Page 48 of Degrees of Control

“Fine, I’ll make an exception. What time do you want me over?”

He could practically hear her smile coming through the phone.

After his date with Charlotte was arranged, the day gained some momentum. He read through all his emails, proofed and signed a new contract and was just thinking about getting lunch when his office door opened and Verity Talbot from legal came slinking in.Fuck.

James had been told, in no uncertain terms, to keep his dick away from his employees, but he and Verity had wound up screwing after last year’s Christmas party. In the back room of a strip club, just to really round out the sleaziness. It was a mistake, he was technically her boss, but ever since, she stopped by a couple of times a week to suggest a repeat performance. He wasn’t sure how to ask her to stop without offending her so much she filed a complaint against him, and felt it was better to play along while escaping as quickly as possible.

Verity leaned over his desk like a teacher disciplining a wayward student. “Hey, Hunter, wanna go get a steak?”

James tried to smile as though this was a very tempting offer he was unhappy to decline. “Not today, thanks darlin’, I’m waitin’ on a call.”

Verity hoisted herself up on his desk, swinging herself around and parting her legs so he could look right up her skirt. James averted his eyes, but would bet money she wasn’t wearing black cotton briefs.

“Ditch the call,” she said. “Come down to the hotel bar with me instead.”

There was a time when he might have been tempted to take her up on the offer of cheap and easy hotel sex, but it had become obvious even during the strip club fucking that Verity wanted more from him than an incriminating office hook-up. She was what his mama called a “marriage-minded woman.” The older he got, the more of them emerged from the woodwork. He’d dated quite a few without realizing it. Sometimes he wondered if they were using a manual; ‘How to land an unsuspecting rich asshole in six weeks or less.’

His ex’s attempts to wrap the marriage noose around his neck were always in vain, though. After watching his parents battle their way through the nightmare that was matrimony, James wasn’t at all eager to step up to the plate himself. His relationships had shorter expiry dates than yogurt and he liked it that way.

Verity leant forward and shook a finger in his face, her smooth ash-blonde hair swinging around her shoulders. “One of these days you’ll say yes to me, James.”

Sorry, darlin’, not while I’ve got my hands full with a pretty, little masochistic yoga teacher.“We’ll see.”

Verity gave him a sly smile. “So Westwood tells me you’re banging a yoga instructor.”

James forced his face to stay smooth. “Lucky you, Westwood just forwards me porn.”

She laughed. “We both saw her wandering around the building like a little lost lamb. Tell me, can Miss Jugs put her legs behind her head?”

The words ‘don’t you talk about her like that’waited on his tongue, but saying them was a bad idea. James knew exactly how Verity saw Charlotte. She was a cute, well-endowed threat for his affections, another contender in the game of ‘bag the rich boy.’ Defending Charlotte would only make Verity think he cared, which would only increase her jealousy. “I don’t kiss and tell.”

“Well, I hope you carded her because she looks sixteen.”

James’ temples throbbed. The last thing he needed was a rumor that he fucked high school girls. Charlotte didn’t look young,exactly. She just had a deceptive kind of…freshness? Innocence? He couldn’t remember his first impression, not since she’d showed up at his house in stripper pumps and rode him like a mechanical bull.

“Charlotte’s twenty-four. I’m not a pervert.”

Wrong answer. Verity reached forward to adjust his tie, giving him a good look down her silk shirt. “I think we both know that’s not true.”

He forced himself to laugh knowing he should say something, but at a complete loss for what. He was so fucking tired of all these bullshit mind games that operated as though there were no mind games at all. He wanted to stand up and shout “I don’t want to fuck, date and ultimately marry you so you can finally achieve your dream of rubbing a big diamond in the faces of all the single girls in your sorority. Take a goddamn hint and leave.”He never had to deal with this bullshit with Charlotte. She was in their arrangement for the dick and that was just the way he liked it.

“So, are you seeing this yoga teacherexclusively?” Verity purred. “Do youlike her?”

A boulder lodged itself in James’ throat. He wasn’t seeing anyone else at the moment and yes he did like Charlotte, but he’d be damned if he was going to give Verity that information. “Nothin’ like that, just lettin’ it run its course.”

“Well, if that’s the case, maybe you, me and your new friend can go out for drinks sometime? I love yoga.”

James couldn’t help smirking at that. “I’m sure you do.”

What would Charlotte say if he asked her to have a threesome? Strangely, the idea had minimal appeal. Verity was cooperative but completely vanilla in the sack, and she and Charlotte had nothing in common. Verity was cut-glass stunning, she knew how to flirt, sip wine while passing on hor’dorves, make small talk and rub shoulders. She was the kind of girl his brothers married, the woman his mother was when she wasn’t off her face.

Charlotte was a whole other species, wild-flower pretty and genuinely kind to the point of making other people feel bad. Just imagining her let loose on his family was enough to give James a rash. Her pacifist, ‘no champagne thanks’ vegan, ‘we’re all equals here’ charm would go down like a lead balloon. Nope, if he got Verity and Charlotte in a bed together the blonde would bully Charlotte mercilessly and Charlotte would…what would Charlotte do?

Verity slid off his desk, adjusting her skirt. “Well, if you’re not free I’m gonna hit the gym. See you around, Hunter. Let me know what your girl says about drinks.”

She flashed him her fifty thousand-dollar smile and strode out of his office, ass swaying. James stared after her, wishing he’d gone home the night of the Christmas party and jerked off. Definitely one of his more consequential fuck-ups.

A thought occurred to him, seemingly out of thin air. Was Charlotte marriage minded? He dismissed the idea instantly. She didn’t want him to buy her a thong, she left twenty bucks on his kitchen table for pizza and gas. Landing a rich boy from the south and raising his blond-haired babies was clearly the last thing on her mind.

---