Pool Girl: A Forbidden Slow Burn Romance Read online

  “I…” I clear my throat, looking away from his intense, piercing gaze. The way he regards me—regards my body—is making me squirm with arousal. I fight the urge to look at his biceps or his erection or any part of him below the neck and force the words out of my mouth.

  “I’m Gemma Johnston,” I say in a single breath.

  “I know,” he replies. “We’ve met. But I don’t think I told you my name. It’s Cullen—”

  “Roberts. I know who you are, sir,” I laugh. “Almost everybody knows who you are.”

  Is that so?” he asks, squinting at me. “Good news only, I hope?”

  I think back to the curious conversation I had with Dr. Sally earlier that morning. She told me to be careful. She warned me about Cullen. She made him sound dangerous.

  But now, standing here, seeing him, I can’t imagine him to be dangerous. Oh, dangerously sexy maybe! Is that what Dr. Sally was trying to tell me?

  I’m barely twenty-two. And he’s forty’ish. It’s just wrong. Not in the eyes of the law, sure. But still… I shouldn’t be attracted to a man who’s technically old enough to be my father. So why am I?

  I notice Cullen’s arched eyebrow, and I look away, suddenly realizing I’m staring again.

  I break the odd silence, “I just heard you moved here,” I say.

  “So, what, you decided you’d come and have a look?” he quips. I know it’s meant to be light and funny, but I feel severely embarrassed.

  “N-no,” I manage. “I’m actually from J&J Pools. I was sent to fix your pool.”

  “Really?” Cullen says. “A pool girl? And is it customary to take a dip in your client’s pool?” He finally drawls out. Then he looks me up and down, a look of incredulity on his face.

  Shit. I should have kept my coveralls on. I notice his eyes linger around my breasts, my nipples clearly visible through the thin, wet material. I really should have kept my coveralls on. Still, I catch myself wondering what he thinks of them. I stand up straight.

  I clear my throat, more for my benefit than for his, but he snaps his head up.

  “Yes, I was told you needed routine maintenance for your pool…”

  “I wouldn’t know what I need,” he cuts in. “I told, what was his name again? Jack?”

  “Jack,” I confirm, nodding my head.

  “Yes, Jack,” Cullen repeats. “I told him I just came back to town and I haven’t used my pool in a while, as you can imagine. I need it checked and cleaned before I can use it.”

  “Yes,” I reply. “That’s why I’m here. I saw that the gate was open. I assumed you didn’t want to be disturbed, so I let myself in. I started working on your pool, and then I was getting overheated and decided to cool myself off since the water looked clean enough. Then I heard a noise from the house. I thought it was an intruder…”

  “So you came to see who it was?” Cullen smirks. “Without anything to defend yourself?”

  I want to reply, but he’s right. It was probably stupid to have come to take a look. I guess I did figure somewhere in the back of my mind that it was the owner roaming around in the house.

  I shrug. “I’m sorry if I’ve offended or trespassed, sir.”

  He smiles, laughs a little and shakes his head. “No, you haven’t. I’m happy you’re here.”

  The way he says he’s happy has me wondering. Maybe he’s just glad to have someone here to fix the pool. But…does his happiness have anything to do with what went on between us a couple of moments before? Does it have anything to do with what is palpable in the air between us? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we’re both wet and half naked? I sure hope so.

  I swallow hard, smile, turn around, and walk away. I call back to him, “If you don’t mind, I’ll just finish up and be on my way.”

  “Please, by all means,” he says behind me. “Do you mind if I watch?”

  As he says that, my heart skips a beat. Do you mind if I watch suddenly has a whole new meaning. My pulse quickens as my mind pictures this hunky older man with the salt and pepper hair….watching. Then I recall what Jack said this morning, “Make it thorough. Make him happy.”

  I immediately want to say “yes.” And all I have on my mind is pool sex with this hunky stranger. However, I remember that he’s probably old enough to be my father or at least my uncle and I caution myself.

