The Step Sister (Sister Series, #10) Page 15

  He scoffed. “Really? Duh. I did manage to gather that.”

  She smiled wearily. “Thank you for the shoulder to lean on. Lloyd left, I presume? Afraid of a few tears.”

  “I don’t know. But you’re welcome.”

  Chris removed his huge mitts for hands and Julia wanted to grab them and put them back on her body. She was ready to let him warm her, soothe her, and even turn her on. That thought made her immediately straighten up and she shied away. No. Chris wasn’t interested in her. They weren’t like that. They were compatible coworkers.

  “I wonder what she wanted. And why now?” Chris’s question permeated the pensive moment. Julia felt a flicker of chemistry. She couldn’t deny having a strong interest in both men.

  She shrugged. “Nothing. Vickie says she wants nothing but does whatever works for her. Vickie has never made any sense. She might be very seriously interested today and forget all about it tomorrow. Don’t hold your breath.”

  “I don’t know. She seemed sincere, like she really needed to speak with you.”

  “Chris, that’s her specialty. Please don’t press this. You don’t understand. I think I’m going to knock off early. I don’t want anyone to see me like this. Seeing her—”

  He nodded. “Sure. I get it. If you need to talk, you know how to reach me. Don’t hesitate.”

  She got to her feet. He then embraced her in a loose hug. There was nothing tight or groping or suggestive about it. He let her go, a sheepish half-smile touched his lips. “I want you to know you have a friend in me. Okay?”

  “Really? Because that’s the last thing you’ve acted like lately.”

  He hung his head. “I know. I’m sorry. I just…” His head shook. “Just take the afternoon off.”

  “Thank you. It’s appreciated.” She then went home and tried to forget the odd encounter, both in how odd she felt in seeing her mother be introduced to the two men in her life who caused feelings in her, and the fact that she was feeling odd things about both of those men.

  And that only one had understood the impact of Vickie on her, and only one had come to check on her and then helped her.

  ****

  She didn’t mention Vickie to Lloyd again. As she acknowledged, she rarely shared anything private or of substance with Lloyd. They were at most friendly. At best, companions. Someone to kill an otherwise boring weekend with. Lying in bed one Saturday, Lloyd said, “I want to take a trip to Hawaii. Would you care to join me?” His hand lazily wandered up and down Julia’s bare back.

  She flipped her head up and eyed him. That would mean people would figure it out. That thing going on between them. She gave him an icy glare. “What? And get labeled as the slut who slept her way to wherever I might end up?”

  “It means people might realize we’re dating.” He sighed. “Is that so bad, Julia? I don’t… I don’t want to hide from everyone. I like you. A lot. I always wonder what you think or feel about this and I want to know. I want you. For real. But I can’t get a read on you. You’re impossible, you know.”

  She flipped her head back down. “That’s probably the only reason you’re still after me.”

  He sighed. His tone sounded more than just forlorn when he answered, “You’re probably right. See? You know me so well. You get me too. Please, Julia? Come with me.”

  She turned over, exposing her naked body to his gaze. His eyes predictably ate up the view. “You must realize you’re as old as my dad.”

  He winced. “I know that.”

  “I’m not going to marry you and I don’t intend to end up with you either. You get that, right?”

  He swallowed hard. “I never thought I wanted that from the first time I saw you. But now—”

  “No, Lloyd. You’re a player. You run through women as fast as you do pairs of socks. Nice and comfortable for a while, but at the first sign of wear, you can’t wait to toss them out. You’re clinging to your lost youth—hell, you’re middle-aged now—through meaningless hookups with pretty, young women. Me included. Like a vampire, you’re hoping to suck all the youth from them.”

  He shook his head and rubbed her leg. “You’re not like anyone else. See? Listen to you. You’re always brutally honest. No games. No fuss. You get everything about me. You see things so much clearer than most. You’re not like anyone else, Julia. You’re so special—”

  She moved her leg to dislodge his hand. “Don’t start that flattery bullshit with me.”

