Chapter 3
Chapter Three
LEO
“Oh god, oh god,” she was panting beautifully, heavily, while laying prone on the hotel bed on the brink of orgasm, “Please, please, I need—"
Like I’d ever stop after I started to feel her inner walls clench erratically around me, seconds from reaching that bliss.
“You’re taking me so well, Jacqueline,” I encouraged, watching her jaw drop and eyes squeeze close. I rewarded her by swiping my thumb over the hardened tip of her breast, “Come for me, love. You’ve earned it.”
* * *
The group of people gathering at the center of the pitch looked promising. Zaid Ansara and I dropped our bags next to his girlfriend on the grass, who had plopped herself down on a picnic blanket, and pulled out a laptop covered in a variety of stickers.
Why anyone would ruin the sleek, clean look of a laptop with stickers that would fade and peel over time, was mind-boggling.
“Were you on a team back in London?” Zaid asked, removing his glasses before drinking his water bottle.
“Off and on,” I shrugged, lifting my back leg to stretch a bit before we joined the others, “I was more competitive in university, but now I mostly play on occasion to stay in shape.” I glanced over at Zaid as he bent down to kiss Signe on the lips once in farewell before he stood taller and walked with me to meet the team, “Were you on a team?”
“No,” Zaid lifted a shoulder, “I only ever played recreationally.”
“Could have fooled me,” I glanced down at his biceps, to his muscular form, “Are those hot girl muscles, then?”
Zaid chuckled, not offended by my banter, “I like exercising, it helps calm my brain.”
“I get that.” I held my fist up, and he knocked his knuckles against mine right when a whistle sounded. None of us were in any sort of uniform, just a variety of men in athletic wear. Mostly shorts. There were a lot of toned, male thighs to be seen. I smirked to myself, thinking about how Mary would gag at the sight.
Damn, I did need to make more friends .
Thankfully, Zaid seemed to be cool with us both conveniently signing up for the same rec league. I was a little worried that things would be weird between us when I came in to fill the position he used to have, but then I learned very quickly that I was doing him a favor by accepting the position of Chief Technology Officer.
Because he hated it.
Zaid and Signe welcomed me to the company with open arms, which helped make the transition a little easier considering I’d be spending forty to sixty hours a week there.
“Listen up everyone,” I glanced around to find the owner of the whistle that called everyone’s attention, Zaid and I stood near the back of the crowd since we seemed to be the last ones to arrive, “Welcome, and thank you for signing up. I am your captain, and this is the Laguna Rec Rugby League. If you meant to sign up for pickleball or soccer or anything else, speak now or accept your fate.” I stepped to the side, finally finding the owner of the voice.
A lean, smaller-framed person was standing in front of everyone. They had short brown hair that was pulled back with a thin headband to keep the longer locks on top out of their face, a face that had sharp cheekbones, and a defined jaw. Their septum ring glistened in the sunlight as they turned their head. When their dark blue eyes scanned the crowd of men in front of them, I squinted mine to see if I could make out the shapes that were shaved into the back of his or her head.
“Um,” someone raised his hand near the front, “I thought this was the men’s league.”
The team captain turned their head and made direct, unblinking eye contact with the blonde who voiced their statement.
“I’m sorry,” the team captain shook his or her head, “Did you have a question, or…”
I smirked, and Zaid coughed a bit to hide his laugh.
“Are we going to be playing with women, too?” The blonde waved his hand to vaguely gesture at the captain. I tilted my head at the person, since they were in charge of this gathering. Though they were smaller in comparison to some of the men here, I definitely wouldn’t mistake them for weak. I could see the toned arms and rounded shoulders because of the cutoff t-shirt they were wearing, and the way they held themselves made me think they were an athlete.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” they placed a hand on their relatively flat chest before pointing to the blonde and addressing the rest of the team, “Does anyone here identify as a woman? I’ll be writing everyone’s preferred pronouns next to their name.” They held a clipboard with a list on it in the air, before someone standing directly in front of me started shaking his head, “For example, at the top here you’ll find my name, Taylor Desmond. My pronouns are they/them.” The man in front of me threw his hands up in the air at the same time most of the other men in the group nodded their heads in understanding.
