CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 8
“You took a PA? Why in the hell would you need a live-in PA?”
Nate had been Elliot’s best friend for as long as he could remember. And on days like this one, Elliot was sure it had been too long.
He ran a hand down his face and spoke quietly into his phone. Not that Mandy could possibly see him, she was swimming laps in the pool.
He had never in his life found pregnant women sexy. Sure, some beautiful women had babies. But he had never seen an expectant mother on the street and thought ‘man I’d like to hit that.’
Until her.
Mandy had been living in his home for four days. And in that amount of time, Elliot had to rub one out in the office and beat another two off in the shower. He felt like a little kid instead of the grown ass man that he knew himself to be.
“Look, Nate, I don’t want to talk about it. I just want you to spread the word before you, and the boys get here for poker tonight. I don’t want anyone hitting on her or making her feel uncomfortable.”
There was a long pause, some might call it a pregnant pause—but Elliot was rather sensitive to that word lately.
“Who the fuck, are you?”
Elliot wanted to kill Nate, but his questions continued, “Is this a joke? You’re shitting me, right?”
“Nate, have you ever known me to joke around?” Elliot’s sounded dangerous even to his own ears.
More silence.
“No, you have a shitty sense of humor most of the time,” Nate replied like a man confident in his best friend status.
Elliot’s lips curved involuntarily, “Well, there you go.”
“Is she beautiful? Have you fallen for her? I can’t believe that Mrs. H let another woman move in on her turf. Hell, you don’t even bring girls home to fuck them, you get a hotel room.”
Elliot felt his cheeks flush, “Just do it, fuck-head, I will see you tonight.”
He hung up the phone just as Mandy started up the steps out of the pool. She was wearing a black bikini, and her belly was small and round. He felt an insane urge to touch it.
That’s when Elliot wondered if Nate might be right, perhaps he had lost his shit.
Mandy paused when she saw him, “Elliot! I’m sorry, did you need me?”
Considering that Elliot was doing his damnedest to come up with things for her to do, he certainly wouldn’t be interrupting her free time with work. Hell, he had resorted to sending clean clothes to the cleaners.
Mrs. H had laughed so hard that Elliot worried she would have an aneurysm. Thankfully, the older woman had suggested Mandy take on some of the human resource responsibilities that he struggled to find time for. Belongs © to NôvelDrama.Org.
He had wanted to provide some kind of childcare at the site but hadn’t had the time to meet with Charles, the VP of Human Resources at Brand.
Since this type of benefit would be crucial to Mandy, it was a perfect fit. She was thrilled with the project, and Elliot was finally drawing a sigh of relief.
Dr. Roberts had called to see how things were working out and Elliot found himself admitting the whole affair to his older friend. Dr. Roberts had also laughed his ass off, telling Elliot that he had never expected the man to save her.
But Elliot knew every time he looked into those dark blue eyes, that there was something special about this girl. And so, he took the teasing in good fun.
Elliot gathered Mandy’s large fluffy towel and used it to cover his growing cock as he walked over to her and extended it to her.
“No, nothing like that,” Elliot cleared his throat of the huskiness. “Some guys are coming by tonight. It is my Thursday night poker group. You know Dr. Roberts, but my best friend Nate will be there as well as Zeke from accounting.”
Mandy wrapped the large towel around her body feeling like a whale in front of her handsome boss. The way his dark hair stood in sexy disarray she knew he had been running his fingers through it.
Her fingers itched to touch the dark locks because she knew just how silky they were.
“Um, poker night sounds fun. Can I do anything to prepare for it?”
Her voice was higher than normal, and she hated that she couldn’t relax around Elliot. He had been nothing but generous and kind to her since the night he came to her parent’s home.
“Nah,” Elliot smiled, and Mandy’s heart skipped a beat. “We have everything covered. The guys will bring some cases of beer. I just didn’t want you to be alarmed. They should be here within the hour.”
Mandy paled, the last thing she wanted to do was meet a bunch of his friends in a bathing suit at nearly twenty-nine weeks pregnant.
“We need to go,” she grabbed his arm and slid into her flip-flops. Granted, she’d only wanted to steady herself, and it had been an unconscious move.
But Elliot had stilled his gaze glued to where she was touching him.
Mandy pulled her fingers back as if she were burned, “I’m so sorry.”
Elliot’s gaze lazily came up to meet hers, but the fire in his orbs was unmistakable.
“No harm was done,” he then placed his hand on the small of her back to walk her to the elevator back up to the penthouse floors.
Mandy could feel the heat of his hand through the thick terry cloth towel. Her core felt achy, and she was worried that the dampness growing between her legs was more from him than it was the pool.
“I can stay out of the way,” she rambled, a habit that Mandy tended to fall into when she was nervous. “There isn’t any reason for me to leave my room. I mean, I can get dinner before they arrive, and I have a bathroom already, not that I want to talk about using the bathroom. That would be gross.”
The more verbal diarrhea that escaped her lips, the more she wanted to climb underneath the nearest lawn chair.
By the time they entered the elevator, she was praying for divine intervention.
He brought a finger up and placed it on her rambling lips.
His own were twitching traitorously, and his eyes were alight with humor.
“What did I say about my home since you arrived?”
Mandy swallowed a huge lump in her throat, “That I should consider it my own.”
Elliot nodded, “You will not hide away in your room unless that is what you want to do. But I’m sure that Dr. Roberts would love to say hello if you feel up to it.”
Mandy grumbled something about how he would be seeing her in less than a week, but Elliot ignored her.
“Mrs. H has her night off on Thursdays, so I usually order something in. What would you like to eat?”
Mandy immediately perked up, “Cheeseburgers! The big greasy ones with so many toppings that it gets all over the place. Oh! And fries! Spicy fries! No, no, not spicy. I threw those up a little while ago.”
Elliot laughed, “No, definitely not spicy.”
Mandy flushed, “I’m sorry. You probably don’t want burgers. We can get whatever you want. I can cook if you would like?”
Elliot noticed that the bags under her eyes had started to lessen. But there was no way he would allow her to cook dinner after the long day they had just had and her swim.
“I love burgers,” he grinned, “The bigger, the better.”
“That’s what she said!” Mandy said cheerily, and the elevator dinged they had reached the top floors.
Then Mandy realized what she just said to her boss no less.
“Shit,” she breathed.
And then she felt even worse.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know where that came from,” it came from hanging out with Kim and Freddy at The Grind, but he didn’t need to know that.
Elliot’s eyes twinkled, “It was funny. Surprising coming from you, and it was adorable the way you blushed. Do you know any other naughty jokes?”
A voice from across the apartment startled them both, “Yes, I do love a dirty joke.
“Fuck!”
This time it wasn’t Mandy swearing under her breath.
“You got here awfully fast, Nate,” Elliot stood a little closer to Mandy.
Nate raised one of his blonde brows and smiled that boy next door, cover model smile that had landed more than one girl into his bed.
Elliot wanted to kill him—with his bare hands.