Swept Away (The Escape Series Novellas Book 1) Page 3

  He started to laugh again and stepped away from her. Leaning in to gather up the mop and other buckets that were spilled on the ground, he lowered his eyes and grabbed hold of the cart. “I was gonna ask you if you wanted to help me finish cleaning.”

  Cassie chuckled again, her heart was pounding recklessly. “Funny.”

  With two hands now fully on the cart he began to wheel away. “Well, it was nice meeting you,” he said out in front of him.

  Cassie realized she didn’t get his name and yelled down the hallway while he continued to roll away. He was physically fit, with nice wide shoulders that tapered down to his thin waist. Even walking away, she was pulled in by him. “Nice to meet you too...uh?”

  He completely turned around several feet away. “Wyatt,” he softly said with a sensual grin. “Wyatt Zander.”

  Cassie was half in-half out the doorway to the filing office when she breathed, “Cassie...Cassie Monerrez.”

  ◆◆◆

  Wyatt Zander.

  Where the hell did, he come from? She would have to inquire about him tomorrow to Paula Garcia in Office Records Administration to learn more about the janitor.

  The way he looked at her, oh wow! She hadn’t felt that way about another man since Damon and that’s been over twenty years.

  But onto bigger and boring things as she opened yet another folder and pulled out a chunk of papers waiting to be filed A - Z.

  All alone with nothing other than the noises in her head and the sounds of whistles coming from the nearby football field several hundred feet away, Cassie’s mind began to drift. She imagined a head to toe Wyatt Zander and her mouth began to water. He would be reaching out to her...then pulling his T-shirt up over his head to expose his...broad, oil slicked muscles and washboard abs.

  Damn, she hadn’t felt hot like this in like forever!

  She smiled inwardly then did a double-take when she saw Wyatt filling the door. FILLING the doorway. What the heck? His hotness alone could have melted her on the spot. But…

  The heat in his eyes did all the talking. She tilted her head then bit down on her lower lip. She knew why he was there and as if under some kind of spell, she gradually walked over to every exposed window and lowered the blinds. He in turn, closed the door behind him and locked it shut.

  They stepped into one another and calmly gazed into one another’s eyes.

  “I am enchanted by you,” he said, in a low gruffly voice.

  Cassie smiled, then leaned in for a kiss. He smelled divine--some heady scent--after shave mixed with pheromones.

  Funny how sexual attraction works. Once you feel it, it’s all you comprehend and once you’re in it...there’s no turning back. They came together spontaneously, frenzied and fierce. His arms fully embracing her body, her arms totally around his. Kissing, necking, fondling, tugging at one another’s clothes, trying to free themselves of their pesky garments. She pulls her top up over her head to expose her bra then yanks her skirt up to her midriff. He shrugs at his shirt and discards it with one arm, then unbuttons his jeans and tears down his underwear. He lifts her body up and onto the desk so that her butt laid flat on the ledge. Legs wide and straddling his torso, she ran her hands up his muscular chest and held her hands firmly on his shoulders to receive him. And oh, what a bounty she was about to receive!

  Thick and ample, he pushed inside her again and again, lifting her buttocks up and in and holding her securely where it gave her and him the most pleasure. The gesture only amplified the sex as her weight was held low and he inside her. Tilting her head back in ecstasy, she reared forward and cried out in elation then felt him heaving his own end and fervor.

  And what a closing it was!

  She had never felt anything like that before. She had never done anything like that before. Not even with Damon, who she thought was the best lover she ever had. Oh, she had other men after him, especially after her divorce, three or four, maybe eight...but not like this. This uncontested sex without thinking. Animalistic and oh-so gratifying.

  This...was...insane!

  Beyond wild, it was fulfilling, nirvana, almost perfect, until…

  “I gotta get back,” she heard him utter.

  Still transfixed, Cassie blinked back her stupor. “What?”

  He watched her confusion, then hesitated as he pulled up his underwear, then his jeans. Leaning down to collect his shirt off the carpet, he let go, “I’m still on the clock.”