“I don’t care if you identify as a couch, or an orange, or them —I don’t want to practice against someone biologically weaker than me and get yelled at when I inevitably hurt them.”
Taylor frowned, but before they had to defend themself again, I stepped forward and slapped a hand down on the bigoted man’s shoulder, making him jump as I spoke loud enough for my voice to project over the team.
“Oi,” I squeezed his shoulder, the message clear in my grip as he squirmed and turned his head to look up at me with concerned eyes. I was easily one of the tallest people here standing at six five, “Nobody is forcing you to be here, mate. If our captain is a problem for you, I suggest you find something else more misogynistic to fill your afternoons.”
He turned around after my advice, facing the rest of the team. There were probably about fifteen players, and all of them had a variety of disapproving expressions as they studied the man under my grip.
After a moment, he shook me off of him, “I haven’t played with someone like you before,” he nodded to Taylor, who stood tall and still, “I don’t want to fuck something up or do something wrong.”
“Do you feel threatened playing a recreational sport with me?” Taylor asked, lifting their chin.
“N-no.” he shook his head. Again.
“Are you genuinely worried about hurting me, or are you worried you won’t be able to toss around any slurs or problematic jokes with your boys in my presence?” Taylor added, making me raise my eyebrows.
“I’m not a homophobe,” he shook his head again and crossed his arms against his chest, “I’ve just only ever played rugby with other men.”
“Then welcome to your first day on a gender-inclusive recreational rugby team,” Taylor smiled, but I could see the tension in their dark blue eyes from here, “Rest assured, I can take a hit. If I couldn’t, I wouldn’t fucking be here forming a fucking rugby team, my guy.”
I grinned, falling a little bit in love with Taylor. Their eyes landed on my smile, and I saw their lips twitch with humor before they finished off strong, “Does anyone else have any concerns about my body or my pronouns?” The team was silent, Zaid and I exchanged a look with smirks and raised eyebrows, “No? Then let’s run a couple of laps to warm up.” They tossed their clipboard to the side and took off running, right past the group of players. The rest of the team slowly followed suit, but Zaid and I stayed and watched the man standing before us, who let his eyes trail after everyone else.
Then his dark eyes met mine again, waiting for something from me.
I nodded my head once at him and said, “Cheers!” before I clapped him on the shoulder and followed after Zaid.
“Damn,” Zaid shook his head as he jogged next to me, the both of us taking up the back of the group. The player with the bigoted questions raced past us to join the men he came with, “Every time I think we’ve made enough progress as a society, I’m reminded that we still haven’t.”
“It’s shit,” I agreed, glancing up at Taylor as they stopped their jog to encourage everyone else to run faster. As soon as we passed them, I winked and grinned.
They rolled their eyes.
“Knees to chest, pretty boy,” Taylor scolded, jogging with us again.
I turned around to face them and continued to jog backward, lifting my knees accordingly before placing a hand on my chest, “I prefer handsome, or rugged.”
“Noted,” Taylor’s lips twitched into a grin, and after a moment they added, “…My friends call me T.”
“I’m Leo,” I pointed to myself, then threw a thumb over my shoulder, “This is Zaid.”
Zaid slowed his jog so he could hold out a hand for Taylor to shake, “Nice to meet you.”
“You too.” Taylor glanced between us before cheering from the sidelines sounded. We all turned to see Signe, still sitting on her picnic blanket with her laptop in her lap, hands cupped around her mouth.
“Hot damn, look at that ass!” Signe shouted, fanning herself and dangling her tongue out of her mouth dramatically as soon as we passed by her.
Zaid laughed and shook his head at the ground.
“Your partner?” Taylor asked Zaid.
He nodded, scratching his beard and keeping up the conversation mid-jog without sounding winded, “As long as she’ll have me.”
