After a long day at work, Simone Yates set aside her laptop and took a short break. Jared Peters would be there soon. And she needed his help. Networking her laptop, tablet, printer, and her reliable old desktop to be one lean, mean computing system for her home business hadn’t gone well on her own. Simone kept people happy, not machines.
Opening the folder filled with her favorite erotica stories, she clicked on one called Forced to Please. She knew it was stupid to start a new story since Jared would be there any minute, but her personal time was extremely limited. Any spare moment she had for her favorite pastime—reading—was not wasted.
Simone’s life revolved around work. After coming home from her day job, her nights were devoted toward making her small, fledging business a success. Same with her weekends. Despite her busy schedule, which she nearly killed herself to maintain, her naughty stories were the one, small reward she allowed herself to have. She welcomed the rush of excitement brought by the explicit sex that helped ease away the stress of the daily grind. She grabbed short stories off the web. Then the shame would kick in and she’d spend all night working toward her goals.
She let herself get drawn in the story. Jared was always late. The IT specialist took his time but he could fix anything. He’d worked at Stewart Ltd., along with Simone, for the last five years. The guy might be young at only thirty, but he was reliable, smart, and not bad to look at. He’d done side work for some of the technically challenged people in the office before, so she felt confident that he could help her as well.
Simone hated to think she was one of the technically challenged. At thirty-eight, she had plenty of techno gadgets and knew how to work them. All the devices did what she needed them to do. Her small business even had its own app. But she couldn’t network it all together no matter how hard she’d tried, and the overseas tech support she’d called for help only made her want to break everything in her apartment.
Focusing on the story rather than the problem at hand, she let the stress slip away as the woman in the story gave into her desires and climaxed. Simone’s body heated up. It was all fiction. No one actually had that sort of dirty sex with people they barely knew. Reality wasn’t that good.
All her life, she’d watched her mother and aunts put up with men who believed that because they made more money, they made the rules. It was old-fashioned and, in Simone’s mind, crazy.
Strong men were incredibly sexy but the women in her family worked plus took care of the house and the kids. In return, they had men who watched sports, drank beer, and made no effort to romance their wives. Apparently “sticking around” made those men great catches for some people.
Simone refused to settle. Growing up, she was the only girl. With two brothers and a lot of male cousins, she got stuck with kitchen duty and assorted cleaning chores every day. As long the boys kept the yard up, they were free to do what they wanted.
No wonder she moved away and avoided serious relationships. She’d never end up like the women in her family. Being alone was better than the depressing prospect of always coming in second.
How many times had she overheard her aunts and her mother crying to each other? They often talked about leaving but were afraid they couldn’t make it on their own. As a little girl, Simone had feared that sort of big change. Now she was ashamed the women didn’t have enough faith in themselves to even try.
Simone worked twice as hard as the others in school so she wouldn’t be dependent on a man. Still, a good job with benefits and steady pay wasn’t enough for Simone. It was a good start, but now she wanted to work for herself. Being in control of her life was critical.
At least the X-rated reading fit into her schedule whenever and wherever she needed. It took her to another place and left her satisfied. Blowing off steam by dancing or drinking with her friends hadn’t worked in her early twenties. All they wanted was to get a man.
Finishing the story, she closed the file and put her laptop back on the desk. Normally she’d go and work off some releases of her own with her toys, but not now. There was definitely no time for that.
She did go into her bedroom to make sure her closet door and nightstand drawers were closed just in case Jared needed to go in there for some reason. Her office was in part of her open living room that flowed to the dining room, but she wanted to be sure he didn’t see any toys even if he glanced in the bedroom.
Jared was so casual, but there was something about him that made her very aware of his presence whenever he came around. Not like he was a company spy trying to get people in trouble. It felt as though he was genuinely interested in all of the people he worked with. She trusted him. The company would not like her moonlighting with her own business, but she knew Jared wouldn’t say a word.
