff and making it work, too.”

She twisted her napkin around, trying to spot a place to toss it. “Oh. Is that why you made that app?”

He ran his fingers through his hair. “No, I made that app because I was trying to get laid,” he said with a grin. “Hey, don’t look at me like that, I was a lot younger.”

She frowned. “I thought that came out last year.”

“Two years ago, now. But seriously we – Ashton and I – never considered that it might make money. We had no idea that it would make money. We were pretty broke back then, and so at first all that money was pretty scary.”

“I didn’t know that,” she said. “But I can see where having that much money, suddenly, could be terrifying.”

“Oh, it was terrifying,” he said softly. “I had a decent job by then, but it was entry level and it did not pay a whole hell of a lot. It paid a whole lot more than being a lawn jockey though, so that was something.”

Jackson tucked the last bit of something into his mouth and ate it while she blinked and asked, “A lawn guy?’

“Yeah, I pushed a mower for the rich folks over there in Briar Hills and other places on the west side. Talk about a shit job, especially in summer.”

“I grew up on the west side.”

He didn’t seem phased by that. “Maybe I cut your grass.”

She shook her head. “Negative, because I was the lawn guy in our family.”

The satisfaction she felt at the look of surprise on his face was gratifying. “Are you serious?”

“My step…” she stopped. She had stopped calling Robert her father years ago, at least when she talked to other people about him. When she was around her family, she still referred to him as her father just to avoid the bullshit that would follow if she was heard saying something so disloyal. “My stepdad is a big believer in earning your way.”

His eyes searched hers. “Those are some big yards out that way.”

“We had a riding mower.” She wished she had never said that in the first place. The last thing she wanted to think about was her fucked up family. “Did you have a riding mower, or did you guys have push mowers?”

Jackson said, “Oh, we had it all but I was the guy that pushed the push mower around. The trimmer, you know.”

“Wow. That’s hard work.” Now she was genuinely interested. She had only ever spoken to Jackson in passing before, and she was actually enjoying speaking to him and having a decent conversation now. “How’d you get into what you do now?’

“The usual way. First, I took extra classes while I was in high school, and then I went to college.”

Laura appeared just then, her dark hair swirling around her shoulders. “Hey, there you are! You sort of vanished on me.”

Hope said, “You were busy, and I didn’t want to interrupt you.”

“Oh, you weren’t. “Laura’s eyes went from Jackson to Hope. “I’m not interrupting anything am I?”

“No,” they both said in unison.

Jackson said, “I think I better get out there and mingle a bit anyway. Good talking to you. Hope.”

“You, too.”

He nodded and walked away. Laura said, “He’s not a bad guy you know.”

“I guess not if you like that type.” Hope grimaced. “All he cares about his money, and you know how I feel about guys like that.”

But still, she could not keep her eyes from going back to his body as he walked into the crowd and then out of her range of vision.

***

She circulated even though she did not feel like it. Nobody else was as interesting as Jackson, and most of the people she met were all too busy talking about their investments and their portfolios and the latest trendy charity. That she was a doctor was all she had time to say before she was being asked how lucrative a position that was, and when she said she was a research physician most people just sort of turned away with boredom written all over their faces.

She was hungry to boot, and she was also seriously considering just sneaking out without saying goodbye to Laura who kept getting sucked into the crowd and dragged in the opposite direction of the one Hope kept ending up in.

She was bored and hungry, and she had lost sight of Jackson long before. She headed down a hallway, meaning to grab her coat. She ended up in a small bathroom by mistake and turned around just in time to see Jackson coming in the door.

He said, “Damn, you looking for the room they stuck our jackets in, too?”

“Yeah, the guy said down here at the end of the hall, but I must have not seen the right door or something.’

Jackson grinned. “Ditto. Those damn disappearing doors.”

She laughed and walked toward the door, meaning to exit with him. Instead, she walked right into his arms.

Their bodies collided with real force. Her breath stopped. Under those clothes, he was muscular and lean, and his arms were strong as steel. She sagged against him, her mouth opening slightly as shock and desire ran through her body.

His mouth came down on hers, and she shuddered. Her lips parted, and she gasped hard as his tongue found its way into her mouth. The kiss was slow and deliberate. It was incredible and thrilling, and her body reacted to that kiss by going limp against his.

His hands went down her back. Her hands grabbed his shoulders and held on for dear life as the kiss lengthened and deepened. Her eyes closed.

This was stupid. She knew it was stupid. It was the dumbest thing she had ever done, but there she was, kissing Jackson in a bathroom at a party where they were likely to get caught at any second by someone else looking for the room where the coats were stored.

His hardness poked into her lower body. She felt the urgent press of it against her belly, and her core sent fluid spilling into her silky panties, making the crotch of them sticky and damp. Her hands moved to his chest, feeling the muscular breadth of it through his shirt and the urgent thrum of his heartbeat just below.

“We can’t do this,” he muttered.

“I know,” she breathed back.

Jackson muttered, “I meant we have to close the door. We can’t do this with it open.”

“Then close it,” she groaned.

Forget that it was stupid. Forget that it was dangerous. All she cared about was the thrust of his hips against hers.

He kicked the door shut and walked them backward. He fumbled a hand up and locked the door. Then, he went back to kissing her while his hand went to her hair, fisting it tightly as he kissed her so deeply all her breath vanished deep down in her throat.

Desire rode across her body in slow swells, and her nipples stiffened and tightened, pressing against the fabric of the dress as his hand found the zipper on the side and released the dress from her narrow shoulders.

Her hand slid between them, and she found the bulge in his slacks. Her fingers wandered over the plump and chubby outline there, and his dick pulsed in her hand, growing more heated and thicker. Her low groan was cut off and muffled by his mouth, and her feet came out of her shoes as he lifted her off the floor and carried her to the long vanity.

Her panties came off with a quick jerk. His mouth found her nipples. Hope’s head fell back, and her fingers dug into his scalp as she wriggled, trying to get a better perch on the slippery granite that topped the vanity.

Her feet banged against the outer doors of the cabinet as he let his fingers find her slippery and soaked lips and then her swollen and pulsing clit. He rubbed her clit hard, and she whimpered, her toes digging into the sides of his legs as she tried to get him closer, tried to pull him into her body.

His hand went to his pocket of his slacks. He found his wallet and then a condom.

He fumbled, and she took it and began to unfurl it as he continued to work her clit, manipulating it until she was shivering and shaking, and very close to coming.

He entered her just as she did begin to come. His fingers stayed on her clit. His powerful hips plunged back and forth as he fucked her hard, while her walls fluttered and opened around his thick and pounding staff.

Trying to be quiet was hard. Hope wanted to cry out, to shout her pleasure into the room, but his mouth was back on hers, and she was left breathless and dizzy by the force of his thrust and kisses as he pounded into her again and again.

It was so good. So damn good, and all she wanted was to feel him deep inside her all night long, but he was moving faster, his breath coming in and out of his mouth and into hers in a pattern that told her he was very close to coming, too.

He did. His body went rigid, and he ground his teeth together so hard she heard his molars squeaking. He shuddered a few times, and she felt his cock twitching as he shot a load of hot and creamy come into the condom.

They had to take a few minutes. Jackson braced himself on the counter, his palms flattened on either side of her hips, and his face buried in her chest. He finally backed away. He said, “I have to say that was the highlight of my night.”

Her desire crashed to the ground. Damn it, why had she done this?

Because he had turned her on so much, and it had been a while since she had had sex.

Hope hopped off the counter and frantically began to gather her clothes. His words had been like a stream of cold water, and she dressed hastily, not speaking as he flushed the condom and handed over her shoes.

She slid them on. They looked at each other. Jackson said, “I know I am supposed to say something right now, but you look either really pissed off or I am imagining you look pissed off and I don’t know how to react to that.”

“I am pissed off, but not at you.” She peered in the mirror and sighed at the mess her hair was in. She managed to rake her fingers through it until it attained some semblance of order. As she did so, she said, “I mean who does this kind of thing? For real. It’s a party for my best friend, and I just hooked up in the bathroom. It’s a pretty shady thing to do.”

Jackson said, “I don’t think it’s shady.”

“You’re a guy,” she retorted. Then she softened. “I’m sorry. It’s just that, well this is not really something I would do under normal circumstances.”

“I can see that.” His smile was kind. “Look, I won’t lie. I liked talking to you tonight, and this…well…I wish it had happened under different circumstances, but now that it has happened I can’t say that I am sorry about it.”

“Oh, I am not sorry, I just…” She just felt a little vulnerable. That often happened after sex. She loved sex, but sex that did not have intimacy attached to it – sex like she had just had – often left her feeling insecure and remorseful. “It was just a little unexpected.”

“I can agree with that.” He grabbed a can of freshener off the back of the toilet and gave the room a quick and discreet spray.

He asked, “Who should leave first?’

“Um…”

“I will.” He smiled. “I will let you know if the coast is clear.”

She gave him a grateful smile. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

He went out, and then he stuck his head back in and hissed, “Come on.”

She exited hastily. They found the door out, and then they found the door to the room where their jackets and Hope’s purse were. They got their things and made their escape. They ended up on the street, waiting for the valets to bring their cars.

Jackson shoved his hands in his pockets and said, “So, how about giving me your number?”

“Give you my number?” she parroted. She blinked a few times. Was he serious? He wanted to see her again?

“Or not. I could give you mine, if you would rather.’

She would rather forget the whole thing. The last thing she had time for right now was a guy. Her grant was running out, and she had to convince the board to give her more money or shut down the lab, and that would mean she would have to find a job and an apartment and everything else.

A man was a complication she did not have the time or the energy to deal with. She said, “I am so sorry, but I have a lot on my plate right now. A whole lot. I mean, like you would not believe how much. And I don’t date right now, because…well, because I just do not have time.”

“I see.”

She rushed on. “I mean, I do not want to lead you on or anything.”

“I can see that.” His tone was dry, and she could not tell if he was deflecting hurt or just speaking.

Before she could say anything else, their cars arrived. Deciding the better part of valor – and the easiest way to avoid a prolonged walk of shame – was retreat, Hope ran to her car, jumped in and drove off quickly.

3

HE HAD JUST OPENED his mouth to say, “You could call me whenever you have a free moment,” when Hope made a mad dash for her car, damn near breaking her neck to get into it.

Jackson gawked as she practically tossed the valet out of her way, tossed a bill at him, and hopped in the car before peeling out.

The valet who had been about to hand Jackson his keys said, “Dude, that was a major strike out. I mean, I can smell the flames from over here.”

“Yeah, I never had one run from me like that before.”

The valet made a face and shrugged. Jackson handed him a fifty and took his keys. He got in the car and started home, thinking hard.

Jackson knew that hooking up with Hope was a mistake. That was one woman who could run circles around him in every way.

She came from a wealthy family, that was the first thing. She was terrifyingly intelligent – which just made her even hotter as far as he was concerned – and she was totally absorbed by her job. That was the biggest reason not to get mixed up with her.

Hope was married to her job. That was no joke. She was dead serious about her work, and she was not willing to let it take a back seat to anything.

He had known how much he wanted her from the moment that he had seen her, but what he had not counted on was how much he would want her after that steaming clinch in the bathroom.

He had been stupid enough to think that he could hit it and quit it, but Hope was unlike any woman he had known in his life. Hope was the kind of woman who would walk all over the heart he had always taken such pains to protect.

Of course he was careful with his heart. He’d grown up in a rough part of town with two parents who hated each other as much as they loved to party. The only reasons they had ever had to stay together were drugs and him. They blamed him for their being a couple, of course.

He didn’t need a relationship to make him miserable, and that much was certain. He’d busted his ass to make his own mark on the world and now that he had, he was enjoying that newfound freedom that money brought and using that money to really support his first love and dreams.

He was a gamer geek. Despite his masculine body and love of high-octane activities, he was never happier when he was playing or creating video games.

And Hope had made it very clear that she thought he was wasting his time, intellect, and talent on video games.

Never mind that it was the business to be in if you wanted to make money. She actually seemed to dislike the thought of making a lot of money.

She had run away so fast it was like she was afraid of him, too!

As Jackson drove home, he made himself one promise: he was not going to even think about tonight. Or Hope.

He did not need that kind of drama in his life, and he had zero need for a woman who had just behaved like he had offered her a dose of poison instead of his phone number, either.

He had a feeling that that was going to prove to be something easier said than done.

4

“ARE YOU OKAY?” CLARA ASKED.

Hope smiled at her half-sister. The two of them had always been as different as night and day. Clara was a hedge fund manager, one of the few women in the field her age, and she was beyond driven. Hope was also driven, but where Hope’s ambition lay in helping others, Clara’s lay in becoming rich and successful.

They were even opposite in looks. Clara had long, curly, auburn hair that hung around a pale face and sharp, green eyes. Both Hope and Clara looked like their fathers, and nothing like their shared mother.

“Yeah, why?” Hope said.

Clara poked a fork into the pile of salad greens and chopped chicken breast on her plate. “Because you ordered pork carnitas and a side of fries. That’s some serious comfort food there.”

Hope plunked a fry into ketchup and then popped it into her mouth. She chewed, swallowed, and said, “I had a bad week at work.”

“Oh?” Clara sipped at her mineral water, her eyes searching Hope’s face over the rim of the glass. “How so?”

Damn. She’d just said that because it was the first thing that had come to her mind. The truth was that the steamy tryst with Jackson had done something to her, something she could not explain.

Jackson was the last guy she needed around, and yet she found herself thinking about him a lot and wishing he was not such a player. He’d made it really clear he was not willing or ready for anything serious, and she damn sure wasn’t, so why was she wishing she had gotten his number and maybe texted him or something?