  He let her go and stared at her, appearing sad. “The thing is, I’m not, Julia. I’m not doing my usual routine. Being with you is something I’ve never done before. It’s a first—”

  She scoffed. “That’s what you probably say to each new young, blonde bimbo you seduce.”

  “That’s just it. I think this time, you seduced me.”

  “You do get that it’s a sickness with you, right? This chronic obsession with younger women. Have you ever slept with someone your own age? I mean, of course, since you were in your teens. You might find companionship. And learn to care for someone. You might even discover joy. Love. Hell, you might even end up embracing fidelity.”

  “I’m already faithful. With you.”

  “For now.”

  “Why did you let this happen between us if you didn’t buy my true intentions?”

  She shrugged. “I felt like it. I’m in my twenties, Lloyd. I’m allowed to experiment and try new things. You, however, are old enough to know better.”

  “But I feel differently about you and that’s why I want you to come on vacation with me. Will you come to Hawaii with me?”

  She slipped from the bed and covered her body with a silk robe. He got up and followed her as she entered his kitchen and headed toward the coffee pot. “Please?”

  “What if I’m using you? Getting a free vacation?” Then she leaned forward, wilting against the counter. “And I don’t have that kind of vacation time earned.”

  He frowned. “Are you? Using me?”

  She shrugged. “I’d like to think I’m not. But I’ve tried to be upfront that this isn’t a forever relationship. It’s just for fun. For now. You haven’t forgotten that, have you?”

  “No. You like to drill it home often enough.”

  “Because that’s how I feel.”

  “You’re nothing if not honest.” He grunted.

  “Try to be. But if we went on this trip it would be us, using this relationship between us. It would reward me with something out of you from work, based on sex.”

  He winced. “Do you have to be so—”

  “Honest?” She supplied. “And yes, I do. Just so we are clear.”

  “Well consider this, I gave Walter two weeks off when he started because he’d long had a trip planned before I interviewed with him. It was one of the stipulations. And I gave Chad a week off after four months of working with us because his wife’s sister was getting married in another state. Why did I do it? Because he asked. So, it’s not unheard of that someone employed by me gets time off during their first year of employment. It won’t be paid. So I disagree it’s quite the sex scandal you are proclaiming it to be.”

  “Not paid?”

  He blew out a breath. “Not paid.”

  She twisted her lips around and then nodded. “Okay. As long as you don’t pay me for the time off. Otherwise it’s affecting work.”

  His face exploded into a smile. “Okay? You’ll really come?” He grabbed her in a hug and spun her around.

  She smiled at his enthusiasm over the trip. “Yes. I’ll come. But Lloyd—”

  “I know. I know. You don’t love me. This has nothing to do with work. And I can’t pay you for the time off.”

  She nodded. A ripple of apprehension running through her.

  ****

  She told her family she was working out of town and they bought it. She didn’t say it was in Hawaii, but San Diego. That lie was to explain her tanner than usual skin when she eventually came home. Her parents would not have easily accepted their t
hirty-two-year span in age difference, especially since Lloyd was also her boss.

  While finishing up the work on the last day, she promised to bring Chris all the tools he requested. Someone else gathered them together for her, since she didn’t know what most of them were, but she took them out there. Great. She hoped she wasn’t about to get bawled out again from her once friendly coworker. Maybe he should have just called her a slut since she was sure he thought she was.

  “So you’re going off for a week…” His voice drew the words out. Her eyebrows rose. She was waiting for the comment. Any comment. She didn’t know who knew what. Other than Lloyd had taken off a week too. She wasn’t sure how that was being interpreted.

  “Yes.” She kept her tone neutral and tilted her head.

  “And I guess Lloyd’s off too…”

  “Yes.” Her tone was crisp, and her gaze solid as she waited for his next comment.

  He cleared his throat, shifting around. She raised her eyebrows until he dropped his gaze. She asked primly, “Do you need anything else, Chris?”

