Presents for Sue Ellen Read online

  Presents for Sue Ellen

  By

  Shara Azod

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  © Shara Azod 2008

  Editor: Jennifer Puckett

  Cover: Shara Azod

  Dedication

  This is for you.

  May you be blessed in life and in love.

  Thank you for making this a wonderful year for me.

  Love,

  Shara

  Chapter 1

  A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval. ~ Mark Twain

  “I think I should come home, Charity.” Sue Ellen bit her bottom lip as she absently twirled a perfectly permed lock around her finger.

  New York City was just no place for a size fourteen country girl. The job she used to love had turned bad in a serious way; her apartment was little more than a closet, and she hadn’t had a date in two years. What was the point?

  “You are always welcome here, Ellie.”

  Sue Ellen attempted to hold in her snort and failed miserably. She loved her cousin Charity, truly and deeply, but she just couldn’t handle being around the very pregnant woman and two -- not one but two -- rich, aristocratic husbands. How was it that Charity had met the men of her dreams in Miccosukee of all places, while she couldn’t even get a date in the biggest city in the country? She really didn’t need to be hanging out at Charity’s house, scratch that, Charity’s freaking plantation watching two very fine, very prime pieces of male perfection catering to her cousin’s every whim.

  Life was really unfair sometimes. The way things were going, Sue Ellen was going to have to move in with her Aunt Waynetta, also known as her arch nemesis. It wasn’t even Waynetta’s place, but her grandparents’, but Waynetta had moved back home when Mama Coleman had had a stroke and never left. She didn’t own the large country house by any stretch of the imagination, but she ruled the roost and would not be moved. Seeing as she was the only one of her brothers and sisters still living in Miccosukee, Sue Ellen’s aunts and uncles let Waynetta be.

  There was simply no place else Sue Ellen could go. Things here just weren’t working out, and Sue Ellen had no desire to return to school to earn a graduate degree than might or might not land her a higher paying job. Not that were a higher paying jobs in North Florida, but at least she could live like a human being and maybe even get her groove on every once and a while. This city just didn’t appreciate big boned sisters at all. It may be a mixing mecca, but only the beautiful get to mix.

  She sighed heavily and shook her head morosely, as if Charity could actually see the gesture over the phone. “No, I wouldn’t feel right busting in on you and your family like that. I will stay with Waynetta.”

  She heard Charity’s sharply drawn in breath and awaited the explosion she knew would come. “Are you out of your fucking mind?! That woman is pure evil and you know it. It isn’t like we don’t have the room. Unless you would be ashamed to live with me because I am married to two men?”

  “Charity, you know that’s not true!”

  “Then is it because Cassian and Ashton are white?”

  “Hell no! I would take a white man, purple man, blue man...any man just about now! I just don’t want to cramp your style. Plus,” Sue Ellen squeezed her eyes shut as if could protect her from the confession she was about to make. “It…It would be really hard to see you with your two men and I don’t have anybody. At least I know Waynetta is every bit as miserable as I am.”

  There, she said it. Now that it was out there, she couldn’t take it back. How humiliating to actually say out loud. She just didn’t want Charity getting the wrong idea. This had nothing to do with her cousin and everything to do with her own self esteem issues. She didn’t want to be the poor, lonely relation. She didn’t need anyone’s pity. Okay, maybe she needed it, but she didn’t want it.

  “Sue Ellen Coleman, if you are coming home you will be staying with me until you get your own place...and not some hole in the wall in Tallahassee either! You will call me the second you get home so we can set up the movers and such. I will be providing the tickets home. Or better yet, I will have Cassian send you a private jet so you can live a little.”

  A huge mountain of guilt settled uncomfortably on her shoulders. She felt like an ungrateful cretin by trying to push Charity’s help a way. Just the thought of Waynetta’s cackling “I told you so” was more than enough to readily agree with her cousin, but damn she felt like one of those greedy relatives with the hands constantly out for a hook up. She hated that.

  “I have to give notice,” Sue Ellen sighed in defeat. There was no hope for it. She really needed to get out of New York and back to a place she understood, and maybe could be appreciated. New York was not a place to be alone and friendless. “It will be two weeks at least.”

  “Huh!” Now it was Charity’s turn to snort. “Did those fuckers give you notice when they laid off half their support staff leaving you with extra work and no compensation? Did they give you notice before they made a crap load of bad investments?”

  They hadn’t, but really that was hardly fair. The markets were tanking, everyone on Wall Street had been hit pretty hard, and her firm was no exception. Of course, the fact that the former CEO and lead stock holder was old and far too trusting of the hot shot dumbasses with great degrees didn’t help. But the kindly old man was gone now, leaving the reigns to his two sons who had set about to clean house and turn the firm around.

  Sue Ellen couldn’t imagine why they even bothered. Things were beyond bad, which also played to her decision to hang it up and turn tail back home. However, the Hamilton clan need not worry about the investment firm of Hamilton & Associates. They had business interests worldwide and would not be hurting for cash anytime soon. H.A. was actually their oldest company, started by the original Archibald Hamilton, III back before there was a United States. They probably didn’t even know the extent of all their businesses. Old money was like that.