  Cassie closed her mouth and then leaned down to gather up her skirt to cover up her exposed torso. “That’s right, well then you’d better go.” WTF! She was on the clock too...didn’t he remember she was working overtime as well?! Cassie watched in awe and dullness as Wyatt put his shirt back on, unlock the door and head on out.

  She stood there...speechless. Was it a dream?

  Did that just happen?

  Chapter Seven

  How was she ever going to be able to come into this office again and not think about what happened?

  Cassie was still walking into work, a week later, confused and in the Twilight Zone.

  Going about her daily routine, she tried to hypothesize the sexual act. Had to remember that in this day and age, casual sex was common, and hookups were the average thing to do. It was no longer necessary to be intoxicated or high, you could have sex anywhere and in any place!

  Just look at Cassie.

  Yes, look at her.

  Cassie was old-fashioned, having grown up in the eighties, but she was still trying to catch up to this new age of sex first.

  No more ‘I’ll call you’ that’s out the door. Enter men and women able to fuck and leave as they please. Hey, what happened to feelings? The emotion behind making love? Cassie still felt emotion, that’s for darn sure and Wyatt leaving the other day without even saying ‘I’ll call you’ affected her in a special kind of hell. She really liked him, and she hoped he liked her.

  Cassie stood in front of Paula Garcia’s desk like an idiot. Heart beating a mile a minute she hesitated before opening that can of worms. “Paula?” She asked, her voice cracking.

  Paula looked up from her typing. “Yes, Cassie?”

  Cassie gazed over at all the filing cabinets stationed behind her. Inside, she knew were secrets she must unveil. “I need your help,” she asked gingerly.

  Paula laid her hands on her lap, “Sure, what’s up?”

  Cassie stood up straight now and asked, “Would you be able to look up an employee for me?”

  Paula blinked back her surprise, “Employee?”

  “Yes,” Cassie confirmed.

  She tilted her head, “Who?”

  Cassie swallowed before saying, “Wyatt Zander, I think his name is.”

  Paula smiled with a twinkle in her eye. “You know you’re the second lady who’s asked about him in a week?”

  Oh, fuck me, Cassie thought. Did he screw someone else is this goddamn school?! Cassie was not amused. “Am I?” She asked a little perturbed.

  “Ya,” Paula let go, standing up from her seat. She headed towards the filing cabinets then turned back on her heel. “Why do you wanna know about him?”

  Cassie shifted her weight around, she was suddenly uncomfortable confessing her love life with a stranger. Well, Paula wasn’t a complete stranger, they did happen have lunch once or twice. “Oh, I helped him out the other day, he had an accident in the hallway with a mop and bucket and I wanna see how he was holding up.”

  Paula started to laugh and threw out one of those ‘I bet he did’ looks. She ambled over to her filing cabinet and opened the last drawer at the bottom labeled ‘T - Z’. “Zander, you said, right?”

  “Yes,” Cassie replied, closing her eyes.

  “Wyatt Zander,” she announced, “Here he is.”

  Cassie watched Paula walk over to her desk and hold the file in one hand. “Before I open this up, I want you to know there’s been rumors floating around about this guy that aren’t too…”

  Cassie raised her eyebrow. Here go
es… “Aren’t to, what?”

  “Professional.”

  Cassie sneered at that comment. “Duly noted,” she ended up saying. “Can I take a look at the file? I’ll have it back in like five minutes.”

  Paula smiled at Cassie. “I like you Cassie,” she said sort of matter-of-factly, “Don’t get hurt.”

  Cassie smiled back at her coworker, “Oh, I won’t.”

  Paula handed Cassie the file folder and then sat back down in her seat. Cassie turned around and then headed out the door.

  Walking down the hallway she didn’t expect to see Wyatt, but she did. From afar, she spotted him outside the hallway window, across the quad sweeping up all the trash the kids left after lunch. She stopped to ogle him and wondered why he hadn’t stopped by to see her. Didn’t he wanna know how she was holding up? Their physical encounter left her hollow and full of questions. She also wondered who this other ‘lady’ was that Paula had mentioned. Did he have sex with her too? Cassie suddenly felt territorial and that fact disturbed her.