“Hello? Earth to Hope.”

Hope blinked. “Sorry. I was just gathering my thoughts. It’s work, you know. All the usual things. I need to find a way to really impress the research grant boards, but I don’t have a lot to offer them, and I am getting worried about my funding.”

Clara’s smooth forehead crimped. “You still aren’t willing to try for investment funding?”

“No.” The suggestion, as always, made Hope cringe. Investment funding was not the route she wanted to go, because if she did, then her research would belong to whatever pharmaceutical company she had bartered her soul to, and there was no guarantee they would make any treatment she managed to come up with affordable to most the world.

“You know Dad would tell you to do just that.” Clare set her fork down and leaned across the table. “Honestly, Hope, I get it. I mean, how could I not? But I think if you are ever going to make any progress, you are going to have to go the investor route. Right now, you’re barely making a living, and your research is being stunted by tiny budgets and red tape.”

Stung and angry, Hope said, “I’m doing ok.”

She looked down at the delicious citrus and garlic-flavored pork stuffed into warm tortillas. The truth was that she could barely afford that lunch, and she had a car payment coming due, too. She had to have a grant not just for her research but to continue to stay on the campus where her research was carried out. There was simply no way could she afford rent – not with the way rent prices in the city had skyrocketed over the years.

In other words, she was a failure.

Their monthly family dinner, which was coming up fast, would be hell. Robert, her stepfather, and Clara’s father would spend half the evening bragging about his latest successes and a big part of the rest of the meal bragging about Clara’s success. Then, he would begin deriding, in a totally passive-aggressive way, the work that Hope did. He was all for her joining up with a big pharma company’s ranks and making big bucks no matter how against her principles that was.

Hope had never felt comfortable or even particularly wanted by her stepfather or her mother, who still held a grudge against Hope’s father for leaving them, but she and Clara had managed to have a relationship despite all the ways their parents pit them against each other.

Clara said, “I’m sorry. I’m starting to sound like Dad.”

Yeah, no shit. Hope managed to smile. Clara was two years younger, and she had rocketed to the top like a Roman candle going off. Her success came with a gorgeous and expensive park-view apartment, a fancy car, and a high six-figure salary. She was the child that Hope had never been able to be. That was not Clara’s fault. If anything, it was self-defense against the constant demands for perfection and achievement that the two of them had been raised with.

Hope said, “It’s ok. So, how was your week?”

“Good as always.” Clara pushed away her half-eaten salad with an air of finality that reminded Hope so strongly of their mother she had to look away. Having even an ounce of extra body fat was the sign of a person with no self-control. In sheer defiance, she ducked a few more fries into the ketchup, ate them, and then chomped into a carnita while Clara fiddled with her water glass.

The awkward conversation was not unusual for them, and Hope found herself wondering why the two of them kept up this traditional weekly lunch. They never had much to say to each other, and there was no way in hell she would ever tell Clara about Jackson.

Clara said, “Listen, I’ll get lunch, ok?”

“Ok. I won’t even argue you on that one.” She wouldn’t. The place had been Clara’s idea, and it was trendy and glittery, and very expensive, too. The food was good but not worth the enormous price tags attached. The tiny order of fries – which she had probably somehow desecrated by using ketchup on them – alone had been ten bucks. Coupled with the high-end carnitas, her share of the bill would have been enough to guarantee she had to eat ramen for the next week.

“Good. I’d hate to wrestle you for the bill and embarrass us both.” Clara chuckled. “I really need to get back to running again, but my schedule’s so crazy, I usually end up just using my treadmill at home while I’m in the midst of conference calls. You still running?”

Hope said, “Yeah, I run to work and back home every day. It’s easier for me to do that than try to drive across the campus, and it gives me exercise, too.”

In fact, that was just what she could use right then. The heavy and mismatched meal was sitting squarely in her belly, and her mood could use a lift. Besides, running cleared her mind, and right now she could really use that.

Clara paid the bill, and they wandered out to the sidewalk. The valet rushed to bring their cars. Clara’s was a fancy new sports car. Hope’s was an older sedan in need of a good washing. As she surveyed the two cars, Hope grimaced. The car and her life were both a mess.

She drove back to her small apartment and parked. Inside, she dropped the keys on the counter and went to her bedroom to change. She pulled her hair up into a ponytail, put on shorts, a sport bra, and running shoes and socks. She stretched a few minutes then headed out.

She had hoped that the exercise would make her feel better, but all her woes dogged her fast footsteps.

Jackson stayed in her head with every passing mile. No man had ever done that before. She couldn’t figure out why either. He was so wrong for her!

She turned around, coming back around the campus in a long loop. She was sweaty and flushed, her sports bra sticking to her body when she finally slowed to a fast walk that she gradually brought down to a slower pace to regulate her breathing.

Her heartbeat picked up the pace once more though as soon as she saw Jackson standing near the stairs of her building. He wore tight jeans and a t-shirt, both of which accented his long and strong body. He’d hooked a thumb through a belt loop and was leaning back with one foot up in a sexy and casual pose that made little rivulets of fluid run from her inner folds.

His hand, lying so close to his groin, and that thick and heated flesh just beyond the denim drew her eye as she drew closer. She searched for words as he straightened and let his eyes run over her body and face with an appreciation she could not mistake.

Her body was awash with a whole new type of heat, and she had to take a few long breaths before she could approach him and speak.

5

GOOD GOD.

That was the only thing that Jackson could think as Hope walked toward him. Sweat glowed along her taut skin, and her chest rose and fell in an entirely enchanting way. A few tendrils of her hair had fallen from the ponytail she wore, and the running shorts did a damn good job of showing off her lean hips and flat thighs.

“What are you doing here?’

Her question didn’t exactly read as welcoming, but it was not hostile either. He’d take it. He said, “I had an idea I thought you might like to hear.”

Hope dragged the toe of one running shoe across the pavement, her white teeth biting into her bottom lip in a gesture so sexy he had to shift a bit so that the rapidly growing bulge in his jeans would be less noticeable.

She asked, “An idea?”

He nodded. “Yeah, it was something that you said at the party.”

Her face held a cautious expression. “Maybe you had better explain that sentence.”

He chuckled. “You said you needed a new program that could sift through the results faster so that you could get your staff actually working. They could be doing research if they were not sifting through results, right? So why not give them something that will do that work for them while they work on more important stuff?”

“I did say all of that and it is true, but I was just sort of brainstorming an idea.”

“But why not make that idea into a reality? I know it would have to be encrypted and so on. It would be sensitive info after all. It could be securely encrypted, and the results could be drawn into several channels, and algorithms could be created that could forecast what those results could or might mean, like a predictor of what will happen if, say, X happens here or Y happens there. The board would likely love that.”

Her face took an excited look, but that excitement was short-lived. “That would be great, but I have no idea how to do that, nor do I have the funds to commission it.”

“Well the good thing is I’m between things to work on, and I have both time and money. I am at your service.” He offered her a little bow. She laughed, and he straightened and grinned at her.

She said, “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“I am.” He was. “I’d like to, in fact. It might be harder than it sounds, and I can’t promise it will be perfect right out of the gate, but I could create the program and get the algorithms created, too. It would be a crude thing, and it would need work, but just the start up program could be enough to sway your grant board, especially if they know it cost you nothing.”

“Yes, but to create a better version…I mean how long would that take, and how much would it cost?”

“Again, I am happy do that for free.”

Her eyes swept along his body. “Nothing is free. Ever. You know that, too.’

Jackson did know that. He said, “No, but I could always write it off as a tax deduction.”

She gave a reluctant smile. “You’re just using me for a tax break?”

“Yup.”

“Wow.”

He laughed. “I know, right? Also, I am bored as hell. I mean it. I am so bored I’d just about offer to do anything just to have something to do.”

She bounced on her toes a little. “I see.”

“You probably don’t. I have a feeling if you ever finish your research and get that cure, you will be right on to the next thing with no waiting.”

Hope looked around. “Hey, instead of standing around out here, you want to come up?”

“If you don’t mind.” His dick throbbed again, painfully that time, as she moved past him, and he caught a glimpse of the way the tight little running shorts gripped her firm and high ass.

He followed her up the stairs, eyes still locked on her bottom. Her ass moved in an enticing way, and his prick stiffened yet again. At the rate he was going, he would come before she ever managed to open the door of her place.

Thankfully, she did open the door and they stepped into a small and neat apartment. She said, “I know it’s tiny. Even the furniture’s kind of small and uncomfortable, but take a seat if you like.”

He managed to lever himself and his hard dick onto the sofa – not an easy feat. She said, “You want soda or a bottled water?”

“Bottled water would be great.” Especially if it was cold. He could always dump it over his head if nothing else.

She fetched him a bottle of water and said, “Let me just change, okay?”

“Sure.”

She headed through the narrow hallway, and he heard a door open then close and then the unmistakable sound of running water. He grabbed his dick and gave it a hard squeeze, hoping to keep himself from popping an even larger erection as he realized that she was in the shower and probably under a spray of steamy, hot water and rich lather that would cling to her satiny skin like a lover’s greedy touch.

“Argh!”

He stood and fast paced, trying to fill his mind with images of mathematical equations and programming code.

No dice.

The water ran on, and he was ready to take himself into hand if things did not get any better and soon. The forceful shaking seemed to have finally put his libido in check, thank God. By the time she finally emerged about ten minutes later, dressed in worn jeans and a loose shirt, he was back in control of himself.

She said, “So tell me about this program and what all you will need for it.”

She sat down on the sofa, and he could smell the good, clean aroma of soap and shampoo on her skin and hair. He cleared his throat. “Well, I would need some test data to feed through it just to make sure it would actually work.”

“I couldn’t give you anything that would be considered …well, you know.”

He said, “Yes, I know. I just need some data, but it can’t be something you just make up, or it will mess up the program later.”

“I think I can do that.” She turned toward him a little. “I really appreciate this. I would even offer to buy you dinner, but I ate lunch about an hour ago, and–”

“Then how about I take you to dinner? Say tomorrow night?” he said, interrupting her.

He could see she was hesitant. Finally, she nodded, then said, “That sounds great.”

“Good. It’s a date.” He relaxed a little. “What is the best time for you?”

She chewed at her bottom lip. “Seven?”

It would not be soon enough. The temptation to kiss her was nearly overwhelming. The flames of passion between them were undeniable and he knew it, but he did not want to offer something as big as he had offered and then kiss her. She might take that to mean he was just doing it so she would sleep with him. “That works for me.”

She said, “Me, too. I have to get to the lab here pretty soon anyway. I could get some of the old data, the stuff we have already gone through and all that and burn it all into a file for you when you need it.”

“That would be great. I came up with an idea of how it would work best, but the data would give me a better idea of what all the program needs to do. You would have to explain to me what the data means and so forth, and then you would have to go through the first part of the program with me just to make sure that the program is reading it properly.”

“I can do that.” She paused. “You have no idea how helpful this really is. I have a great staff, and having to have so many people tied up checking through all that stuff instead of working on other things has always been a problem.”

He was glad she was willing to take his help, and he was hoping the program he had decided to write for her really would help her research.

Not just because he wanted to sleep with her – though God knew that he damn sure wanted her – but because he wanted to impress her, too.

Hope was not easily impressed. She did not care about his having money or about his car, and if she saw his house she would not bat an eye since she had already grown up out in the neighborhoods he had just moved into.

What would impress her was helping others. It was what she wanted to do with her life. Jackson had to admit that it sounded good to him, too. He had been lucky enough to land on his feet, and in a pile of money to boot, so giving back – even if it was just to impress Hope –couldn’t be a bad thing.

He said, “Okay, so I will pick you up at seven.”

Now that that was settled, he felt awkward, like a teen boy asking out the prom queen. That was weird, usually he was confident and smooth. They both stood up and stared at each other.

He moved forward. He wanted to kiss her. Long and hard and deep kissing – kisses that would leave her wriggling and gasping and ready for whatever would come next.

Instead, he landed a gentle graze on her lips and backed away. “I’ll let you get to the lab then.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Her voice was husky with promise. He left quickly before his erection could give him away.

6

HOPE STARED AT THE CLOSED door and then she fell onto the couch, fanning herself wildly with one hand.

“It’s a good thing he left, or I would have stripped him right out of those clothes and ravished him.”

She laughed and stood again. She was bemused by the whole thing, and she could not quite put it all together. Jackson had not seemed like a guy who was interested in helping other people, not unless there was something in it for him, but he had seemed eager to write that program and not at all eager to sleep with her.

Well, that last part sucked. He had asked her to dinner though. Had he asked her to dinner just so they could talk about that program more and she could give him the data he needed to get started? Or had he asked her to dinner because he really wanted to see her?

She sighed and went to get her keys and bag, then set out walking across the campus.

The afternoon was leaning toward evening. The trees lining the sidewalks were in full bloom, and a light breeze had sprung up. It was still warm, but there was a cold front coming in later in the week, and she made a mental note to start wearing a jacket when she left the apartment even if she did not need it just then, because evenings tended to get cooler fast.

Students – post and undergrad – filled the sidewalks and the green spaces. A football game was being played in one long square of grass, and a group of young women from a nearby sorority were walking through the small, arched doorways that led to the tennis courts and the gymnasium.

The hum of activity and the solemn air of the students studying below the large trees always made her smile. Being able to live on campus while she worked had been a bonus, and not just because she got to live rent free, but because she could always remember why she did not want to sell out when she saw so many other people all striving to learn great things.

She was no fool, of course. A lot of them were not there to take up fields like hers or because they hoped to give something back to the world. Many were there in the hopes of getting the same life Clara had.

And Jackson.

