Red Hot Obsessions (43 page)

4

“I can’t get over the fact that you did a guy in a public bathroom,” Patti commented with a disbelieving shake of her head.

Piper pushed clothes around on the rack, idly skimming her eyes and hands over the soft fabrics as she replayed the scenario in her head again. The mental images were just as delicious now as the moment they happened. “Why not? I’m not a prude,” she defended. “Are you telling me that you’ve never done it in a public place before?” She selected a red cotton button down and held it up.

Patti paused to consider the blouse and nodded her approval before returning to her own search. “I’m no prude. The good Lord knows that I’m not, but clearing out an entire bathroom so you can get down and dirty is just so…”

“Public?” Piper supplied.

“Exactly.”

Bogged down by an armload of business savvy attire, Piper gestured to the dressing rooms. They selected two neighboring stalls and pulled the curtains closed behind them. As Piper stripped down to her underwear, she considered Patti’s words. “Honestly, it was a bit exposed for my taste, but, Patti, babe, you had to be there. That guy was…” She trailed off, unable to find the proper words to describe him. Somehow, amazing just didn’t cover it.

“Wow, speechless,” Patti’s muffled voice carried over the indie music playing through the store’s stereo system. “I don’t think that’s ever happened with you before. On a scale of one to ten, how good was it?”

Piper’s answer was quick and decisive. “Ten. Definitely a ten.”

Patti chuckled. “Ten is good. Great even. Not sure I ever had a ten before.”

“Next time we hit the club, we’ll hunt you down your very own ten,” Piper promised as she slipped into a pair of black slacks and buttoned herself into the red blouse. “Ready?”

“Ready.”

At once, both women parted their curtains and stepped out to face each other. “Too much floral,” Piper assessed, eyeing the flowery dress.

“Too much boob,” Patti retorted, her gaze landing on the swell of Piper’s breasts peeking through the buckling fabric.

Ducking back into their dressing rooms, they tossed aside the unwanted selections and began the process over again.

“So what are going to do if this guy you’re working for ends up being a complete jackoff?”

Piper shrugged at her reflection in the mirror. “What can I do? The job pays better than anything I’ve ever had before. I can’t exactly quit if he gives me a hard time.”

The curtains rustled and a moment later, Patti’s face peered inside. “What if he does try to give you a
hard
time?” she asked, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

“I’m a girl,” Piper said with an exaggerated roll of her eyes. “What guy doesn’t try to give me a
hard
time? I think I can handle it.”

Patti narrowed her eyes briefly. Humor danced across her face as she said, “I’ll just bet you can.”

“Get outta here,” Piper said in a mock Italian accent. Palming her face, she pushed Patti back through the curtain divider.

“What do you want to do after this?”

Finished dressing in her street clothes, Piper slipped her feet into her shoes and slung the garments she wanted to purchase over her arm. The rejects she took in her other hand and hung them up on a rack outside the dressing rooms for one of the staff to put back. “I don’t know,” she said as they made their way to the front of the store. “I’m kind of starving.”

“Yeah, me too. I’m running on last night’s alcohol fumes and a slice of toast. Food sounds heavenly right now.”

“Did you ladies find everything alright?” the cashier asked as she began removing hangers and tossing them into a bin beneath the counter.

“Yep,” Piper said distractedly while she fished around in her oversized purse for her wallet. “I haven’t eaten much yet today either,” she told Patti. Finding her debit card, she swiped it through the card reader and waited to hear the damage. “I’m thinking something light.”

“Your total comes to two-hundred seventeen dollars and eighty-three cents.”

Piper grimaced, mentally calculating how much that would leave her with for groceries and other necessities while she waited for her first check to come in. Good thing she had a savings—a teeny tiny savings—to help bridge the gap until that time came.

“How about Subway,” Patti suggested. She placed her clothing on the counter and about had a fit when she heard the total. “Good God,” she breathed as she wrote out a check. “Forget a ten; I need a sugar daddy, stat.”

