Sexiled: an enemies-to-lovers standalone Page 15

  “You’re early,” Morgan says when I arrive, opening the door.

  “Dammit. So does that mean I have to hang out with you?”

  “No, I can put you to work. Why don’t I just give you the tour.”

  He walks me through the place. It’s an open concept with a large kitchen and island, where he has margarita mix and tequila ready to go.

  “Gotta keep the troops happy, you know?” he says.

  Three steps down connects the kitchen to the living and party space, where there is a huge flat-screen TV and some couches.

  Outside, there’s a big patio lit by tiki torches. The sun is maybe an hour from setting, and I imagine the glow of the torches at night will look even more beautiful.

  Then, there’s fifty feet of sand leading to the beach. It’s absolutely stunning.

  “You have a boat?” I ask, pointing to the small yacht anchored approximately one-hundred feet off the shore.

  “It came with the place. It’s all part of the rental.”

  “How long are you here for?”

  “At least a year. That will be enough time for your dad to evaluate the viability of the business we’re doing here, and then maybe we end up moving it back to Chicago or moving more of the operation down here.”

  He leans against the railing of his deck, his dark wavy hair blowing in the wind as he turns to me.

  “Hey.”

  The way he says the word registers on a deeper level with me, and that catches me off guard.

  I say nothing, and he continues to talk. His tone is much more sincere than normal.

  My words don’t come. They are lost somewhere in the memory of his voice, soothing the pain I came carrying with me our first night together. I look at him and we are transported back to that night, to the moment he opened the hotel room door, and I knew it was all going to be okay.

  When I don’t say anything, he continues. “So I’ve been doing some thinking.”

  “About?”

  He casts his eyes away, then to me. “I’d like to apologize.”

  “Apologize for?”

  A third voice calls out before he can finish responding.

  “Well, hello there! Getting the party started early, are we?”

  “Oh, hey there, Gabe!” I say.

  Gabe walks toward us.

  “You guys don’t lock your doors around here or what?” Glancing between us, he notices the vibe happening between Morgan and me right now. “Do you two need a moment alone?”

  “Of course not,” Morgan says. “I should lock that door though. Just in case someone stumbles into the wrong house. Be right back.”

  Morgan heads back inside, and the moment has passed. Curiosity explodes inside me to know what he was apologizing for. It’s quite out of his personality for him to do that.

  “Well…whatever. Where’s your margarita?” I ask.

  The party gets going and it’s fun to see all of the members of the office and their significant others.

  Derek keeps trying to find me alone, but unfortunately he’s about as interesting as a fly.

  At the night’s end, many have left, and the ones sitting around the bonfire are me, Morgan, Gabe, Derek, a couple who has recently started dating, and Loretta.

  “So, who do you think has better sex?” Gabe surmises to the group. “A couple in a one-night stand or in a relationship?”

  The couple looks a little awkwardly at each other, then the man of the couple, named Frank, responds. “Relationship. You can get to know the person’s wants and needs and everything.”

  I nod with the other woman in agreement.

  “I’m torn on this one, to be honest,” Gabe says. “Since you know you’ll never see them again, you don’t have to worry about what you think of any of your dark, weird desires.”

  The couple looks at each other, a little awkwardly, and shrugs.

  “What about you, Morgan?” Gabe adds.

  A dark grin comes over Morgan’s face, reflected in the fire. “Oh, I don’t know. I’ve had some pretty good one-night stands. Some really, incredibly hot ones. Well, at least one, that is.” He hesitates. “Loretta, you sure we’re not breaking any rules with this conversation? Are we going to get in trouble with H.R.?”

  She laughs. “No, we’re good. It’s off the clock. We’re all just friends, right? I’m curious to know more, honestly. Why was it so hot?”

  He narrows his eyes directly at me and sips his scotch. A chill travels down the length of my spine as I soak up the intensity of his eye contact.

  “Well, there was something about her that I never could put my finger on. We had this instant connection.” He snaps his fingers. “Plus, she was beautiful. Exactly the kind of body I like, and blue eyes like diamonds. The sex was feral…” He looks around at everyone. “This is probably not stuff a boss should be talking about. I’ll stop.”

  “Uh, no, please go on,” Gabe says. “I’m personally riveted.”

  “Yes, it’s riveting.” I grin. “Why don’t you describe this woman in a little more detail. And tell us why you never called her back.”

  He gives me a lopsided smile, as if to say I know what game you’re playing and I’m going to play it, too. “How did you know I never called her back?”

  “Well, isn’t that the definition of a one-night stand?”

  “Oh, right.”

  Yep. Damn right.

  He goes on, “Honestly, I really don’t think I should go into too much detail. But if I did, I might go on about how she showed up to my place in a trench coat and lingerie. How she was this combination of crazy and sweet at the same time that drove me nuts. And I shouldn’t, because I found out through a total coincidence that she lied to me that whole night.”

  “In what way?” I blurt out, practically throwing myself out of my Adirondack chair.

  “She was engaged,” he says, and his eyes float down to my Claddagh ring. “And I’m not one to be a homewrecker. If I had known, I never would have done it. After witnessing the series of cheaters that my mom endured during my childhood, I knew just what to do with a girl like her. Never talk to her again.”

