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“No. I’mgladyou’repleased.” He laughs, taking a drink. After setting it down, he throws me a curious look. “Where did you find her anyway?”
I grimace. Best to be out with it, I guess. “Well…”
Just then, Hunter and Drake burst through the door and there’s not a word left to be spoken. Our business partner, Hunter, and his best friend are two of the loudest, most foul-mouthed thirty-year-old men I’ve ever met.
Following behind them are Hunter’s wife, Isabel, and Maggie, everyone’s right-hand lady. Both of them behaving in an appropriate, suitable for public, composed manner—unlike the two men in front of them.
We all greet each other before taking our seats around the same table we’ve been inhabiting every Thursday night for the past eight years.
It’s really the perfect place for us to meet, since we rarely see each other throughout the week. It’s also the only place that will accommodate everyone from Drake in his jeans and boots, straight off the construction site, to me in my business attire. And it’s not too seedy that we would feel uncomfortable bringing the girls here.
“What’s new?” Hunter asks after they return from the bar with their drinks.
“Well, Emerson was just telling us that his new secretary isperfect.”
“Hmm…” Maggie says in response, pressing her lips together.
“Ohh, what was that for?” Isabel asks, clearly picking up on the signal Maggie was implying.
“She’s not who I expected for Emerson, that’s all.”
“She’s just my secretary,” I throw in, although no one seems to hear it.
“What was wrong with her?” Hunter asks.
“There’snothingwrong with her,” I blurt out quickly.
“Oh, that girl you brought in today? There was definitelynothingwrong with her.” This time it’s Drake who leans in to join the conversation with a suggestive wag of his brow, and I growl quietly into my drink. Drake is Hunter’s friend, and except for being the foreman at the construction of our first location, he has nothing to do with our business. He has no real appreciation for the lifestyle, aside from being the biggest manwhore in Briar Point. And I meant what I said to Charlotte today…he’ll fuck anything over eighteen.
“Enough,” I reply quickly.
“What? That’s your type, isn’t it?” he asks playfully. “Young, hot, follows you around like a puppy.”
Garrett answers for me. “Leave him alone, Drake.”
I can handle Drake’s jokes. It’s not his fault he likes it vanilla. He smiles at me from across the table, and I shake my head, finishing off my drink. He can laugh all he wants, but he’s never laying a hand on Charlotte. I’ll make sure of that.
Standing from the table, I walk over to the bar to order my second drink. After gesturing for the bartender, I let my mind wander back to the interaction with Charlotte today. I’m not sure why I reacted the way I did. I never should have cornered her like that. Fuck, I’m out of my element here. What the hell do I know about working with a twenty-one-year-old girl?
Charlotte is more curious about the business than I expected, and I’m struggling with how fucking adorable that is and how much that shit will get me in trouble. Even I have to admit, unabashed curiosity, especially when it comes to kinks and sex, is a major fucking turn-on. It would do us both a lot of good if she’d be a little more quiet and terrified and not go exploring and getting into trouble.
Did the image of her on that throne embed itself into my brain? Of course it did. She’s a gorgeous girl, and I spent the bulk of my day tryingnotto stare at her tits through that translucent shirt.
But she’s my son’s girl—past, present, future, doesn’t matter. What the fuck is wrong with me?
When I get back to the table, Garrett is watching me. “You look all up in your head,” he says. The others are talking about something on their side of the table, so he mutters quietly to me to keep things between us. “Everything okay?”
I rub my hand over my face. “Everything’s fine. Just stressed. We open in six weeks and that building didn’t look anywhere near done.” I glance sideways at Drake, to make sure he didn’t hear me, but he’s too busy telling some elaborate threesome story loud enough for the whole bar to hear.
Garrett slaps a hand on my shoulder. “Relax. It’s not as bad as you think. Once they pull the equipment out of there, it’ll look ten times better, you’ll see.”
I nod, trying to let his words of comfort seep in. “You’re right.”
His hand stays on my shoulder as he watches me take a sip of my drink. “Hey, we’re good, right? I didn’t mean to overstep today…”
Quickly shaking my head, I give him a reassuring expression. “Yeah, we’re good. She’s just my secretary. I was serious.”
Holding his hands up in surrender, he nods. “I believe you. I was just having a little fun. I didn’t mean to—”
