Boss Me (11 page)

“Then, I’ll stay as long as you want me to,” I reply as I pull her to the bed. I give her towel one quick tug like a magician pulling the tablecloth out from under the plates, which results in another sweet laugh. I’ve never heard Carmen laugh so much. Shit, before tonight, I’ve never heard her laugh period.

I drop my towel on the floor and climb into bed next to her. Her body is warm and soft, and when I pull her snug against me, we fit together like puzzle pieces. My heart rate picks up as I imagine falling asleep like this more often. Like every night.

It’s too soon to start thinking like this, but I can’t help it. My body’s response to her is crazy, and my head is just as screwed up. I should be pushing her away, not snuggling against her while she falls asleep.

Carmen reaches over and turns on her alarm. “It’s set for four-thirty. Is that okay?” she asks as she looks over her bare shoulder at me.

“Yeah,” I mumble as the words get caught in my throat. She’s so damn beautiful, and when she looks over her shoulder at me like that, damp hair falling down her back back wild around her face, my heart stutters in my chest. It feels like it’s actually slamming around against my ribcage, trying to surge out of my body.

I don’t say anything else as Carmen lies back against me. Her sweet ass is pressed firmly against my groin. I wrap my arms around her stomach, holding her securely against me. I inhale the scent of her shampoo as I run my nose along the shell of her ear.

“Good night,” I mumble as the day, and activities of tonight, start to pull me towards sleep.

“Good night, William,” she says in a sleepy voice.

The feel of this woman against me is heaven as she drifts off to sleep. I’m lost in the sounds of her breathing evening out. She mumbles incoherent words as she slowly succumbs to a deep sleep.

This woman has completely thrown me for a loop. I get a glimpse of the woman she hides behind; a bossy, condescending demeanor and a snarly attitude. In its place is the funny, beautiful woman she showed me tonight. A woman that no one else has truly ever seen. A woman that I sure as hell want to see a lot more of.

I pull her as close as possible as I close my eyes and follow her into the night.

*****

“You had sex!” Holly exclaims next to me in the supply room.

“What?” I ask, wide eyed and shocked that she would even have any inkling on my activities twice last night - and once this morning.

“You did!” she practically shouts in the empty hallway.

“Shut up, Holly,” I harshly whisper, looking around to see if anyone heard her.

“Oh my god, does Avery know?” she asks while pulling out her cell phone from a pocket on the front of her scrub top. I don’t even have time to reply as I watch her fingers frantically type out a message to, I can only assume…my sister!
Kill me now!

I grab at her phone and pull it out of her hands. “Don’t do that. Why in the hell would you text her that shit?” I ask firmly, frantically erasing the message she was typing to my sister.

“Why not? She’s worried about you. She thinks you don’t have time to date. She’s afraid if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it,” she adds with that ornery smile.

“Holly, I don’t think that’s how it works, and you know it,” I mumble, the embarrassing flush warming my cheeks and neck.

“So, who is she?”

“Just someone I met,” I say as I hand her back her phone.

Holly is Avery’s best friend and a nurse here at the Rivers Edge emergency department. I’ve known her practically her entire life. A few months back, Holly married one of the most popular rockers in the United States. Jase Bentley is the lead singer of Bent, and met Holly, my sister, and my sisters-in-law before a concert this past March. I’m told the sparks flew. And I’m not talking about the pyrotechnics at the concert.

Holly took a step back from her job at the hospital a few months back. She works part-time now, choosing to spend more time at home with Jase. Hell, it’s not like they need the money. To say they’re well off is an understatement. “How’s Jase?” I ask.

“He’s fine. Don’t change the subject,” she chastises.

There was a time where Jase Bentley wasn’t my biggest fan. Holly sported a massive crush on me way back when she and my sister were in high school, one that I suspected, but never took advantage of. When Jase stormed into our usually quiet little town, photographers followed and managed to snap a few pictures of me hugging Holly. The result was their breakup, and I felt like the cause.

Jase and I have talked since then and have actually become friends. He’s an implant into the Stevens family and feels like another honorary brother. “Tell him I’ll call him this week and we’ll shoot some hoops,” I say, trying to keep her attention away from sex.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll tell him. Back to the fact that you had sex last night. Who is she? Where did you meet her? Do I know her?”