That made uncertainty well up.

Jackson was rich – filthy stinking rich. The kind of rich that bought private planes and even more private islands.

Granted, he was not Dawson rich, but rich enough that she felt a sudden sense of fear. She was not sure why he had asked her out to dinner, but she was sure that she was not the kind of girl he would date for long. She had no money and no need to make it either. As far as she was concerned, she wanted to do research for the rest of her life, and if that meant living in what amounted to poverty and on campuses, college or otherwise, then so be it.

The last thing she wanted was a giant fancy house like the one she had grown up in. The memory of that house – and that quickly approaching monthly dinner – pressed down on her like a huge and suffocating weight.

She could tell anyone who asked exactly what that house looked like. It was ten thousand square feet of polished perfection. The glossy interiors were frequently refreshed by interior designers. The imposing façade that was a conglomeration of styles that Hope hated – and she and Clara secretly referred to the odd little turret-styled tower in the front as the potato chip can of shame – had been designed to make it clear that the people within were successful with a capital S.

She loved what she did, whether it came with trappings or not, and she was usually able to blow off her stepfather’s slings and arrows, but as she walked onward she began to wonder if Jackson would also see her as less than a success story.

He was self-made and he had worked his ass off to get where he was. That she knew. She did not know him well yet, but she could see that he was a hard worker and that he was given to a love of financial gain.

The last thing she needed in her life was a man just like her stepfather.

She had to break that dinner date.

7

JACKSON PACED THROUGH the large rooms of his house. Buying it had been a bad idea, if he was being honest. He had bought it because he had needed a safe investment, according to the people who handled his money, and a big house came with enough bills and tax credits to make buying one that size attractive.

To boot, there was the fact that he now lived in a place he had never imagined that he might.

Ashton had sold his house, and Jackson knew he had felt a lot of relief when he had done it, too. Like Jackson, the big fancy stuff did not suit him.

The rooms were mostly empty, the hardwood and marble floors glowing and so empty that his footsteps echoed loudly. Every step just reminded him that he was alone there, and that he did not want to be.

“That is sort of a lousy reason to try to date someone though.”

The words stopped him in his tracks, and he frowned. Was that why he was suddenly so taken by Hope? Had he somehow gotten too lonely, and was he just grabbing at her as a lifeline?

That was an unfair and probably useless endeavor. Hell, he knew all about what could and would go wrong when people were together just so they would not have to be alone.

His shoulders went rigid as he finally walked into the large den that he had been using as a living room. He took a seat in a comfortable recliner and stared blankly at the television screen.

His mom and dad had truly taught him a lot of things. They had taught him that a good education could give you a good job, and that drugs could keep you from ever being able to leave the neighborhood you hated.

They had taught him that it was easier to stay with someone they did not love or particularly want than it was to leave and start over.

His head bowed as he tried to press back the memories of all the angry words and the hours-long rants, often fueled by some kind of amphetamine. The hatred and the blame had always battered against his ears. He had learned to hide at night, to lock himself into his room and pray that that night would not be one haunted by hallucinations that would cause some crazy shit to happen.

He had had to huddle under a mattress while his parents, feeding off each other and a new report that stated there was a tornado warning, hid out with him, sure that at any minute they would all be whirled away into some insane version of Oz.

There’d been times one or both of them had hallucinated that they were on fire. There had been times when they had been suicidal. Talking them down from whatever it was they were on had always fallen to him, and they would eventually pop some pill that would let them come off that unnatural high and sleep so they could get up in the morning and do the respectable thing – go to work and act like a normal family.

They had been anything but normal.

His folks were clean now, and still together. Not because they loved each other, although they would never admit that, and maybe they did not even know that they had no love between them, but because it was easier than being alone.

They said they had been through too much together to divorce. Jackson thought that was a shitty reason to keep a thing going, but he never said so.

He didn’t talk about all the years they had been addicts either. It was like they had buried those memories forever and wanted nothing to do with them anymore. Jackson wished it was that easy for him, but he had those memories implanted in his brain, and he had that horror to thank for all the things he had now.

In a way, their addiction had given him something to escape from, and he had managed to do so. He had found video games and books. He had done well in school, and he had stayed far away from the drugs and the lure of easy money and everything else so readily available where he had grown up.

Even as a kid, he had known that if it all came tumbling down, neither of them would want him. They would both try to force him off on the other. So, he had prepared by being as self- reliant as possible. He had learned to cook, to wash his clothes, and to take care of himself. He had learned to earn money and keep it.

He had learned how to do everything but love.

8

HOPE LOOKED UP FROM A SLIDE to see that it was a quarter after six. Her stomach was filled with butterflies, and her mind raced through every possible excuse she could make not to go out with Jackson even as she admitted that calling it off now was a lousy thing to do.

She had been putting off that phone call all day, even though she knew she should not do that. She had buried herself in the work she could manage to get done, and now, at the end of the day, she was really considering just hiding out there in the lab.

“For what? Forever? Or just until he figures out you were a coward and ditched him at the last minute without a word, rather than make a phone call?’

The question was soft even though the part of the lab that she was in was unoccupied by everyone but her. It was a conundrum she did not want to be a part of. Jackson was hot, and he was nicer than she would have guessed. He had a well-deserved rep for being a player, but what if he had grown up and changed like he seemed to have?

There was still the sticky issue of him being a super-rich guy with a lot of ambition, and she was always going to be a struggling researcher trying her best to save humanity. It was a noble thing, and while there might be money at the end of it all, most of what money the cure she would, maybe, one day create would be eaten up by the grant boards and the pharmaceutical companies.

She sighed. There were two options: call it off or head across campus and make that date.

Torn between badly wanting to go and badly wanting to cancel, Hope finally finished up and headed for her apartment, running as was her habit.

The air was cold and crisp, and the trees were beginning to look brighter every day. Usually, she reveled in such things, but right then she did not even notice. Her feet kicked up a litany of reasons to go, and a litany of reasons not to go.

By the time she reached her apartment, it was six thirty, and she knew he would already be on his way. It was a long drive through heavy traffic, and he would have left his house a few minutes before to be on time.

That made her feel better. She could not cancel now. She dashed inside and showered fast. After she dried off, she rubbed a sweet-smelling lotion into her skin and then headed into her bedroom to dress.

Once in the bedroom, she waffled again. Should she go sexy and seductive? Wear something guaranteed to light up his senses on the chance he was interested in her? Go low-key so as to avoid being embarrassed if he was interested in nothing more than writing a program?

Frustrated, she dug into the back of the closet to pull out her one good little black dress. She had bought it for some party at her parents’ house, and it was suitable for either seduction or a fancy dinner.

It was a strapless thing with a sweetheart neckline that made the most of her slim shoulders and toned arms. It clung to the curves of her chest and hips, and it belled out slightly near her thighs, ending in a bubbled hem that made it float and skim over her legs.

She grabbed a set of black panties and a pretty, strapless bra. She shimmied into her undergarments, and then she misted perfume into the air before walking through it, letting the droplets collect on her hair and skin before putting on the dress.

She waffled again, and then she added a set of stockings – daring little things with lacy tops that were made of sturdy elastic neatly hidden in the lace. They slid onto her legs, and she stood in her bedroom feeling both naughty and sexy and eager for that bell to ring.

She had just slid her feet into shoes when the doorbell did ring. She hurried into the living room and opened the door,

Jackson looked crazy good. He wore a simple suit, all black and a light blue shirt below. He said, “You look great.”

“So do you.”

Her breath came out in a soft squeak. Jackson said, “I started to bring flowers, but then I remembered that you said to a guest at the party that you were not a fan of the flowers in the room.”

She gawked at him. “You heard that?”

“I was not that far from where you were standing. It was not like I was eavesdropping or something,” he said in a defensive tone.

“No I mean you heard me. Never mind. Thank you for not bringing flowers.”

She moved toward him and ended up in his arms. It felt good, so she moved closer. She lifted her head, and he smiled down at her.

Then he kissed her, hard.

She kissed him back. Her body squirmed closer as passion surged from a low ebbing tide to an overpowering crest. His fingers went to her hair, fisting it. Her hips pressed against his, and she felt the press of his dick against her body.

He groaned out. “We have reservations.”

“To hell with them,” she muttered between kisses.

His hands found her clothes and then dropped them onto the floor. Naked and panting, she climbed up his body, her toes digging into his calves and her arms winding around his neck as he carried her to the bed.

They landed on the bed, fingers working to get his clothes off. She finally found the button and zipper on his slacks and tugged them down.

His mouth went down her body, finding the throbbing ridge of her clit and teasing it. His fingers pressed into her body. Her ass shook as he licked and suckled and thrust his fingers in and out of her body.

He groaned out, “God damn, you taste so good.”

She kicked and writhed as he took her ever closer to the edge of an orgasm.

He finally sent her into release. Her walls clenched and opened, sensation created by friction and heat soared even higher, stiffening her nipples yet again and making her toes curl. Heated oils slid from her inner walls, spilling over his silken and rigid flesh as he kept moving within her, taking her higher and higher still.

He came up and she flipped him over, eager to touch and please him as much as he had teased and pleased her. Her mouth circled his nipples, her tongue licking and sucking, and then she moved downward again.

She took the hard length of his shaft into her hand and she fisted it loosely. His meat was thick and pulsing, wrapped with blue veins. Her tongue found the silky head of his dick, and she licked it gently. Then, she took the head into her mouth, swirling her tongue around the flesh where the shaft met the head. She bobbed her head, taking him down her throat. He groaned and writhed, his hips arching upward until he was impaling her throat.

She kept sucking and bobbing and using her hand. Jackson’s fingernails left tingling trails in her scalp, and she whimpered, opening her mouth more widely so she could take him down even further.

He said, “Damn it, Hope. You are going to make me come if you do not stop and soon.”

“Maybe I want to make you come.”

She did want to make him come, but more than that, she wanted to feel him inside her body. She wanted to feel him all the way in her, and she wanted him then.

She came up and poised herself over his body. Her legs straddled his thighs and she glided her hips downward until he was inside her, pulsing and penetrating her with his powerful organ.

His hands found her hips, and she whimpered as she moved upward, releasing him from her clenching folds. Her oils dripped and ran, and she grit her teeth before moving downward again. Her hands flattened on his chest, and her ass humped up and down.

His ass tilted, and he held her hips even more tightly. He pushed upward with his heels, and she whimpered as her walls began to spasm and a smaller but powerful orgasm began to roll through her body.

Jackson grunted and then he came – a thick spurt of come burst into her body.

She fell flat. His hands ran up and down her body, his fingers caressing her ass and back.

She got off him and flipped over onto her back, staring at the ceiling. It was official.

The man was turning her into a nymphomaniac.

9

HOPE SPOKE IN A LOW MURMUR. “Well, that was amazing.”

He chuckled and buried his face into the hollow between her shoulder and neck. “Thanks. I was just about to say the very same thing.”

Her fingers ran through his hair. “Well, if I had known what was going to happen, I would most certainly have foregone panties.”

“I owe you a pair of panties,” he lifted his head and gave her an unrepentant grin. “Tell me where to buy them, and I will get you a dozen pairs.”

She laughed at that, but her laughter was interrupted by a loud gurgle from the direction of her belly. She slapped a hand down and went a little red. Her smile turned sheepish.

“We should get you fed.”

He sat up slowly and stared down at her. Sprawled out across her narrow bed, she was a vision, and he wanted to stay right there and make love to her again and again. She sat up with her hair spilling over her shoulders in a glorious tumble. She said, “I almost canceled our date.”

He said, “Me, too.”

Her mouth hung open. Then she asked, “Why?”

He tilted his head to one side. “I could give you the long answer or the short answer. Your pick.”

“Go short.”

He wished he had not admitted that, but now that he had, he had no choice but to say why. “I do not want you to feel like you have to do this just so I will create that program for you.”

“I never thought about that.” She brushed aside a tangle of hair. “Is that why you offered?”

“No. I offered because I wanted to.”

“Because you’re bored.”

He shrugged, “Well, that and the tax deduction.” The joke fell flat, so he pressed on. “Look, I really want to get to know you and…hell, to be honest, I have not done many good things in my life, so I would like to maybe do one thing that is totally for someone else.”

“I see.” Her eyes dropped then came back to his. “Listen, I don’t know what this, exactly, that we are doing, but I am not doing it because I feel like I have to.”

Relief hit. “That’s good to know.”

His relief was short-lived. “But you should know that I…well I…I don’t know what we…I mean I don’t know what you want from me exactly.”

He didn’t know either. Might as well admit it. “Yeah, me neither.”

Her eyes widened. “I see.”

“Then could you explain it to me, please?” He gave her his most disarming smile. “Seriously, I just want to spend some time with you. Beyond that, I don’t know. I know you care a lot about your work and that you are busy and that you do not date in a serious way.’

“Wow. How do you know that?”

“I asked Ashton, and he sort of asked Laura.”

He held his hands up in a placating gesture. “You were checking up on me?” There was a flatness to her voice.

“No, I just wanted to know more about you, and I asked before that party. That answer was why I stayed away.”

Hope frowned. “So you knew before the party that I did not date in a serious way, so you did not want to talk to me?”

Jackson shrugged. “Honestly, I am a bit sick of the one night stand and NSA thing. I want a woman who wants me around. I get that you are busy and you have a career that does not leave you with much free time. I’ll take whatever time you have to give right now, if you want to spend it with me. If you do not, it’s okay. I won’t get all pissy and not write the program, and I will not try to force you into it either because that is not how I roll. I believe in consent and mutual wanting.”

Hope gawked at him and then burst into laughter. “You’re a feminist!”

