January (Calendar Girl #1) Anthology Anthology (128 page)

“How many conversations have we had about you being a jack-ass?” I put up both hands and marked off each finger.

He rubbed his shoulder. “Sorry, Rach, but I’d totally fuck you.” I punched him again. “Ouch, stop fucking hitting me.”

“Stop being a dick!”

That’s when Rachel waded in. “Both of you, stop! Mia, it’s fine. I’m used to Mason’s crass behavior by now.”

Cringing, I put a hand to my hip. “Doesn’t change the fact that it’s immature and tasteless.”

Rachel laughed and it sounded like bells jingling. Even her laugh was sweet. “True, but thank you for the compliment, Mr. Murphy.”

An intense heat hit me like a wall of flames. Mason practically growled a response to her. “How many times do I have to tell you to call me Mason or Mace, Rachel? We’ve known each other for two years. We’re beyond the professional. At least, I’d like to think we are.”

Her eyes jumped up to meet his and she clasped her hands together and knotted her fingers. “Yes, uh, you’re right. We are. I apologize. Old habits and all that. Shall we go?”

“Should I change?” I said dryly, really needing to know. I was here to make his image better. I thought I was rocking a kick ass outfit but apparently I needed to be schooled.

Rachel looked at me once more. “You do look really beautiful, Mia. You always do. I’m sorry, I didn’t respond well. Everything’s fine. Let’s not keep our prospective sponsors waiting.” She opened the door and the three of us stepped through.

***

The Power Up team was surprisingly boring. For a company that owned a sports drink geared toward young athletes, you couldn’t have found a duller group. The offices were all white and black with pictures of the drink standing on a white backdrop lining their walls. There weren’t any fun pics of men doing wicked sports activities like rock climbing, swimming, motor sports, holding up a Power Up bottle as I would have expected. If you asked me, and they didn’t, of course, so I stayed quiet, they needed Mace more than Mace needed them. If they had any hope of going against the big guys like Gatorade, they needed their own image change.

Rachel, however, spoke her mind and made it very clear why she could afford perfectly tailored suits and whatever fee Mason was paying her. She worked that room and had a room full of men eating out of her hand. She promised the Power Up executives that not only would Mason be in the media a whole lot more, his baseball record was proof positive that he was in the Majors to stay, as well as how young people loved a bad boy turned good guy. She even spun different ways the team could work with Mason to improve their own image and how her firm would be happy to work with their marketing team to come up with the best possible campaigns to successfully launch both companies to a new plane. And then his agent spoke money.

Apparently, being a spokesperson for a sports drink company was worth millions. When they started throwing around figures that were in the tens of millions, I almost lost my breakfast. I couldn’t imagine that a few commercials, some photo shoots, and some meet and greets were worth that kind of money. Then again, I was being paid a hundred G’s to sit here and look pretty. People were bat shit crazy everywhere. This is just how the other half lives and now that I was the arm candy, I got to see it live and in living color.

Once we were done with Power Up, who said they would consider all that was discussed and make a decision within the next week, we took a limo over to the folks at Quick Runners. They were in line to be the next Reebok or Nike and just needed that extra bit of pizazz to push them over the edge. Mason Murphy, the best pitcher in baseball today was their ace in the hole. Rachel made sure the team knew that to be true. This office was the exact opposite of Power Up. Where that team was all staunch businessmen in suits, this office seemed to be filled with just out of college grads wearing jeans, polo’s and tennis shoes. We left that office with a verbal commitment for another bucket-o-millions, and, as long as Mason kept his image squeaky clean, they would remain on board.

When we got into the elevator, the team waved and high-fived one another as the doors were closing. The second they closed Mason turned to Rachel, grabbed her cheeks and said, “You. Are. An. Amazing. Fucking. Woman!” And then he pulled her into his body and laid a fat kiss on her. I stood in the corner, hands to my chest trying not to squeal with glee. When he pulled away, she looked dazed and loopy. He pulled away and grabbed me by the waist and hugged me to him. That’s when I did squeal and jump up and down in his arms. “Did you see that? See our girl working those rooms. Holy shit. What a ride!”

Mason gripped Rachel’s shoulders and yanked her to his side. He had each of us cuddled in one arm. “Ladies, today was a huge win for Team Murphy.”

I snickered. “Team Murphy?”

He nodded vigorously. “Yep, Team Murphy. You,” he shook me by the shoulder, “And our Queen, Rachel,” he shook her. “And, of course…the pretty face: moi.”

