Chapter 8
Julianna
“What in the bloody hell are you up to?”
Presley is already in my office. I don’t recall inviting her in. I must have pissed her off because she’s speaking “bloody” to me.
She’s not even British. Come on.
“Right now?” I glance back at my computer monitor. “Trying to strategize our capitalistic attack on New Light Enigma Electronics.”
Presley approaches my desk with an uncharacteristically stern expression on her face. “First I find this memo on my desk. Then I hear from everyone in the office that you’ve hired Ms. Penrose as your new assistant. Oh, and you’re openly screwing her.” She chortles. “Excuse me, taking her to functions as your plus one.”
“I do love it when things work out like that. Killing two birds with one stone, and all.”
“Come off it.” Presley sits on the arm of one of my chairs, her body language so palpably rude that I am forced to sit back in my chair – lest she knocks me over, and we can’t have that. “You’re creating an HR shitstorm.”
“I’ve already cleared it with them. Alessa’s speaking to them right now.”
“I bet she is! Telling them about what happened Friday night, I’m sure.”
Presley has no idea, huh? “They already know. Well, not the details. They know enough, though. It’s been taken care of. Don’t worry about it.”
“Don’t worry about what? You randomly dating one of your employees after fucking her Friday night?” If Presley scoffs one more time, I’ll be tempted to smack the next one out of her mouth. “Is her pussy really that fantastic?”
I almost don’t deign that with an answer, but Presley is supposedly one of my best friends. If I can’t tell her, then who can I tell? “It’s up there.” I’ll tell her once I sleep with Alessa some more. Who knows? I might be over her within the week. In the meantime, however, I’ll enjoy as much of it as I can.
Ms. Penrose doesn’t know what she’s in for. I never thought I’d be so intrigued with dating a young virgin. Well, she’s not a virgin anymore… I took care of that.
Yet if she was a virgin to basic sapphic sex, then what else is she inexperienced with? What could I teach her to do? How could I mold her into the perfect lover? She’s like a blank slate. Whatever minimal experience she’s had before? Doesn’t matter. It wasn’t enough to support bad bedroom habits I must break for us to have fun. I can teach her how to do things the way I like. In the meantime? I’ll be opening her mind and body to new experiences she’s never had before. There’s something powerful in that.
“I hope you know what you’re doing.” Presley hops off the arm of the chair and goes to my window overlooking the heart of Downtown Portland. It’s another cloudy day in the city of rain. Not sure what she’s looking at out there. “This isn’t like you at all, Julianna. You’re never this impulsive.”
“There’s a first time for everything.”
“I mean, I’m used to you going through girls like they’re only out to gnaw your tits off, but not publicly. What’s different about this intern?”
“Don’t know. I’ll get back to you when I figure that out.”
Presley slowly crosses her arms. Occasionally, I glance at the back of her head. Too bad I can’t read her mind. “Does this have to do with your brother getting married?”
I stop scrolling through the news. “Excuse me?”
Presley scrutinizes me. “You’ve always been jealous of what he has. He got the business, he gets the family property, and now he gets the marriage and kid along the way.”
My business partner is one of the few people to know that my brother has planned everything so perfectly that he’s having a baby and a new marriage only a few months apart. The marriage first, of course. He and Jordan decided that was the proper way to do things. As long as the baby’s Ted’s, my family doesn’t care. They’ll show up drunk to any wedding.
“The hell are you talking about? This has nothing to do with my brother.”
“Sure, honey. Tell yourself that. Your brother drops two bombs at Christmas, and you turn around and start openly dating an intern you’ve just met.”
“Would you judge me, even if that were true?”
“Judge you? Shit, as long as you don’t hurt the business, I don’t care if you marry a professional drag queen in Vegas tomorrow.”
“You always have a penchant for the dramatics.”
“What can I say? I’m usually the only one with a personality around here. According to our employees, anyway.”
“Hmph.” I get up from my seat and join her by the window. How about that? Presley has been watching the window cleaners a few floors down this whole time. They’re not quite as small as ants, but their careful movements remind me of insects. “Don’t worry about me. Worry about yourself. You’re the one showing up in Portland’s best and grimiest strip clubs.”
“Which you were missed at this weekend.” Sighing, Presley pulls out her phone, littered with messages from various women who are probably online-only (and maybe a few in the flesh) sex workers. The woman isn’t happy unless she has three cam-girls blowing her up with texts all day. She pays for the privilege, too. “Nice party. Invited you out lots of times Saturday night, but you never responded.”