  He shook his head to the negative. “No. Julia. I don’t. Just… you know, be careful and all that.” His gaze settled back on her and stayed there.

  She held her head high, pinning her shoulders back, keeping her focus strong. “I will.” She set her hand on the door and pushed it.

  “Have fun.” He called after her.

  “I will. Thanks.”

  She was half way across the lot when Chris’s voice interrupted her. “Julia.” It wasn’t a yell but more of a command. She turned towards him as he stepped up to her. His expression had gone from puzzled, amiable to glaring down at her, almost fierce. “He was out here yesterday. So I know.”

  “Who? What?”

  “Don’t play clueless. He. Lloyd. He’s on his way to Hawaii. Staying at the Royal Desert Aire right on the beach. He told me.”

  “So?”

  “So why? Why…” His expression morphed, pressed lips, wide eyes and wrinkled brow. “Why would you do it? Why would you give into him?”

  She bit her lip. How dare he? Question her personal life? He had no right. “Do what exactly?” She challenged him, her gaze holding his. No waffling. No embarrassment.

  He shook his head. His lips compressed in a tight line of physical disapproval, with her. “You were accepted here. You’d long lived down why Lloyd hired you. The terrible image he made of you. How could you just forget that? What he did? How could you reward him?”

  “By how? How did I reward him. Tell me, Chris? How exactly did I reward Lloyd?”

  His mouth tightened.

  “Say it, Chris,” She taunted, her voice strung tight. “Say what you think I’ve done.”

  “Earned yourself a vacation, just in the way Lloyd always planned for you to.”

  “How have you decided I did that?”

  His gaze turned hard. Crossing his arms over his chest, he gripped his own arms with his hands. “Fucking the boss.”

  She flinched. But kept her head up, shoulders back and gaze directly on his. She threw her hair over her shoulder. “I don’t have to answer to you. For anything.”

  He shook his head. His gaze roving over her. “I don’t get it. You worked so hard to dispel what everyone first thought of you. To earn your place and reputation here, all of which you had to do because of that prick. He set you up to look the fool. So what? You reward him for it?”

  “I can fuck whoever I want.” She kept her voice even, without dropping her gaze. Holding it steady. Standing strong in her right to have a personal life that had nothing to do with work. There was no reason her sex life had anything to do with her work life because they hadn’t crossed. Even if it was Lloyd. And Lloyd was her boss.

  His shoulders dropped down as his hands slid to his sides. Shaking his head, his expression softened. “Everyone thinks you’re capable, reliable, hard-working—”

  “I’m still all those things, Chris,” she interrupted, her tone sharp, but soft. “I have never once crossed any kind of professional line with work.”

  “You tainted it all. All your hard work.”

  “I tainted it? Or you think this makes me tainted?” She asked. “This isn’t about work. This is about you.”

  “It’s about what you threw away. I helped you. I tried to help you dispel those beliefs and prejudices and all the sexism being thrown your way. I—”

  “You think you somehow own me because you helped me? That my knowledge is somehow less or compromised because I had sex? Listen to yourself! I don’t ask who you have sex with when you leave work because I know it has nothing to do with when you are here. Just as mine doesn’t. But you just made it so it does. You took the most sexist shot of all at me.”

  “Fuck no. Lloyd took the most sexist shot. He hired you for the direct result of seducing you. That’s it. And it looks like he succeeded. It wasn’t me who fucked you and then came to work and gave you a vacation, now was it?”

  “No. You just assumed that I would not be able to separate having sex with Lloyd and working with Lloyd. I don’t have sex with anyone while at work, nor do I discuss it with anyone, until this moment. You made it inappropriate. It has nothing to do with work or you. But is that your problem? It’s not you?”

  He breathed rapidly, as did she. They glared at each other in a long, heated staring contest. She shook her head. Her disappointment making tears push hard behind her eyes. “You had no right.”

  Then she walked away. Glad to be leaving. For her upcoming vacation.