The doorbell rang and she jumped up. Simone answered the door and Jared smiled easily. Short brown hair and brown eyes, he blended into a crowd. He wore shirts that were just a little too big but walked with a hint of a swagger.
“Thanks so much for coming! I really appreciate this,” she said.
“No problem. I got stuck at work or I’d have been here sooner.” He stepped inside. “Nice place.”
“Thanks. It’s all right there on the desk. I’ve tried everything I know.” She waved at the command center in the corner of her dining room. She didn’t entertain, so her small dining set left more than enough room for her desk as well.
“I’ll have a look. Any passwords?” he asked.
She handed him a sticky note with them. “I’m happy to pay you for your time. This has nothing to do with our day job. Home tech help would be a great side business for you.”
“Don’t worry about it. I don’t mind helping people out, but I like my job. Can’t work all the time or you’ll go crazy.” He sat at the desk and started with the desktop.
“I work all the time. How else can you succeed?”
Jared smiled. “You need to relax, Simone. Seriously. Have some fun or you’ll stroke out before you’re forty.”
“I’m fine.” She ran her hands over her pulled-back hair. Long, brown and pin-straight, the stuff never did anything without massive help, so she simply clipped it up behind her head.
“Sure you are. An attractive woman like you should have a boyfriend. Someone to take you out and make you laugh. Work is fun, I love what I do, but it’s not everything.” His fingers tapped at the keys while the laptop came to life. He had the tablet on his lap. He worked them all like a master.
“Can I get you something to drink?” She switched to hostess mode to change the subject. This wasn’t a conversation she needed to have with Jared. She might be considered attractive but Simone preferred to use her brain to impress people.
“Water would be great, thanks.” Jared nodded.
Simone went into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water. Not in a hurry to get back and have more awkward chitchat, she looked at her selection of frozen dinners. Food, exercise, and work were the routine.
Standing there with the freezer door open, the cold felt good on her heated skin. She tried to deny the arousal the story had on her. But Jared’s direct talk and casual attitude only added to it. He wasn’t drop-dead sexy, but there was something about his easy confidence that tugged at her sexual fantasies. Whenever there was a problem, he jumped right in and took charge of things. Generally it was computer issues, but he never second-guessed himself. He read people well, knowing which of the new hires would last and which would flee the company in no time. Part of her wanted to have a bit of whatever made Jared, Jared.
As she walked back into the living room, he smiled at her like he had a secret to share. He always did have good office gossip. He was so non-threatening that people told him everything.
She handed him the water.
“Thanks. So you’re all networked. I had to upgrade some of the drivers and software, but they’re talking now. You might want to keep an eye out for a sale on a newer printer that’s wireless. It’d be more compatible. When it’s in your budget.” He stood up and sipped the water.
“It’s done? That was fast. Wow, thanks! Next time I’ll call you first and save myself evenings of headaches.” She smiled.
He nodded. “You should do that more.”
“What?” She looked around and put her hands on her hips.
“Smile. Relax. Enjoy things. Come on around and I’ll show you the set up.” Jared waved her closer.
She walked over to Jared “I enjoy work. Getting a small business up and running takes sacrifice and a lot more hours. That’s reality.”
No doubt, she loved her work with customer service, and her side business would be even better. Her friends who lived for fun got pregnant by men who ended up never paying child support.
“Well, if you need tech help, call me. I don’t live far. Here’s the network. If something goes wrong, refresh the connection here first. Updates to one item might make the network sluggish or confused. A refresh could fix it all.” Jared pointed to the screen.
She nodded. “Okay, I’m fine with upgrading the printer if I need to. It’s a write off. I want reliable technology in place before I try to go full time on this.”
“I think you’ll do great. Just make sure to have some fun too. Maybe you should try some of that kinky stuff for real.” Jared screwed the cap back on the water bottle tight and set it aside.
“What?” She looked at his slight smile and her stomach knotted up.