  After old man Hamilton had screwed the pooch so badly, his sons Blaine and Royce, or the Gruesome Twosome as she liked to call them, had swept in to save the business. She supposed it was a matter of pride, first American business and all that. The two were complete assholes, barking out orders and loading everyone with a mountain of work, especially her. They had “promoted” her to the position of their shared executive assistant, without the raise of course, and often kept her good and busy from seven thirty until well after seven. Their only saving grace was sending her home in the company car. That and the early morning pick up in said company car. Sue Ellen figured it was the least they could do, seeing as how they kept her at all hours. She would never in a million years say it out loud, but there it was.

  “Still, it is only right,” Sue Ellen insisted.

  Yeah, her job sucked, her bosses were domineering assholes, but she just didn’t have it in her to be anything but polite.

  “Ever the gentile little southern girl,” Charity’s laughter rang clear and true over the phone lines.

  At least she could find amusement in this messed up situation. Sue Ellen was feeling far from jovial. Her one big push to be independent and on her own far away from the red clay roads, Spanish moss, and pecan trees had failed miserably. Now she was going to have to return in disgrace, unable to cut it in the big city.

  “I should have moved to Atlanta,” she muttered dejectedly.

  “Yeah, well, you didn’t. No sense crying over spilt milk.”

  That did make her laugh. Charity had left Miccosuk
ee on the first thing smoking right after high school, eschewing any and everything having to do with her southern roots. It was the death of her father and their family store that brought her back. She may live back home now, but you couldn’t tell it by the way she talked.

  “Why Charity, you sound positively...Southern!” Sue Ellen made sure to pour on her own dense southern drawl extra thick to make her point. Unlike her cousin, she could never seem to lose her accent.

  “Girl, hush and bring your big behind home.”

  “I am coming home. Two weeks. Talk to you tonight.”

  “Two weeks, or I am coming to get you.” Charity’s voice brooked no doubt as to her seriousness.

  “I will put in my letter of resignation today, I promise. Gotta go, okay?” Sue Ellen really needed to get back to work. Just because she planned to quit didn’t mean she could slack off. It just wasn’t her style.

  “You better. Call me as soon as you get home.”

  “I will. Promise. Bye.”

  Sue Ellen hung the phone up quickly before Charity could say another word. She felt bad enough already. Although Charity was only trying to help, it made Sue Ellen feel worse for depending on her so much.

  Staring at her computer and wondering if she had the balls to actually type, print, and turn in a letter of resignation, she never noticed Blaine Hamilton standing right behind her.

  “If you are quite done with your little phone call, Ms. Coleman, I would like to see you in my office.”

  Chapter 2

  And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more. ~ Erica Jong

  Sue Ellen almost jumped clean out of her skin at the oh so cultured growl right next to her ear. Damn, the man moved like a cat! He always seemed to be hovering somewhere around her and hearing things he really had no business hearing. Her heart accelerated at that thought. Had he heard her talking to her cousin? If so, how much had he heard?

  This was so unfair! But then, such was her life. She could never seem to catch a break!

  “Yes, Mr. Hamilton,” she muttered, dragging herself to her feet.

  Although his office was a mere five steps from her desk, it felt like the longest walk of her life. Especially with Blaine Hamilton shadowing her steps. Most men in his position would have issued an order then turned to go, but not Blaine. He liked to make sure you followed his orders to the letter. Sue Ellen couldn’t count the number of times she found the man’s ice blues eyes watching her with some inscrutable expression. What was worse, it didn’t creep her out as much as it turned her on. As did his short, curt orders.

  That was another reason she really had to get out of here. It was bad enough her two new bosses were sexy as sin, it seemed she couldn’t make it through the day with dry panties. If it wasn’t Blaine’s deep, commanding orders getting her all twisted, it was Royce’s silences. Although they were brothers, they looked nothing alike. Both were exceeding tall, broad shouldered and built like Greek gods, but that was where the similarity ended.

  Blaine was all dark and mysterious looking. His hair was dark as pitch, wavy and a little long. Long enough to grab it and put it right where you needed his face. His light blue eyes sent chills down her spine, framed by sooty long curling lashes. He this way of raising his left eyebrow that just made a girl want to strip and lay herself out for him. He put Sue Ellen in mind of some dark lord from medieval times. Sometimes she found herself panting, pressing her legs tightly together to relief the throbbing ache in her clit when he was talking. It was a minor miracle he hadn’t noticed by now, given his penchant for barking commands. That deep, rich voice was so hot when he barked.

  By contrast Royce was nothing less than pure sin. His windblown curls had every shade from light brown to white, constantly falling in those clear evergreen eyes of his. Sue Ellen had never in her life seen eyes that honest to goodness pure emerald. He was no less autocratic than Blaine, he was just quieter about it. Because he and Blaine shared an office, he usually relied on Blaine to order her about. He just silently watched, pursing those pussy eating lips of his. Seriously, men should just not be allowed to walk around with lips like that. She didn’t know whether she wanted to kiss him or climb on his face and ride the hell out those bad boys.