  I want to say “no,” but then again, can I tell him what to do in his own house? Nevertheless, Jack was adamant about this client becoming a repeat customer. He won’t very well be a repeat customer if I don’t at least be congenial. Down, girl. He IS a client.

  He would be a pleasant distraction though. My thoughts skip back to the conversation I had with Taylor this morning.

  I get to the door and turn. He’s right behind me, and I’m mildly startled, but I don’t say anything about it.

  “Sure, you can come, Mr. Roberts.”

  I get to work as soon as I get to the pool. Mr. Roberts finds a spot to sit down in the shade and watches me as I work.

  Soon enough, I’ve forgotten he’s there as I encounter a problem with the fuse. It’s somehow shorted out and fused with the housing structure of the electrical box. I have to dismantle it and clean it out before replacing it with a new fuse from my toolbox. This takes just a few minutes to do, and during this time, Cullen Roberts silently watches me.

  “So, Gemma…”

  His voice startles me. I glance up to see that he’s drawn closer. My skin prickles with fiery anticipation.

  “You seem good with tools. Tell me about yourself,” he says.

  I wonder if he’s this friendly with all of the workers who come to his house? I almost say there’s nothing to tell, but then I remember that I have to represent the company well. That includes being nice to the client. Make him happy.

  “There’s not much to say,” I tell him. “I was born here. I’ve spent most of my life here. Dad left when I was a kid, so I never really knew him. Mom died a couple of years ago. That was pretty hard on me for a few months, but I got through it. I’m working as a pool girl at J&J Pools, but I hope to be something greater in the future. This job is just a stepping stone out of this town and to greatness.”

  Cullen Roberts appears to be impressed. He even smiles. His eyes seem to light up from within.

  “How about you, Mr.—”

  “Please, call me Cullen,” he interjects.

  “How about you, Cullen?” I say as I begin to couple everything together and fix it back into the housing unit on the side of the pool. “Tell me about yourself.”

  “When I was your age,” he begins, “I was as poor as it gets. I didn’t really know my parents. I’d been fighting for scraps on the streets all my life. When I got older, I was lucky enough to meet someone who recommended me as an actor for a movie production house.

  “That’s where I made my money. I was an actor for more than two decades before I was let go. That’s the short version of my story. I’ll be willing to tell you the longer version maybe when you’re not in the pool, and we’re not both baking in the sun.” He smiles.

  I won’t lie. I’m intrigued now. “So, you’re like a big shot Hollywood star?” I ask, looking him up and down again. If that’s true, then it’s no wonder he has such a massive house and such an expensive car.

  “Well, not really a big shot,” he laughs, “and maybe not really mainstream Hollywood. But I was an actor, and I made a lot of money and lived a pretty luxurious lifestyle.” He sighs wistfully. “Those were the good old days.”

  There’s a pause.

  I get done fixing the pool and run a couple of tests to ensure everything is in working order. I flip the main switch for the pump, and it starts to run. The lights and the waterfall come to life, too.

  “Wow,” I say. “You’ve got a beautiful pool here. I don’t think I’ve seen one this fancy except up in Vegas.”

  “Really? Perhaps you’d like to stay awhile and enjoy it with me? Being new in town, I could use the company.”
He looks at me like he wants to pounce.

  My body is saying yes, but my mind is saying no. “I have other clients today.” I blurt out before I can stop myself.

  “Well, this job didn’t take as long as you thought.” He moves closer and continues. “Your boss won’t expect you back for a while yet.”

  “I don’t know you, Mr. Roberts, and your reputation precedes you. Thank you, but …”. I hesitate because he’s right. The thing is, I want to stay, but this man is a client, and I need my job right now. My curiosity piques, and I submit, “Ok, I will stay for a few minutes.”

  He wastes no time in unzipping his fly and pulling off his jeans.

  I back up a few steps, “now wait a moment.” I say as I reach for my coveralls and toolbox.

  “Let’s go for a swim. You’re already wet. I can give you a tour of the grotto.” He says as I see his tight buns through his swim trunks as he enters the pool.