Both Rachel and I sighed. “You’re so full of yourself.”

“Yes, yes, I am. And now, it’s time to celebrate and be full of something else…booze!”

Rachel’s eyes got big. “Mason, we can’t go gallivanting around. You’ve got eyes on you and a game tomorrow night.”

“True. So we invite a coupla the guys and their chicks to the suite, order up some pies and some beers. Fun night in? You in?”

Beers, boys, pizza…um yeah. “Hell yeah!” I said. “Come on Rach, you gotta celebrate, let your hair down.”

Mason’s eyes went to Rachel’s golden hair. “Now that’s something I’ve never seen.” His hand came up to her ponytail and spun it around his hand into a fist and let it go. “Would love to see this fuckin’ gold down, curled around your face. So pretty,” he leaned close to her ear and this time my eyes went wide. She looked positively ready to drop to the floor either in surprise or fear. Could be a little of both. Mason sniffed against the space near her ear. “Christ, you smell good. That’s the fuckin’ almond smell I can’t place. It’s you. It’s always been you. Smells so good I could eat it.” He growled into her neck and inhaled loudly before pulling away. He looked at Rachel like a hungry lion before a juicy steak. 

Then the doors of the elevator dinged and the spell was broken. Rachel moved as fast as her stilettos would take her out the doors and into the New York evening. “Time to head back, get those pizzas and beer. You want to make some calls to your friends, Mason?” She pulled out her phone and ignored the forlorn look on his face. He closed his eyes, took a breath, and climbed into the limo.

“Yeah Rach, I’ll make the calls.” I slid in next to him and placed a comforting hand on his knee. “See, told you so,” he said then put his phone to his ear.

***

Our suite was filled with Red Sox and oddly enough some Yankees ball players. We’d ordered in a couple kegs of beer and at least two-dozen pizzas that were getting demolished at lightning speed. Women outnumbered the men in attendance, which I found downright strange. It made sense if there was a one to one ratio but apparently, some of the single men offered up the pizza party to some of the groupies and they told other groupies and so on. Now we had women who were dressed normally in jeans and cute tops, and then there were the ho’s looking to get a piece of pro ball player dick in ‘em to mark their bedpost.

Eventually, the party got a bit wild. So much so that I ended up in my room sitting on the bed getting snockered with Rachel, passing a bottle of Jamison back and forth. 

“You know, if you wanted Mason you could have him,” I told her blatantly, the liquor loosening my tongue.

She made a face and a noise with her mouth that sounded like air escaping out of a tire. Rachel pointed to her disheveled outfit. “You think he wants a piece of this?” She still wore her smart grey pencil skirt, but her pink blouse had been unbuttoned and was now wrinkled and half tucked in her skirt. Her hair was cocked to the side and her mascara smudged. I didn’t even want to know what I looked like. I’d since lost the expensive blouse and replaced it with a tank top, though I kept the leather skirt on because I thought it was “tits” as my girl Ginelle back home would say. We’d made it up back in the day. If we liked something a lot we’d say “tits” because very few things were as desired or coveted as a nice pair of boobs.

Getting up on my knees, I got behind her and pulled out her ponytail. Her long golden locks framed around her face perfectly, adding to her beauty. “Wow. You’re fucking hot!” I said, then leaned over took a sip of the whiskey and passed it back to her. Then I got a tissue, licked it, and rubbed the smudged mascara off her face. “There, now you’re super hot! But you need to loosen up a bit. You’re so worried about everything,” I slurred and flopped back to the pillows.

Rachel pursed her lips in a way I’ve gotten used to seeing with her. It said she was really giving what you said some thought before commenting. I liked that about her. “Yeah, you’re right. I need to be more like you. Free, young, and ready to take on the world!” She put a hand into the air in a fist pump but it lacked finesse so she looked more like she was pretending to be the statue of liberty holding up her torch.

Without being able to stop, I chuckled, then giggled, then out and out laughed so hard I piggy snorted.

She pointed a finger at my face and then busted up laughing herself. Finally, when I got it under control, I clasped her hand. “You should go for him. Tonight!” I held her cheeks and her eyes widened to the size of half-dollars.

“What!” I was squishing her cheeks together so it came out sounding like a bird squawking which made me laugh again, but I was quicker on getting it in check.

“For realz! You should go up to Mace, and tell him you like him!”