  Sue Ellen had rarely heard him speak, and the few times she had, she could have sworn he had some kind of accent, like a Scottish burr. Odd, that. Maybe he was sent to a boarding school overseas. She had no idea why their parents would split them up like that, but who knew with rich people. They were a weird lot.

  “You want to tell me what the hell that was?” Blaine demanded as soon as he closed the door.

  Sue Ellen gulped. The shades on the windows overlooking the large outer office was closed tight, Royce was leaning negligently against Blaine’s desk, watching her with some weird hooded gaze. Did he know too? That did not bode well for her. Business big wigs were a weird bunch. They expected company loyalty, yet offered little loyalty to their workers.

  Forget this! She was a fully grown woman. She owed H.A. nothing. Why the hell was she so scared to quit her job? It wasn’t as if they wouldn’t have people beating down the door to replace her. Half of the assistants here would jump at the chance to “serve” the young Hamiltons.

  “Look, I have given you all I can, but I am tired of city life, barely scraping by and no future prospects. I am not just leaving Hamilton & Associates, I am leaving New York. Hell, I’m leaving the entire Northeast. I just can’t...It’s not what I want. I can’t take another Christmas alone.”

  Now why the hell had she gone and said that? How pitiful! How pathetic! She just announced she was the biggest loser in New York to two of the hottest, most eligible bachelors in town? Please, please, please someone kill me now!

  “You want to leave us?”

  Holy crap! Royce’s seldom used voice did have a burr. A deep, delicious Scottish accent made for talking any and everyone out their panties. Her knees felt a little weak, her head a little light. This man was lethal!

  “Uh, I..I..”

  “You want to leave.” Sue Ellen gulped down pure air as Royce straightened, stalking toward her.

  At first, she stood her ground, thinking he would stop directly in front of her. That didn’t happen. He kept right on coming in slow, measured steps. She started backing away just as slowly, suddenly worried about the gleam in his eyes.

  This was how Selina Kyle died and became Cat Woman. Her bosses killed her. But nothing illegal was going on here, was it? Oh, hell what had she gotten herself into? She took one final step backward, preparing to turn tail and run when her back encountered a very solid, very warm wall of flesh.

  What the hell that poking her in her back? It wasn’t hard enough to be a gun, but it was definitely hard. What the hell...?

  “You wouldn’t just walk away from us, would you Sue Ellen?” Royce traced a single finger down the contours of her jaw line, down her throat, stopping right at the first closed button on her shirt. Good thing she kept her shirts buttoned pretty high. She had to, her cleavage was obscene.

  “Um, what?” How the heck was she supposed to concentrate on whatever he was saying when he was touching her? With that wicked voice with the equally wicked accent? With his and Blaine’s scent all wrapped around her, with their bodies touching her? Oh, damn she was in deep do-do now.

  “You don’t really want to go, do you, Sue Ellen?”

  Her name sounded so sexy when Royce said it. She had spent about twenty of her twenty five years being pissed off at the 80s nighttime soap opera from whence her mother got her name, but when he said it, it seemed one of the best names in the world. And since when did either of them use her first name? She was always Ms. Coleman.

  “Yes,” she managed to croak out.

  “And you think you have no, how did you say this, prospects?” His finger lifted her chin. Her eyes flew to his on autopilot, afraid to look yet afraid to look away.

  She really could drown in those green pools. A helpless litt
le whisper escaped her throat as her juices started flowing in earnest. Surely they could smell her desire, she damn sure could. If she had had the ability to, she would have been embarrassed. As it was, all she felt was need. Sweltering, achy desperation that if something scandalous didn’t happen soon, she was going to attack. That so would not turn out well.

  “And you thought we would actually let you go?” That growl came from behind.

  Blaine. Blaine and that thick, incredibly hard thing he had digging in her back. As he spoke, his hands reached up and gripped her waist none too gently. The last thing Sue Ellen wanted to do was rub her backside against it; that would be sexual harassment wouldn’t it? But he did place it on her person, so surely that gave her some rights, right?

  To her shock, he didn’t move away. In fact, he dipped, placing that weapon right on the crack of her ass and pressing forward. She must be hearing things because that couldn’t have been a gasp she heard coming from behind her. And how the hell was her skirt creeping up her legs like that?

  She was just about to put an end to this craziness, she really, really was, but then Royce had to go and open his mouth again.

  “We cannae allaw ye tae lae us, love.”

  Now what was a girl supposed to say to that? Not she could say anything at all, not with the way Royce took one more step, pressing his body against her own, effectively wedging her between the two of them nice and tight, or the way those lips descended in one languid dip, and definitely not after their lips touched for the briefest of moments, and then Royce plundering her mouth like he was searching for treasure with his tongue.

  Chapter 3

  He who hesitates is a damned fool. ~ Mae West

  Blaine had wanted Sue Ellen from the second he first saw her. His father’s last day was his first day, and Sue Ellen had been the executive assistant for one of the dumbasses fresh out of Wharton with more balls than sense. He knew there had to be major cuts in the company. The family could not allow the firm to go under. It wasn’t that they needed it; it was a matter of principle. The majority of the junior executives had to go, which meant their assistants had to go. There was no way in hell he was letting Sue Ellen go anywhere.