“I’m a guy who thinks a woman has the right to call the way her life will work out. Call it whatever you want.”

She swung her lean legs off the bed and stood, giving him a delightful view of her heart-shaped ass. “I am starved.” Her words floated back to him. She looked over her shoulder. “Also, I do not really want to go to some fancy place where we have to be polite and distant and order the perfect wine. How do you feel about pizza and beer?”

“You are speaking my language.” He climbed off the bed and gathered his clothes. “I might be overdressed for pizza and beer though.”

“You’re naked,” she pointed out.

He laughed. “Yeah. True. But I meant…”

“Oh, The Pit gets all types.”

She opened a door and yanked out jeans and a shirt, a denim jacket, and a pair of boots. She dressed quickly and he did, too.

He asked, “The Pit?”

“It’s here on campus. It’s cheap and grimy, and on Friday nights there is usually a fight or two.”

“Sounds perfect.” He wanted to say a dozen other things, but it seemed she was done talking about the serious things for the moment. Okay then, he would just roll with it. He really did want to spend time with her and he really did want to get to know her, so now would be the perfect time to start.

She grabbed her keys and they headed out, Jackson shrugging into a jacket as they went. Once outside, he went toward his car, but she said, “You will never get a parking space. Let’s just walk it. I always do. In fact, I walk most of the time here on campus because it means I do not have to look for parking.”

He had to ask, “How long have you been living here?”

They swung out of the small complex and onto a paved-brick path. She said, “Ever since I graduated med school and finished my internships at the research hospital, which is part of the campus, too, you know.”

“No, I didn’t know.” He paused, then added, “You just seem awful young to have done so much.”

She laughed at that. “You should meet my sister. I graduated high school at fifteen…”

“Fifteen? Holy shit!” He had known she was smart, but god damn! “You’re a genius!”

She said, “I’m glad you think so, but it’s not as uncommon as you might think. Lots of kids graduate even younger than that. Hell, my sister graduated at fourteen, so I do not even hold the record in my family.”

He heard the irritation in her voice. He guessed that that was something of a sore spot. “You have a sister?”

“Yes. Clara. She’s a hedge fund manager and very good at her job. My stepfather is very proud of her.”

No mention of him being proud of her, and no mention of her mother either. Jackson mulled that over as they wound down paths past frat and sorority houses and then onto a small street fronted by stores.

He asked, “So why be a doctor? I mean, your kind of doctor? Was it just always what you wanted?”

“My dad died.” Her words held no emotion. “It was right after I was born and I do not even remember him, but I always wondered what my life would have been like if he had lived.”

He stopped walking. “Oh shit, Hope, I’m sorry. That was a lousy thing to bring up.”

She turned to face him and her feet halted, her smile reassuring. “It’s okay. You did not know and really, I never knew him. I was just that young. I was not even a year old and…and well, my mom got remarried not even a few months afterward.”

Wow. He searched her face. “I see.”

“No, you don’t. It is one of those things people always tiptoe around because, really, what kind of woman weds again when her husband’s barely cold in the grave? I don’t know why, but if I had to guess, I would say she was scared and alone and Robert, my stepfather, gave her a convenient out from those things.”

“Now that I really do get.” He did. He shuffled his feet. “I’m still sorry if the question dredged up anything you would rather not talk about.’

“It’s fine. Come on, let’s walk. It is getting cold out here.’

They started walking again, their hips and hands occasionally touching. She said, “My dad was in a car wreck, and he was in a coma for a few days before he was taken off the machines. There was no saving him, and I get that. But there are many people in comas who might still be in there somewhere. I mean, we just don’t know. We have the idea that they can hear us but can’t really communicate with us. I want to try to find a way to do that, and not just to do it but to use the communication sort of like a map to bring them back.”

It sounded like some sort of futuristic medicine, like something done in a sci-fi movie or something. It was also one hell of a goal. He said, “I thought they had already found out that people in comas could talk or something.”

“There’s been lots of research done, mostly on people who woke up from short-term comas, but nothing much has ever helped people in long-term comas, and those are the people I most want to help. I feel like if we can just get one long-term patient back, just one, we might be able to figure out a way to get back people who are in short-term comas faster, before physical and mental disabilities and changes occur.”

“You want to sort of record their journey back so you can outline the steps in a way.” He wondered if such a thing would ever be possible. It seemed too far-fetched, but it was clear that she believed it was possible.

“Exactly. Like I said, if we had some kind of map, we could know where they were, no matter how long or short a time they have been in a coma.”

He said, “I have to tell you, you just impressed the hell out of me.”

She said, “You do know your program might just be a part of it. If we ever figure out how to do it, that is.”

He was astonished by that thought. He had not considered that he would be a part of something so monumental until she had said so, but once he did, a huge sense of wanting to be a part of that filled him.

He had never been a part of anything that was life changing, and the idea that he could be had never occurred to him. Filled with that sense of awe he said, “Thanks for letting me be a part of it. I had no idea…I thought maybe you were doing cancer research or something.”

“Oh, there are lots of talented people already working in that field.” She let her hand brush against his, and he took her fingers into his. Her fingers were slightly chilled, and he curled his around hers, a sense of protectiveness erupting in him as he did so.

“Not so many in the one you are in, huh? Is it competitive? I mean, is it like a race between the people who are working on a cure?”

“Oh, yeah.” She walked a little faster as the wind began to blow harder, and he adjusted his pace to keep up with her. “Especially if the competition is a big corporation. They have all the money and investors in the world, you know. They also want to hold the patents, because that would mean that they gain the most, money wise.”

“I read something the other day about medication costs going up again.” He had skimmed across that article in truth. He was young and healthy, and he had no need for the meds that the article had been discussing, but now he wished he had paid more attention.

Hope snorted. “The CEOs all want to show massive profit. It is how they get paid the money they do. They are basically soulless sharks, skimming the blood off the water. In the case of the pharma CEOs, it is the real blood of people they are thriving on. It’s sick and sad.”

“Wow, you really are serious. You are not at all into this for gain.”

They strolled down a long sidewalk that led them to a grim, industrial-looking strip just outside campus. Hope said, “I am. Robert, my stepdad, is a CEO, and I used to sit and listen to him talk about all the ways he could line his and the company’s pockets. I used to ask, ‘but what about the people who have to pay for that stuff?’ ”

Jackson realized something then. Her loathing of people in it just for the money stemmed from her childhood and that her childhood had been far from happy. She had grown up rich, yes, but she had not been happy.

He asked, gently, “What did he say?”

Hope said, “He said he would never meet them, and he did not care to.”

Ouch. Hope tugged his hand and said, “There it is.”

He stared at the building with some interest. No wonder they called it The Pit. It sat smack in the middle of a low building with corrugated steel siding and a low roof. The windows were large and wide and showed a huge amount of people jammed into the place. Hope pushed the door open, and they walked into the scent of tomato sauce and garlic, fresh baked dough and spilled beer.

The place was packed, but they got a table near the wall, just beyond the dance floor on one side and the pool tables on the other. The noise was terrific, but the corner they sat in was quiet enough that they could talk without shouting if they sat close together.

The darkness, the closeness of their bodies, and the pitcher of beer and the two glasses the server brought gave the whole thing a sort of intimacy. What was more, Jackson felt comfortable there.

“I like this place,” he said with a grin.

Hope laughed and sipped beer. When she set the mug down, there was a foam mustache above her lip, which she licked away with a sensual swipe of her tongue, a gesture that made his heart hammer hard in his chest and his dick wake up and poke its head up just a bit.

Hope said, “Yeah, me too. I hate to tell you this, but I am never going to be the fancy dinner and all the trimmings kind of girl.”

“Good to know.” He laughed at that. “I’m not into that either.”

She paused for a minute. Then she said, “Jackson, look. I like you, and I like hanging out with you, but you have to know that the last thing I need in my life right now is someone who values everything with dollar signs. I thought that was how you were, and I can see I am wrong, or I think I am wrong about that. I hope I am wrong about that. Still, if you are looking for the woman who will always be just as rich and successful as you are, then I’m not her. I don’t have a trust fund, and I am not living off my parent’s money. I told you before I’m broke, and honestly I am. I get my housing and a small salary every year, but that is it.”

The words offended him, but he bit back the reply that wanted to come. He recalled her words during the walk and the bitterness in her voice when she spoke about her stepdad. There was some serious tension there, and he was willing to bet that that tension went way deeper than he thought.

Did her sister have a trust fund? He was sure she most likely did. He also did not doubt that if Hope had even been offered one, and he doubted that she had been, that she would have said no to that money.

Her words had offended him because he liked her, and he didn’t care what she had, but he could see why she had said that.

He said, “Okay. Hope, I made a lot of fucking money. It was kind of accidental, you know, at least the first time around. Ashton and I made up the app one night when we were drunk and we had both struck out at the club. We were bored and young and stupid. I always wanted to design video games, and the money I made off the app let me do that. Now that I have…well, I am even richer.

“But I don’t count myself successful because I made money. I count myself successful because back when I was a kid, everyone told me I was out of my mind. They all told me to take shop classes or some shit – do something that would help me get a job.

“My folks were college educated, in case I didn’t mention it, and I knew that having a degree did not mean I would automatically be granted a pass out of the old neighborhood. I wanted to do something nobody else had, or at least something nobody I knew had ever done. I did that, and that is why I consider myself a success, not because I happened to get rich along the way.”

Their pizza, a thick, bubbling pie, laden with four cheeses and a spicy smelling sauce, came just then, saving him from having to say anything else. Hope took up one of the paper plates on the pile and waved it over the pie, trying to cool it. She looked into his eyes.

“Thanks for telling me that.”

He nodded and leaned into her. His leg and side pressed against hers. The warm and ripe curve of her breast met his arm, and desire leaped into being all over again.

“Why video games? I asked you before, but you never said.” She waved the plate over the pizza again, and the fragrant aroma rose higher on a curl of steam, making his mouth water.

“I needed them.”

She stopped trying to cool the pizza. “Say what?”

“Things were not all that awesome when I was a kid. I mean, I had it way better than a lot of kids in my hood. I had two parents and a house that we had always lived in. We always had food on the table and lights on, but…”

He stopped there. He was not ready to tell her about his folks. They had been addicts, but highly-functioning addicts, and the strangeness of their lives had been reinforced by their need to always pretend that things were normal. Jackson had been forced to keep those secrets too, and as a result, he had not been able to talk to the kids who would understand because their own folks were also addicts. Nor had he been able to reconcile his mom or dad with the other shambling and burned-out wrecks of humanity he saw selling themselves, stolen goods, or drugs on the streets of his hood.

Her hand found his and squeezed it. He gave her a smile. The warm pressure of her fingers had snapped him out of those particularly depressing thoughts at least.

He said, “I was kind of a nerd and I got picked on a lot. Not like teasing and that kind of thing, like the shit kicked out of me kind of thing. There were a lot of other things, too. Anyway, until Ashton moved in and decided to be my friend, I didn’t really have a friend. So, I played video games. I also designed them in my head and used whatever I could find to build them, too. For me, it was all about escape. I know you think that they are a huge waste of time, but for real, if I had not had them, I would have probably lost my mind.”

Hope sat back in the chair, her eyes fastened on his face. “I didn’t realize that video games offer that for kids. I always read books to get away.”

“Oh yeah?” Eager to get the limelight off himself, he asked, “What kind of books?”

“Oh, anything I could get my hands on. Our housekeeper loved those trashy romance novels – you know the kind where a guy in tights sweeps a lady of the court off her feet only to reveal later on that he is not, in fact, a highwayman but a lord of the realm.”

Jackson knew his face showed his horror before Hope burst into long and loud laughter. He said, “Well, okay then.”

Hope kept laughing. She put a piece of pizza onto a plate and slid it neatly in front of him, and then she took a large slice and bit into it. Jackson tried his pizza and found it a delicious mess of gooey, melted cheese and herbs, thin and crispy crust with a little bit of chew to it and a sauce that had some sort of smoked pepper at its base.

They ate slowly, letting the moment draw out. They were just enjoying each other’s company and the time they were spending together. Jackson had never found himself wanting to spend a lot of time with anyone before, but Hope was endlessly fascinating, and he could talk to her.

When their meal was over, they walked back out into the night. The temperature had dropped yet again, and they walked fast, skirting past couples strolling slowly and clots of drunken college students reeling their way back to their dorms.

Jackson said, “This takes me back to when I was in college.”

Hope asked, “Where did you go?”

“MIT.”

Her mouth hung open. He burst into laughter. “What?”

“You went to MIT?’

“Yeah. Why?”

“Wow.”

Jackson laughed again. “It was a lot harder than I thought it would be, for real.”

“I bet.” Hope shook her head. “That is impressive.”

“Yeah, if I ever have to get a real job I have that to put on my resume.”

Hope said, “True. Do you think you ever will get a real job?”

Jackson said, “Well, money is not a concern, but boredom is. To be honest, I sort of regret selling that platform I created.”

“How so?”

“I don’t know. It was my life’s goal, and once I was done with it, I just dropped it, you know? I wanted it to be this great big, shining achievement and it was, but when it came right down to it, I did not really have much interest in it once it was over.”

“I see.” Her voice held a low note.

He said, “I know how that sounds, but I think what happened is what happens any time someone fulfills a dream. I got left there with nothing left to accomplish. That sucked. I just feel like I’m sort of hanging around with nothing to want anymore. Well, that’s not entirely true. This thing, this program I want to build for you, it matters to me.”

“I’m glad.”

He was too. They reached her building, and she asked, “Would you like to come up?”

He looked from her face to the building, and a slow smile spread across his face. “I would love to.”

10

“HOLY SHIT, IT WORKS!”