“Holly, take a breath. I’m not going to discuss this with you or anyone else. This is new, and I’m not going to start categorizing it yet. It’s personal, and I’m going to keep it that way,” I say as I see a head of long brown hair come around the corner.

I look up into the wide brown eyes of the woman I’m referring to. She looks between Holly and me several times before I see her boss face slam into place.

“Good morning, Carmen,” I say in a business-like tone.

“Good morning, William. Holly,” she says with the slight nod of her head.

“What brings you to work on a Saturday morning?” Holly asks.

Carmen looks as if she doesn’t want to answer, but finally does. “My car wouldn’t start last night so I’m meeting a mechanic here to see about getting it fixed,” she says with just a hint of ice.

I study her for a few moments and take in her dark jeans, worn sweatshirt, and snow boots. Her hair is down and free around her face, and her make-up subtle. She looks positively edible, and I’m instantly half hard.

“I better get back up front,” Holly says as she sidesteps around Carmen. “Bye, Will. Bye, Carmen,” she adds before turning the corner and walking out of sight.

“Good morning,” I say with a smile.

“Hi,” she says with the hint of her own smile. Her earlier toughness fades away, leaving behind the woman I spent last night with.

“Someone’s coming to fix your car?” I ask as I take a few steps closer. I keep her just out of arms length because heaven help me if I don’t want to touch her right now.

“Yeah, the guy who runs the shop on Main. He should be here any minute, but I thought I’d stop by and grab some paperwork for the weekend,” she says.

“Do you have plans this weekend?” I ask under my breath, taking a half step towards her.

“Nothing until Zach comes back tomorrow evening,” she says, looking everywhere but at me.

“Does that mean you’d welcome company?” I ask, eyebrow skyward with suggestion.

Carmen looks around again as if verifying that we are indeed still alone. “You can’t park in my driveway,” she says in a hushed voice.

“You let me figure that out,” I whisper. “I’m bringing dinner. Five o’clock?”

“That’s fine. Back door,” she whispers as she throws me a wink and turns to walk away. Her ass in those jeans is amazing. I wish she’d come back over here just so I could watch her walk away again.

I’m one of those happy bastards for the rest of the day. You know, the ones who walk around with that ‘I had great sex’ smile and that ‘I’m gonna have great sex again tonight’ look in their eyes. There’s pep in my step that I’m sure goes unnoticed. Holly smirks at me every chance she gets as if she knows.

But, she doesn’t know the half of it. I can’t get this woman out of my head. And I’m thinking about more than just sex.

I’m thinking about the woman behind the mask, and she’s fucking amazing.

Yep, I’m a lucky bastard.

*****

Sunday has me getting off shift at two o’clock but instead of going home, I decide to head on out to my parent’s house a little early. Honestly, I could use a little nap this afternoon before I enjoy some time with my niece and nephews, but I don’t want to go home to my cold, empty condo.

I spent Saturday night at Carmen’s, too. I showed up at five liked planned with a bag full of ingredients to make chicken stir-fry, and she answered the door in a long satin robe. Underneath that robe was the most delicate light pink nightgown I’d ever seen. Cut dangerously and seductively low in the front to reveal tons of fleshy cleavage, tiny straps that left her delectable shoulders bare, practically no back, and a very high slit up both sides. It took me about three point five seconds - including removing my coat - to strip her bare. As amazing as it looked displayed on her tall, curvy body, the sight of it piled on the floor at her feet was definitely my favorite.

After devouring her body for much of the early evening, we cooked together in her tiny kitchen. Our shoulders rubbed, our hands touched, and our hips bumped the entire time we worked together in the small space, but I’ve never had more fun with a woman. It’s probably the most intimate yet normal thing I’ve ever done. It was weird, yet so…right.

After parking my car in front of the garage, I exit and hear the sounds of a saw. I make a pit stop to the garage where I find my dad covered in sawdust, cutting two by fours with his circular saw.

“Hey, Dad,” I say as he sets the saw down on the floor.

“Hi, Will. You’re a little early, aren’t ya?” he asks with that friendly smile that reminds me of my childhood.

