Sweet Little Lies: Heartbreaker Bay Book 1 Read online

  Finn turned away and headed to his desk.

  Sean pounded on the door once. “You didn’t, right?”

  Finn put on his earphones and cranked some music on his phone. And then headed to his desk to wade through the mountain of work waiting on him.

  Pru got to work extra early the next morning. It was month end and though Jake did his best to see that his boat captains didn’t drown in paperwork, some of it was unavoidable. She wanted to catch up but she hadn’t slept well and her eyes kept crossing. Finally, she caved and set her head down on her desk.

  Just for a minute, she told herself . . .

  Finn pressed his body to hers and she moaned as his hands stroked up her sides, his thumbs brushing over her nipples. She arched into him and he kissed her like it was an art form, like he had nothing more important to do than arouse her and he had all the time in the world to do it. She clutched at him and he ground his lower body into her, letting her feel how aggressively hard he was. Aching for him, she tangled her hands in his hair, kissing him deeper until he groaned into her mouth. “Please,” she begged.

  “Hell yeah, I’ll please.” His voice was sexy rough and she held tight, anchoring her hips against his as he slid a hand down her belly and into her panties.

  He groaned again and she knew why. She was wet and on fire for him.

  Breaking the kiss, he nibbled her ear. “Pru,” he said in that deliciously gruff tone. “You have to wake up.”

  She jerked awake and sat straight up, realizing she’d fallen asleep at her desk doing the dreaded paperwork. “Wha . . .?” she managed.

  Finn was crouched at her side, fully dressed, and breathing a little ragged.

  And that’s when she realized something else—her hand was stroking what felt like a very impressive erection behind his jeans.

  She snatched it back like she’d been burned and he dropped his head and gave a rough laugh. Ignoring how his laugh did funny things to her belly and parts south, she cleared her throat. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be. Best greeting ever.”

  “Okay, that was your fault,” she muttered, her face heating. “That’s what you get for waking me from a deep sleep.”

  “I’m not sure if you could call that sleep.” He lifted his head. He was smiling, the smug jerk. “Jake let me in, pointed me in the direction of your office, which was unlocked. You were moaning and sweaty. I moved in to see if you were okay and you molested me.”

  She groaned and thunked her head to her desk a couple of times. “Why are you here?” she moaned. “Other than to rudely wake me up from the only action I’ve had in far too long?”

  He laughed. Laughed. She gave some thought to killing him but then she realized he was holding a brown bag from which came the most delicious scent.

  “Stopped by the waffle shop for breakfast,” he said and lifted the bag. “Thought of you.”

  She went still. “Chocolate and raspberry syrup?” she asked hopefully, willing to let bygones be bygones for a sugar and carb load.

  “Of course.”

  She didn’t ask how he knew her kryptonite. Everyone she knew worshipped at the magical griddle inside the magical food cart outside their building that a woman named Rayna ran. Pru snatched the bag from Finn and decided to forgive him. “Do not think that this means we will be reenacting what I was dreaming about.”

  “Absolutely not,” he said.

  She paused, her gut sinking to her toes unexpectedly. “Because you don’t think of me that way?”

  He paused as if carefully considering his next words, and she braced herself. She was good at rejection, real good, she reminded herself.

  Apparently deciding against speaking at all, Finn rose to his full height. Since she was still in her chair, this put her face right about level with the part of his anatomy she’d had a grip on only a moment before.

  He was still hard.

  “Does this look like disinterest to you?”

  She swallowed hard. “No.”

  “Any further questions?”

  “Nope,” she managed. “No further questions.”

  Nodding, he leaned over her and brushed his mouth across hers. “Ball’s in your court,” he said and then he was gone.

  Chapter 8

  #AllTheCoolKidsAreDoingIt

  Pru got up the next morning at the usual time even though it was her day off. She pulled on her tank top and yoga capris and shoved her feet into her running shoes. “I hate running,” she said to the room.

  The comforter on her bed shifted slightly and she pulled it back to reveal Thor, eyes closed.

  “I know you’re faking,” she said.

  His eyes squeezed tight.

  “Sorry, buddy, you’re coming with me. I ate that entire huge waffle Finn brought me yesterday. And I realize you don’t care if you can fit into a pair of skinny jeans without your belly rolling over the waistband, and you don’t even know who Finn is, but trust me, you wouldn’t have been able to resist him or the waffle either.”

  Thor didn’t budge.

  “A doggie biscuit,” she said cajolingly. “If you get up right now I’ll give you a doggie biscuit.”

  Nothing. This was probably because he knew as well as she did that she was out of doggie biscuits. She would have just left him home alone but the last time she’d done that, he’d pooped in her favorite boots—which had most definitely taken some time and effort on his part.

  “Fine.” She tossed up her hands. “I’ll buy biscuits today, okay? And we’ll go see Jake too.”

  At the name, Thor perked up. He knew that Jake kept dog cookies in his desk so he lifted his head, panting happily, one ear up and the other flopped over and into his eye.

  She had to smile. “You’re the cutest boot pooper I’ve ever seen. Now let’s hit it. We’re going to run first if it kills us.”

  Thor hefted out a sigh that was bigger than he was but got up. She clipped his Big Dog leash on him, and off they went.

  They ran through Fort Mason, along the trail above the water. Not that they could see the water today. The early morning fog had slid in so that Pru felt like she had a huge ball of cotton around her head. They came out at the eastern waterfront of the Port of San Francisco, constructed on top of an engineered seawall on reclaimed land that gave one of the most gorgeous views of the bay.

  It was here that Thor refused to go another step. He sat and then plopped over and lay right in front of her feet.

  A guy running the opposite way stopped short. “Did you just kill your dog?”

  “No, he doesn’t like to run,” she said.

  Clearly not believing her, he started to bend down to Thor, who suddenly found a reserve of energy—or at least enough to lift his head and bare his teeth at the strange man who’d dared to get too close.

  The guy jumped back, tripped over his own feet, and fell on his ass.

  “Oh my God. Are you all right?” she asked.

  He leapt back up, shot her a dirty look, and ran off.

  “Sorry,” she called after him and then glared down at Thor. “You do know that one of these days someone’s going to call animal control on me and get you taken away, right?”

  He closed his eyes.

  “Come on, get up.” She nudged him with her foot. “We’ve got a little bit more calorie annihilating to do.”

  Thor didn’t budge an inch except to give her the low growl now.

  “You know what? Fine. We’ll risk not fitting into our bathing suits. I don’t like swimming anyway,” she said, happy enough for the excuse to stop. They walked the rest of the way to the Aquatic Park Pier, which curved out into the bay, giving the illusion of standing out on the water.

  A wind kicked up and she was glad to not be out on the water. “Going to be choppy,” she said. Which meant at least one person per tour would get seasick. Not that it was her problem. “No throw-up on my calendar today.”

  Thor, comfy in her lap, licked her chin. He didn’t mind throw-up. Or poo. The grosse