Taming the Bad Girl (2 page)

I’d fucked it all up.

I closed my eyes and let the breath out. It was
shaky, like me, and I felt tears prick the corners of my eyes. It wasn’t the idea
of having someone manage my budget that made me squirm, not at all. If I could
just have had Pam or hell even Gabe himself, just not Giles…never Giles….

“Why you?”
I asked.

“Who else?” he said, “would be willing to take
you on?”

No one
.
The words whispered though my mind and I felt my eyes prick all over again.
Gabe wouldn’t because he disliked me. Pam couldn’t because Gabe wouldn’t let
her. There was no one left but Giles, and he was doing this only because he had
to. No doubt he hated the situation as much as I did. If I was honest with
myself I knew he didn’t want this, not at all…there was nothing about me that
Giles wanted. Never had that been more obvious to me than it was now, with him
stood against my wall, talking to me like I was someone that meant less than
nada to him.

Because that’s the truth, Luce.
 

At that thought my anger, my bitchiness
disappeared as fast as it had come and I sank back down into my chair. “I have
no choice, do I?” I
whispered,
the screech no more.

“No,” Giles said.
“None.
Neither of us
do
.”

I swallowed dryly as I imagined working closely
with this man for the next few weeks.
Spending time with him,
late nights, early mornings.
The lump returned and my heart ached even
as my body trembled. I honestly did not know how I was going to handle it. Bad
enough seeing him every day but at least there’d been some distance. Offices
and walls between us and when it had got really bad I’d simply flirted with
someone close by or gone out and picked up another guy. Trying to lose myself
in them, sometimes even imagining they were Giles.

But this?
I did not know if I could do it.

Working with the man who had taken the only bit
of happiness I’d ever found in my life.
The man who’d broken
my heart.

Chapter Two

Giles: Some women you just cannot forget…no matter how hard you try.

I sat at my desk feeling like a complete bastard
one moment and then all kinds of a fool the next. I’d left Lucy’s office as
soon as I could decently get away with it and I’d thought, as the light glanced
off her from the open door, that I’d seen tears in her eyes. But that was
ridiculous. The woman probably didn’t even know how to cry!
And
certainly not over me.
Her tear ducts were no doubt welded shut with
make up or dollar signs. So a fool, but then a small part of me wondered if she
really was upset, and the guilt welled up even as I upbraided myself for it.
Lucy had played me once and I’d be a complete idiot to let her do it again.
Hell, I didn’t think I could take another round of that sort of treatment. I’d
barely made it out in one piece the last time.

I unlocked my computer and pulled up her budget
sheet from SharePoint, shocked as always to see the numbers dancing across the
screen. How Lucy had spent all that money I couldn’t quite work out. I’d have
to though. This was part of my job now. Gabe had asked this favor of me and
before I’d even thought it through I’d found myself agreeing. I regretted it
already and couldn’t help but think that if I was honest with myself I’d admit
that I’d agreed for all the wrong reasons. Though I wanted nothing more to do
with Lucy something kept pulling me back to her, over and over again….

Lucy.
Her face filled my thoughts and I clenched my fists. There was no
doubt that she was stunningly beautiful. I’d always thought so and not even our
history could change that. Thin in a delicate sort of way, angular even, and
with that amazing honey colored hair. It was real. I knew that from
experience,
and those eyes…I shook my head to dispel the
image of them brimming with tears, replacing it instead with the image of her
throwing me out of her apartment.
Her eyes blazing and full
of anger.

No, I looked at the budget sheet and hardened my
heart. I would not be taken for a fool again! I had to ignore the weird pull
she had on me. Ignore it just as I had these past months. By gritting my teeth
and freezing my heart. There was nothing but trouble there, nothing but more of
the same sort of pain. But even as I thought that I couldn’t shake off the
image of her sat on her chair, looking all sorts of lost. Her hair flowing
loosely around her shoulders, her small breasts heaving against her tight
shirt…my cock hardened in an instant and I cursed.

How was it even fair that she could still get me
hard with just a look? That despite the fact I knew she’d fucked dozens of men
since me and before me, my cock didn’t seem to care. It wanted to be inside her
again, teasing her tight walls, dragging against her engorged clit….

No! Lucy was nothing but trouble. I had to
remember that.
Had to.
And besides—I stilled my hand
on the mouse and coughed against the heaviness in my chest—Lucy didn’t actually
want me. Maybe she never had. I didn’t know, had not stuck around to find out.
My cock could harden all it wanted, could long for her for as many months as it
already had. It made no difference in the end. I would never settle between her
thighs again, never
feel her supple body
riding up and
down my shaft….

She didn’t want me.

A knock on the door a few minutes later pulled
me from my depressing calculations and equally depressing thoughts. I looked up
to see Pam enter. As I was head of finance and Lucy was head of marketing, Pam
was head of research. We were colleagues and friends, and I liked her a lot.
Not in that way, of course. After all she’d just hooked up with our boss, Gabe,
someone else I really liked. But she was a genuine kind of girl and it pleased
me to watch her falling in love, glowing with happiness.

“I,
erm
, couldn’t help
but overhear earlier….” Pam began.
 

I shifted uncomfortably. “Were we that loud?”

She laughed softly and took the seat on the
other side of my desk. “No. In truth I was eavesdropping. I could have helped
it but, well.” She shrugged. “I was worried about Luce.”

