Authors: Elle Saint James
“Come to the ranch.”
Her gaze snapped back to his face. The color in her cheeks returned. “When?”
“Now?”
The musical tone of her sudden laughter engulfed him like a humid night in the tropics. She was absolutely irresistible. He leaned down and pressed his lips to her beautiful mouth before he could stop himself or worry about the semi-public place surrounding them. She tasted like she’d just been eating strawberries.
Expecting her to back away and caution him about their location, instead she moaned in his mouth and fell forward against his chest. Her tongue licked across his bottom lip before slipping inside his mouth.
Dominick slid his arms around her back and crushed her even closer into his willing frame. Her breasts ground into his body with delicious pressure. Her hips pushed into his groin, hastening his cock to full staff. He nudged her as the all-consuming kiss continued.
“Excuse me,” came a voice from the door.
They broke apart, each breathing hard, to see a tall, bone-thin woman, with arms crossed and sporting a surly expression, standing in the doorway to her office.
“Claudia,” Stella said.
Chapter Ten
Stella couldn’t stifle the thunderous beating of her heart from the power of Dominick’s kiss. Claudia the Bitch promptly entered her office uninvited.
Damn it all to hell
. The look in her eyes told Stella to beware. Dominick, as if sensing her apprehension, didn’t move away as her supervisor approached. Stella was so grateful she leaned against his shoulder and grabbed for his hand.
Her nervous fingers firmly circled in his warm grasp, Stella was unusually emboldened by his touch, and suddenly unafraid to face Claudia.
“I don’t believe we’ve met.” Claudia sent an interested gaze to Dominick. Her eyebrows lifted in question and she sent a sharp glance to Stella as if to say, “Introduce me to my next sexual conquest, then get out of my way.”
Stella was not interested in sharing even his first name. So she didn’t. “What do you need, Claudia?”
Visibly affronted, Claudia turned her entire body to face Stella. “Do you have the Detmeyer file?”
“No. I gave that to you earlier this morning. It’s on your desk. Was that all you needed?” She moved forward, placing herself slightly in front of Dominick.
Claudia’s lips thinned. “Perhaps I need to reacquaint you with our company’s rules on personal visits in the workplace.”
All of a sudden, Stella wasn’t in the mood to put up with Claudia’s bitchy antics for another second. Something in her snapped. She squared her shoulders and said, “I take my example from you. Perhaps you need to do the same thing and focus on the section for rules on drinking during business hours.”
Stella almost slapped a hand over her mouth in shock. She’d never stood up to her supervisor before. Dominick squeezed her fingers once. Whether it was a warning that she should keep her mouth shut, or silent approval, the gesture made her smile.
Claudia’s mouth had fallen open until she saw Stella smile. “What is so fucking funny?”
Before Stella could respond, Dominick released her hand moved around her initial protection and stepped into Claudia’s path. “My name is Dominick. Stella and I are friends. I stopped by unannounced, but I’ll go if being here is against the rules.”
Stella resisted the urge to push out a long, irritated sigh. She appreciated Dominick trying to help her, but given the crap Claudia had pulled in the office, it was insulting to have
her
spouting workplace regulations when she only barely followed any decorum whatsoever.
Claudia directed her attention to Dominick’s face. “You don’t have to go just yet.” She smiled and took a step closer. Stella also took a step closer to him. If this was about to be a battle for his attention, Stella intended to win.
She snapped her fingers in the air in front of her superior’s lust-filled face. “Why are you here, Claudia?”
Her distracted gaze eventually swung to Stella. “I was just walking by. Don’t forget about the Crossman summary.”
“Thanks for the reminder.” She tried to keep the sarcastic sound out of her tone. “But in the five very long years that I’ve worked here, I’ve never forgotten the Crossman summary, and besides, as you well know, it isn’t due until Friday. Therefore, you’ll have it tomorrow. So if there is nothing else, this is a private conversation.”
Claudia pulled her gaze from Dominick, gave her a dirty look, but turned on her heel and exited the room as if in a huff. Stella would pay for the remark later in some Claudia-inspired humiliation. But it was worth it. Stella followed Claudia’s path out and closed her office door. She was amazed at her fortitude not to slam it shut in Claudia’s wake.
Dominick looked a bit contrite. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to get you into trouble.”
“You didn’t. She’s always got her nose in everyone’s business. I believe this time she has designs on you, so watch out.” The stirring of jealousy in her belly surprised Stella, as she hadn’t ever felt such a strong tug of
that
particular sentiment in her life. Maybe she finally had someone worthy of the emotion.
“I only have designs on you. Please come out to the ranch.” He slid closer and pushed her against the inside of her own office door. She didn’t resist.
“What will happen if I come out to your ranch?”
His hips pushed into her pelvis, and his swelling cock rested against her belly. “Wild, wanton things. Or anything at all that you want to have happen. Interested?”
Stella didn’t have to ponder her answer long. She’d missed them terribly, and the feeling was obviously mutual. “As a matter of fact, yes I am very intrigued by your invitation. Why don’t I stop by after work tonight? The three of us can catch up.”
