Trust Game (6 page)

Everett

“Catch, bro,” I say as I toss Travis the bag.

“What did I do to deserve this, besides being awesome in general?” he asks with a grin as he looks through the bag of donuts from his favorite shop.

“Since
you can hardly get to the break room, I thought I’d get you your own stash. You’re always bitching that your favorites are gone.”

“Oh, I see now. It’s to shut me up.”

I show off a smile and continue to the hallway. No one is around, so I step into Reese’s office and set down her bag of donuts. I’m leaving when I almost smack right into Sarge.

“What are you doing?”

“Um, nothing.”

“You have to give her time to
do something before you can search for what she’s doing wrong.”

“I wasn’t snooping. I–I was giving her donuts.”

“I knew it. You upset her the other day, and you’re still trying to make things right without me finding out.” Sarge runs his hand through his light brown hair, which is beginning to recede.

“Everything is fine bet
ween us. She’s … you know, feminine, so I didn’t think she’d want to be in the guy’s break room.”

Sarge studies me briefly, and I can’t read him on this one
. “OK. I’ll let it go, but be nice.” He holds his finger up. “Wait now, not
too
nice.” Shit, he is on to me.

***

I’m wrapping up my meeting when Roman approaches me. “I want to hear all about it.”

“About what?” I ask.

“Whatever has you in this fucking of a good mood?”

“I can’t be happy for no reason?”

“You? Not in years, so spill it.”

“There is nothing for me to spill.” Really there isn’t since I agreed not to tell my brothers about Reese.

Roman gives me a sly grin. “That’s bullshit, but I’ll be patient. It will come out, eventually.”

This is going to be difficult to keep a secret. We’re too close for them not to see it.

“Not this.”

He’s still grinning like a fool as he points his finger at me. “I knew there was something.”

I roll my eyes. “You
need to let it go. I can’t tell you.”

“I will figure it out
,” he yells as I go through the door that leads back into the store. The excitement of knowing I’m seeing Reese shortly pummels me. I feel like a damn teenager.

As soon as I see she’s in her office, I walk in and
shut the door. On the spot, her eyes are rounder.

“Everett, what are you doing?”

I grimace. That’s the first thing she wants to say to me? “I came to say good morning.”

“Good morning, and thank you for the donuts, but I heard you bought them for everyone, so I could’ve gotten them in the break room. You can’t show me special treatment.”

“I gave Travis his own bag of them. No one is going to think anything of it.”

I reach behind me and turn the lock on her door.

“No, Everett.”

“
Yes, Reese. I’m about to give you a kiss, and you’re going to let me and like it, dammit.”

“Look, I gave you those conditions for a reason,” she says as I pull her up from her chair.

My arm slides around her waist and across the silk of her shirt before I bring her in against me. I cup her cheek and kiss her forehead, temple, ear and down her neck.

“Everett, you can’t be doing this. Everyone will know in no time, and they won’t respect me. I don’t want to be the joke of this place.”

I hear the whimper as her head falls back, and my mouth stalks its way up her throat. My cock is hard, aching to be inside of her again.

“Don’t worry. No matter what they say, I’ll keep denying it.” My mouth traces her jawline before it
lands on her cherry, wet lips. She finally caves and gives me access to explore and taste all of the sweetness. Her flavor of pheromones is a seductive poison that continually lures me to her.

Hands
slide under the back of my t-shirt, and she’s whimpering again, longing for more, the internal struggle playing out in her head, but I’m winning. At least until I have to walk away with a fucking hard-on.

I palm her breast and massage it, feeling her nipple
bead beneath. “Reese, last night was only the beginning. You’re yearning for more. Admit it.”

“Yes, Everett, I want more, but—”

“No
buts, and we’re finishing this later.” I let her go and head out the door, hoping no one sees the evidence of what she does to me.

Reese

Disastrous. Why did I think for a second that he’d behave? It’s his company, so like he cares what he does. Getting my phone out, I text Becca.