I’d never been able to work out why Pam and Lucy
were such close friends. The two were chalk and cheese. Pam as sunny and soft
as Lucy was bitchy and hard. But friends they were. They went out to lunch
together, to dinner. Swapped clothes and gossiped. Before that night it seemed
to me that Pam saw something I didn’t. Now though, now I was sure I’d been
wrong.

“I wouldn’t worry about Lucy,” I said. “She’s
like a cat, always lands on her feet.”

“You think so?” Pam asked. “I’m not so sure.
Something’s been off lately.” She paused and I could see that she was battling
with something, probably something I didn’t want to hear.

“Yes, well, she’s in a mess,” I said. “Of course
something’s been off. She spends all her time partying. Everyone knows that.”

Yes, everyone did.
The men…the constant men.
I
clenched my teeth against the wave of jealousy that threatened to overwhelm me.
Lucy was not mine, she could fuck whoever the hell she wanted, and if office
gossip was to be believed she did.
Constantly, continually.
I was just one in a long, long line.
 

Pam shook her head. “No, I’m not talking about
the partying, Giles. Well, I am in a roundabout way I guess.” She shrugged. “I
didn’t pick up on it before but I’ve been thinking about it these past days,
and she’s been weird for a good few months. She never partied like this before.
Never.
And there were never as many….”

“Men?”
I asked.

“Dates,” Pam corrected.

A good few months.
I shifted
again and swallowed dryly. Ignoring the little voice in the back of my head
that told me exactly what had happened all those months ago because it was not
down to that. It couldn’t be. There was no way our night together had done
anything to Lucy but piss her off. Thinking otherwise was what had landed me in
this mess. Thinking I meant more to her than I had. Like our night was anything
to her but a quick fuck.

“I haven’t noticed,” I lied.

“I didn’t either, that’s my point,” Pam said.
“Though I should have, she’s my friend after all. But I’ve thought about it and
I talked it through with Gabe. Another opinion, you know? He hasn’t been here that
long so he can maybe see it differently. Anyway it seems as though all her
troubles started sometime a few months back.
Maybe as much as
four or five?
The partying, the dates, the fuck ups at
work.
The more I think about it, the more sure I am that something must
have happened to her back then. What exactly I don’t know, but knowing Luce it
was probably man-related. And it must be something bad or she’d have told me
about it. She used to tell me everything.”

“What is your point in telling me this?” I asked.
Because already I was wondering what man in Lucy’s extensive list had caused
her to act so
crazy.
I knew it wasn’t me. Of that I
was absolutely sure. But if Pam was right one of them had turned her head.
Maybe even hurt her in some way. I swallowed uneasily, the thought causing a
strange throb in my chest.

“I want you to go easy on her,” Pam said softly.
“To understand that she’s not herself right now.
Help
her, support her. Give her a chance.”

“She’s always been a bitch,” I said, even though
guilt squirmed at labeling her that way, the fact that it was true was neither
here nor there. “She wouldn’t appreciate me going easy on her.”

“Well, yes, she is,” Pam agreed. “But never as
bad as this. Do you really think she’d be my best friend if that was the case?”

“I’ve never understood that,” I admitted. “How
you two are such close friends. You’re so different.”

“Opposites attract,” Pam said, casting me a look
I couldn’t quite decipher.

I shifted in my seat and picked up a pen, more
to give my hands something to do than anything else. The image of Lucy’s slim
fingers working their way around something else entirely flashed across my mind
and I gritted my teeth. What a fool I’d been. What a fool I was
still
being.

“I’ll make sure her budget is sorted out,” I said.
“That’s what Gabe has asked me to do.”

“Yes, but maybe you could do more than that,”
Pam suggested, oblivious to my mental battle. “Help her out of whatever mess
she’s in. I always felt that she thought a lot of you and you of her. Maybe
this could be your chance.”

 
“My chance for what exactly?”
I grated.

“To make things right,” Pam said. “The way they
should be.”

The way
they should be?
I scowled and, though I didn’t want
to, asked, “Which is what?”

Pam smiled, stood up and swished her way back to
the door. Though I’d never been attracted to her even I couldn’t help but
admire the movement of her hips, the sway of her rounded ass. Abruptly my mind
shifted to another pair of hips, another set of curves and I frowned all over
again. Would I ever be free of those images? Ever stop thinking about that
honeyed skin and
those breathless sighs
?

“I think we both know, Giles,” Pam said. “And if
you don’t I’m betting that by the time this is sorted out you will.”

Chapter Three

Lucy: When life hands you lemons don’t make lemonade. Squash them
into a vodka instead, you’ll feel much better for it…I promise.

The club was busier than I expected.
Especially for a Monday night.
Dozens of men prowled the
bars, groups of women giggled and flexed around the seating areas, and the
tables where food was being served were full to bursting. I couldn’t even see a
single seat spare. Not that it mattered. I had no intention of sitting down and
eating dinner. My journey was going to end firmly at the bar, where I planned
to stay until I was sloshed enough to crawl home.
Pathetic,
yes?
Necessary, hell yes.

I strode past a group of men, a whole bunch of
who cast me appreciative looks. A fair few of them were pretty good looking but
I glared back. If there was one thing I hadn’t come out for it was to get laid.
After this afternoon’s meeting the very thought repulsed me.

“Alright,
darlin
’,”
one man said, reaching out to grab my arm.

I hissed at him, the ‘
darlin
’
jarring in my mind with Giles’ softly spoken one from earlier. “Fuck off.”