Because I was at home, agonizing over Alessa. “I was preoccupied.”
“With your new honey?”
I decline to answer.
“Have fun. I mean it, too. Maybe this relationship will be good for you. Help you increase your emotional output.” Shrugging, Presley wanders back to the central office. “Don’t get us in trouble with the public. Or HR for that matter. Especially HR. They can be dicks.” She gives me a half-hearted wave on her way out.
I don’t need Presley’s advice. I’m perfectly secure in what’s going on with Alessa. I’m also confident that she knows what’s going on with me. If not, I’ll set her straight. I’m good at that in all facets of my life.
I spend another hour in my office, occasionally barking for more coffee while returning phone calls I’ve been neglecting since this morning. By three, I hanker to see Alessa’s beautiful face again. Besides, isn’t she supposed to be working for me?
Then I remember I sent her out shopping while giving her the afternoon off. I fire a text to her. “Where are you?”
It only takes five minutes for her to respond. What a delightful change. “Done with HR.” It took that long? “I’m in the lobby. Do you need to see me, madam?”
Need to see her? That’s like asking me if I need air right now.
Time for a break, anyway. I inform Vern that I’m heading downstairs for a few minutes. Kiss my woman a bit. Remind myself what I have to look forward to tonight. I think about her perfect body as I ride the private elevator to the lobby. Imagine the reverent faces she’ll make when eating me out. Pretending she’s here with me now, waiting for me to rip off her clothes and fuck her against the wall.
Damnit, I need her. I might extend my break from ten minutes to twenty and give Alessa the first real quickie of her life. I have my private room attached to the lobby I can cart her off to. Might be good for her to walk around in public after having me…
The doors open. There she is. The woman I’ve decided is mine.
Talking to a man.
I don’t know who the hell he is, but he’s young, attractive, and possesses a bravado I instantly recognize – because I have the same kind. Alessa animatedly points in some direction with a helpful smile on her face. The man pretends to glance in the appropriate direction, but I know this trick. He’s checking out Alessa’s cleavage, and her body language invites him closer.
He's flirting with Alessa. Alessa probably doesn’t even realize it.
Since I don’t know who the fuck this prick is, I don’t feel bad about squaring my shoulders and marching up to the person I’ve decided belongs to me.
“Excuse me.” I don’t mean it, of course. How can I, when I’ve parked my body between some grad school dropout and my girlfriend? I make him look me up and down. He doesn’t instantly recognize me, and I don’t expect him to. It’s better if he doesn’t. I want this intimidation to be entirely organic. Scare the balls off this bastard using nothing but my womanly charms. The kind I can teach Alessa to have when I’m not around. Maybe when I’m around, too. “Anything she can help you with, I can also help you with ten times over.”
“Was only asking where the lost and found was, lady.” The guy holds up his hands. One has a glove on it. The other doesn’t. How clever. Except, unlike Alessa, I see the matching glove poking out of his back pocket. “Sheesh. Didn’t mean to summon the resident bitch supreme.”
He stalks off, but it’s with his tail between his legs, so I’ve done my job here.
“Was that necessary?”
I turn. Alessa Penrose remains enticing in her white blouse and emerald skirt. Two things that should be off her body as soon as possible. I want her naked. I want her nudes on my phone to peruse whenever the hell I want. I want her mouth between my legs and my fingers up her pussy, giving her the orgasm of her life.
Instead, we’re standing here in public, clothed.
“He was flirting with you. He needed to understand that you’re already spoken for.”
“Goddamn, we’ve been dating ten minutes and you’re already a possessive freak.”
Funny. She made that sound like an insult.
“I don’t think you understand what’s going on here,” I say, careful to mind my temper. “You’re my girlfriend now. You do not get to flirt with anyone, especially not men.” Or women for that matter, but I know what’s important.
“I wasn’t flirting!”
“You were, even if you didn’t realize it.”
“So now I can’t talk to men?”
“We’ll discuss it later over dinner.”
“Why don’t you draw up a business contract while you’re at it?” Is she walking away from me? “That way I know all the rules of this relationship, Julianna!”
I don’t pursue her. Because she’s given me a fantastic idea.
Alessa Penrose, you really, truly have no idea what wondrous things you are in for.