“Excellent.” He kissed her again. Then added, “Let’s surprise Tyler, okay? I won’t tell him you’re coming. Although, we may have to peel him off the thirty-foot ceiling in the great room after he leaps up there in glee the moment he sees you.”
Stella smiled at the vision. “Well, I couldn’t possibly miss that?”
“Need directions or do you remember how to get to our place?”
“Oh, I remember. I’ve already passed the place once this week like a lovesick teenager stalking the boys she’s after.”
He laughed, and the sound made her heart thump again in her chest. “Nothing wrong with that as far as I’m concerned.”
“I’ll see you soon.” He kissed her once more, drawing it out until her panties were soaked, and her inner walls pulsed with desire so deep she could hardly get her arms to cooperate and let go of him when he released her.
“Until tonight,” he said before he departed. Her mood had elevated considerably with Dominick’s visit. And now she had a date for later. She couldn’t keep the smile from shaping her lips.
Unfortunately, her good mood didn’t last for very long. Claudia came back the instant he was gone from her sight.
Standing just outside her door, Claudia smirked, looked down the hall where Dominick had just departed, and said, “What on earth is a mousy pants like you doing with a hot hunk of cowboy like that? Is he blind?”
“Screw you, Claudia.” Stella slammed her door in her boss’s face this time. She took deep breaths to calm herself. It wouldn’t do to piss Claudia off, but her patience had run out for today.
If she didn’t have a huge debt to pay off, Stella would quit this job in a flash. However, she still owed so much on the bills from her mother’s last days, she didn’t dare rock the boat any further.
The end was almost in sight, but realistically, she wouldn’t be able to quit this draining job for a very long time. If only Claudia wasn’t such a pain in her ass. She’d eventually pay for the remarks she’d made earlier, but for the first time ever, it was worth it to stick up for herself. She certainly didn’t want Claudia to mess with Dominick.
Hopefully, Claudia would let it go and not pursue any discussion of that hot, amazing kiss he’d laid on her right before she walked in and caught them.
Bad would be having Claudia discover her new attachment to Dominick and Tyler and blab it to the world. Worse yet would be having Claudia find out about her new fascination with double penetration sex or her association with the Double Rider Men’s Club, and blab
that
to anyone.
But for now, she pushed her dread aside and considered what might happen tonight at the ranch. Wild, wanton things, Dominick had said.
Stella might spend some time thinking up a few moves of her own to contribute to tonight’s sexual wickedness.
* * * *
After avoiding Claudia successfully for the remainder of the day, Stella thought about what Dominick had said, and decided he was right. It wasn’t her fault that she’d wrecked her car doing an emergency rush job for the company.
Claudia should have told her earlier in the day. They
were
lucky she hadn’t gotten seriously hurt. The boon of the accident resulting in her discovering two amazing men didn’t help pay the bills. Stella was practical enough in her theory on life to never allow them to help pay any of her debt. Not in any way. Not ever.
Her pride simply wouldn’t allow for it. Besides, it was exactly what her mother would have done. She would have scouted out and found a “willing man” to pay for her expenses. And that was exactly how Stella had spent her awkward teen years alone with her mother right after her father had died. Her mother had no compunction about allowing men she barely knew pay for her every whim, whether luxury or necessity.
Stella wouldn’t ever allow a man to pay anything for her. She’d earn her own way. Because in her limited experience, there were men who then expected something in return. And if they hadn’t got what they wanted from her mother, they’d leered suggestively at Stella as if she would fulfill what they felt they were “owed.” Never again would she live that life.
Before she left work, she traipsed to HR to get a reimbursement form. She quickly filled out the form with the pertinent details of the incident, sealed it in an oversized inter-office envelope and slipped it into the claims slot for someone to view in the next few days. The worst they could say was no. Even if they helped her pay any part of the damages, it would be that much less a burden for her. More importantly, it would keep her on track to pay her seemingly never-ending debt.
Stella stopped by her apartment on the way out to the ranch. She’d sent Dominick a text that she’d be at the ranch around seven. He texted back that Tyler was even more miserable than before, and to hurry. Thinking about how long she’d get to stay before having to race back to her apartment to get a bit of sleep before work, she decided to invite herself to spend the night and brought a change of clothing for the morning. They got up at the butt crack of dawn, so she knew she’d have ample time to get to work from the ranch, as it was closer to her workplace than her home. In fact, if she were invited to move out here, her trip time to work each day would be cut in half. A point in their favor if it ever came up.
The sun’s bottom edge caressed the silhouette of the darkening mountains as she drove through the already opened gate.
She parked her vehicle in the driveway leading to the house in front of the first stall of the garage. Dominick had texted her the code to the garage door opener so she could enter when she got there. He also waited for her with a wide smile on his face the moment she entered. He sat in the kitchen at the island as she carefully stepped through the mud room door.
“How was your trip?” he asked in a low tone.
“Good. Why are you whispering?”
“I want to surprise Tyler. He’s in there all dejected, watching seriously lame television shows. And tonight isn’t the first night. It really has to stop.”
“I guess we better go in there and cheer him up. But before I forget to tell you, the gate was open. Do we need to go close it?”