Randy, one of Hope’s interns, stared at the screen as numbers and code scrawled across it. He pointed to a spot on the screen and said, “Look, it is not only feeding the data in and separating it, it is actually giving us predictors.”

Hope clapped her hands, her joy overriding her usual calm. The program was working just like Jackson had said it would!

It had taken him three weeks to build it and get the bugs out of it. The weeks had gone by with the two of them spending a lot of time together not just for the program’s sake, but for the sake of the budding relationship building between them.

Jackson was a great guy, and Hope liked him a lot. He was brilliant under that arrogant demeanor. He was also kind and thoughtful, and he had a dry, sharp wit that constantly amused her.

The program scrolled up more data, and she asked, “Can you start feeding today’s results in and see what happens?”

Randy nodded, “Can do. I think this is it Hope; this is exactly what we needed to impress the grant boards.”

Hope really wished that was true. It had to be enough because it was all they had. Her research had never really been a high priority thing in a world riddled by disease and death. Most people gave up on the comatose, and she knew it. This was research that had been put on the back-burner over and over again, and if she did not get that grant, she would be forced to look for private investors, which meant leaving her campus-affiliated position and working for a pharmaceutical company that wanted to make money off the deal.

Her stomach knotted as she watched the data being processed and more predictors coming up.

She said, “You know, if this keeps up we might be able to start using the patients in the way we wanted to use them.”

Randy knew that was also a sore point for her. Up until now, they had only been allowed to use rats that had been put into medically-induced comas, and he knew just as well as she did that what they needed was a human subject.

Hope said, “I have to get out of here. Can you put all this on a flash drive for me to take to the board meeting tomorrow?”

Randy nodded. “Sure. Anything else you need done right now?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m good. Thanks.”

She ducked out of the lab, hurrying now. Jackson was meeting her at her place in less than an hour to go to dinner at her parents’ house, and her nerves were already stretched to the breaking point.

She had asked Jackson to go, but now she sort of wished she had not. The phone call from her mother a few days before had been filled with the usual conversations about Clara’s nabbing of a big account – one bigger than even the biggest account held by the most senior person in her firm – and Robert’s latest takeovers. The occasional prodding question about Hope’s working life had left her feeling raw and vulnerable, so she had blurted out that she was bringing a date.

She knew if there was any one thing Robert would approve of, it would be Jackson. Why would he not approve of him? He was richer than anyone in their circles, he was handsome, and he was an MIT grad. So maybe he would be a sort of shield to get her through dinner.

Asking him to go had been a selfish thing, and she walked faster along the campus, praying that the evening would end mercifully quick and without the usual bloodshed.

She showered and dressed in a nice dress, brushed her hair until it snapped and shone, then put it into a neat twist low on her neck. She put on a bit of lipstick and mascara and checked her nails.

As usual, she needed a manicure. She did the best she could with a file and cuticle cutters and a buffer then called it a day. Clarissa, her mother, would notice immediately that the manicure was not professionally done, but unless, provoked she would likely not say anything.

“Good thing I chose closed-toe shoes,” Hope muttered as she paced nervously along the confines of her living room. “God knows I need a pedicure.”

She really did. She kept her toenails painted and trimmed, but she could use a good pedi, and she knew it. Just one more thing she never had the time or money for.

She always made time for Jackson though.

That stopped her in her tracks.

She had been making time for him, something she simply had never done before. Most guys were put off by her work, the hours she kept in the lab, and the often absentmindedness that hit her when she was struck with an idea that she had to puzzle out in her brain.

Jackson was willing to put up with all of that. He was willing to meet her at odd times and to not see her for a few days at a time when things were going full circuit at the labs and she was caught up in something.

He was a prize, and she was lucky to have him.

But for how long?

Eventually, he was bound to want more and she was not sure if she would ever have it to give to him. If she hit a major breakthrough, her working life would only get more hectic and she would have no time at all for him. No guy was going to sit on the sidelines and wait it out, not when the waiting could be that long.

Jackson was gorgeous, and he was rich. He was every girl’s dream date, and that was before they got to know him as a person. He would have no trouble at all filling the hole she would leave behind.

The doorbell rang. Hope stood there, shaking. She did not want to lose him.

That thought careened around her skull, screaming against the sides of her brain and echoing all the way down to her heart. She did not want to lose Jackson. She wanted to be with him in every way, but if it came down to it, she was going to have to choose between him and the research that meant so much to her.

And which would she pick? If she truly wanted him it should be an easy choice, shouldn’t it?

The doorbell rang again. Hope called out, “Coming!’

She went to the door and opened it. Jackson stood there. He looked amazing in a set of tailored black slacks in Italian wool, a matching jacket, a crisp white dress shirt, and blue and gray-striped tie. His hair, freshly cut, was combed back neatly, and his body gave off the faintest whiff of expensive aftershave and soap.

Hope said, “You look…wow.”

He said, “I was just about to say the same for you. If I am not mistaken, that is the same dress that caused us to miss out on our first dinner date and end up having dinner at The Pit.”

She looked down and burst into laughter. “It is. You love The Pit though.”

“I love their pizza,” he replied, and then he gathered her into his arms. He gave her a long, slow kiss and then, when he lifted his head, he said, “Damn, now I am wondering if your folks would be upset if we were late.”

“They would be really upset.” She stepped back and wiped a bit of lipstick off his mouth with the ball of her thumb. “The wailing would go on forever. The first course would be utterly ruined. The cook would weep in the kitchen, and the house would shudder on its foundation.”

Jackson shot her an amused glance, “Well, shit. There goes that plan then. Are you ready?”

No. She was not ready for this. Not for her folks, and not for the emotions running through her. She was not ready for the truth that was beating at her heart and brain either.

She had fallen in love with Jackson, and being in love with him could threaten everything she had worked so hard for. If she was forced to choose between him and her research, she had no idea which she would choose, and so she had no way of knowing if what she felt for him was real and solid or just an infatuation that would die out eventually or if it was, as she suspected, really love.

Jackson asked, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she said.

No, no she was not okay at all.

***

The ride to her parents’ house was a long one, and she said, “I should have met you here, I think. It would have saved you the drive in and back.”

He chuckled. “It’s okay. Besides, I figured maybe I could talk you into spending the night at my place since it is closer and you have yet to see it.’

She had never seen his place. More confusion swirled in. Part of her did not want to see the visible reminder of his wealth and success. The other part of her knew she was being unfair and that she had forced him to make all the effort.

Guilt struck. She said, “I am so sorry. I have made it all on your side, haven’t I? I mean, it’s never me that makes the drive or…or anything. That is so not fair, and I am sorry.’

“No big deal.”

“It is a big deal,” she insisted. Her mind seized on that. If she really cared for him, then why had she not made the effort he had made? Instead, she had let him do all the heavy lifting to see her. “It was a terrible thing to do and I…I have to make a better effort to put in as much as you are.”

Yes, but why bother if this thing was going to end just because she had such a huge workload, and because that program of his might just be the thing that caused her to have zero time to make the effort that she should have been making all along?

His hand met her knee and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Is this the street?”

“Yeah.”

The subdivision was nestled behind a guarded gate. They pulled in, and the guard took their name and checked it off a list before opening the gate. They drove inside the grounds of the community, and Jackson took the car down a long and winding road lined with houses that loomed large against the starry night sky.

The same feeling she always got when she went to her parents’ home took over. Hope had to remind herself to breathe and that she was a grownup and that nobody had the right to dictate how she lived her life, but even as she tried to do that, she found herself worried again about her and Jackson.

The house her parents lived in sat on three rolling acres, and it was naturally, the biggest one on the cul-de-sac. The lumped-together styles, the brick and stone façade, the whole conventional look of it, masquerading as high end made her cringe inwardly.

Jackson parked and turned the car off. She took a long breath and said, “I better warn you. They can be awful.”

Clara’s car was already there, and that made her feel slightly better. She and Clara might not be exactly close, but at least Clara tried to be an ally in the never-ending battle Hope was caught up in with Robert.

They got out and went to the door. Jackson held a bottle of very nice and expensive wine in one hand and her hand in the other. That hand steadied hers as she knocked and waited for the housekeeper to let them in.

She saw the frown on Jackson’s face as they waited, and she knew he was wondering why she even had to knock. If her parents had been normal people, she never would have had to, and if she had a good relationship with them, she would never have felt like knocking was necessary. She would have just opened the door and walked in.

She knew that her knocking was a dead giveaway, but since he was about to witness her fucked up family firsthand, she saw no reason to say anything about it.

The door opened and the housekeeper ushered them in and took their coats, hanging them in the closet nearest the door before telling them the family was waiting in the den.

They walked through the long hallway lined with priceless works of art. Jackson was silent, and so was Hope. Her spirits dropped a little lower with each step, and by the time they came into the den – the one they all referred to as the small den, despite its massive size – she was sick and shaking and cold.

Robert and Clarissa were in their usual places in two hooded club chairs set near the fireplace. They were perfectly and formally dressed, of course. Clara stood near the window, a drink in one hand and a tense expression on her stunning face.

Robert stood as they entered and said, “Well, there you are. We were getting worried that we would have to wait for dinner.”

It was exactly one minute to seven. Hope said, “Of course not. Jackson, these are my parents, Robert and Clarissa, and this is my sister, Clara.”

“Nice to meet you.” Jackson said, but his tone was subdued and his hand still holding hers tightened around her fingers just a tiny bit, giving away his own nerves.

She knew he felt out of place. Hell, she felt out of place there. She should never have asked him, she thought miserably.

Jackson gathered himself up though. He stepped forward, and said, “I brought wine. I hope you don’t mind.”

Robert took the bottle even though Jackson had extended it toward Clarissa. “I do not,” Robert said with a wintry smile. “This is a wonderful vintage, and very thoughtful.”

The housekeeper stuck her head back in to announce seating was ready.

They followed the others into the massive dining room, the table all set with formal place settings and a plethora of silver and crystal. Robert handed off the bottle and they sat.

Silence spun out, thick and weighted.

Robert asked, “So tell us again what it is that you do Jackson.”

“Not much right now.” His smile was wide. “I am retired in a way, but I am slowly starting to seek out new opportunities.”

Uh oh. Hope wanted to cover her head because she could see what was coming, and she knew she should have warned him.

Robert’s eyebrows went up. “Oh? A bit young to be retired, aren’t you?”

“Not when I just sold my gaming platform to MetaWorks.

Robert leaned back, a look of greediness on his face. “I read about that deal. One of the largest in history as I recall.”

Hope did not dare look over at Jackson. She barely dared to breathe.

Jackson spoke casually. “That is what they tell me, but history is not fully written yet, so I bet someone will get a bigger deal sometime in the future.”

Robert toyed with his water glass. His eyes sharpened. “As I understand, you had already sold a very successful…er…”

“App,” Jackson supplied.

His voice was smooth. Hope could not tell if Robert was irritating or angering Jackson just yet, and she began to sweat lightly.

“App,” Robert said. “Interesting. You should consider investing that money and soon, if you have not already.’

“I have not,” Jackson returned calmly. “I have not quite decided what I want to do with it to be honest.’

Now Robert was all animation. “You should talk to him, Clara. That girl there – she is a financial genius. Hell, if I could afford her, I would be on her client list.” He gave a self-deprecating chuckle that had a savage edge below it. “She is one of the best in the business, and I have to tell you, going with her would make sure you got a good return and made money, too.”

“Thanks,” Jackson said.

Hope found air and dragged it into her lungs. Her leg pressed against Jackson’s as she tried to communicate her regret and apologies.

The maid appeared with the starter course, a thin and clear soup laden with finely chopped herbs. Hope picked up her spoon but could not manage a single bite. Jackson was eating his though, and she took that as a good sign even if it wasn’t.

Her eyes went to his fingers. The hands that could drive her crazy in bed and create programs beyond anything she had been able to imagine. God, she loved those hands, and she was beginning to think that she loved him, but she just was not sure how he felt about her or how long that love could last if she made a breakthrough in her research.

Clara asked, “How are things at the lab?’

Hope said, “Good. Great in fact. Jackson here created a program that will make research so much easier. Well, it will free up a lot of the time of my staff and give me the ability to see the larger picture and present a more cohesive plan to the grant board.”

Robert set his spoon down on the plate below his soup bowl. A frown marred his forehead. “I cannot believe you are still clinging to that plan. I keep telling you to get out of that college research lab and into a company lab. You need the money that would give you, God knows, and it would be nice to be able to tell our friends that you’re finally meeting your potential.”

Clara said, “Dad, she’s happy there, and it sounds like she’s–”

Robert interrupted. “Happiness will not buy you a home, and let’s face it, Hope, so far you have not even made enough money to afford the things that everyone should have. You are getting older and you have got to start thinking of your future.”

“I am thinking of a lot of people’s futures.” The words were soft but firm. “I want to help people, not corporations. I don’t want to be a part in a faceless machine that cares only for its bottom line.”

Robert shook his head. “I have no idea how you came about such nonsense. It must have been inherited from your father. Your mother here had good sense.’

The words stung despite her having heard them so often.

Robert appealed to Jackson, “Do you think she should try for something far grander in scale?’

“I think she has a rather grand plan as it is,” Jackson returned in a biting tone. His leg met hers and she found a shaky breath. Jackson added, “Besides, as long as she is happy, I do not see why it matters.”

Did he mean it?

From the start of their relationship, Hope had always worried that Jackson would one day find her work to be worthless. That he would think, like her father, that she was wasting her time trying to help people instead of trying to help herself.

