Smuttily Ever After Read online
Table of Contents
SMUTTILY EVER AFTER
COPYRIGHT
ABOUT THE CHARITY
FOREWORD
Calculated
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Rolling on a River
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Epilogue
Love and War
Him
Her
Him
Her
Him
Her
Him
Epilogue
Falling Into You
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Epilogue
Unexpected
Prologue
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
EPILOGUE
Wildest Dreams
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
Love For Us
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Acknowledgments
Helena Hunting
CP Smith
Spell bound
Contributing Blogger Info
Sneak Peek Monique Pearson
Sneak Peek Sophie’s Santa
Sneak Peek Marley Valentine
Seven bloggers who read,
review – and now write – smut.
The Messy Mind of Monique Pearson
~
The Saucy Owl - Reviewing the Raunch
~
Beauté De Livres - Beauty of Books
~
Mila Grayson of KU Book Reviews
~
Obsessed with Romance
~
Kay Su of BooksandMe
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Books and Boys Book Blog
Copyright ©2016
The copyright of Calculated by Monique Pearson; Rolling On A River by R.S. Owl; Love and War by Marley Valentine; Falling Into You by Mila Grayson; Unexpected by Sophia Marie; Wildest Dreams by Kay Su and Love For Us by Sophia Sterling are held by their respective authors.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover Design by Mila Grayson
Formatting by CP Smith
Copy Editing by Spell Bound
ABOUT THE CHARITY
Thank you for purchasing a copy of Smuttily Ever After, all proceeds go to Paws With A Cause and your donation is greatly appreciated.
“Paws With A Cause® enhances the independence and quality of life for people with disabilities nationally through custom-trained Assistance Dogs.
An Assistance Dog helps someone with a disability complete essential tasks so they can increase independence and improve their quality of life. By helping open doors, pick up objects, pull a wheelchair or alert them to sounds, barriers are broken down. The Assistance Dog acts as a constant companion and makes a person more approachable, allowing them to gain confidence while bringing peace of mind to their loved ones.
Paws With A Cause doesn’t limit itself to specific disabilities, but breeds and custom-trains Assistance Dogs for people with physical disabilities, hearing loss, seizures and autism. PAWS trains the following types of Assistance Dogs:
Service Dogs: For a physical disability, debilitating chronic illness or neurological disorder
Hearing Dogs: For people who are deaf or hard of hearing
Seizure Response Dogs: For those with epilepsy or other seizure disorders
Service Dogs for Children with Autism: For children 12 and younger with Autism
Combination Dogs: Service & Hearing, Service & Seizure, Hearing & Seizure”
Quoted from the Paws With A Cause website.
To read more, please visit:
www.pawswithacause.org
FOREWORD
Bloggers are the backbone of the indie community. They’re the holders of the microphone, sharing their love of stories with their followers, who are our readers, and now their readers. Without bloggers, we’re words on a page, waiting for eyes to find us, waiting for hearts and minds to fill with the characters we create, the plots and twists we weave into stories.
Bloggers are the frontline of our reading world. Their endless love for ugly cries, broken hearts, and happily ever afters is the reason we’re all here. They have the incredibly powerful ability to share their feelings, thoughts, and reading experiences in a way that incites enthusiasm in their followers and prompts them to try something new, different, and sometimes outside the box.
The bloggers in this community are tireless in their pursuit of the next happy ending to share. They unite reader and author, connecting us all to each other in a fabulous, intimate way. This incredible anthology, filled with the kind of stories that warm our hearts and feed our desire for emotional satiety, has been crafted by the very people who strive to share their love of reading with their fellow word addicts.
– Helena Hunting
CALCULATED
By
Monique Pearson
The Messy Mind of Monique Pearson
Control. The need for it so great our bodies ache. It’s give and take, rope to wrists, palm to ass. Pain and pleasure flowing between us like bolts of lightning. Each touch scorches its way to the very center of us both. Sweat dripping onto heated skin. And the sound of need reverberates through the room as we inch closer to the threshold of release.
My eyes are closed tightly even though I was not ordered to do so. I want only to feel, to float here on the edge of my breaking point until my lover decides I’m to burst into a million shards of ecstasy.
Just as I begin to feel I can no longer hold back the orgasm that’s rising inside, I hear the command, “Open your eyes and look at me. Look at me when you come.” I do as I’m told and my eyes open just as the release rips through me and my body convulses until I know I must be nothing but liquid puddled at his feet.