I smiled at him, trying to ignore a small ache forming in my chest. It was odd, because I had no intention to settle down any time soon. I wasn’t even dating anyone. The last time I was with a person was right before I moved to this country, and even then, I wasn’t as into it as I had hoped to be.
Brown, scowling eyes behind gold thin-rimmed glasses filled my mind, and I shook my head once to get Jacqueline Williams out of it.
“One more!” Taylor called out, “Then we practice for our first game on Friday!”
Cheers echoed throughout the team, and I turned back around to try to focus on the workout. On the team, there were new friendships I hoped to gain. I wanted to think about almost anything else besides the small brunette who only looked at me with irritation and disdain.
* * *
The following morning, I flicked the kickstand open with my boot, parking my bike. I rolled my head on my shoulders, letting out a pained groan because my body was so stiff.
Taylor Desmond really pushed us yesterday. For a rec team, they took exercise seriously. I didn’t realize how out of shape I was until then. Thank god training was only twice a week.
I turned off my bike and grabbed my work bag before wincing off of the vehicle, standing tall and stretching my back and shoulders out.
“You, too?” I heard Signe ask from my side, and I turned to see her and Jacqueline walking toward the office building. Jacqueline gave us both a polite nod before continuing onward, but Signe approached me to walk into the building together.
“Is Zaid sore?” I asked.
Signe nodded, her bottom lip jutting out a little as she replied, “He had to take some ibuprofen this morning. He is feeling very humbled.”
“He and I both,” I grunted in agreement, hearing the doors open ahead. I resisted the urge to lift an eyebrow at the sight of Jacqueline propping one open with her foot for us.
“Thanks,” Signe smiled as I gestured for her to step through first. I turned to Jacqueline and reached above her head to hold the door open, so she could follow after Signe.
“After you,” I offered with a tilt of my head.
I glanced down at Jacqueline, which is how I saw that she blushed. It made me do a double-take.
It wasn’t a subtle double-take either. I looked like a cartoon, getting ready to keep up my small talk with Signe when my head jerked back at our Human Resources representative, to double-check that her cheeks truly were filling with a warm color. Her gaze was on my arm that hovered near her head as I held the door.
Jacqueline blinked once, then frowned and turned away from me to march forward.
I was left with a subtle whiff of her perfume, something floral and mouthwatering.
After I followed the women inside, hearing Signe press the call button for the lift, I glanced over my shoulder as I wondered what made Jacqueline’s cheeks turn that flattering shade.
Was it the leather jacket I wore? Was it my proximity?
Was it not related to me at all?
I stood behind the two women, the conversation lost on me as Signe chatted animatedly and Jacqueline politely listened.
I glanced down and stifled a groan.
Jacqueline was wearing another pencil skirt.
A khaki-colored thing with a pink blouse that complimented her warm skin tone.
It wasn’t inappropriate for the office, but as the doors to the lift opened and the women stepped inside, I indulged myself in the movement of Jacqueline’s arse moving under the form-fitting fabric. Allowing myself a few seconds to remember how my pale English hands looked against her California sun-kissed skin. Holding her hips just right for me. How I still wondered if she wore a cheeky swimsuit to keep up her tan, or if the tan lines I had seen all those months ago were faded now.
The women turned around, unaware of where my thoughts went. I forced those memories to the back of my mind while I pressed the button to send us to Sun Steer Technology’s floor.
“…How close are they?” I heard Signe ask.
I glanced over my shoulder to see both of them staring at me, “Pardon?”
“The architect team,” Signe clarified, “How close are they to winning the bet?”
I grinned, “Close enough to where I practiced my dance moves before leaving this morning.” Signe laughed at that. The architect team was Zaid’s team. It was a group of software engineers who were mostly new hires, people we recruited from other software companies in the area. The goal was for them to finish constructing the bones of the newest branch of code designed for the feature Boson Motors wanted for their machines. The caveat was that they needed less than two bugs in their code during the beta trial to win the bet.