  And her heart squeezing in pain at the tone of his voice, the words he’d said, and the feelings in her chest like she couldn’t breathe. Because now, it would never be him.

  Chapter Ten

  SHIT! WHAT WAS HE doing? Or not doing? Julia pulled away from the curb, aptly dressed in appropriate Hawaiian wear of a light summer dress and sandals. She’d brushed her long, blonde hair until it was straight and shiny around her shoulders. The ends fell to her mid-chest. Julia usually pulled her hair back in a ponytail or a braid. It was never done fancy for work and she always wore functional clothes, ever since the first days when Chris advised her. Today, however, she was all dressed up for a vacation with Lloyd. The older man. The older man she was sleeping with. The older man that fathered Chris.

  Chris started pacing the small floor of the job shack. She was having sex with his father. He realized it now. He finally admitted it and resigned himself to the idea after he first found out. There was no going back from that. And nothing could undo it. Julia was having sex with his father. Now. She was on her way to do plenty of it in a tropical paradise. Lloyd was nothing less than jubilant when he swung by the job site at the end of yesterday. He wanted a last check of all the jobs right before leaving for his vacation. Vacation. The once innocuous word now made Chris freeze up with anxiety. He knew already that Julia had scheduled a week off. Her first vacation. How convenient and what a coincidence. Lloyd had too.

  “Where are you going?” he’d asked Lloyd.

  Lloyd flashed a huge smile. “Hawaii. Got a room right on the beach at the Royal Desert Aire.” Chris had no clue if the hotel were five stars or four, but he didn’t doubt Julia would be treated to an expensive and impressive trip. All on Lloyd’s dime. Chris’s stomach churned at that realization.

  Lloyd’s happy news only depressed Chris so he went home to Simba, but he was unable to eat. He worked out and hoped a good workout might lift his spirits. But he was still depressed, so he decided to go to his mother’s house. She took one look at his face and asked him what was wrong. He shrugged without answering.

  “It’s that girl again, isn’t it? You’ve never stayed interested this long in someone. Why her?”

  Chris thought, She’s smart, funny, sarcastic, and easy to get along with. She keeps her emotions in check and he liked the calm surrounds her. But he simply replied, “She doesn’t like me back.”

  “She told you that?”

  “No. I never told her how I fel
t. As I said before, she’s already with someone else.”

  “But people always change their minds, Chris. Again, if you failed to give her all the facts, then she missed that opportunity. If you get along as well as you think you do, you need to tell her right away and let her know.”

  “We work together. Can you imagine how that would be? What if she refuses me and there I am, the wet dog in the room while she tries to avoid me at all costs and I have no idea how to act. I can’t risk that happening.”

  Tully tapped her fingers on the arm of the couch. “Son, is this just a crush? She’s super hot and you want to tap that, or do you really like her?”

  He groaned, covering his face with his hands. “Why can’t you talk like other mothers? Or at least pretend your son doesn’t think like that?”

  He glanced her way and caught the eye-roll while her hand began waving around like whatever. “Because, my darling boy, you’re a grown-assed man now, and I’m not stupid. I’m a grown-assed woman. Women have the same desires that men do, contrary to what you might think and what society tries to make you swallow. So which is it?”

  He sighed. “I like her.”

  “Really? As in, you see something special there that could be long-lasting?”

  He gulped as he thought about his answer. Did he? He never considered that since it never happened before. He dated off and on, sometimes for several months, even. He dated Greta for over a year. Before he started dating her steadily, he tried to remember if he ever considered the idea of sharing a long-term future? No. Nah. But with Julia he did. He automatically nodded, feeling surprised when his head instantly confirmed to his mother what his heart refused to admit.

  “Then you have to risk it. You tell her. Despite your job.”

  “Not the standard advice a mother should be telling her son, that he shouldn’t worry about losing his job. I got a pretty good thing going right now. The boss likes me, is willing to teach me, and has done far more for me than he has to. He’s providing me with an education in the industry that others pay big money to learn. So no, Mom, it’s not just any job…”