On the Sly : The Grange Complex Book 2

Ellie

I stopped at the door, and my whole body vibrated with stupid excitement. I wasn’t scared of him; it was the fact that I found myself enclosed in a tiny, steamy, hot box with a gorgeous half-naked Scot who rocked my boat in every single way possible.

The events of that evening when he saved me from that asshole suddenly spun in front of my eyes. I remembered the tantalising heat between us and the wonderful things that my body had experienced during just one night with him. He had an amazing body, perfect in every way.

“Get inside before you let all the heat out.”

His strong voice rang in my head and for some reason I complied with his command. My twat of an ex-boyfriend, Andrew, had complemented my body whenever he could, but I never felt that sexy, even when I danced for him. Right now I felt a little too self-conscious in my swimming suit, being so close to this man that had seen me naked.

Mack rose and sat up on the wooden bench, giving me some space next to him, his glorious body shining with moisture. My mouth went dry and I quickly sat down, edging closer to the door to avoid him. I had to get out of here. He was a cheating, lying scumbag and I knew I needed to stay away.

“Just pretend that I’m not here. We aren’t exactly on speaking terms,” I snarled, folding my arms over my chest. My body was on fire, igniting sparks of lust inside me. I felt his grey eyes on me, but as long as I didn’t make eye contact, I would be fine.

“Well, we were on fucking terms only a week ago.” Mack chuckled.

I shivered, remembering how good his cock felt inside me. I sighed and looked at him. “How many more women is your wife unaware of? How many were here before me?” I asked, shaking with anger.

He seemed calm, sitting on the bench like everything was perfectly normal, looking at me with his deep grey eyes. “None. I’ve never had a one-night stand with anyone before you, Angel.”

My lungs were on fire and I wanted to scream. What the hell?

Did he just say that I was the first woman that he’d cheated on his wife with? On top of that, he’d called me Angel. I couldn’t bloody deny it—I liked it, but I felt pathetic knowing that he was turning me on.

My jaw dropped and small beads of sweat rolled down my back and over my cleavage. The temperature in the sauna must have heated up to about hundred degrees Celsius. I closed my mouth, breathing through my nose. “I don’t believe you. Men like you cheat all the time; you were too smooth, too practiced,” I said with a small voice. “Plus you knew I lived on the same floor, right? You could have said no.”

“This is more complex than you think. That night was supposed to be my last in the apartment. I was planning to be out in the morning,” he stated angrily. I frowned, trying to breathe at the same time.

“Last? I don’t get it. Were you supposed to move out or sell?” I asked, confused.

“Something like that,” he said hesitantly.

Then there was silence. Neither of us said anything for what seemed like a decade. His explanation made some sense, but he was still a cheating bastard who had a wife.

“Adrian asked me out on a date,” I blurted out, not even knowing why I needed to justify myself to him. Deep down I was still pissed off and I wanted to make him feel like shit.

“What did you just say?” he asked, shocked and jumping to his feet. Drenching desire shuddered through me like a lightning bolt as his eyes looked right through me.

“I’m going out with Adrian next door. He’s nice and—”

I didn’t finish my sentence because Mack grabbed my shoulders and pushed me against the wooden bench, his mouth inches away from mine. The moisture in the air made my lungs stop working altogether. I felt the wetness appear between my legs as I started throbbing with intensity, wanting him so badly.

“Stay away from Lurkin. He isn’t good for you,” he warned me with the same domineering tone of voice that he had used when he fucked me in my apartment.

My crotch was now drenched with the need to have him inside me again. I reminded myself that this was all wrong, the desire and daydreams.

“You can’t tell me what to do, Mack,” I whispered quietly, trying to smile, but my body failed me.

“You seem to forget, Angel; you loved my orders in the bedroom. You were so turned on when I took control of you and your pleasure.”

My nipples were painfully hard, but he hadn’t looked down once at my chest. Every part of my body felt like it was on fire, but this had nothing to do with the temperature. His magnificently sculpted chest was right in front of me.

