Her Dirty Builders (Men at Work #10) - Mika Lane Page 0,39

guys are so awesome,” she said, her eyes getting watery. “I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”

I could think of a few ways…

Down, boy.

She joined me where I had just sat on the floor. “This is such a teeny little room. I’ve wondered what it was designed to be.”

I looked around, trying to imagine the original purpose of the room whose walls had been stained and cracked until we got to work on it. “Might have been built to be a nursery back in the day.”

She brushed her fingers over my hand on the floor, and I swear to god, I felt a calm begin to wash over me.

“I… I got my English exam back.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh my god. Tell me. Did you ace it?”

Fuck. Why did I even bring it up?

I shook my head slowly. “No. I wasn’t as well-prepared as I should have been. I could have done better.”

She ran a hand up my arm. “Don’t feel badly. It’s only one test. You still have your final exam and your term paper.”

She was right. But I guess what bummed me out the most was the knowledge that with my responsibilities to the business, I just didn’t have the time I needed to dedicate to school. Sure, I was going to pass my classes. But I needed to do better than that if I wanted to get into graduate school.

“You amaze me,” Esme said, putting her hand on my chin and turning my face toward hers.

“Huh?”

“Look at you. Taking over the family business when it was about the last thing in the world you wanted to do, looking out for your mom, plugging away at school. Helping me out, although I have no idea why you’d waste your time doing that…”

Was she fucking kidding? She was pretty much the only ray of sunshine in my life at the moment.

And then she got real with me.

She looked down at our touching hands. “You’re nothing like you were in high school.”

Oh. Shit.

“Esme, how did we know each other back then?”

I felt like she knew something I didn’t, and that wasn’t a good thing.

She looked up at me. “You and I once… made out under the bleachers.”

I dropped my head back and laughed. “No way. We did?”

Her serious expression indicated we sure had.

“Not so hilarious, really. You told your friends, who then told everyone in school. I had the distinct pleasure of being the school slut for a week or so, until some new, juicier gossip replaced my story.”

Holy fuck. I remembered her now. I’d been so pissed my friends blabbed but had been too much of a jerk to stop them.

Yeah, I’d been a head-up-my-ass teenager more concerned with what my friends thought than anything or anyone else.

And now I could see the damage I caused. Shame hit me like a speeding truck, and I knew I deserved every bit of the discomfort that brought with it.

“Holy shit. You were that girl? You don’t look anything like—”

She stopped me. “Yeah, I know. I don’t look much like I did in high school. When I got to college, I ditched the glasses and got in shape taking dance classes. Kind of reinvented myself.”

I looked at Esme, this amazing woman, helping me out of my funk, whom I’d once hurt.

“Jesus, Esme. I’m so sorry. And I know I don’t deserve it, but I hope you can forgive me—”

She held a hand up. “I’ve already forgiven you. In fact, I forgave you when it happened. It was an asshole teenage boy thing. You’re not that kid anymore, just like I’m not that girl anymore.”

Fuck me. I could learn from her grace. Maybe if I stopped resenting where I was in life and changed how I looked at things, I’d begin to be more like her.

“You… dazzle me,” I said, running a long strand of her hair through my fingers.

God, that sounded fucking lame.

But whatever.

I lay back on the drop cloth covering the floor and pulled her on top of me. I ground my hard cock against her pussy through our blue jeans as I unbuttoned hers and she made fast work of mine.

I reached into my pocket for a condom and pushed my jeans down below my ass while she shook free of one leg of her own. I sheathed myself, and Esme hovered over my hard dick.

“Kiss me first,” I demanded.

She leaned down and as our lips brushed and then pressed furiously, I held her hips and slowly lowered her on