Robert shook his head. “Now see that is what I do not understand. Did you know that when I met Clarissa she was living in a tiny rental house and working two jobs just to make ends meet? It was a dead end, and I think we can all agree to that. Now she has everything she could ever want and need. Her first husband was a man who wanted to do what only made him happy, and look where that left you and her, Hope.”

Her face burned. Her eyes went to her mother but Clarissa, as usual, sat impervious and calm. How in the hell could she do that? The constant belittling of the life she had had before she married Robert should have enraged Clarissa, but she seemed to take it as what she owed for having been given the amazing opportunity to be a rich man’s trophy wife.

Anger simmered and roiled in Hope’s heart. She said, “My father believed very much in what he did.”

To Jackson, Robert said, “He was a musician. Go figure. Hope, I am only trying to get you to see that you have to do better for yourself. I mean…well, let’s not beat around the bush here. You should want to be as successful as the rest of your family.

“Take Clara for instance. She made nearly a million dollars this year, and she is set to make that next year, and she is the youngest person in her firm. And a woman. That is because she has applied herself most diligently.”

“Dad, Hope applies herself, too. Just in a different way, and can we not discuss my salary in company, please?” Clara’s voice was filled with the same resignation it always held at these stuffy and awful dinners.

The second course arrived – a grilled chicken breast served with steamed vegetables and new potatoes. Hope did not even bother picking up her fork.

Tears wanted to come, but she held them back thanks to years of practice. How her mother had married that ogre was beyond her. How she put up with being belittled and scoffed at every single day of her life was beyond Hope, too, but Clarissa did it. Hope had escaped as fast as possible, but every single month she came back here just to be put through this misery, and for what? Why? Why in the hell did she do this to herself, and why had she invited Jackson to come along and be a partner in the misery?

Well, that last bit was easy to answer. She had hoped his being there would make Robert back off of her. That had most certainly not happened, however.

11

WHAT THE FUCK kind of freak show had he walked into? Jackson was angrier than he had been in a very long time as the plate of chicken and vegetables met the table in front of him.

Hope’s stepdad was not just an asshole. The guy was a sadist. Jackson had been around enough bullies in his younger life – having been tormented by most of them – to know a bully when he saw one, and Robert was a bully. A well-dressed, rich bully, but a bully all the same.

And her mother! Jesus Christ!

His mom had had her problems. God knew she had had her problems, but even when she was at her worst levels of addiction, she would never have let someone talk to him like Robert was talking to Hope.

It was like Hope’s mom was willing to just sit there and take whatever she had to – and for what? So she could eat off fine china and sit at a table that would have easily seated three dozen people in a house so ugly and gaudy that it could have made the cover of Tacky House magazine?

Even his house, as big as it was, was not like that monstrosity he currently sat in. To compound matters, he remembered all too clearly that decorator that Dawson had sent out to his house saying that there were two kind of rich people: those who thought expensive meant good taste, and those who knew better. It seemed her parents fell into the former category, because all the things that decorator had declared forbidden were on full display there in that house.

He knew Robert had grown up in some small town in another state and had made his own fortune, and he could respect that, but there was no way he could respect or even like a man who was a bully, and who was willing to bully the people in his own home.

Jackson had an almost unholy urge to slug the bastard right in his nose just to shut him up.

Robert said, “Really, I am appalled, and I mean appalled, every time someone asks me how you two are doing. I have to tell them all about how well Clara is doing and how proud I am of her. Then, when they realize I have not said a word about you and ask, I have to admit that you are still living a…you know, it is like you want to be poverty stricken, and all I can think is that you are doing this just to defy me and make your mother and I look bad in the bargain.”

Jackson’s jaw worked as anger began to spread. I am definitely going to punch this asshole in his stupid fat face, he thought as he stared at Robert with real loathing.

Robert didn’t notice that look Jackson was giving him, because he just leaned back in his chair and added, “Clara here, she’s doing so well, Hope. I just do not understand why you can’t seem to understand that the job you are doing is never going to make you a success.”

Clara said, “Dad…”

Robert waved off the warning in Clara’s voice. His face was intent, and Jackson could read malice in his words and an expression and that made him madder than ever.

Robert said, “I am just stating facts here. Hope is forever defying me and my wishes with her refusal to do what she was reared, and at my great expense, to do, which is excel. It seems like a waste of the very good education that I provided for her to keep on doing what she is doing. I considered your education, both of your educations, as an investment, and I just do not see where I am getting a good return on Hope’s.”

Jackson’s eyes went back to Hope’s mother. Clarissa sat there impassive, still not speaking. If she was on anyone’s side, he could not tell whose, but he could tell this was nothing new and that Clarissa was not about to speak up in Hope’s defense either.

What bothered him the most was the unresponsive look on Hope’s face. She was used to that treatment. So used to it that she didn’t even blink.

It hurt though. He could see it in the white knuckles of her hand, in the tightening of her full and lush lips. She was hurting, and she was angry.

Who could blame her?

Robert added, “I just don’t understand why you can’t be more like your sister, Hope.”

Clara protested, “Dad, you are not being fair. Finance is not what Hope likes or cares about. She wants to help people.”

Robert glared at Clara. It was obvious he did not like being defied, not even by Clara, who was obviously his golden child. “She is helping nobody. All she is doing is wasting her education, pursuing a subject that will never get her anywhere and will help nobody.”

“How much?” Jackson’s words cut across Robert’s. The steel in his voice finally shut the hateful jerk up.

Robert blinked at him for a few seconds, then asked, “I beg your pardon?”

“How much did her education cost you? Give me a number, and I will write you a check right now. That way you can shut the fuck up about how you feel about how she uses the education you so graciously provided.” The sarcasm dripping off Jackson’s words was made worse by the very real anger running right below that sarcasm.

Clara grinned but then she quickly looked down and away to hide that smile. Clarissa went pale. Hope gawked at him. Jackson smiled at her, but he was far from a smiling mood. He was pissed off so badly he would have gladly throttled Robert at that moment. In fact, his hands were clenching and unclenching as he considered doing just that for the sheer simple satisfaction of it all.

Robert fidgeted. “Look here–”

Jackson jabbed an imperious finger toward Robert. “No you look here. One of these days, you might just end up in the hospital. You might have a disease that you need a cure for. It’s people like Hope who keep people alive.” His eyes raked over Robert in a dismissive way. “Even if they deserve to live or not. I am betting that if you were a patient and in need of the treatment that Hope is sacrificing everything for, you would find it a much better investment.

“Now, I am not willing to wish such a terrible illness on you or anyone else, so instead I am offering to write you a check for the cost of the education Hope got thanks to your generosity. You know, since you seem to think that that was less something a good parent would do because it’s their duty and more what you had to do to in order to have bragging rights to whatever successes she had. Since you can’t seem to have any happiness in her success, which is real and valid, then I’ll just pay you off so you can quit being a jackass about the whole thing.”

Robert’s mouth sagged open. It was clear he was not used to being treated that way. It was also clear that he was nursing a grudge toward Hope, simply because she was not his biological daughter.

That was messed up, and it was wrong, but he would not be the first person to like their own kid more than their step kid. But the way he treated Hope was beyond the pale, and Jackson was sick of hearing it.

Robert said, “I want her to be successful.”

“You want her to be successful as how you define it. She is successful, and you are an idiot if you cannot see that.”

Hope’s mouth hung open. Jackson reached out a finger and casually lifted her jaw. Hope stared at him, her expression torn between shock and laughter.

Robert, however, was wholly furious. He threw the napkin in his lap onto the table. “How dare you speak to me that way in my own home?”

Jackson shot back. “How dare you bully and browbeat her when I am sitting right here? In fact, how dare you bully and browbeat women whether anyone is here to see it or not? I see you, and what I see is a big, fat obnoxious jerk who can’t quit crowing about his own success and who can’t stop expecting these two women here to keep glorifying him with theirs.”

Robert slammed his hands down on the table. He was white except for the two hectic red spots on his cheeks. “I pulled these two out of the literal gutter. Without me, they would be nothing.”

Jackson retorted, “Then you do not know Hope at all. She was born with those brains, and you had nothing to do with that. Nothing. She would have made it with or without you.”

Robert, clearly unused to having his bullying met with anger, snapped, “You cannot come into my home and behave this way!”

“Because, obviously, you are the only one allowed to speak around here. If I go by your playbook, then I can do whatever I like,” Jackson said calmly. “I’m a lot richer than you and far more successful, too. It seems to me that, in this house, if you can claim those things, you can say any hurtful uncool thing you want to say and nobody ever stops you from it, so why not speak my mind?”

Clara choked a bit. Jackson was pretty sure she was trying not to laugh. Hope was just sitting there, her face turned to his. Clarissa was pale and silent, Robert was red and furious.

“Last chance,” Jackson said in a lethal tone. “Either give me a number and take my check or shut your mouth about what she does for a living and all your investment into her future.”

“I want you out of my house.”

Robert’s words came as no shock. Jackson threw his napkin on the table, pushed his chair back, and stood. He held a hand out to Hope. She looked up at him, and then she stood, taking his hand.

Jackson said, “Thank you for the dinner.”

They walked toward the door. Hope opened the closet and got their jackets. Jackson helped her put hers on, feeling the fine trembling that had set in and the tension riding her neck and slim shoulders.

They walked out, and when they got to his car, he opened the door for her. Hope slid into the sleek little sports car, and he went around to the driver’s side and got in. He cranked the engine but did not put the car in reverse.

“I’m sorry if that was out of line.”

“Oh, it was way out of line.” Hope’s head turned so that she could meet his eyes. A smile lifted her lips into a wide grin. “It was also perfect. I wanted to clobber you, not going to lie, but I really appreciate that anyway. I have never seen him so speechless. Ever.”

Jackson’s hand found the gear shift. “I am guessing speechless is not something he is, typically.”

“No.”

The shortness of the word told him everything else. He backed out of the driveway slowly, then sent the car up the street. He said, “I’m sorry.”

Hope’s sigh lifted her shoulders and dropped them again. “Me too. I had hoped that with you there he might not be such a jerk. I sort of used you, and I am sorry because I dragged you into something so awful.”

He said, “Family can suck.”

She twisted her slender fingers together. A vertical slash appeared between her clear eyes. “Mine really sucks. Oh, on paper they all work out. But…well, you know. I don’t know why he is that way; he just is.”

“He’s an ass.” Jackson hooked a finger over the turn signal as he coasted to a light. “There’s that.”

Hope rubbed her fingers along that slash mark between her drawn-down eyebrows. “Yeah, that. That, and he has never forgiven my mom for having a husband before him, or me for being someone else’s kid.”

“I read that.” He had. He said, “If it makes you feel any better, nothing that happened in there was anywhere near as awful as what might happen in my folks’ house at any given time.”

She chuckled, but it lacked humor. “Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. They’re both clean now, but when they were both on dope, anything was likely to happen. I live in terror of the day they decide to get back on something. I sometimes think they actually might be, but with them it’s hard to tell. It’s not like they are not damn good at lying about it anyway.”

Her gasp was soft, and the hand she laid down on his knee sympathetic. “Shit. I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be.” He really hoped she would not move her hand either. The feel of it, warm and alive, burned into his skin through the material of his slacks. “They’ve been clean for…um…six years, I think. Not bad, all things considered.”

“What were they on?”

“It would be a shorter list if I told you what they weren’t on.” He said the words lightly, but there was real bitterness still lodged below that. “They did whatever was easiest and cheapest to get. Crack, heroin, pills, and meth. You name it, they have smoked it, snorted it, popped it or shot it up in their veins.”

She spoke with feeling. “That had to be hard for you.”

“It was. The thing was, they were functional, unlike a lot of the parents in my neighborhood. They never lost me to social services. They never let the electricity get cut off. They never lost the house. They did it just enough to be junkies, but not enough to ever hit rock bottom. It was like being trapped above the last circle of hell, always knowing it could be so much worse, and wondering when the bottom would drop out.”

“You grew up here in the city right? You and Ashton grew up together?’

“Sort of. He was a foster kid, and there was a woman down the block who took on foster kids, her and her husband. Ashton stayed with them until he got sent off to juvie.”

Hope said, “It was that street fight you two got into that got him locked up, wasn’t it? You didn’t get arrested though?”

“I got arrested, but up until then, I had kept my nose clean. Don’t get me wrong, I was no saint; I was just smart enough not to get caught. The thing about my folks was that they were addicts who wanted everyone to think they weren’t, and so I learned how to do all the wrong things while pretending to everyone that I was doing all the right stuff. Ashton is so honest he can’t hide anything, so he got caught a lot.”

Hope leaned back into the plush leather seat and stretched her long legs a bit before saying, “I think you’re honest.”

That statement made his heart swell a little. “You do?”

“I do. You’ve never lied to me, anyway.”

He gave her face a quick look then said, “To be fair, I have never needed to.”

“Well, there is that.”

He squirmed slightly. “Okay, that was a pretty shitty thing to say.”

“I’d agree.” She took her hand off his knee, and said, “But even that was honest.”

On a whim, he took a left at the light. She asked, “Where are we going?”

“To my hood. My folks aren’t there anymore. When I made some decent money I moved them out. It’s pretty rough.”

She asked, “So why are we going?’

“Because there is something I want to show you.”

“Okay.” She didn’t ask what it was, and he was grateful for that. The roads were barely filled with cars that time of night, and so the drive went by a lot faster than it might have.

The old streets looked twice as gritty and rundown as they once had. The houses sagged, their chain link fences slumping toward the ground. The lots between, where houses were lost to foreclosure and neglect had stood, had all gone to weed and seed. The broken bottles and piles of cigarette butts on the curbs said the rest of the story.

Jackson asked, “Where did you live before your mom married the supreme douche?’