CHAPTER 1
I wake with a jolt and realize quickly that my fingers are on my swollen and sensitive clit and the sheets below me are damp from the remnants of my dream. Shaking my head in a silent reprimand; of course it was a dream.
I slide my legs over the side of my bed, slip my fee
t into the slippers I’d left there and make my way to the restroom. In an attempt to wipe the fog from my head I turn on the harsh lights and stare at my image in the mirror. I’m not a woman driven by her sexual needs; at least I’d decided my sex drive was taking a backseat to my professional life. I’ve been without a dominant man for well over three years now. I chose to put that Nora away for as long as necessary and it was not a decision made flippantly. My lover, Barrett Winston, wanted to end our relationship, our arrangement, when his job moved him to Europe. It made sense for us both, especially given my interest in the position of Chief Executive of Operations. It was by no means heartbreaking as much as it was disappointing. I had looked forward to our appointments each week as a much needed break from being me. Me being a woman with ambition in a company ran by aging men who couldn’t see past my tits and heels to grasp there was also a brain and more drive than all of them combined.
The Board of Directors at Redoux took six months of agonizing interviews and vetting to appoint me to the position I had worked my ass off to get. An eleven-man board, without a single one below retirement age, would frown upon even the rumor of impropriety. My sex life had to get in line behind my ambition if I were going to take the reins under their scrutinizing eyes, and there was no question in my mind that was exactly what was going to happen. I learned long ago that as a woman in a professional environment I had to always appear above the need for sex, whereas my male colleagues could make jokes about their weekend escapades and be rewarded with a slight smile from even the stodgiest of the board.
Shortly after Barrett flew off to his company’s new London offices, I received the news that I had been awarded the position; news that had not been taken well by a number of people in the company, namely those with even the smallest amount of experience and, of course, a dick. I knew I had to be on my toes at all times and give no reason for doubting who was now in charge.
The last CEO had left the company in a hurry after being wooed by a giant of the industry; Emerson-Landry Ltd. Edmund Landry himself had pursued my previous boss and apparently had a substantial benefit package to offer in order for him to leave a company after 14 years as the CEO without even a week’s notice.
Myself and two of the junior operations managers took over projects that had been left behind in the exit. Some were nearly complete, but some were barely started and we were absolutely not going to get the reputation for dropping the ball because our CEO had seen dollar signs and left us high and dry. I had taken charge immediately and handed out the projects I knew each of us was most suited for. Honestly, I could have brought all of them to fruition without a glitch but a good leader knows how to delegate, so delegate I did. There was too much work to be done for anyone to question my decisions at the time.
As soon as we were able to come up for air, between our own duties and the additional ones we’d taken on, all three of us put our names in the hat to fill the vacant position. No one had asked us how we were doing without a CEO and if any assistance was even needed. While we were working 12 to 16 hour days, the board had started to search for a new chief using a head hunter. Apparently it hadn’t occurred to them to promote from within because we were either women or under the age of 50.
When it came time to make the argument for why I deserved the position, I compared myself in equal measure to the men in the company and some of those I found were being considered from elsewhere. I made sure to wear a pantsuit and high-cut blouse beneath. I wore unflattering flats with minimal jewelry and make-up. I drew as little attention to the fact that I was a woman as was possible. For being just in my mid-thirties, I was highly respected in the industry and had a number of letters of recommendation from companies we worked with or oversaw as majority shareholders. Clients had called and written to the board on my behalf due to the numerous times I’d stepped in when necessary to solve a critical issue. I deserved the position and in the end the board agreed.
CHAPTER 2
Over the last three years I’d gone through five personal assistants. I even tried hiring a man for the position thinking that the women might be intimidated by me. All of them lacked the necessary skill and backbone needed in one way or several. It wasn’t until just over a year ago I found Rosey, an extremely adept woman in her late 20s. She’d gotten her degree in business but found her calling as a personal assistant; keeping people like me on schedule, organized, and when needed, accompanying me to semi-social events and whispering names to me when one of thousands of business people would decide to head my way to talk. My memory for names and minute details was impeccable, but matching them to a face wasn’t my strong point. It was luck for me that much of business was now handled through internet and phone calls.