  I think to myself, Oh my gawd! Am I actually going to do this? Taylor won’t believe it. I drop my things and walk to the edge. I look down in the water at him, and he takes my breath away. His broad, tanned shoulders, his confidence. I sit at the edge with my feet in not sure if I want to fully submit to his request.

  “Come on in. You’re already wet.” He swims closer to me and holds out his hand for me to take. It’s deep at this end, and he holds onto the side waiting for me to take his hand.

  I do and slide myself in. Wincing at the coolness on my skin a second time today. The waterfall is loud, and I have to raise my voice a bit to be heard.

  “This is lovely. I’ve never done anything like this before.” Ok, I lied, but I hadn’t ever swum with a client before.

  “You’re lovely,” he says as he takes my hand and leads me across the pool. We swim through the cascade of falling water to the backside of the waterfall. “This is the grotto. Come. We can swim inside.”

  Behind the waterfall, the pool squeezed down into a three-foot wide opening that continued further back, amongst the boulders for several feet. It was private back there and not seen from anywhere in the yard.

  “What’s back here?” I say as we swim into this hidden area.

  “Just you and I,” he says as he stops and turns toward me.

  My radar goes up a bit but so does my heat. I’m not sure what he means by that, but he doesn’t set off any alarm bells in my head.

  The space is tight and cozy, and the noise from the waterfall is soothing now on the back side. We find ourselves staring at each other, the water around us seems to vibrate with electricity.

  I break the moment with, “I should be getting back.”

  I turn to swim away, and I feel him brush up against me as he says, “as you wish.”

  We get out of the pool, and the hot sun dries my clothes quickly. As he dries himself off, he says, “You know, I’m starting a new business on the South end of Vegas. I’ve already secured the funding. All I need are people to work with me, and we can make a killing.”

  I glance at him.

  “I mean we can make a lot of money,” he clarifies.

  “Okay? You want my help in looking for workers?” I ask, confused.

  Cullen chuckles. He tells me about his plans for his House of Stars and all his dreams and aspirations for it. He goes on to tell me a little bit about some of the jobs he will soon be hiring for; bartenders, hostesses, etc.

  Immediately, I see it. This is the way to achieve my dreams. He doesn’t even need to say more. I could work for him. I could work indoors all day instead of out in this heat. I could learn to be a bartender or wait tables, or something. Anything other than this go-nowhere job, where I only meet one or two people a day!

  “I never thought I could find someone so beautiful and sexy in this town,” Cullen is saying, “until I saw you through my kitchen window.”

  My heart stops. Me? Beautiful? Sexy? Wait. Okay, so I’ve been told I was beautiful before, but this guy is saying it to me is entirely different. I force myself to breathe.

  He continues “Do you like to dance? If not, I can teach you. That’s the only condition. You have to let me train you. But I promise you’ll be better off working in my House of Stars than as a pool girl.”

  “Plus, I’ll start you off at five hundred dollars per week as a trainee. When you’re featuring, I’ll ramp it up from there. Within a year, if things go the way I hope they do, you could be living in a mansion before you’re twenty-five.”

  His words totally flummox me. Five hundred dollars a week? Holy shit.

  I think about all the things I could do with two grand a month. That’s more than I make now. And to think, that’s just the start?

  I look at Cullen again, wondering if this is some sort of joke. Did I hear this right, he wants to hire me as a dancer?

  “So, will you come work for me?” he asks. He pleads. I can see that he needs me, although I can’t distinguish if it’s as a dancer or if there’s something more to it. There’s time to figure that out later.

  My face splits into a grin. “Yes!” I squeal. “Yes.”

  Chapter Eight: Cullen

  She said yes. Shit, she said yes!

  I can barely contain my excitement. I let a smile come to my lips, my mind already racing. My heart beats faster, because something that has troubled me for so long, that wrench in all my plans—thinking that I’d never find a girl hot enough, someone, that can make other men hard—is finally found. And I met her in my own kitchen.