  Realization dawns on me, and my heart begins to pound.

  The whole reason he didn’t call me back was that he thought that I was engaged? How would he get that idea?

  “Well, what if she wasn’t engaged,” I burst out. “What if you were wrong?”

  He lets out a low chuckle. “I’m not here to let some cheater deny what they’ve been up to. I don’t care. But me, personally—I do things on the up and up. When I’m seeing someone, I don’t keep her a secret from anyone. And if I want to keep her a secret, I don’t see her.”

  My heart starts pounding and it won’t stop. My heart is pounding so loud, it is blaring in my ears.

  We change topics, and the rest of the bonfire is a blur. Derek tries to flirt with me, but I’m so disinterested I accidentally call him the wrong name.

  Derek takes the hint and when the others leave, and then it’s down to me, Gabe, and Morgan.

  I think we talk about the stars, return to work chatter, and I even answer a question or two about the cruise. But really, all I’m doing is sipping my margarita and stalling.

  I need to talk to Morgan. Alone.

  “Hey, so…I’m getting out of here,” Gabe finally says. “I stopped drinking after that first margarita, so I’m good to go. Do you want a ride?”

  I wave him off. Adrenaline is pounding through me. “You know…I’m going to stick around for one more.”

  “I can call the private driver to take you home,” Morgan offers.

  “I just want to go out to the beach and look at the stars one more time.”

  Gabe hugs me. “All right, honey,” he says, and leaning in, he whispers, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Which is pretty much nothing.”

  When the door shuts, the two of us are alone and the vibe between us changes completely.

  I glance at Morgan and notice he’s staring rig
ht back at me with his dark eyes, examining me harder than before.

  “So…stars, huh?” he says, nodding toward the back patio. “Let’s go. Need one more margarita?”

  “Yes, please.”

  As I walk behind him, I want to scream out loud exactly what’s on my mind. I hold onto it for a few more moments, because I also want to know what was on his mind earlier that he didn’t get to tell me.

  We head out onto the sand and wade into the water, me in my red dress, him with his khakis rolled up to his knees.

  “What do you think about when you look at the stars?” he asks me.

  “My mom, obviously.”

  He nods. “I think about Michael.”

  “What about him?”

  “I wonder if he’s been reincarnated yet.”

  A smile pulls at me. “You believe in reincarnation? But you told Sandra the energy stuff is a bunch of hocus pocus.”

  “Well, when I look at the stars, I start to believe in it.”

  “What do you think he’d be reincarnated as?”

  He grins. “You know, he was obsessed with Latin American rock music. There was this one band—Andrés Calamaro was the guy’s name—whose music he loved. He played guitar and he learned a few of his songs just for fun.”

  “You know you told me about this. Right?”

  His face freezes. “Oh. That’s right.”

  An awkward beat passes. “It’s okay. I like hearing you talk about him. You can tell me again. He spoke Spanish?”

  “Oh, yeah. He loved languages. I would bring him to the clubhouse for the Nationals, and all the Spanish-speaking guys loved having him around.” He tilts his head and goes to wipe something from his cheek. “Everybody loved him.”

  I get a little closer to him and put my hand on his shoulder, staying silent.

  I’m no stranger to what someone needs when they are where Morgan is. Less than two years into the grief cycle is right when people stop asking about the deceased, and it really sets in that they’re gone forever. And that all that’s really left are the one-on-one memories you shared with someone close to you.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you talk about him,” I say softly.

  “No, it’s okay,” he says. “I like talking about him…to people who truly listen and understand. You do. Or at least, you seem to.”

  “Seem to?”

  He shakes his head. “Never mind.”

  We stare up at the stars for a few minutes and see a shooting star.

  Damn.

  “So, earlier,” I say faintly. “What did you want to apologize to me about when we were interrupted?”

  He clears his throat. “I haven’t been the nicest toward you, and it got me thinking. I haven’t really given you a chance. I’m supposed to be guiding you, being your mentor, and I am just giving you a hard time. I should put it out in the open why I’ve been acting this way. It’s childish, really.”

  “Oh? Please, tell me.”

  “I can’t help thinking that you’re a good person—you seem like a good person to me, at least. I just can’t believe you slept with me when you were engaged.”

  “What are you talking about? I heard you say that in your thinly veiled tale of a one-night stand at the fire.”

  His eyes flicker with intensity, examining me like it’s the first time he’s seeing me all night. “So, yeah, what on earth are you talking about?”

  “Wait…you’re not engaged? How are you not?”

  “I mean, how am I engaged? Well, I will say I met you just a couple of weeks after breaking up with my stupid fiancé who was cheating on me, which is why I didn’t want to talk about relationships at all,” I say.

  “But at my interview, your dad showed me the picture of you with your fiancé the Monday after we hooked up!”

  I clench my teeth, and my eyes widen. “I waited a while to tell my dad! I wanted to tell him in person because he liked the guy so much.”

  Morgan takes a big pull of his scotch. “You’re not fucking with me?”

  “Have you asked my dad about him lately?”