Me:
This is all your fault. I slept with him, and he’s all over me this morning. I’ll never be able to concentrate on my job, and no one is going to respect me around here.

Becca:
Hot damn. I didn’t believe you had it in you. Hee hee. Enjoy it. I wish a man wanted me that way.

Me:
Like always, you’re all trouble and no help.

Becca:
That was mean.

I sig
h. This is what she does. Becca is never accountable for anything and always turns the tables.

Me:
Sorry, but this was your bright idea.

She
doesn’t reply. Wonderful. I’ll have to deal with her later, along with the sex deprived animal stalking this office.

I have
Kyle come over to help me comprise a better description of the job duties the new employee will be handling, so I know what to ask in the interviews. He’s going to sit in on them with me.

E
verett passes by a few times and doesn’t seem happy as he glares or pouts. I had no idea babysitting and putting out was going to be added to my job description. Good grief.

After
Kyle and I finish, I go to the break room to get my water. The guys are on their lunch, and it smells even stronger of sweat and grease. There are probably ten guys present.

“Hi, Reese, right?” one of the guys ask as I pass by.

I turn back to him. “Yes, and you are …” I find the patch on his shirt with his name, “Brady.”

“Yep, that’s me. Welcome to this fine establishment.” Several of the other guys chuckle at his comment. “You can join us. We don’t bite, but we are on the crude side, so I don’t want to offend you.”

“Thank you, Brady. Maybe I will take you up on that one day, but I usually eat at my desk and work at the same time.” I start toward the fridge but turn and smile. “Oh, and I don’t offend easily, so you guys don’t have to hold back for me.”

“Good thing. We don’t have filters,” he adds. Brady is a r
ough looking guy. It’s not the grease covering ever bare speck of him that gives it away, but the knife and naked woman tattoo I can make out under it.

His lack of dental hygiene and greasy hair is
n’t helping any. He’s being nice and welcoming, so that’s all that matters to me.

I walk into the store and glance toward the front. Shit! Becca is here, and she’s talking to Travis. I’m
scurrying to the front like I’m doing a pee dance to the restroom. Look at them. I guess they would be a match, both with that shining charm.

“Becs
, what are you doing here?”

She continues batting her lashes at lover boy
for a few seconds before angling her body to me and holding up a bag.

“I brought you lunch.” What is it with the food gifts today? “If I’d kno
wn this cutie would be here, I would have brought him something, too.”

She tilts her head toward Travis and pops her gum. I grab her arm and drag her toward the front door.

“Hey, I didn’t get to say goodbye,” she whines as we exit.

“Knowing y
ou, you’ll be back to chat.”

She smiles. “You know me so well.”

“This is my fourth day, so why are you showing up already?”

“I felt bad about earlier. I’m sorry I recommended the fling with your boss.”

“Becca, please speak quieter.”

“Sorry.
Anyway, I never dreamed you’d go through with it, but I still believe it will all work out. Either you two will end up together, or you’ll find another job. You’re smart and a hard worker.”

“Thank you. I
t means a lot that you said that, but I would have preferred you waited until after work.”

“I told y
ou I had to check out these attractive guys. So, where is the numero uno,
the
hottie?”

“I’m not sure, but you’re not meeting him today.”

“Fine, but I’m following you back in to tell Travis bye. He’s funny, nice, and drop-dead gorgeous. I think he’s into me.”

My sister’s abundance of blonde hair is piled high on her head, and she’s wearing short shorts in March, when it’s not near warm enough.

“Of course he is; you’re beautiful. Make it fast, and thanks for lunch.”

I have to admit that the fried chicken Becca brought me is pretty tasty. It’s the last thing I should be eating besides straight lard, but I could hardly
say no to her. It would be rude, and I’m sticking to that.

“What’s up, b
uttercup?”

Jerking my head toward the door
way, I find Everett wearing his sexy grin.

“Ha ha. You think I haven’t been called that before?”

“I’m not saying it because of the candy, sweetheart. It’s because of the little cup of butter your holding. The one your finger has been swirling around in.”

