AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Things don’t usually go my way,” I said, trying to keep it light. I unlocked my car and he bent and gave me the barest brush of his lips on my cheek.
“Good night, Hailey,” he said. “Drive safely.”
“I will. Good night,” I said, still reeling from the chaste cheek-kiss he’d given me.
CHAPTER14
RICK
Hiring Hailey as an intern for REM was the right decision for my business. Whether it was a minefield I’d just unfurled in my conference room remained to be seen. I didn’t want to work in any proximity to her. Inviting her for dinner had been a colossal misstep on my part. I had believed it was possible to be detached and professional, a proud instructor celebrating a student’s successful field experience in the business world. Instead, it was all too personal for me. It was my company, my new client, and for that matter, it wasn’t some random student in a seminar. It was Hailey. My little sister’s best friend. She was so much that was so complicated in my life. I couldn’t begin to untangle all of it.
Hailey felt important, like she had gone from an acquaintance I’d met through Maria to becoming a big part of my life. In my class, at my parents’ house, at my office, at dinner at my favorite restaurant which I had been dying to share with her for reasons I didn’t want to examine too closely. I liked hearing her observations which were hilarious as often as they were sharp and clever. I liked her warmth and humor and creativity and the way her cheeks flushed from the wine, and she leaned forward with excitement when she told a story. I might as well have danced on the edge of a volcano, as near as I was to being in a world of trouble.
The ethics of the situation made me very uncomfortable, in large part because I’d been a complete ass to Kyle and Drake over getting romantically involved with their students. I knew I told Kyle he should keep it in his pants on more than one occasion. And karma must have thought this shit was hysterical. Because I was in the same sinking boat. At least there was still time to right the ship, to veer away from the danger I was walking toward so resolutely as if I were oblivious to the potential consequences.
At this point, I still hadn’t spoken about or acted upon my growing attraction. But I was losing trust in my ability to continue that way. When I was already making mistakes like asking her out for dinner. That wasn’t smart, indulging my desire to see her outside of work. I had to fight this before it was too late. Before I went down the same path as my friends, those former bachelors. The ones who were so happy now but arrived at their happiness in such a risky manner. It wasn’t for me.
For one thing, I was a first generation American who had been immensely successful in the business world and would face more scrutiny from the university administrators and the business community, like it or not, than Kyle, Drake or Hamilton had. I had a responsibility to other Latino business owners and prospective business owners not to behave in a way that was questionable or that impeached my character because it reflected on all of us in a way. A disgraced professor or businessman would be a topic of gossip, but a disgraced Latino businessman or professor would find himself no longer a professor or would be shunned by the CEO’s of other companies who used to count him as a friend. I didn’t like to think about it, but it was a factor I had to consider as well.
Keeping my hands clean needed to be a priority for me, and for the charities I served. I had to stop flirting with disaster.
I was getting ready to go work out for the second time that day when I got a call from my sister.
“Hey,hermano mejor, I heard you’re stealing Hailey away from me. Not cool, bro. I’ll be bussing tables and carting decaf on my own from now on.”
“I’m not stealing her,” I said with a forced laugh. “Just hiring her temporarily to help out my creative team on an account. Yeah, she’ll be out of the diner, but—”
“It’s a good thing,” she said. “I’m just giving you hell because it’s my birthright. I’m actually really happy you’re helping her out.”
“She’s earned the position as intern. I don’t think I’m doing her a favor.”
“I told her that. I said, ‘he’s not doing you any favors. You’re going to have to work with him now,’” she laughed. “But seriously I’m glad. This will be so good for her. She still sees herself as just a waitress, like she doesn’t have any right to be at Berkley. Maybe your creative team will convince her she belongs in the big leagues.”
“She should know that already, and if she doesn’t, I don’t think anything other than time and experience will convince her. A number of people I know, particularly people of color and those who came to marketing later or after a blue-collar job like herself, have had to overcome some imposter feelings.”
“Yourself included?” she asked dubiously.
“Never. I knew I was destined for stardom from the beginning, little sister,” I said wryly. “Take care. I’ll be in for the special on Tuesday if you’re working.”
“I am. Unless some discerning art collector finds my ceramics first,” she said.
After the call, I was still keyed up from dinner with Hailey. I did a grueling workout to try to clear my head so I could get some sleep. An hour later I’d sweated through my workout gear and hit the shower. In no time, as the steaming water sluiced off my skin, my thoughts swerved back to Hailey. The way I felt like I’d been shot through the chest when she whispered, ‘urinal’ in the restaurant—how it was a combination of how funny she was and how much I liked her. It was the kind of moment that made me want to say something, confess something really unadvisable. Like I knew damn well I wanted her in my bed.
I knew it was wrong to think of her that way. But I felt the tension in my body ease as my hand gripped my stiff, burgeoning cock. I needed relief. In secret. Just once.
I’d find her working alone in the conference room, and I’d lock the door behind me. She’d come to me instantly, her eyes hot and bright, her hand on my chest, “Are we alone?” she would say.
“Everyone else has gone home,” I’d tell her. “It’s just us. Are you sure?”
“It’s all I think about, Rick,” she breathed, tipping her face up to mine.
“Me, too,” I told her, and that was the last thing I said before I covered her mouth with mine.
Hailey’s hands were in my hair, gripping, holding my head down so I would keep sliding my tongue in her mouth, a deep, sensuous kiss that gave no relief, just kindled the blaze in my gut, the need for her.
She was so wild in my arms, tearing at my shirt, her tongue questing in my mouth. I ripped my shirt off and then hers, our bare skin touching as we kissed, panting. I grabbed her thigh and lifted her onto the conference table. She braced her hands on the edge and lifted her hips so I could yank down her pants. Then her hands were at my belt buckle, unfastening my pants as my hands and mouth consumed her tight, pink nipples. She strained against my mouth, wriggling on the table, trying to hurry me on. When she freed my erection, she didn’t have to urge me to speed up any longer. I pinched one of her nipples and she cried out with pleasure. When I put my hands on her hips and flipped her over, she let me, eager to do anything, everything I wanted. I yanked her hips back until her feet were on the floor and she was bent over the table.
That long, gleaming conference table I bought to impress my clients when I was just starting out. It was about to be christened in the best way possible. Her hands scrabbled on the smooth surface for purchase, and I pressed her down with a big hand on her back. She tried to buck her hips back toward me, to get me to take her faster, to give her relief. I saw with satisfaction how glossy and plump her lower lips were, how flushed with arousal. It was almost all I could do to constrain myself. I felt the urge to bury my fingers in her core and coax her to come—it wouldn’t take much, a few strokes, a twist of my wrist and she’d drench me, coming all over my hand. But I wanted to sheath myself in her, feel that sweet, tight body clench around my cock as I pounded her.