Rosey showed herself to be invaluable and irreplaceable within weeks of being at my side. Being a newlywed, I’d doubted she’d have the time to devote to the position, but apparently it was a marriage of two workaholics and they somehow made it work. In fact, it worked so well that six months ago, Rosey informed me that she was pregnant with their first child.
Being that Redoux started as a publishing house and many of the lower-level staff were women, it was among the first companies to provide in-house daycare for working mothers. This was kept over the years because they found that mothers with their children in the building didn’t leave permanently after giving birth and both mothers and fathers didn’t mind putting in extra hours when necessary for the job. Many of our staff spent their lunch or breaks with their kids, and breastfeeding and pumping rooms were even added before I came to work here. This was listed to me as one of the benefits of coming to work for Redoux, but was a benefit I had no foreseeable need for until I found it would be keeping me from losing Rosey permanently after the birth of her son.
When Rosey’s due date was about 90 days away, I gave her the task of finding her temporary replacement. My only condition was that it wasn’t someone within the company. As my PA, there are some intimate details of my life that Rosey has become familiar with that I really do not wish to have as public knowledge to any of the other employees below me. The standard nondisclosure papers were filled out when she arrived, but over time I’d come to realize Rosey was more discrete than even legalities required. Only Rosey would be able to find a suitable stand in, knowing what was required in the position and the discretion necessary on the more personal matters she often was mindful of.
Regardless of her capabilities, I was extremely nervous about the three months without the PA I’d come to depend on for more than I cared to admit. Especially when Rosey came to me just a month after I’d given her the assignment and told me it was taken care of. She started to rattle off the qualifying details about her choice, but I immediately became ensconced in something that really didn’t need my attention and brushed her off. All I had heard was the name Sunny, and my stomach became unsettled and I felt a migraine rush to my temples. I trusted Rosey’s decision but it seemed to be a hurried one. Not to mention, the name Sunny gave me visions of a blonde cheerleader, smacking bubble gum and taking selfies.
CHAPTER 3
Today is the day I meet my temporary Rosey. I’ve been referring to her as that because I couldn’t quite stomach saying the name Sunny, at least not yet. I’d been in Chicago for the last two weeks while Rosey was training the new girl. I had a conference I wanted to attend that was going to announce the new and upcoming releases from some of the major literary houses and while I was there, I finalized the paperwork for Redoux to take over one of those houses who had invested too much in authors who were no longer putting out best-selling works, and a smaller company specializing in online magazines. It was both an eventful and successful trip, if I do say so myself.
Though Redoux has its fingers in lots of pies these days, what drew me to it were its roots in publishing. The world is moving towards e-industry, even in the literary world, but there are ways to hold on to a significant portion of what even e-readers want to see if we work with the right people.
I’ve made it my mission to make sure Redoux remains the reigning top dog in all things publishing.
I’d consciously emailed and text all communication with Rosey during my trip. I had decided to let Sunny worry about why I avoided calling the office. Let her wonder about me, I mused. I have no desire to ease her into a position that she definitely won’t be keeping more than the required three months of maternity leave. Well, three months and six days actually, since Rosey requested the rest of this week off to spend with her husband before the scheduled C-section next Monday.
Wearing my deep-red power suit and favorite black Louboutin’s, I walk past Rosey’s desk to find her standing in my office with a pile of papers I assume need my immediate attention. My coffee usually accompanies these morning updates. I look to the spot next to my computer monitor where my mug is usually waiting for me, and then to Rosey with obvious confusion. “Sunny will be here with your coffee momentarily,” she quickly assures me, “and I promise we trained diligently on how you take it exactly,” she says with a half laugh. I’m not quite so amused. It had better be right.
I sit down to my desk as Rosey starts to go over the first couple of papers in her hands. I grab my favorite pen for adding my signature to important forms just as I hear a low throat clearing outside my office door.
CHAPTER 4
I look up as a tall man sheepishly says, “Uh, Rosey?”
Rosey gestures to the man and tells him to come on in. I’m sure the look on my face conveys my annoyance at the interruption but Rosey doesn’t seem to notice or for some reason doesn’t care.
As he comes fully into my office I can’t help but notice the tightness of his dress shirt around obviously toned biceps and broad shoulders. He has dark brown hair with just the slight hint of curl in that ‘I just woke up and it looked perfect’ kind of style. His glasses do not hide the brown eyes that look like the perfect shade of fresh coffee.