Hope said, “I don’t know. They pretty much erased every trace of her life before him. Talking about it was forbidden. All I ever knew was…well, what he just said. It seems he is allowed to say those things, but she was never allowed to talk about my dad. I know his name, of course, and I did a search on him a few years back. He was a guitar player in a blues band and an orphan, too. He was raised in foster care, and so there was nobody else to ask or talk to who might have known him.”

“The guys in his band?”

“They all used these weird stage names. It was part of their gimmick, I guess. If they are still around, I can’t find them.”

“I’m sorry. Nobody deserves that.”

“No.”

He said, “I get it now. Why you don’t want to be with a guy who only cares about money. I didn’t before. I thought it had something to do with you being raised with money, and so it not being important to you, but being raised in a house where it is used as a weapon and a yardstick of someone’s worth must have really turned you off on the idea of it.”

She blinked a few times. “You just put into words everything I never could. That was exactly how it was and still is. I was sitting there, wondering why I still go to those dinners every month when I know what they are going to be like, and part of me knows it is because I do love my mom. I mean, she’s my mom. But the other part of me knows that whatever she feels about me, she sold it off a long time ago. She sold my happiness off for those hideous marble floors and that housekeeper.”

“I have marble floors.”

She groaned, “No way.”

“Totally. But in my defense, I would not know marble floors from a hole in the ground. Also, I am pretty sure I am supposed to do something to keep them clean, but so far I haven’t done much more than buy a broom.”

Hope’s laughter filled the car. Jackson’s joined it as the car slid to a halt in front of a small house with dark windows and a bowed roof.

He said, “That is where I grew up.”

Hope peered past him. “It’s…”

“It was clean and warm, if not safe.” He looked at her. “I brought you here because I wanted to talk about my folks. I told you part of it, but not all of it.”

Her hand clasped his. “Go ahead.”

“Living with people who function despite addiction made me have to learn how to take care of myself real fast and early. I mean, they would be up all night, and then they would pop some magic pill that would get them through the day. Then, they would come home and do something else. They would take a pill to sleep and powder to wake up. They went to work every day, and there was always food in the house, but when people are tweaking – that means when they are high on some kind of amphetamine – they lose track of time.

“They might not eat for a few days. The drugs, you know. They did not feed me either because…well, you know. They were busy getting high. But there was food. I learned how to get it for myself. I learned how to take clothes tumbling in the dryer for the third day in a row out and fold it and put it away. I learned not to believe that anyone was ever going to do anything for me.”

“Jackson, I am so sorry.”

“It’s okay. I was not telling you that so you would be sorry. I have a point here. They were never affectionate, not unless they were sure the Earth was ending, and that happened a lot. You should have been around when the year 2000 hit. Or when they thought a major disaster that was going to kill off the Earth was headed our way.

“I learned that the only way people would love you was if they were afraid they were about to lose you. I was an asshole in every relationship I ever tried to have, because I wanted…well, I didn’t know how to have anything without some kind of crisis looming over us. That kind of drama sucks, and so nothing ever worked out.”

“Jackson, am I…I need to ask you something.”

He heard the trembling in her voice. “I’m not going anywhere.”

She laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Jackson, do you know that I love – really love – what I do and that there might be a day when I actually do not have time to spend with you. If this goes to the clinical trial stage I hope for, then I will be working sixteen hour days and more. I don’t want you to feel like you have to be there, and I do not want to feel like we might lose each other because of what matters so much to me, but it is a real possibility, and this is probably the worst possible time to bring that up given what you just said, but there it is.”

Jackson felt his heart give off a powerful ache. He had always known those things, and he worried that one day she would not have that time for him. He said, “That is the whole reason I brought it up.”

“It is?”

“Yes. I do not want to lose you. I also do not ever want to be a guy who does not support you the whole way. More than anything else, I want to be the guy who is there for you. I want to be the guy who stands by you.”

“But there is more to it than that. You see, writing that program, knowing I was doing something that would impact someone’s life in such a major way made me feel good about myself in a way that nothing else ever has or could. I do not want to lose that feeling.”

She asked, “What are you saying?”

“I am saying that if the board refuses to give you the money, I will donate it from my own pocket. Not a loan, not an investment, but a donation earmarked solely for your research for the year.”

“You’re insane!” Her cry echoed around the car. “It’s a five-million dollar a year thing, Jackson! You’d be basically throwing it away.”

He took her chin in his hand and stared into her eyes. “Do you believe in your research? Do you honestly believe that you can do what you think you can do?”

“Yes.” Her voice was breathless, and tears stood up in her eyes. “I do. All the way down to my heart and soul I believe it, but it is one thing to use money raised for the purpose of research and entirely another to take your money and use it.”

“How so?”

“I cannot guarantee you a return of it. In fact, I can guarantee you will never see it again, and I know exactly how hard you worked for that money.”

“I can promise you that the only return that I need is to know I did something that mattered to someone, somewhere, even if it is just you.”

“No.”

What the hell? He was trying to give her what she really wanted and needed. He was trying to be supportive and let her know he would stand with her. So why was she being so stubborn?

Hope said, “Jackson, if you don’t mind, I’d like to just go home now.”

He put the car in drive without another word.

12

CLARA ASKED, “Are you insane or just…insane?”

Hope dunked fries in ketchup, and said, “Both.”

Clara shook her head. “You broke up with him? For real? After what he did to Dad, I would have thought you would rush him to the altar.”

Hope actually managed to laugh at that. “I know, right? It was pretty spectacular. By the way, I am banned from all future dinners.”

Clara shrugged. “I wouldn’t care if I were you. Also, I am going to have to refuse to go on principle now that you have been banned.”

“Oh, so you are using me to get out of going.’

“You better believe it.” Clara did not even look ashamed when she said that. “For real, Hope, how could you break up with him for offering to do something so amazing?”

“Because I don’t want…I want to do this on my own.” She dusted her hands off and stared down at the remains of a double bacon cheeseburger and the dwindling pile of fries. “I don’t want him to give me the money just because he is with me.”

“You do know he probably offered it so you would know he supports you?”

“Or maybe he offered it so he could feel good about himself.” Hope picked up the burger and took a hearty bite, but the juicy and delicious thing might just as well have been made of sawdust for all the pleasure she got out of eating it.

“Does it matter, really?” Clara rolled her eyes. “Listen, I think you’re being crazy. You got turned down by the board, your research is on hold, and you are in a damn big danger of not even having a place to live without funding. Plus, he is a great guy. Do you know what I would give to have a guy that would not only stand up for me but stand beside me and do whatever he had to make sure I had the career I want and need in my life? Man, I would just about sell my soul for that, and you had it, and what do you do? You break up with the guy!”

Hope flinched. “When you put it that way it does sound irrational.”

Clara sipped at her mineral water. “Because it is.”

Just then, a guy strolled up to their table and said, “Well hello, Clara.”

Clara’s face took on a taut look and a false smile. “Hello.”

Hope looked from one to the other. He grinned broadly. Clara kept smiling that patently false smile.

Clara said, “Can I help you, Stephen?”

He chuckled. “I just saw you sitting here and thought I’d say hello on my way out.” His eyes held Clara’s, and Hope sensed the currents flowing between them. Intrigued now, she watched them stare each other down with real interest.

Clara broke that stare, and said, “Have a good day then.”

He chuckled and walked off. Hope leaned across the table. “What was that all about?”

“That? Nothing.”

Hope leaned back, her eyes narrowing. “Uh huh.”

“He’s a trust fund baby who happened to make his own fortune on top of the fortune his family set aside for him. He’s an arrogant rotten jerk, and I hate him.”

Clara’s words made Hope grin. “I see.”

Clara gave her an exasperated glance. “So, back to you.”

“Oh no, this is way more fun. Have you ever gone out with him?”

Clara asked, “Stephen? Hell no.”

“Why not”

“I just told you why. And we were not talking about me and we are not either. So there.”

Hope’s laugh was genuine then. “Oh, I see. You can give me advice but I can’t give you advice?’

“There’s a difference. I know the guy you are dating, and I am not dating Stephen, and you do not know him. Nor do you want to. I promise. He takes smug and condescending to whole new levels.”

Hope wanted to keep that conversation going, but since this was whole new ground for her and Clara, she decided to drop it. She said, “You know, I’m sorry we weren’t better friends when we were younger. I mean, we never really got to talk like this or share stuff and all that.”

Clara said, “That is because they pitted us against each other. We were bred to compete, Hope. Being friends would have undermined everything.”

“But you still stuck up for me that night. Hell you have always stuck up for me.”

Clara said, “How could I not? It sucked to be me, and I knew it sucked to be you, too.”

“I didn’t stick up for you.” Hope’s spirits flattened. “I am so selfish, Clara. I never tried to stick up for you, because I figured you got a hell of a lot better treatment than I did, but it was not all that better, was it? They held up everything I did like a carrot in front of a mule, and they always expected you to do better than what I had done before you.”

“The difference is that I thrived on it. I have a lot of Dad in me. Oh, come on. Don’t look at me like that. I don’t do anything for him or so he can brag. I do what I do because I love it. I love my job, and I love the pressure and the craziness and all of it. Just like you love what you do. And the difference between us there is that I would do anything to stay in the game I am in, while you seem intent on shooting yourself in the foot.”

Hope thought about that last statement for a long time after she and Clara parted ways that afternoon. She sat in her apartment, trying to think. The board had come back with a resounding no to her budget and to giving her more money, and she had let Jackson’s texts and calls go unanswered for a whole week.

He had not called or texted for the last two days. That silence of his spoke volumes. He had given up on her, and how could she blame him?

Tears swept down her cheeks.

She had had such a good thing, and she had screwed it all up by never being the one to put effort into that relationship and by saying no to him when he had tried to give her the money she would need for another year’s worth of research.

She had to try to fix this thing.

She had to, and not because of the money. Because she needed him. She needed a man that wanted her and would be with her. Jackson was that guy.

Only she needed to do something besides call him. She grabbed her phone and called Laura to ask a favor.

Laura answered on the first ring with a breezy, “Hey girl, what’s up?”

“Not much. I…” She paused. “Laura, how did you know Ashton had given up being the guy who made a one night stand dating app?”

“Can I ask why you are asking?”

Hope said, “Well, you know, I have been seeing Jackson, and I know he is a great guy, but I made a shitty mistake and now…damn I am so messed up.”

“Do you need me to come over there?’

Hope dried her eyes. “No,” she said tearfully. “What I need is his address.”

Laura said, “I like it. Wear something he can take off easy, too.”

“Laura!”

Laura laughed and gave her the address.

13

JACKSON WAS DESPONDENT and out of sorts. His answer to that was to work. Something Hope had said had stuck with him. She had needed the program he had already created to sift through data, but if she had that road map she had been speaking about – a way to tap into the brain cells of people who were in a coma – how much of it would she be able to create?

He had called up a friend who worked with serious VR and a few other friends and had asked a few pointed questions. He knew zero about medical science, but he did know video games and all the things that went along with him.

He drew up plans even though he had no idea of whether or not it was even possible.

He was working when the doorbell rang. He lifted his head with a frown. His house was in a gated community, but there was a key code at the gate. Only a guard and very few people he knew would have had the code.

It had to be Ashton. He went to the door and opened it, but it was not Ashton standing there.

It was Hope.

She stood there, tears streaming down her face. She was pale and her features had a miserable cast to them. She said, “I’m sorry. For all of it. I was a big jerk because I was afraid. You see, all my life I had to compete against, well, everyone. I was taught to do it alone.

“But that was not all of it. I was scared that if I took the donation then I would have to worry that one day…I don’t want to be my mom.”

The confession cracked the armor that had risen at the sight of her on his doorstep. He reached out and drew her into the house, closing the door behind her gently. “Hey, come on now. You are never going to be like your mom. You’re way too feisty.”

She snorted and wiped her eyes. She said, “I know how stupid this sounds.”

“It doesn’t sound stupid. The thing I fear the most is turning into a junkie. I don’t even take aspirin. Once, I broke my foot, and I was so scared to take a pain pill that Ashton finally gave up and poured whiskey down my throat so I would stop with all the whining and crying.”

She came into his embrace, and he closed his eyes. He put his arms around her and pulled her in tight. She felt so right in his arms that he did not know how to even say all the things he felt and needed to say to her.

Hope sniffled and said, “I just couldn’t figure out what you wanted when you offered that money. I was scared and I was afraid that I would end up like her – dependent and afraid to do what I wanted to do. She has never once even tried to speak up even for herself, and he is outright vicious to her so much of the time. It’s the money, you see. It is. As shitty as that is, it is the money that keeps her there, and I did not want that between us.”

“Hope, your mother didn’t trade money for other people. Is that what you are thinking? That she traded her life for you to have a life of comfort?’

She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

She really did not know, and that pissed him off to no end, but not at her. What kind of mother sold herself the way her mother had and then let her daughter feel guilty for the bad bargain her entire life?

Hope’s mother.

He sighed. “I’m sorry you don’t know. I wish you did. I used to watch my folks getting high and wonder why they could not love me enough to stop. To just stop getting high and all the rest of it, but they just never could seem to love me enough to do so.

“Then one day, I figured it out. It was not that they did not love me enough to stop, it was that they did not love themselves enough to stop.”

She leaned backward so she could see his face. “You’re saying that she doesn’t love herself enough to walk out on him.”

“Yes.”

She digested that for a moment. “I can see that.”

She brushed her hair out of her face. “Can you believe that I am sorry and that I did not mean to hurt you?”

He could. “Hell yes.” He took a deep breath. “Can I show you something?”

“Sure.” She backed out of his arms and looked around at the house. “Your house is nice. I thought it would be bigger or something.”