  Cassie watched him from a distance as he scooped up the cups and napkins off the concrete. He still looked sexy even in his baggy jeans and beige uniform top. His hair was pulled back in another ponytail and she so wanted to have all that hair lay on top her breasts.

  O.K.

  Before she made a mad dash out the door to go jump on him, Cassie cleared her throat and walked away from the window and back towards her office. Closing the door behind her she didn’t go back to her desk but leaned back on the closed door behind her. She brought the file folder up to her mid-section and opened the file. Inside were several pieces of paper, documentation of the human resource kind: work application, W-2 form, references, a fingerprint clearance, drug test and background tests. He passed them all and then she really drilled down.

  His full name was: Wyatt Wade Zander. He was born in 1980, so that made him like, what? Thirty-eight? Cassie did the math in her head and yep, he was thirty-eight. Seven years younger than she was...great. His W-2 said he was ‘single’, that was good news, at least she didn’t have sex with a married man. But what was this?

  Cassie strolled back to her desk and then sat down. Pin-pointing his application, behind it was his resume. A resume? What was a janitor doing with a resume? Cassie was shocked to learn that his professional background mostly consisted of … advertising?

  Cassie then looked up from the resume and gazed out her office window. The bell rang, and kids of all ages were scampering about the campus trying to get to their next class.

  Advertising?

  What a strange career choice to come from an advertising background to working in janitorial.

  Hmmm…

  Cassie scanned over the rest of the unimportant documents and then concentrated on the resume. Damn, he graduated from Cal State? He had a BA in Marketing? WTF? Why would a Marketing major take on a janitorial position? He worked at one firm in downtown Los Angeles for five years, right after graduation, and then another for five in Century City...then poof! He took a year off...to do what? Surf? Grow his hair long? Then he started working for Regal High School as a janitor for the past eight months. Truly odd.

  Chapter Eight

  “I have to tell you something,” Cassie said in a soft voice.

  She was meeting Rayna for coffee at Starbucks. It was Saturday, and of course, Liz was working, but the other two friends had some time off to relax.

  “What?” Rayna asked, sipping her skinny vanilla latte.

  “Well,” Cassie sighed, thinking of how to open the conversation.

  Rayna leaned into her friend. “You met someone.”

  Cassie smiled. Was it that obvious? “Sort of beyond having met him.”

  Rayna cocked her head, “What does that mean?”

  Cassie played around with the straw on her white chocolate mocha frap. “It means,” she said, lowering her voice. “Is that we slept together.”

  Rayna raised her eyebrows, “What?”

  “Had sex,” Cassie said, sipping her frap.

  “So,” Rayna relayed, “You have a lot sex lately.”

  “But,” Cassie cut her off. “I’ve never had sex … on a desk … at the office.”

  Rayna nearly choked on the coffee in her mouth. “What?!” She cried out loud, bringing attention towards the two sitting in the corner.

  Cassie gazed around them and at all the eyes suddenly on her and her friend. “Shhh,” she said, trying to quiet her down. “I don’t want complete strangers knowing I had sex at the office.”

  Rayna started to laugh. “You’ve got to tell me. Did you tell Liz already?”

  “No,” Cassie admitted, “You’re the first. I can tell her later, or tonight when she’s off work.”

  “Ya, keep her hanging, so what happened?”

  Cassie regarded her good friend. There was no one else on earth that she felt this comfortable with. “I met him at work.”

  “Oh, so he’s a teacher?”

  “No.”

  “The principal?”

  “Nope.”

  “Please don’t tell me he’s a student.”

  “Good God, no!” Cassie said, taking a deep sip of her cold drink.

  “Then?”

  “He’s a janitor.”

  Rayna sort of half-smiled. “A janitor? What, like cleaning the classrooms and bathrooms and shit?”

  Cassie nodded her head.

  Rayna stayed quiet for a second. Kind of an odd mix. She went from Dr. Love to Mr. Swept Away? “So, how in the heck did you happen to have sex with the janitor?”

  Cassie laughed at that. You must admit saying it out loud was kind of ridiculous. “Oh Ray, you have to see him to understand.”

  “OK, so he’s cute then?”