“Go back to your wife. We have nothing to talk about, Mack. I came here to relax,” I managed to gasp, although I sounded pathetic. Mack’s eyes flickered with mischief and then he did something that I hadn’t expected—he kissed me.

His wet lips were on mine, teasing and gently caressing, sensually giving me familiar tingles. That magical feeling pulled and crushed my internal voice of reason. I parted my mouth, and when his tongue began teasing mine I instantly wanted more.

The sticky heavy air made me unable to think clearly. Mack pressed himself against me, pushing me down to recline on the bench. Waves of anticipation scorched my body right down to my core. He began to spread my legs, the touch of his hands causing me to shudder with delight. He pressed his hard erection over my crotch, teasing me.

His possessive kiss turned rough and sensual, each frenzied nip and bite of my mouth melting my defences, every kiss melting my body into a pool of mush. My sex throbbed as he parted my bikini bottoms gently to the side, tickling me with delight and rubbing his hard shaft over my clit. I had never been so turned on.

“You won’t be seeing Lurkin. He isn’t good for you. Do you understand me? I told you once before, this pussy belongs to me. Do you need a reminder?” Mack asked, pulling away.

I nodded, moving my hands involuntarily over the muscles on his chest, when the door to the sauna opened up.

“Oh, sorry.”

We both pulled away, panting, and I wanted to disappear into the ground. Some old random guy was staring at both of us with the most awkward expression on his face. I quickly wriggled myself away from Mack and headed out, not making eye contact with anyone. Mack shouldn’t have kissed me, but this was all my fault because I didn’t stop him.

Stupid, stupid girl.

Mack 

I didn’t say anything to the old guy that caught me about to fuck my Angel in the sauna. I hadn’t expected to see her there, barely covering up her gorgeous body. Ellie looked stunning in that navy bikini and I was struggling to control my dick when I saw her. It seemed like she had avoided me and Claire all week. We hadn’t spoken since she had flirted with Lurkin in front of me, just to piss me off. There wasn’t any other explanation for it.

I ran after her, straight inside the ladies’ changing room.

“Ellie, listen. I didn’t—”

She slapped me. I couldn’t fucking believe it. No woman had ever slapped me before. I didn’t have a chance to react before she was screaming in my face.

“Get the hell out of here, Mack, before I go to the concierge and make an official complaint that you’re harassing me!”

 I wanted to drag her over my knee and spank that luscious arse until she learned her lesson and begged me to stop. She had no idea what was going on. Lurkin was a scumbag and she was too pure to get involved with someone like him. I had been forced to lie to her and Claire had already noticed that I liked her. I couldn’t afford any drama right now, so I left feeling as though the anger was tearing me apart.

 Another moment of weakness and I had nearly thrown away years of working towards this point. I grabbed my stuff and headed upstairs, wondering what the hell was wrong with me.

Ellie was just another woman, one of many.

“Lurkin left while you were downstairs enjoying yourself,” Claire snapped at me when I walked through the door. “We should try to get inside his apartment. Get the team in, install the bugs and cameras.”

“No, it won’t be necessary. That’s not how I work these days,” I told her, pissed that she was watching my back all the time. Lurkin wouldn’t use his apartment to conduct his business. He might be powerful, but he wasn’t fucking stupid. She was supposed to be out, reporting our progress to the station. Lurkin was inside most of the day, and I hated waiting around. Some days I really regretted that I was in this line of work. The job could be a tedious waiting game; most of the time I sat on my ass, waiting for other people, for information and evidence processing. Today I had gone to work out for an hour, just to kill time. Five o’clock was my workout routine, but actually I was waiting for Lurkin down in the gym, silently hoping that he would show up. Instead, Ellie appeared out of nowhere in a sexy swimming suit.

She was distracting; I couldn’t fucking deny it. Every time I saw her my pulse sped up, reminding me of that night that we shared together.

“And why not?” Claire interrupted my stream of fucked-up thoughts.

“You read the files. We don’t have any solid evidence. The superintendent will have my ass on a plate if something goes wrong.”