We had a farm in Northern California that was getting our very first prototypes, and Boson Motors was preparing to send the first-ever Sun Steer-powered agricultural equipment. Solar-powered, self-driving tractors were being built for that farm at this very moment.
The bet included me, the CTO, humiliating myself for the sake of company morale.
Every single time Zaid tested the code that his team wrote, it all came back performing flawlessly.
Jacqueline lifted an eyebrow at me.
Signe added, “I love that you’re willing to do it.”
“Of course,” I lifted a shoulder in response.
Jacqueline glanced down at her phone, as if bored, “Be sure to make it worth everyone’s while, for working so hard under deadline.”
I gave her a friendly grin as I replied while stepping off of the lift, “I’m happy to reward good behavior if it’s earned, Jacqueline.”
Jacqueline’s dark eyes lifted behind her glasses and met mine, her face darkening again with another flush. I froze, because the look on her face was far from amused. I panicked, wondering what I said that justified such a reaction from her.
“Be sure to tell the team they’ve been such good girls, while you’re at it,” Signe said, noting my accidental innuendo while oblivious to the glare Jacqueline was giving me behind her back.
Fuck .
“This conversation is over unless the two of you want to be written up,” Jacqueline snapped, dropping her eyes from my face and marching past the two of us before we could form a response. Her head was down, her shoulders were tugged up, and I felt like the biggest prick for making her start her day like this.
“Damn,” Signe murmured, dropping her bag on the front desk, “It’s one of those days, I guess.” I had to give it to her because even though Jacqueline threatened us, Signe acted very unbothered by it. As if Jacqueline’s words didn’t affect her at all.
I nodded, “I apologize, I didn’t mean to make it weird.”
Signe shrugged, “I’ve said worse in the office.”
I believed her. How Signe and Jacqueline were friends, I had no idea. They were opposites. Signe was friendly, uplifting, and generally happy to exist. Jacqueline was…usually like this.
I nodded my goodbye to the redhead and walked toward my office. I turned into the wing where upper management’s offices were lined up, mine being across from Jacqueline’s. I had just seen her march into her office and close the door enough to leave a crack open when two software engineers were giving each other wide-eyed looks. They had just seen Jacqueline storm in. They were on Mary’s team, but I wasn’t familiar with their names yet. We hired a lot of new employees since I started working here.
The two men stood a few feet outside of Jacqueline’s office and began speaking to each other with hushed tones.
“Remind me not to look at her wrong today,” one of them said, a blonde, white man who smirked as he glanced over his shoulder in the direction of her open office door.
“Looks like she’s in a bitchier mood than usual today,” replied a short brunette man who adjusted his shoulder bag. The two of them stopped their hushed conversation as I approached, smiles spreading across their faces, “Hey, Leo.”
I didn’t return their smiles, “I hope you’re not referring to our overworked and understaffed Human Resources Director.”
They both blinked at me, “Oh—well, what I meant was—” The blonde man jutted his thumb over his shoulder, but I interrupted his excuse.
“I know exactly what you meant,” I lifted a dark eyebrow, “Do not speak about her like that again.”
I waited for both of them to nod their heads and drop their gazes.
“You’re right,” the brunette murmured, “Sorry, man.”
I left them there, my point made and employees sufficiently scolded, while ignoring the path to my own office to rap my knuckles on the cracked open door of Jacqueline’s.
“What?” was her reply. I pushed her door open a little more and poked my head in.
“May I come in?” I asked. Jacqueline was just getting settled at her desk, her frown in place, and her eyes locked on mine. She stayed silent as she set her phone on her desk and pulled other items from her purse. Her iPad. A bag of granola. A small case that I assumed held the earbuds she always wore.
I ignored her silence and pretended it was an invitation as I entered her office.
“I, um,” my hand lingered on the doorknob, my fingers desperately tapping out a nonsensical rhythm as nerves erupted, “I wanted to apologize. For earlier.”
Jacqueline didn’t say anything to that. She just dropped her gaze to her items and organized them on her desk, before pulling her keyboard towards her seat and clicking her computer to life.