  “Not so much as cute, he’s sexy as heck,” Cassie admitted out loud. “He’s got a wonderful smile, muscular and trim, long wavy hair that he ties back in a ponytail--kind of a biker type--and, oh man, he’s so attractive, I had to have him.”

  “Oh boy,” Rayna said, taking another sip of her coffee. “So, it was physical attraction.”

  “On steroids.”

  “Wow, you’ve got it bad.”

  Cassie hushed down and leaned into her friend. “We had sex on my desk.”

  “Oh my God,” Rayna said, disbelieving her friend. “In the middle of the day?!”

  Cassie rolled her eyes again. Rayna had brought attention back to the twosome. All eyes looked up and stared their way. “Shush, will you?”

  “Oh sorry, but--”

  “But no,” Cassie hushed down again. “It was after hours. I was working overtime and he was on his rounds after school and that’s when I heard a ruckus in the hallway and ran to help him.”

  Rayna started to laugh, “A ruckus?”

  “Ya,” Cassie admitted, “His mop handle broke or maybe it was the bucket, I don’t remember...but that’s how I met him.”

  “Sounds romantic.”

  Cassie smirked, “I know, I get it. He’s just someone I think I would have never met if it wasn’t for that incident.”

  Rayna shook her head, “What’s his name?”

  “Wyatt.”

  Rayna blinked back her acceptance, “Nice. So, are you seeing each other now?”

  Cassie shook her head ‘No’.

  “Why?”

  “Because, after we had sex, he sort of just took off and disappeared on me,” Cassie confessed, twirling the ice around in her cup.

  “He took off?” Rayna said, shocked.

  “Ya,” Cassie said, feeling a little sad.

  “So, he used you.”

  Cassie regarded her friend again. “Basically.”

  “That sucks,” Rayna proclaimed.

  Cassie agreed, “It does suck. But get this…”

  Rayna’s eyes grew wide, “What? He has a magic dick?”

  Cassie smiled, “Beside that,” she quipped. “A Bachelor’s degree.”

  Rayna cocked her head, “What?”

 
; “Ya,” Cassie declared. “I kinda borrowed his employee file to find out more about him and inside was a resume. He graduated from Cal State and has a Marketing degree!”

  Rayna could not believe it. “Wow,” she said, gazing around the room and at all the patrons. “So, what’s he doing cleaning toilets?”

  Chapter Nine

  Another day, another dollar. Cassie’s body was back at work, but her mind surely wasn’t. Just knowing Wyatt was somewhere wandering the grounds made her anxious and uneasy.

  She wasn’t obsessed, that’s for certain. She was just bothered by the fact that the man hadn’t wanted to come by and see her! Didn’t he want to know how she was? If she was healthy, happy or alive? Where were those rules? And why wasn’t anyone in this day and age abiding by them? Damn…

  Cassie was just about to exit the office when Sam Reynolds, the varsity football coach came in with a question.

  “Oh, hey there Cassie,” Sam said in his best John Wayne accent.

  Cassie smirked, “Oh hi Sam, what’s up? What can I help you with?” Sam lowered his eyes to Cassie’s breasts then looked away. She had forgotten she had worn a tight V-neck sweater.

  “I’m looking for someone,” Sam said, giving Cassie his best flirty grin.

  Cassie smiled back. Sam Reynolds was 6’1” with dark brown hair and smoldering blue eyes. He was considered quite the catch among the single ladies of Regal High. Dressed head to toe in his Regal school colors of teal and black, almost every female would turn her head. Whenever Sam gave you his attention most would swoon…. but Cassie wasn’t fainting this time, she was dodging Sam’s every advance. “Who exactly?”

  Sam stepped in closer to Cassie, kind of looked her up and down. “A senior,” he said, cocking his head. “Dylan Townsend.”

  Cassie took a step backwards. He was starting to make her feel uncomfortable. “Dylan? Why, I know his mom, is he in trouble?”

  Sam leaned over and grabbed something off Cassie’s desk. He did this so smoothly, she could tell straight-away he was flirting with her. He knew she was single, he had asked her point-blank last year at the Christmas party. If he was so interested why not just ask her out for a date?