“Yeah, I thought I’d come hang out with you guys before all the crazies get here,” I say with my own smile.

Dad chuckles and picks up the board he cut. “Your mother decided she needed a new bench for her flower garden out back,” he says, nodding to the pile of cut lumber on the floor.

“And you’re doing this in December, why?” I ask curiously.

“Because if I didn’t get out of that house, I was going to go nuts. She has been watching over me like a hawk, not letting me lift a finger for myself. It’s driving me crazy.”

“She’s only trying to help,” I tell my dad.

“I know that, and I love her more than anything in this world, but if she doesn’t back off, I’m going to sleep in the Chevy,” he says with a rueful look, nodding towards his old nineteen sixty-five Chevy Corvette blanketed by a dusty car cover. I’m not exactly sure where Dad thinks he’s going to sleep in that car, but I’d almost pay money to see him try.

“I know that heart attack scared her, believe me. It scared me, too. But she needs to let me be an adult and take care of myself. It was a mild one, and I’ve already changed my eating habits. She bought some walking contraption that she’s got up in Jake and Nate’s old room, and she makes me use it every night. I’ve taken care of this family and home for thirty-some years. I’ve worked our company and grown it into a successful operation. I’ve helped raise five energetic kids and wouldn’t trade a single day for anything. But by God, I think I’ve earned the right to at least get up and go to the bathroom in peace.”

I laugh. I can’t help it. The image of my petite mother turning into the Mother Hen for my dad is just too much.

“Yeah, you laugh now, son, but someday you’ll understand what I’m talking about. Someday a woman is going to drive you so completely bat-shit crazy, yet you’ll love her more than life itself. Someday, you’ll know what it’s like to want to sleep in your car one moment, but be afraid you’ll miss the sounds she makes in her sleep or that smile she gives you first thing in the morning. Trust me, Will. You don’t want to miss those little moments for anything. You never know when one day, they’ll be gone,” he says and looks down at the pile of wood on the floor. The pile that he’s turning into a treasure for my mom.

My mind instantly goes to my own woman. She’s not really even my woman, is she? I’ve been spending time with her - time that no one knows about - and we’ve been sleeping together, but that doesn’t make her mine. It just means we have chemistry. Damn hot chemistry.

“Where’d ya go there?” Dad asks with a knowing smile.

My dad has always had a way of reading our thoughts or our hearts before we even really knew what it said. Mom has that same crazy ability, but she flaunts her abilities. Dad usually remains quiet in the corner and lets you go to him when you’re ready.

“I just have a thing,” I start.

“A thing?” he asks, eyebrows shooting straight to the ceiling.

“I kind of have been seeing this woman. Nothing serious or anything. Very casual. I just can’t stop thinking about her which is kind of a problem since we technically can’t be in a relationship.”

“Married?” he asks, the features on his face tight as his jaw twitches.

“Hell no, Dad. She’s not married. She’s actually divorced, but that has nothing to do with it. It’s just someone from work. Someone I should stay very far, far away from.”

Dad searches my face for several long seconds. I’m starting to get that feeling that he’s already figured out exactly who I’m talking about. “So, this woman that you’re working with that you’re not supposed to be seeing, would she happen to be the tall brunette that you couldn’t take your eyes off of while I was in the ER a few weeks back?” Dad asks. I watch as a knowing smile creeps into the corners of his mouth. Still, he waits me out. Smiling. Cocky bastard.

I close my eyes, knowing I’m defeated and not getting out of this garage without giving him the information. “Yeah. That was Carmen, my boss. We’ve spent a few nights together very recently, and if anyone finds out, we’d both be out of a job,” I tell my old man. I know that what I tell him will stay between us. My dad is solid like that.

Dad blows out a whistle. “That’s a pretty serious consequence. Are you sure you’re okay with it if it comes to that?” he asks, grabbing the bottle of water on the workbench and taking a drink.

There’s no hesitation. I already know the answer. “Yeah. I’m okay with that. I like her…a lot. She’s got a kid from her first marriage that I haven’t met yet, but I hope to someday. Right now, it’s too soon to plan anything or jump to conclusions, but I feel different when I’m around her. I know that sounds crazy since we just started hanging out outside of work, but that’s how I feel,” I confide in my dad.