Home > Tease Me Once (Romance with Altitude, #1)

Tease Me Once (Romance with Altitude, #1)
Author: Jody A Kessler

 


One

 

 

MALEAH HALE STEPPED OUT of her basement and smashed her knee against the concrete. Tripping over her doorstep was oh-so becoming. It was still early. Too early to be on the move, but today was the big day, and she didn’t want to miss a single second. She pried herself off the ground, no little feat in high heels and a pencil skirt, and was fairly certain she’d broken something—other than her dignity. This should have been Maleah’s first clue that today wasn’t going to turn out the way she’d imagined.

She turned around and reentered her one-room studio apartment. Somehow, during her ungainly stumble, her phone stayed clutched in her hand and nothing had fallen out of her purse. Maybe if she hadn’t been checking her phone for new messages from Holden, she wouldn’t have tripped. But where was he? She’d messaged her boss-slash-friend-slash-future-life-partner the day before and hadn’t heard back from him. It wasn’t like Holden to ignore his messages. He must be distracted with everything happening at his company. Everyone had been busier than normal for the last two months. Even this morning, Maleah was going into the office an hour early to double-check her files, documents, and reports, take care of emails, straighten up the common room and break room, and otherwise make sure True Green Bioplastics was ready and sparkling before her bosses and the other interns arrived for the most important business meeting of her young career.

Apparently, her internal clock felt that the simple act of being awake, coherent, and able to walk out the door at the butt-crack of dawn was too much to ask. The heel on her favorite double strap, blue suede, sexiest shoes she owned—shoes she rarely ever let herself wear, but today was special and she wanted to look fantastic—caught on the rug and she fell again. Shooting, fiery pain radiated from her knee. “Holy Toledo! Ow!” At least the ancient squishy carpet—the basement had been flooded one too many times—cushioned her second fall exceedingly better than the concrete had. Maleah caught herself before she face-planted into the shag and ruined her makeup. This time, her phone went flying and the contents of her purse poured out. Figures. Maleah climbed off the floor, leaving behind any remaining dignity. She didn’t have time for this. Humbled and wondering if she was putting way too much emphasis on the importance of her morning—today was only the day she’d been working toward her entire life—she carefully hobbled to the bathroom to clean, disinfect, and bandage her bruised and bleeding knee.

There were no cabinets in the tiny bathroom and just enough square footage to accommodate a pedestal sink, the toilet, and a poor excuse of a shower. She rooted inside the bottom drawer of the cheap plastic rolling storage bin that held her first aid supplies, toiletries, and other bathroom necessities. By the time she had the implements in hand and stood up again, blood had leaked down her shin and almost onto her foot. Blood on the perfect, cerulean blue suede of her favorite shoes was not going to happen, so help her.

Distress about the blood racing toward her shoe wasn’t the only problem. A dizzying wooziness overcame Maleah and clouded her vision. She sank down and planted herself on the toilet. Maleah gripped the edge of the sink. The bottle of disinfectant clattered inside the bowl. The porcelain felt cool and solid and gave her something to hang onto and helped her stay conscious. She tore some tissue from the roll and pressed the wadded-up paper against the blood now running over the ankle strap. Deep breaths moved in and out of her lungs until the need to hurl the toast and coffee she’d eaten for breakfast had passed.

Maleah wasn’t fond of seeing blood, especially her blood, but her hands remained steady as she cleaned her leg and knee and then poured the disinfectant over the small gash. The bruise was going to be worse than the cut, but she would live.

She rose from the seat and felt something wet against her leg. Maleah craned her neck around to look for the problem. The slit in the rear of her skirt had landed in the water. She should have closed the lid, but there hadn’t been time as she was blacking out, and there wasn’t a lid. The missing seat cover was one of a hundred small inconveniences in her overpriced hole-in-the-wall shanty.

“Nooo…” she whined. Maleah reached behind her back and released the hook on the waistband and lowered the zipper. “Why me? Why today?” She shimmied out of the soiled skirt and took a step toward the door. Not one to forget easily, she halted before stepping back onto the carpet that loved to tangle with the spiked heels of her shoes.

Maleah started to unbuckle the straps on the high heels and realized bending her knee wasn’t going to happen without pain. Keeping her leg mostly straight, she worked on unfastening the straps with her backside high in the air and wearing nothing but the sexy blue heels, a navy-blue lace thong with matching strapless bra, and a semi-sheer blouse and camisole. A sigh fell from her lips as she stepped out of the shoes. If only Holden were here to appreciate the view and maybe kiss her knee all better. But that was a fantasy she had to keep to herself for the time being.

She wanted to be with Holden in every sense of the word, but until she was no longer his intern, she knew they could never do more than flirt. Holden McNutt was too professional and respectful to jeopardize her chances of becoming a full-time employee at True Green Bioplastics. Soon, she told herself. Soon she and Holden would go on a date, out in the open, where everyone would know they were meant to be together. They would take over the biodegradable and compostable plastics industry and change the world for the better.

Today was her day. She was sure of it. She’d done everything Holden and his business partner had asked of her for ten straight months. Maleah had contributed to the company as if it were her business baby. She’d gone above and beyond and had grown True Green Bioplastics’ online presence from virtually nothing to being everywhere on the internet. She’d learned everything she could about biobased polyester plastics, polyhydroxyalkanoate, blended starch/cellulose plastics, biodegradation, polylactide acid, cellulose acetate, and ASTM specifications. Holden had been sharing the bioplastic chemistry secrets with her. Every day at work was exciting and what she had dreamed of. Well, not the part of her days tied to a computer for hours on end doing data entry and marketing, or running into town for lunches and coffee. But she loved being part of a team that could make a positive difference for the environment.

The ticking clock taunted Maleah’s early morning plans. She still had to change clothes and get herself safely to the office. The mad rush to find pants that looked phenomenal with her blouse and choosing a new pair of shoes resulted in a closet explosion.

She managed to make it to her car and submerse herself in morning traffic fifteen minutes later… and then she remembered why she normally went to work at the time she did. Early eager beavers and university students traveled into town this time of the day, and the heavy congestion made driving an exercise in patience. As her car crawled from stoplight to stoplight, her mind drifted as it often did to what her future life as a full-time employee would be like. She would buy a bicycle. Cycling would be good for her—well, not on snowy days—and a bike would be faster than sitting in traffic. At this rate, walking would get her there faster. She sighed for at least the fiftieth time and pulled into the parking lot at True Green Bioplastics—right on time. Her intention of arriving early had disappeared much like Dorothy and Toto in a Kansas tornado. You know what they say about good intentions; they’re the road to hell. Her subconscious whispered the words… in a super-loud voice, but she shoved all doubts aside. Nope. Nope. Nope. Today is going to be great! She was having a rough start, that’s all.

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