Page 133 of Entering Stronghold

Damn. He didn’t mean for it to be a rejection.

“I really do have some stuff to do,” he said, apologetically. “I’ll be back here tomorrow.” He gave her his own best flirtatious smile. “If you want to come by and chat… or flirt.”

Her smile changed, subtly, becoming more natural. “Okay. I’ll see you then.”

“Good.”

Since he didn’t dare touch her, Rick pushed himself over to the other side of the lane and pulled himself up the ladder. Just being so close to all her gorgeous bare skin and those lush curves had his dick half hard. If he actually touched her, he was pretty sure he’d be sporting wood for everyone to see. Maria was already moving her legs out of the swimming lane and into the regular part of the pool.

He watched as she slipped down into the water, sighing with pleasure as the cool liquid enveloped her skin. Thank God for a clammy cold bathing suit or that might have done him in.

Looking up at him with those gorgeous dark brown eyes, she smiled. The red suit was clinging to her curves and he could clearly see the outline of her nipples from getting into the cold water. “Have a good day.”

He cleared his throat. “You too. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Looking forward to it.”

The sultry way she said it made the simple words incredibly flirtatious. Rick just nodded his head and turned to go get his towel. Otherwise he was never going to be able to make himself leave the pool.

Unfortunately, he’d promised Justin some help in the office today. Adam hadn’t found someone to hire as Justin’s assistant yet, because there wasn’t quite enough work for a full-time position, and so Rick had said he’d come in and do what he could to help.

But he could let them know he’d be a little bit late tomorrow.

After a quick shower and change into office clothes, Rick couldn’t help glancing out the window at the pool. Maria was still down there, he was sure it was her, in the pool splashing and horsing around with what looked like those two college frat-boys. Gritting his teeth, Rick made himself turn away and get his ass out the door, telling himself he wasn’t jealous.

He wasn’t.

“Earth to Rick… hello Rick…”

Blinking, Rick gave himself a little shake and focused on Justin’s amused dark eyes. “Yeah? Sorry, what did you say?”

“Are you feeling okay, man?” Adam asked. “That’s the third time in the past half hour you’ve completely zoned out.”

They were all in Justin’s office eating lunch together, which was what usually happened whenever Rick came in to work. Adam had the neatest desk, but it still had a lot of paperwork on it, and Rick’s desk tended towards the messy side since he wasn’t in every day. Although, to be honest, his workspace always seemed to be organized chaos. He managed to be neat at home, but it just doesn’t translate over to work for some reason.

“I’m fine.”

“Are you thinking about a woman?” Justin asked.

“Why is that the first thing your mind goes to?” Which wasn’t really an answer. Rick knew he was being a bit evasive, but he just didn’t really know what to say to his friends.

There wasn’t exactly anything concrete between him and Maria, he was spinning fantasies. About all he could tell them was that he was hung up on a woman and he couldn’t stop thinking about all the dirty things he’d like to do with her, and on top of that, he kept thinking about how he could adjust things in his life to make a relationship with someone like her work.

That he was thinking about things like making her dinner when she was home from work late, which he’d noticed she did, thinking about how to reduce her stress and get her to relax… the things a boyfriend would do for his woman. Or a Dom would do for his sub.

Yeah, he was so not spilling his guts over lunchtime.

“Because Jessica told me Olivia told her you’re having girl problems.”

“What the fuck,” Rick said, not exactly angry, but more than a bit confused at how that had happened. “How did Olivia know?”

Stupid question. Even as he asked it, the answer popped into his head. Damn Jared anyway. He’d probably thrown Rick under the bus to get Olivia off his case about Marissa. Not that Rick entirely blamed him. Olivia was like a rabid dog about Marissa. And this was another good reason why he didn’t want to just blab about himself to his friends; the gossip grapevine was out of control.

Justin just shrugged, obviously not particularly interested in where the news came from as he was in confirming it. “So is it a woman?”

“A neighbor,” Rick said shortly. “There is no problem. We’re just friends.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he knew it wasn’t true. They weren’t really friends. Hell, up until this morning, he’d been trying to chase her away from him, and he still wasn’t sure he should change his tactic.

Normally he would have probably been a little more willing to share with his friends, which is probably why they had noticed he wasn’t really keeping up with the conversation. While he tended to keep things close to his chest, he’d always been pretty open about his desire to find a girlfriend and submissive. But he found himself reluctant to talk about Maria. Not just because he wasn’t sure where things were going with her, but also because he didn’t really want to share her yet.

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