“We need to fire that redhead. She’s not cut out for this,” Elle announced, as she walked into my office.
I didn’t have to ask her who she was referring to; I already knew. Rose Henderson was petite, with curves that could stop traffic and the face of an angel. The cute pair of glasses she wore didn’t hinder her looks, either; they just made her eyes stand out. That only made Elle hate her more. She didn’t like competition, and I could tell she saw Rose as a threat. Not because I’d given her any reason but because every male who worked here clearly noticed Rose. She was hard to miss.
“Which redhead would that be?” I asked, not looking up from my unfilled orders.
“The short one. The one who can’t do shit. I told her to put those bar glasses away, and she complained to you. I’m head server, Captain. She can’t go over my head.”
I’d hired Elle as head server because she’d come highly recommended by someone Arthur trusted. I agreed to it soon after meeting and interviewing her. Fucking her in my office the next day hadn’t been planned, but she’d come on to me hard, and she was hot. I didn’t see an issue with it. I liked tall, willowy women. She fit the bill. But she also confused the fact that she was sleeping in my bed with having some kind of control over me, and I needed to fix that.
“We didn’t hire Rose, Elle. I did. And we won’t be firing anyone. She didn’t go over your head. She couldn’t reach the shelves. She was going to fall and break something. I gave her something else to do.”
Although I wasn’t looking up at her, I could feel her frustration building. She didn’t like my answer. Elle had a bit of a control problem. But she gave excellent head.
“I don’t want her here.” She pouted.
Finally, I looked up at her. She had her full lips puckered out like she was going to cry. It would have looked ridiculous, but she knew how to pull it off in just the right way. Pushing back from the table, I patted my thigh. “Come here, Elle,” I demanded, keeping my face serious.
She moved slowly around my desk, slipping her bottom lip between her teeth. Excitement flared in her eyes. That was the one thing I could count on. If I needed to calm Elle down, sex would do it.
“If you want to use that sexy mouth to turn me on, then you need to use it to get me off,” I told her when she stopped in front of me.
“Where do you want me?” she asked breathlessly.
“On your knees,” I ordered. She went down quickly and began to unbuckle my pants.
I wrapped a strand of her dark hair around my finger and let the silky texture tease me while she tugged my jeans down, then my boxers, until my cock was in her hands.
“As far down your throat as you can take it,” I told her, as I started caressing her exposed neck.
She made a whimpering sound that went straight to my dick. Bending her head, she pulled me into her mouth like a fucking vacuum, and I tilted my head back and groaned. I needed this today. Best stress reliever there was.
“That’s it, baby, suck it hard,” I encouraged her, placing a hand on the back of her head and pushing her gently so that I slid farther down her throat.
The gagging noise only made me hotter. I loved it when she choked around my dick.
“Good girl. So fucking good.” I praised her, knowing she’d only get better with the praise. “Suck that dick. Deeper, baby. So good.”
A knock on my office door caused her to freeze, but I held her head still so she couldn’t pull away.
“I’m busy. Go away,” I called out.
When the person said nothing, I patted her head for her to finish. Which she did.
• • •
An hour after Elle left my office, I headed to the kitchen to see if Brad had gotten everything in his order. My stress levels were down, and Elle seemed more secure and less anxious to get rid of Rose. Reminding Elle that she was the one I was fucking had done wonders for her attitude.
Laughter was the first thing I heard when I walked into the kitchen, Brad’s deep chuckle followed by a feminine one. I followed the sound to the back of the kitchen and found Brad covered in what looked like flour, while Rose held her stomach and laughed to the point of breathlessness. Rose turned to look at me.
A tightness in my chest hit me as her eyes danced with laughter. The clear blue of them was familiar, but it was more than that. It was as if I’d seen her laugh before. Heard her laugh. Watching her made my chest ache in a way that didn’t make sense. As if I . . . missed her. But I didn’t even know her.
All too soon, her smile fell, and she wiped away the tears that had formed from laughing so hard. She shifted her gaze to Brad. I made her nervous, but then I’d never been nice to her, exactly. She was just an employee I’d hired. I’d be leaving soon enough. I wasn’t here to make friends.
“Sorry, boss. I was reaching for a box on that shelf over there, and a bag of flour fell over, and, well, you can see what happened,” Brad explained, still chuckling. I tore my gaze from Rose and looked at Brad. He winked at her and began a futile attempt to dust the flour off. He needed a shower. I wouldn’t mind if he put some distance between himself and Rose.
Rose
Franny’s blond curls bounced as she ran from the edge of the water toward me. Mrs. Baylor sat under an oak tree with a fruity drink in her hand and a wide-brimmed straw hat on her head. The two of them had bonded, and Mrs. Baylor had offered to watch Franny while I worked. She said it gave her something to do and someone to spend time with.