Rachel held her mouth open and shook her head. “You think I should tell him I like him? As in, like him, like him?”

Why did this sound familiar? My brain was swishing from side to side, floating on a lake of Jamison Irish Whiskey, so I couldn’t put two and two together but my idea felt solid. “I’ll help you!” I pulled her off the bed and stood her up. Then I plucked at the buttons of her shirt opening two of them until I got to a nice expanse of rounded cleavage. She smacked at my hands.

“What are you doing?”

I groaned. “Duh! There are four things men like. The first being tits! You’ve got some, we need to show them.” She nodded and pressed her chest out in offering. “Good, that’s good. Do
that
when you see Mace! Okay, next, men like hair.” I fluffed her hair and made sure it looked soft and sexy. “Nice.” I pinched my lips between two fingers and swayed on my feet. “Ass!” I pointed at her, turned her around and checked out her ass. The skirt hem was tiny so I crouched down and ripped the hem up the middle so her ass and legs were showing more. Then I smacked her tiny ass. “Excellent!”

“I don’t know about this,” Rachel said in a tiny voice.

“No. No. No. This is gonna be so awesome!” Then I pressed my fingers into my temple. “I can’t remember what number I was on but mouths.” I scampered over on my bare feet to my makeup bag and pulled out a lip gloss then spread it over Rachel’s sweet pout. “Men love to see shiny lips. Makes them think about you sucking their dick. Would you like to suck Mason’s dick?” I asked drunkenly.

Her cheeks turned cherry red, but in a breathy whisper she said, “Yeah.”

“Okay then. That will be phase two. One is getting him to notice you and you telling him you like him, like him.” I grabbed the bottle of Jamison and took a healthy swig, letting it burn a path down my belly before I handed it to her. “Your turn.” She followed suit and then we were both headed back out into the party. I had a mission and even though it was a stupid one, I was convinced it would work.

Boy was I wrong.

Chapter 4

Remember that old saying, “The road to Hell was paved in good intentions?” Man, whoever said that shit was spot on. I had no idea what would happen when we left the sanctuary of our private girl party but the atmosphere of our little pizza and beer soiree had changed considerably. There were people everywhere! Smoke billowed and not just the kind you get from the cigarette store. No, the kind you get from a guy named “Bud” who says he can take you to an alternate reality just by one toke. This was not good.

Bodies were smashed together all around us. I had to sink my claws into Rachel to make sure I didn’t lose her in the crush. What the fuck had happened and how long had we been in that room? From the fact that I couldn’t walk straight, it must have been awhile. I didn’t recognize anyone around us until finally, I made it to Mason’s suite.

I was not prepared for what I was about to see, but Rachel, sweet, innocent in love with Mason Murphy, little Rachel, was definitely unprepared. The room was dark and music blared so loud I couldn’t hear or see anything. Tugging on Rachel’s hand, I pulled her into Mason’s room thinking he’d probably gone to bed. What a better way to surprise him than with a hot, supple woman he had a thing for! Of course, this is not what happened. Eventually, I found the light switch and flicked it on.

Mason was lying on the bed, only he wasn’t alone. And when I say not alone, he wasn’t just with a woman; there were two of the scantily dressed groupies there with him. I watched in shock, horrified and turned way the fuck on, while I watched Mason getting his cock sucked by a brunette who I, in my drink filled brain, thought had some seriously great dick-sucking technique. She was able to easily take him right down her throat and that was a skill. Then of course, there was a curvy blonde who was facing the back wall, her legs caging Mason’s head, her pert ass glistening as she gyrated her hips. Mason’s tongue was visibly pushing in and out of her pussy. He was eating her like a pro, gorging on her flesh as she rocked into him like she was riding a stallion. It was the most erotic thing I’d ever seen. So while I wanted to sit back and watch the show, maybe rub one out for good measure, I finally heard a sob through the symphony of moans.

Tears sluiced down Rachel’s face and a delicate hand came up to her mouth. Just as I was going to get her out of there, we both heard the blonde scream out. “I’m coming!” I looked back and watched as Mason hands gripped her ass and he growled into her cunt while she screamed. Then his hips skyrocketed up into the air and the brunette shoved a hand to her pussy and rubbed then started bucking over his cock. His release shot into her mouth and dribbled out the sides as she came along with him. Fuck. I’d never seen anything so blatantly hot in my life. When I turned to Rachel, she was gone. The door was open about a foot where she must have slipped out. I was too drunk to chase after her and console her.