Page 1 of CEO February: Brax Danvers
Chapter One
Note: These naughty novellas are erotica. Not erotic romance, which is a different concept that has a longer story line (if you want story line and naughty, look up The Facilitator). These are short stories focussed on one fantasy.
Being an American in London wasn’t as terrible as it was portrayed when I’d decided to leave my small town. I was told howcoldthe English were, in line with their weather. I’d found it to be the opposite. I had also been invited to join some ex-pat clubs, which always helped.
I’d been recruited from the States to head an advertising agency, one of the largest worldwide but with headquarters in London. It was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down, of course. It proved an appropriate time to get distance from my fiancée, who had decided a committed relationship to one person wasn’t her thing but had failed to inform me, or the other party, of that.
“Brax?” a voice called, and I turned to see my associate at my office door.
“Sorry, miles away,” I replied. “What can I do for you?”
“You still looking for a dog?”
I had decided, since I was going to be in the UK for the foreseeable future, a small dog, one I could bring to work, would offer me some company and an excuse to get out and exercise. My daily workouts had dwindled, and I was starting to feel the effect.
“I sure am,” I said.
Annie walked toward me holding a piece of paper. “I can vouch for this dog. She’s elderly, but in great health. My mum’s neighbour has owned her for years, but she has to go into a home. I can’t have the dog in my flat because it’s rented, and the landlord won’t allow me.” She handed the piece of paper to me.
A photograph of an aged collie sat looking back at me. If a dog could smile, it was. There was a list of details about the dog and the comment that read, ‘loves people and cuddles’did it for me.
“When can I see the dog?” I asked.
“Now if you like, she’s not far.”
I glanced at my watch, it was nearing six in the evening and I would normally have left the office an hour earlier. I grabbed my jacket from the back of my chair. “Let’s go.”
Annie was the best friend I had in London. We didn’t date, I was her boss, but we had a friendship that meant we could dine out, go to the theatre, and work events, and it wasn’t weird. Everyone knew we were just friends and there was no sexual chemistry between us. Certainly not on my part.
We walked the short distance to a small estate and knocked first on Annie’s mom’s door. She had a key and had been feeding the collie while her friend, Ingrid, had been in hospital.
“Hello, my love,” the older lady said, kissing her daughter. “Brax, come on in. Got time for a cup of tea?” she asked.
“Not really this time, Mum. We’ve come to see Sally,” Annie answered for me. Obviously, she had plans and was on a time limit.
“Oh yes. You’ll love her, Brax,” the woman told me, and I wondered if Annie had already had a conversation with her mom about it. Annie grabbed the keys from a rack on the wall and we walked next door.
“I used to play with her when I lived at home. Sweetest dog you’ll ever meet,” Annie said and then sighed.
It was a sad situation for someone to have to give up their dog. “If I do take her, we can arrange to visit your neighbour and take the dog with us,” I said.
Annie smiled as she opened the door. “Sally,” she called out.
I heard a scraping of claws on a wooden floor and a small bark.At least the old dog still has energy, I thought, as she came bounding toward us. She wagged her tail so much her whole back end wiggled, and that accounted for the odd scratch marks on the floor. She weaved around our legs with her tongue lolling and bright eyes looking up at us. She flopped at my feet and rolled over. I crouched to give her a belly rub.
“She likes you,” Annie said, and I laughed.
“Yeah, as if every woman rolls over at my feet for a belly rub. That would make life easy,” I joked.
Annie had tried to set me up with many of her friends in the year we had been working together, but I just wasn’t interested. I didn’t want to date; I wanted something a little more exciting than that. Unbeknownst to Annie, I belonged to a local site for married women who wanted to hook up. One night of sex and no commitment had satisfied me at first, but even that was wearing thin.
Sally bounced back on her paws. “Shall we take her for a walk?” I asked. I wanted to see what she was like on the leash. Annie pulled one from a coatrack and handed it to me. Immediately, Sally came and sat in front of me and I clipped it on.
Behind the house was a small field. It was one of those obligatory areas that planning departments insisted as a trade-off when most of the green and open areas were destroyed for housing. We walked around it and Sally sniffed and peed. Thankfully, that was all she did, since we didn’t have any poop bags. I let her off the leash and she investigated but never went too far. If she’d run off, I would have been in trouble.
I called her and she came straight back to me. I rubbed her head, and she wagged her tail. “She’s lovely. I’ll take her home with me,” I said, wondering if we needed some kind of adoption papers in place.
“My mum and Ingrid will be so pleased. She was refusing to go into a home because they wouldn’t let her take the dog, but she couldn’t stay at home any longer.”