“It’s too big.” His voice was husky. “I know it’s only about a third of the size of your folks’ house, but even so, it feels enormous. It’s also pretty empty because it seems I suck at putting together furniture.”

Amusement showed on her face. “Come again?”

“You heard me.” He took her hand and led her through the house to the den. “I know it might look like a jumbled mess, but maybe you will get the gist of what I am trying to do anyway.’

He took her to his desk, and she leaned over the papers and the drafts there with a frown, saying, “I don’t know anything at all about video games, I am afraid.”

“It’s not a video game.”

She looked up. They stood on opposite sides of the desk, and her eyes held confusion. “It’s not?’

He shook his head. “No, but I am thinking that using VR – virtual reality – would actually be a major bonus.”

“What are you talking about?”

“VR? It’s…”

“No, I know what that means. I mean, what is all this?”

His heart leaped, and his confidence began to tumble. He really didn’t have a single notion about the medical stuff, but he did know about creating, so he said, “I was thinking that…well I was thinking that if you had a test subject, a human or whatever, and you could upload the images that they saw in their brain, then you could figure out more of a map, so to speak.”

Her eyes went wide. She looked back down. “You…you’re serious?”

“Yes.” Uh oh. Was he totally wrong about it being possible? “I mean, it’s just a thought.”

“Dear God, imagine the possibilities if it worked! If we could see what they see, if we could…” Her head came up, and she gaped at him, her eyes round and glowing with excitement. “Jackson! You….this is incredible!”

She came around the desk and threw herself into his arms, and then she sobered. “It would be too costly to create. There’d be a need for prototypes and…”

“And there would be other applications I could sell off using part of the same tech which would probably finance the whole thing.”

“That’s incredible.” She laughed. “How did you think of this?”

“I was thinking about all the things you ever said about being able to help a patient in a coma getting back again.”

She licked her lips. “I think we would have to try it on people who are not in comas, like get some real data so we can have a control.”

He said, “Okay. That sounds fine.’

“Cool.” Hope laughed and clapped her hands to her mouth, then dropped them again. “I just said cool. Did you hear that? I literally have nothing else to say to that. It’s…holy shit. You are a genius!”

Jackson dusted off his sleeve. “Why, thank you.”

She slumped suddenly. “It doesn’t matter though. I have to shut down my lab. The board denied me my grant.”

He said, “Then I guess it is a good thing I am still willing to donate that five million, isn’t it?”

14

HOPE’S MOUTH FELL OPEN. “You are?”

Was he kidding? She wanted to believe that he was, but it was so much money.

“Are you kidding? This might be the coolest thing I ever came up with, and if the lab closes who te hell is going to want it?”

His words made her laugh. Then she said, “Like, a lot of big companies that want to work on brain injuries.”

“Do you think it would work on all kinds of brain injuries?”

“It might.” She tugged at her lip. “Jackson, are we a couple? I mean, I need to know how you feel about me. Not because whether or not I take the money depends on it, but because when I cut you out of my life, it really hurt, and part of the reason that I did it was because I was afraid that if I succeeded at this – if I wound up making a breakthrough – that you would lose patience with me and go on with your life.”

Her heart stood still as she said the words. This was it. She was asking him to tell her how he felt, and she knew most men would not be willing to open up that way. She knew Jackson was not most men either, but that might be a breaking point for even him.

He asked, “Do you think I will lose patience if you succeed?’

“Yes?”

“I see. Has it occurred to you yet that I have thought about that? That I am working on this thing there on the desk because it would give us something that is ours – together? That we would be working together?”

No. She had not considered that. “Is that why? Because you want to be a part of this. I mean, you want to be a couple and part of what I do, too?”

Her heart felt like it was about to explode. If that was what he was saying, then he was more than the man she had thought he was. He was even more of a man than she had ever imagined.

“I want nothing more than to give you that money, and not just to make you happy. To make me happy. I want to help someone. I feel like I have to. And not just that, I feel like I owe it to give something back. But mostly, I want to be a person who is not selfish and greedy and just out for himself and, above all, I want to be a part of this thing.

“I want to work with you to make what your dream come true. I know what it feels like to have your dream come true, and despite what I might have said about that in the past, it is a great feeling. The reason it was not so great for me is because I could not see what it was that I gave to the world. Well, I could, but I could not see what you can see for the work you are doing when it succeeds. I want to be a part of that, and I want to be with you when it happens.”

Her lips trembled. “You said ‘when.’”

His smile was sunny. “I believe in you. I know you can do this. I know it might take you decades. It might take your entire life. But god damn it, you will do it. I know you will.”

Hope stared at Jackson, tears welling up in her eyes. “You’re serious.”

He nodded. “I am.”

Nobody had ever believed in her that way before. Her parents had laid expectations upon her, sure, and there had been no room for failure. But they had never believed in her ability to do what they pressed her to do. They simply expected her to figure out a way to get it done, because it was their expectation that she would. But belief? The absolute and total belief that she could accomplish things the way Jackson believed she could?

Hell no.

“Thank you,” she whispered. Tears started again, but she held them back.

Jackson said, “You know what? I love you, Hope. I love you, and I know this is important to you, and why. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted, and everything that I need in my life.” The honesty in his voice told her everything else. He continued, “I’m just putting it all on the line here. I love you, and I want you, and I am willing to do whatever it takes to make you happy.”

She swallowed down the salty lump in her throat. “I just want you to be happy, too, Jackson. I do. I want that more than anything but I can’t…I can’t make you change. I don’t want you to change. I want you just the way that you are.”

“I don’t want to change either.”

“But I feel like you are and that you are doing it for me.”

“No, I’m doing it for myself and because you showed me how good it would feel to be less about me and more about the world. I want to be this person. I am this person. I just didn’t show it often enough.”

She whispered, “I’m never going to be rich or successful in the way you measure those things.”

He put his hands on her shoulders and leaned close, looking into her eyes. “I don’t care about that, Hope. I want you to be happy in what you do. I want you to love your work and to be passionate about it. I’m not your father, and I don’t measure someone’s worth in how many dollars are in their bank account.”

Drowning in his eyes, trying to believe he meant it, trying hard to trust him, she whispered, “Well, if you did, I would be worth about twenty-seven dollars.” Her heart pounded furiously. “I’m just trying to be really honest with you here, Jackson. I want you, too. I love you, too, but you do know people are going to say I’m just a gold digger or that we are just together because you funded my research.”

His eyes stayed on hers. His fingers pressed down on her shoulders just a little as he spoke with real force. “Does anyone say that about Lexie? Hell no, not where Dawson can hear it. He’d wipe the floor with them, and I would do the same to any idiot who chose to say such a stupid thing.”

He would, too. She knew he would. He was right. He was nothing like her greedy and materialistic stepfather or any of the people she had known most of her younger life. He did care about things, and he cared a great deal about them as well.

He added, “But, if it makes it easier and better, then I will put it as an anonymous thing. That way, nobody will ever know.”

“Thank you.” It was the only thing she knew to say. She leaned into him and lifted her face to his. “Thank you so much. Yes. To all of it. To the donation and to you. To us.”

He said, “Now that is what I was hoping to hear.”

His lips came down on hers, claiming her. Their bodies pressed together. His hands slid down her shoulders and along her back, his fingers pressing and sliding along the knobs of her spine.

Desire hit, swarming over her nerve endings and making her legs go liquid. Her body trembled a little as their lips met again, and his tongue wandered into her mouth, teasing hers until she kissed him back with so much passion that they were both left gasping and panting.

His fingers found the round slopes of her ass, and he lifted them. His fingers squeezed those cheeks, kneading them, and he broke off the kiss for a moment to growl out, “I have a bed, at least.”

“Then we better get there, or we are going to be on this floor,” she panted back.

He took her hand and raced her down the hallway to a sparsely finished bedroom. Hope did not have time to look around, and she did not care to either. She saw the giant bed and that was the only thing she needed to see. They headed for it, their hands all over each other.

Their mouths met again as her fingers fumbled at his buttons, baring his magnificent body to view.

Her hands were all over him, touching the texture of his skin, and then she was naked, too.

Their skin met, and his mouth trailed down her neck and then went to her breasts, his lips tugging at her nipples and his teeth closing around them as they went pebble hard and rough below the urgent touch of his mouth. His hands moved down her belly, and then they were on the bed, her legs spreading for him as he found the slick wetness between her thighs.

His fingers slid inside her tight inner folds, and her legs parted further for him. His mouth moved lower while his fingers thrust in and out of her body, creating a furious rhythm. His tongue slid across her outer lips and she whimpered, her hands going to his hair and tangling in it as he found her clit and began to massage it roughly back and forth.

Her ass lifted off the bed, and she groaned as sensation shot through her body, making wetness spill from her. Her toes curled, and her nails scratched along his scalp. Her thighs shivered as he matched his fingers and tongue in speed and intensity, and more sensation uncoiled inside her body until she cried out, her heels digging into the mattress as she sought to get even closer to the source of the pleasure rocketing through her body.

The orgasm struck, making her core clench and fluids gush out of her body to spill across his chin and mouth in a slick and heated pool.

Jackson came up, his eyes darkened by desire. He entered her quickly, not even giving her time to catch her breath and while she was still riding the aftershocks of the climax.

Those aftershocks turned into yet another orgasm as his hot and thick member drove into her tight flesh, opening it and making more oils gather on her inner folds to ease his passage deeper and deeper still with each powerful thrust of his hips and firm ass.

“Oh, God!” her voice shook as hard as her body as she gave in and wrapped her legs around his narrow waist, her heels banging against his back as she canted her hips into a higher angle so that he could get an even more immediate plane of penetration.

He found that angle, and the pleasure that hit made her eyes roll back in her head. His mouth came down on hers, muffling her loud cries as her walls opened and closed, spilling fluids and milking his hard flesh as she fluttered and shook and cried out for more and more, yet again.

Jackson went rigid. His hands gripped her shoulders, pinning her upper body into place as he shuddered. He drove in and out of her with fast and frantic pumps of his body. Then, he let out a long howl, and she slumped against the bed, her fingers tangling into the sheets.

Jackson collapsed on top of her. His breath washed over her shoulder, and he grunted out something unintelligible in her ear.

They lay there, tangled together and still joined. The afterglow was long and sweet, and when he finally moved away, he left a thin dribble of fluid from his flaccid penis along her upper thighs.

He pulled her close, and she nestled into his side. She sighed softly, and she asked, “Are you sure about this?”

“Which part?”

“Working with me.”

Jackson gave her a wicked smile. “I am hoping it comes with perks.”

“Oh, you.” She gave him a little slap on the arm and laughed. “I am sure it will, but not in the lab because, you know, conditions.’

He roared with laughter. “Okay, so we might have to build a room for unclean conditions.”

Their laughter drifted toward the ceiling. Jackson ran a hand across her hair in a long, soothing gesture. He said, “For real, I want this. I want to do the work with you. I know by this time next year you will have made enough strides to get a new grant, and by then I will probably have gotten solid ground under the idea that I have in there. I don’t want to sell it off to rich pharmaceutical companies any more than you do, so that will never happen, and the good news is I am already rich, so they can’t tempt me like that, and you do not care about money.”

“Jackson, the good news is that if you donate the money, the university only gets to keep part of the revenue. You would get the bigger portion. It is how investing works, you know.”

He looked surprised. “Okay then. I don’t care about that though.”

“I know.” She did know, and it was why she loved him. “I have to ask: why was Robert so impressed by the sale of your video game?’

He laughed. “You really don’t know?’

“No.”

“Because I sold it for close to a billion dollars.’

A billion…with a B? Her brain froze. She choked. She could not even find air to breathe. He added, “Oh, and it had four games already operational that went with the sale, so there was that.”

“Oh…um…uh…well then.”

Jackson laughed loudly. “You see now why I don’t mind putting five mil into this?”

“Yes, but…” Her lips were numb. “But you don’t act like a guy with that kind of money.”

He gave her a broad smile. “And I never will.”

“Thank God,” she said.

Their mouths met again. Hope let go, surrendering to the man who believed in her and who made her believe in herself.

EPILOGUE

CLARA SAID, “Thanks again for getting Jackson to sign on with me as a client.”

“Oh, I did not get him to do anything. He was yelled at by Dawson until he gave in and decided to do something besides have a pile of money sitting in the bank where he could lose it due to all sorts of things.”

Clara chuckled. “I will take it however I got it.” Her face darkened as she surveyed Dawson’s apartment and the men inside it. “Oh, shit. Please tell me that is not Stephen coming in the door.”

Hope asked, “The guy you hate so much?”

“The very same. Oh, no! he’s coming over here!” Clara tried to duck behind her, but Hope said, “Oh no, you don’t,” and shoved her back in front of her and right into the path of Stephen.

Stephen caught Clara just as she stumbled. Hope grinned and ducked away before Clara could shoot her a look that could kill her.

Jackson asked, “What are you laughing at?”

“I was just thinking that not so long ago I was right in the same place I am now, and I was thinking you were an arrogant jerk that I absolutely did not want to talk to and how things change.” Her eyes went to Clara and Stephen. “And how they don’t.”

“So you still don’t want to talk to me?” There was a teasing note in Jackson’s voice as he pulled her close and held her tightly.

“I will never stop talking to you. Oh look, there’s Ashton and Laura!”

They headed toward the arriving couple just as Lexie and Dawson stepped toward them. As they went, Hope found herself being nothing but grateful for a night she had taken a chance and talked to man she had been sure was the last guy she would ever want to talk to, and wondering just what would happen if Clara would let her guard down long enough to talk to Stephen who so clearly wanted her.