“Maybe we can find you both,” Piper said and waved her thanks to the woman at the register as they gathered their bags and left the store. “There must be a man out there that is both a ten and has deep pockets.”

“And most importantly,” Patti added, “a deep need to pay all of my bills.”

“I thought that was implied,” Piper laughed, nudging her toward the eatery.

“I just thought it was worth repeating.”

By the time Piper arrived home, the afternoon was closing in on evening. Dropping her bags on her bed, she left them, unwilling to stand on her feet another minute. Wrinkles would probably set in, but that’s what God made irons for.

Carrying herself into the bathroom, she started the water, cranking it up to lobster red-hot. She enjoyed shopping as much as the next woman, but all day excursions like the one she had just returned from was something she couldn’t get used to.

Patti, however, was a shopping machine. Five minutes seated on a bench set her up for another hour of window browsing. Browsing usually turned into buying, and before Piper knew what happened, she was lugging around an extra twenty pounds of crap that wasn’t even hers. How the woman hadn’t gone completely broke was a mystery to her. Piper could hardly afford the weeks’ worth of outfits she purchased, let alone the sheer volume of stuff Patti crammed inside her Jetta’s trunk.

Frankly, she was surprised the back-end didn’t scrape over the speed bumps on the way out of the parking lot.

Whoever Mr. Deep Pockets turned out to be, she wished him well. He’d be putting in extra hours at the office to fund the little nymph.

After sprinkling Epsom salts through the steamy water, Piper got down to her birthday suit and eased into the tub. The heat of the water pricked at her skin, just bordering on pain, and Piper sighed. There was nothing quite like relaxing in a hot bath at the end of the day to relax the muscles and settle the mind.

She closed her eyes and allowed her thoughts to drift. In less than a day and a half, she would be starting her new job. As much as she knew what to expect, there was so much more to be anticipated. She would be working for an author who was known for his strong personality. No matter how she cut it, the job would be a challenging one. But all Piper really cared about was having enough money to ease her worries and create a nest egg for her future. Anything else, she could and would handle.

With that settled, she called up more pleasant thoughts. It wasn’t surprising that her first one was of her mystery man. Explicit details played across the dark screen of her closed lids like a movie. As she recalled specific images of being bent over and driven into while a pair of crisp blue eyes monitored her every reaction, the spot between her legs began to tingle.

Shifting lower to allow the water to creep up over her shoulders, Piper lifted one leg out of the water and draped it over the side of the tub. Water dripped on the rug, saturating it, but she didn’t care. Placing her other foot on the rim of the tub for leverage, Piper began running her hands over her skin, starting with her breasts.

Peeking out of the water’s edge, the heat from Piper’s fingers against the cool mounds gave her chills and the peeks stiffened to a point beneath her palms. Pinching her nipples, she released a small moan, the answering throb sending a flood of slick moisture into her canal.

Tilting her head back, Piper skimmed her hands lower, to the soft curves of her hips, until she encountered the small thatch of curls. Spreading her legs wider, she made an experimental swipe of her fingers through her folds, finding them wet and wanting. Without hesitation, she pushed two fingers inside, slipping them out to spread her cream through her folds.

Her clit prickled with anticipation and she attended to that too. Rubbing small circles across the swollen nub, she pushed the climbing orgasm higher as she fantasized about long, tapered fingers exploring her dark depths, expanding her inner muscles and hitting her in just the right spot over and over again.

Needing the feeling of something inside her to go along with the images in her head, Piper slid her other hand between her thighs and inserted two fingers. She pumped while she played, her fingers working in tandem to push her over the edge.

Piper’s breath grew shallow, the images of her mystery man watching her touch herself fueling her excitement. She could almost feel his cock buried deep inside her body, and as she imagined him cumming, spurting all that hot seed inside of her, her body shuddered. Piper worked feverishly, riding out the little twitches and clenches of her muscles until her clit was too sensitive to continue.