It was incredibly awkward.
I was both humiliated and in awe of how powerful she was in this setting. How she made herself the biggest person in the room, making a man like me want to cower under her judgment.
“Anything else?” Jacqueline asked when she glanced at where I stood. I gripped the handle of the doorknob tighter, something aching in my chest at her words.
“Um, no,” I shook my head, “Just the apology bit. I didn’t mean to imply anything untoward.”
Jacqueline scoffed in disbelief, “It’s not the first time a man has humiliated me in the workplace. It unfortunately won’t be the last.”
I blinked in confusion, defensiveness for her that I didn’t deserve to feel filling my chest as I stumbled out, “I—what? Jacqueline, that’s not—”
“I think we’re done here.” She interrupted me.
I shook my head, ignoring the voice in my mind screaming at me to let it go, “I think you misinterpreted—”
“I didn’t misinterpret anything, Mr. Turner,” I winced, knowing there was no convincing her of anything when she called me that, “An inappropriate innuendo is one thing. Humiliating me in front of employees is another.”
I raised both my eyebrows, glancing over my shoulder as if the explanation to her words would appear, before looking back at her, “What?”
“Though I may be a one-person department at the moment, I am more than capable of doing my job,” Jacqueline shook her head once, “Trying to repent for your slip of the tongue in the elevator by scolding employees—who will always, always call me names behind my back—and implying that I am nothing but an overworked, rung-out and emotional woman isn’t the way to go.”
“Whoa,” I held both of my hands up at her words, “It was not my intention to offend you so thoroughly this morning.”
“Wasn’t it?” she asked, lifting an eyebrow at me.
I gaped at her, flexing my fingers nervously before I shoved both of my fists into my pockets to still them.
“What would I gain from trying to humiliate you?” I asked.
“Why does a man ever try to humiliate a woman?” Jacqueline challenged.
I couldn’t believe this.
Jacqueline truly thought the worst of me.
I ground my teeth together as frustration simmered beneath my skin, my fingers aching from how tightly they were clenched. I wanted to ask her what the problem was. I wanted to ask if this had anything to do with our one night together. I had so many questions, but none of them were appropriate to ask here. I was desperate for answers, to understand how Jacqueline arrived at this conclusion so quickly. It was like that nervous, flirty, fun side of her I met at the bar didn’t exist anymore.
But I kept my mouth shut.
My jaw ached from how hard I was grinding it, so I opened my mouth and rubbed my hand along the side of my face in an attempt to loosen the muscles there.
“I see,” I couldn’t keep the edge out of my tone, “Again, my apologies. I will be more mindful going forward.”
I saw something waver in her expression, or perhaps I was just desperate to see something that she would never reveal to me again. Regardless, I nodded at her before seeing myself out of her office and closing the door behind me.
I scraped a hand down my face, finally walking back to my office as if I had a tail tucked between my legs. I slumped down into my desk chair, running my hands over my face again and again in an attempt to calm myself.
I’ll never get her to like me, I thought to myself, She’ll never like me. She decided to hate me the moment I walked into the conference room all those months ago.
Logically, I knew that it was fine. That I didn’t need to be liked by everyone. I didn’t need to be friends or on good terms with all of my coworkers in the past, so this shouldn’t hit as hard as it did.
And yet, I felt like I wanted to sink into a hole in the ground from the discomfort of it.
A message popped up on my laptop, the chime echoing from the notification pulling me out of my woe-is-me thoughts.
Mary: Here’s a list of suggestions for when you lose.
I found myself grinning at the song selection she gave. Some of them were new releases, some of them older songs we used to listen to during our teen years. I was hit with a sudden wave of memories from one song listing in particular, a guilty pleasure of mine, and I found myself staring at the name of the title in thought.
Jacqueline would never like me.
She’d always assume the worst in me, no matter what I did.
Oddly enough, the thought made a sense of spiteful determination fill my chest, and in that moment as I stared at the third song Mary suggested for my performance, I decided to make the fucking most of losing this bet.