She looked annoyed and raised her left eyebrow, probably thinking that I was telling her a total bullshit story. “You seem to forget that we are a team, Tobias. We both know that he wasn’t too keen on your poker night suggestion.”

“Claire, I’m fucking serious. You’re not thinking clearly. He purchased the apartment legally and we would be wasting time and resources on this. He wouldn’t jeopardise a legal enterprise unless he was laundering money, you know this,” I told her and left the room, knowing that she was going to be relentless.

When the warm water started running down my spine I relaxed my muscles and started massaging my shaft, attempting to get rid of the distracting image of Ellie down on her knees. That night had awoken a desire that I thought had died during the day of the shooting. The whole operation was pointless. Maybe I should come clean with Claire. There was still time to tell her that I had fucked the civilian because she was helping me to deal with my screwed-up past.

Fuck, I wasn’t prepared to waste months of work because I couldn’t keep my dick in my pants. Guilt had made me immune to whatever drama was going on in my life. That night with Ellie was one of those moments when I imagined being someone different, when I could pursue a happy moment with a woman that I truly desired.

Ellie 

“Would you like a drink?” I asked my colleague, picking up my red mug.

“Coffee would be great, thank you, hon,” Susan replied, smiling. I needed to wake up if I was planning on finishing that story about a disabled boxer by three in the afternoon. Maybe I was aiming for too much. After all, the paper was small and my boss already had his favourites. I was no one, just some girl that was working her way through the ranks.

I waited for the water to boil, thinking about my next article and how to impress my boss with it. Phil had hired me last month, while I was still waiting for the sale to go through on my apartment in the Grange. The other day I followed Jordan and Craig, two other reporters, when they went to confirm a statement at the police station. I thought that they would get me involved with whatever article they were working on, but neither of them wanted to talk to me. They joked, trying to humiliate me for being the newbie. The next day Phil told me to focus on the work that I was assigned to, and to stop running around the city after other reporters. Sometimes I wondered if I was really cut out for this job. Maybe my father had been right all along.

Once the water had boiled I was reaching out, ready to pour some into my cup, when I saw a picture of Andrew in the magazine on the table. My heart kicked in my chest and I accidentally tipped the kettle, splashing boiling water all over my hand.

 I screamed and jumped away, but it was already too late. The skin on my hand turned bright red. Within moments, painful blisters started appearing all over the front of my forearm. Pain shot through it as I turned on the cold water to try to ease the burning. A few of my colleagues ran into the kitchen, asking me if I was all right. Someone else brought me a first aid kit. My hand was an angry red and the pain was unbearable. I’d made a hell of a mess.

People were nice, trying to help the best they could. I forced the tears away, knowing that I shouldn’t show how weak and damaged I was inside. My boss ordered me to go to the hospital and take the rest of the day off.

Susan took me to ER and there I found out that I had a first-degree burn from the scalding. This week couldn’t have gotten any worse. Two days ago I slapped Mack, today I had a huge wound, and now it looked like I was going to miss my story deadline. Susan wanted to drive me home, but I insisted that I was all right. My apartment was a mess and on the way I had to do some grocery shopping.

I realised that this was a bad idea as soon as I got back to the Grange. I struggled to carry the two bags all the way to my apartment, my hand throbbing with constant pain. It was Friday night, so I bought wine to get drunk and forget my shitty week. The hospital had given me painkillers that didn’t seem to be doing anything. On top of that, the article about Andrew had managed to get me completely down.

After Susan left, I had torn the whole magazine into pieces. It turned out that the bastard had announced his engagement to some high-class solicitor that he met at some conference in Spain. I couldn’t believe it—he screwed me promising me the world, divorced his wife in the process, and in the meantime managed to gain another stupid bimbo to warm his bed and boost his reputation.

“Let me get that for you,” said a familiar electric voice behind me, taking my grocery bags. I knew that it was Mack the instant that magnetic force shot through me when his fingers brushed over mine. It seemed like he was everywhere, and I couldn’t help but wonder how things would have turned out between us if he didn’t have a wife.