  It’s almost too good to be true. My own pool girl? It’s as if the universe wants this House of Stars to happen. And to think, I didn’t even need to get on my knees and grovel. Believe me. I would have done it. If it had come to that, I would have begged her. I was even prepared to up the training allowance if she proved difficult.

  But she immediately said yes.

  Shit! I feel like shouting from the rooftop. House of Stars, here I come!

  “Fantastic,” I say to her, flashing my sexiest smile.

  She smiles back. “Your pool seems to be working fine, the new filter I put in will have that stuff at the bottom clean by about dinner time tonight.”

  As she walks over to an electrical switchboard that I didn’t even know existed and turns a switch, I can’t take my eyes off her high, round ass.

  “Works perfectly,” she says. She pulls a clipboard out of her toolbox and hands me a pen to sign the work order. Her hands are petite but strong looking. The moment I realize what those strong hands could do to me, I begin to get hard again. Fuck. I don’t know why this girl gets me going like I’m some fucking teenager.

  Get a grip on yourself, Cullen. She’s almost a kid! I want to scream. Instead, I hope she doesn’t notice.

  We both look down at the water. After our swim, it mixed with the dirt and leaves that had settled on the floor of the pool.

  “You’ll have to skim the surface occasionally to keep it clean,” she says.

  “Don’t you do that?” I ask.

  “Not really,” she shrugs. “It’s not really part of our job description. We do actual maintenance, not cleaning. But I can come later and do it for an extra…”

  I turn to face her, shutting her up with a finger on her lips. I immediately think that it’s maybe not the best idea because at the moment I do it, I see her body go rigid. But then I see the look in her wide eyes, the longing. Her tongue darts out to wet her lips, brushing against my finger.

  I have to fight back a groan, push down the urge to pull her close, kiss those lips and caress her luscious curves and do a dozen other things to her.

  “You don’t have to do a thing,” I murmur. “Everything is changing for you, Gemma. Once you start working with me, you won’t need to do odd jobs anymore. How much are you being paid here?”

  She’s silent for a moment. “Minimum wage.”

  I’m surprised. Minimum wage? For this kind of work? No wonder she leaped at my offer. Five hundred dollars a week would be a fortune!

  “Then it’s n
ot too difficult a decision, is it?” I ask with a smile.

  “It’s not, as if it’s real,” she replies. Her words are slow, measured.

  I immediately want to tell her it’s real, but I wait a second. She doesn’t sound like she’s finished. The tone she used just now indicates that there’s some history there. Something in her past that’s holding her back.

  “I was once told that there aren’t any more gentlemen in this world,” she announces. “So, forgive me if I’m not completely excited about your offer until I’m sure it’s legitimate.”

  I nod. “You sound like you’ve had some bad experiences in the past.”

  “I don’t want to talk about me,” she replies coldly. She says no more and begins to pack up her tools and implements.

  I wait while she puts on her coveralls, which hide her curves. It’s good for me, too, because now I can concentrate fully on her face and not be tempted to look at that gorgeous body. God, those breasts. I just want to touch them. To slide my dick through her cleavage --

  Fucking stop that, Cullen! She’s a fucking kid!

  I break out of my thoughts to find her watching me stare at her. Just fucking great.

  “I’m sorry,” I mutter.

  “You have nothing to be sorry about, Mr.—Cullen,” she corrects.

  “I assure you, Gemma,” I say, “my offer is real. If you come with me, I’ll show you a contract form.”

  “It’s all drawn up,” I say. “All you have to do is read it and sign your name. It’s an exclusive three-year deal. Come with me. I’ll explain more when I show you the document.”

  She follows me into the house, and I tell her to wait in the main hall while I go up to get the files.

  I don’t want her following me to my room for two reasons. One is that I want her to trust me. She certainly wouldn’t trust me if I’m taking her to my room on the first day…or any day, for that matter. The second reason is I don’t trust myself around her. Especially when there’s a bed in sight.

  I retrieve the documents, including the stock contract for dancers, from the study in the adjacent room. Then I grab a pen and return to the main hall downstairs.