Her heart pounded in her chest and she slumped back into the water while her body recovered.

Maybe, she thought, when they went on the hunt for Patti’s sugar daddy, Piper would keep her eye out for her mystery man, because once was simply not enough.

5

She was running late. Or at least she thought she might be. Actually, she had been so excited to have a job that she had forgotten to ask a whole slew of questions. Topping the list was what time to arrive. For that matter, when could she expect to leave? Mr. Sinclair pretty much told her she would be at the mercy of the tyrant author he was pairing her with, so maybe there was no end time? God, she hoped there was an end time. While she didn’t mind working, she certainly didn’t want to make it her life.

Buttoning up her blouse, Piper spritzed on a little floral perfume and dashed out the door. She would be walking today since city parking was difficult even on the best day, but it was only eight blocks so she didn’t think that would be much of a challenge. If she was too tired after work, she would catch a cab back.

Her speed walking skills put speed walkers everywhere to shame as she hustled down the city blocks. Thankfully, she only had her purse to hold her back, because supplies were also on the short end of her list that day in the office. She could just kick herself. It was as if her brain completely flew out the window at the promise of a job. What if they expected her to have a computer, a planner, an organizer, pens, pencils? Piper felt completely unprepared as she jogged up the last block to the impressive glass-fronted building.

Well, if her lack of responsibility ruined her chances and she found herself on the next Greyhound back to Alabama, at least she would still have the memory of that night when she’d had the best sex of her life in the women’s bathroom with a delicious stranger. She shivered as she approached the main doors; the stranger’s hands still a faint echo on her skin.

Tugging at the handle, she was puzzled to find it locked. Did they stage a lockout when their employees failed to get there on time, like they did to kids in high school? Sure that wasn’t the case, Piper looked for the sign all businesses had posted in their windows showing the hours of operation, but she didn’t make it that far.

“Hi there!” a warm, friendly voice called out. “You must be Piper Donovan.”

Piper looked up to find a gorgeous brunette bearing down on her. She was shorter than Piper, petite, and wore a huge, welcoming smile. “I am.” Piper smiled. “How did you know?”

Shifting a large briefcase into her left hand, the woman pulled out a set of keys and unlocked the doors. Motioning her to follow, she stepped inside, waved to an older gentleman pushing a cart full of cleaning supplies, and headed toward a bank of elevators set into the north wall. “We ‘P’ names have to stick together,” she said as they stepped into the waiting car. “I’m Poppy Montgomery, Mr. Sinclair’s personal assistant.”

Piper shook her proffered hand. “What are the odds? It’s nice to meet you, Poppy.”

“Likewise.” As they stepped off on the thirty-second floor, Piper’s stomach knotted. The posh waiting area was empty and she could tell by all the closed office doors and blackened interiors that they were the first to arrive. That knowledge alone helped soothe Piper’s jangled nerves.

“We’re the first to arrive,” Poppy echoed her thoughts. “The big guys always come in at the last possible minute.”

Piper gave her a weak smile and nodded. Unsure of what to do next, she followed Poppy down a short hallway leading away from the office area and into the break room. She watched from the doorway as Poppy moved around the room. She seemed like a nice person, someone worth getting to know. If even half of the people who worked here were anything like Poppy, then Piper was sure she could handle anything her mystery author threw at her. She’d experienced too many bad jobs to throw away a good one over one bad seed.

When she saw Poppy open the refrigerator and rearrange some take-away cartons to make room for her brown bag lunch, Piper’s first thought was how relatable and down to earth this woman seemed. So far, the pro column was stacking up in her favor. The second thing she thought was damn! She’d forgotten to pack her stinking lunch.