  “No. I didn’t want to hear updates about you and the guy you were getting married to.”

  “Why not? I was just a one-night stand, after all.” My voice is laced with vitriol.

  C’mon, April, he’s trying to be nice, you can at least try to let your guard down a little.

  I can see his eyes narrowing in the shadowy light of the moon.

  “You really think I didn’t want to see you again after that night?”

  I nod. “You never called. So, of course, I thought that.”

  “Well, you’re totally wrong about that. I did. Holy fuck, April, you’re blowing my mind right now.”

  My heart slams against my chest. I wonder if he can hear it over the tide.

  “If you weren’t engaged, that means...well, fuck. It means, to you, I’m just an asshole who never called.”

  “Yep. Pretty much.”

  Our gazes meet, and the way he’s looking at me is reminiscent of our first night. Hell, our only night.

  He takes one step closer to me. I feel my nipples turning to pebbles.

  “You understand this changes everything for me?”

  “You don’t have a lot of one-night stands? I find that hard to believe. You’re a superstar. I might be inexperienced myself, but I’m not naïve.”

  “The way you came to me. The way you offered yourself to me. That was the single hottest night of my life. It killed me not to call you.”

  My voice is breathy. “I really was a virgin. Not that it matters. I wasn’t lying. I never lied about anything with you.”

  Morgan’s lips part, but he doesn’t say anything.

  “I slept with a couple of guys last term, though,” I spit out, then regret it. “Sorry, just thinking we should put the whole truth out there as long as that’s what we’re doing.”

  He fingers the bridge of his nose. “How’d that go?”

  I shrug. “Not good. I kept thinking about you.”

  “This is…a lot to process right now.”

  “So, are you seeing someone else?” I ask.

  “No. Aren’t you though? What about this Todd person?”

  “You know about Todd? I never told you about him.”

  “It’s a small office. Gossip gets around. I didn’t want to ask you directly.” He glances down at my finger. “And with the last name Kennedy, you better believe I know what it means when you’re wearing a Claddagh ring pointed inward.”

  “Todd is a lie I invented so I wouldn’t get hit on at the office,” I say.

  I reach down and take it off, then point the bottom of the heart out. “I’m actually single.”

  I lick my lips standing there and staring at him. He’s never looked more handsome.

  “You’re serious?” He arches an eyebrow at me.

  “Quite.”

  He crosses his arms. “Prove it.”

  I shrug. Pulling out my phone, I dial Alex’s number, and put her on speaker.

  “Yello!” she says.

  “Hey, you! I need you for something. Got a person here who doesn’t believe what happened with me and Matt.”

  “Like how he slept with some girl and you found him out at the end of April right after her birthday? Yick. I hate having to even talk about that asshole.”

  Morgan’s jaw drops farther, and his brow furrows.

  “And who is Todd?” I say, still holding the phone between us.”

  “Todd? Um, no idea. Do you even know a Todd?”

  I put her on mute for a moment.

  “Point proven?”

  Alex interjects. “What’s this for anyway? Super random.”

  I take Alex off mute. “I’ll explain later. Gotta go. Thanks, babe. You’re the best.”

  “No, you’re the best. See you in March!”

  I hang up and toss my phone onto one of the chairs close to the shore.

  Morgan steps toward me, his ankles splashing in the
shallow water.

  “We still can’t do anything, you know,” he says. “We’re not crossing this line.”

  “Oh? Who said anything about crossing any lines? You think I still want you or something?”

  He grins. “I know you do. If you’re done lying, you’d better stop fully, right now.”

  My body stiffens and he grows close.

  “Like I said, we’re not doing anything. But don’t act like you haven’t fantasized about how you felt underneath me on that bed in the hotel. How your body caved to every one of my desires. How much you liked my tongue on your…” He stops, his eyes drifting downward from my face. “Oh, are your nipples getting hard?”

  “Stop,” I mutter, my voice laced with desire.

  I don’t want him to know how much power he has over me. How much I really want him.

  “I’m messing with you, April. We’re really not doing this. I’m your boss. And your father can still have me murdered if he finds out.”

  “What if I want to? You’re not lording any power over me, are you?”

  “I made your father a promise to watch over you. And that certainly does not include being inside you. It was the one thing he wanted from me. Not to get with you.”

  I slip toward him, and run my hand down his toned abs, which are totally revealed by his shirt, which came unbuttoned halfway through the bonfire.

  “My dad isn’t in charge of my love life.”

  “Yeah, well, that doesn’t matter. He’s my boss.”

  “I understand. You’re right,” I murmur. “We should stop.”

  “We should. Let’s stop.” His broad chest heaves, and he bites his lower lip looking at me. “We’re stopping. Right now.”

  He doesn’t move back.

  “What?” I grin.

  “You look fucking delicious in that dress. I can’t stop staring.”

  I should probably turn and run for the hills.

  I should pack up my things and try to never see him again, except for at the office. Clearly I have a problem being around this man.

  “Well, you should probably stop staring. Since we’re stopping and all.”

  His hand touches my cheek, and in the next instant, his scotch-soaked lips collide with mine. I’m a goner.

  “You taste as good as I remember, baby,” he says.