Dirty Sweet Cowboy

She’s being obedient, too. It’s good .

When I open the door, her eyes widen immediately. I’m tempted to let the towel fall off me, but keep it tight in my fist, maybe just to draw out the suspense a little bit longer. Something about this feels so good; every little decision I make turns me on. Thinking about her first thing, coming up with a plan, getting her to my door, now watching her eyes skate across the water droplets on my chest. It’s all too perfect .

“Come in,” I suggest. “You want coffee ?”

She nods mutely, stepping across the threshold with her tiny feet bound up in strappy orange sandals. The sherbet-colored dress is snug on her curvy hips, fluttering just under the beautiful swell of her ass cheeks. A sudden clenching my balls reminds me that I’ve still got that hard-on, and I think she might’ve noticed it too .

I tuck the towel carefully around my thighs as I sit in the chair on the balcony, staring at her over the rim of my coffee cup as she sips daintily at her coffee, keeping her eyes carefully averted. She looks at the door, the coffee pot, the horizon. Anything but the obvious outline of my throbbing cock .

“Will you come with me to Shelter Cove? I’ve got a beautiful house there .”

She gasps, her lips opening and then closing into a hard line. I can tell she wants to go, but I know she needs to say no .

“I’ve got an employment contract I need you to sign,” I smirk .

She squints at me, uncertain, as though it might be some kind of a trap .

“You’ve got a what ?”

“I just thought of it this morning,” I smile, enjoying the way she mirrors my smile, showing off those cute, deep dimples. “You came to this conference looking for a job, so let’s give you a job. Easy .”

“Well, it’s not really that easy, is it? What, am I supposed to just tell Aden that I’m working for you? Do you think he’d really go for that ?”

Aden. Just hearing his name makes me feel… something. I don’t even know .

“He would never even know. The contract will come from Century Group, one of my shells that does some kind of… something. Import/export, I think .”

“You don’t know for sure ?”

She quirks one eyebrow at me. I have to smile, almost laugh. I remember that look, but the last time I saw it I think she was eighteen. Right before our families split. Maybe a couple years before. She always wanted to race me laps in the pool. I thought it was a good idea not to get too close, but when she would dare me, it was always a temptation. I’d say no, and she’d raise one eyebrow, silently challenging everything I stood for .

“My lawyers set them up. Shell companies are pretty standard at this level of business,” I explain. “But in any case, it won’t have my name anywhere on it. Here... I'll email you a contract right now. See? All done. You're officially my underling .””

She smiles but then looks away, scanning the horizon for who knows what. I know she’s just thinking about the consequences. Thinking about what would happen if Aden found out, what her parents would say. Deep down, she’s really a very good girl, the same girl I always knew .

“He knows you’re here,” she murmurs. Her soft voice gets caught in the wind and whipped back toward me. Even though we’re high above the bustling city sounds, I hear those words with absolute clarity .

I swallow, hard .

“We don’t have to tell him anything. This is just between us .”

She turns back to me, pouting slightly. “Aden won’t see it that way,” she says, though she doesn’t really have to. I know she’s right. “And neither would my parents. Your family …”

“I know,” I interrupt her .

She scowls, flinching. I know that I should say something to reassure her, but I’m not really sure what there is to say. There’s nothing we can do .

My parents and her parents had an arrangement to open a restaurant some years ago. My parents did what they do with money, which is creatively moving it from place to place. Her parents, with less experience, were surprised to find out how the real world works .

They felt cheated somehow, but maybe they just didn’t understand each other. In any case, Aden picked a side, telling me one day that blood is thicker than water and cutting our friendship off at the knees .

I was headed off for the Marines and so I thought I could step away for a while and it would blow over, but I didn’t really get a chance to check. And I guess it never did. Now he owns a different restaurant in a nice part of town. It looks really successful, though I’ve never been there. He should be over this; he really should .

“Ava, I know we have some things to work out here. That’s not what I’m talking about. Their issues are for them to work out. I’m talking about taking a little break, for the summer. Just between us. For fun. We can sort out everything else as it comes.

Do you trust me ?”

She takes a second to think, chewing on the inside of her cheek and blinking a few times. Finally she rolls her eyes and sighs dramatically .