Without her first paycheck, she was seriously low on funds. She wasn’t sure she could fit a muffin or even a simple coffee into her budget at this point. If she was lucky, and she could fit it into her schedule, maybe she would be able to dash home during her lunch hour and grab a bite to eat. It was either that, or she would be starving until dinner time. If worse came to worst, she would have to go for broke and buy her lunch. Either way, a girl had to eat, or she got cranky when she missed a meal.

Closing the fridge, Poppy produced two bottles of water and offered her one. Too nervous to drink anything, Piper waved her off.

Cracking open her bottle, Poppy leaned back against a long stretch of counter. Behind her, the coffee maker fizzled and gurgled as it filled the room with a rich aroma tinged with a hint of vanilla. “So, where are you from, Piper? I love your accent.”

Her accent? She wasn’t aware she still had one. When she first came up north everyone commented on it, and she spent months getting rid of it. “Alabama.”

“That explains it.” Poppy aimed her water at her. “I knew someone from South Carolina who sounded kind of like you. Always wished I had that extra little flair in my words, but no, I just speak plain old English.” She sighed longingly.

Piper laughed. “You mean you want to sound like a hillbilly? I think that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said. Sure beats being called a hick.” She couldn’t count how many times people had called her that to her face before she finally snapped. Maybe they thought she was one of those girls raised on good old southern hospitality, but they didn’t teach that kind of thing where she was from. No, her manners were self-taught, but she would drop them in a heartbeat if someone pushed her the wrong way.

“Beats being plain.” Plunking her empty bottle into a blue recycle bin, Poppy resumed her stance. “So what brought you to Chicago? What made you choose this line of work?”

Piper was just about to answer when the elevators pinged and the murmur of several voices floated toward them.

Poppy sighed. “Looks like it’s time to get to work. Come on,” she said breezing past her. “Mr. Sinclair wants to see you before you get started.” She guided Piper through the main seating area to the same office she had interviewed in. Rapping her knuckles on the door, Poppy opened it and went inside without waiting for a reply.

The butterflies were swarming in her belly now, making Piper feel faintly nauseated. She probably should have eaten breakfast before she left, but then again, if she had it would probably be decorating her new boss’s sophisticated gray carpet now.

Bent over his desk, Felix looked up from the desktop he had just fired up. His gaze landed on Poppy first, and there was no mistaking the heat that flared in his eyes. A moment later, he noticed Piper’s presence in the room, and the look vanished. But she saw it, and judging from the soft, secret smile Poppy was wearing, it was obvious to Piper that there was something going on between these two. The boss and his secretary? How incredibly cliché, but then, who was she to judge?

Approaching the front of the desk, Poppy jerked her thumb back at Piper. “I found a straggler. Can I keep her?” As if she was a stray puppy or something. Piper and Felix grinned at her playfulness. “Okay, so, here are the files you requested on the Carson project…”

Piper waited patiently as the two talked shop, enjoying the pleasant, easy-going atmosphere her previous places of employment always seemed to lack. Definitely a nice change of pace. She let her gaze wander to the cityscape glittering brightly beyond the bank of tall windows. When she had first arrived in the city, she hadn’t been too sure how things would pan out, but now she wondered if this was the break she had been looking for. It certainly felt like it.

“Here are some goodies for you to play with.” Poppy was suddenly standing before her, handing off a smart-looking black tote. Piper accepted it.

“Oh, um, thanks.” It was a little heavy, making her curious to see what was inside, but she suppressed the urge to look and looped the bag over her wrist, sliding it up to the crook of her elbow.

“You’re welcome. Oh, and when you’re done here, you’ll find Mr. Larson down at Bart’s Coffee. You know where it is?”

“Yes,” she answered automatically. Good thing she really did know, because the words just popped out. The job had suddenly gone from zero to sixty and she was having trouble getting her brain up to speed.

“Excellent.” Poppy was on her way out the door when she spun around. “I go to lunch at twelve-thirty. If you can, I would love for you to join me.” She gave her a small wink.

“Um, sure, yeah, that sounds good.”