Ah, hell. He would se
e me with my finger stuck in this tiny plastic container. “It was for my roll. I couldn’t let the leftover go to waste. It’s butter, so that would be a crime.”

“It was cute.”

I swear everyone in this place is going to know we’re sleeping together if he keeps this shit up. No boss would say that to an employee on the fourth day. I’ll get back at him. “Cute, huh?”

I take my finger still covered in butter and shove it to the back of my mouth before I ever … so slowly … drag it out.

Lust squelches his grin. “In my office now, Reese.” The switch has been flipped. Instead of funny and sweet, I’m faced with demanding and authoritative.

“Don’t talk to her that way, you big idiot,” Sarge says behind him. I smirk wit
h satisfaction. Everett squeezes his eyes shut for a few seconds.

“It’s not what you t
hink, and I thought I ran this company, but you like to forget.”

“It’s fine, Sarge. I’m already figuring out how to handle him,” I say.

Sarge peeks his head in around Everett, so I give him a smile to reassure him.

“Well,
I’m glad one of us is. I’ve been trying for all of his thirty-one years.” Sarge smacks Everett on the arm with some papers he has rolled up in his hand.

“He likes to bully
, when he doesn’t get his way, so you come tell me if he doesn’t play nice in the schoolyard.”

“Seriously? I hadn’t picked up on that yet,” I say, still smiling.

“Alright, now that you’ve both laughed at my expense, Reese, would you please come to my office, so we can go over some of the tax paperwork?”

“See, he’s learning to use his words,” Sarge says with a chuckle before he walks away. I cover my mouth, giggling beneath.

“I need to finish my butter first, sorry.”

Everett pouts
like a little boy.

“I’ll be waiting impatiently.”

“That I believe. Geez, give me a minute. I have something I need to discuss with you, anyway,” I say as I begin to clean up the lunch spread across my desk. He’s a bit exhausting today but so damn hot.

“Hi,”
I say as I stroll into his office.

“Would you please shut my door?”

Exhaling loudly, I do it before padding over to his desk. “I have a question. Did you ever sign the checks during the year the IRS is investigating?”

“
No, why?” he asks.

“Well, I’m trying to figure out who handled what back then, so if I have questions, I
’ll know who to ask.”

He
diverts his gaze to his computer.

“My wife, Krystal, handled all of that. She used a signature stamp on the checks.”

“OK, um, who signed off on her work?”

“What do you mean?
”

“It’s common practice i
n accounting to have a different person check off another employees work in case there are mistakes.” I won’t tell him the other reason, which is to ensure no one has the means to embezzle.

“
Look, I didn’t handle any of it!”

Start
led, I jump and look to the floor.

“I’m sorry, Reese
, but I don’t want to talk about it.”

My
eyes raise, and an anger I haven’t felt toward him surfaces. An anger I haven’t been faced with in years. I point my finger at him.

“If you think for a
second that the IRS is going to accept that answer, then you’re a fool. I don’t know how the hell you expect me to help you, if you don’t open up to me. You’ve been exhausting today, so leave me the hell alone for the rest of it.”

I stomp out of his office and down the hall to m
ine. After locking my door, I push back the tears forming.

You’re strong
er than this, Reese. Get control. It’s because of her. I’m jealous of a dead woman, and it’s over a man I met four days ago.

I did the math, and she died toward the end of that year. He was likely too much of a grievi
ng mess to deal with anything after.

Seeing a glimpse of the pain still aching deep in his soul, and knowi
ng he was thinking of her at that moment instead of me, created a surge of fury.

And that anger
makes me feel like a horrible person. I remember how long I loved a guy once after he died. It took me years to get over that pain. But I was right to say what I did about Everett having to open up.

We can’t go into this audit with nothing. He’s jeopardizing his entire company, and I don’t think he realizes that he could be charged with tax evasion with this high of a discrepancy.

If he can’t explain it, he could go to jail.