Felix was smiling when she turned back to him. “I hope you get that lunch today. Poppy has been itching for another woman to spill her secrets to. Come, follow me.”

Piper followed Felix, stopping periodically along the way for him to introduce her to others in the office. They ended at a small room barely large enough to accommodate the long, narrow, industrial metal desk, filing cabinet and customary guest seating. On the plus side, the chair behind it appeared comfortable, and the happy-looking potted palm standing by the narrow corner window looked healthy. If it could survive in such dismal conditions, then surely she could too.

“This will be your office.” Felix stepped aside and motioned her inside. “Have a look around, get your bearings.” Piper did just that, making a beeline to her new office chair to see if it was as comfy as it looked. It was. “Comfortable?”

“Yes.” She sighed.

“Good. Now, the catch.” Piper’s muscles tensed. “You will be sharing this office with Tate, but,” he said quickly when she frowned, “you don’t need to worry too much about that. He rarely comes in. He prefers to work from home, or some other more suitable environment.”

“Who is Tate again?”

“Oh, my apologies. Tate is the author I was telling you about. Your new boss, your
second
boss. I’m the first, of course.” He grinned.

“Oh, he’s the Mr. Larson Ms. Montgomery said I would be meeting with after this?”

“The one and only. He seems to prefer working out of that place, don’t ask me why. It’s crowded and noisy nearly all hours of the day. I don’t know how he gets anything done, but who am I to question art?”

Yeah, well…At the moment, Piper was busy worrying about how eccentric this Tate Larson truly was. On a scale from one to ten, one where he picked the seeds off his bagel because they interfered with his ability to concentrate, and ten where he went all Van Gogh and chopped off his ear, where would this man fall? She considered asking Felix, but thought it best to leave it alone. She would find out soon enough.

Christ, she was going to be a shitty assistant, she just knew it. She had zero experience with this kind of thing. One look at her, and this guy was going to boot her in the ass.

“Alright, so.” Felix came around to her side of the desk. “This is your computer. Normally you would need to stop by every morning to check in, but with the equipment you were given, you can sign in from just about anywhere.” He pulled up a spreadsheet and showed her how to clock in her hours each day.

Pulling up another spreadsheet, she saw a list of names and numbers with times and locations next to them. “This is this week’s appointments schedule to start you off. You’ll be responsible for not only reminding Tate he has them, but making sure he actually gets there.”

Everything looked so complicated; Piper felt the nervous tension begin seeping into her muscles again. Felix clapped her on the shoulder. “Poppy put this all together, so if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. And my door is always open.” He moved toward the door. “It’s going to take a few weeks to get acclimated, but I have every confidence that you will fit right in here. So relax, take a few minutes to enjoy your new office, learn where everything is.”

“Okay, I can do that.” Piper tried a smile out, but it felt as contrived as it looked.

“With the nature of the job, you are free to come and go as you please. Be prepared to be the most hated person in the office. Everyone else here only wishes they could have the freedom you’re getting, myself included,” he joked. “Then again,” he said thoughtfully, “no one here thinks it’s worth the sacrifice. Frankly, you couldn’t pay me enough to spend every day with that man.”

Piper blanched. “Is he really that bad?” Could anyone really be that bad? Her mother was bad, intolerable, really, but bad enough that you couldn’t put a price tag on it? Now that was a scary thought.

“I’ve heard he makes Scrooge look like a saint. Since I’m his boss I suppose I get special treatment, but I’ve heard things…” He trailed off, but the lift of his eyebrow said it all. The man was horrid. What had she gotten herself into?

Felix clapped his hands together loudly. “One last thing before I leave you to it. It will be up to you to figure out what needs to be done and in what order to do it. So long as it all gets taken care of, you will be the master of this ship. Okay?”

There was nothing left to say, so Piper nodded her understanding. Once she was sure that Felix was gone, she released a long, heavy breath and got to work.